number one in the country.”
“I…guess we could do that, Buck.”
He stood in the door and swept his hand toward the interior of the house, a thousand-watt smile on his face. “Come in and we’ll seal the Houston deal over dinner.”
She took a step toward Kincannon. Closed her eyes, shook her head. Stepped back.
“I’ll call tomorrow, Buck. We can talk then.”
She turned and started toward her car in the circled drive. I let my breath out. When Dani was safe I could slip to the road and flag down help.
It wasn’t to be.
Kincannon strode to Dani, grabbed her arm, swung her into the house like she was a rag doll. The door slammed. I heard Dani screaming. A crash of falling furniture. A sound of thunder, like a body driven to the floor.
Another scream, cut off by a slap. Then all I heard was the beating of my heart and the pounding of the rain. My mind raced through possibilities, found diversion. I wadded up the raincoat, then slid the cane across the porch, a rattling sound.
“Who’s there?” Kincannon called from inside the house. “Crandell?”
Footsteps behind the door, tentative. I heard the door open and I edged an eye from behind the chair. Kincannon bent to retrieve the cane, confusion in his eyes.
“Daddy?” he said, the child’s voice back as his eyes searched the dark beyond the porch. “Daddy, is that you?”
I leapt from behind the chair and flung the balled raincoat at his face. He flung up his hands, tearing it away just as I dove into his body, howling and raking at his eyes. He shrieked and pushed my face away, kicking. A kick hit my ankle. I howled and my hands fell loose. He stumbled into the house and I tumbled to the floor.
I crawled through the door on hands and knees. There was no sign of Kincannon, but Dani was on the far side of the room, pushing herself from the floor, blood streaming from her nose and mouth. She saw me. Her hand came to her mouth.
“Carson?”
“Come on, Dani! We’ve got to get out of here.”
I heard Kincannon in another room, raging to himself, cursing and yelling nonsense. It sounded like he was upending furniture. Dani wobbled to her feet, pushing hair from her face, came to me. She bent and I pulled myself to standing, arm encircling her neck.
“He’s insane, Carson. It’s like something in his head broke.”
“It’s been bending for years. Let’s get to your car.”
We were nearly to the door when the shade of a Tiffany floor lamp behind our heads exploded in a thousand pieces. I clutched at Dani and we fell hard.
Buck Kincannon strode into the room with a shotgun in his hands, racking the slide.
“It’s PARTY TIME,” he screamed. “No one is going ANYWHERE!” He fired another blast and a curio cabinet beside us dissolved. We scrabbled backward on the floor, Kincannon sweeping the muzzle of the weapon across us, his eyes no longer human.
Dani and I slithered toward a large desk in the corner of the room. Buck Kincannon fired a shot up the wide staircase, turning a chandelier into a shower of glass.
“I NEED A PARTY!” he screamed, following it with a ragged peal of laughter.
Kincannon went to the open front door and looked outside, as if inspired by the lightning raging through the treetops. He took a deep breath, madness and fear and triumph all tumbled together in his face. He shook his head as though something jogged in his memory and his eyes refocused on Dani and me, a dozen feet away on the floor.
I could smell his insanity.
Buck smiled and trained the weapon on my eyes. The world turned to slow-moving shapes on a shadowed stage: Buck laughing with no sound coming from his mouth, the weapon raising, a single crystal from the ruined chandelier falling like a teardrop, the muzzle of the shotgun a dark and sudden eye set to wink…
The wicker chair exploding through the vast front window, skidding across the polished floor past Dani and me, glass shards tumbling in its wake.
“Down, boy,” Buck said to my eyes, the shotgun not wavering an inch, like a chair through a window was as common in his life as lunch. “That you, Race?” Buck yelled at the glass-toothed hole in the wall. “Or is it Nelson? Come on in, guys, we’re having a party.”
“You son of a bitch,” Nelson ranted, thundering through the foyer into the living room, face bright with anger, finger jabbing at Buck’s eyes. “You teamed up with Lucas, right? Or was it you and Racine? Guess who reads your faxes and phone messages, asshole? It ain’t gonna hap-”
Nelson was fully in the house now, nose smelling cordite. His eyes took in the shattered lamp, broken furniture, destroyed chandelier. The shotgun in his brother’s hands. Nelson’s eyes found Dani and me cowering beneath the table. He froze, only his eyes moving.
“Uh, what’s going on, Buck?”
“A night of love, Nelse.”
“Love?” Nelson whispered.
“I get her,” Buck said, jabbing a finger at Dani. “You can have him. It’s fun, Nelson. They never love you more than when you own their souls. They scream their love.”
Nelson stared at Buck for a few seconds, seemed to understand. Then Nelson regarded Dani and me with accusatory eyes, like he’d become a participant in a nightmare, and it was our fault.
Nelson, Dani mouthed. Help us.
My hand crept forward on the floor, picked up a jagged shard of glass, a razor-sharp triangle no larger than a postcard. I slid it beneath me.
“Here you go, brother,” Buck said, handing Nelson the shotgun. “Let the party begin.”
Nelson Kincannon held the weapon away from his body, as if it might bite him. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He shot glances toward the door.
“Just blow off his foot or something, Nelson,” Buck suggested. “Then we can take time with things. The night’s still young.”
Nelson looked from my face, to Dani’s, back to mine. Buck leaned against the wall and crossed his arms.
“What’s the matter, Nelson?”
Nelson Kincannon made a point of pulling up his cuff to check his watch. He sighed, shook his head, handed his brother back the shotgun.
“I’ve got an early meeting, Buck.”
Nelson Kincannon turned away and walked out the door like he was leaving a conference room, already scheduling his alibi for the evening. The shotgun turned back to us and the mad fire rekindled in Buck Kincannon’s eyes.
“More cake for me,” he said. “Yummy.”
I knew what he wanted. I looked at him and started crying. Sobbing. It wasn’t hard.
“Don’t, Buck. Please don’t hurt me. I’m begging you, Buck…”
“Oh yessss,” Buck Kincannon whispered.
“Please, Buck. I don’t want to die. Let’s just be friends, can we do that? Please, Buck…”
“Louder,” he said, taking a step closer.
“I’ll work for you, Buck, be your eyes and ears on the police force. You’ll own me. Whatever you want, Buck, it’s yours, just let…me…”
I put my face on the floor and began blubbering. I heard his footsteps creep closer, one step, two steps.
“LOUDER!” he railed.
“Don’t kill me, don’t kill me…,” I begged, tucking the glass into my palm, feeling it razor into my flesh. Buck stepped forward. I felt the muzzle of the shotgun against my temple.
“I OWN YOU. I COMMAND YOU TO LIFT YOUR FACE AND SPEAK!”
“Buck, pleeeease…,” I wailed, bringing my hands to my face as if in terror. Then I lunged forward, upward,
