Chapter 26 #2
“Convinced Buck not to what?” I asked when Denny settled again.
“No loose ends, remember?”
I stilled at that and looked down at Matty. I shook my head in disbelief. “No,” slipped from my lips as my father’s motto rang in my ear.
“He was a three-year-old kid, Denny!” I nearly shouted.
“No loose ends,” Denny repeated. “But I couldn’t fucking do it. Not to my own kid.”
I didn’t correct Denny that he wasn’t Matty’s father because I knew it was the only thing of value I had. But his statement was telling and based on what he’d said earlier, he’d cared about Matty’s mother.
“Who is she?” I asked.
Denny had quieted again and he solemnly said, “Jenna DuCane.”
“Where is she, Denny?”
“Gone,” was all Denny said.
“Gone where?”
“She came to the house that day looking for a fix. I'd told her never to come there.”
“What happened to her?”
“She started yelling at me that if I didn’t start helping her support the kid, she’d tell her dad who I was. She wanted cash and drugs. Then Buck came home and she started screaming that her dad was a cop.”
I swallowed hard as I realized where Denny was headed.
“She was only fourteen when she and I…she kept saying it was rape and her dad was going to put us all in jail. Buck hit her.” Denny shook hi s head sadly.
“I begged Buck to let me talk to her. I told him I could get her to come around. But he said she was a loose end. Him too,” Denny said as he pointed to Matty.
“He put Jenna in his truck and told me to take the kid somewhere and get rid of him. But I couldn’t.”
Denny once again lowered himself to Matty’s level.
“He looks like me, huh?” he asked and then he reached for the baseball cap Matty was wearing and pushed it off his head.
My brother’s face went from strangely paternal to one of pure shock as he took in Matty’s bald head. His eyes jumped to me. “He’s sick?”
I nodded. “Leukemia.”
Denny’s horrified gaze settled on Matty again and this time when he lifted his hand – the one not holding the gun – to stroke Matty’s face, Matty held still. I saw an opportunity that I hadn’t expected. “Denny, just let him go. You can keep me…I’ll tell Buck that Matty is staying with friends.”
Denny glanced at me and then looked back at Matty longingly. He finally nodded his head and reached down for the baseball cap and settled it gently back on Matty’s head.
“Matty,” I said carefully. “Go take Storm and hide in the woods, okay? You stay there until you either see Hawke or police officers, do you hear me?”
“Yes, Daddy,” Matty whispered.
Relief went through me as Matty stepped away from Denny and Denny let him go. I put my hand on Matty’s shoulder as he slowly walked past me. “Run really fast, okay?”
Matty nodded. “Love you lots.”
I managed a shaky nod and said, “Forever and ever.”
I kept my eyes on him until he disappeared out the barn door and then I turned my focus on Denny.
“Tate,” Denny murmured. “I didn’t think you’d remember it.”
“Remember what?” I asked.
“That name. You were so little when Pops changed it.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “My real name actually is Tate?”
Denny nodded. “Pops always hated it so he used your middle name. He used to joke that Mom was high on something when she came up with that name.”
“You remember our mother?”
“Yeah,” Denny murmured. “She was real nice,” he said thoughtfully. “Pops used to tell me that she hadn’t wanted us anymore so she’d dumped us on him. But I never believed him.”
Overwhelmed, I whispered, “Do you know where she is…is she still alive?”
“Don’t know.”
The lack of affect in Denny’s tone was frightening, but my need for answers was too great so I barreled on and actually ended up stepping so close to Denny that I could have reached out to touch him.
“Denny, do you remember her name?”
“Layla,” Denny said. “She used to play that song all the time.”
“What about her last name? Was it Buckley?”
Denny shook his head. “Don’t think so.”
“So this is how you tie up loose ends?” I heard from behind me.
I would have recognized who it was even if I hadn’t turned around.
And the second I did, I regretted it because as my father stepped into the dark barn, I saw him pulling my son behind him, the puppy still clutched in his arms. Tears were streaking down Matty’s face.
“I couldn’t run fast enough, Daddy,” Matty cried.
I began striding towards Buck and Matty, not caring what the man did to me, but like Denny, he pulled out a gun and pointed it at Matty and I stopped in my tracks.
“Hello, Son,” Buck sniped as he kept walking forward, forcing me back towards Denny.
“It’s okay, Matty. You did real good,” I said gently as Matty began to cry in earnest.
“Pops-” Denny began.
