First Family (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell 4)

Quarry slowly shook his head. “Yeah, that’d be real good, son. But I don’t really see that happening.”

“Why not?”

“Rules, Gabriel, rules. Thing is, they don’t apply to everybody. Some folks break all the rules and…” His voice trailed off.

Sean said, “Mr. Quarry, will you please let Willa go? And Diane Wohl too? You have her too, right? You don’t want to hurt them. I know you don’t. You’re not that sort of a man.”

They were close now. Sean and Michelle could feel it. They motioned to Gabriel to get behind them.

“Mr. Quarry!”

Quarry felt Willa clinch his neck tightly. As he looked at her, he suddenly thought he saw another little girl there whom he’d loved with everything he had and that he’d left to perish in a house of his own making. The fellow was right. Quarry was not that sort of man. At least he didn’t want to be.

“All right. All right. I’ll let’em go.”

He set Willa down and knelt in front of her so they were eye to eye. “Look here, Willa, I’m sorry for all that I done. If I could take it back, I would, but I can’t. See, I lost me my little girl’cause of what some folks did. And it just ate at me, made me something I never wanted to be. Can you understand that?”

She slowly nodded. “I guess so,” she said in a tiny voice. “Yes.”

“When you love someone you got to be prepared to hate too. And sometimes the hate just wins out. But you listen to me, Willa. You might have a real good reason to hate somebody, but you still got to let that hate go.’Cause if you don’t it’ll just tear you apart your whole life. And even worse than that, it won’t leave no room for any love to get back in.”

Before she could say anything he spun her around to face away from him. He called out, “She’s coming toward you. Just her. Walk, Willa. Just walk toward their voices.”

“This way, Willa,” called out Michelle.

Willa looked back once at Quarry.

“Just go, Willa. Go on. No looking back.” He knew when she found out about her mother that the grief would change her entire life. She would hate Quarry and she should. He just hoped the little girl had listened to his words and wouldn’t let that hate ruin her life. Like it had his.

She hurried down the passageway.

Quarry called out, “How’d you find me out? Was it the writing on the woman’s arms? The Koasati stuff?”

Sean hesitated before answering. “Yes.”

Quarry shook his head. “Shit,” he said quietly.

“Now Diane Wohl,” called out Sean when Willa reached them safely.

Quarry glanced over at the woman and nodded. “Go on.”

“You won’t shoot me in the back?” she said, her voice quivering.

“I don’t shoot people in the back. But I might shoot’em in the front if they give me reason to.” He pushed her forward. “Go!”

She raced down the mineshaft, but turned back to yell, “You bastard!”

But it was drowned out by another scream coming their way. It was like the cry of Johnny Reb during the Civil War right before they attacked.

“Look out!” yelled Michelle a second later.

“Daryl!” cried out Quarry, who’d recognized the source of the first scream. “No, boy! NO! Gabriel’s here.”

Daryl was hurtling down a shaft with an MP5 in one hand firing away.

“Get down!” said Michelle. She pushed Willa behind her and fired back.

Sean ducked down as a wall of bullets sailed over his head.