The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (131 page)

Lando walked swiftly towar
ds him, ‘what about you? What you gonna do?’

Hennessey looked upwards at the ceiling then back at Lando and smiled, ‘why, follow my
friends
of course.’

Lando frowned but said nothing. He turned to the door just as there came a loud bang from the roof and a smell of burning wood. He thought about his animals and hoped and prayed that Glissando’s men would leave the barn alone.

He raced to the cupboard and flung open the door to see the woman sitting crouched in a tight ball. He had no time for words of reassurance and comfort but grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. Her voice shook as she asked, ‘what’s happening, what’s that smell?’

She asked although she knew. Fire. She looked up, the cabin roof was alight. Just then part of the ceiling began to collapse and Lando said urgently, come on.’ He dragged her towards the small door in the floor that led to the crawlspace beneath the house and where he had put Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s bodies. But just as they ran towards it a piece of the ceiling collapsed right on top of the door.

He cursed and still gripping her arm pulled her to the front door well aware that there lurked just as much danger outside as inside the cabin. He opened the door slowly and carefully but shut it again very quickly as it was riddled with bullets. He moved very fast away from the door pulling Adela with him when there came a loud cracking noise from overhead as the ceiling began to collapse. He looked up just as part of the roof caved in over the living room area. He shoved Adela to the far corner of the room asking himself where Hennessey was. Had he left them here and made his escape? But no, that made no sense, why come here in the first place, why stay and help them if his intention had been for them to die?

He looked around for a way out but saw none, not unless Hennessey took out the guys firing at the cabin from the trees.
He turned to Adela, ‘stay here and don’t move.’ Then he crawled across to the window and looked out, immediately he ducked as more bullets riddled the window and the wall behind him.

Frustrated he looked behind him as another part of the ceiling collapsed but then his attention was caught by a figure falling past the window from the roof hitting the ground hard. His immediate thought was Hennessey, but then there was more gunfire aimed at the trees.

Then suddenly the trees were being sprayed with bullets as Hennessey opened fire on the men concealed there. Lando knew he was trying to keep them occupied enabling him and the woman to make their escape while the men were pinned down.

He turned to the woman intending to tell her that it was now or never but to his utter amazement, not to mention fury, she was not where he had left her. He looked around the room and yelled, ‘hey, lady, where the hell are you?’

No answer, he cursed under his breath, ‘damn that woman, damn that stupid, reckless woman. Where was she?’

He ran towards the bedroom it was the only place she could have gone. He had just reached the bedroom door when he almost ran into her coming out.

He was just about to yell at her and ask what the fuck she thought she was doing when the angry words died on his lips as he noticed she carried something in her arms wrapped in a white sheet. Dante.

She had gone back for his dog. He had of course thought about Dante but knew he had to leave him, there was no way he could carry him and protect the woman at the same time.

He had intended to get the woman to safety then come back for him, hoping that the bath would protect him from too much harm. But she had taken that decision out of his hands, because here she was risking herself for his dog.

He stared at her and for that moment in time he saw nothing else but her face. There seemed to be a white light enveloping her and everything in the room seemed to vanish and there was only her.

He snapped himself back to earth with difficulty, he felt his throat tighten and to conceal his emotions he yelled, ‘what the hell is wrong with you, do you want to die?’

He was aghast at the calm way she answered as though they were not standing in his burning cabin with armed men firing at them from all sides. ‘We couldn’t just leave him, Mr. Lando.’

Just then a cracking sound came to them from behind Adela. They both turned quickly to see a part of the bedroom ceiling begin to collapse. He put his arm around her and pulled her from the doorway. He pushed her towards the front door keeping his arm tight around her as though he didn’t trust her not to go back for something else. But a few yards from the door they were driven back when the window exploded which in turn set fire to the door and there only means of escape was cut off. He knew they had deliberately chosen to set fire to every means of exit.

Lando looked wildly around but could see no other avenue of escape, they were trapped.

He looked at Adela who was still holding Dante tightly but gently to her chest. Again he was stunned to see her expression still calm despite the smoke and flames all around them. He realised now that she was the kind of person who remained cool under pressure, the worse the situation the calmer she was. Earlier she had been stressed and on edge but that was obviously caused by the waiting for something to happen; once it had she was again composed and in command of herself and her emotions. His admiration increased with every passing hour in this woman’s company.

A piece of ceiling fell in catching Lando on the arm, he stifled a cry not wanting to make the woman aware he had been injured, she would fuss and worry. Instead he led her to the farthest corner of the living room away from the worst of the fire, but even then the heat was intense and the smoke suffocating. He shrugged the rifle from his shoulder wincing as he did so and they sat on the floor huddled together as the flames licked the walls and ceiling.

They were soon coughing and spluttering. Adela wrapped the sheet around Dante’s head and cradled him gently next to her body as she spluttered and gasped for air. Lando put his arms around them both as he wondered briefly where Hennessey was, whether he’d taken out the bad guys single handed then beat a hasty retreat or if he’d been killed.

He looked down at the woman who was beginning to lose her grip on Dante as she struggled to breath and her eyes began to close. He shook her and his voice
was hoarse and raspy, ‘hey, lady, hold on okay.’ He realised how inane those words sounded; hold on for what? Death?’

She looked up at him and her own voice so low he could hardly hear her said, ‘I told you, don’t call me lady.’

Despite everything his lips twitched. She smiled but then her expression became very serious and he saw regret and sorrow in her eyes and knew she was thinking that but for her he would not be here now facing death. He so wanted to comfort her, to tell her that it was okay, that it wasn’t her fault. That everything would be all right, that they would get out of here. But as he looked around at what was once his cabin and was now just smoke and flame, he knew it would not be all right, that they would die here together.

