“It hurts less if you don’t see it coming,” Wes said to Lou over her muttered protest.
“Is he okay?” she lisped, her lip already swelling.
“Yeah. He’s just unconscious,” Wes mumbled as he walked around Lou. His cell phone rang. He flipped open the cover.
“I have them secure. In the barn,” he said, then closed the phone and put it away.
Moments later, Gary, the goon from the jewelry store, and Jerry, the boss, walked through the door of the barn.
“Well what do we have here?” Jerry asked casually, as though he was attending a social event.
Wes replied, “Sleeping like a baby is Brody Wester, who is still trying to figure out what the hell is going on.” He pointed to Brody and smirked. “And here we have Mary Lou Smith,” he said, pointing to Lou.
“So nice to finally meet you,” he said quietly as he lit a cigarette, then looking at Lou from head to toe. He reached to caress the side of her face. “Such a shame he had to hit you,” he said.
Lou was surprised to see that Jerry was a physically fit gentleman in his early forties.
“You killed my mother,” Lou stated blandly, using the back of her taped hands to wipe spit from her dripping lip.
“A necessary part of doing business, I’m afraid,” Jerry said as he raised the cigarette to his lips again.
“What do you want?” Lou asked. “The diamond?” Her eyes met his without fear.
“Among other things,” he responded.
“What other things?” Lou asked.
“Where is it?” Jerry asked, turning to Wes. Wes reached into his coat pocket and removed the large cask. He held it out to Jerry and flipped it open.
“I had forgotten how big that thing was.” He picked it up and held it in his hand, testing its weight. “That was what your mom saw. How big it was. She was desperate.”
“She beat you at your own game,” Lou sneered.
He grabbed Lou’s chin and squeezed hard. “No one beats me.”
Lou threw her head to shake her chin out of his hold. “What are you going to do?” she asked.
“The only thing I can do,” he said, taking his gun from the holster beneath his jacket.
Lou stiffened as Jerry pulled his gun from the holster. She sat forward slightly, getting ready to move. She looked over her shoulder at Brody, his form still at rest.
“The only thing you can do is kill me.” Lou stated. “I never had any hope of coming out of this alive.”
Jerry shrugged. “I don’t have a choice. You’re a liability, just like your mother was.”
“You won’t walk away from this,” Lou said, hoping to antagonize him.
“Oh, sure I will,” he boasted. “Just like I walk away from all the others.”
“What others?” Lou asked. If she had to die today, she would at least get all the info the FBI needed to put Jerry away for a long time.
He waved the gun and took on an air of self-importance. “All the others who got in my way,” he said absently.
“Like who?” Lou asked.
Jerry got a gleeful gleam in his eye. He nodded toward Wes. Then their gazes locked. “You think I don’t know who you are?” he asked, raising his gun and pointing it at Wes.
Wes raised both hands as though surrendering. “Whoa, there,” he said, the corners of his mouth lifting slowly. “What’s going on?” he asked.