Chapter 12 #2
Emily stooped to pick up a pine cone. It was a large fat one and might make a good decoration. “I like Michael a lot. You know that. Why? What has he said?”
“Nothing,” Lizzy said. “Nothing at all. I just thought there’s always this stiffness between us, like we’re walking on eggshells with each other. I know it makes it tough for Troy and Michael. They want us all to do things together, but they’re worried about the two of us getting along or not.”
“Well, we hardly know each other,” Emily said with a shrug of her shoulders. “We haven’t had the best start to a friendship.”
“I know,” Lizzy said. “They act like we’re men, and we can just shake on it and be done. But we’re not like that, no matter how much they wish we were.”
“Very true,” Emily agreed. “It’s going to take us some time to get to know each other properly.”
“Exactly,” Lizzy said, picking up a pine cone. “But as part of that, can we tell them that we’re fine to spend time together? It will make dinners easier. And if you’re worried about Felix, he’s always welcome.”
Emily grimaced. “Why do you like him?”
“Mostly because he’s funny. He’s got stories for days, and he’s a nice man. I think he doesn’t mean to hurt you. He’s been talking about how much he wants to make amends.”
Snorting, Emily picked up another pine cone and put it in her basket.
“No, honestly,” Lizzy said. “It’s all he talks about. He feels really terrible about everything, especially Tiny George hitting you in the head. He tried to stop the man, but Felix was like a little fly to that mountain. Nothing he did made a difference.”
Emily bit her lip. “Why are you telling me this?”
“I don’t know,” Lizzy said with a nervous chuckle. “I thought maybe you might want to know that your uncle loves you. You’re all the family you both have left. It’s got to count for something. Right?”
“Sure,” Emily said. “I guess it does. But it’s not like a switch I can just turn off.
I’ve been angry with him for a long, long time.
Felix has a way of being wonderful one moment and then dreadful the next, selling everything to cover his debts.
And that hasn’t changed since we came out here.
He’s betting cents instead of dollars here, but it’s still gambling, and I can’t help but think that it’s not good. ”
Lizzy was silent.
That was odd. Suddenly she didn’t have an opinion? She’d had one about everything so far. Why would she suddenly stop now?
“Don’t you have another pearl of wisdom for me?” Emily asked snidely.
“Did you hear that?” Lizzy asked, frowning and looking to her right. “I think someone is there.”
Emily shrugged. “There are surely animals in the for?—”
Lizzy held up a hand and walked off.
For a moment, Emily considered just letting Lizzy go. What did it matter if there were animals or even other people in the woods? Then again, she couldn’t just let Lizzy go on her own. What if it was the bandits and they were mounting an attack from the shelter of the forest?
Emily set off after Lizzy. It didn’t take her long to catch up. Lizzy was moving carefully, keeping her footsteps light and quiet as though she was stalking prey.
It wasn’t something that Emily had learned to do. She had never had to sneak up on anything, so when a twig snapped loudly under her foot, it sounded like a gunshot.
“I’m sorry,” Emily said in a hushed whisper.
“It’s okay,” Lizzy said. “Just walk like this, heel to toe, heel to toe. And try not to step on dried twigs.”
Up ahead they could hear loud voices. Lizzy put a hand on her arm, and she stopped walking. They were close to what looked like a little clearing. They pressed themselves behind the trunks of large trees and, peering out, could see into the clearing.
Several men stood there, all with guns, the sunlight glinting off the metal. There was a large wheelbarrow in the clearing with a tarp tied over it.
“It’s all here,” a voice said.
Emily couldn’t put a name to the speaker, but it sounded like a voice she had heard before.
A man dressed mostly in black stepped forward. Lizzy drew in a sharp breath.
“What’s wrong?” Emily whispered.
“That’s him,” Lizzy said. “The man who chased us all the way from our village. They call him El Aguila, I think. What is he doing here?”
Emily frowned. She had no idea, but the wheelbarrow seemed to be the center of everyone’s attention.
“It had better be good quality,” El Aguila said. “That last shipment you gave us, we didn’t get much for it. It was full of impurities.”
“That’s not possible,” the other man said. He stepped into view, and Emily saw that it was Ryan Stevens from the smelter. “We worked hard on that batch. Who did you take it to?”
“None of your business,” El Aguila said. “This had better be pure, or the deal is off. You understand?”
One of his lackeys grabbed Stevens by the shoulder and forced him down on his knees. Stevens went white as a sheet as a pistol muzzle was pressed into the back of his head.
“Don’t you forget who is in charge here,” El Aguila warned. “It’s not you.” Then he said something in Spanish, and the men took the wheelbarrow and left the clearing.
Lizzy and Emily didn’t dare move until El Aguila and his minions left the clearing. Stevens waited for them to leave and then walked off the way the women had come, but he didn’t see them. His head was down, and he seemed in his own world of trouble.
“What do you make of that?” Emily asked, shaken.
Lizzy sighed. “Nothing good,” she said. “We’d better go and tell Michael.”
They set off through the woods, no longer worried about keeping their movements quiet. Perhaps they should have been, because just as they were about to step out into the daylight, Stevens stepped out in front of them.
“You always were too nosy, Lizzy,” he said, pointing a gun at them.
Emily drew in a sharp breath. She’d never been held at gunpoint before. This was a new and terrible sensation. Could he shoot them both? Most likely.
“You know, if you just come and talk to Michael and Andrew, you can—” Lizzy began, but Stevens spoke over her.
“It’s too late for that now; they won’t understand,” Stevens said with a sneer. “We’re long past that point.”
“So, what’s your plan then?” Lizzy asked, seemingly unafraid.
“Walk,” he said, jerking the gun at them. “That way.”
Emily looked at Lizzy, who nodded her head ever so slightly. All right, they would play along. Emily, her heart thudding in her chest, her knees knocking, turned and walked back into the woods. She could only hope that Michael and Troy would miss them soon and come looking.