The world came back to me slowly and painfully. I could barely hear Jackson’s voice and one other urging somebody to hurry, to hurry the fuck up. One side of my head was a mass of pain, and opening my right eye was almost enough to make me want to puke. Shot, I’d been shot, but somehow I was still alive. My shoulder and head were hot spikes of pain and I could hear heavy breathing next to me. I couldn’t see anything through the blood and swelling. A change in my breathing must have alerted them and they came, rough hands touching my throat, feeling for my pulse.

“He’s alive, holy shit.”

“Move over Owen,” I heard as I felt another rough set of hands and a light slap on the cheek. “Cameron? Can you hear me?”

I tried to talk, but could only open my lips. My mouth was dry and my tongue felt like it was sticking to the edges of my mouth. I managed to make some sort of sound, but everything hurt. I could hear the crunch of tires and feel the wind passing as some sort of vehicle raced away.

“I sent Owen to show the ambulance where to turn in. It took me forever to find you guys, you two need to hold on just a little bit longer…”

Everything faded out again, and even the pain was gone.

* * *

I tried to sit up, but couldn’t. I was too weak and was tucked in too tight. I could sort of see light around the edges of something covering my eyes. My arms weren’t restrained as far as I could tell, but my left side was still as sore as I could stand it and not cry, a hot throbbing of pain there. The pain in my forehead was gone, as well as the nausea I had expected I would have.

“Hey there,” a feminine voice greeted me. “You’re awake finally, huh?”

“Where am I?” I managed to croak.

“The hospital. Here, let me get you something to sip,” she said, a straw poking at my lips. I sucked at it greedily but she pulled it back.

“Not so fast, you should know better.”

“Alison, Jackson?” I asked, not knowing.

“I’m right here,” his deep voice moved closer until I could hear his breathing next to the bed.

“Alison?”

“She’s sleeping, right here next to you. Want me to wake her?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. I could hear her ask if something was the matter, panic in her voice. “No, I just wanted to say hi. I never thought I’d see her again.”

“Oh thank God,” she took my hand in hers and squeezed.

I knew it was hers because of how small but roughened it was.

“Did they get them?”

“Who?” Jackson asked me.

“Dade and Karen.”

“Yeah, they found Karen all right.”

“Dead?”

“Dead? No, hiding out at Tyler’s. He’s in some hot water himself. He let her get away.”

“You guys know what happened?”

“Yeah, James took a round to the stomach. He almost bit the dust, but he made it. Tough kid, almost as tough as you,” Jackson told me.

“He’s going to make it?”

“Why do you care? He was going to shoot you, just like the others were,” Jackson asked, but it was Alison’s hands that were soothing. She was rubbing the side of my face, the unhurt side, her hand slowly kneading the muscles in my neck.

“Things went to shit. I didn’t have a lot of choices and he might have died because of me.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t kill all of them and walk away,” Alison stated. Part of me hoped I’d heard that wrong.

“No, I wasn’t trying to kill anyone. I don’t even know why they were all there. Why they were coming after me.”

“Maybe you should hold off on talking for now. The doc is going to cut the bandages free in a moment and then I’ve got some folks who want to talk to you,” the harsh voice was familiar, but when I got the whiff of cigarette smoke, a spark of memory triggered finally.

“Sheila?” I asked.

“Twice as ugly and four times as mean,” Jackson said, and I could hear a slap and a mock protest. Ali giggled.

“Yeah. We are in a world of shit here. A WORLD OF SHIT,” her voice was animated, and I could tell she was pissed.

“Well… give me some time and I’ll talk to whomever you want Sheila, but I want to…”

“You can’t. Literally. Anything you tell them can get them subpoenaed. This is a huge case and the State’s Attorney General is looking into things… and now I have a federal prosecutor from the Department of Justice calling me for updates every fifteen minutes for the last week and do you know just how much trouble you’ve been?”

“I was out for a week?” I asked, dizzy from both the news and the pain that was starting to work its way into my temples.

