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“That’s the plan,” he said, looking deadly serious.
It was the deadly part that got to me. I put my arms around him and said, “I love you,” quietly in his ear.
He patted me on the back, his mind already on the next move. “Damn right.”
I let go of him and followed Rain into the woods, feeling his eyes on me as we went. He hadn’t been thrilled that I wanted to go along, but I was damned if I was going to stand in an open doorway, calling, “Be careful, dear!” as he went off to get shot by bikers. Besides, Rain said they needed me.
There was no clear path, it being a woods and all, but I’d worn my black drill tee and black jeans tucked into my boots. Vince had said, “Wear what you usually wear when you go into the woods.” I did not say, “Why the hell would I go into the woods?” If he wanted a fantasy that I was part Daniel Boone, he could have it. He could have anything he wanted as long as he came back alive.
Rain looked like a pro, dressed in black fatigues like Vince, with a vest on, like Vince’s. She handled the gun like Vince. In fact, I realized they were basically the same person right now. She knew what she was doing as well as he did.
I, on the other hand, had looked at Vince as if he was insane when he’d said to me, “You know what to do.” I had a scope. Evidently, I was going to look at something through it. Preferably not his dead and bleeding body.
“I hate this,” I said to Rain. “Can’t we just go and vandalize some more posters?”
She ignored me, intent on what was up ahead. No jokes on a mission. Like Vince.
According to Rain, we’d gone about two hundred feet when we reached the edge of the woods. It was getting a bit lighter and we could see Cash’s development ahead of us in the distance.
Rain went to a log and lay down behind it, ignoring the fact that it was muddy there. This is a woman who eats jelly donuts with a towel on her lap, but she smacked herself down into that mud like a pro. She put the rifle on top of the log and was looking through the scope when I joined her, smacking myself into the mud, too, like a real woman, although not with as much effect: I do not use a towel to eat anything and I often have mud on me.
“The finished houses over to the left,” Rain said, her voice low.
I looked but they were just specks in the distance.
“Use the scope,” Rain reminded me.
I pulled it out of my pocket and fumbled with it. I peered through and everything jumped much closer. I could clearly see the houses. “The one with the three motorcycles in front?” I asked. “Dirty sand-colored van in the drive?”
“That would be it.”
Rain pulled her eye from the scope and rolled on her side, looking at me. “Hey?”
I rolled to face her, getting my shirt muddier. “Yes?”
“Let’s switch.”
“What? Places?”
Rain extended the rifle. “Vince showed you how to use this right?”
I looked at the rifle with great doubt. “Yes. He had me fire it at a range for two hours. After what happened with Mickey because that time I pretty much aimed, closed my eyes, and fired until he fell down, and Vince was appalled. He said everyone should know how to use a gun. I told him everyone should know how to salsa, but do you see us dancing? No.” I knew I was babbling, but I was lying in mud at dawn in a forest waiting to see evil bikers threaten the man I loved, while the most terrifying woman I’d ever met was trying to hand me her gun.
Rain nodded. “Okay. Then you take it. I’ll use the scope you have.”
“You know how to use it. I’m the one who closed my eyes.”
“Doesn’t matter if I’m not going to pull the trigger if it’s needed,” Rain said. “Keep your eyes open.”
“You never shot anyone in the war?”
Rain shook her head. “I was a medic. I saved people. I didn’t shoot them.” She must have seen my confusion because she added. “I could shoot someone if I had a strong enough reason. Like you will to save Vince if this goes tits up. Like you already did when you shot Mickey Pitts. That’s why you should have the gun. You’ve proven yourself. You’re more qualified right now, right here. I mean, I like Vince, but you love him.”
Right then, the Gladiator went by, heading for the entrance to River Vista.
There was no time to debate. I took the rifle and handed her the scope.
“There’s the button,” Rain said, indicating a small red button on the side of the scope.
