the left side of the room, and took cover behind a pinball machine. He fired a shot into the couch, moved forward, and fired again.
Riley fired twice, but Isabel struggled and threw him off balance.
The third cowboy peeked from behind the anthracite table, cranked off four 12-gauge loads as fast as he could pull the trigger, and ducked. Pike beaded up. When the cowboy peeked out, Pike shot him.
Cole moved up the right side, trying to reach the bar.
Riley lifted Isabel off her feet, and moved for cover behind the fireplace. He fired at Cole and fell back.
Riley shouted, “Hit the bar. The bar!”
The stabbed cowboy popped up, fired twice, and vanished. Pike shot at him, but missed. Cole hit the floor, and scrambled behind the bar.
Pike dumped his empties, fed the Python a speedloader, and took cover behind the jukebox.
Somewhere out front, a siren whooped twice, and the sound of a helicopter was close.
Pike said, “Stop this.”
The cut cowboy popped up, fired again, and disappeared.
Pike said, “Stop. Let her go.”
Riley fired.
Isabel pushed into him hard, then wrapped her arms around his gun arm, and bit. Riley flung her off, she fell, and Pike shot him.
Riley’s head snapped sideways. He dropped like a bag of wet laundry.
The big cowboy popped up behind the couch, fired at Cole, and missed Isabel’s head by an inch.
Pike ran forward, firing into the couch. He emptied his gun as he reached Isabel. Pike dove on top of her, and Cole took over, pounding more bullets into the couch.
The cut cowboy popped up six feet away, fired, and ducked.
Pike was out of ammo. He pushed Isabel behind him.
“Back up. Scoot back. Get behind the bar.”
DeLako and a sheriff stepped out from behind the stairs. DeLako beaded up, and shouted across her weapon.
“How many?
Pike answered.
“One. The couch. He’s wearing a vest.”
Two more sheriffs and three marshals entered behind her, and spread to the sides.
DeLako said, “C’mon, man. Be smart.”
The bloody cowboy popped up once more. The big Benelli boomed.
DeLako fired three fast times, and the cowboy dropped. Her last two shots weren’t needed. Her first shot killed him.
DeLako did not move. She was locked out, breathing hard, and ready to shoot.
“Pike?”
“I’m good.”
Cole called from behind the bar.
“Me, too, thanks for asking.”
DeLako said, “Who else? Who else is alive?”
Pike looked at Isabel. He touched her hair.
“Isabel. Isabel is alive.”
Pike touched her hair again.
“You good?”
Her eyes were red. She tried to speak, but only managed to nod. Words wouldn’t come.
DeLako lowered her weapon, and looked at the carnage.
“What a mess.”
More deps piled in behind her and moved through the room, securing weapons and checking for wounded. Gregg and Braun pushed through the crowd. Braun went to DeLako. He threw his arms around her, and hugged her, and they stood like that for a while.
Pike looked over at Cole. Cole pushed to his feet and offered a hand. Pike took it, and stood.
Pike walked the room, going from Riley to each of his men. Dead. Maybe their identities or something in their possessions would point to their employer. He looked down at Blanch. His open eyes stared at the ceiling. His smile was gone.
Pike walked over to Hicks. Blood had sprayed from his nose and mouth, and joined the blood leaking from his chest to form a growing pool. Center mass shot, a little high and to the left, an inch below his collarbone. Heart shot. The bullet likely nicked the aorta.
Pike thought, who sent you?
A bubble appeared at the side of his mouth. A second bubble joined the first.
Pike squatted and touched his shoulder.
“Hicks.”
Hicks made a crackling hiss.
Pike called out.
“Medics. He’s alive.”
Across the room, Braun shouted.
“Got a live one. Get EMS in here.”
Pike leaned close.
“Who sent you?”
His left eye flickered. He crackled again, and a new bubble appeared.
“Wake up.”
Pike dug his thumb into a pressure point. Pike dug deep, and pressed hard on a nerve bundle under his jaw.
Hicks’s left eye opened. Not far.
Pike leaned closer.
“What’s his name?”
Hicks’s mouth worked, but nothing came out.
Pike heard the paramedics, up front in the entry. They were coming.
Pike took off his glasses, and looked into Hicks’s eye. The eye looked back.
Pike said, “He killed you. Tell me who killed you.”
Hicks’s mouth worked.
Pike bent down, and put his ear to the bloody lips.
“Tell me.”
Pike stood when the paramedics arrived, and stepped out of their way.
Braun and Gregg were watching him.
Braun said, “It sounded like he said something. What did he say?”
Isabel was watching. She wanted to know.
The paramedics looked up from the