Solomon went to the line of children and the man, and pulled off the sack covering the man’s head.
Ike blinked in the sunlight, squinting his eyes as a bright red trickle of blood ran from his nose and down his chin.
Hunter’s heart thudded in her ears.
Another door opened and Nadine came out with Kelly in front of her. Nadine put Kelly beside Ike, and remained behind her.
Ramona and Anita came out last, with a man Hunter didn’t know pushing them. Solomon beckoned them to him, and when they approached, he pulled Anita beside him and held her there. Ramona stepped forward and Solomon hit her so hard she fell and didn’t move. He motioned for the women, and they drug her to be beside Ike and Kelly, but left her unconscious on the ground.
The approaching truck rumbled and creaked as it came forward, but Hunter only half-glanced at it. She watched Solomon, her hands on the shotgun.
Solomon called in a loud voice, “Hunter Kincaid, I have a deal for you.” He waited a second, as if giving her a chance to answer. When she didn’t, he said, “Would you like to hear what it is?” He smiled at the hill, “You will have to answer on this one.”
The truck made so much noise she had to strain to hear, but she called out, “I’m listening.”
Solomon said, “Suretta found Ike and brought him and the girl. Suretta always gets it done.”
Suretta looked at the place Hunter hid, “Always.” Like a taunt.
Solomon said, “So, here is the deal, a one-time offer. All these lives, except for Ramona and Anita, for yours.”
Hunter felt the shock the words, like a pail of ice water thrown on her.
He continued, “You sacrifice yourself to me, and the others can go. But, if you don’t, I will kill them all, one at a time.”
Kelly yelled, “Don’t do it, Hunter! Run!”
Paco stepped close and put a hand on her shoulder as he whispered something in her ear. It stopped Nadine from hitting the girl, and Paco remained there with his hand resting on Kelly.
Hunter felt her chest squeezed like an iron band around it, tightening down, making it hard to breathe. Kelly’s words made her eyes sting, and she shook her head to clear the vision.
The truck was seventy yards from the compound, and still coming up the rough road.
Solomon said, “Just to help you along with your answer.” He pulled a small pistol and shot the freckle-faced girl at the far end of the line. Hunter’s heart ached and her eyes welled.
“Damn you,” she said.
Solomon said, “Every minute that passes, there will be another one. Make up your mind, Kincaid.”
Hunter looked at the people in the compound, and at the closed gates that stopped anyone from escaping before they could be shot.
The truck rumbled closer to the compound. She knew she couldn’t trust Chapa. A feeling of deep sadness settled on her, and she looked at the sky to take it all in. Her last things to see would be the sky and the earth, all the things she truly loved and would miss. She breathed deeply, smelling the dust and the creosote, the sage. These were good things to remember at the last, and she knew, that with so many killers against her, she probably wouldn’t see another sunrise or watch another sunset.
But, if she could save Anita and Kelly, who she felt so close to, and the others, it would be a good decision to make, and one that was worth her life.
Hunter made her choice.
Chapter 20
There was no way to run fast and carry all her gear. She took off the canvas dove bag, leaving the heavy shells, and put down the shotgun because of the weight, as well as the binoculars. She kept the pistol, then she scooted down the back side of the hill and ran like a deer toward the road and the moving truck.
No one in the compound could see her because she was below the compound wall, and Hunter ran as fast as she?
?d ever run in her life. Thirty yards from the compound she caught up with the truck and hopped onto the driver’s running board where the open window let her put the Glock against the driver’s temple. His eyes rolled and he said, “What? No, no!”
“Drive through the gate, break it down.”
“But it is Chapa’s.”