Come Sundown(175)

“We’re not, you’re not. On your knees.”

“I can make you feel good. I know how.”

When he took another step, she braced herself to shoot, to kill if she must.

“Don’t make me do this,” she warned.

Then she swung the gun away from him, toward the man charging out of the prison with a knife in his hand and murder in his eyes.

“Honor thy father!” LaFoy shouted, and Bodine fired. Fired a second time when he barely slowed, and a third before he dropped to the ground.

“You shot him.” His tone curious, his head angled, Easy stepped over, nudged his father with a boot. “I think he’s dead.”

“I’m sorry.”

“He was a mean son of a bitch. It’s why he couldn’t keep a wife. Kept having to bury them. I didn’t want to be mean to the two I picked out before. That wasn’t my fault. I won’t be mean to you.”

“Please don’t make me shoot you. Please don’t.” Her hand shook, shook so hard now she feared she wouldn’t be able to steady it enough to pull the trigger.

He just smiled as he started toward her.

They both heard the horse coming, turned in time to see Callen pull the gun from his hip as Sundown sailed over the fence.

“On the ground, Easy. Facedown on the ground or I’ll put you there bleeding.”

Callen swung a leg over Sundown’s neck, dropped lightly to the ground. “Now.”

“It’s my land now. I’ve got a right—”

Callen took the simple way. Two punishing lefts.

“Keep him there.”

In response Sundown set one foot on Easy’s back.

Leaving Easy facedown on the ground with the horse guarding him, Callen strode to Bodine.

“Let’s have that.” He took the gun from her shaking hand, stuck it in his belt. “Let me see, let me see where you’re hurt.”

“It’s not my blood. It’s not mine. I’m not hurt.”

“You sure?” He shoved his gun in its holster, trailed his fingers over the bruise on her face.

“I shot—I shot—”

“Shh.” He gathered her in. “You’re all right now.”

He heard the sirens, and the hoof strikes. “You’re all right now,” he repeated.

“My legs are going.” Her knees didn’t buckle, they evaporated.

“It’s all right.” He scooped her up. “I’ve got you now.”

“I shot—I stabbed him. I stabbed him in the throat, I think the throat, with my pocketknife. Couldn’t dig out the bolt, but I stabbed him. You gave me the knife and I stabbed him.”

“Okay.” Shocky, he thought—and no wonder. Her skin had gone pale as ice, and her pupils were the size of moons.

“Did I kill him? Is he dead?”

“I don’t know. He’s down and that’s what counts. Look, here comes Chase. Your dad and Rory, they’re coming, and Tate. Hear the sirens?”

“I was going to go out the window, but he came through the door. Sir, not Easy. I’m not making sense. I can’t think straight.”

“You can think later.” Callen stayed where he was as Chase leaped off his horse, wrapped his arms around both of them.

“She’s not hurt,” Callen told him. “It’s not her blood.”

With a nod, Chase turned his head, looked at the two men on the ground. “Did you do that?” he asked Callen.

“I did one, she did the other.” He glanced back as the sheriff’s truck sped down the rutted road. “You don’t have to talk to Tate yet. He’ll wait until you’re steadier.”

“I’m okay. Better. I can probably get my legs under me now.”

But Callen just carried her over to a chopping stump, sat with her in his lap. “We’ll just sit here for a while.”

“Good idea.”

She talked to Tate, found the step-by-step retelling helped clear the fog out of her mind. And she watched Easy being led off, in handcuffs, still insisting he hadn’t done anything wrong.

“He believes that,” she said. “Taking me—though he meant to take Chelsea—that was just his right. Killing Billy Jean and Karyn Allison, those were just accidents and not his fault. He was raised to believe it. I forgot, God, I forgot, he said something about Sir—LaFoy—having to bury his wives. I think Alice was right. There were others.”

“We’re going to look into that.”

“He was going to kill his own son. He came running out with the knife. He wouldn’t stop. I had the gun. I had the gun, so I used it.”

“Honey, you’re not going to worry about that.” Tate patted her knee. “It’s clear as clear gets you were defending yourself, and more than likely saved the life of the man who got you into this.”