One of the men laughed. “Then she can pay us to leave her alone.”
She whispered under her breath, “You know something? I almost would.”
“No, they’ll never stop. You pay today, and they’ll be back for more tomorrow.” He shook his head, then called out, “Maybe we’ll just put a bullet in your head and take care of this now.”
“Or we put a bullet in your friend’s head,” he said, holding his gun against Dane’s temple.
Just then a shot was fired, and the gunman was slammed backward off his feet.
“Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God,” she whispered.
He held her close. “It could be Hudson doing the shooting.” The remaining gunman stood there, now with his gun against Dane’s head, hiding behind him. “Stop shooting, or I will kill him.” There wasn’t another shot.
“It’s probably your own guys,” Baylor called out. “Cleaning up loose ends.”
The gunman looked at him, haunted.
Baylor thought the guy didn’t want to believe it but knew it was quite possible. Baylor put on the pressure. “Come on. You know what’s happening. You guys screwed up and managed to kill a politician at the same time while kidnapping him.”
“He was never supposed to die,” he called out.
“Oh, I know that, but now both the governor and his wife are dead. You took three captives and killed two.”
“We did not,” he yelled. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. Something went wrong.”
Baylor didn’t tell him exactly what had gone wrong because, of course, there was a lot. Chances were the governor would have been just fine, if he hadn’t been shot, if he didn’t have the heart condition. And, of course, Baylor already knew that Gizella’s mom was terminal with cancer. But he wouldn’t tell that to this guy. “But the higher-ups don’t know that,” he said. “They don’t care why you screwed up. They just know that you did. In their eyes, you’re dead already.”
“We need money to get out of town,” he said. “We can’t stay here.”
“I don’t think there’s a we anymore,” Baylor said. “It’s just you, and you need to turn around and run like hell, before these guys decide to pull the trigger again.”
Baylor had no idea if Hudson or somebody else were responsible for the gunfire out there directed at the bad guys. Baylor was worried about Dane, but just then Baylor saw Dane holding three fingers straight down on his thigh, then two, then one. At one, he dropped to the ground, just as another shot rang out, taking out the second gunman in the street as Gizella watched.
She stood there trembling in his arms. “My God,” she said, “he’s dead.”
“I would imagine so.” Dane, on the other hand, had bolted to the nearest hiding spot. So, either Hudson was doing the shooting or somebody else was involved. Baylor wanted to help them, but no way could he leave her.
As if sensing his inner argument, she said, “You know that you need to go out there.”
“No, I don’t,” he said calmly. “Dane is out there, and he’s fine.”
“Maybe and maybe not.”
He chuckled. “You’re not getting rid of me so easily as that.”
“What if I don’t want to get rid of you?” she asked. “What if I want to have you stay around a whole lot longer?”
“Well, that’s doable, but, at the same time, you’re still not getting me to go out there and to leave you alone.”
“Surely there can’t be any more bad guys,” she argued in a calm voice, just oozing with common sense.
He laughed at her. “Nope, it doesn’t matter how reasonable you make it sound. I’m not doing it.”
She groaned. “Are you always this stubborn?”
“Yep, I sure am. Are you?”
She looked at him sideways, her shoulders slumped, and she nodded. “I am too.”
He grinned, then leaned over and kissed her gently on the cheek. “It sounds like we’ll have many months of fun getting to know each other.”
She rolled her eyes. “What if we don’t make it through a few months?”
“I’m not really into short-term relationships,” he said. “I do like to—”
Just then, Dane made another move, and she saw him disappear into a vehicle. Just as suddenly, the door to their house burst open, and two men stepped in. She sank back against Baylor’s chest. “What do you want?” she cried out.
The two men looked at her, looked at Baylor, and asked, “Is this her?”
Baylor, his arms wrapped around her snugly, said, “Depends. Who is her?”
“The governor’s daughter.”
“Yes,” she said. “He’s dead. Remember? You guys killed him.”
“We didn’t kill him, but he might have died as a result of his injuries.” He shrugged. “We just need money.”
“How come there’s no end to you guys?”
“Our boss accepted the deposit, but, when the kidnappers killed the governor, our boss took the money, and we never got paid for the job. Now only two of us are left,” he said. “The other two just died.”
“Who’s after you?” Baylor asked.
“A contractor,” he said quietly. “We need money now. It’s your life or the money.”
“Wow,” she said. “A choice like that depends on how much money,” she said. “And I can’t get any of it over here right now anyway.”
“We need money, and we need a lot.”
She didn’t even know what to say.
“What does a lot mean to you?” Baylor asked. He wasn’t sure just how much their idea of money matched up with that of Western society.
“A minimum of ten thousand to leave,” he said, looking around nervously. “And fast.”
“Ten thousand won’t get you very far,” Baylor said, even though the guy realized he had asked for too little.
“It’ll be fine,” he said. “You don’t understand. They’re on our trail, and, even now, they could be here.”
“Well, if they just shot your buddies out there, then they probably are here,” Baylor said.
“Or,” Gizella snapped, “you shot your own two buddies, so
