Chapter 23
“This is how you die,” an echoey voice sounded through Vin’s head. He looked around, desperately trying to find the source of the whisper, but he could see nothing and no one around him.
He was lost in darkness, bathed in blackness. It felt as though he were floating through a river of black ink that surrounded him and pulled him through its current. He tried to move but found that he couldn’t feel his body anymore.
It wasn’t numb or tingling, like the nerve damage that had so plagued him over the years. Instead, it was just…nothingness. It was as though his body didn’t exist.
“This is how you die?” the voice came again, though this time it was posed as a question rather than a statement. As though it were disappointed in him, as though he had a choice in the matter.
Vin could still feel himself being pulled through the current of darkness, tossed to and fro in a dizzying, flowing rush of movement. It was jarring and jostling but not unpleasant or painful. Vin wondered if this was some river of the damned that pulled souls down to hell.
He wasn’t na?ve enough to believe that he belonged in heaven with the righteous. He had undertaken a great many horrible missions that went beyond any kind of heroic foray into the field of battle to protect the innocent.
He had always known that when the time came that he would be damned. He accepted it as the natural conclusion to his dark journey through this world. He had only hoped that when his time came, he was leaving behind a better world for Deb and Jimmy.
He had failed miserably in that regard.
He had left them in the care and clutches of a man who believed he had their best interests at heart. And while Sean might have believed that to be true, he had clearly fallen so far into the harshness of the world that his judgment was clouded.
Vin imagined Chainz and his gang riding into the center of the ranch, ordering around the ranch hands, which he had promised would be safe if they relocated their families to the property.
He had always hated Chainz, hated everything he did and stood for.
He didn’t think it was possible that he could hate the massive man any more than he already did, but that thought ignited the fires of his rage and sent him into a tailspin of hatred he had never fathomed before.
The black fluid around him seemed to bubble in response to his emotions. The thought of Chainz, flanked by Jessie, Legion, and Maverick, waltzing through the gates the old man had built on the property he had cultivated and left for his daughter, was just too much for Vin to bear.
He hated Sean all the more at that moment as well. The old man had put them both to work at an early age and had treated them like family for years. He had respected and honored their decision to join the military, and Vin hated that he had passed while the two of them were away in the service.
Vin had always believed the old man was na?ve to the ways of the world, and his time in the military, traveling the world and seeing the worst of the worst, had only strengthened that belief.
But he still respected him and honored his property.
The ranch had been in his family for generations.
He loved every inch of that land and had instilled in Deb a sense of loyalty to it.
The ranch was a part of their family, and it was Deb’s birthright to inherit it when her father passed. Now, Sean had violated the old man’s dream and was taking from Deb that which she loved—that which was hers by right.
Vin couldn’t let that happen, but there was nothing he could do to stop it now.
“This isn’t how you die,” the voice came back to him again, whispering through his mind and igniting his memory. He knew who that voice belonged to. He recognized it now as his mind cleared.
It was the old man.
“I couldn’t stop him,” Vin said, his voice, with no mouth or tongue or throat to come from, simply echoed in the space around him. “I’m so sorry.”
“You ain’t done yet, my boy,” the old man’s kind voice said. “You ain’t done yet.”
But Vin couldn’t believe that. He had no reason to.
He was shot in the desert four times and left to die.
His corpse would deteriorate quickly in the hot sun, picked clean by scavengers until he was nothing more than a sun-bleached skeleton, something for travelers to gawk at and wonder after until they eventually forgot about him and moved their thoughts to the here and now.
“I can’t stop him,” Vin said, his fragmented voice full of remorse and regret.
“Your family needs you, son,” the old man said. “Our family needs you.”
“I’m done,” he replied, not sure if this was just a dream as the last cells in his brain died or if he was actually experiencing some message from somewhere beyond. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. There was nothing he could do.
“I don’t remember teaching you to quit, son,” the voice came back. “You know what’s about to happen. You can stop it.”
Through the darkness, Vin could see a vision start to form. He could see the ranch as Chainz sauntered in, surrounded by an army of his grizzliest and most violent allies. He saw Sean aiding them in controlling the ranch, in expanding their reach to the surrounding area.
He saw Deb and Jimmy, now older, maybe four or five, being forced to wait on Chainz and his followers. He watched Chainz grab Deb by the hair, seemingly displeased with something she had said or done. He tossed her roughly to the ground, pulling out a gun and pointing it down at her.
Sean rushed forward, trying to stop him, but he was intercepted by Maverick, who flowed into Sean’s path and drove a long knife into his stomach. Deb screamed in horror, and Jimmy, tears in his eyes, jumped down over his mother, trying to shield her with his body.
Chainz simply laughed in amusement as he pulled the trigger.
Vin’s eyes flew open, the morning sun blaring down on him as pain ate him alive from the inside out. There was something beside him, and he turned his head to see a large wicked-looking vulture digging its beak into his side.
He screamed in agony and lashed out with one arm, swatting away the bird.
It squawked in shock and leaped back, and Vin noticed three other vultures eyeing him hungrily.
He could barely breathe and certainly couldn’t move.
His flesh was hot, as though he were cooking in the sun.
The nerve damage in his arm flared to life as he tried to thrash, only opening the bullet wounds in his torso more.
The birds closed in around him, and Vin swung his arms and legs at him as best as he could. Suddenly a loud banging gunshot rang out, and Vin worried Sean was still in the area and was returning to put a final shot in his head.
He could see the train sitting in the background, completely dark and quiet.
Some time had clearly passed, as his stubborn heart continued to beat, as blood continued to seep from his wounds.
He should be dead, but he was not willing to die on this day.
Not when that nightmare vision could become a reality.
But darkness was quickly overcoming him once more, as though the momentary burst of adrenaline were wearing off. He could feel himself slipping from his body again, shadows encroaching on the edges of his vision.
The vultures flew off after the blaring sound of gunfire, and Vin could hear the steady approach of the hoof beats of several horses. As he faded off again, the sounds of the horse’s approach stopped, and the gentle thump of boots hitting the ground could be felt as much as heard around him.
“Here,” a voice called out, and the sounds of the hustle and bustle intensified.
He felt something touch him along the throat as the blackness swallowed him once more, and Vin fell back into the darkness.