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I knelt down beside him. So much sorrow… so much pain… and this was where it had all led.
I wondered if he had a mother or father somewhere, sisters or brothers, who would grieve for him the way I had for Ali.
I reached out one unsteady, trembling hand to touch him –
And jumped in terror as he gasped for breath.
“JACK, he’s still alive!” I cried out.
Jack came running and turned Benjy over onto his back as gently as he could.
Tears covered Benjy’s face and mixed with the dust in muddy splotches.
“I – I’m – s-sorry, J-Jack,” he gasped as his breathing grew more ragged. His eyes searched ours, maybe for forgiveness.
“Benjy… did you really shoot Ali?” Jack asked.
He was hoping against hope that Lou had lied. That Benjy had just been a useful dupe.
I knew because I was hoping that, too.
My fears were confirmed, though, when Benjy’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’m… sorry…”
The air escaped in a hiss from his lungs. His body and face relaxed, and the life left his eyes.
He was gone.
“Shit,” Jack whispered.
Maybe I should have been glad.
I knew who had pulled the trigger, even if Lou had been pulling the strings.
And her killer was dead.
But I felt no comfort… only hollowness.
I thought that knowing would give me closure. I thought that the killer’s punishment or death would give me peace.
Unfortunately, there was none of that. Only the realization that nothing would make her death right. She had been taken from me, and there was a hole in my heart that nothing was ever going to heal.
“Guys, meet me at the road so we can get the hell out of here,” Sid said over my earpiece. “Lou musta called the cops – I got ‘em on the police scanner. They’re comin’.”
“We’ll meet you there,” Jack agreed. Then he grabbed my hand and guided me away from Benjy’s body.
134
Even with a flat tire and a thousand bullet holes in it, the truck got us to the road. Jack avoided the flaming debris of the blown-up Harleys by going around the other side of the house, where we saw the body of the Midnight Rider that Sid had taken out with one shot.
As promised, Sid was waiting for us in his Oldsmobile. I got into the front. Jack helped Kade into the back seat, where he lay down and kept pressure on his wound. Jack threw the remaining bag of guns in the trunk, then climbed into the back with his friend.
We took off down the road in the opposite direction from civilization and the approaching cops.
Sid glanced in the rearview mirror. “Jesus – how bad is it?”
Kade grimaced. “…not good.”
