Rain Gods (Hackberry Holland 2)

?It?s a laser sight,? he said, stepping backward. ?Get behind the tree trunk. They don?t have the angle yet.?

?Who? What angle??

?That bastard Hugo or whoever works for him. That?s what Collins said, right? Hugo wanted to do both of us? They cain?t get a clear shot yet.?

?There?s a sniper up there??

?Somebody with a laser sight, that?s for sure.?

She took a deep breath and blew it out. She opened her cell phone and stared at it. Her blue-green eyes were bright in the shade, locked on his. ?No bars,? she said.

?We don?t have a lot of time. A nine-one-one call wouldn?t he?p us.?

?What do you want to do??

The fact that her question indicated options seemed testimony to the quality he admired most in her, namely her refusal to let others control her life, regardless of the risk she had to incur. He wanted to hold her against his chest. ?Wait them out,? he said.

?What if they work their way down the hill??

His head was hammering. If he yelled out to the congregants, they would scatter and run, and the rifleman on the hill would have no reason not to fire round after round through the branches of the willow.

?Pete, I?d rather die than live like this.?

?Live like how??

?Hiding, being afraid all the time. Nothing is worth that.?

?Sometimes you have to live to fight another day.?

?But we don?t fight another day. We hide. We?re hiding now.?

?You told Jack Collins to go to hell. You spit on him.?

?I told him to rape me if he wanted. I told him I wouldn?t resist.?

Pete rubbed his palm across his mouth. His hand was dry and callused and made a grating sound on his skin. ?You didn?t tell me that.?

?Because I didn?t want to hurt you.?

?I think I?m going to kill that fellow if I catch up with him. You don?t think I?ll do it, but there?s a part of me you don?t know about.?

?Don?t talk like that.?

?You stay here. Don?t move for any reason. I need your word on that.?

?Where are you going??

?I?m gonna take it to them.?

?That?s insane.?

?It?s the last thing that guy up there expects.?

?No, you?re not going out there by yourself.?

?Let go of me, Vikki.?

?We do it together, Pete.?