Page 15 of Ransom
"You could fuck him again. Before. Seems like a waste otherwise."
Footsteps moved in the sand behind me, coming closer, and I got my first look at Ransom as he stepped into the firelight. He'd cleaned up since the shack. He wore a different shirt, same hat, with his rifle slung over his shoulder. He crouched by the fire and fed it a piece of wood, not looking at me, not looking at anything.
"If he reports back," Ransom said, "the whole operation gets exposed. Everything Rafe built. Everyone here. The boys in the bunkhouse, Sierra, all of it. Gone."
Coyote hummed. I still couldn't see him.
"So we find out what he knows," Ransom said. "Who he told. Whether anyone's coming. Then we decide."
"You already decided," Coyote said. "You decided in the shack. You just don't want to admit it."
"I didn't decide anything."
"You didn't pull the trigger on the ridge. You didn't kill him in the shack. You're not going to kill him now." Coyote's voice went sing-song. "Ransom likes the Ranger. Ransom wants to keep him."
"I want to protect the ranch."
"You want to protect the ranch and fuck the Ranger. You can't do both. That's why you smell confused."
Ransom drew his lips into a straight line and glared at the fire.
There it was. The killing didn't bother him; that part he'd done before. What he didn't have a frame for was killing the man he'd had on his knees a few hours ago.
And under that, God help me, was something worse. My body had taken note of him. The line of his jaw under the hat brim, his crouch by the fire, the hands that had been on me three hours ago and might be on me again before this was over, just for different reasons. Buried up to my neck in sand, and I still wanted him to put his weight on me.
That. That right there was going to keep me alive.
"Well," I said, loud enough to carry. "Y'all gonna give me back my hat before or after you kill me?"
Ransom turned toward me fast. Coyote appeared at the edge of the firelight like he'd materialized out of smoke, all wild hair and bare feet and a snake wound around his shoulders that was definitely not a goddamn garter snake.
"He's awake," Coyote said, delighted. "I told you he'd wake up. I'm very good at hitting people just hard enough."
"That's not something to be proud of," Ransom said.
"It is if you do it right."
Ransom tightened his jaw another degree and glanced at my mouth, then back up fast.
"Hey there," I said. "Hell of a second date."
"Shut up."
"I'm just saying. The sand was a choice. Could've just shot me. I'd have respected that more."
Coyote laughed. It was a bright, unhinged sound that echoed off the trees. "I like him. Can we keep him?"
"No."
"Why not? He's funny. And he smells like you. We could make him do tricks."
"We're not keeping him." Ransom looked at me. "Who knows you're out here?"
I met his eyes. This was it. This was where I either talked my way into staying alive or I didn't.
"My captain knows I'm investigating a body on Pae Saco land," I said. "Doesn't know I met you specifically. Doesn't know I'm out here right now. I was supposed to check in tomorrow morning."
"And if you don't?"
