Tempest has another subject on her mind. “So you say that was a wolf with you before? I thought I felt an unusual vibration coming from your vehicle. Every species of creature gives off a different one. Speaking of vibrators—” She casts a glance over her shoulder. “Where’s Lynda? Get up here, you walking dildo.”

The dozen Dows around me—I don’t care that they’re calling themselves Dillons now—make way for the stout, dark-haired woman. Someone has beaten her bloody since last we met. Both eyes are ringed with bruises. She wears a bandage taped over her broken nose.

“Hey, Tempie,” she says, sounding congested.

Tempest Dow bends over me again.

“You really thought this stupid cow was me? I knew you were dumb, but—”

“If you’re going to shoot me,” I say, “can you just get on with it?”

She straightens. “Oh, I am not going to shoot you, although I considered it before. When my granddaughter said it was you at her house, I got out my Smith and Wesson. I told her to send you over to my place with some tale. I was going to plink you the second you walked through the door. Then, I figured let’s see if I can have some fun with him.”

“I knew she wasn’t you,” I say. “I knew she wasn’t Tori and Tiff’s grandmother.”

Tempest nods. “You might just be saying that, but I guess you’re telling the truth.”

“It was the way she kept checking her phone.”

She turns her head toward Lynda, and it’s enough to make the other woman shiver.

“And here I thought it was that dumb card trick she pulled,” says Tempest. “I was sure you were onto us after that stupid stunt. Hell! I almost shot you through the drywall.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I couldn’t believe you didn’t recognize us—Tina and the twins I mean. In your place, I would have seen the resemblance in a minute. I wanted to make sure you were a fool and not faking being ignorant.”

“And you needed time to plan a better revenge.”

She squats down so I can gaze into her evil eyes. My fingers feel for the automatic knife. She’s less than three feet from me, but I’m being watched by her armed relatives. I won’t have time to cut my bonds, let alone drive the blade into her neck. I have no choice but to keep waiting for a moment that might never come.

“People think I’m dumb because I never went to school above eighth grade,” she says. “I can still hear their voices, all these years later. ‘Tempest Dow is so little. Tempest Dow is just a stupid girl. Tempest Dow is nothing but trash.’ I made them pay later, oh, yes, I did. Most of them never even knew it was Tempest Dow who turned their lives to shit.”