Page 14 of Blood Ties
“I didn’t— We just— Our car—” Caleb babbles from the floor. Dad presses the barrel of the shotgun into his forehead, and he falls silent, lip quivering.
“Their car broke down,” Knox says, finally. “We brought ‘em in for the night.”
There was noweinvolved in that decision, but I stay silent.
Footsteps approach from the living room, and Dad’s gun swings in that direction as the bigger guy, Felix, steps into view. He stops, slowly raising his hands.
“Whoa,” Felix says. “Okay, alright, there’s no need for that.”
Dad spits on the floor between them. “Don’t you tell me what I need, boy. You’re trespassin’ in my house.”
Felix stays surprisingly steady with the gun aimed at him. “I understand, sir, and I’m real sorry about that. I think there’s been a misunderstanding.” His eyes flick to Knox, back to Dad. “Your son invited us in for the night. We weren’t aware we were unwelcome.” Even now, he’s calm and composed. A stark contrast to his friend blubbering on the floor, or May still shrieking outside.
Dad’s gaze narrows. “Is that so?”
Felix nods. “Maybe now that you’re here, you could take a look at our car? John at the bar said you were the best man for it, and we’re eager to get out of your way, Mr. Duvall.”
Smart,I think. He’s saying the locals have seen him and his friends, and giving Dad an easy out.
Dad lowers the gun, smirking. “Well when you put it that way, it sounds easy, don’t it?”
Felix lowers his hands, mirroring him. “I don’t see why it needs to be anything else, sir.”
Outside, May’s screams go silent.
Everyone except Dad turns towards the door as it swings open. Uncle Frank lumbers in, bringing a wave of tobacco and sweat stench. It always strikes me how huge he is, solid as a brick, his eyes small and piggish in his round, simple face. Dad’s cruel machinations hold this house in an iron grip, but sometimes Frank’s brutish animal violence frightens me even more.
Like now, as he dumps the limp body on the kitchen floor. May’s head lolls at an impossible angle. Her eyes are stuck wide-open, her blonde waves matted with blood and dirt.
Frank doesn’t speak. He never does. He just grins, mouth full of rotten teeth and his beady little eyes glinting in mad delight.
Caleb, half-forgotten on the floor, acts first. He throws himself at Dad’s legs with an incoherent shout, and the surprise takes the much bigger man to the floor. Dad’s gun goes off with acrackthat makes Knox and I flinch back, but Felix barrels forward to grab for it.
He and Dad grapple with the gun. It goes off again, shattering a half-empty beer bottle from last night. Frank stumbles back, raising an arm to shield his eyes. One of his boots lands on May’s limp arm with a sickening crunch.
“Do somethin’!” Dad shouts. “You fuckin’ idiots!”
For a moment, Knox and I both freeze. I wonder sometimes if he, like me, ever considers making a break for it. But if so, every time he reaches the same conclusion that I do: if one member of the family goes down, we all go down together. We’ve got too much blood on our hands.
Knox lunges forward and grabs Felix around the middle, shoving him up and away from Dad, who is still struggling with Caleb. The gun goes flying and clatters to the floor between them. My eyes lock on it, forgotten amid all this struggle. I take one step forward. Another.
Then I hear a shout, and whirl around to see Riley charging at me with a knife in hand.
?
