The Box by Jeremy Brown (ebook reader play store txt) 📕

I bet we can see through some cracks. Watch the road and listen for vehicles while we talk.”

“No,” Nora said. “And talk about what?”

“What happens next.”

“I know what happens next. You get back in the truck and go away.”

“We already talked about that,” Bruder said. “Where’s your gun?”

She twitched a hand toward the right pocket of her sweater, where Bruder had already spotted something heavy pulling the fabric down.

“You’re not getting my gun,” she said.

“I don’t want it. I just want to know where it is. Leave it in there unless one of us says it’s okay to take it out.”

She glared at him and seemed like she might pull the Sig out just to prove a point.

“I wouldn’t,” Bruder said. “Brandishing is illegal in Iowa.”

He stepped past her toward the old barn.

Chapter Fifteen

The barn smelled like a fire waiting to happen—straw and dry wood and dust.

The early afternoon sun splayed through cracks in and between the planks, highlighting the motes drifting around.

There was a large open area on the ground floor. The only thing taking up space was a rusty contraption about the size of a car with a metal seat and discs and tines that looked like it used to get dragged behind a horse.

Above, an empty loft wrapped the four walls with a rectangular hole in the middle for moving things up and down. A rough wooden ladder that was part of the structure led to the loft, and while the high ground was attractive, the few remaining planks looked ready to break from a heavy sigh.

They checked the cracks along the front wall and the gap in the big hinged doors being held in place with a length of scratchy rope and could see the road just fine.

Kershaw took the northeast corner, watching for anything coming from the town.

Rison had the southeast, in case any Romanians were further out than Grigore and his buddy had been.

Bruder peered through the gap between the doors and said, “Who can you call to find out what’s happening in town?”

Nora didn’t respond, so Bruder turned from the doors and looked at her.

Connelly was by her side, standing between her and Bruder like a mediator. He had his rifle now, slung across his chest, and she kept frowning at it and him like they wouldn’t fit together in her mind.

He told her, “Come on. Help us out.”

“Help you out? Are you kidding me? How much of what you’ve told me is actually true?”

Connelly opened his mouth, ready to get into it, but Bruder cut him off.

“That doesn’t matter now. Sort it out later. Or don’t, nobody cares. What matters right now is what the Romanians are doing. Are they still holding the crossroads? Are they flooding this area with men and trucks? Who can you get that information from?”

Nora still didn’t answer.

“Do you know how many men there are? We know of eight.”

Kershaw said, “Well, five now.”

Bruder nodded.

“Right. Nora, who can you call?”

She just stared at him.

Connelly said, “What about Helen?”

She gave him a look like it was too soon to mention that name, and he might never be allowed to say it.

“Call Marie,” Bruder said.

Nora squinted at him.

“From Len’s?”

“Yes.”

“No, I…she and I aren’t friends like that. I don’t even know her number.”

“Adam does,” Rison said from his spot in the corner, providing zero help.

Before that could change the subject Bruder said, “Call somebody. Trust me, you’ll want to know if they’re coming this way.”

“Trust you…” Nora said.

But she took her phone out and started tapping.

Bruder told Connelly, “Watch the screen.”

Connelly leaned closer and Nora let the arm holding the phone drop.

“Watch the screen for what?”

Bruder said, “To make sure you aren’t calling any Romanians. Or cops.”

“Oh, right, let me scroll through my contacts. Here’s Razvan, a fucking murderer who almost killed my parents and threatened to burn their house down. I’ll just hit him up real quick and let him know you’re here. Please.”

Connelly said, “See? We’re all on the same side.”

Nora whirled on him.

“No. No we are not. The people around here—me included—are just trying to live their lives without any trouble from Razvan and his men. You, you assholes come in and steal from them, and now you want my help to get away. Well what happens if you do get away? When you disappear? Guess who pays the price for what you’ve done?”

“I’m not going to disappear,” Connelly said, and everyone looked at him.

Nora said, “What?”

“I’m not going to disappear. I have money. From before, other jobs, and now this, of course. I’ll buy this place from your folks so you don’t have to worry about it anymore. You’ll be free and clear to stay in Minneapolis or go wherever you want.”

“With you?”

Connelly shuffled his feet and glanced at Bruder and the others.

“I hope so, yes. And if you want to stay here, that’s fine too. I’ll stay with you and keep an eye on the…the fallout from our little endeavor.”

Kershaw said, “You against the Romanians?”

Connelly just shrugged.

Kershaw and Rison both looked at Bruder.

The sensible thing would be to shoot both of them, right then, and find another way to get status updates about the town.

But Bruder didn’t want to make that sort of decision without talking to the others first, in case they had a good reason not to do it, one he didn’t see yet.

He told Connelly, “Watch the road.”

Then, to Kershaw and Rison: “Let’s talk in the back.”

They left Connelly and Nora at the front of the barn and walked around the rusted cultivator and stood in the opposite corner under a part of the loft draped with cobwebs.

Kershaw kept his voice low when he said, “We can’t kill them.”

“Convince me,” Bruder said.

Rison looked back and forth between them. His eyes were wide in the hole of his balaclava.

“Holy shit guys, that’s where we’re starting? Killing them?”

Bruder said, “This little lover’s quarrel or whatever it is can get us all killed. Better to cut it off now. It was bad enough