He wanted to tell her that in the last few days he had lived seven years worth of life. That the two days she had spent here in his home he had felt vital and useful and alive again. That if this was how his life was to end then he was, if not content, then resigned to that. What was his life worth anyway? What would it have been when this was over and she was gone? He was willing to accept his fate but what about her? He couldn’t be so ambivalent about her life as he was about his own.

He reached for her hand and entwined his fingers in hers. He wondered whether the tears in her eyes were caused by the smoke or by the knowledge that they would soon be dead.

She looked up at him and smiled that sweet soft smile he had seen the first time he had seen her in the middle of the stream.

Her eyes closed and her head flopped onto his shoulder, he gripped her hand tighter still. He knew it was no good telling her to hold on or that it was all going to be all right, he would be lying and after Hennessey he knew she wouldn’t appreciate that.

His lungs ached fit to burst and his eyes closed but flew open again very quickly as the front door suddenly burst open. He tried to raise his weapon but the effort was too much and anyway what did it matter how they died, in fact a bullet would be welcome about now.

He lowered his hand, closed his eyes again and waited for death.

CHAPTER 42.

       Lando, even in his half conscious state was aware that the sound of the fire had changed, it sounded now more like running water, was it raining? Well, thanks, God, but a little too late, he thought.

Then suddenly he was being hauled to his feet by what felt like many hands, he didn’t resist, he was too weak to fight. Then he thought of the woman and what they would do to her if she was still alive and began to struggle against the hands that held him but a fit of coughing overtook him and he doubled over. A voice close to his ear said, ‘hold on there, Jonas, it’s okay, we need to get you out of here.’

‘Jonas? Why would Glissando’s men call him that?’

Then there were more voices all talking at once. Someone said, ‘she’s still alive but unconscious, here take the dog. Carefully now.’ This last part was said in a brusque tone. Then he felt water hit him and he gasped then suddenly he was outside and the sudden air to his lungs doubled him over as he coughed and spluttered and gasped for breath.

The pain in his chest was indescribable and he sank to his knees retching. Someone put an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose and he breathed deeply. The same voice he’d heard in the cabin and had called him Jonas said now, ‘that’s it, Jonas, get some air into those lungs, that’s the boy.’

He still didn’t recognise the voice as it yelled to someone, ‘how’s the barn, any danger there?’

Lando’s ears perked up at this and he tried to stop coughing so he could hear the answer. Someone yelled back, ‘no, all clear. But it was close, another few minutes and that would have been alight too. The animals are pretty spooked but okay, apart from a few in a box here, they’re dead, but not from the fire.’

The one’s Woodson had killed thought Lando.

The man shouted, ‘but the dog’s ribs are busted.’

The voice closest to Lando said, ‘well get the vet to him pronto.’

‘Will do,’ answered the other man.

The voice that Lando now recognised as Sheriff Wendell Lomax said, ‘how you doing there, boy?’ He put his hand on Lando’s back, ‘getting so
me air into those lungs now, huh?’

Lando opened his eyes but had to blink rapidly to bring the sheriff into focus.

Lando removed the mask from his face and opened his mouth to speak but another fit of coughing overtook him.

Lomax shoved the mask back over his mouth and said, ‘take your time now, son, you’ll be okay.’

Lando at last managed to get out, ‘the woman.’

Sheriff Lomax lo
oked over his shoulder, ‘how’s the lady doing, doc?’

A voice answered, ‘she’s conscious, but she’s inhaled some smoke, we need to get her to a hospital. How’s our boy?’

Lomax looked back at Lando, ‘he’ll be okay.’ To Lando he said, ‘but you need to get that arm seen to.’

Lando followed the sheriff’s gaze and saw his shirt was torn exposing a huge bruise and a cut which had been bleeding but see
med to have now stopped. ‘I’ll be okay.’ He gasped.

Lomax handed him a bottle of water, ‘why don’t we let the doc decide that.’

Lando ignored that because he was wondering how everyone had gotten here just in time to save them.

He looked around to see not only Javier the local doctor seeing to the woman…who was also breathing through an oxygen mask…but Davies the local vet tending to Dante. He looked over his shoulder to see more
towns’ people who were standing in a huge line passing buckets of water to each other and throwing it onto the burning cabin. He saw the bar owner whose name he couldn’t recall and Smithson the primary school teacher, and even Sammy who Hennessey had recruited as his spy.

His gaze went down the line, it looked as if the whole town had turned out, and to his shock he even saw the aptly named Mrs. Hosewater in the thick of it directing operations. Behind him two large men manned a small truck which was pumping water into the cabin from a long hose which led down to the stream. Some were throwing water onto the barn roof in case the fire spread.

He saw some kids coming out of the barn and his brow knotted. Sheriff Lomax saw it and correctly interpreted the frown. He said, ‘it’s all right, boy, they’re just checking on your animals.’

Before he could reply a young woman came over to them and said, ‘there’s just the cutest foal in there, but the mare won’t let us near to check if he’s okay.’

Lando stared at her as though he had suddenly lost the ability to understand English.

The young girl who could not have been more than sixteen said, ‘the other animals are  mighty skittish right now.’ Just then a small scream came from the direction of the barn and the young girl rolled her eyes then laughed and said, ‘oops, looks like Florrie found a Raccoon, she’s scared of
'em, but I thinks they’re real sweet. Guess I’m gonna have to let her deal with the cute li’l bunnies.’