Chapter 21 #2
“Where’s Bob?” Mitch dropped his pack off his shoulder and pulled out the field kit.
“Got away,” Sapphire said. “Through a back exit. Don’t know where he is.”
“Fuck.” Mitch lowered to his knees beside Lyle.
Sapphire crouched on Lyle’s other side. “Lyle, listen to me. You’re going to be okay. We’ll get you to a hospital.” She placed her hand on his shoulder. “Who shot you?”
Lyle’s chin quivered. “Bob. Bob shot me.”
“Jesus, why’d he do that?” Cassidy squatted beside him.
“It’s Frank’s fault.” He sucked in a shaky breath.
Mitch cut Lyle’s shirt away from the wound. Blood oozed through Lyle’s bloody fingers, and a massive purple bruise stained his stomach.
Sapphire put her knee on the ground. “Tell me what happened.”
“Frank killed Bruce and Wayne.”
“Yes, we know,” Sapphire said.
“You do?” A tear spilled down his cheek.
Mitch packed the wound, and Lyle moaned at the pressure.
“We found Bruce and Wayne’s bodies. We’re so sorry, Lyle,” Sapphire said.
He moaned again. “Frank told me Bob killed them. I tried to shoot Bob, but he ... he got me.”
Cassidy reached for Lyle’s hand, squeezing hard. “So sorry, Lyle.”
Sapphire heaved a breath. “Christ.” She touched his arm. “I promise you I will get him for this.”
Lyle shook his head. “No, you won’t. He’s untouchable.”
Sapphire’s jaw clenched. She leaned closer. “He’s not untouchable. He’s a coward. Cowards run, and runners get caught. I’m going to make damn sure of it. But I need your help to take him down, so you hang in there. Got it?”
Lyle didn’t answer. Another tear spilled down his cheek.
Sapphire wiped it away with her thumb. “I need you, Lyle.”
Lyle nodded. “Okay.”
“Hey, Lyle, press your hand on here, mate.” Mitch grabbed Lyle’s hand and pressed it onto the wound.
Lyle moaned.
“That’s it, mate, keep pressing. You’re gonna be just fine.” Mitch stood, met my gaze, and shook his head. Lyle was not fine at all.
“I’ve done what I can for him,” Mitch said. “We need to check on Frank.”
“Right.” Sapphire stood, too, and glared at me. “You good?”
I knew what she was asking. Can I control my anger?
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m good.”
The four of us moved deeper into the cave to where Frank lay face-down in the dirt.
His breathing was a raspy rattle. Cassidy crouched a few feet from him, her eyes on his face, but her hand stayed on her gun as if she didn’t trust him.
“Frank.” Sapphire’s voice was flat. “Can you hear us?”
“I hear ya. Now fuckin’ put a bullet in me, will ya?”
“Shut up, Frank.” Mitch knelt on Frank’s other side, opening his field kit again. He ran his hand down Frank’s leg and squeezed the calf hard. “You feel that?”
“Feel what? I got so much pain in me I’m feelin’ everythin’,” Frank said.
“Your damn leg, you stupid prick.” Mitch dug his thumb into the back of Frank’s knee.
“I don’t feel nothin’. Just kill me already.”
“He might be paralyzed,” Mitch said, making sure Frank could hear.
“I hope he fucking is,” I said.
“So, end me. That’s what you want, ain’t it?”
“No, you stupid bastard.” Cassidy crouched lower so Frank could see her face. “We want you to suffer.”
Frank groaned. “I’ve been sufferin’ for months. I’m dyin’ a cancer.”
“We don’t give a shit,” I said, getting closer.
Sapphire raised her hands, telling us to back off.
Frank’s eyes flickered to me and away. “Do it,” he said.
“Fuck you.”
Sapphire glared at me. I stepped back.
Mitch worked on Frank’s wound, but slower than he’d worked on Lyle. Less urgency. The bleeding had slowed on its own. Maybe the bullet had missed the major vessels. Or maybe Frank just had less blood left to lose.
“What happened to your hand, Frank?” Sapphire asked.
Frank lifted the wrapped stump. “Fuckin’ Wayne bit my finger off.”
“I hope that hurt,” Mitch growled.
“Is that why you killed him, Frank?” Sapphire asked before Frank could answer.
“Those bastards came to kill me, but I got ‘em first.” Frank coughed, and a bubble of blood spilled from the corner of his lip.
“Frank. Where did you bury Kat?” Sapphire asked.
“What?” he croaked.
“Kat. The young runaway you and Bob killed when you were teenagers.”
“Fuck me. How you know ‘bout her?” He turned his head, trying to get a better look at Sapphire.
I crouched, too, just out of Frank’s eyeline. I didn’t trust myself to be closer. “We read all your notes, you gutless prick.”
“Ahh, Christ, you weren’t meant to read ‘em ‘til I was dead.”
Mitch pressed a wad of cloth to Frank’s lower back and pressed hard. “We’ve already read them. And we’re gonna make sure you live long enough to pay for everything you’ve done.”
“For fuck’s sake. If you read ‘em, then ya know I’m dyin’. Just fuckin’ get it over with.”
“Fuck no.” Cassidy stepped forward and put her boot on Frank’s bloody hand. “Sapphire needs you alive.”
Frank howled.
Cassidy stepped back, then walked away, heading back toward Lyle.
I watched my sister go and felt prouder of her than I had any words for.
“So, where did you bury Kat?” Sapphire asked again.
“She’s under the damn drum. We’ve been cookin’ our sausages over her for decades.”
We all looked toward the rusty forty-gallon drum in the center of the cave.
“Jesus Christ. You sick fuck!” I lunged forward, ready to slam my boot into his head.
“Hey!” Sapphire jumped to her feet, raising her hands. “That’s what he wants.”
The cave went silent except for everyone breathing hard. Mitch’s hands were balled into fists at his sides. Rage burned in my gut.
“Stop. Look at me, Kayden. Look at me.”
I dragged my eyes off Frank.
“Think of what’s going to happen to him in prison, especially if he’s in a wheelchair. There’s nothing you can do to him that’s worse than what he’s got coming. Don’t give him an out.”
I pictured him in a wheelchair, trapped behind bars, existing in a concrete cell. That would be Frank’s living hell. “Yeah. You’re right.” I lowered my boot.
Sapphire turned toward Cassidy, and the second her back was turned, I stomped my boot onto Frank’s bandaged hand.
Frank howled again.
“That’s for that young girl, Kat,” I said.
Sapphire spun to me, and I stepped back, raising my hands.
Sapphire rolled her eyes. But her expression wasn’t all anger, there was a little bit of satisfaction in there, too.
“Come on,” she said, waving her hand for me to step in front of her.
We raced back to Lyle. He was unconscious, his breath shallow but still going.
Mitch squatted down, lifted the bloody wadding, and shook his head. “We need to get Lyle to a hospital.” Mitch glanced up at Sapphire. “He’s lost a lot of blood.”
Cassidy’s eyes went to Frank. Then to me. “I’ll get the chopper as close as I can.” She sprinted out of the mouth of the cave.