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He found the roll of duct tape in the bed of the truck and held her while he wrapped some around her lower legs. Then he dragged her around to the passenger side, paying no mind to Da
Josiah turned back to look at him and saw the knife in his hand.
It was a folding knife, with a blade no more than four inches long, one of those that had a little metal nub so you could flick it open fast with your thumb and fancy yourself a badass. Josiah looked down at it and laughed out loud.
“You going to cut me?”
“Going to do what needs to be done. You can decide what that’ll be.”
Josiah laughed again and lifted the gun and wrapped his finger around the trigger.
“Knife at a gunfight,” he said. “If that doesn’t describe your entire pathetic life, I don’t know what does, Da
“Whatever you’re fixing to do, you’ll do it without her.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Da
“It ain’t right, and I won’t stand for it.”
“Well, aren’t you a noble bastard.”
“What her husband told you back there, it was the truth,” Da
“What did I tell you about using that name?”
“That’s what I mean-it’s Campbell’s ghost has got in your head, just like he said. You been talking so damn strange, talking about Campbell like he’s sitting at your side. The man’s dead, Josiah, and I don’t know what in the hell has gotten into you, but that man is dead.”
“Right there’s a mistake that’s been made for far too long,” Josiah said. “Ain’t nothing dead about Campbell.”
Da
“Stand down and step aside,” he said. “Me and the missus have to be getting on.”
“She’s not going with you.”
“Da
“I’m telling you as a friend, Josiah, best friend you ever had in your life, that you’ve lost your damn mind.”
“That may be,” Josiah said, “but I’ll tell you something: I’m not going to ride into the fire alone. That bitch is coming with me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We’re leaving. Go on and get in your car.”
Da
“Anybody going to take this ride with you, it ought to be me.”
“You’d take her place?”
Da
“And I’m the crazy one? She ain’t nothing to you, boy.”
“And she ain’t to you neither.”
Josiah felt unsteady again, his mind shifting on him as it had been all day, and that angered him. He didn’t have time for it, knew exactly what he had to do and had been on his way to do it until Da
“Get in your car,” he said again, emphatically this time.
“All right,” Da
He held Josiah’s eyes for a moment, like he was searching for the bluff in them, and then he wet his lips a second time and stepped toward the woman and Josiah squeezed the trigger.
It had been a long time since he’d fired the shotgun, and he’d forgotten the sheer force of it. It bucked in his arms and sent a tremor through his chest and cut Da
Eric Shaw’s wife let out a low, anguished wail under the tape and pushed herself down to the floor of the truck, squeezing against the dashboard as if she expected him to put another round into the window. Josiah ignored her completely, staring at what he’d done. Da
He wiped at his face with a shirtsleeve and stared down at the corpse.
Best friend you ever had in your life…
Something trembled inside him, a weakening of the resolve that had filled him on the way up the trail, and he swallowed hard and ground his teeth together as Da
He hadn’t wanted to do this. Da
“Damn you,” Josiah said and dropped to one knee, staring at Da
He reached out and touched the grass near his feet, dipped his fingertips into Da
Ain’t your blood, Campbell’s voice whispered to him. And ain’t your concern.
But it was hard to focus now, hard to listen. The warm, wet touch of his old friend’s blood held him like cinder blocks strapped to his feet. He couldn’t move away.
He’s no kin to you, boy, and you got work left to do.
Campbell’s voice, so steady and strong throughout most of this day that it had become Josiah’s own at times, suddenly seemed softer. It was hard to hear him, hard to hear anything but the echoing roar of the shotgun.
Josiah had no recollection of having met Da
Had offered to take the woman’s place in the truck right now.
Who in the hell would do that? And why?
Damn it, boy, get your hands out of his blood and step back! You were to listen. That’s all. Only thing you’re required to do is listen, and now you’re not doing it.
He didn’t want to listen, though. Campbell would tell him to go, to leave this spot, and it didn’t feel right to leave Da
It was the woman who jarred him loose. He’d taped her wrists together behind her back, but her fingers were free, and somehow she’d managed to reach the door handle. He heard the click of the latch opening, and with it his mind spun away from Da
He got up quickly and ran around the bed of the truck, found her down there in the dirt. She had nowhere to go, was just thrashing around like a fish on the sand, but he had to give her credit for trying. Josiah reached down and grabbed her by the back of her jeans and got her upright, then dropped the shotgun long enough to use both hands to shove her back inside. He hadn’t gotten the door closed yet when he heard an odd, faraway cry.
He slammed the door and snatched the shotgun with both hands, then turned and looked at the woods around him. He heard the cry again, understood the word this time: don’t. Eric Shaw was on his feet and had reached the trailhead, was just across the field from them. Josiah’s finger went to the trigger and for a moment he considered letting it blast in Shaw’s direction. He held off, though.