No Return

83

Wes moved out onto the flattop rock where he and Jack had fought, and from where Jack had fallen to his death years before. It resembled a wide plank, and now it was his turn to walk it.

In his head he had been keeping count. He was up to forty-six. In less than sixty seconds, Anna should be making her move. He couldn’t think about what had happened to Mandy, or Jack Rice, or, dear God, his father. He needed to keep Dori’s and Michael’s attention fully on him long enough for Anna to get away. Once she was safe, he’d be able to relax. It wouldn’t matter what they did to him. At least Anna would have a chance.

“Move to the edge,” Dori said.

Wes held his position.

“I said move.” She raised her gun to emphasize her point.

“Shoot me and you ruin your whole I-killed-the-commander scenario,” Wes said.

“I shoot you, it just looks like you guys got into a gunfight.”

Fifty-nine.

Wes took a small step toward the drop-off. “You really think people are going to believe I did this?”

“You’re already having problems with the cops. You told me that yourself.”

Sixty-five.

“My friends will know it’s not true. They won’t let it go.”

“Your friends will be back in Los Angeles before the end of the week. And in a month, they’ll have forgotten all about you.”

Michael Dillman was still too close to Anna.

Wes took a step in his direction. “You willing to go to jail for this?”

“Get back,” Dori said.

Wes stared at Dori’s husband. “Well?”

“She said get back,” Dillman told him.

Wes didn’t budge.

Eighty. Almost time.

Dillman moved the barrel of his gun a couple of inches back and forth.

“Is that supposed to scare me?” Wes asked.

“I don’t care what it does.”

Ninety-four.

“Now get back.”

Then, to drive the point home, Dillman took three large steps toward Wes.

One hundred.

Wes held up his hands and moved back to where he’d been before. “Better?”

Behind Dillman, Anna stirred. First she turned her head a few inches and opened her eyes. Then she pushed up and got silently to her feet.

“So after I jump, then what?” Wes said.

“What then doesn’t matter,” Dori said. “Not to you.”

Anna was leaning a little to the side, still unsteady from whatever she had been given.

Run, Wes thought. Get out of here.

She righted herself and looked like she was about to do just that.

“Two ways to do this,” Dori said. “You jump or we shoot you. I’ll let you choose.”

Dillman smiled. “Bet we have to shoot him.”

Anna had stopped.

Get out of here!

“I’ll … I’ll jump,” Wes said.

A look of horror swept across Anna’s face.

“You’ve got ten seconds, then we shoot,” Dori said.

“I’ll go, I’ll go,” Wes said, hoping Anna would get his hint to move it.

“I don’t see you falling,” Dori said.

Wes took a step back to the very edge of the rock.

“No!” Anna screamed.

Both Dori and Dillman whipped around.

Without thinking, Wes charged forward, crashing into Dillman. They fell to the ground, the man’s head knocking against the surface of the boulder. Wes pushed Dillman hard, grinding his head into the stone.

Dori’s attention had been on Anna, so she didn’t react until she heard the two men hit the rock. Training her gun on Anna, she swiveled her head to see what had happened.

But by then Wes was already on his feet and headed her way.

Dori tried to bring the gun around, but he got there first, and he wrapped his arms around her, going for the weapon. The impact caused her finger to twitch. The gun fired, the sound near deafening at such a close range.

Dori screamed out in anger as Wes grabbed at her wrist, fighting for control of her pistol. She twisted and turned under his arms, trying to force him to let go, but he held on tight.

Another gunshot. Not quite as loud, and not quite as near.

Wes twisted around, looking in the direction of the noise.

Swaying slightly, face bloodied, Dillman was aiming his weapon at the rocks where Anna had been standing. For half a second Wes thought she’d been hit, but her body wasn’t lying on the ground. In fact, he couldn’t see her at all.

Dori took advantage of his distraction and slammed her shoulder into his chin. One of his hands slipped, and she rocked to her left, nearly freeing herself. But he quickly regained his grip and pulled her back against his chest.

“Michael, goddammit!” she yelled. “Help me!”

Dillman swiveled around and fired a shot.

Wes felt a hot, searing pain a split second before Dori winced. He knew instantly he’d been hit, the bullet entering through the fleshy part of his back on the lower left.

Dori moaned, then slipped downward.

Wes wrenched her back up, and twisted her around so that she was between him and Dillman, then easily ripped the gun out of her hand. It was then that he realized she’d been hit, too. The bullet must have passed all the way through him and into her.

A rock sailed out from behind some small boulders and clattered on the ground near Dillman’s feet. The big man whipped around to see where it had come from.

Wes had never shot a weapon in his life, but as Dillman raised his pistol in Anna’s direction, Wes squeezed the trigger of Dori’s gun.

Thunder rocked the desert as flames licked out of the end of the barrel.

Dillman fell face-first onto the ground, his gun clattering across the stone surface, then flying off the edge into the darkness.

“Michael!” Dori screamed as she wiggled free of Wes’s grasp. She staggered over to where Dillman lay, and fell to her knees. “Michael.” She put a hand against his motionless face, then let out a wail.

“Dori,” Wes yelled. “It’s over.”

Suddenly she was on her feet again, rushing at Wes, a scream of fury spilling from her mouth.

With one arm wrapped around her side, she used the other to take a swing at Wes. He tried to back out of her range, but she kept coming as blood began to soak her shirt.

“You bastard!” she yelled. “You killed him!”

“Dori, stop,” he said.

“You killed him!”

“I had no choice,” he said.

“You pushed him off, because my goddamn sister told you to. You killed my baby. You bastard!”

It wasn’t Dillman she was talking about. It was Jack.

“Enough!” Wes yelled as another blow hit him on the arm. “Enou-”

A large hand clamped down on his shoulder and spun him around.

Dillman. He was a gut-shot mess, but alive. He pushed Wes into Dori, and made an awkward grab for the gun, but missed.

Wes whipped around and realized they were only a few feet from the edge of the rock. One good shove from Dillman and he and Dori would go over the side.

He tried to duck around the bigger man, but Dillman reached out and grabbed him.

Twisting left and right and left again, he struggled to get out of the man’s grasp. When he turned again, the butt of his gun knocked against Dillman’s hip and popped out of his hand, smacking against the rock.

Dillman let go of him and made a grab for the weapon.

But it was Dori, not her husband, who came up with the gun. She pointed it at Wes.

“You goddamn son of a bitch,” Dori spat. “It is over now.”

She staggered slightly from her wound, then took a step backward for balance. But she had misjudged her position, and her foot landed half on, half off the rock.

Her eyes went wide and her arms flew out as she fought to keep from falling.

Dillman tried to grab her, but instead of connecting with her hand, he knocked into her arm, stealing what little balance she had left.

With a face clouded in disbelief, Dori vanished over the edge.