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I shook my head and kept my mouth shut. I hoped Tex was long gone and calling 911. I feared that Tex was close and planning Armageddon.
Pepper went from window to window, standing at the side and looking out. He was beginning to look a little less professional and serious, and a little more panicked and desperate.
“Fucking Nightingale!” he spat and turned to me, pulling his gun out of the waistband of his pants and pointing it at me. “Did you see him out there?” he yelled.
“No,” I answered, not telling a lie since he was talking about Lee, and I didn’t see Lee outside. Therefore, I’d die without at least that lie darkening my soul.
Pepper didn’t hold a gun like Rosie. He held it steady and with practiced ease and he was scaring the shit out of me. So much so that I totally forgot I had to pee.
“What were you lookin’ at?” he pushed.
God, I was such a moron. Why couldn’t I be cool like in the movies? Whistle and pretend I didn’t see anything, then calmly communicate an entire escape plan to my rescuer using only my widened eyes and a couple of jerks of my head while my kidnappers were turned the other way.
“I wasn’t looking at anything,” I lied. “There’s nothing to look at so I was looking out the window.”
He kept holding the gun pointed at me. He didn’t have to say what the gun was saying pretty clearly: talk or lights out.
“Listen, I have to use the bathroom,” I blurted. “Seriously, I had three Fat Tires before you guys stun-gunned me. I think all that electricity did something to my bladder. Usually, I can hold it, but I totally have to go.”
He kept staring and pointing the gun and the other guy came in. Pepper didn’t move an inch. He didn’t even look at Sandy when he came in.
“No sign of anyone,” Sandy said.
“You wouldn’t find sign of Nightingale if he was out there, asswipe. He’s smoke.”
Sandy looked from Pepper to me.
“Why do you have a gun on her?” Sandy asked.
“You said she saw something,” Pepper answered. “I think if I put a bullet in her kneecap, she might tell me what she saw.”
Holy crap!
Sandy was just as shocked as me.
“Jesus, Rick. Have you lost your mind? We’re supposed to turn her over for the diamonds and not with a bullet in her fucking kneecap. You think Nightingale’s out there as smoke? You put a bullet in his woman and he’s gonna hunt you down and skin you alive.”
“She’ll be breathin’. He’ll have to make do. All the rest of her parts will be workin’. She doesn’t need her kneecap to fuck,” Pepper Rick replied.
That’s when I quit breathing.
I guess he hadn’t forgiven me for mouthing off a few days ago.
Then the front door flew open and both Pepper Rick and Sandy whirled toward it. Nothing was there, but something rolled across the floor.
Both men and I stared at it as it bounced across the floor, hit the couch, rolled back and then came to rest a couple of feet away from the couch.
It looked kind of like a grenade.
Of course, I’d never seen a grenade so it could have been something else.
No sooner had the first thing come to a rest then something else bounced across the floor. It also looked like a grenade but its sides were smooth and it was leaking white smoke.
“Is that what I think—?” Sandy started to say.
The first thing exploded.
I was right, grenade.
