No Mercy Part 41

Dead silence.

"Don't screw with me, boys; I've got you by your little teeny b.a.l.l.s."

Axel spit on the rock by Theo's feet. Then he said to Bucky, "We're outta here. For good."

Bucky shot Hiram an anxious look before he chased after Axel. I gave the kid credit; he didn't turn his back to the man with the gun until they were out of sight.

Theo glared at Moser, Little Bear, and Randall as they backed up, also intent on escape. Without a word they fled. An engine sputtered, roared to life, and broke the quiet.

Hiram plopped on a rock. "This ain't going the way it was planned."

"No, really? Brilliant deduction." Theo stood. "Stay here and put out the fire."

"Where you going?"

"To follow those little s.h.i.+ts and see if I'll need to do any more damage control."

"More damage control? What'd you do?"

"What needed done. What you and that a.s.swipe Kit were too civilized to do."

Hiram shook his head. "That ain't your job. You're supposed to be convincing her to sell. Period."

"She will. Soon." Theo disappeared up the hillside.

I listened until I heard his vehicle drive away. Then I pushed back through the bushes and unsheathed my knife. Ten seconds later I had that knife at Hiram's throat.

"Drop the gun." My voice was an unrecognizable growl.

He didn't argue.

"Kick it next to the fire."

Hiram stretched his leg. With the toe of his boot he sent the gun skittering over the barren ground like a silver spider.

I dug the blade in, drawing blood so he knew I wasn't bluffing. My knife skills were rusty. I looked forward to a hands-on refresher course.

"Did you kill Levi?"

"No!"

I didn't believe him. "Did you kill Sue Anne? Leave her to bleed to death on my porch?"

"No. But-"

"But what?"

Another pause and he blurted, "I think Theo did."

"Did he kill Albert Yellow Boy, too?"

"That was an accident, I swear."

"Convince me."

"Moser, Little Bear, Bucky, Randall, Theo, and me were out here doing fast mounts and dismounts. As Albert climbed on, a rattler spooked the horse and it reared. Albert tried to get loose, but his shoe caught in the stirrup. The horse threw him sideways and broke his neck. Killed him right away."

"Why'd you move him to my land?"

"We thought a dead boy, especially a friend of Levi's who'd been in trouble, would convince you and Hope to sell the ranch faster."

"Was that scare tactic Theo's idea?"

"Yeah."

"Why should I believe you didn't kill Levi as an additional incentive for us to sell?"

"That wasn't in the plan. We figured Wyatt would leave the estate stuff to Hope. With him dying... she'd need someone else to depend on."

"It never occurred to you she could depend on me?"

"Ah. No. Kit introduced Theo and Hope, thinking Theo could feed us information on everything that was going on, while convincing her to sell to us."

"You purposely set up my sister with that piece of s.h.i.+t?"

"n.o.body twisted her arm to crawl in his bed, Mercy."

I hissed and dug the blade edge into his Adam's apple. "Wrong answer, Hi."

"Okay, okay! Yes, Kit set them up."

"When?"

"About five months ago."

Jesus Christ. They'd planned to get their grimy hands on the Gunderson Ranch before my dad was even in the ground. "How did Kit know Theo?"

"After Theo moved here, he came into the real estate office asking about local land for sale. He was scouting for that group in North Dakota he used to work for; them guys wanted a place to run a huge herd of buffalo.

"Kit promised Theo if he could talk Hope into agreeing to sell to Kit's investment group, he'd set a side a large section for them buffalo guys to buy. Problem was, we didn't know Theo was such a wild card. He wormed his way into them kids' group by talking about his 'Indian blood' and his understanding of Lakota rituals. When Theo bragged that he could get them kids to do anything he wanted, including hurting themselves and each other, it freaked Kit out. Everything was s'posed to be handled on the QT. He sent me to keep an eye on him."

"Theo, the almighty Indian leader, didn't care you were babysitting him?"

"No. Since I'm Lakota, he acted like I was Tonto to his Lone Ranger. Them kids didn't care who hung around either as long as there was enough booze flowing."

"Were you there when they raped Lanae?"

He swallowed hard and I smelled his guilt.

"Did you partic.i.p.ate?"

Eerie silence.

"Answer the question."

His voice was barely a whisper. "Yeah, but I was drunk."

My hand awaited instructions from my brain.

One quick slice, the barbarian in me urged.

Get more information first, the dutiful soldier retorted.

I breathed. Weighed my options.

Another voice broke through my rage. Not my dad's. Rollie's. Don't do something you can't undo.

It took effort, but I forced the blade from his throat. I had enough information. I could've walked away. Instead, I exchanged the knife for the Sig and placed the barrel at the base of his skull. Although we were ten feet from a fire, Hiram shook uncontrollably. I didn't care. "Was Dawson involved in any of this?"

