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“You’re done for. You’re washed up, cleaned out, and nobody can help you anymore. Not that you want help, but you can’t get out of this. So, as far as you’re concerned, it’s time to just take down as many as you can.”

Max shook his head. “I already told you that I don’t need that kind of an out.”

Dwight’s voice came from the shadows. “Obviously you do because that’s the kind of out you’re taking, and, if you didn’t need a bunch of armed men surrounding you,…

then you wouldn’t be doing this. You wouldn’t be reduced to such a sad wailing, crying scenario that you’re putting in right now.

You know that these men aren’t alone, and you also know that there’s no way you’re getting out of this alive. ”

“Where are the cops then?” Max asked, followed by laughter.

“Of course you guys don’t want the local yokels, and you know why?

Because you’re the same as everybody else, the same as me.

You’re all just killers. Everybody who goes into the military is a killer.

Everybody just wants to get their kills recorded properly. ”

“No,” Dwight countered, “all of us went into the military and had opportunities to kill, and most of us—not you obviously—did our best to avoid any situations where it was necessary. Only assholes like you came back and enjoyed it all too much and then continued to take out more people.”

Timber pointed. “I believe you know Dwight here, huh ?”

Max looked over at Dwight, who stood up and appeared at the sound of his name, both guns pointed at Max.

“Well,… well, well, that was a different scenario entirely. Dwight and I go way back, don’t we, Dwight?”

“Yeah, we sure do,” Dwight agreed calmly, his gaze never leaving the snake in front of him.

“You really want to be the one who takes that shot, don’t you? I killed your wife and unborn child. I killed your family but never was caught. Yet, you kill me now, in front of all these witnesses, and you would go to prison for my murder.”

“Sure, absolutely,” he confirmed, with a nod. “Don’t have an issue with it at all.”

“And you’ve been busy hurting animals in this area too,” Toby added, now stepping forward a bit too, spaced out far enough from Dwight and from Timber to keep Max’s gun moving from one to the other.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two of them were hanging around, wanting to have a second chance at you. ”

“Jesus, Toby. Welcome to the party, pal. I should have known, if Dwight was here, you would be nearby too.” Max laughed.

“And, yeah, I’ll pop any animal that comes my way.

” Then he looked at Tiffany. “I can’t believe she’s a fucking veterinarian.

Like seriously, why do you want to help the animals for anyway? ”

She looked up at him and even through the glaze of pain in her expression, she answered him. “I would help any four-legged animal, but there are some two-legged ones I would be happy to see die.”

He turned to Timber. “See? She’s got gumption.

You should probably marry this one, but, ooh , sorry, you won’t get a chance to do that.

” Then he burst out laughing, as if it were the funniest thing he’d ever heard.

Then just as suddenly the laughter shut off, and he threw her down in front of him, holding the gun against her cheek, and said, “Don’t ever fucking talk to me like that. ”

Another man spoke up from the far corner. “She can say whatever she wants. You pop her, and you’re dead.”

Timber added, “Max is dead anyway.”

“Yeah,… I know I’m dead anyway,” Max replied. “So I don’t give a shit. In the meantime, I’ll just cause as much chaos as I can.” Then he laughed and laughed. “And I’ll start with her.”

“If you shoot her, it’s still all over for you,” Timber declared. Max hesitated, staring at him. “Come on, Max,” Timber added. “You know that. The minute you take out your hostage, you’ll go down. It’s as simple as that.”

“Yeah, but don’t you want me to go down before I kill her?” he asked, followed by a mocking laugh. “After all, the only reason I went after her was because it’s obvious you are sweet on her.”

“So, you saw her come and go?”

“Sure did. And why the hell were all those men helping you all week?” he snarled.

And damn if there wasn’t a hint of jealousy in his tone, as if Max never really understood what help or camaraderie or even community meant. For a fleeting moment Timber almost felt sorry for him.

“It’s called friends,” Dwight stated calmly from the side. “Something you wouldn’t know about.”

“Ah, that’s you whining again. That bitch of yours,… I should have killed her a long time ago.”

“You killed her when you did, so presumably that’s when it was time.”

“Yeah, and you ever think about her? You could still be married, have had more kids, that whole happy little fantasy that everybody talks about.” Max shook his head. “You want to know something funny? I did it deliberately.”