“Yeah. You and uh, you and Tim shared a room for a day or so until I pulled a bitch fit and…” Sheila’s voice broke off and I felt the bed lower and a soft weight sit down next to me. I could smell strawberries and vanilla. Alison.

“You scared me. I thought you’d run away, ran out on us. Then Jackson took the guys out the next day and found you and James.”

“How did you find me?” I asked the room aloud.

“That’s safe. Go ahead,” Sheila was really starting to piss me off.

“We took the truck from the back corner of the riverbed where you called me from and I headed toward that jut of rocks we talked about. I saw the quad covered and figured you went out on foot. When I saw bodies on the ground in the distance, I had to go back and call the GPS coordinates in to Owen. When I saw you, I knew you were gone.” His voice wavered a moment, but he squeezed my wrist.

“But I wasn’t?” I asked, not sure how I’d lived.

“Everybody, excuse me please,” another voice came into the room bringing a flurry of sound with him from the hallway outside the door.

Sheila herded everyone back to the bench on the far side of the room while the doctor and nurse checked my vitals and basics. I felt the bandage around my head gently being tugged, and then a sharp cold of a pair of surgical scissors wedged themselves between my skin and the wrapping around my head before gently cutting it away. It came off quick after that, but the gauze padding over my eyes almost made me scream. I was panicking because I still couldn’t see, but the doctors explained the swelling had also affected my eyes, and sunlight had been bothering me. It was too bright through the thin layers, but I would live with that if I could see. I bit my lip as the doctor took his time, slowly checking each eye as he uncovered it.

“Okay, you look like your pupils are normal now. You have quite the crowd waiting to talk to you. If you aren’t feeling up to it, let me know and I’ll send them away. How is your pain?”

“Like I was shot. How am I still alive anyway?”

“You were hit with a small caliber pistol round. A .22 is what we pulled out of your shoulder. Not sure what got you in the head. Probably the same, but we didn’t recover it. The bullet skipped off your skull and was lost out there somewhere.”

“It what?”

“Son, you were shot in the head. Not straight on. The bullet ricocheted off your thick skull,” Jackson said from across the room.

“God, I thought I was going to be blind.”

“You almost were. The swelling in your head gave us all kinds of fits. That’s why we kept you out for a few days, we turned the drip off a couple days ago and we were waiting for you to wake up.”

“So I’ll be fine?” I asked, hopeful, the bright lights not blinding me anymore and I could make out the grainy shapes of my family.

“As long as you don’t mind that scar over your eye; I have a friend who does plastic surgery.”

“No. Not now. Thanks.”

“Oh, and those visitors, they are quite insistent. Hit the call button if you need me. I’ll run them all out. I’d really rather they waited, but it’s the FBI.” His voice was reverent.

“Thanks, doc.” I said smiling, meeting Alison’s gaze, her radiant smile filling my whole world with joy. “Hey Jackson, Ali, do Mom and Dad…?”

“Yeah, they’re here too. They just headed down to the cafeteria. Want me to go get them?” Jackson asked, standing.

“That’d be a great idea. How about you join them?” Sheila asked Alison. I’d had enough of Sheila’s mouth and I was about to tell her so when Ali nodded and gave me a little wave and smiled.

“Good. Now, I’ve got investigators for both the state and government here. Do not answer their questions unless I tell you to. If you are tired, worn out or want me to tell them to fuck off until you are better I will. Do you understand me?”

“I do. Why is this…?”

“A cluster fuck?” Her breath smelled like the last cigarette she smoked, and if I could have backed up a step I would have. “Before we get into that, I want you to ask you a question. Do you know how much a casino is worth?”

“What?”

“Do you know how much money a casino is worth? I hope everything ends here today, but none of us knows how bad it is, or how bad it will get. How much do you know about them?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s the reason why the water was diverted, according to James.”

“He’s talking?”

“His own family tried to gun him down. He’ll have a colostomy bag for a while; of course he’s talking, you shit, he cut a deal.”