"No."

"None of it?"

"None of what?"

"Hiding the truth, Hi."

"I don't know what you mean."

The man was so stupid it shocked the h.e.l.l out of me this Warrior Society stuff stayed under the radar on his watch. "Yes, you do. Kit. And you. And Trey. And Laronda. Who had a hand in setting fire to my buildings? Whose idea was it to a.s.sault me? Or was it an attempt to kill me? And do you know how p.i.s.sed off I am that Hope bore the brunt of that attack?"

No answer.

I grabbed his hair and yanked. "Don't so much as twitch again or I'll put a bullet in your addled f.u.c.king brain."

Hiram whimpered like a kicked dog. "Don't hurt me."

"Like Trey tried to hurt me by whacking me at Clementine's?" That crack in my vulnerability still burned my a.s.s.

"Trey done that on his own. He was just supposed to-"

"Supposed to what?"

"He's a good-looking kid, and we thought because it'd worked with Hope-"

"That I'd fall on my back and spread my legs for him? Jesus. You guys are stupid."

"So we were wrong, but we didn't have nothing to do with none of the rest of that stuff."

I let my voice explode in his ear as I pushed the gun deeper into his skin. "Convince me."

"C-come on Mercy, you've known me for years. You think I'm c-capable of that kinda stuff?"

"I didn't think you were c-capable of rape, you sick b.a.s.t.a.r.d, but you managed to do that. And now I see why Josiah wants nothing to do with you. You don't have a shred of honor, Hiram Blacktower." I leaned over his shoulder and whispered, "Give Kit a message. He won't know where, he won't know when, but I am coming for him."

I smacked Hiram in the back of the head with the gun grip hard enough that he tumbled off the rock. He fell face-first in the mud, and groaned once. I didn't know if I'd knocked him out or if he was faking it.

I didn't care. And I sure as h.e.l.l didn't stick around.

I drove home on automatic. Once I had cell service I called Hope's home phone. No answer. I tried her cell. No answer. Feeling unnerved and p.i.s.sed off, I swung by her trailer. No sign of her car. No sign of Shoonga. The house exhibited an unoccupied aura, but I beat on the flimsy aluminum door anyway. No answer.

It scared the living h.e.l.l out of me to consider that she was probably staying with Theo.

My options were limited. I could hightail it to the rez and try to find Theo's house. I remembered something about four miles out of Eagle River. Right. Driving around in the dark, on the maze of unmarked gravel roads, in four directions, in the middle of the night, would not be discreet. If I did show up, I'd tip him off I was on to him, and I wanted to retain the element of surprise.

I had no choice but to wait until morning. It'd give me time to come up with a plan to get Hope away from Theo without rousing his suspicions. It'd also give me time to hit upon a way to execute Theo that would look like an accident. Dawson would be suspicious of a single .45 shot to the head.

I left a series of messages on Hope's cell phone for her to call me. No matter what time.

Thunder rattled the windowpanes. Rain? Two nights in a row? In a drought? A portend of doom for sure. I hugged the porch support beam and studied the changes in the sky. Dark clouds scuttled across the stars. A heavy, damp wind blew from the north, leaving a film on my skin sticky as pinesap. As a precaution against it being damaged by hail, I parked my Viper in the machine shed.

About two a.m. I returned inside and prowled from room to room, too restless to sleep. I opened my bedroom window to allow the fragrant scent of summer rain to waft in. Eventually the soft patter on the tin roof lulled me into a dreamless light sleep.

The morning dawned grim. Humid wind whipped across my face; sticky air clogged my lungs. My clothes clung to my skin like Mylar.

Something beside the electrostatic charge in the atmosphere was making my skin buzz. I didn't need caffeine. I was already hyper-alert and too wired to do yoga, but meditation might help.

I crossed my legs lotus style, let my eyes drift shut, and envisioned the influx of oxygen into my lungs as slow as sipping water through a straw. Releasing the air first from my belly in a single long stream, then a silent hiss reversing course through my lungs, up my throat, and out my nose.

I'd performed the ritual a dozen times when my cell phone rang and I lost every bit of relaxation.

Caller ID read: Hope. Finally. "h.e.l.lo?"

"Mercy?"

"Hey, sis. Where are you? I've been trying to call you since last night."

Silence.

"Hope?"

A soft sob.

My heart rate shot through the leaky roof. "What's wrong?"

"Theo. Oh G.o.d, Mercy, he already hit me after I dropped the phone. We've been out since before sunrise, and I'm so cold and scared and I can't help shaking-"

The unmistakable sound of flesh hitting flesh ricocheted in my ear, followed by Hope's sharp cry. The plastic phone case cracked beneath my increased grip. "Hope? What the h.e.l.l is going on?"