Page 94 of Eight Second Hearts

“We can’t move!” Ram growls back as he dips behind the truck to reload. “If we move, they’ll pick us off!”

How fast are the police out here? I don’t know. I don’t know anything. In the city, things would be different. Cops would be blazing at breakneck speed at the sound of a shootout. No one would even have to call. Here though, things are different.

For a second, I think our luck has run out, that we’re still going to all die out here, or at least Beau will if we don’t get him to the hospital fast enough. Our luck doesn’t change because of some miracle, or some great intervention from above.

No. It comes in the form of a senile old man who doesn’t remember his own son.

“Who the hell are you people?” Fred Jr. shouts as he steps out onto the porch of the big house. “Get off my property!”

And then he fires what sounds like a goddamn cannon at the bastards behind us.

Tripp swears. “He’s gonna get himself killed.” And then he pauses, as if that thought doesn’t exactly bother him. I see the moment he debates it, see him hesitate, before his eyes flick to mine. “Fuck!” he snarls, before he grabs Ram’s gun and leaps up, firing at the Crows instead. Someone shouts in pain, and I hear their body hit the ground. “Goddamned old man is firing a fucking shotgun. Be careful of the spray. He don’t exactly think we should belong here either,” he tells us.

I hear Lennox swear. “I’m getting sick of you city girls coming out here and messing up my plans,” he snarls.

Anger fills me as Ram takes over putting pressure on Beau’s wound. I leap to my feet, my hands dripping with blood that isn’t mine, fury splitting me in half. This all could have been avoided. None of this had to happen. I grab the gun from Tripp and level it on Lennox, my arms steady.

“Yeah, well, this city girl is equally sick of you city assholes fucking things up for the rest of us,” I snarl. “You’re outnumbered now. I suggest you leave before I add another body to the pile.”

Lennox’s face twists. “You can’t hit?—”

I fire, hitting the concrete right beside his toe, making him leap into the air in surprise. Respect flashes in his gaze as he narrows them on me.

“Next time, I won’t miss,” I warn.

The three men who’d gotten out of the cars are lying on the concrete, not moving. Only Lennox and my dad still stand, both of them pressed against the car to avoid Tripp’s dad where he still waves his shotgun around and shouts at the fucking sky. So far, he hasn’t noticed me standing here with the gun pointed. If he does, we may be in trouble again.

“Fine,” Lennox spits. “I’m man enough to know when I’ve been had.” He tips up his chin. “Clearly, I should have brought more men with me for this little expedition.”

“You should take them with you and get out of the Green River Basin,” Tripp growls. “We don’t need you here.”

Lennox smiles and it makes me uneasy as he laughs. He cradles one hand against his chest, has a gun pointed at him, and he still smiles. “Oh, you cowboys are all the same,” he says, shaking his head. “You don’t know when you’ve already lost.”

“Seems to me we’re winning,” I point out, gesturing to his car. “Get in and drive away. If you’d like to stay, I’m sure the cops will relish getting their hands on you.”

Lennox snorts. “They have before. It didn’t stop me.” He looks me up and down. “Something tells me you and I aren’t finished yet, Indie Chen. I’ll be seeing you around.”

He turns and moves over to the driver’s side door of the first car. He opens it and looks over at my dad.

My dad hesitates, his eyes locked on me.

“Bá ba?” I say, and I know I’m asking him to choose with that one word. Me, or the world you found yourself in? The little girl you used to dress up like a superhero for, or the man who holds your leash now?

Choose me, my eyes say, begging him. Please, let him choose me. Let him be the man he once was, the man I miss with my whole heart.

“Come on, Hao,” Lennox snarls. “We don’t have time for a heart to heart.”

“You people have three seconds to get off my property!” Fred Jr. shouts, his gun waving wildly in the air. “One!”

Dad takes a step back, away from me, and my heart shatters.

“I’m sorry,” he rasps, turning to the car. “I really am.”

“Two!” Fred Jr. shouts.

“Yeah,” I rasp. “Me, too.”

And then he climbs into the passenger seat. Lennox smirks at me and climbs in himself. The car starts and they head down the driveway at a speed that shouldn’t be safe, but Lennox clearlyknows how to drive. He makes it to the highway so fast, I wonder how he does it.

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