“Are you always so foul mouthed?” I asked her, smiling at her surprised expression.

“Usually. I’m old. Oh shit, here’s tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber. Shut the fuck up unless I tell you to answer something. Tell me when you want a break or want them to leave. Got it?” she asked me as two suits pushed their way into the room.

“Hi, I’m agent Kline, FBI, this is Agent Black,” the tall thin one introduced them both.

“Cameron,” I held out my hand, noticing how weak I was, but happy that I could move.

“Gentlemen, Cameron has just awoken from a medically induced coma, after he’s had surgery to remove a slug from his shoulder and a bad concussion from a bullet skipping across his skull.”

“Thank you, counselor, we’re aware of his injuries. We do have to ask these questions,” agent Black sounded dismissive.

“Make sure you don’t cross the line agents, or I’ll have your asses,” Sheila growled to agent Black.

“Do you know this woman?” Agent Kline held up Karen’s photo. I nodded.

“We used to date years ago. She’s the one who shot me, shot James, too.”

“Are you sure it was her?” Agent Black asked.

“Yes. Very sure,” both agents just nodded and pulled up another picture, a picture of Dade.

“How about this gentleman?” Kline asked me.

“Sure, that’s Dade, Carl’s foreman. He was there, but I don’t know if he did anything more than fire off warning shots,” I didn’t know why, but suddenly I was feeling defensive of the vet.

“Are you sure of that?”

“No, not when I was struggling to get out of there alive,” I admitted.

“What can you tell us about Sheriff Tyler Bart?”

“That he’s useless as a law man. He wouldn’t arrest his nephew when the evidence was so stacked up against him. I hear there have been other issues as well. He did seem to be a caring uncle.”

“Tim is in this hospital, isn’t he?” Kline asked.

“Yeah.”

“How much involvement do you think he had with things?” Black asked me.

“I honestly don’t know. I still don’t understand exactly what happened with Karen, Dade, and James. Sheila asked me about casinos, but I just got back from overseas a week ago. Ooops, maybe longer than that,” I amended, remembering that I’d been out.

“Okay, so let’s go over some things again.”

I repeated everything that had happened over the course of the past few days, holding nothing back. Apparently, when my text message finally went through, while I was on my trip to the hospital, Bill had recognized and put some of the pieces together, calling the state police who kicked the information up to the local FBI branch.

He had no idea at that point what had happened, and it was half a day later when I was stabilized that Jackson and Alison had gotten hold of them. They literally had half a day’s worth of things to wrap up and to get on the airplane. It was still almost two days of flying to get home.

Tyler refusing to take his wife into custody before she could skip town with Dade had all but gotten him arrested. He was done as the sheriff. As an elected official, there was enough pressure from the state and local authorities to have him step down and leave the city. Carl was crushed. Of everyone in this tragedy, he was only guilty of being an ass, and not getting Tim help sooner. He explained away his son’s increasing instability as too many hormones and being a young man. Still, I secretly hoped that Tim had made it.

Overall, the plot had been too simple. There was already enough bad blood between the two ranches that when the water was diverted, which was timed during some development on Carl’s ranch, Bill had naturally blamed his longtime enemy. Knowing that a legal battle would take a year or more, the plan would have been safe if I hadn’t stumbled upon the reservation property.

There was no way that the casino could be built without a parking lot. The only problem was that there was a river in the way. Once the course of the river had changed, the plan could go forward. This was a huge oversimplification, but with Bill and Carl going at each other over water rights and the blame being put on Carl’s development, they might have gotten away with it.

The had plan almost worked. James had been riding through the ranch land, keeping an eye on the progress. At least one of the cuts in the fence had been him, from what he’d admitted. If our ranch had gotten water further downstream, they were in the clear no matter how long we battled things out in the courts. To throw gas on the fire, Dade and James had been the ones messing with the cattle. It kept all eyes on the Bart ranch.

