Page 109 of High Water

“I’ve got her. I promise.” I pull her close, hugging her tightly and kissing the top of her head before I pull back and hold her eyes. “I’ve got your mom, but you need to stay here with your uncles. I need to know you’re safe.”

“Okay.” She nods her agreement, sniffling back another sob, and her spirits lift ever so slightly with my words.

“You got her?” I look to my brothers-in-law.

“I’ve got her.” Grant nods to me.

I squeeze her one last time, whispering what I hope aren’t my last words against the crown of her head as I try to capture a lifetime of love into one hug. “I love you, Fallon.”

Then I let her go, taking off across the parking lot.

“Where are you going?” Ramsey calls after me, Levi already scrambling for the door to get his own keys. I don’t have to ask to know he’ll be on my heels as fast as he can, speeding straight for the mine.

“To get my wife.”

FORTY-SIX

Aspen

The governor’s fist wraps around my hair, dragging me back down the tunnel I misdirected him through for the second time. I have zero plans to make this easy on him. Especially after he took my daughter and thought he could get away with it.

“You fucking little bitch. Show me the right way, or I’ll kill you.”

“Kill me, and you won’t find it in time.” I laugh, and one of his sons slams the blunt end of a pickax into my side.

“There’s nothing funny about this. You’re going to die. You only get to decide how painful it is. This attitude is ensuring that you go out screaming.” His son, the one with darker-brown hair, threatens me. I can’t tell them apart, other than the hair color seems to be slightly more or less brown. The headlamps they’re wearing illuminate parts of the path, but it’s still dark as hell down here, and it blinds me when they shine them into my face. Even if I wanted to take them the right way, I’m not sure I could under these conditions. But I’m happy to waste as much of their time as I can.

“Get up and walk. Now!” the governor yells at me, dragging me back to my feet when I double over from the pain.

“That’s hard to do when your asshole son won’t stop hitting me. Is that a family trait then? Hitting women?” I brace myself on the wall and pull myself up as he releases his grip on my hair.

“Shut the fuck up! I’m so fucking tired of hearing your mouth.” He nudges me with the barrel of his gun, forcing me forward down the long, cavernous tunnel. I think we might finally be headed in the right direction. Which is unfortunate. I was hopeful that, by some miracle, my brothers would show up in the nick of time.

“Let her go!” I hear a booming voice, one raspy from a life of cigarettes and hard liquor. I glance back, and the light perched on top of his gun blinds me.

“I know you’re not this fucking dense.” The governor whips around, aiming his gun back at the intruder.

I can’t see much, but the boots I can make out in the shadows belong to my uncle. The same one who abandoned me to my fate and took my daughter away. My heart drops. If he brought her here, I’ll kill him myself. But from everything I can see. It’s just him. I’m hoping that’s the truth of it.

“Let my niece go, and no one gets hurt. We’ll all walk out of here like it never happened.”

The governor laughs loudly, like he’s just been told the funniest thing he’s ever heard. It echoes off the walls, and my eyes search for a way to get around them and run to my uncle. But I doubt I’d make it in time. I’d probably be shot in the back for the sport of it.

“Not happening, Jay. Just fuck off back to your office, and do your job. I’ll let you know when you’re needed again.”

“No. I don’t answer to you anymore. Haven’t in a long time.”

“Oh, you answer to me. You’ll answer to me for the rest of your life. Which is going to be short if you don’t fuck off.” The governor threatens again, but my uncle doesn’t move.

I have no idea what’s given Jay his sudden backbone, but I’m thankful for it. The odds are terrible for us, but at least we’d go out fighting. Our one back-pocket ace is the fact that if the governor wants to get out of this quietly, killing the sheriff is probably not the way to do it. It’s messy for someone who’s already on trial for criminal activity, the way the governor is, and it certainly won’t make any of the very public attention on his crimes die down. The only reason I’m not being dragged down this mine shaft by a half dozen foot soldiers is that his money is tied up in court, and all the people who used to do business with him no longer trust a thing he says or does, thanks to my brothers.

“Yours will be shorter. I’m a better shot.”

“You want to test that theory?” The governor taunts him, and without hesitation, my uncle volleys back with a distinctive yes, just before he flips the safety and shoots. I duck down, practically kissing the ground to avoid being caught in the melee. There’s a loud grunt out of the governor, and he slumps before he returns his fire, somehow managing, despite terrible aim, to hit my uncle in the process.

“Fuck you, you piece of shit. I hope you rot in hell,” my uncle calls.

“If I’m going to hell, I’m taking you with me.” The governor fires another shot, and the bullet ricochets off the wall into a pile of rotten wood.