saw him, he laughed. “Be careful now, son, you might put your eye out with that thing.”
His father was laughing when Jacob pulled the trigger. He’d been aiming for his heart, but ended up skimming his kneecap.
“Son of a bitch! You shot me. You little mother fucker! You shot me.”
Jacob ran into his room, stuffed his and Jeremy’s clothes in a bag along with a few other items, then woke Jeremy. “Come on. We’re leavin’.”
“Where we goin?”
“Away from here.”
“Are we comin’ back?”
“Never.”
“What the hell’d you do to your knee?” Amanda Reese asked her husband.
“Your damn kid shot me.”
Amanda laughed callously. “He better learn to aim better.”
“Call 911! I’m bleedin’ to death here.”
Amanda surveyed the damage. “It’s just a flesh wound. I’ll get some bandages.”
“I need a doctor.”
“You’ll be fine. Drink your beer.”
Amanda saw the boys in the hallway. “If you’re goin’ to shoot someone, learn to do it right. You can’t even kill somebody decent. Such a piece of shit. Go on, get out of here if you want to go. Good riddance if you ask me. I don’t ever want to see your sorry asses again. Worst two days of my life was when I had you kids.”
Jacob and Jeremy ran out the front door without looking back. They went to the park near their home and hid in the bushes.
“Did you kill Dad?”
“No. I missed and hit him in the knee.”
“You think she meant what she said about the worst day of her life bein’ when you and me was born?”
“I think she’s had a lot of bad days in her life. I don’t know how she could pick just two.”
They sat in silence for several minutes.
“Do you have a plan?”
“Of course I do.”
“Good.” Jeremy sighed and relaxed. “I don’t got a plan.”
“You don’t need one. I’ll take care of you. You never have to worry about that. You’re my brother, my only family. We’ll be together forever.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
He’d made a promise to Jeremy that day. A promise he was about to break. He threw back the blankets, grabbed his backpack and left the barracks. He needed air, space. Sometimes it seemed like the entire world was on his shoulders and he couldn’t breathe from the crushing weight.
The ranch was lit every hundred yards or so, making it easy to walk the pathways at any time of day or night.
Jacob found himself near the cow paddock within five minutes. He dropped his backpack and climbed onto the fence, straddling it like he imagined cowboys used to do in the old days. He looked up at the sky. It was so dark, or maybe it was that the stars were so bright. They were endless.
He lowered himself from the wooden structure, wrapped the wool blanket around his shoulders and hunkered down by the fencepost and his backpack.
He couldn’t have been asleep more than half an hour when he felt something tugging on his arm. Jacob jumped when a tongue aimed at his face came through the space in the fence. It was a calf. Jacob looked around to find the mother. She did not appear amused by her baby’s playful antics.
“It came to me,” Jacob tried to explain, then stopped. “I’m explaining to a cow.”
The creak and squeak of the paddock lock being removed and the gate swinging open captured his attention. Jacob squinted. The light that was so prevalent everywhere else seemed to be absent here. He could barely make out the shape of two tall men.
“Hurry up. Put it in the water,” a whispered voice said.
“All of it?”
“Yes, all of it.”
The first person looked around the area. “Someone’s coming. Hurry up!”
“Got it.”
The door swung closed and the lock clanked shut. They disappeared into the night as quickly as they had arrived.
The sound of running feet came from the left, then stopped by the gate. “I know I saw someone down here,” Red Atkins said.
“Could’a been a cow walking around,” Bart Wilson said.
“It wasn’t a cow.”
“Well, if someone was here, they’re not here now.”
“Count ‘em.”
“They’re all there. It’s the middle of the night.”
“Count ‘em. I’m gonna look around.”
“Spend half the night countin’ cows, for what? I wouldn’t mind counting sheep.” Bart laughed at his own joke. “Did ya hear that, Red? ‘Course he didn’t hear that. He never hears the good ones.”
Chapter Twelve
Jacob quietly pulled his backpack over one shoulder, then headed down the path toward the stables, the blanket tucked under one arm. He kept careful watch for the two intruders, as well as Red.
Beyond the stables, he