Long Lost - James Scott Bell Page 0,102

away. He wasn’t going to slab you.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

Johnny met his eyes. “Yeah. I do. After I took over, I was going to bring you back. Steve, yeah, I used you. I tried to buy your loyalty. Then I had to guarantee it when you started getting cool feet around here.”

“So you guaranteed by having Mott plant coke in my car, just so you could pressure me into staying.”

“Then Eldon got all whacked over you.”

“You could say that.”

Johnny said, “But Steve, I want you to know something. In all of this, man. I really did want to see you again. I did want my brother back. Can you believe that much?”

“I don’t know,” Steve said. “But I do know you need somebody to talk to the feds, be the go-between. We’ll get out of this together.”

“I’m not giving myself up.”

“Just the hostages. Give them up and I’ll stay. You made a deal to let two go. Let them all go. Show good faith. Do that much, one step at a time. And that includes Sienna.”

Johnny shook his head. “She wants to be with me. I’m sorry about that.”

“Let her go. Let them all go. We can get it back, Robert. The way we felt about each other. Don’t do this thing. I’ll stick with you. I’ll be your lawyer and your brother.”

Johnny shook his head. “I’m not going back to the joint. And you know that’s the only place I’ll be going.”

“If you do this, if the women here die, there’s something worse that’s going to happen. There’s a justice out there that’s going to rain down on you.”

“My brother, are you getting godly on me?”

“Listen to me! I don’t know what it all means, but there has got to be something like that for something like this.” Steve paused and looked hard into Johnny’s face and knew he was talking to himself now. “I don’t want to lose you again, not this way. I want to get you back. I want to help somebody for once in my lousy life.”

Johnny did not answer. He looked into the fireplace, the flames flickering in his eyes. He stood like that for a long time.

Then the door opened, and two men with guns drawn came in. One was Axel. The other was Bill Reagan.

“What’s up?” Johnny said.

Reagan walked up to Steve and hit him with the butt of his gun.

Steve hit the floor.

76

“Whoa, whoa,” Steve heard Johnny say.

“He killed Rennie,” Regan said. “Rahab helped him. She shot Neal. She’s down there spilling her guts right now!”

Steve’s head was spinning in a tight spiral. The left side of his face felt numb.

“Let me do him,” Axel said.

“No, me,” Reagan said. “Downstairs. In front of the women. Let them see.”

“Shut up, both of you,” Johnny said. He grabbed the front of Steve’s shirt with both hands and pulled him up.

Steve blinked a couple of times.

“Is that true, Steve?” he said.

“How would he know?” Steve said. Then he knew. “Mott. You’ve got Mott down there monitoring everything.”

“Let me!” Reagan said. “Let’s get rid of him now!”

“Steve,” Johnny said. “Is it true?”

“Yeah it’s true,” Steve said. “So what? It doesn’t change anything.”

“See?” Reagan shouted.

“Shut up,” Johnny said.

“We do him now!” Reagan said.

“You want your chance?” Johnny said. “I’ll give it to you. But when I say, not before. Got it?”

“But—”

“Got it?”

Reagan heaved a breath, then snarled, “All right.”

“I’m sorry it has to be this way, Steve,” Johnny said.

77

Darkness and cold.

The darkness Steve could understand. He had a hood over his head. A black hood like they gave to Saddam before he was hanged. Like they used to do all the time when hanging was the punishment meted out in these good old United States.

The cold was the cold of a stone basement. A prison cell maybe. Or dungeon. They had marched him down here and he heard a door lock. Hands cuffed behind him.

So much for heroic stands. So much for his influence over his long-lost brother. So much for his life finally amounting to something more than the day-to-day quest for a buck or a fix.

He tried to feel his way around the enclosure, kicking out with his foot. He thought all sorts of things might be waiting for him. Bear traps. Rats. All the finer things of life set up here by Eldon LaSalle. And now Johnny.

He heard some crackling. Like major electric wires. Popping sounds.

No.

Gunfire. Distant but clear.

He tried to gauge the time as the shooting continued. Ten minutes or