“Are you two almost done?” Sheila interrupted after our back and forth for a while. I was filling in as many holes for them as they were filling them in for me.

“Yeah, just a few more questions,” Kline said, holding up a hand.

“Sure,” I said, sipping water out of a Styrofoam cup and feeling a growing pressure on my bladder.

“Can you tell me about Karen’s family?” Black asked me, and out of left field, a missing piece of the puzzle clicked into place.

“Yeah, big contractors. One of the largest builders in the state actually. You could probably get more from Tyler; I only dated her for a year in high school, forever ago.”

“The former sheriff isn’t cooperating at this point,” Kline said.

“Are they involved with this?” I asked, either of them.

“Yes, though not the way you may think. Karen and Dade…” Kline looked at Black, who just nodded. “Well, their names were tracked back to a corporation that hired Karen’s family to start building the casino.”

“How does that work? They have money like that?”

“No, no they didn’t. But they had a deal with the council on the reservation… a percentage of ownership and the corporation would foot the bill for the initial investment, getting the construction and permits off the ground. Once the reservation saw some sort of progress and incentive to keep it going, they were going to finance the rest. It was the first part they could never get approval on, and Dade and Karen figured out a way to move the course of water and keep everyone’s eyes off what they were doing.”

“Was the Council of Elders and the construction firm in on this?” Sheila asked, re-asserting herself into the situation.

“We’re looking into Karen’s family. So far, it looks like she took on the risks, and just signed her daddy onto what looked like a sweetheart deal. The only thing he’s out of is some time with a dozer. How they dammed the river is still something we’re investigating, but we think she used her family’s contacts to order equipment and supplies.”

“So you don’t know much.”

“No, not at this point.”

“What about the Council of Elders?”

“They had no clue. They were delighted to have someone come and solve a troublesome issue they had no clue how to deal with. They should have looked into how Karen and Dade’s company planned on fixing the water issue, but they figured that Karen’s family connections and husband could…”

“Sweeten up the process? Pay off inspectors?” I asked them.

“We may never know. It does appear that Karen was the one behind the dealings. Dade is signed on as a partner in the corporation they have together. Who knows? The rumor is they were lovers,” Kline told me.

“Yeah, I figured as much as well. So, what happens now?” I asked everyone present, and I could see somebody pushing at the hospital room door, peeking in with small eyes.

“Nothing with you. You’ve cooperated with these agents. If they find Karen and Dade, you’ll need to testify against them for the attempted murder.”

“So they are really gone?” I asked, and both agents nodded.

“Dade was working for Carl to stir the fire between the ranches behind the scenes. Looks like Karen did what she was always accused of doing, being a nasty gold digger, but now we can add attempted murder to it, right boys?”Sheila’s raspy voice cut through the tension in the air.

“Yes, if we find them both.”

“Any chance that will happen?”

“Border Patrol has them pegged in Mexico now. They passed through before we knew what was going on. We’re working on extradition, but we’re pretty sure they’ve moved on from here.”

“Shit.”

“Yup,” Sheila agreed. “Okay boys, I’m going to give Cam a break. He’s been more than helpful and unless you have the others in custody, leave us alone for a while, okay?”

“Just don’t leave town. We might have a few questions later on down the road,” agent Black told me, before standing and following Kline out the door.

“Like they could make me,” I muttered.

“Good, I’m glad that’s over,” Sheila said, with a big breath.

“You thought it’d go worse?”

“I had no time to talk to you, and James has lawyered up. You’re the closest thing to a prosecutorial witness they have. Right now, they have jack and shit, and jack left town.” She smiled at me. “Besides, they just needed to close the book on this. I’m surprised they didn’t ask you about trespassing on reservation land with weapons of mass destruction?” The last more of a question than the statement it sounded like.

“I had a pistol and a rifle.”

“At first, they thought you were the one who shot James.”

“That’s just crazy.”

“Yes, it was. That’s why the sheriff’s department has your guns.”

“So you’ll help me get them back?”

“Something like that.”