And there, licking up along the walls at the far end of the barn: fire.
19
Jem was trying not to look at the barrel when Tean said, “Fire.”
“What?”
“Fire!”
The doc was pointing, and sure enough, the far end of the barn was on fire.The flames were spreading quickly, climbing the wall.
It was the way his brain worked when he was riffing, when everything was going right, when he knew he was going to score because for a few moments, he couldn’t do anything wrong: he justknewsometimes.
He grabbed Tean and shoved him down.
And bullets ripped through the side of the barn.
The spray of gunfire sent chunks of wood and a shower of splinters through the air.Fragments of boards clattered against the floor.Some of the splinters fell on the back of Jem’s coat.
The gunfire went on for what felt like a long time.Under Jem, Tean was perfectly still—not shaking.Maybe not even breathing.
And then the shooting stopped.The air smelled like gunpowder now, mixed with the smoke and the stink of the bodies.Outside someone was laughing.And then one of the assholes howled.
Tean’s body tightened.He tapped Jem’s arm.Jem got off him, but he kept a hand on Tean’s shoulder to keep the doc from standing.They crouched below the level of the stall doors.Tean had splinters in his hair, and he was holding his glasses with one hand.He turned toward the fire, which had climbed the wall and almost reached the roof.Then he looked at the other pair of doors.
“Somebody’ll be out there with a gun,” Jem said.“That’s the whole point.”
Tean swallowed, but he didn’t say anything.After a moment, he nodded.It was his rational voice—the one he used when they were discussing if Jem should buy a new bike, or if Scipio had hurt his leg because he’d jumped to catch a ball, or if it was time for Tean to stop working and pay attention to his boyfriend.It was the one he used when he was refusing to be afraid.“They used an accelerant.The fire is going to spread quickly, and as soon as the rafters weaken, the ceiling will come down on top of us.That’s if we don’t die from smoke inhalation first.”
And yeah, the smoke was getting thicker.
“Let’s figure out how many of them we’re dealing with,” Jem said.“Stay here.”
“Jem, I can’t stay here.”
“Then check that side.You want to get a look without opening a door—nothing that’ll let them know you’re there, otherwise they’ll start shooting.”
Tean nodded.Still crouching, he ran to the row of stalls on the other side of the barn.
Jem moved into the stall behind him.The straw scuffed underfoot.Gunpowder and wood smoke and horse shit.If he ruined this pair of ROOS—
It was one of those doors that you could open top and bottom, and the two parts didn’t meet in the middle.He scooted up to it and pressed one eye to the gap.It took a moment for him to make sense of what he was seeing: the waist-high grass, the sky, to the left, a cottonwood.And then he saw him: an asshole in camo and a wolf’s mask.
When he got back to the breezeway, Tean was covering his mouth with his coat, but he held up one finger.Jem nodded.The air was hot, and the smoke hurt Jem’s throat.He pulled up his own coat and held up one finger.He tried not to look, but he did anyway.The flames were climbing the first set of rafters.
It was a classic setup because it worked.You wanted to get rid of somebody?Set the house on fire and wait for them to come out.It worked with barns, too.
Think.Think.Think.
He’s counting on you.You’ve got to get him out of here.
“We have to run,” Tean said.
Jem shook his head.
“We’re going to die if we stay in here.”
You can’t talk to them.You can’t trick them.You can’t make them think you’ve got the upper hand.Hell, you can’t even get close enough to beat the shit out of them, not without giving them a chance to put a bullet in you.
