ranch is your home in every sense of the word. You feel it even now, don't you?” He watched me tilt my face, questioning what he meant.
“Blood and soil. All the generations that have lived and died here. All the men and women who came before you, probably facing down greater problems than a bunch of crack slinging degenerates.”
I was too lost in his words to speak myself. His hands felt good, though.
He grounded me when the world had thinned, and it felt like I'd simply drift away. But not while I was tethered to him. All I could do was increase my hold on him, the only thing that kept me from losing myself.
“If you won't leave, then let me help. I won't sit idly by a couple miles away and let something horrible happen. Please, Cat. Let me be your protector.”
I swallowed hard, feeling my heart swell up several sizes. No one had ever offered to put their life on the line for me.
After several years in the city, I didn't even think such a thing was possible. The urban boxes of glass and concrete have their dangers, but they're easily forgettable just by hopping off to the nearest bar or lounge.
Out here, people still defended themselves, and they took everything dead seriously.
“Okay. I can deal with that,” I whispered.
“I'm going to spend more nights here with you. Even if I gotta get up at dawn and haul ass back to my own place. Last thing I'd do is step on your toes running this place during the day. It's really the night where you're gonna need my help.”
He wasn't lying. My father had been murdered at night and found in the morning. Somewhere in the mysterious blackness cut with rain, the skull had appeared too, as if from a dream.
“And what am I supposed to make of that head out there?” Part of me didn't want to ask the question, but a bigger part of me forced it out. I had to know.
“You don't know?” He echoed, eyes wide. “It's a warning. These gangs might be violent savages who deserve the nearest grave, but they do have a certain...code.”
Ethan hesitated. He lowered his hands from mine and grabbed the edge of the table, close to tipping his chair several inches off its legs.
“I don't understand.”
“They give people fair warning, Cat. Fair in their minds, anyway. I don't really get it myself, but it's the way they run. Obviously, they know the money's still here, and they're giving you another chance to turn it over.”
I filled the long silence between us with my thoughts, struggling to digest it all. If either of us smoked, somebody would've lit up during the anxious and heavily pregnant stillness in the air.
“What if I just give it to them?”
“You kidding? You can't negotiate with animals like this. Yeah, part of it's probably theirs, as much as a thief and a murderer can own his wealth.” His knuckles bulged as his fingers tightened on the table's edge.
“Even if you gave it up, there's no guarantee they wouldn't do something anyway. That's the kind of guys we're dealing with. Soon as you give them what they want, they'll put a bullet in your spine just for the fun of it.”
An icy loop ran up from the base of my spine. The way he said do something sounded like the most general phrase in the world, but I knew it was filled with a hundred painful possibilities.
“You're right. I can't take the coward's way out,” I said. “Pa must've been cut in somewhere along the line for storing their crap here. Right or wrong, that money belongs to me now. It's the way he would've wanted it.”
Ethan smiled and nodded. “That's right, little Cat. You're really starting to get it now.”
We said our goodbyes for the day and he promised to return by sundown. By the time he pulled out, the first guys were starting to arrive.
Jimmy came up to the house and asked about the smashed up skull he saw beneath the stairs. I laughed it off as a prank Ethan had brought by to cheer me up.
No need to let anyone else know about this. This is your fight, and yours alone.
That
“Blood and soil. All the generations that have lived and died here. All the men and women who came before you, probably facing down greater problems than a bunch of crack slinging degenerates.”
I was too lost in his words to speak myself. His hands felt good, though.
He grounded me when the world had thinned, and it felt like I'd simply drift away. But not while I was tethered to him. All I could do was increase my hold on him, the only thing that kept me from losing myself.
“If you won't leave, then let me help. I won't sit idly by a couple miles away and let something horrible happen. Please, Cat. Let me be your protector.”
I swallowed hard, feeling my heart swell up several sizes. No one had ever offered to put their life on the line for me.
After several years in the city, I didn't even think such a thing was possible. The urban boxes of glass and concrete have their dangers, but they're easily forgettable just by hopping off to the nearest bar or lounge.
Out here, people still defended themselves, and they took everything dead seriously.
“Okay. I can deal with that,” I whispered.
“I'm going to spend more nights here with you. Even if I gotta get up at dawn and haul ass back to my own place. Last thing I'd do is step on your toes running this place during the day. It's really the night where you're gonna need my help.”
He wasn't lying. My father had been murdered at night and found in the morning. Somewhere in the mysterious blackness cut with rain, the skull had appeared too, as if from a dream.
“And what am I supposed to make of that head out there?” Part of me didn't want to ask the question, but a bigger part of me forced it out. I had to know.
“You don't know?” He echoed, eyes wide. “It's a warning. These gangs might be violent savages who deserve the nearest grave, but they do have a certain...code.”
Ethan hesitated. He lowered his hands from mine and grabbed the edge of the table, close to tipping his chair several inches off its legs.
“I don't understand.”
“They give people fair warning, Cat. Fair in their minds, anyway. I don't really get it myself, but it's the way they run. Obviously, they know the money's still here, and they're giving you another chance to turn it over.”
I filled the long silence between us with my thoughts, struggling to digest it all. If either of us smoked, somebody would've lit up during the anxious and heavily pregnant stillness in the air.
“What if I just give it to them?”
“You kidding? You can't negotiate with animals like this. Yeah, part of it's probably theirs, as much as a thief and a murderer can own his wealth.” His knuckles bulged as his fingers tightened on the table's edge.
“Even if you gave it up, there's no guarantee they wouldn't do something anyway. That's the kind of guys we're dealing with. Soon as you give them what they want, they'll put a bullet in your spine just for the fun of it.”
An icy loop ran up from the base of my spine. The way he said do something sounded like the most general phrase in the world, but I knew it was filled with a hundred painful possibilities.
“You're right. I can't take the coward's way out,” I said. “Pa must've been cut in somewhere along the line for storing their crap here. Right or wrong, that money belongs to me now. It's the way he would've wanted it.”
Ethan smiled and nodded. “That's right, little Cat. You're really starting to get it now.”
We said our goodbyes for the day and he promised to return by sundown. By the time he pulled out, the first guys were starting to arrive.
Jimmy came up to the house and asked about the smashed up skull he saw beneath the stairs. I laughed it off as a prank Ethan had brought by to cheer me up.
No need to let anyone else know about this. This is your fight, and yours alone.
That
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