276
Delores sobs and sobs.
Elena understands but tires of it quickly.
She pats her hand one more time, sits her up, and says, “You did the right thing. You did what any woman would, to protect her children.”
Men teach us how to treat them.
277
Ben and Chon find the pull-off by the junction.
They pull over and blink their lights twice.
An answering signal comes out of the darkness and then a black SUV comes forward and stops about ten yards in front of them.
Chon can smell a night ambush and he smells it now, along with the creosote bush and Indian tobacco, the soft desert scents even on this chill night.
“They here?” Ben asks.
“Oh yeah,” Chon says. “Both sides.”
Doubtless they’re lying in the brush next to the pull-off and on the other side of the road.
“The second you get O,” Chon repeats, “hit the ground and stay flat.”
“Yup.”
“Ben?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s been a ride.”
“Yes, it has.”
Ben tucks a pistol into the back of his belt, takes Magda, and leads her out of the car.
Chon reaches in back and grabs the two ARs.
278
Lado sticks a pistol in his own belt, walks around to the passenger side, and pulls O out of the car.
The little cunt is still out of it.
Her legs wobbly.
They should be, Lado thinks, after what I gave her.
He walks toward the
279
Elena gets out of the Land Rover.
Hernan at her side.
She sees one of the bastards walking with Magda in front of him.
Thank God, thank God, thank God.
As soon as he releases her, the men know to open up.
“Let her go!” Lado shouts. “Send her my way!”
“You, too!” Ben answers.
He gives Magda a gentle push toward Lado.
Lado does the same with O.
As soon as Magda is out of Ben’s reach, Elena nods her head.
280
The night lights up.
Bright red muzzle flashes from twelve guns, all trained on
Lado.
As Elena shouts,
Informer.
What Delores told her.
281
Lado does a Wicked Witch of the West.
Melts in front of Dorothy O as
Ben rushes forward, tackles her, and presses her to the ground and they watch
Lado dance a funny little jig
Light on his feet, as they say, for a big man, he tiptoes back toward his car like he still thinks he can get in and drive away from this, but then he trips on himself and falls face-first on the hood then slides down, his blood leaving a smear on the shiny black paint.
A shooter comes out of the darkness, grabs him by the hair, and jerks his neck back.
The machete is a silver flash in the moonlight.
282
Then it’s quiet.
Save for Magda, screaming under her gag, stumbling into her mother’s arms.
Who says
“Kill them.”
283
The world erupts in fire.
Ben presses O deeper into the ground but she squirms out from under him and
Scrambles across the desert floor, grabs Lado’s pistol from the ground, and starts to fire and so Ben
Starts shooting as
284
One rifle cradled in front of him, the other looped over his back, Chon belly-crawls toward Ben and O, shooting as he moves. He aims at each muzzle flash and the
Flashback.
Night ambushes in the Stan but
He knows he’s fighting now for Ben and O