“I know you did,” Dwight said. “I also know that I couldn’t convince anybody that’s what you’d done. Back then nobody seemed to think you were that twisted.”

“But you knew.”

“Of course I knew,” Dwight stated. “I watched you all those years. I told her to stay away from you, that you weren’t healthy, that something was wrong there, but she always seemed to think she could fix you.”

“Yeah, she was a sweetheart.” Max laughed. “On the other hand, you’ve been a pain in my ass this whole time.”

“The only reason I’ve been a pain in your ass is because you’ve been afraid of retribution coming down, always looking for it to find you.”

“You never did get there, so I guess I don’t need to worry about it now because, even if you shoot me here, there will be so many bullets, nobody will know who did the actual shooting.”

“That’s fine,” Dwight said. “As long as your ass never walks again, I don’t really care.”

Max stiffened and glared at him. “You weren’t supposed to come, you know?”

Toby added from Max’s left, “Of course not, but you also knew there was a good chance that somebody would come.” Toby shifted ever so slightly.

“I didn’t think anybody would come with Timber. Why would you guys come and take a chance of getting your old asses shot?”

“Feeling the heat now, Max?” Dwight asked.

“No, that’s not normal what you are doing here. Nobody here does things like that,” Max declared, his gaze going around to the shadows, looking for more people he couldn’t see. “This isn’t fucking normal.”

“To you it’s not normal. However, to us normal people, it is,” Toby stated calmly. “It’s called being friends, being like family, helping out, being a decent person.”

“You don’t even know what that means, Max,” Timber called out. “And you can’t even blame your dad for it because he’s a damn fine man.”

“Oh, that son of a bitch. You don’t get to say that about him.

Perfect old Andy was one mean son of a bitch.

You have no idea what my life was like. Oh my God.

Just sing me a song of sorrow already,” Max wailed in a mocking tone.

“I’m really fucking fed up with this. I don’t care if you do shoot me, but I’ll tell you one thing.

You won’t stop me from shooting her, so that will be the satisfaction I get out of this. ”

Timber noted Max was practically spitting saliva all over the place, waving his gun, his madness front and center.

“It might be the only thing I get, but that’s okay.” Then he looked down at Tiffany one more time and said, “Sorry, sweetheart. They’re the ones making me do this.” And with that he pulled her head back, put the gun tighter up against her chin, and muttered, “Say goodbye.”

Instead she grabbed his testicles with her right hand, and squeezed as hard as she could, all the while twisting them for good measure.

He screeched, loud and pain-filled, in such a way that every man in the bush winced.

Then she dropped and rolled, knowing a bullet would likely still come her way, but, as Max pointed the gun at her, ready to fire, swearing and cursing her out all the while, bullets hit his body from all directions, making him do a manic dance before he dropped.

She sat on the ground, pulling her knees to her, as she stared at Max in horror, even as Timber raced toward her. She looked up when he reached her, tears in her eyes.

He wrapped her up in his arms and held her tight. “Oh my God, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”

She shook her head, but she couldn’t talk. The tears came, and her body trembled, completely consuming her.

When Toby arrived, he checked first to confirm Max was dead. Then he walked over, bent down to face Tiffany. “Are you okay, honey?”

She nodded, whispering, “I’m fine.”

“That was a mighty good move,” he stated proudly.

“Balls, huh ?” Dwight grinned as he came over as well. “We were hoping you had some ninja move that you could make to get yourself out of the firing line,” he said, smiling but still looking concerned.

“You had me worried, as you took a fair bit of time to get there.” Toby laughed. “But you got there.” And, with that, he stood, then whistled, and both Timber and Tiffany watched as every man stepped out of the cover of the forest and walked slowly toward them.

She looked up at Timber. “Good Lord.”

“I know,” he said, with a smile. “That’s the thing about teams. We don’t have to do everything alone.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she whispered.

“I haven’t really either, not since I left the military at least. It was pretty damn nice to have these guys and others just like them watch my back while I was out saving the world back then,” he added. “But this was way better.”

“I am incredibly grateful to all of you.”

Each one of the men came up and shook her hand and confirmed she was doing okay. One of them muttered, “I sure hope I never get on the wrong side of you, ma’am.”

Another one added, “That was a mighty good grip you gave him.”