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I turn around and take him in.
“You grew out your hair and beard.” I point out to him. His normally trim hair goes to his shoulders and hangs down in a stringy mess. His beard looks more like mange.
He cocks the gun and points it at Sky. I jump in front of her. I know the shot will kill us both. But if it hits me first, at least I could slow the bullet down as it goes through my body.
“No.” I shake my head, ready to beg. “You killed my father.”
“I killed more than him. Killed a young girl. Broke her jaw, just like I did yours. She wouldn’t shut up. I left her body for the critters north of Ptarmigan Falls, off one of those domes. Killed the man who owns the cabin about a mile from here. Left him in his fucking shitter.” He points to the north. I try not to think about how serious this is right now. I focus on getting my daughter out of this situation.
“Let Skyler go. Take me to the cabin, show me who my daddy is.” I try to distract him with sex.
I step toward him, but he fires the gun in the air. He walks up and pistol whips me with the side of the gun. I fall to the ground and slowly stand up again. I’m not going to let him see what he’s done to me. He’s closer to me, and I fake that I’m going to fall forward. He leans over and I come up fast. The back of my head slams into his face. I watch the gun fall through my blurry vision and I work on pushing him away from it. I need to hold him off until Reaper reaches us. Hopefully, that gunshot gave him an idea of where we are.
Phantom swings on me, hitting me in the kidney. I cry out and twist with a punch aimed for an uppercut. The bastard steps back and my fist grazes his nose. I follow up immediately with my other hand aimed for his throat. He isn’t prepared and falls back choking. It’s a stunning blow but doesn’t drop him. He rushes me, and we fall to the ground grappling for control. He grabs my hair and laughs in my face as he rises up.
“I’m going to fuck you in front of your little girl before I kill her.”
I aim and my fist nails him hard in the crotch as he’s standing over me. He cries out and crumples to the dirt. I rush for Sky as he nurses his crotch. I reach under my jacket and pull my knife to cut her loose. She points over my shoulder and I turn, blindly throwing the knife as a gunshot rings out.
I look down expecting to see a hole in my body, but I see nothing. I look at Sky and there is nothing on her either. I look back to see Phantom fall to the ground again. Reaper moves out of the brush carrying the bucket.
“We only have a short time. Your man will be pulling up to the lodge in about ten minutes.” He sets the bucket down and drags Phantom’s body to the very tree Skyler was tied to. My knife protrudes from his shoulder. Reaper’s bullet hit him in the back. But he’s starting to come around.
Reaper ties him to the tree and I just watch, wondering what he’s doing. “Grab the bucket. I saw a grizzly moving this way. Little Bear, go stand over there and don’t look,” he orders my little girl. She moves toward the trail I came up.
I lift the heavy bucket. I can barely carry it and end up dragging it to Reaper. When he lifts the lid, I see the old grease from the kitchen and know what he has planned. Reaper pulls my knife from Phantom’s shoulder and wipes it on the ground. Together we dump the grease over Phantom’s head. He sputters and yells at us about how we won’t get away with this.
Reaper punches him in the face and Phantom’s head falls to the side. If the troopers make it here in time, they can get Phantom to a hospital and he might survive. But then he’ll live to come after my family again, and I can’t let that happen. I don’t care if I’ll have his blood on my hands.
We walk off until we get to the creek, where Reaper cleans the bucket thoroughly and leaves it without any of our prints on it.
“This way, it’s quicker.” Reaper points at a trail, and we make our way out.
When we reach the road, we walk on the shoulder. Hopefully, someone is waiting for us. I’m not really sure I can take Sky on my bike with me in the condition I am. I don’t regret what we did and I never will.
* * *
Thad
Ican’t believe she didn’t listen to me, but then again, I can. The woman is going to be the death of me if she survives this. I slam the SUV into park and jump out next to her motorcycle in the Chatanika Lodge parking lot. I look around and toward the dredge. I’m rushing across the street when a voice stops me.
“Daddy.” I turn and look up the road. Walking along the shoulder is Scout and Reaper, who is carrying my daughter. I run for them and grab Scout in my arms. Reaper hands me Skyler and I hold them both.
Scout is covered in blood and barely holding it together. Sky is covered in dirt but looks okay.
“We have a body.” The message comes across my radio, and I’m worried I’m going to be parted from Scout because of the law I’m tasked to uphold. “Female. Gunshot to the face.” I look at Scout.
“It’s Monica. He killed her,” she says softly.
“Where is he?”
A bloodcurdling scream rips through the valley. Scout and Reaper look the other way as I face the direction the scream is coming from. Scout starts dragging me toward her bike.
“He’s dead,” she says.
“How? What happened?” I ask her, reaching for her arm to stop her.
“He beat up Momma. Reaper saved us,” Skyler says in her sweet voice. “He killed that bad lady who took me, and he said he killed other people,” she continues, and I worry about the nightmares she’s going to have.
