him. “Keep your hands on the wheel.”
“Boy, if you’re going to kill me, let’s get to it,” he said, looking over at me with steely gray eyes. I placed him at maybe fifty, with leathery skin and the strong muscles that only hard work brought.
“I may. First we talk, unless you’re in a hurry to die.”
“Nope, but I ain’t afraid of it, neither.”
“Cut the John Wayne bullshit.” Slapping the.45 against his knee, I snapped the thumb safety off.
“Whoa, ease up a bit, son. This don’t have to get stupid.”
“Not afraid to die, but you don’t want to be crippled, that it?” I tapped his kneecap with the pistol barrel. “What’s your deal? If you were a bouncer I’d be dead or in jail.”
“I just help out from time to time. Look after the girls.” His eyes stayed on the pistol. “You want to point that cannon elsewhere?”
“Nope. What about Cass?”
“Now she’s something special.” His eyes went soft when he spoke of her. “If I was a younger man, and she’d have me, I’d probably marry her.”
“Sweet, you’re making me go all misty,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “Why did you think I was connected?”
“Cass told me you mob boys were looking for her. You all may own Vegas and Reno, but this is my country out here. So maybe you best shoot me or move it on down the highway before you wind up dead.”
“I’m not with the mob, you dumb hick. Do I look like any mob guy you ever saw?”
He looked me over slowly, “Well, you’re uglier than most, bigger than many, but yeah, you look like a criminal.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t a criminal, but I’m not with any mob, they’ve got a dress code. Or haven’t you seen the Sopranos?”
“Don’t think I know them, they some of your Vegas friends?”
“If I was with the mob, you and your pal from last night would both be in a shallow grave. And Cass, she’d be following you by daybreak.”
“If you say so.” His stoicism was starting to really piss me off.
“Do I have to shoot you to convince you I’m not a mobster?”
“Possibly. You decide to pull that trigger, just let me know.” Slouching back in the seat he lowered the brim of his straw Stetson down over his eyes.
“Do you really think you can keep her safe?” Lowering the gun, I clicked the safety on and stuffed it into my belt. “Cards face up time. Some greaseballs took down Cass’ sister. If they’re coming for her you won’t stop them. Right now, I’m that little girl’s only chance.” Slowly he tilted back his hat and looked at me, searching for the truth. “You owe her the choice.”
He stared at me for a long moment. “You’re either one hell of a liar, or I made a mistake last night.” Taking out a bag of Bull Durham he rolled a cigarette. Striking a kitchen match on the dash he let out a long plume of blue smoke. Looking me over one more time, he smoked for a long moment. “You got any proof of what you say?”
“Give Cass this.” I handed him the charm bracelet I’d taken from Kelly’s apartment. “If she doesn’t want to see me after that, I’ll blow on down the road.”
“Son, you hurt that little girl, you better say your prayers and get ready to meet the devil, ‘cause I’ll be sending you to hell.” His tone was quiet and firm, as if it wasn’t a threat just a fact. He dropped me off at the Crown Vic and drove back down the dirt road. I can’t say I liked the son of a bitch but I had to respect his willingness to die for a whore. I thought I was the only man stupid enough to ride that train wreck.
I parked in the Eagle’s Nest parking lot, and put all my firepower in the trunk. I had agreed to come in clean and I meant to keep my word. If it was a trap, they could have me. I was tired of chasing my tail and ready for whatever came my way. Fifteen minutes later the old cowboy came out of the gate. “The lady said she’d see you. That trinket’s got her all shook up,” he said and led me around the back of the farmhouse. We entered a large kitchen where a rotund gray-haired woman was stirring beans. She didn’t look up as we passed through and climbed a small back stairway. The narrow hall on the second floor was lined with doors, each one numbered in flowing red paint. The cowboy tapped twice fast, then three times slow on lucky 13, then opened the door and sent my world spinning sideways.
As the door swung slowly open it revealed… Kelly very much alive, sitting in a sea of crimson satin on the big brass bed, dressed in a black satin and lace merry widow, her dark curls falling down over pale sunken shoulders. She fingered the charm bracelet in her small hands, almost as if it were a rosary. One tear rolled down her cheek. I had to grab onto the door jamb to keep from falling over. She blinked, wiped the tear away, and looked up at me. As she straightened her shoulders and backbone, all sign of regret vanished, her face hardening with a strength I had never seen in Kelly. Reason flooded into my confused mind. Cass was not just Kelly’s sister, she was her twin. Except for a small crescent-shaped scar by her right eye and a firmness in her jaw line she was an exact replica of Kelly, punched from the same flesh mold.
“You gonna be alright, darlin’?” The cowboy clearly loved this girl, it was tearing him up that he wasn’t the man to save her.
“I’ll be fine Ned, thank you.” She blinked her eyes slowly and the cowboy closed the door leaving us alone. I was sure he stayed in the hall just to be certain she was safe.
“You’re Moses, aren’t you?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“Yeah. Kelly wrote you about me?” My voice sounded hollow and strange. I dropped into a chair by the bed. I wanted to reach out and touch her, she looked so much like her sister.
“She said you were a good man, a rare thing in this world. I told her I thought you probably just wanted to get in her shorts. Was I right?” She was talking about anything but her sister’s fate. If she needed time I would give it to her. So we chatted, almost like it was about the weather, but the weather hadn’t killed this girl’s sister and the weather wasn’t out there hunting her right now.
“We were friends. That’s all.”
“You were in love with her. Otherwise, why are you here?”
“I owe her… or maybe I just had nothing better to do with my Friday night than traipse across two states. Either way, I’m here now, so maybe you can tell me what you girls got yourselves into.”
She let out a sad laugh as she looked me over. “Are you my knight in shining armor? Proving God really does have a sense of humor?”
“I can’t slay your dragons unless you tell me what they look like. Baby girl, what’s going on? What’d you two do?” Her smile faded. Her eyes dared me to try and drag the truth out of her. Then she broke contact to look down at the charm bracelet wrapped around her delicate fingers.
“Was it painful?” she asked.
“Death is always painful. You really want the details?” It came out harder than I intended.
“Yes,” she said, still not looking up. She set her jaw, preparing for the punch to come. She looked like a girl who had taken her share of hits and would take a few more before her run was done.
“They made her suck on the barrel and blew her brains out.” She nodded slightly, her breath coming in shallow gulps. Her eyes were focused away from the room seeing the scene in her head no doubt. “Cigar burns, pliers, rape, they did a full bore lock down number on your sister and I suspect they did it to get to you. But I doubt she talked. The way you’re running, my bet is she took a ride that was meant for you. I also think you know who did it.” I wanted to hold her and tell her it was all going to be ok. I wanted to slap her for what she did to Kelly. I wanted her to be Kelly and this to be a bad dream. Before she could speak a knock came on the door. The cowboy leaned in.
“Cass, two boys in suits are downstairs looking for you, they don’t look like they’re going to take no for an answer,” he said. Out her window, I could see a Cadillac in the parking lot with a mobbed up thug leaning on the fender.
Cass’ face went cold and firm. “You want answers, get me out of here, now.”
“Let’s jet,” I said. When she got up from the bed, I noticed she was five foot nothing. Just like her sister, these girls would always stand taller in your memory. She grabbed a small suitcase and filled it quickly with her meager belongings. From a drawer she pulled a picture, her and Kelly laughing in a wheat field. They looked to be about sixteen in the picture and full of all the hope and life teenage girls are meant to have. She stepped into a pair
