Chapter 14 #2
Kyle shook his head. “Nope. Going. You’ll be safer with Casey and Twila. It’ll be—”
“But I’m sixteen! I can—”
“Get in the truck. That’s what you can do. Take care of Hadley and Myla. You’re their big brother now. They need you to—”
“But you and Mom aren’t even mar—”
“We will be,” Gina interrupted. “Do what Kyle says. Go on. We’ll be fine.
Go with the girls, son.” Gina and Kyle watched as Casey helped them get strapped into his big Range Rover and in seconds, they’d disappeared down the rutted gravel road that led out of the back side of the farm. Gina sighed. “And now we’re alone.”
“Yeah, not the kind of alone I wanted us to be, but it is what it is. Come in here. If anything should happen to me, I need you to know how to use this Kel-Tec.”
An hour later, Gina had been shown the workings of the high-capacity shotgun, and Kyle felt she could probably handle it.
They’d mutually agreed she shouldn’t call her parents.
Miles would come charging in, and he’d most likely get hurt.
He was older than Kenton, so if they needed someone else, Kyle’s dad would be the first person they’d call, along with Ray.
“Now, we’ve got to try to get a little sleep. I’m not sure how that’s going to happen, but we need to. And we need to stay away from the windows. And turn down the lights. And—”
“Make ourselves invisible. I get it.” Gina stroked a hand down his cheek. “It’s okay, baby. We’ve dug in and we’re ready if they show up.”
“It’s not if, Gina. It’s when.” He sat down on the sofa and patted the cushion beside him.
“Come sit down with me.” Legs pulled up on the sofa, Gina wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek on his abs.
They’d only been sitting there for a few seconds when he felt her shiver. “You okay?”
She let out a wail. “Oh, god, Kyle! I never meant to get you wrapped up in this! I can’t believe it.
I can’t believe this is happening to me.
I never asked for any of this, none of it.
I’m so sorry! I should just leave you alone, go get the kids, go back home, wait for them to show up.
I’ve disrupted your life and Myla’s life and—”
“You listen to me.” It took both hands to unwrap her arms from around him, but when he had, he held her upright by her upper arms and stared straight into her eyes.
“You’ve done nothing wrong. Nothing. This is on them.
I love you. You love me. We’re going to take care of this, and it’ll be fine.
You’ll see. But we’ve got to hang in there. ”
“Okay. It’ll be fine. Yeah. Fine.” He watched as she crumpled again, and all he could do was hold her, let her cry, and wait for dawn.
Nate had watched all day. Sure enough, the cops showed up at Margie’s house, and he was sure they were looking for him, but he could see his mom shaking her head and giving them what-for. That, after all, was what she did best.
After they left, he kept watching. At one point, she stepped out on the porch and seemed to be looking around.
She’s looking for me, he told himself as he watched her.
He’d managed to climb from the edge of the dumpster in back of the gas station up onto a storage shed, and from there to the roof.
Lying there under some overhanging branches, he was invisible to the rest of the world, but he could see her house and both directions down the street, and he could hear and see the street in front of the houses behind him.
The roof had a lip that was about two feet tall, so unless someone at a house behind him was on their own roof, they couldn’t possibly see him.
He could push himself up just enough to watch, then let himself down and no one was any the wiser.
But he knew his mother, so Nate stretched out up there in the shade and dozed. Margie wouldn’t make a move until after dark. Of that, he was sure. It would most likely be the dead of night. He still didn’t know where Kyle lived, but it didn’t matter. His mother would lead him straight to them.
He dozed a bit, woke, watched, and slept again.
He’d had nothing to eat except the cast-off pizza, so he hoped he could keep himself focused.
It had been a couple of hours since he’d had anything to drink too, so he crawled down from the roof and got a bottle of water out of the back seat of the stolen SUV he’d taken last. Swapping one car for another kept the cops wondering what he was driving, so the chances that they’d already be looking for what he had parked there were pretty slim.
He’d dozed off again when something roused him, and he rolled over and crawled to the front edge of the roof.
Sure enough, Margie had just come out her front door and was headed to her car, so he shimmied down from the roof again and started the SUV.
The clock on the dash lit up and he noted the time: 1:43 AM. His guess had been correct.
