41
“NOW AIN’T THIS JUST ADORABLE. ”
Benny and Nix jerked awake at the sound of the voice, blinking in the harsh dawn light, struggling to disentangle themselves from each other and understand where on Earth they were.
Two men stood on the metal catwalk that ran around the outside of the deserted ranger station. Both men had guns holstered on their hips, shotguns slung over their shoulders, and ugly smiles on their mouths.
Skins and Turk.
“Ain’t nothing like young love,” said Turk.
“Warms the cockles of my heart,” agreed Skins.
Benny instinctively spread his arms, like a barrier between the bounty hunters and Nix.
“Charlie’s going to like this,” said Skins. “He was pretty smoked about the little witch skipping out like that. ”
“Leave us alone,” Benny said with a growl.
“Yeah. ” Turk laughed. “That’s gonna happen. We spent the whole damn night searching these freaking woods and then climbed this big mother of a tower, just to go away ’cause you asked. Yessir, we’ll be on our way, so sorry to bother your beauty sleep. ”
Skins tapped his palm on his thigh, like he was calling in the dogs. “C’mon … get your butts over here. ”
Benny and Nix slowly got to their feet, but they made no move toward the bounty hunters. Turk went into the ranger station and came out with the bokken. “Look,” he said. “Kid has a toy sword. ”
He raised it over his head and brought it down in a powerful two-hand swing onto the metal rail. The hard wood rebounded from the hit, but did not break. Turk cursed and turned it sideways and slammed the flat of the blade onto the rail, and with a sharp crack the sword snapped in half. The long end went spinning off into the canopy of trees far below. Turk laughed and tossed the broken handle onto the catwalk.
“They have anything else in there?” Skins asked.
“Nah. ”
“Then let’s haul it,” snapped Skins to Benny and Nix. “C’mon, kids, Charlie is going to have a lot of stuff to talk to you two about. Should be a pretty interesting chat. ”
“A heart-to-heart. ” Turk laughed.
“A meaningful discussion,” agreed Skins.
“Let us go,” said Nix. “You can do that. You can just tell Charlie that you didn’t find us. ”
Skins looked genuinely confused. “Now why on Earth would we want to do that?”
Benny took a step forward. “Do you know what Charlie did last night?”
“None of my business. ”
“You’re with him. You’re helping him do this stuff. ”
Skins looked bored. “Is this where you try to appeal to my better nature, kid?”
Behind him Turk cracked up. “Good luck with that. ”
“Please …,” Benny said. “We didn’t do anything to you. ”
“Who cares?”
“I won’t let you take her—”
Skins suddenly backhanded Benny across the face. It was so fast and hard that Benny was falling before he realized that he’d been hit. He hit the railing with the small of his back and might have gone over if Nix hadn’t grabbed him and hauled him away. Benny sank to his knees and spit blood and a piece of tooth onto the catwalk.