Read Online A Very Good Man by P. S. Power - Free Book Online

were too stupid to figure out his “clever” tricks? Let's not fall for it. There is no relationship, and if there was, we'd obviously both wear the pants. Everyone wears pants now. By the way Holsom, if you keep making trouble, I will shoot you. I'm looking for a reason after you sent your buddies to kill Nate last night. Honestly I may just decide that's reason enough.” Jake waved at him and kept his voice low and dark.
  “Yeah, don't bother denying it, everyone knows. Could you get more obvious than sending in your own lackeys? You should have at least tried to get some of your girlfriends to try it instead. That had to be the most moronic thing I've ever seen. You couldn't even wait a few days for people to let their guards down?”
  It was a dig and from the looks on their faces, everyone else really didn't know it yet. Well, you'd think someone would have guessed by now. Other than him. Carley gave him a really funny look then and nodded.
  “Exactly. The only thing is, we'll tie you to that tree so I can shoot you if it comes down to it. That's why I have the gun. To kill you.” She pointed at the ex-cop with it, the safety still off. Normally a very bad idea. Well, if you liked the person you were gesturing at.
  Looking at her Jake kept chanting to himself for the weapon to go off. Trying to will it to happen, smiling hopefully. It didn't. Well, anyone that thought life was fair was dead or a zombie by now. Holsom didn't look scared, which made no sense. There had to be at least a forty percent chance that the weapon would go off the way she'd been holding it and waving it around. After she put it away Jake smiled big, forced and a bit resigned.
  “Nate, Jose, there's rope in the cart, right? Um, soga en el carro?” The translation was rough, but then he'd taken French in high school. Worse, he wasn't even good at it and had gotten B's.
  Still, Jose got it and smiled hugely.
  “Si!” Then he rambled off a line of Spanish so fast that no one but Nate got it. Their leader was nearly fluent. It got a laugh and an answering line from the leader.
  “He said that he has a good rope for hanging in the cart if need be. He even knows how to tie the knots properly and recommends we put Derrick in the back of the cart and pull it out from under him, which will allow him to strangle to death slowly.”
  Jake smiled and looked at the small dark skinned man, “Bueno.”
  That got an even bigger smile from Jose, who obviously took a lot more from context than Jake had figured. Or he understood more than he let on. Either way worked. If he knew how to tie a real hangman's noose all the better, they could save a bullet.
  The wood gathering was hard work, but went fast enough. They couldn't work the cart into the woods very far, still, for the first day the amount wasn't bad. They managed a full cart load every three hours or so, using the chainsaws. The last load went faster, since Jake asked if they could just load up the cart with logs. They got a half load of them. Apparently logs were a lot heavier than they looked. The tires sagged a bit and tried to press into the soil as they worked it back, everyone pulled or pushed. Holsom so obviously slacking off that it really only counted as nine people doing the work and a few of them were small, like Dave and Tipper. Molly actually tried at least, which made Jake feel better.
  It had been a long time since she'd actually worked at anything really. Except dying, and she kept sucking at that. Maybe she could finally get herself around? That would be good. He was of two minds about her, but if he had to pick a path for the girl, she'd get to live and maybe even be happy someday.
  Burt saw the logs and nodded at them, gesturing to Jake who motioned that Carley would be wanted too. Since she was in charge of it all, it wouldn't do to leave her out. Besides, given it was Carley, she'd throw a fit if they tried, even if it just turned out to be a discussion