“Shut the fuck up,” Buck snapped and then he turned his attention on me as he walked around me until he was facing the doorway, presumably so he could see anyone coming.
Even though it had been only minutes since I’d entered the barn looking for Matty, it had felt like hours.
But I had no doubt that Hawke would be coming to check on us any minute now and I just needed to keep Buck and Denny talking until then.
But even before I finished the thought, I heard a gunshot ring through the air. A few seconds later, there was another one.
“You hear that?” Buck said with a smile. “That’s called a double-tap.”
Terror rolled through me as I realized the shots had come from the house.
“Now those Mexicans, they know something about how not to leave loose ends,” Buck said with a chuckle.
I felt tears stinging the backs of my eyes, but I forced myself not to think about Hawke.
“I’ll do anything you want,” I said to Buck. “Just let Matty go. He’s not a part of this.”
Buck laughed. “You think this is about you, you little faggot?”
My eyes fell to Matty and I shook my head. “He’s just a kid, Pops.” I hated referring to him in any way as my father, but I knew better than to piss him off by calling him Buck, a name I as his son wasn’t permitted to use since he considered it a display of disrespect.
“You want to know the ironic part?” Buck said, ignoring my plea. “I was all prepared to let you keep this little shit” – Buck jerked Matty back and forth several times – “Until you and your fudge packer boyfriend showed up in Lulling asking questions.”
“Who told you?” I asked, hoping to stall Buck long enough until I could figure out what to do. “The sheriff?”
“That lazy SOB always did like an easy payday. All he had to do was run your plates,” Buck responded and I realized he meant the license plates on Hawke’s truck which would have led to Hawke’s address. Buck’s eyes shifted to Denny. “Finish it,” he suddenly said and then motioned to me with his gun.
Denny was standing next to me, but his gun was hanging loosely by his side. “Pops, maybe we should just let ‘em go. The kid’s sick-”
“The kid wouldn’t be here if you’d just done what I told you to do two years ago. ”
“He’s my son…” Denny said desperately and I almost felt a sliver of pity for him.
“He’s not yours,” I said to Denny as I flashed him a glance.
“What?” Denny asked.
“He’s not yours, Denny,” I said again, though I kept my eyes on Buck. “I’m thinking Pops here wanted you to tie up his loose end, not yours.”
“No,” Denny whispered and I looked at him to see that his eyes were on Buck whose snide smile had disappeared. “You promised me,” Denny murmured. “You promised me you weren’t with Jenna like that.”
“Shut up and do as I say, boy!” Buck snarled.
“I told you I loved her! You promised me I wouldn’t have to share her!”
Denny’s rage was palpable and I saw Matty close his eyes as even he sensed the rising tension between the two men. Thankfully, Buck’s gun wasn’t aimed at Matty’s head, though the hand holding the weapon was on Matty’s shoulder.
“And I told you what would happen if she told her father about you.”
“Not me!” Denny screamed. “You! She loved me! She never would have told him about us, but you! Did you fucking rape her you sick fuck?”
“Enough!” Buck roared and Denny actually fell silent, though I could feel his fury wafting off of him as he stood next to me. Buck’s rage filled eyes shifted to me and then he aimed his gun at me.
Panic went through me as I realized I had nothing left to delay the inevitable and I looked down at Matty and whispered, “Close your eyes, buddy.” I was glad when Matty did as I said and when the gunshot rang out a second later, I tried to call up an image of him and Hawke from earlier in the day to mind.
A weight hit me hard and knocked me to the ground and it took me a second to realize it hadn’t been a bullet tearing through my flesh that had been the cause.
I heard a terrible gasping sound and I scrambled to my knees as my fear for Matty overruled everything else.
But it wasn’t Matty who’d been shot either .
It was Denny who was lying next to me, a bloom of bright red blood staining the front of his shirt. Shock tore through me as I realized my brother had pushed me out of the way, putting himself in the path of the bullet that had been meant for me.
“Denny?!” I shouted and then my instincts took over and I pressed my hands down on his chest. I looked up at Buck in disbelief and saw that he actually seemed to be in a state of shock himself. Matty still had his eyes squeezed shut.
“Denny, hold on, okay?” I said desperately as blood seeped through my fingers. Denny’s shocked eyes held mine as he struggled to breathe.
“I’m sorry,” he choked out.
I shook my head. “It’s okay, just hang on.”
“Should have protected you,” Denny managed to say, though his last words faded out as his pupils grew larger and then he lowered his head to the floor and his body jerked several times before finally stilling beneath my hands.