Page 91 of Constantly Cotton
So that’s what we did. We put the dead guy on a tarp and rolled it up and put it back in the SUV, and then we tied the wounded guy up super tight, bandaged his leg, and stashed him in a corner of the garage. We weren’t mean. We gave him water. Ernie went and got the oxy we had left from last time someone got super hurt and we gave him that. The gunshot in his leg was through and through—washing it in the sink and wrapping it good wasn’t easy, but we did it.
And then we gave him more water, and Ernie left me in charge with a gun and a big soda while he fed and watered Duke and took him out to crap. He came back and watched the guy while I peed and then, because it was dark and cooler, and he was used to walking in the desert, excused himself while he took the car for a drive.
That was when Ace called me.
“Ace?” I asked, voice shaky. “You comin’ home?”
He made a pained sound. “Naw, Sonny. Not yet. We finished shit up here in Vegas—that worked out fine. But Jason’s in a heap of trouble and we need to make sure he and the kids get to Sacramento. I’m sorry. I… I want to come home, you know that, right?”
And for a whole minute, it was like I was Ernie. I saw that if I said shit went down, he’d come home, Jai too, and those kids and that guy who’d helped us a lot in the past—they’d be swinging in the cold. And for a minute, I didn’t care. Ace wasmine, and we took care of each other. He kept me and I kept him, and that’s who we were supposed to be.
“Sonny?” he asked, his voice full of worry. “You okay?”
But they were kids. Kids like I had been. And Ace didn’t want them hurt ’cause he knew I’d been hurt and he felt like rescuing them was rescuing me from a thing that had happened a long time ago but still happened sometimes in my head.
He wanted to make sure those kids didn’t have it happen in their head too.
“Fine,” I said, voice shaky. “Call me when you’re done tomorrow. I need you home when you’re done.”
“I don’t like being gone,” he said fretfully. “You and Ernie getting on all right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Ernie’s got kittens. Spent the night last night and saw ’em. Was like I was a real kid, yanno. Sleepovers.”
Ace chuckled. “Yeah. Well, hope you have as good a night tonight.”
I gave a sad look at the sweltering garage with the asshole bleeding on the floor and drinking his umpteenth bottle of water. More than they’d given those kids, I remembered. Yeah. Fuck him. I’d shoot him if I had to, so Ace could go do a big good thing.
“It should be quiet,” I said, hoping I wasn’t lying. “You take care now.”
“Yeah, you too.”
We signed off, and I thought someday we’d have to learn to say “Love you” ’cause it sure would have made me feel a damned sight better, even if I knew it was true without the words.
Anyway, Ernie showed up two hours later, sweaty and exhausted. I was tired too, but I figured he needed first nap.
It was gonna be a long fuckin’ night, but before he walked up to the house and left me in charge of the whimpering guy with the leg wound, I just had to ask him.
“Ernie, when you said, ‘Fuckin’ boom!’ what the fuck did that mean?”
Ernie blinked. “Ace and Jai just blew something up,” he said, sounding just done.
I sucked in a breath, and was about to get mad at Ace for not telling me, but then I realized Ernie had just dumped a dead guy’s body and I was watching a bad guy in our garage.
“Fuckin’ figures,” I muttered. “Get some sleep. Keep your phone by your bed. I’ll buzz you if I start nodding off.”
We switched off about three hours later, so I was fast asleep when Ace called me in the morning to let me know he was on his way home.
Part 5—Ernie
ERNIE SAWit.
All in one moment—in a heartbeat, really.
Sonny was going to lower the gun, because he didn’t want to kill anyone, and he really didn’t want Ace to be mad at him, and Ernie’s gift hit him like a giant wave.
Ernie was tumbled about in that wave like a dryer sheet in the dryer, and he’d look up one way and see what would happen if he did one thing, and look the other and see that timeline too.
He looked one way and Sonny lowered the gun and the bad guy shot him. In the head. Ernie had seen his misshapen skull and had known that the man who had once been his friend and had known… he was gone. He’d seen Ace, mad with grief, taking on the mob alone, not letting Jai or Ernie back him up.
