Cut Off (Book 3): Cut Loose Page 11

  Oliver repositioned the rag in his mouth with his tongue. For the first time since they heard gunshots, he looked thoughtful. He must have known the Thornhills would retaliate. Surely, he wasn’t so stupid to have thought otherwise?

  Then she considered the other actions he’d already taken. They were not the decisions of a man in full control of his cognitive functions. They were the actions of a man who reacted with base emotions.

  Oliver mumbled around the rag in his mouth. Katie turned to look at her grandfather, who gave a shrug of his shoulders. Katie removed the rag and the boy spoke.

  Oliver had eyes only for Bill. “Where do you see this going, old man?”

  “Right now? The plan is to stall long enough for the police to turn up and sort this mess out.”

  “If they don’t?”

  “Then the Thornhills turn up.”

  Bill let the insinuation hang.

  “They’ll kill each other,” Oliver said.

  “Most likely.”

  Oliver’s eyes shifted to Katie and back again. She could see the question on his face. Is he being serious?

  “Even if you escaped with the boy, or killed him in cold blood out there in the forest, how did you think this was going to end?” Bill said. “There’s no fairytale ending here. There’s no rubbing a magic lamp and putting everything back the way it was. There’s no coming back from this.”

  Oliver shook his head. “It can’t end like this. It won’t end like this. Whoever survives the fight will come back here and do the same things to you and your loved ones. Do you want that on your conscience?”

  “It won’t be grandfather’s fault,” Katie said. “You’re the one who came here and tried to take revenge with Luke’s life. You’re the one who wouldn’t let it be.”

  “That’s not how my family will see it. And I’m pretty sure it’s not how the Thornhills will either.”

  “Bill? Are you in there?” the voice outside called again. “If you don’t answer soon, my boys are going to come in there after you.”

  Katie locked eyes on her grandfather. We’re running out of time.

  “What’s your proposition?” Katie said.

  Oliver licked his lips. “Hand me over to my family and I’ll take them away from here. No one’s dead. A couple of us got a little beat up, that’s all. Nothing that hasn’t happened between the Wedges and Thornhills a million times before.”

  Katie snorted. “And what do we have to go on? Your word?”

  “I might not look like a knight in shining armour to you,” Oliver said, “but I’m all you’ve got. There’s plenty I can do to help you in this situation. Hand me to them. Before his family turn up. There won’t be a bloodbath.”

  “Not here. But there will be one on your farm. Or theirs.”

  Oliver had a dangerous glint in his eye. “Maybe. What do you care?”

  It was an option, but not one Katie thought they should take.

  “The other option is better,” she said. “We let the bloodbath happen. We let your two families wipe each other out. Then, once you’re done and the ammunition is spent, we’ll go out there and finish you off one by one.”

  A harsh silence followed. Katie didn’t take her eyes off their captive. His eyes bored into hers, but she didn’t flinch, didn’t look away. Then she saw something on his face, a flicker, a hint of doubt that she meant what she said.

  And did she mean it? Would she murder in cold blood those who would later cause them problems?

  She wasn’t sure. Probably not. She was a lot of things, a murderer wasn’t one of them. But Oliver didn’t know that. So long as he thought she was being serious, it might be enough to get them out of this.

  “You can’t do that,” Louisa said. “We left our families so they wouldn’t fight.”

  “And it’s happened anyway,” Katie said. “Maybe things happen no matter what we try to do to prevent it.”

  Footsteps. On the ground-level porch outside.

  Bill raised his rifle and spoke with a voice of razor blades. “Get off the porch or your boy’s brains will be decorating the floorboards in here.”

  “You’ve got to open up, Bill,” the voice outside said. “We need to see our boy’s all right.”

  “Your boy’s the one that caused this mess.”

  “We’ve got to see he’s alive, Bill.”

  Bill shook his head and lowered his voice. “Time’s up. It’s showtime.”

  He got to his feet and approached the front door. “Tell your boys to step away or I’m not coming out.”

  A pause before footsteps eased off the porch and dirt crunched underfoot.

  Bill pressed a hand to the door. Katie stopped him.

  “They could be waiting for you right on the other side of this door,” she said.

  “There’s no could about it.”

  “They’ll ambush you.”

  “Not with Ronnie up in the watchtower. He can pick them off easy from up there.”

  Katie’s heart was in her throat. “You shouldn’t go out there. Wait longer. Darryl will return soon.”

  Bill snorted. “If you believe Inspector Taylor will get here a second before it’s too late, you’ll believe anything. We’re not going to kill these people. They’re not going to kill us either. We’re going to make this a peaceful resolution in as much as we can. We’ll have to learn to live with the repercussions.”

  Katie opened her mouth to argue but her grandfather had already shunted the door open and stepped outside.

  31

  Bill’s voice grumbled a low base note as he greeted the posse that stood ready to drop him at a moment’s notice. A viper coiled tight in Katie’s gut.

  Aaron sidled up to her and kept his voice low. “You didn’t mean what you said, did you? About letting the families wipe each other out?”

