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Geno made his way up to the driver’s seat as the others piled out of the van and all ran in a crouch across the dark, barren lot alongside the motel. Nobody uttered a sound. As they came up on the rear of Cooney’s truck, they hurried to the bumper, out of sight of the mirrors up front. Cooper sent up a little thank you to anyone who might be listening that the truck was too old for a rear camera.
Cooper held up three gloved fingers. He put one down, then another, then made a fist. Zach broke to the passenger side as Cooper broke to the driver’s side.
Now the mirrors were a vulnerability, if anyone inside the cab happened to glance that way, so Cooper and Zach moved fast, and Kai stayed at the rear corner, ready to be backup.
Arriving at the driver’s door with its wide-open window, Cooper aimed as he stood and pushed the suppressor at the end of his Beretta right into Glenn Cooney’s ear.
The guy was cold as ice; he didn’t flinch or gasp, simply froze.
At the other side of the truck, Zach knocked on the glass of the closed window with his suppressor. Cooper knew he’d drawn Scott’s attention to the gun aimed at his head on the other side of the glass.
“What do you want?” Cooney asked. He hadn’t yet turned to see who had the gun in his ear.
“Little bit of justice,” Cooper answered. “This plays one of two ways, and imma let you pick. One: you get out of the truck on your own power, I tie you up and you get into my van and come with me. Two: you don’t, and I shift my aim a little and put a bullet right through your occipital lobe. That turns you into a thinking vegetable but doesn’t kill you. You’ll spend the rest of your life in a hospital bed, knowing exactly what’s going on but without being able to do anything but blink.” He had no idea if that was one-hundred-percent accurate, but he knew of it happening once, so he figured it made a good threat.
It wasn’t actually what he intended as option two anyway.
“Fuck yourself up the asshole, you beaner cuck.”
“You know, I probably could, if I were so inclined. But I’m not. Also, I’m Salvadoran, not Mexican, you fat, rancid cracker.” Cooper hit him with the gun. He heard a satisfying crack, and Cooney went limp.
Now that he could take the time, he glanced to the other side of the truck, where Freddie Scott sat with his shaking hands up and his eyes wide with dread. The window was still closed; Zach still stood at the other side of the glass, aimed steadily.
Scott looked pleadingly at Cooper. “Promise me I’ll live, and I’ll come with you.”
After a quick glance to check Zach’s position, Cooper shot Scott in the face.
“Trust me, buddy,” he said to the fresh corpse. “That was me being nice.”
“Fuck!” Kai called, just loud enough to be heard. “That wasn’t in the plan!”
True. That had been a little bit of gut instinct on Cooper’s part—and a whole lot of needing some satisfaction.
Zach did not complain. He simply lowered his weapon and stood back. Cooper wondered if the kid had even flinched when the window was suddenly washed in blood and brain.
“It’s good, though,” Zach said. “Easier to deal with just the in-charge guy, no chance of them conspiring. Now Cooney’s on his own.”
The van pulled up and stopped beside Cooper.
“Let’s get them both in the van,” Cooper ordered. “Bind Cooney tight. Kai, you drive this truck and follow.”
“Right.”
They got back to work.
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~oOo~
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They drove to a scrapof an abandoned house in the desert foothills north of Vegas. Ben, Reed, and Lonnie waited there, having arranged the work area as they’d discussed.
So far, despite Cooper’s impulsive shooting of Freddie Scott, they were still on the best-case scenario.
In the chapel earlier, as they discussed ideas and developed their plans, they’d talked a lot about whether justice in this situation required death. Siena and Geneva had not been killed, or even severely hurt. Cooper hadn’t been home. The destruction of their property was entire, but nobody had been really hurt. Except the hamster.
But they could have been. The probability was high that they might have been. It was dumb luck, and Siena’s powerful drive to keep Geneva safe, that had saved them. As far as Cooper was concerned, what Siena had done to save her sister and herself did not diminish the danger Cooney had put them in. Justice demanded death.
