Page 99 of Dark Horse

Jay gives us a desperate, twisted look, a mix of remorse and pain, before he collapses forward, gasping for air one last time. Then he goes limp.

I imagine myself in the same position on that floor. If I had to choose a wife or a daughter’s life over the rest of my family. I don’t know what I’d do. I’d probably go mad trying to make a plan to save them all. I slam the button to open the vault with my fist, and the heavy metal door slowly starts to creep open. Hopefully, not so slowly that we can’t make it in time.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Levi looks at me like I’ve lost my mind.

“Saving him. A dead sheriff on our hands is more than we need. We know he’s got a reason to want to live. If we can find a way to work with him, it’s better for both of us.” I look back at Levi. “Not to mention he’s right. At the end of the fucking day, he’s family.”

“What stops him from killing us the second he wakes up?”

“We strip him of his weapons, and you zip-tie him. We’ll get him to a room, and we’ll talk sense into him. It’s our only real shot. Why let this fucking governor tear this whole fucking family to shreds when we could go after him together?” I reason with Levi. He’s not in the habit of questioning me, but he hesitates before he steps forward.

“If this goes wrong…” Levi doesn’t finish the sentence. He doesn’t have to. I already know all the ways it could go wrong and the consequences.

“We’ll be dead. If it goes right, we have a chance in hell of getting out of this alive.”

“Fuck.” Levi rips out a curse and storms in with me. I strip him of his gun, dumping the magazine and tossing it out of his reach while Levi works to zip-tie his hands just as he’s coming to. He struggles against us as I pat him down for other weapons, taking away his baton and his phone and walkie. He writhes onthe ground, trying to get out of our grasp, but Levi works fast, and he’s still struggling to catch his breath.

Levi moves from his hands to his feet, zip-tying them in rapid order and then dragging him to the far side of the room.

“We have you on tape telling us everything. We could take it to the governor or the nightly news,” I explain as he gasps again, desperate for oxygen back in his lungs. “Or you can stay fucking calm, and we can chat. Your choice.”

He closes his eyes, coughing again, and then barely whispers the word, “Calm.”

“You got it. Let’s go.” Levi grabs one of his arms, and I grab the other.

We still need to work quickly. If he goes missing for too long, it will set off alarm bells with the rest of the cops under his watch and likely with the governor too. I can imagine he told them where he was going, knowing full well in his conscience he was the responsible one.

So now, time is an enemy for all of us, and I just have to hope we can find enough common ground to make this work. I don’t know if it’s better or worse to have this small sliver of hope in what’s felt like certain darkness.

FORTY-THREE

GRANT

We getJay into a room and have him secured in a chair across from us. Levi’s still not ready to untie him, and Jay’s livid about being held in these conditions, but we’re not killing each other, and overall, that’s an improvement for this family.

“Did you kill our parents?” Levi asks.

“No. You think I could kill my brother?” Jay glares at him.

“You were ready to kill us.”

“With bombs that he provided, not with a gun at close range.”

“’Cause you’re a fucking coward.” Levi sneers.

“Says the boy who’s got me tied to a chair while we have a conversation,” he snaps back.

“We’ll untie you as soon as we’ve established some common ground. Like the fact we’re in a mutually assured destructionkinda situation now, Uncle. We know your daughter and your lady’s name, plus where they live.” I remind him of his predicament. The man’s already grown used to giving the orders instead of taking them.

“I gave you that information to save them, not to threaten them.” His lips press together in a hard line.

“I’d love to. I don’t want to see anyone else in this family or anyone they hold dear at risk of losing their lives. That’s my goal. I need it to be yours too. You think we can come to an agreement on that?” I grab a bottle of water from the fridge in the room and screw the cap off.

“I never wanted any harm to come to either of you. I meant what I said. It was an impossible situation. He was going to try to kill you regardless. This way, I might have been able to save them from the same fate.”

“Good. So we can agree going forward the only way any of us win is if we all win. Right?” I ask, passing him the bottle and cutting one of his hands free so he can lift it.

He drinks it down so fast he sputters a little before he nods. “We’re agreed on that.”

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