Chapter 59
Deb placed Jimmy on the ground in front of her, watching with fascinated horror as the horse barn was completely consumed by flames. The roof of the structure had collapsed, and Deb mourned the loss of it as she might a member of her own family.
It was in that building that she had fostered relationships with hundreds of animals over the years, training young foals from the time they were able to stand. The connections she had formed with these animals were more meaningful than a lot of the human friendships she had made over the years.
They had looked to her for guidance, for care, and she had done her best since the earliest days of her youth to provide that.
Now, most of the horses she had trained over the years were gone.
Many of them were being ridden off into battle, a purpose they had never been intended for.
The only ones left on the farm were either the very young or the very old, who Deb could see grazing in a fenced-in area, not yet disturbed by the sounds of battle occurring in the distance.
There was a time when these animals would have been terrified by the sound of chaotic gunfire and screaming.
They would be rearing and charging and desperate to run for safety.
But over the last six months, they had grown accustomed to the sound of gunfire and screams. They were commonplace among members of the Chain Gang, who often settled differences with weapons drawn.
As such, her beloved horses had grown indifferent to the horrors of war, and that made her both relieved and sad at the same time.
A blaring burst of gunfire closer than the rest sounded off in the distance, and Deb knew it was coming from the direction of the farmhouse.
Vin had engaged Chainz, and she said a silent prayer, hoping that he would come out of it unscathed.
She wished he had backup. She looked over at Legion, who stood stoically beside her, arms folded across his chest as he looked out over the landscape for any sign of incoming danger.
Had Legion accompanied Vin on his assassination mission, she was certain they would have been more than enough to stop Chainz.
But she understood Vin’s reasoning for asking Legion to stay behind.
There were still dangers out there, and Vin wanted to ensure the safety of his wife and child.
While Deb understood the decision and even respected it, she wished it wasn’t necessary.
She felt like a burden, sitting here uselessly while so many other people were fighting over her home.
She was the only one not taking up arms, and that felt wrong in a lot of ways.
Sure, she had no combat training and had no idea what she was doing around a firearm, but this land rightfully belonged to her, and the idea of others fighting over it turned her stomach.
“I feel useless,” she said, offering her thoughts up to Legion, who glanced down at her.
He grunted in response, and Deb sighed. She had wondered if, now that he had spoken in front of her, she would hear him converse more often, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
Legion was the definition of a strong, silent type, and she wasn’t expecting that to change just because they were… something bordering on friends now.
“I feel like I should be fighting with everyone,” she continued, not caring if the big man responded.
She just needed to get the words out there so that they weren’t rattling around in her head.
“My dad loved this place so much. He passed that love onto me. This place is so meaningful to my life, and I’m just sitting here. ”
Deb sat on the ground by Jimmy, who was playing happily in the dirt. She hugged her knees to her chest and pressed her face into them. There were no more words to fill the space, and Deb only listened to the far-off sound of gunfire.
“You’d die,” Legion said simply, keeping his arms folded as he scanned the area for any potential threats.
“What?” Deb asked, looking up at the huge bodyguard with shock.
“You fight, you die,” he said simply with a shrug, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. And perhaps it was.
Deb sighed audibly, conveying her emotions through this one deep exhalation. That seemed to draw Legion’s attention.
“You haven’t eaten,” he said by way of explanation. “Adrenaline only takes you so far.”
Deb nodded. It was true. Her insides were practically on fire, and while she hadn’t looked at herself in a mirror, she was sure she must have looked malnourished.
She ran a hand along her face, feeling her cheekbones as they stuck out more prominently.
It was deflating to feel so useless, but Deb tried to tell herself that once they had the ranch again, once they were in control of the land, her true work would begin.
She wanted to transform this place, taking it from the symbol of oppression it had become and bringing it back to an environment of love, acceptance, and empathy.
She looked up into the sky. It was a beautiful day, with the deep blue of the heavens dotted by wispy clouds. She imagined the kind eyes of her father smiling down at her from up there, and she realized that his dream, his mindset of peace and understanding, wasn’t dead after all.
His words and teachings were reaching her once more, for the first time since this mess had begun.
This world had made her cold, hard, and unforgiving.
She had stopped seeing the whole of humanity with hope in her eyes.
But standing here beside her was an enemy who had become a friend, not because he was conquered or captured, but because of kindness.
She had shown him empathy in a moment of need, and he had responded with kindness in return. If it weren’t for Legion, Vin never would have found her. She would have been nothing more than blackened bone and ashes crushed under the collapsing roof of the horse barn.
“Thank you,” Deb said up to Legion. He looked down at her in confusion. “For…you know. Coming to save me and all.”
Legion simply nodded. That was as close to “you’re welcome” as Deb was going to get.
“Jimmy and I would be dead if you hadn’t helped us,” she continued, and again, the big man said nothing. “Those ranch hands would also be dead as well.”
The two of them had managed to limp off to relative safety. Deb had instructed them to hide, as she wasn’t willing to go too far away from Vin and had no confidence in Legion’s ability to defend four people at the same time.
“You know,” Deb said, letting her thoughts dangle in the air as she chased after them. “When this is all over when this place is whole again, you have a home here.”
Legion looked down at her, confused.
“I mean, you can stay here with us on the ranch,” she said. “There’s a place for you here. You can start over without Chainz and all his garbage. You can have a new life.”
Legion’s face remained stoic and emotionless, but she watched as the big man took a long, deep inhalation and let it out slowly.
He turned his head to look down at Deb and Jimmy, and she thought she could see moisture glistening in the corners of his eyes.
“Thank you,” he said softly, and then he looked up into the sky as if imagining and new life for himself for the first time ever.
Then, a loud, booming gunshot echoed through the area, and Legion pitched forward, a spray of hot red blood flying from his back.
Three more shots rang out before Deb even had time to scream.
Legion looked down at her in surprise and alarm as he fell face-first into the dirt, kicking up a cloud of dust as his massive body impacted the ground like a boulder.
Jimmy screamed in fear, and Deb scrambled over to him, grabbing him up in her arms as she screamed even louder in horror.
“There we go,” an unbalanced, singsong voice said.
Deb looked over to see Jessie with a hunting rifle pointed threateningly at her as she casually sauntered toward him.
“I figured you needed a little girl time.”
Deb shook in panic, clutching Jimmy against her as Jessie lined her up in the rifle’s crosshair.
“So, who goes first?” Jessie asked with a smirk and a wink.