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She had to think, she had to keep him talking, give herself a chance to get away from him. She couldn’t let him kill her; she couldn’t let him hurt anyone else that she loved.
“Rebuilding is never hard. ” He shrugged his broad shoulders at her question. “You just need the right men in place. I have those connections. I know how to do it. ”
“You’re a bartender,” she rasped. “In Kentucky, Jonesy. This isn’t a major metropolis.
What connections could you have?”
He chuckled at her question. “Poor Rogue. I know it has to be hard to die, sweetheart. I promise, I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt. ” He lifted the gun.
“Look at the pictures, Jonesy. Zeke already knows you’re involved. ” She threw her hand out to the table where the pictures were scattered. “Thad Mayes wasn’t stupid. He sent Zeke’s mother pictures. He doesn’t even have all of them here,” she lied. “He went after the others. Don’t you think Thad would have protected himself, even from you?”
He paused, his eyes narrowing as it flickered to the table and the pictures. “I burned those pictures,” he seemed to wheeze.
“He made copies,” she warned him. “Lots of copies, Jonesy. He sent them to Zeke’s mother, and you know he sent them other places. He knew you would betray him, Jonesy. Zeke’s going to know when he finds them all. He’ll know you blew up the bar.
You’re missing now. He’ll notice you’re missing. ”
He shook his head slowly. “I covered my ass. Everyone but you heard me say I had to leave this evening. I wasn’t supposed to be there. ”
“He’ll know, Jonesy. He knows you were calling me before I arrived here. He’ll figure it out, especially when he finds the other pictures. ”
It was a desperate lie, but it was logical to her. Thad had sent Zeke’s mother pictures; he could have sent other copies elsewhere.
“There are no pictures in there of me. ” But indecision flickered in his gaze.
Rogue forced a mocking smile to her lips. “But there are, Jonesy. There are several. ” She moved back and waved her hand toward the hundreds of pictures scattered over the table. “Just look. He has all he needs to take you down just as the others were taken down. ”
She wouldn’t have much time. Rogue fought to keep the thunder of her heart from her ears and to keep panic from setting in. She couldn’t think about John or Natches; she couldn’t let herself sink into the well of despair waiting on her.
She was logical. She could find a way out of this. She searched the room through her peripheral vision and tried to find a means of escape as she backed away from the table, allowing Jonesy to move closer to it.
The basement was cluttered with years of old furniture, clothes, and boxes. There were lamps propped against old tables, a hunting rifle in the other corner, a two-by-four piece of lumber stretched along the back of the couch.
She wished she had a weapon. She should have thought and made Zeke leave one with her. He’d left her here, thinking she was protected, and she had believed she would be.
No, she’d been too shocked to think, too hurt to use her brain rather than her emotions.
The best-laid plans, she thought sarcastically. Zeke had known about the tunnel. He had thought she would be safe, and if by chance she wasn’t, then he had given her a place to hide. He couldn’t have known that anyone else knew about the tunnel, especially Jonesy, because he didn’t trust Jonesy to begin with.
“Crazy fucker,” Jonesy muttered as he riffled through a stack of pictures. “He was always taking these damned pictures. For posterity, he said, and Dayle always laughed and said he had a hold on Thad, that he could keep him in line. ” He grimaced tightly as one of the more sexual pictures caught his eye. “He said he didn’t develop the pictures, and Dayle believed him. ”
“But you knew better,” she said. “Didn’t you, Jonesy?”
Jonesy grinned. “I knew better. I knew when he left he’d take those negatives with him.
I knew he’d betray us for that little bastard of his and the grandson Zeke wouldn’t let him see. Damn, Zeke hated his old man, ya know?”
“I didn’t know,” she lied again.
Jonesy nodded as a thoughtful look crossed his face. He picked up a picture of him, as a much younger man, with Thad and James Maynard. Zeke and Gene were in the pictures. They were just boys, dressed in camo with wide grins on their faces.
“I guess I’ll have to get rid of James now. ” He sighed. “And Gene. That will suck.
Though James is still cowarding like a little girl on his farm. He won’t even go to any of the meetings anymore. He doesn’t want to rebuild what we lost, says he’s too old,” he sneered then. “If he’s too old to fight, then he’s too old to live, wouldn’t you say?”
Rogue backed against the couch as his attention turned back to the pictures. Her fingers curled around the six- foot length of two-by-four that lay on the back of it.
She wasn’t far from him, less than six feet. If she could get a good swing in before he could bring the gun back up, then she might have a chance. That was all she needed, a fighting chance. She refused to stand here like a sacrificial lamb on the altar of his insanity. Freedom League, her ass. Those bastards needed to die anyway. They were all as damned crazy as Jonesy, otherwise they would have never gotten mixed up in such a crazy scheme as taking over the nation.
