Hostage

Dennis tried not to look at Mars after his conversation with Talley, but he couldn't help himself. He thought about what Kevin had told him, about Mars wanting to shoot that cop who had come to the door, about Mars lying that the cop had pulled his weapon and Mars firing first. Maybe Talley had something; maybe Dennis could beat the rap if it was Mars who shot the officer, and not him. If Kevin backed him up, they might be able to cut a deal with the prosecutor for their testimony against Mars. Dennis felt a desperate hope, but then he remembered the money. If he cut a deal, he had to give up the money. He shoved the phone aside and turned back to the others. He wasn't ready to give up the cash.

Kevin looked at him anxiously.

'Are they giving us the helicopter?'

'No. We gotta find another way out of here. Let's start looking.'

The girl and her fat brother were still kneeling beside their father. She started on him right away.

'There's nothing to look for. You've got to do something to help my father.'

She still held the washcloth to her father's head, but now the ice was melted and the cloth was soaked. Dennis felt a flash of annoyance.

'Shut up, all right? I've got a situation here, in case you haven't noticed.'

Her face worked harder.

'All you're doing is watching yourself on TV. You hurt him. Look at him. He needs a doctor.'

'Shut up.'

'It's been hours!'

'Put more ice in the cloth.'

'Ice doesn't help!'

The fat boy started crying.

'He's in a coma!'

The girl surprised him. She lurched to her feet with the abrupt fury of a jack-in-the-box and stomped toward the door.

'I'm getting a doctor!'

Dennis felt outside of himself, as if the weight of the cops and his being trapped in this house were all suddenly real where they hadn't been before. He caught her in two steps, slapping her just the way his old man used to lay out the old lady, that shrill bitch. He caught the girl square on the side of the face with the weight of his hand, knocked her flat fucking down to the floor. The fat boy shouted her name and charged, pummeling Dennis like an angry midget. Dennis dug his fingers into the soft meat on the back of the boy's neck, and the fat boy squealed. Then Kevin was shoving him away.

'STOP IT!'

Kevin pushed the fat boy down with his sister, placing himself between them and Dennis.

'Just stop it, Dennis. Please!'

Dennis was in a blood fury. He wanted to beat Kevin down, to smash his face and kick him into a pulp. He wanted to beat the fat boy and the girl, then throw the cash in the Jaguar and crash out of the garage and shoot it out with the cops all the way down to Mexico.

Mars was staring at him, his face a shadow, his eyes tiny glints of strange light like ferrets peering from caves.

Dennis shouted, 'What?'

Mars made the quiet smile and shook his head.

Dennis stepped back, breathing hard. Everything was coming apart. Dennis looked back at the television, half expecting to see the cops storming the house, but the scene outside was exactly as it had been minutes before. The girl was holding her face in her hands. The fat boy was glaring with hate-filled eyes like he wanted to cut Dennis's throat. Their father was breathing noisily through his nose. The pressure was making him crazy.

Dennis said, 'We gotta do something with them. I can't deal with this shit.'

Mars lumbered to his feet, large and gross.

'We should tie them up so we don't have to worry about them. We should have done that anyway.'

Dennis hooked his head toward the girl, speaking to Kevin.

'Mars is right. We can't leave these assholes running around like this, getting in the way. Find something to tie'm up with, and take them upstairs.'

'What do I use to tie them?'

'Look in the garage. Look in the kitchen. Mars, you find something, okay? You know what we need. This turd doesn't know anything.'

Mars disappeared toward the garage. Kevin took the girl's arm as if he was afraid that she would hit him, but she stood without resisting, her face working and the tears coming harder.

'What about my father? You can't just leave him like this.'

Her father was cold to the touch; every few seconds a tremor rippled through his body. Dennis took his pulse like he knew what he was doing, but he couldn't tell a goddamned thing. He didn't like how the man looked, but didn't say anything about it because there was nothing to say.

'We'll put him on the couch. That way he'll be more comfortable.'

'He needs a doctor.'

'He's just sleeping. You take a head shot, you gotta sleep it off, is all. My old man used to beat me worse than this.'

Dennis had Kevin help lift her father onto the couch.

When Mars returned, Dennis told them to take the kids upstairs. He was tired of thinking about them. He was tired of thinking about everything except the money. He needed a way out.

JENNIFER

Mars opened the door to her room, then stepped aside so that she and Kevin could enter. He had come back from the garage with extension cords, duct tape, a hammer and nails. He gave two extension cords to Kevin.