Page 83 of God’s Country

“Don’t need your money,” Adam said. He eyed me. “Did they really kill two men?”

“They did.”

“He’ll shoot you?”

“He will.”

Adam gave another slight nod. “No choice, then.”

“Good. That’s settled. Get the pack,” Ollie said to his brother. “In the tent.”

When Stan had gone, Ollie said to me, “You’re the biggest pain in the ass I ever ran into.”

“Likewise,” I said.

“The difference between us is that I have the Glock.”

“A lot more difference than that.”

“The big difference then.”

Looking at his face was like looking into a pit filled with vipers. His voice was calm, but rage seethed in every word. I knew, knew absolutely, that he had no intention of flying out of the Boundary Waters while I was still alive.

Stan came from the tent carrying the pack.

“Get on the plane,” Ollie said to him. “You and the pilot.”

“You get on,” Stan said. “There are some things I need to say to this man.”

“I told you to get on the plane,” Ollie said.

“Not before I talk to him, explain things.”

“Nothing to explain,” Ollie said. “Get on the damn plane.”

Stan stood looking at his brother, assessing him. Then he said, “You’re going to kill him, aren’t you?”

“Get on the plane.”

“I’m not going to let you kill him. The killing’s done.”

“Not till I say so. Get on the plane.” He nailed his brother with a dark look and turned the gun his way. “Or I might just have to shoot you, too.”

“You’d kill me?”

“Maybe just a knee shot. But first him.”

Once again, he brought the Glock to bear on me. He didn’t fire, because he saw the smile on my face.

“What’s so funny?” he demanded.

“I saw my death years ago. And I don’t die here.”

“We’ll just see about that.”

He raised the Glock and aimed it directly at my heart. But before he could pull the trigger, Stan intervened.

He stepped between me and Ollie. He swung the pack and hit his brother square in the chest. Ollie stumbled back. To this day, I don’t know if it was completely an accident or if there was some deep, dark impulse that drove Ollie to a kind of madness. But the gun went off. And Stan went down with a bullet in his heart.