“What then doesn’t matter,” Dori said. “Not to you.”
Anna was leaning a little to the side, still unsteady from whatever she had been given.
She righted herself and looked like she was about to do just that.
“Two ways to do this,” Dori said. “You jump or we shoot you. I’ll let you choose.”
Dillman smiled. “Bet we have to shoot him.”
Anna had stopped.
“I’ll … I’ll jump,” Wes said.
A look of horror swept across Anna’s face.
“You’ve got ten seconds, then we shoot,” Dori said.
“I’ll go, I’ll go,” Wes said, hoping Anna would get his hint to move it.
“I don’t see you falling,” Dori said.
Wes took a step back to the very edge of the rock.
“No!” Anna screamed.
Both Dori and Dillman whipped around.
Without thinking, Wes charged forward, crashing into Dillman. They fell to the ground, the man’s head knocking against the surface of the boulder. Wes pushed Dillman hard, grinding his head into the stone.
Dori’s attention had been on Anna, so she didn’t react until she heard the two men hit the rock. Training her gun on Anna, she swiveled her head to see what had happened.
But by then Wes was already on his feet and headed her way.
Dori tried to bring the gun around, but he got there first, and he wrapped his arms around her, going for the weapon. The impact caused her finger to twitch. The gun fired, the sound near deafening at such a close range.
Dori screamed out in anger as Wes grabbed at her wrist, fighting for control of her pistol. She twisted and turned under his arms, trying to force him to let go, but he held on tight.
Another gunshot. Not quite as loud, and not quite as near.
Wes twisted around, looking in the direction of the noise.
Swaying slightly, face bloodied, Dillman was aiming his weapon at the rocks where Anna had been standing. For half a second Wes thought she’d been hit, but her body wasn’t lying on the ground. In fact, he couldn’t see her at all.
Dori took advantage of his distraction and slammed her shoulder into his chin. One of his hands slipped, and she rocked to her left, nearly freeing herself. But he quickly regained his grip and pulled her back against his chest.
“Michael, goddammit!” she yelled. “Help me!”
Dillman swiveled around and fired a shot.
Wes felt a hot, searing pain a split second before Dori winced. He knew instantly he’d been hit, the bullet entering through the fleshy part of his back on the lower left.
Dori moaned, then slipped downward.
Wes wrenched her back up, and twisted her around so that she was between him and Dillman, then easily ripped the gun out of her hand. It was then that he realized she’d been hit, too. The bullet must have passed all the way through him and into her.
A rock sailed out from behind some small boulders and clattered on the ground near Dillman’s feet. The big man whipped around to see where it had come from.
Wes had never shot a weapon in his life, but as Dillman raised his pistol in Anna’s direction, Wes squeezed the trigger of Dori’s gun.
Thunder rocked the desert as flames licked out of the end of the barrel.
Dillman fell face-first onto the ground, his gun clattering across the stone surface, then flying off the edge into the darkness.
“Michael!” Dori screamed as she wiggled free of Wes’s grasp. She staggered over to where Dillman lay, and fell to her knees. “Michael.” She put a hand against his motionless face, then let out a wail.
“Dori,” Wes yelled. “It’s over.”
Suddenly she was on her feet again, rushing at Wes, a scream of fury spilling from her mouth.
With one arm wrapped around her side, she used the other to take a swing at Wes. He tried to back out of her range, but she kept coming as blood began to soak her shirt.
“You bastard!” she yelled. “You killed him!”
“Dori, stop,” he said.
“You killed him!”
“I had no choice,” he said.
“You pushed him off, because my goddamn sister told you to. You killed my baby. You bastard!”
It wasn’t Dillman she was talking about. It was Jack.
“Enough!” Wes yelled as another blow hit him on the arm. “Enou-”
A large hand clamped down on his shoulder and spun him around.
Dillman. He was a gut-shot mess, but alive. He pushed Wes into Dori, and made an awkward grab for the gun, but missed.
Wes whipped around and realized they were only a few feet from the edge of the rock. One good shove from Dillman and he and Dori would go over the side.
He tried to duck around the bigger man, but Dillman reached out and grabbed him.
Twisting left and right and left again, he struggled to get out of the man’s grasp. When he turned again, the butt of his gun knocked against Dillman’s hip and popped out of his hand, smacking against the rock.
Dillman let go of him and made a grab for the weapon.
But it was Dori, not her husband, who came up with the gun. She pointed it at Wes.
“You goddamn son of a bitch,” Dori spat. “It
She staggered slightly from her wound, then took a step backward for balance. But she had misjudged her position, and her foot landed half on, half off the rock.
Her eyes went wide and her arms flew out as she fought to keep from falling.
Dillman tried to grab her, but instead of connecting with her hand, he knocked into her arm, stealing what little balance she had left.
With a face clouded in disbelief, Dori vanished over the edge.
84
Dillmanfell to his knees, looked over the drop, then collapsed to the ground.
“Dori!” he cried out. When he said her name again, his voice had weakened. There was no third time.
Wes knelt down and checked Dillman’s pulse. He was still alive. Barely.
His own energy waning, he sat down on the rock.
“You’re bleeding.” It was Anna. Her hand touched the wound on his back, then found similar damage around front. “Oh, God.”
“Went clean through,” he told her, panting a little. “Is that good?”
“We need to get you to a hospital.”
The thought of walking all the way back to the car was not an exciting one. He wasn’t even sure he could do it, but he knew he was going to have to try. Then he remembered …
“Dori’s got the car keys,” he said. “One of us … is going to have to climb down and … get them.”
“You stay here. I’ll do it.”
“Yeah. That’s probably best,” he said, trying to smile. But before she could move, he touched her on the leg. “What about … Forman? Is he dead?”
“I didn’t check.”