  Katie wasn’t sure what she thought. No one had found a peaceful solution to over one hundred and fifty years of animosity – according to Steve’s research in the library – and finding one now was unlikely to say the least. But she also knew their chances of surviving at the lodge were greatly increased if they didn’t have to police a pair of rogue families while they did it.

  There had to be a happy medium. There had to be.

  Bill stood on the lodge’s front porch armed only with his rifle. If the time came to use it, he’d struggle to raise it, never mind get a shot off. By the flash of the outside world when the door swung open, Katie estimated there to be no less than twenty riders, each packing weapons they brought from some ancient stash.

  The lodge was well built, prepared for all manner of attack, but its greatest weakness was a full frontal assault. That many bullets fired from that many guns would wipe them out in an instant. Firing back, they would be lucky to hit even one or two of the men. They were much more likely to hit the horses, and Katie never liked to hurt animals.

  “I’m telling you, your only solution is to take me out there,” Oliver said. “Hand me over to them.”

  “Put the cloth back in his mouth,” Katie said.

  Aaron leapt to it but before he could jam the cloth in the young man’s mouth again, he shouted:

  “Help! Help! They’re going to kill me! Help–”

  Outside, the conversation ran dry. Her grandfather’s deep rumbling voice rolled over the other man’s protestations.

  “We can’t let you have him,” Bill said. “If we do, he’ll turn you around and lead an attack on us.”

  It wasn’t going to be enough. The Wedges would wonder why they couldn’t see their boy. They think we’re hiding something. And things are going to grow heated until they shove Bill aside and force their way in here.

  “Drag his chair over here,” Katie said.

  “What for?” Aaron said.

  “Just do it,” Katie barked.

  Aaron remained tightlipped as he pulled Oliver over to the door. Katie checked his restraints and made sure he was locked in tight and couldn’t bolt for it.

 
Katie reached for the door and pushed it open, just enough so the Wedge clan could see he was alive and in one piece.

  “Are you all right?” the man leading the Wedge posse said. “Relatively speaking?”

  Oliver shrugged and then nodded.

  “I see he took a bullet to the arm,” the Wedge man said. “I thought you said he was healthy?”

  “He is healthy, Wesley,” Bill said. “Thanks to our nursing staff.”

  “How am I supposed to believe anything you tell me after what you just said turns out not to be true?”

  “You can’t.” The man looked up at Katie, who stepped over the lodge’s threshold. “And you can’t trust Oliver either.”

  “And I suppose we can trust you, can we?” Wesley snorted.

  “No. But maybe you will trust Louisa.”

  The man’s horse neighed and stamped its foot, familiar with the girl. The assembled men murmured at Wesley’s back.

  “That might be acceptable,” Wesley said. “Bring her out and let’s hear what really happened.”

  Katie peered back inside the lodge.

  Louisa shook her head. “I can’t.”

  Katie turned back to Wesley. “One sec.”

  She marched up to the girl and leaned over her. She might have been as tall as a giant.

  “I can’t go out there,” Louisa said. “They’ll kidnap me and take me back.”

  “No, they won’t. Because we won’t let them.”

  Louisa covered her tears with her hands. “You can’t stop them. No one can.”

  Katie’s heart went out to the girl, but she couldn’t afford for her to be weak now. She grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Look at this man beside you. Do you love him?”

  “What?”

  “I said, do you love him?”

  Louisa looked over at Luke. Love broke through the dark cloud cover of fear.

  “With all my heart,” she said.

  “Then do this for him. Do this for all of us. Don’t do this for yourself. We need you to go out there, stand next to Bill, and tell them, your family, everything that happened in the forest. Leave out no detail. Can you do that? Just tell the truth.”

  Louisa looked to her boyfriend and tears ran down her smooth face.

  “You can do it,” Luke said.

  Hardly a patch of pale skin was left on his face. It was purple, yellow, black, and blue. The sooner they could give him proper treatment, the better. But it had to wait.

  Louisa took Luke’s hand and squeezed it. She took great comfort from his touch and stood up straight. Katie led her to the open door.

  Thunk!

  A leg flew out, barring Louisa’s exit. Her brother glared at her, his breath rasping harshly through his nose.

  Katie peered through the doorway at the posse on the other side. Assuming the light was good enough, they must have seen what Oliver did, and should have been enough for them to know that what she was about to say was something he didn’t want her to reveal.

  Aaron pulled the chair back so Louisa could step outside unencumbered. She looked so small and fragile standing beside Bill and the large posse watching and waiting to hear her story.

  32

  The Wedge posse listened, enrapt, to the girl who ran from them to be with their sworn enemy. They listened because she was once one of them, and no matter her current status, that would always be true.

  Louisa went into intricate detail, telling them what she and Luke were working on when they heard the sound of someone shouting for help. No one else was around, having gone into the lodge to get dinner. Katie doubted this, as Louisa always liked to help with preparing the evening meal. In all likelihood, she and Luke had lost track of time during one of their routine fumblings.

  They ran into the forest and found a man shouting just behind the treeline of a clearing. When they reached him, Oliver fell upon them, along with his accomplice, and dragged them into the forest and away from prying eyes.

