Chapter Forty-Three #3
“Excuse me,” an elderly voice called. Kaylee looked past Johnny’s shoulder and saw Jolene tapping her way with her cane across the gravel toward them. She seemed a little unsteady on her feet, and Kaylee sucked in a breath.
The blond man turned around, and Kaylee couldn’t see his expression, but his shoulders were tight, his presence menacing.
Kaylee wanted to cry out a warning, but without a weapon, she wasn’t sure what to do.
Kaylee looked along the ground in the gravel, but all the rocks were small.
She saw a truck with a toolbox in the bed and started shifting toward it.
Johnny must’ve heard her move because he whirled around.
“Where do you think you’re going, bitch?”
Kaylee watched Jolene raise her cane behind him. “Sonny, that’s no way to talk to a lady.”
“Get outta here, you old bat, before I—”
Johnny didn’t even get the words out of his mouth before Jolene reared back her cane and swung it like a baseball bat, connecting with the side of his face. He went flying, stumbling against the closest car, blood spraying from his mouth across the gravel.
Jolene lost her balance, but caught herself on a nearby side-view mirror.
Kaylee’s mouth dropped open, and she rushed to Jolene’s side. “Holy shit.”
“Language, Kaylee.”
When Johnny tried to get up, Kaylee reached for Jolene’s cane, anger beating through her like a drum.
“May I?”
“Be my guest,” she said, hobbling farther back as Kaylee raised the cane up, bringing it down across Johnny’s back. With each blow, a surge of power rushed through her, and her voice, low at first, grew louder with rage.
“You asshole! You want to hurt me? Huh! The people I love?” She hit him between his shoulder blades.
“Calling me a bitch? How about Jolene? You need to respect your elders.” She punctuated each word with a whack of her cane, unaware of what part of him she was connecting with, only caring that he wasn’t going to get up and hurt anyone else.
Finally, the blond man stopped moving, simply twitching.
“You’re pretty spry for an old gal,” Kaylee panted, handing her back the cane.
“I still do Jane Fonda’s calisthenics every morning.”
Kaylee would’ve laughed except she stared down at Johnny, who had managed to roll over and was a mess. His face was already bloody and swollen, and his breathing carried a harsh wheeze. She pulled out her phone and called Rick.
“Where did you go?”
“I’m in the parking lot with Jolene, and we may have a body on our hands.”
“A body— I’ll be right there.”
Several seconds later, Rick burst out of the front door, heading toward them. She forgot all about their lack of future and threw herself into his arms. He squeezed her against him without hesitation, pulling away enough to run his hands over her.
“Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”
“I’m fine, but he’s not,” she sobbed, the realization of what she’d done overwhelming her.
He saw the man on the ground and shifted them both to the side. Slowly, he knelt, feeling for a pulse.
“He’s alive.” He stood, pulling out his phone, staring at Jolene’s cane. “Damn, Jolene, what did you do to the poor guy?”
“I just took the first crack at him. Kaylee did the rest.”
“I sure am glad you’re on our side,” he said, then directed his voice into the phone.
“Yeah, this is Agent Enrique Diaz with the FBI. We have a man injured in a parking lot. He’s part of an ongoing investigation.
We need an ambulance to the back of the Holiday Community Center in Holiday, Idaho. Thank you, yeah, we’ll wait.”
Rick put the phone away, finally reaching for Kaylee and bringing her into his chest. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you come out here alone. Why didn’t you scream?”
“He threatened to hurt Josie. I boxed his ear, catching him off guard. I was trying to get away from him when Jolene found us.”
“And then you beat the crap out of him.”
Kaylee nodded, her lip trembling. “He deserved it.”
“He absolutely did,” Rick said, kissing her forehead. “He shouldn’t have underestimated you.”
“Yeah. He wanted me to go with him and said that I might live, but I had to have a conversation with Ansel first.”
Rick held her tight. “If he knows where you are, there’ll be more coming. We should get you somewhere safe.”
“There’s nowhere safer than Holiday,” Jolene said firmly, her thin lips pinched.
“Jolene, if the rest of them show up here, you’re all in danger if I’m still in town,” Kaylee said.
“And if you run and they find you without any backup, what then? Won’t they hurt us anyway, just to figure out where you are?”
Kaylee didn’t answer, her stomach twisting with dread. Jolene was right. If she took off and hid somewhere and Ansel showed up with his crew, he would torture everyone in this town to get to her without a qualm.
She stared up at Rick, hopelessness heavy in her heart. “She’s right.”
“Of course I am, which is why we are going to have to hold a town meeting.”
“What is that going to do besides spread panic?” Rick asked.
“You misjudge the people in this town if you think we’d ever back down from a fight.”