Page 85
“But you did it anyway…” For someone else, obviously. I follow an instinct stronger than anger. “Who made you do it?”
“They’re long gone from here, lad.”
“Who is?”
Dav looks sick. He looks away. “Someone I had no business running with, but I didn’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
“No, there ain’t.”
“Then you’re going to have to tell me what that means for you.”
We’re at an impasse. At least, I think we are as Dav’s expression hardens and he glares at the ground as if the answers are buried there along with everything else.
Silence I can feel stretches between us. My mind whirs too fast for me to catch a thought, but just as I contemplate the soul-sucking notion of calling my brother for help, finally, Dav shoves back his hat and scrubs grubby fingers through his hair.
“They threatened to burn the kennels down.”
I frown. “What kennels?”
“The rescue place where they took the ex-racers after the track closed for good. Old dogs, some of ‘em. Others just done runnin’.” Understanding dawns slowly as Dav heaves another sigh I feel to my core. “They said they’d torch the place if I didn’t hide the guns. So I hid the guns, all right? And I’d damn well do it again.”
I stare at him.
He stares back, defiance etching his face into lines that somehow make him seem younger than however old he is. “Do what you like with me, boy. I’m not sorry.”
I see that, and I respect it more than the submissive avoidance we started with. But I have to ask. “You did all this for dogs?”
“They weren’t just dogs. They’d already done a lifetime of work once. Besides…” Heartache shines in Dav’s bronze-brown eyes. “Those bastards woulda come for my kids after that. My boys. No matter what they think of me now, I’d have done anything back then before I let ‘em get hurt.”
“You wouldn’t now?”
Out of rope, Dav glares moodily into the distance, and it gives me a moment to dissect the rest of that sentence. Back then…
“How long has this shit been buried here?”
“Fifteen years, lad.”
“What?”
He shrugs. “That’s how long it’s taken for me to remember which field I dug up. Had to wait for Old Letherby to snuff it too, or he’d have shot me where I stand.”
“You didn’t think I would?”
Dav shrugs again and it’s comical enough that the anger in my chest falters, leaving room for something more complicated.
I take a few steps back, surveying the field. “You think there’s two more caches?”
“Maybe three.”
“Okay. Then what?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean what were you going to do with all these weapons once you’d dug them up?”
Guilt returns to Dav’s weathered features. Silence returns too, but I’ve no patience left for that. I’m not angry anymore. How can I be in the face of the same sincerity I was raised to believe in? But we’re running out of time. It’ll be light soon and I can’t live a minute longer knowing my farm is stuffed full of guns.
