“We are,” Astra said. “We just want all this over with.”
“Got it,” he said. “I heard from Garret. Gregg is in the house. Three men as well, and they just took out one of their own.”
“Oh, shit,” Astra said, staring at him. “What does that mean?”
“It’s quite possible that there’ll be another argument coming up, so he’s warning me to stay here, on the chance that the numbers may drop by one more, and then he’ll only have the one in there to deal with.”
“That’s not very smart of them, is it?”
“That depends. If it’s one paycheck to be split—”
She winced at that. “And, if there’s greed among those two gunmen, they’ll probably try to take each other out.”
“What about these two?” Amy stared at the two guards on the ground.
“That’s another issue,” he said. “These two men might have gotten killed, once they went back up to the house, completely unsuspecting of what’s really going on.”
“Wow, nice world,” Amy whispered.
“Not much of it,” Kano said. “It definitely has good parts to it, but also a lot of parts are pretty shitty.” He held up his phone and said, “I’m just waiting for Garret to tell us which way he wants us to go. I’ve told him that we have both of the guards.”
Just then a shot came from inside the house.
Astra stared at Kano. “Oh, God,” she said. “Please tell me that’s not Garret.”
He looked at the phone grimly and shrugged. “I won’t know,” he said, “until somebody contacts me.”
“We have to go in,” Astra said, bolting to her feet.
He reached out and grabbed her arm, his hand firm. “No, we’re not doing that,” he said. “Because, if Garret’s still hidden, barging in there will only let them know he’s there. We’re waiting. That’s the only thing we can do right now.”
*
The shot came out of nowhere.
Garret froze and realized the killer had taken a bullet. From Garret’s new hiding spot in the pantry, he barely caught sight of anything but the two guys’ hands, and he saw a handgun falling. He whistled silently. So it was just as he’d thought. The killer had used the pizza as a ruse to go to the kitchen to grab a moment, so he could turn the tables on the big guy. Why split the money at all, if he could keep it all for himself?
The big man stood over the other one and fired a second shot, right into his head.
“Fucking double-crossing fucking bastard.” And that just started his rant. He kept on, until his temper wore down. Finally he looked up and groaned. “Now I got two bodies to deal with.” Then he pulled out his phone and sent a message. When no response came within a few minutes, he sent another one. “Where the fuck are they now? What’s the fucking point of having sentries, if they don’t fucking answer when you need them? They’re probably sleeping in the goddamn underbrush,” he snapped. He picked up the dead guy and hauled him out the front door.
Garret sent a message to Kano. It’s now the two of us against him.
Just as he was about to leave the pantry, the big man came back, running at top speed. He headed into the kitchen with a wild look in his eyes and started screaming at the top of his lungs, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, where are you goddamn bitches?” He reached down, found the ropes, saw the cut edges, and something dark and sinister came over his face. “Goddammit,” he said. “If it isn’t bad enough to have betrayal from within, now I have to deal with betrayal from the outside. Some assholes came and took the women. What are the chances that he got the sentries too?” He stared outside, a glare, deep and dark, on his face.
“What the fuck.” He turned to look at Gregg, who was still out cold on the couch. He walked over and gave him a hard shake. Gregg groaned. “Wake up,” the big guy said. “Wake the fuck up.” Gregg opened blurry eyes and then groaned. He closed his eyes again. “Oh no, you don’t,” he said. “I need answers from you.”
“I don’t … have any answers,” Gregg muttered.
“Who would come to your rescue?”
He gave a hard laugh. “Nobody,” he said. “I fucked over everybody in my life who counts, and anybody who still cares is incapable.”
“Well, I had your goddamn girlfriend here,” he said, “as a prisoner to hand over with you. Now she’s gone, along with her damn sister. And that sister is just a no-good little bitch, and I bet she’s behind all this shit,” he said. “I should’ve shot her right from the beginning, when I realized what she was like.”
Gregg stared up at him uncomprehendingly, as if it was all just too much, then slumped backward again. Immediately the big guy started to swear again, and he pulled out his phone and made a call. “You come get him, and you come get him now,” he said. “Everything’s gone to shit, and I want this guy out of here.”
He listened to whoever was speaking on the other end.
“Don’t you fucking talk to me about those women,” he said. “You come get this asshole, before I don’t give you that opportunity anymore.” With that, he slammed his phone down on the coffee table. He strode back to the kitchen, threw open the back door, and yelled out into the woods, “Come and get me, you little pissant,” he said. “You think I’ll let a little pissant like you ruin everything?” He returned inside and slammed the door as hard as he could.
After that rampage, Garret wondered if he should just take him out. But what he needed were the people coming to pick up his brother. And that transaction
