* * *
Buddy Lee could feel eyes on him. It made the hairs on his arms stand at attention. He opened his own eyes and saw Ike standing at the foot of his bed.
“What the fuck happened?” Ike said. Buddy Lee scratched at his chin, then flinched. The wound on his cheek made his whole face tender.
“Your neighbor called and told Mya the house was on fire. She was dead set on going over there. When we got there the Breed was waiting for us. House wasn’t even on fire then. They did that while we trying to get away. They came at us on the bikes, then a son of bitch driving a Bronco ran into us from the side. Ike, they took Arianna. They snatched that little girl right up. They took Mya’s phone, too. Said they’d be in touch. They wanna trade Tangerine for Arianna,” Buddy Lee said.
“No, they don’t. They want us to bring Tangerine to them so they can kill us all,” Ike said.
“Did she tell you anything about this guy?” Buddy Lee asked. Ike shook his head.
“Nope. She still can’t believe he the one doing all this. She even showed me a text message from him. That fucker talks slick as fish grease. She’s hooked,” Ike said.
“I don’t suppose she had his name on the text, did she?” Buddy Lee asked.
“She got him saved in her phone as ‘W.’ I don’t know if that’s the first letter of his first name or the first letter of his last name or what,” Ike said. He grabbed a chair that had been placed against the wall and sat down next to Buddy Lee’s bed.
“What did they say about Mya?” Buddy Lee asked.
“She got a lot going on. She in surgery right now.”
“Goddamn it. Goddamn it to hell,” Buddy Lee said. Ike heard voices in various degrees of distress drift up and down the hallway outside of Buddy Lee’s room. They joined the beeps and whistles of numerous monitors and machines to create an ambient mechanical soundtrack to Ike’s and Buddy Lee’s thoughts.
“I’m sorry, Ike,” Buddy Lee said. Ike didn’t say anything.
“I shouldn’t have let her go. I should have stopped her, but she wanted to save what she could. I should have gone over there by myself. I should have done anything but let her go out that door,” Buddy Lee said.
“Yeah, you should have. And we should have left it alone. Let the cops handle it, whatever that ended up looking like. But we didn’t and now here we are,” Ike said.
“We gotta get her back, Ike. Whatever it takes, we gotta get her back,” Buddy Lee said.
“I’m not giving them Tangerine. And I’m not going to let them hurt Arianna. They killed our boys. They killed Tangerine’s mama. They tried to kill my wife. They burned down my fucking house. I’m not letting them take one more goddamn thing,” Ike said.
“I wish I had never got you into this,” Buddy Lee whispered. Ike scooted his chair up closer to Buddy Lee’s bed.
“You didn’t twist my arm,” Ike said.
Buddy Lee swallowed hard. “What if I did, though?”
Ike cocked his head to the side. “What are you talking about?”
Buddy Lee put his hand over his face. He fingers brushed against the stitches on his cheek. The blood-pressure monitor began to beep erratically.
“Would you have gotten on with this if that tombstone hadn’t gotten smashed?” Buddy Lee asked. Ike leaned forward. His eyes narrowed to slits. Buddy Lee saw the gears in his head locking in place.
“You?” Ike said. Buddy Lee could barely hear the single syllable.
“You wasn’t gonna be down for it, and I couldn’t do it by myself. I’d asked my brother Chet and he blew me off. Look, it made me sick. I swear it made me sick to my stomach, but I knew you wouldn’t help unless…” Buddy Lee said. Ike was up and out of the chair in a matter of seconds. His powerful hands locked around Buddy Lee’s neck and lifted him up out of the bed, ripping his IV line out of the port on the back of his hand. The blood pressure monitor fell over like a rotted tree.
“YOU! Arianna might be dead. Mya is at death’s door. Tangerine’s mama is dead! All because of you! You did this!” Ike said. Spittle flew from his lips and rained down on Buddy Lee’s face.
“We … have … to … finish … it … for … the … boys,” Buddy Lee croaked. Each word cost him precious gulps of air as Ike throttled the life out of him. Buddy Lee could feel the bones in his neck being ground to powder. Ike bared his teeth. He let Buddy Lee fall back in the bed.