Page 11

The fury in my chest is still there. Just quieter now. Quieter the way a fire goes quiet when it's run out of what it needed to eat and has moved on to somethin' harder and slower.

My palm is bleedin' where the glass got it. I watch the blood track down my wrist and don't do anything about it.

"She's nine years old," I say again.

My voice comes out different this time. Not the contained, flat thing I use when I'm holdin' back. Just the plain, tired truth of it.

"After all I've done for her, do you really fucking think I set her up, Legion? Be real. You're not that stupid. You just want someone to blame."

He's not wrong.

But it don't matter.

"He's got my sister." My words come out as a growl.

Cash changes the subject. "Where's Savannah?"

"In the house. She's armed."

Cash blows out a breath as I turn to face him. "Whatever your plan was," I stress the word, “this is what it turned in to. And I don't believe you. You used me to make your threat, then you sent me away to let it play out."

"To keep you safe!"

"Keep me safe?" I point at my chest. "Why the fuck do I need you to keep me safe?" I throw my arms out wide and present. "Do I look like a fuckin' man who needs someone to keep him safe? I've been on my own since the day I was born, you piece of shit rancher."

"Whatever," Cash snarls back. "I took her out of Badlands. I gave her a home here. I put her in school!"

"The school he fuckin' took her from!" I yell it. I can't not yell it.

"Yeah, because obviously, he paid off security. That place is walled, gated, and guarded. You can't say I didn't do my best!"

"You used me to poke a fuckin' bear and didn't lay it out clean for what would happen next!"

"I didn't think—" He starts loud, but it fades. And he doesn't finish.

"That's right," I say. Also fadin'. "You didn't think. You just assumed, didn't ya? You assumed you'd be in control because that's your whole life, right, Cash? You're the king around these parts, right Cash?"

"He's not gonna hurt her," he says. But then, before I can even decide to believe him—because of course I need to believe him—he loses confidence in himself and finishes with, "—I don't think he'll hurt her."

"We found him," I snarl, taking a few steps closer, and my anger builds again. "Comin' out of a room with a naked fuckin' boy in it, Cash! Why the fuck would you ever think that he's not gonna hurt her!"

"I—"

But that's as far as he gets. Because both our phones buzz at the same time.

For a moment, time stops and we just look at each other.

I don't know what he sees in my eyes, but I see fear, and dread, and regret in his.

I pull my phone out, read the message.

Hooped and domed and made of tin,

A little girl is locked within.

She called for you, she screamed for me,

How long before she starts to freeze?