Page 38 of Sinners Reunion

“Then shouldn’t we save them instead of killing them?” Ezra asks. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.”

Heads nod as everyone agrees.

King clears his throat. “It’s not that simple. These men deserve what’s coming to them. They went rogue on a job and slaughtered women and children who weren’t on the list. Their actions were far worse than just killing, however, if you’d like to⁠—”

“Nah, that’s enough,” Cat says. “I get it.”

“When you make a kill, put this on their wrist,” Jim says as Gary starts handing out game tags. “Eve, you’re on your own since Charity is dead and that leaves an uneven number.”

Ice Pick whimpers, and Blayne puts a protective arm around him.

“Why don’t we pair her with Gary?” I ask.

Gary looks hopeful at my suggestion, but then the hope fades. “I don’t want to mess her up. I’m not a killer, and this is a competition.”

Eve throws her arm around the man. “Come on, Gare Bear. I’ll handle the shotgun, and you handle the tracking.”

“I don’t even have an outfit,” he says, looking around at all of us dressed up like the most ineffectual hunting party to ever step foot in the woods.

Jim steps closer to the little man and holds out the black gift bag that’s been sitting at his feet. “I was hopeful you might change your mind. I had these prepared for you.”

When Gary pulls out the paper and reveals hideous camo coveralls, you’d think he’d just been handed the Stanley fucking Cup. His eyes well with tears, and he shakes his head. “You’re too kind to me, Jim.”

“You’re a very good friend to all of us,” Jim says, misty eyed. “It would make me proud if you joined in.”

Agreement resounds, and Gary dons the coveralls with our encouragement. And I can’t lie; it’s doing a little something to me too. This is one weird little family, but that’s the only way I can describe it.

A family. Friends. A sense of belonging.

All things my nomadic life hasn’t afforded.

As the group starts toward the beginning of the woods, I search my mind for a happy memory to cling to, but all I find are the reasons I ran away from my life in the first place. The reasons I wanted to die. The reasons King found me and showed me that I actually wanted to live.

“You okay?” King asks. “Is your stomach being a bother?”

“Stop trying to send me back to the RV.” I step over a large rock and nearly break my ankle. King reaches out to right me, and I snatch my arm away. “And stop being nice. I know what you’re up to.”

There’s some commotion at the front of the group, and we quicken our steps to drink the spilling tea. King is just as nosey as I am, and I don’t care if he says otherwise.

“You can’t take anything with you,” Jim says to Bennett, who clutches that small cardboard box to his chest like a lifeline. “You’ll have to leave your box with me. I’ll have no secret advantages for any of you.”

With a huff, Bennett opens the box and pulls what looks to be a vase from inside. “I’m not leaving this behind. She’s coming on every step of this trip, and that’s final.”

“Please don’t tell me you’ve got a pineapple in there,” Kindra says.

Bennett opens the lid and pulls a baggie from the shadows. It looks to be filled with carpet dust. “Here. Satisfied?”

“Oh my god, he brought his mother’s cremains,” Maverick whispers, but someone really needs to teach that guy how to speak softly, because we all hear him.

“I never brought her anywhere because I never had the money to take her traveling. Now I’m gonna leave a little piece of her all over the United States, and not a single one of you assholes will stop me.”

“I think it’s sweet,” I say, and all heads turn toward me. “Seriously. Let the man take his mom on the trip he never could.”

“Fine,” Jim relents with a groan. “Just be sure she doesn’t wind up in any food, or we’ll all be leaving her somewhere.”

“Bennett is the food fucker, right?” I whisper, and King nods. “Why would his mother end up in our food? Are we eating food he’s already fucked?”

King sighs. “With this lot, so many things end up in our food.”