“Hear that?” Bowsher said. “Even Goulder, who was raised by the most evil of Bible-bashing preachers in this great nation of ours, is onboard as far as lesbians are concerned. Y’all have his blessing, I daresay. But you gotta ask yourself a question here, Red. How do your dirty little fantasies stack up against the lives of you and your friends? Is she worth dying over? Is she worth watching your friends, and your dog, die painful deaths?”

“She doesn’t have a phone,” said Kelly.

“Bullshit.”

“She doesn’t. Phones are too easy to track.”

“Every teenage girl in this goddamn country has a goddamn phone. From this point on, every lie you tell will be a bullet.”

He nodded to Sam, who aimed his gun at Two.

“Do not harm my dog!” Warrick shouted.

Sam switched his aim, pressing the gun against Warrick’s head. “You wanna go first? Fine with me.”

“Warrick,” said Ronnie.

“Do not threaten my dog,” Warrick said through gritted teeth.

Bowsher waited a few seconds. Then, when nobody was shot, he nodded. “Well, okay then, back to what I was saying. The truth from this moment on, you get me?”

Kelly glared at him.

“Does demon girl have a phone?” Bowsher asked.

“Yes,” said Kelly.

“And do you know her phone number?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” Bowsher said, smiling.

Demer walked up at that moment and put his gun to Bowsher’s head and pulled the trigger, and Bowsher’s head came apart in all sorts of stomach-churning ways.

“Holy crap!” Sam yelled.

Goulder stormed over. “What the hell did you do?”

“He shouldn’t have said those things to me,” Demer mumbled.

“So you shot him? You shot him?”

“He pissed me off,” said Demer. “He disrespected me.”

“He was yanking your chain, man! It’s what he did!”

Demer shook his head. “There’s no excuse for disrespect.”

“Demer, you crazy bastard, you can’t go around killing everyone that disrespects you, man!”

Demer narrowed his eyes, and Goulder held up his hands and backed off.

“Hey,” said Goulder, “I am not disrespecting you right now. You have my utmost respect. I do not call you crazy bastard as an insult, or a slight. I use it as a term of endearment. That being said, you just shot and killed Bowsher for words that came out of his mouth in the heat of the goddamn moment.”

“You gotta learn some impulse control,” said Sam.