The Reckless Oath We Made - Bryn Greenwood Page 0,109

place to the ground.”

Scanlon laughed, so I handed the phone to Gentry. He put it to his ear and said, “Prove thy aim is true, Sir Edrard.”

About twenty seconds later a flaming arrow dropped out of the sky and hit the dirt in the space between the cabin and the barn. Even though I knew it was coming, it made me jump. The second arrow landed ten feet closer to the cabin. Scanlon stopped laughing. Gentry handed me the phone and went over to stamp out the flames from the arrows. He was grinning when he walked back to me.

“So like I was saying. I’m offering you fifty thousand dollars for my sister. Here’s how it works. You bring her out here. She and one of your friends walk back up the hill with us. We give your friend the money, he walks back down here, and we drive away.”

“Shit, I guess it’s true, all them rumors about your daddy ending up with that bank money,” Scanlon said. It didn’t surprise me there were rumors at the prison. Everybody liked to think somebody had succeeded where the rest of them had failed. I wondered again if that was why they’d picked LaReigne. Had they thought they might be able to ransom her? If I’d waited, would they have come to me or Uncle Alva eventually?

“Oh, you think we’re gonna let you walk away and call the cops?” Ligett said.

“If I wanted to call the cops I’d have done it an hour ago, and my friend with the bow and arrows can call them right now. Except I want my sister back alive, and I don’t think the cops can help me with that. If she’s here, let me see her.”

“Well, I’ll say this: you’re a helluva a lot smarter than your sister, but I bet this is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done,” Scanlon said.

“It’s really simple. You want the money? Let me see my sister.”

“I don’t—” Ligett started to say, but Scanlon cut him off.

“All right. You come on inside, but your boy stays out here.”

“It me liketh not, my lady.” When I looked at Gentry, he was scratching the back of his neck with both hands. He could draw his sword from that position, and I wasn’t sure if that made me less nervous or more nervous.

“It’s okay. I have the phone. If I need help I’ll tell Edrard and he’ll let you know.”

Gentry lowered his hands and nodded.

I went up the stairs like an old lady, because my hip was so tight I could barely get my foot up each riser. The steps creaked under me and, when I got to the top, Ligett reached out like he meant to frisk me.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” I said. “You got a gun. I got a gun. Let’s play nice.”

For a minute, I thought that was going to be the deal breaker, but Scanlon shook his head at Ligett and said, “It’s okay if the lady wants to bring a gun. She’s not gonna shoot the place up.”

Inside, the cabin smelled like stale cigarettes and mildew and onions.

“Go on ahead. Door on the right.” Scanlon pointed for me to go down the hall ahead of him. When I stopped at the door he’d indicated, he said, “Go on in.”

The sun was coming down fast, and it was dim in the hallway, so that when I opened the bedroom door, all the light coming through the curtains made me squint. I stepped inside, Scanlon closed the door behind me, and there was LaReigne. She was lying on the bed with her shoes off. When she saw me, she sat up, and the book she’d been reading fell out of her hands. The cover had a shirtless man in a kilt on it.

“Oh my god! Zee!” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to get you. Let’s go.”

“What do you mean you’re here to get me? Did you bring Marcus?”

“No. I didn’t bring Marcus,” I said. “Come on, put your shoes on so we can go.”

She got up off the bed, but she was staring at me like she couldn’t believe I was there. It hit me, then. She was safe. I grabbed her and held on to her as tight as I could, and for a minute, she didn’t do anything, because she must have been in shock. Then she laughed and put her arms around me. Most of my life, I’d felt like an ugly giant next to