“Protecting them again,” Jose said as he stared at Cole, then he looked at Trevor.

Cole ignored Jose. “If we’re going to walk out of here tomorrow, then we need to get some rest. We’ll sleep in watches again. I’ll take the first watch.”

“It doesn’t matter who’s on watch,” Trevor said, “because I’m not sleeping anymore tonight.”

“Me either,” Jose said. “I’ll be up the rest of the night and on watch. I guaran-fucking-tee that.”

As the murky light of early morning invaded the cabin, Jose and Trevor slept like babies on their bedrolls. Trevor was wrapped up in the blue sleeping bag that he had called dibs on.

Cole sat at the dining room table. He glanced at Jose and Trevor as their words echoed in his mind. I’ll be up the rest of the night and on watch. I guaran-fucking-tee that. Cole smirked and sipped his cup of coffee.

A stirring noise from the living room grabbed Cole’s attention. He turned and saw Stella walking towards him out of the gloom from the living room. “Is there some more coffee?” she asked as she reached the dining room table.

“In the pot,” he told her. “Help yourself.”

Stella made a cup of coffee. She was slow about preparing the coffee. She sat down at the dining room table, close to Cole.

Cole looked at Stella with tired eyes. “Who’s out there? Who’s chasing you?”

Stella didn’t answer right away. She took a sip of her coffee. She glanced into the living room to make sure everyone else was still sleeping, and then she looked at Cole. “You wouldn’t believe me.”

Cole stared at her for a moment. He wasn’t angry, his face was expressionless. “You know who’s coming this morning, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Are they after the money?”

“No.”

“Are they after you and David?”

Stella was about to answer but a noise from the living room startled both of them – the sound of someone unlocking the deadbolt on the front door. Cole was up in a flash, his gun in his hand, ready to shoot.

But they saw David at the front door. David froze when he saw Cole with the gun pointed at him; he stared at Cole. “He’s outside waiting for you,” David said in a soft voice. “Can’t you hear him calling you?”

Cole glanced at Stella. “Get David away from the door.”

Stella rushed over to David and pulled him gently away from the door and ushered him back to the couch.

Cole jolted Trevor and Jose awake. They both jumped up, a grunt escaping Jose as his hands searched for his gun. “Whadisit?” Trevor grunted as he tried to shake off the cobwebs of sleep. “I was awake,” he lied.

“He’s out there,” Cole said to them, and then he looked at Jose. “Get Needles up.”

Jose kicked the side of the recliner and Needles sat straight up, his eyes suddenly wide open.

“Who’s out there?” Jose said as he turned back to Cole.

“The one coming to see us this morning,” Cole reminded him. “The one David was talking about.”

Cole pulled his thin leather gloves out of his coat pockets and wriggled his hands into them. He put his coat and hat on and checked his gun and racked a bullet into the chamber, ready to fire. He clicked the safety off. “Everyone get your weapons ready.”

Trevor and Jose got their coats on and already had their weapons in hand. Needles shrugged slowly into his coat. Stella and David waited on the couch, huddled together. David stared at the front door of the cabin almost like he could see through it.

Cole looked at Trevor and gestured at him to check the front window. Cole crept towards the front door, ready to open it and charge out onto the front porch.

Trevor stood beside the front window and pulled the curtain back a little so he could peek outside, his gun up beside his head, his finger on the trigger.

“What is it?” Jose hissed. He stood on the other side of the door, ready to run out right after Cole to back him up. “How many are out there?”

Trevor stared out the window for a long moment. He didn’t seem afraid, more like he was confused about what he was looking at.

“Only one,” Trevor answered Jose.

“One?” Cole asked.

Trevor backed away from the window and looked at Cole, shock on his face. “It’s Frank,” he said.

“Frank?”

“I told you I saw him,” Jose said. “You guys didn’t fucking believe me. I told you I saw him out in the woods.”

“What’s he doing out there?” Cole asked Trevor, ignoring Jose.

Trevor shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing. He’s just standing in the snow and staring at the cabin. Like he’s waiting for us to come outside.”

“Does he have a gun?”

“I didn’t see one.”

They could hear something from outside. A voice. Someone calling their names. Calling them to come outside.

“This could be a trap. They could be using Frank as some kind of bait. We all have to be ready for that.” Cole looked at Stella, hoping for some kind of help, some kind of acknowledgment, but he didn’t get any.

Cole took a deep breath and opened the door and stepped out onto the porch. Jose followed, and Trevor was right behind him.

Needles hesitated before going outside. He looked at Stella and David like he knew something about them, like he knew about the secrets they were keeping. “You coming out there?” he asked Stella.

Stella nodded. “Yeah. We need to get our coats.”

Needles was willing to wait for them.

Stella and David grabbed their coats from the end of the couch. Stella helped David get his shoes on.

Needles still waited for them.

Stella and David glanced at each other, they were ready. Needles gestured at the door with his pistol. “Let’s go,” he told them, and he waited for them to go outside first.

They walked to the doorway with Needles right behind them. Stella had a feeling that Needles was going to aim his gun at the back of their heads and pull the trigger and end their lives in an instant. But he didn’t. The three of them stepped out onto the front porch, out into the bitter cold air. The floorboards of the front porch creaked and popped under the weight of all of them standing in a tight group on the porch staring out at the front field.

Frank stood in the snow thirty yards away from the cabin. He wore the same clothes that he’d walked away in, the blue flannel shirt and dark pants. He wore no coat, no hat, no gloves. But he seemed unaffected by the cold. He just stood there, the snow up to his calves. He was statue-still and his head was cocked to the side just a bit.

“Frank,” Cole called out as his breath misted in front of his face in the freezing air. He clenched his gun in his gloved hand. “Where have you been all this time?”

Frank just stared at them, his body motionless, his eyes lifeless, his face slack, his head still cocked at that strange angle. For a moment Cole didn’t even think Frank was going to answer him, but then Frank’s face twitched and he smiled. But it was a fake smile, a wide grin that didn’t even touch his dark eyes. This person looked exactly like Frank, but he didn’t seem like Frank. Frank would’ve never had this goofy grin on his face, and it made Cole’s skin crawl. This wasn’t Frank. It couldn’t be.

“Frank!” Cole called out again. “Where did you go? Why did you leave in the middle of the night?”

“He called me out here,” Frank finally answered, his voice was guttural and deep and not like his own voice. And when he spoke, that strange smile never left his face. “I don’t expect any of you to understand.”

“Understand what?” Cole yelled out to Frank.

“He wants things, and you have to give him what he wants!”

CHAPTER TWENTY

“You have to give him what he wants!” Frank said again through that strange smile on his face, his head cocked to the side, his body motionless in the snow.

“Or what?” Trevor yelled. Trevor was jumpy, ready to charge out into the snow. His gun hand twitched just a bit. Cole hoped his little brother would hold his cool for a few moments longer. Trevor had always been the more hotheaded of the two brothers, more impulsive.