“Riley, wait!” I yelled. “Stop!”

She halted, Carly on her back, and turned back to face me, my flashlight lit up the fear on her face. She was half-naked, her back and body scratched up from the plants or rocks or whatever the hell it was. Her face was streaked with dirt, and so was Carly’s.

My heart threatened to fucking explode.

They were alive. I’d found them. They were alive.

“Daddy?” Carly asked, peering into the light, over Riley’s shoulder, her pupils dilated from it.

I shifted the flashlight’s beam to the left, so they could make me out. “It’s me. It’s me, baby.”

“Oh my god,” Riley whispered and let Carly down into the sand. My daughter dashed toward me, and I lowered myself, accepted her hug and lifted her, squeezing her to my chest.

“Daddy,” Carly whispered, and wetness spread across my neck from her tears.

“Oh, baby, it’s OK, I’m here now,” I said, and walked over to Riley’s side, killing the flashlight as I did.

“You got my pin,” she said, quietly, standing stock still. “I’m sorry, Bryan. I’m so sorry this happened. I tried to hide Carly, but they found her and—”

“I don’t care,” I said, and grabbed her by the back of the neck, brought my lips to hers. A chaste kiss. “I’m just glad you’re safe. Both of you.”

Carly sat back in my arms and looked up at me. “Can we go now?”

“Yeah, we can—”

“Can we go now?” A voice drifted through the dark, high-pitched, followed by a snicker of laughter. A light clicked on, and footsteps crunched closer. “There you are. Man, I have been looking for you all night. You’re a slippery little bitch, aren’t you?” Marcus’s voice was filled with malevolent intent.

I gritted my teeth. “Take Carly,” I said and handed my daughter over to Riley. “Run if you have to. I’ll find you again.”

A gun cocked, and the flashlight dropped to the sand, revealing Marcus in all his non-glory. That motherfucker deserved to die, not to be arrested, but to perish in ultimate pain. Marcus pointed his pistol past me, at Carly and Riley.

“You didn’t really think I’d let you walk away, did you, Riley?”

“Shut up,” she replied. “I didn’t walk, I ran. You’re nothing to me, Marcus, and you never will be again.”

“That’s fine,” he said, “I’ll be happy to make you nothing to me too. Nothing but worm food.”

I stepped in front of Riley and Carly, my arms out to the side. “You’re going to learn that you can’t always get what you want, Marcus.” I blocked them completely. When he moved to re-aim, I moved with him, shifting back and forth, until he had no choice but to aim his weapon directly at me.

“You think I won’t kill you?” Marcus asked. “I’ll admit, I would’ve preferred to have killed them first, made tonight even worse for you, you know? But if this is how it has to happen, that’s fine by me.”

I looked back over my shoulder at Riley. “Run,” I said, “I’ll find you again.”

“You think you’re smart?” Marcus asked. “That’s right, they can run. They can sneak, but I will find them again. Even now, I have men closing in on this position. It’s over, Roman. It’s done. Any attempt to escape would be futile at this point.”

“Big words for a small brain,” I said.

Behind me Riley’s footsteps backed away. “Daddy,” Carly whimpered, and my heart twisted in my chest. My daughter had seen too much. Been through too much, and it was all thanks to this motherfucker standing in front of me right now.

“Daddy,” Marcus mimicked her again. “Your daughter’s as pathetic as you are.”

“So this is it, huh?” I asked. “You’re going to stand there talking smack like some old-school movie villain, while your targets escape? Congratulations, asshole, you’re a walking cliché.”

“Cliché this,” he said and squeezed the trigger. The muzzle’s flash and pop broke the night. I threw myself to the side, rolled in the dirt, pain searing in my shoulder. Fuck, I’m hit. But the pain was fucking nothing in comparison to the fear I’d felt earlier, upon arriving at my home and finding the two people I loved the most, gone.

My family.

I rolled behind a large rock, and reached into the back of my jeans, brought out the Glock and cocked it.

“What are you going to do, now?” Marcus asked, walking closer at a leisurely pace. “Bleed out in the desert?” He circled the rock, his gun arm down, now, as if he’d won. This mother fucker really thought he’d won from one potshot.

I lifted the Glock and aimed it squarely at his head. “Drop your weapon,” I said.

Marcus’s eyes widened and his mouth flapped open and closed, like a fish out of water.

“Drop it,” I repeated.

“Or what? You’re going to shoot me, Roman? You don’t have the balls. You left the Crimson Riders because you didn’t have the balls to—”

I rose from the ground, one knee, then another, one foot, then the other, aiming the gun at his head.

Marcus snorted. “You gave up this life because you were scared.”

“The only thing I was scared of, jackass, was becoming like you.” I shifted the gun down and to the right, carefully, and squeezed the trigger.

Marcus jerked backward, gripped at his right arm and yelled. He dropped his weapon in the dirt, touching shaking fingers to the bullet wound, blood coursing over his fingertips. “You—what—?”

“One for one, see?” I gestured at my own bleeding shoulder. “I can do this all night. Pick up your gun, Marcus. Let’s have a stand-off, you and me.” The ugly part of me, the one I’d kept hidden for years, reared its head.