  They beat Luke senseless. Louisa teared up as she relived the memory, believing he was going to die there in the woods before her. There could be no doubting her testimony. She was a young girl without a malicious bone in her body. The Wedges knew that better than anyone.

  Every few seconds, Kate peered down the long driveway but still could not make out a single horseman.

  Darryl, where are you?

  By the time Louisa got to the part where Katie and the others turned up, the posse was beginning to lose interest. The leader raised a hand and said, “Thank you, Louisa. I believe we’ve already heard the rest of the story from Bill.”

  That was a good sign. It meant they believe him.

  This was likely the first time Wesley had spoken to Louisa since her escape. Wesley looked down at the girl, genuinely heartbroken. “You look well.”

  “I am well, uncle,” Louisa said. “I’m in love.”

  Wesley pressed his lips together. “So I gather. Why did you choose him when there were so many others you could have had? Was it just to spite us?”

  “No,” Louisa said. “I didn’t expect it. I’m not sure anyone does. I need to be with him, uncle.”

  “Even if it costs your family?”

  Louisa turned away from the disapproving looks of the Wedge men behind Wesley and nodded.

  “You’re causing a lot of problems for us, Louisa. If you hadn’t run away, your brother wouldn’t have come after you.”

  Louisa’s hands drew into tiny fists. “I didn’t want him to come after me. I’m happy here.”

  “This is a dream. You can’t live here forever. Eventually, you have to wake up and set up on your own.”

  “We want to.”

  “You won’t survive without the support of both families, and I can’t see that happening for a very long time.”

  Louisa knew that already but it was still hard for her to hear the words from her uncle.

  Wesley turned to Bill. “Thank you for taking care of Oliver. I know he can be… a bit of a handful.”

  “What other choice did we have?” Bill said. “He would have killed the boy otherwise.”

  “You didn’t need to take it easy on him. The bullet you put in him could have easily have been his head. Then we would have been in some real trouble.”

  Bill shrugged. “A man has to live with his decisions. Come what may.”

  “We have to take him with us. You know we do. We can’t let you have two members of our family and only one of theirs.”

  “I would give him to you, but I don’t trust the boy.”

  “Do you trust any of us?”

  “I trust you.”

  The smile spread across Wesley’s face was as slow to rise as a new sun. “Trust from the Ghost. That sounds like a line from a poem.”

  “Hopefully not a tragedy.”

  They shared a laugh. Kate wondered if there was anyone in the town of Pikehall that her grandfather didn’t know.

  “I know you’re a good man,” Wesley said. “Oliver crossed the line and I give you my word, I will punish him for it. But this is family business. You have to let me take care of it.”

  Bill stared back at him and the armed men fanned around him. No doubt half would happily put a bullet in his head the moment his back was turned. Some might have even done it to be called the man who slew the Ghost – whatever that meant. Kate had learned not to enquire into violent men’s lives.

  “Even if we give you the boy, this thing won’t come to an end until the two families overcome whatever issues you had in the past. You haven’t seen what it’s like outside this town. Things will get worse before they get better. We’re in the foothills of this thing. Issues like this muddy the waters and make things more difficult than they need to be. You have to work with the Thornhills, compromise. It’s the only way all of us get out of this alive.”

  Wesley absorbed Bill’s words and gave them some thought. “And the boy?”

  Bill thought hard and ran a hand over his stubbled chin. He glanced at
Katie, who gave a barely perceptible shake of the head. Don’t do it.

  Bill licked his lips to answer and Katie had no idea which decision he would fall on.

  Just then, at Bill’s most difficult crossroad so far, Katie saw movement behind the posse.

  Darryl? she thought. No. It wasn’t him. The rider was taller, older, wiser.

  And for the first time that night, she wished it wasn’t them coming.

  It was the Thornhills, and they looked in no particular hurry.

  “Get inside, girl,” Bill said.

  Louisa didn’t waste any time and bolted through the door.

  Luke’s family was coming, they didn’t look happy to be there.

  33

  Preston rode high in his saddle at a trot. Behind him, a posse as large as the Wedge’s. They lined up and stared daggers at the opposing family. Men spat and sneered, a reenactment of hundreds of similar run-ins over the years. Now that animosity was spilling over, bubbling to boiling point.

  And all that stood between them were a trio of gnarled patriarchs: Wesley, Preston, and Bill. Three pieces on the chessboard that held back a tidal wave of violence and murder. All it took was a single bullet from one itchy trigger finger to set the powderkeg off.

  Preston raised a hand. “Easy, boys. We don’t want to be the ones held responsible for murdering every member of the Wedge family now, do we?”

  The men behind him cackled. The Wedges growled.

  Preston turned to Bill and nodded his respect, then glanced out the corner of his eye at Wesley, his number on the opposite side.

  “Evening, Wesley,” he said. “Nice weather for a little stroll.”

  There might be some respect for the man on the other side but they wouldn’t let it be known in front of their men. Not when every iota of respect made all the difference.

  Preston turned to Bill. “I want to see my son.”

  He bent forward and made to get off his horse.

  “I wouldn’t get down if I were you,” Bill said. “We’ll show him to you, the same way we showed them their lad. But I have to warn you, he’s not in the best shape.”