“You see,” Mick said, “your everyinstinct told you something was wrong. But you didn’t listen. You shouldhave gotten out of this SUV. You reallyshould have.”
“Hello, Billy,” Roz said. “Remember me?”
Mick placed the gun to Billy’shead. “Turn off the ignition,” heordered.
Billy’s heart was hammering, and hecould feel the barrel of that gun pressing into his skull. He didn’t hesitate. He turned off his vehicle.
“We only have one question for you,”Mick said, “and one question only. Ifyou fail to answer it, we will not ask a second question. Do you understand?”
Billy nodded, and tried to look atthat gun.
Mick looked at Roz. Roz leaned forward, her eyes sincere. “Why, Billy?” she asked him.
Billy just sat there, unable to evenput into words how many ways he could answer that loaded question.
Mick pressed the gun even harderagainst his skull, as a reminder.
It was enough. Billy talked. “Everybody thinks my beautiful wife died of natural causes,” hesaid. “Cancer was what I went with, andthey believed it. But it wasn’t true.”
He leaned his head back as if he hadforgotten all about Mick’s gun.
“She killed herself,” Billy said, andRoz was shocked.
“She killed herself,” Billy saidagain, “because it didn’t get better. Itold her it would. I told her you can’tlove somebody so much that you can’t go on with your own life. But she couldn’t go on. Her brother was her life. He was everything to her. And you,” he said with venom as he looked inthe rearview at Mick, “took him away from us as if he was nothing but a pieceof trash in the street. And she couldn’tbear it any longer.”
“Who was her brother?” Rozasked. “Who are you talking about?”
“Uri,” Billy said.
Roz frowned. “Uri? The Broadway actor? The one who triedto rape me? The one who kidnappedTeddy?”
Billy nodded. “You say he tried to harm you, and to kidnapTeddy. Natalie wouldn’t say that. He was her brother, not some thug the way you’retrying to make him out to be.”
“He was a thug alright,” Micksaid. “And he got what he deserved.”
“And you killed him,” Billy said,staring at Mick. “And because she losther dear brother, she didn’t want to live anymore.”
“What’s the matter, Lancer?” Mickasked. “You weren’t enough for her?”
But if Mick thought Billy would meethim macho for macho, he was wrong. Billynodded his head. “I was not enough forher, you are correct,” he said. “Shewas, on the other hand, more than enough for me. And Uri was gone. Because of you. Because of you!” he said again with violentrage and then quickly pressed the start button.
“Don’t, Billy!” Roz cried, as Billyplaced the SUV in Drive even as Mick was firing on him. But even as he was dying, he still had enoughhatred within him to press his feet on that gas pedal.
The car began speeding forward,straight for a separate brick building on his property, a building with amassive pool beside it. Mick, terrified,opened Roz’s door and pushed her out just as the car was about to run head-oninto that brick building. He opened hisown door, and tried to jump out, just as the car hit that brick wall and burstinto flames.
Roz had already gotten up afterMick’s push, but the flames were so fiery that she couldn’t get anywhere nearthat SUV. And she didn’t see Mick!
She looked around, searching andsearching for him, but she saw no signs of him.
Until she heard water splashing.
She ran parallel with that brickbuilding, to the pool on the side of the building. She never even thought to look there.
And that was when she saw Mick. He was swimming on the opposite end of thepool, as if he had jumped in to avoid the flames, and was swimming as far awayfrom those flames as he could get. Andthen he got out, on the back side.
Roz ran along that side of the house,well out of the reach of those flames, toward Mick. Mick got out of the pool and, seeing that shewas alright too, began running to her.
When they met, he lifted her into hisarms and squeezed her. Then he stoodher on her two feet, and they both watched the flames, and the end of BillyLancer.
But Mick didn’t delay. Lancer got exactly what he deserved. “Let’s get out of here,” he said to Roz, hisarm around her waist, as he walked with her toward their car that was parked onthe outside of Billy’s property. “We’vegot a boat to catch,” he said.
And Roz, so relieved, if not saddenedfor a man that used to be her true friend, didn’t have to say a word. Because it was already decided. She was always going with Mick.
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