Page 121 of Cowboy Heat

“Jon’ll know we’re gone,” she says. “We need to get out of here.”

She has us in drive with a jolt, only to jolt again, this time to a stop, a few seconds later when her husband runs out into the road from between the houses opposite us.

I haven’t spent a lot of time with Jon Dean, but even I can tell he’s as strung out as the rest of us. He’s not getting my pity though. Not with the shotgun he holds up at us a few yards away, blocking our exit.

“Get down,” I yell in tandem with forcing Micah to duck.

I follow suit but keep my eyes on Jon.

His wife isn’t taking cover. She’s not throwing it reverse either. Alice pulls a gun out from the waist of her jeans and flings open her driver’s side door.

Jon says something, but I can’t hear him. He shakes his head. It almost looks like he’s been crying. Again, I can’t feel sympathy for him when I’m feeling like crying, too, after the beating he put on me.

“Don’t do it, Jon,” she yells out to him. “Just leave!”

Jon shakes his head again. This time I can hear what he’s saying.

“I can’t let you leave.” His gaze moves to me then back just as fast. When he talks again, there’s a shudder that seems to go through his entire body. “You know that, Alice.”

Whatever she knows must be damning.

She’s not waiting for anymore.

Alice shoots her husband once, and it’s enough.

Jon Dean hits the dirt, the shotgun right next to his body.

Micah yells, I guess I yell, too, but Alice keeps her cool. It’s only as we’re driving around Jon that I realize what a good shot she is. He never stood a chance.

I’m runningmy mouth a mile a minute, but I’m not sure any of it is making sense. Alice takes my words in stride and collects the scraps of my past few days with head nods and a few one-word responses. I know for a fact I’m eloquent on one thing though: I want to go back for Beau.ToBeau rather.

I need to know he’s okay.

I need to feel okay next to him.

Me and Micah.

The boy is being awfully brave. I’m still leaning over the center console, and he’s holding my hand steady.

Alice lets me know the things I’ve missed.

“Jon called me out of the house talking crazy,” she says quick. “He said Guidry is back, and it’s time we take him down, build a betterLa Lumierein the process.” Alice glances at Micah. He squeezes my hand a little. “Jon wanted to use Micah against him and you too. He said he’d already gotten you and put you in the basement. Then he wanted Micah.” She shakes her head. “I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

“She was fighting him on the front porch so he wouldn’t come inside,” Micah speaks up. “He was really upset. Then we took his truck and hurried to you.”

I place my other hand over Micah’s and mine like the extra contact would retroactively keep him from seeing that.

I’m also trying to steady my thoughts.

“So Jon was the one gunning for me?” I ask. “Or the guy behind it, I guess.”

Alice nods.

Then she cusses.

“Jon also told me that Guidry’s the one who shot me. Apparently, I walked in on him and the sheriff looking for something no one is supposed to know about.”

I feel questions and answers come together to weave something that actually makes sense. It would be exciting if not for the fact that we’d just seen a man shot and gotten confirmation that the sheriff really has been dirty.