“Jase, don’t,” Luis said. “I’ll call the police and they’ll take him away. They’ll lock him up for years and we’ll never have to worry about him again.” Luis knew there was still time to keep his wonderful life at Cider Mill Farm in tact. He didn’t want to lose that because of one sick individual. But if Jase shot Darius and killed him on the kitchen floor, Luis knew nothing would ever be the same again. “Don’t do it, Jase. You’re not a vengeful man. You know the difference between right and wrong. He doesn’t. He’s sick and rotten to the core and he thrives on revenge. Don’t stoop to his level. Please don’t shoot him.”
Jase turned back and gazed into Luis’s eyes. He continued to hold Darius down. He hesitated for a minute, then removed the gun from Darius’s mouth and exhaled. Jase nodded at Luis; his face softened and he took a quick breath.
But the second Jase let his guard down, Darius must have sensed it. With one quick rush of adrenaline, Darius swung his arms forward and Jase fell back into cabinets. The gun slipped out of Jase’s hand and slid across the kitchen floor.
When Luis saw the gun coming toward him, he reached out and grabbed it to keep Darius from getting it. Though he’d never used a gun in his life, he was prepared to learn fast.
But Darius didn’t even try for the gun. By the time Luis and Jase were up on their feet, Darius kicked the back screen door off its hinges and ran outside. Jase snatched the gun out of Luis’s hand and they followed him. Luis suspected they were both thinking the same thing: if they didn’t catch this guy and have him locked up, they’d never rest peacefully again. Darius would always be out there stalking and lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce on them when they least expected it, seeking revenge.
When they were outside, Jase pointed the gun at the front tire of Darius’s pickup truck. Before Darius even had a chance to slam the truck door shut and start the motor, Jase shot the front tire and it went flat in seconds. Jase knew his way around a gun. Growing up in Alaska, Jase told Luis he had been trained to shoot years ago. His skills were sharp; he rarely missed his mark. “Get out of the truck and put your hands behind your back, Darius,” Jase said. “I don’t want to shoot you, but I will if I have to.” His voice went lower. “And I promise I never miss.”
Darius slowly unfolded from the truck. But he didn’t put his hands behind his back. He turned and started running down the easement road, as if daring Jase to shoot him in the back.
“Stop, Darius,” Jase yelled. “I’ll shoot if I have to.”
He stood braced to kill, with his feet apart and his arms stretched out.
Luis ran up to Jase and said, “Let him go. I want him out of here.” Luis didn’t want bloodshed on his property or Jase’s hands.
But there was a wild look in Jase’s eyes. He didn’t seem to care. He repeated, “I’ll shoot, Darius. Don’t test me.”
Darius kept running. He even looked back and said, “You don’t have the guts and you know it.”
But as Darius glanced back, something unexpected happened. The Reverend Thomas von Klingensmith’s Cadillac rounded the bend and came barreling toward the house. Everything happened so fast there was no time to think.
Thomas didn’t—or couldn’t—stop and Darius didn’t jump fast enough to get out of his way. Luis gasped and pressed both palms to his mouth. Jase dropped the gun and put his arms around Luis. When the front of the speeding car slammed into Darius, his body went up in the air, sailed in an arc, and landed upside down in a section of ground Luis was planning to use for a pumpkin patch.
The car came to a halt not far from where Luis and Jase were standing. Luis knew there was nothing to fear from Darius anymore so he ran to Thomas’s car to see if Thomas was okay. He had a feeling the poor old guy would be devastated now. He’d run over two people in less than a month, and Luis wanted to ease his mind and tell him he’d stopped Darius from running away.
But when Thomas climbed out of the car he reached for Luis’s hand with both hands, he tried to catch his breath as if he’s been running instead of driving. “I’m so glad I got here in time,” he said. “I found out the most disturbing news at the hospital. You’ll never believe it.”
Luis and Jase exchanged glances. Thomas didn’t seem the least bit interested in Darius or the fact that he’d run him over.
Luis said, “Are you okay, Thomas? After what just happened, I mean. Maybe we should go over to the patio and sit down. Jase will get you a drink.”
Thomas glanced at the pumpkin patch area and snorted. Darius wasn’t dead. He’d already lifted his head and he was moaning about his legs. “I couldn’t care less about him. They removed the breathing tube today and Cory told everyone what happened the day I ran him over. He was running down the road because Darius was trying to run him over with his truck. Poor Cory was running for his life when I accidentally hit him.” Thomas pointed to the pumpkin patch.
“It’s his fault I ran over Cory.”
Jase said, “This is unbelievable.”
Thomas frowned. “There’s even more. He tried to run Cory over because Cory caught him upstairs in your bedroom.” His voice dropped and he sighed, unable to look them in the eye. “He was walking about in Luis’s underwear and engaging in unbecoming acts, if you know what I mean, with Jase’s photo. And doing various other dirty things, all and sundry, in broad daylight.” Poor Reverend von Klingensmith. His voice dropped to a whisper. His face turned red and he closed his eyes for a moment.
Luis frowned. “And to think we trusted him with Hunter all this time.”
“It gets worse,” Thomas said. “The emergency Cory had in the hospital yesterday was Darius’s fault, too. When no one was looking, Darius tried to smother him with a pillow.
Darius would have killed him if one of those machines hadn’t malfunctioned and starting beeping so loudly.”
“Poor Cory,” Luis said. “Lying there helpless, unable to speak all this time. It must have been horrible for him.” He closed his eyes and pressed him palm to his chest. “I can’t even imagine it.”
“The doctors barely got the breathing tube out of Cory’s mouth,” Thomas said. “The poor kid was so excited to tell us what Darius had done he could barely whisper. The doctors insisted he calm down and take it slowly. But he forced himself to speak. He was terrified something would happen to you guys or Hunter. So I rushed right over here to tell you.” His voice went lower. “I’m sorry about the mailbox out front.”