The Man Who Hated Ned O'Leary (Dig Two Graves 2)

The thump of Ned’s feet behind him was yet more fuel to Cole’s fears.

He hadn’t broken him out of jail for it to end like this—with both of them in chains and all hope lost—but just as he made up his mind and shifted direction to run along the facade in an attempt to escape through the fence at the back, a gun went off in the bushes behind the mansion, and he ducked to hide in the tall grass.

“Shit! Shit! They have us surrounded,” he whispered, breathing in the mild scent of plants while his palms adjusted to the pressure of broken stalks and pebbles.

The loud drumming that accompanied all parades had become painfully loud, reminding Cole of the passing time, but how was he to reach Jan or any of their friends when armed men stood in his way?

“Let’s get inside,” Ned whispered and crawled toward the house.

Which was madness. How could salvation await them in there now? With every single entryway boarded up to keep out intruders, they couldn’t even use windows to lose the chase by running through the house and emerging someplace else. But as a bullet hit dirt only inches away from Cole’s hand, he rolled behind a massive tree growing by the side of the building. He couldn’t come up with any alternative plans other than trying to force their way through and dying in the process. So he followed Ned’s lead and kept his head low to hide their exact location, because for all he knew, Craig might have crossed the fence already and was watching them like a mountain lion creeping up on its prey.

Ned didn’t have such qualms.

He rose and grabbed a piece of dry wood nailed to the frame of the nearest window. The unruly garden offered a degree of cover, but anyone could have spotted him at the right angle, and Cole touched both his revolvers, ready to protect Ned, with his own body if necessary.

Ned grunted when he pulled at the wood, biting his lips, but the effort that finally tore the plank off came at the cost of his roar. The momentum sent him falling to his ass, and when a bit of plaster was shot off by another bullet, Cole fired back. Had Ned stayed up, the lead would have gone into his flesh.

He didn’t need to see his opponent to know where the projectile had come from and sensed a pleasant heat at the base of his spine when someone yelped in pain, out of sight.

“I see them!” A man yelled from afar, but didn’t dare show his face when Cole shot toward his voice, safely tucked between the wall and the tree.

Ned was already getting up, and he pulled off the next plank with much more ease. “Go in, go in!” he urged Cole once the empty window was accessible.

There was no point in arguing, so Cole did as told and rushed inside, wary of the broken glass creaking under his feet.

The musty smell of damp and mold made the air feel icy despite the summer heat outside, and he stalled, taking in the huge interior with a carpet that looked as if it had been eaten and then expelled by a giant cat.

Most of the furniture had been knocked over, seemingly out of pure malice, and paintings in fancy frames had darkened and bore stains that hid their true subject. The light seeping through the gap Ned had made in the window only reached so far, leaving the rest of the elongated room in twilight.

“We need to get out of here… or hide” Cole uttered, moving toward an open doorway as soon as Ned landed behind him. Jan had said he wanted them in the basement, where the four girls had been killed, and while this went against Cole’s survival instinct, there had to be a reason for Jan to be so specific. If it had been just about waiting out the police chase, anywhere in this goddamn grave of a house would have been good enough, so why underground? Cole now regretted that in his haste he hadn’t demanded more details, but if he could have turned back time, he and Ned wouldn’t be in this terrible situation in the first place.

He froze when a tubal voice—Thaddeus Craig, without a doubt—shouted outside, “Ned O’Leary! You and your accomplice are surrounded! There are only two ways this can end, so do yourself a favor and come out, both of you!”

Cole took a lungful of air, pulling Ned behind a large cabinet in case one of the lawmen shot through the window, but before he decided whether to answer or not, someone else spoke, loud enough for Cole to overhear him.

“Sir… with all due respect, there’s no reason to enter the house. They’ll need to leave at some point. Why risk it?”