I pictured shooting him point-blank, ending him now, ending the torture of my family, of Riley. Killing a man.

My gun was steady in my hand. Marcus trembled, pale around the lips. “You’re fucking crazy.”

“That’s right, I am. I’m fucking crazy. I’m crazy because you made me this way, asshole.” I strode forward and pressed the muzzle against his temple, grabbed the front of his t-shirt, and dragged him so close I could smell the stench of his sweat. “You wanted to play with me, you got it. Let’s play.” I cocked the gun and stared directly into his eyes.

Bloodshot, likely high, even though that shit wouldn’t have flown in my day, Marcus licked his lips. “Don’t do this,” he said.

“Why not? Why shouldn’t I wipe you off the face of the planet?” My forehead was pressed against his, and I stared at him, unblinking. “Why shouldn’t I destroy any memory of who you were, right now? Give me a reason, asshole.”

“Please,” Marcus said, quietly. “Please, don’t—please, I don’t want to die.”

“Why not? What do you have left?”

“Please.” His voice tremored, now, and I didn’t doubt if I looked down he’d have a large wet spot spreading down the front of his worn jeans.

Could I kill this man? Even after everything that had happened? After he’d taken Carly. After he’d threatened to murder them both. My finger moved to the trigger.

“Please,” he said. “I’m sorry. Please, don’t…”

“Drop your weapon,” a voice called through the dark.

I looked up. Clint strode toward us, into the half-light created by Marcus’s flashlight on the ground. He wore the Crimson Riders jacket and held up a gun, but it wasn’t pointed at me. He took up a practiced stance, his gun up and ready.

“Please,” Marcus said, tears spilling down his cheeks now. “Please.”

I had no sympathy for this man.

In the past, the old me would’ve shot him point-blank for what he’d done. Would’ve walked away without guilt on my shoulders or a care in the world. But I wasn’t that man anymore. And I never would be again.

I stepped away from Marcus and dropped the Glock to the sand, lifting my hands. “He’s all yours,” I replied.

Marcus let out a sigh, glancing sideways at Clint. He nodded, as if he expected the other man to train the pistol on me instead. Perhaps, he truly believed that—Clint had infiltrated the Riders, after all.

“All his?” Marcus chuckled. “That’s cute.”

“I thought so,” I replied, tucking my hands into my pockets, then wincing at the pain in my shoulder.

“Once again, you have no idea who you’re dealing with or talking to,” Marcus said and smiled at Clint, who did nothing in return. “I’ve got your cop under my wing and always have. You should’ve killed me when you had the chance. And you,” he said, pointing at Clint. “You arrived in the nick of time.” He shifted the finger toward me. “Kill him. The other two ran off into the desert. We can still find them.”

Clint lifted the pistol and fired off a round into the air above Marcus’s head.

The president dropped down in the sand with a shriek, covering himself. I didn’t budge but watched this play out, even though I didn’t need to. The world swayed in front of me, and wetness trickled down my arm. The shot. You need treatment.

I ignored the thought and waited.

“What the hell are you doing?” Marcus asked, clambering to his feet again, kicking up dust. His face was taut and sweaty now, no longer a pretty boy or a hard-ass. “I told you to kill him.”

“That was a warning shot,” Clint said and pointed the gun at Marcus again. “The next shot I fire will be a killing shot, unless you do exactly as I say.”

“What? What are you doing?”

“I believe it’s a double-cross,” I said, and the ground swayed again. I smiled, woozily.

“No,” Marcus said. “No, that’s not possible. That’s—”

“You didn’t really think you were invincible, did you?” I asked and stumbled over to the rock, leaned against it, gripping my arm now. I didn’t have to look down to know this was bad. I’d been shot before, but I’d never bled out. Never gotten dizzy after.

“Put your hands behind your head, and get on your knees,” Clint commanded.

“Fuck you! No. I’ll have you killed for this,” Marcus replied, distinctly whiny now. “I’ll have your whole family killed. I’ll see you rot in hell before I’m—”

“Down on your knees,” Clint said.

Marcus gritted his teeth.

“You’d better do what he says.” My voice was barely audible, even to me.

My thoughts turned to Riley and Carly, as Clint stepped forward and removed cuffs from his back pocket. As he clapped them on Marcus and read the motherfucker his rights, Marcus spoke, screamed, kicked in the dirt. Tried to run.

Clint clotheslined him and put him down in the dirt, holstered his weapon and drew out his Taser instead.

Once again, Marcus rolled over and sat up, scrambled to his feet again, tried running off.

It was weird—out of focus, all happening at once, but not at all in one moment. The culmination of all this crap, of my past, of Riley’s, of what I’d tried to achieve since my life had changed. Everything was hazed over, in slow-motion. The desert too.

Marcus kicked up dirt, and he glanced back over one shoulder, baring teeth far too white. Clint fired the Taser, and it struck him in the back. He jerked on the spot, frozen in mid-air for what seemed like an eternity, then tumbled to the ground.

I sank down against the rock, turned my head away from Marcus, looked up at the stars overhead, the moon, a crescent waning. Riley. Carly. My family.

Their faces appeared in front of me, fading in and out of view, as the fingers of darkness crept into my vision.