Margie rolled down the silent, empty streets, and Nate pulled the SUV out and followed her from about two blocks behind.
Occasionally he’d let himself get a little closer, then fall back again.
A car would come toward him and when it passed, he’d turn off the headlights on the vehicle and drive for a ways before turning them back on.
That way, if she looked behind her, it looked like there was a vehicle there, then none, then another one.
Besides, she was probably in such a rage that she wouldn’t notice anyway.
What was she planning? To shoot them? Set the house on fire?
Probably not the latter. She didn’t want to hurt the kids, just the adults.
He followed her, turning his lights off several times, and they headed out the darkened highway.
Sometimes it was difficult to see, but there was enough light from private security lights and church or school parking lots along the way to keep it from being completely in blackout.
They’d driven several miles when he saw her brake lights come on, and then she turned.
Nate turned off his headlights again and drove to where he thought she’d turned.
Sure enough, there was a mailbox there with the name Miller on the side of it, and when he turned his head to look, he could see her taillights.
Nate turned into the driveway and let the SUV idle about halfway up before he stopped.
With the vehicle still running, he got out and made his way quietly up the drive.
He heard her car door open, heard her feet on the gravel, and then heard a man’s voice.
It’s now or never, he told himself as he rushed toward the clearing at the front of the farmhouse.
Nate Ivitts was pretty sure he was about to meet his fate. And as far as he was concerned, that was fine. He could go to his maker knowing that he’d done the very best he could to right his wrongs.
They’d nodded off, and then the alarm went off on Kyle’s phone. “Oh my god,” Gina whispered, everything inside her instantly on red alert.
“You take this Mossberg and go to the back of the house. Do not discharge this thing unless you absolutely have to. You remember how to rack the loads in and reload, right? How to open the breach and—”
“Yes! But you can’t go out there alone!” she whispered.
“I have to. Go. Get back there. Don’t come up here unless you have to. If anybody comes in that back door, wait until you can see their silhouette so you don’t shoot somebody we want here, and then let ’er rip, babe. Now GO,” he whispered and pointed. “Call the cops once you’re back there.”
When Gina finally disappeared into the back of the house, Kyle stood and made his way to the door.
He could see Margie getting out of her car and, to his dismay, she was carrying a shotgun of her own.
This isn’t going to end well, he told himself.
He waited until she was within about ten yards of the house and slung the door open, the shotgun already braced against his shoulder. “Margie, don’t take another step.”
The old woman hoisted her own gun up to her shoulder and glared at him. “You send my grandkids out and nobody will get hurt, you hear me?”
“You’ll get no one from this house tonight. I’m not going to have it. You need to get in your car and get your ass out of here.”
“I’m not leaving without the kids, you piece of shit. Send them out here!”
“Margie, I really don’t want to have to shoot you, but if I get the impression you’re going to pull that trigger, I’ll have to. And make no mistake, I don’t miss.”
“Neither do I! I’ll kill both of ya and take them kids! Now, go get ’em and—”
There was movement a little farther out the drive and Kyle almost panicked before he heard a voice interrupt Margie. “Mama?”
The old woman didn’t drop the weapon, but she was visibly distracted. “Nate! Son, what are you doing here? You need to get gone! The cops are lookin’ for ya, and they’ll come out here, I’m sure. Now get along. Call me when you get to a safe place and I’ll meet you there and pick you—”
“No, Mama. You need to put the gun down. Right now. Nobody needs to get hurt tonight. It’s not necessary. You know what you’re doing is wrong.”
“And what Gina did to you was right? You’re forgettin’ where you’ve been for the last four years, son. We need to rid this earth of this scourge.”
“Mama, me being in prison, that’s my fault for drinking myself blind, beating on Gina, and not treating her right. I let my kids down too. It’s what I deserved, and I’ve made peace with that.”
“Listen to yourself! You sound like that goody two-shoes attorney who put you away! You need to take back what’s yours, son.”
“I have. I have my dignity back. I have my self-respect back. I know what I did was wrong, and I’m trying to fix it. And if you shoot somebody here tonight, you might as well shoot me.” Nate walked toward Margie slowly, and the woman seemed conflicted about where she should be pointing the gun.