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Well, I guess that last part was on us.

“How the fuck do you even have the nerve to show your face here?” I demanded. I still had a lot of anger. A good part of me wanted to swing my rifle butt straight into his jaw, claim another tooth for myself.

Dietz spat again. On our kitchen floor, mind you.

Holy shit he was making me angry.

“I came to warn you,” he growled. “Why the hell do you think I’m here?”

“Who the fuck knows?” asked Kane. “Lots of people have been coming here, including some of your friends. You haven’t been keeping very good company lately.”

“I came alone,” Dietz said. “Unarmed. In the middle of the fucking day.”

“So?”

“So use your head!” he practically yelled.

“Fuck you.”

He shook his head and laughed. “Unreal.” His eyes found Kane’s. “You never were the smart one, were yo—”

The second shot came from Kane’s fist, rather than his pistol. Dietz’s head whipped to the side so fast it left his hair standing exactly where it was. I could tell Kane was holding back only because our captor’s neck wasn’t broken.

“GodDAMMIT!” Dietz shouted in pain. “Shit, STOP already!” He winced hard, but some of the defiance was gone now. “And one of you get me a fucking aspirin!”

Neither of us moved. Neither of us said anything.

“What do you mean by warn us?”

Kane and I turned at the sound of Dallas’s voice. She was standing half in the hallway, her hair still wet from the shower.

And she was staring daggers at the man tied up in our kitchen.

“They’re coming soon,” said Dietz ominously. “All of them. At once.”

Kane shot me a concerned look. “Now?” I asked.

“No. Not now. But maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. I’m not sure, and—” He paused and winced again. “Can I get a glass of water at least?”

To my surprise, Dallas fetched him one. She moved barefoot across the kitchen, still in her bathrobe. She even took the towel from her head and used it to wipe the blood from his lips before tipping the glass back so he could drink.

“Thank you,” Dietz grunted. “Shit, at least someone here’s got some sense.”

“You’re lucky she doesn’t pour Drano down your throat,” I warned. “That’s Dallas Winters. Connor’s sister.”

Dietz chuckled through his missing tooth. “I know who she is.”

“You’re the reason her brother’s dead!” Kane shouted. He was a half-second away from hitting the man for laughing. “You and your frien—”

“No!” Dietz jumped in angrily. “NOT me! I’d never hurt Winters.” His eyes shifted briefly to Dallas, then back to us again. “You’ve got it all backwards.”

“Oh?” I laughed. “So that wasn’t you out in the desert last night?”

“Of course it was me. And shit, you guys ought to be ashamed. A high school band could’ve made less noise up on that ridge.”

I closed my eyes. Damn.

“What, you think no one noticed?”