Then Anna loomed over him. “Is this how you did it? Did you laugh as you stabbed him with his own fucking knife?”
The redheaded guy wheezed, and blood bubbled over his lips.
She smacked the blond in the ear with her gun. “Answer me.”
“Leave him alone.”
She buried the knife in the redhead’s right leg and said to the blond, “Start talking, or I’ll make you watch as I make him a Columbian necktie.”
“No! I told you. We were high!”
“High on what?” Anna demanded.
“Tweakers. We wanted to come down. Then that bitch in Clementine’s wouldn’t sell beer to us-”
“Be careful who you’re calling a bitch,” she warned. “Why him?”
The kid said something that froze me in place. “It wasn’t personal. It wasn’t because it was him! It could’ve been anyone!”
That outburst caught Anna off guard. “What?”
“That oil guy had bought us beer before. A couple of times. After that b-chick wouldn’t sell to us, and no one else would even fucking talk to us, we saw him leaning against his car at the back of the parking lot, so we asked him to buy for us. He just laughed and said no.
“Then he turned his back on us. Like we were nothing. Like we were just loser punks. Me ’n’ Tyler knocked him down and he still laughed at us. Tyler shot him. But instead of shutting up, the guy kept going on. Said if we were gonna do the job, not to do it half assed like a bunch of fuckin’ pussies. To do it all the way. Said he was as good as dead anyway. Said he’d rather go out with a bang than a whimper. It was like… he was daring us to kill him. So we did.”
I briefly closed my eyes and leaned against the barn.
Goddamn you, J-Hawk. You made a bad situation worse.
“I think we went a little crazy after that. We shot him a couple more times. Picked up his knife and stabbed him with it. Then we grabbed the stuff and took off.
“When I woke up, I thought it was some crazy crank dream. Until I saw the blood all over my hands and my clothes. Tyler’s hands were worse than mine. I found the dude’s wallet and his knife in my pocket. I had to get rid of it. It was like a bad luck charm.”
“A lucky charm for me, because you ditching it for cash led me straight to you.”
The kid sobbed.
Nothing drove Anna to the trigger faster than false remorse. The kid never said he was sorry. He justified taking a man’s life by being drugged up.
Anna laughed and kicked the redhead’s prone body. “Well, looky here. Your buddy gave up the ghost.”
“What? What does that mean?”
“Means he’s dead.”
“Tyler?” He scooted closer on his ass in the dirt.
She eased the knife out of his body, and it made a horrible wet sucking sound. After Anna wiped the blood from the blade on her pant leg, she clicked the thumb release and pocketed it.
“Ty? Ty?” Each repeat of the name got louder and more hysterical.
Anna cuffed him in the mouth. “Shut the fuck up. Jesus. Show some dignity.”
Enough. When I moved closer the back of my shirt got hung up on a nail, releasing a loud riiiiip.
“Show yourself, whoever you are,” Anna said.
Shit. I tried to press myself deeper into the wood.
“I know you’re there, and if you don’t come out, I’ll use the shrieker here for target practice.”
I rounded the corner, weapon drawn.
“Mercy. Guess I’m not surprised to see you.”
My gaze dropped to the mutilated body at her feet. Guilt punched me in the gut. If I’d turned her in to Dawson last night, that kid would still be alive. “Put down your gun, Anna.”
She aimed at me. “No can do. This little shit-ass loser will be begging for me to kill him before I’m even close to done with payback.”
“Enough.” Two more steps. “Anna. Let it go. It’s done.”
“I can’t. I have to finish this.”
“You did finish it. You found the knife. You found out who killed Jason. He wouldn’t want you to go to jail.”
“Too late. I doubt the cops will believe I shot this punk because he tried to escape my custody after a citizen’s arrest.”
“Don’t make it worse for yourself.”
“How could it get worse, Mercy? The man I loved is dead. We’ll never be together now.”
Jesus, I was sick of hearing her whine about lost love. Probably wrong to taunt her, but I did it anyway. “How is that different than not being together for the last five years?”
“You know we had no choice. But we both believed we’d be together someday the way we were meant to be.”
“Don’t bet on it. There were things you didn’t know about J-Hawk, Anna. Things he told me the day before he died.”
“Nice stalling technique. But I know all your tricks, remember?”
“Not stalling. No tricks. Go ahead. Ask me about it.”
Her demeanor changed. “Tell me, or I’ll give him a new set of H &K piercings.”
The kid whimpered.
I knew she didn’t bluff. “Jason had cancer.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s true.”
“How do you know? He was here, what, two weeks? He just confessed that to you?”
“No, I read the coroner’s report. The tox screen came back with high levels of a cancer-treatment drug called Nexavar. Several bottles were found in his motel room.”
Anna’s resolve didn’t waver. “What kind of cancer?”
“Liver or stomach or esophageal, all incurable. Then I knew why he looked so bad. He probably only had a few months left.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were already grieving, and it wouldn’t have changed anything.”
“So regardless if Jason had been murdered, he’d still be a dead man.” She laughed. “So why did you continue investigating his death, Mercy?”
“J-Hawk deserved better than to be left to die in a field in the middle of fucking nowhere by a bunch of drunk rednecks.”
“Which is why this guy has to pay.”
“You already made Victor pay.”
“Victor was a fucking prick. After he convinced me that he hadn’t killed Jason, it was too late. I was already pissed off.”
“So you shot him.”
“Uh-huh.”
If Anna knew Cherelle had lied to her to serve her own means, and a man was dead by Anna’s hand because of it? Anna would waste Cherelle without a moment’s hesitation. “Did you kill Cherelle?”
“I would’ve if I’d found her. But that weasel’s gone to ground. No matter. Saro will kill her.”
I took a step closer. “Put down the gun. Let me help you.”
Anna fired by my right foot, and dust puffed over my boot. “Stay there, Gunny. Don’t move again or I’ll shoot you.” She grabbed the kid by his hair and jerked him upright.
The kid shrieked. He probably couldn’t stand with the hole in his leg. Anna jerked hard enough the second time she ripped hair from his scalp.
“If you wanna live, you’ll get up.”
While the kid struggled to his feet, I tried to focus, but I constantly adjusted my hand position on the gun. “Stop.”
“You don’t sound very convincing, Mercy.”
“Let him go.”
“I will. Just as soon as I’m in my Land Rover.” She had one hand in his hair; the other held the gun under his chin as they slowly moved sideways.
What are you waiting for? Shoot her.
Every muscle in my body cramped. My breathing was erratic.
Take her out.
Images of our past floated through my mind, blurring my vision and my purpose. I gritted my teeth and forced the words out. “Stop or I’ll shoot.”
“This punk’s life is worth more to you than mine?”
Don’t listen. Don’t negotiate. Don’t hesitate.
Before I could repeat “Drop the gun,” I heard movement through the grass. Which meant Anna heard it, too.