MARCUS HAD to steer the boat toward Hopetown in the rain while Darren kept the Colt trained on the boat’s handcuffed captain. Marcus didn’t at all know what he was doing, and at several points, Levi had to take over to show Marcus which buttons to push, which throttles to toggle this way or that. Levi had never been on a boat that size before either, but he said it was just like a video game. Any time he wasn’t at the control board, he was right up under Darren, as if he were afraid to leave the Ranger’s side, as if this might all have been a dream and if he couldn’t feel the lawman near him, he might wake up back in that hut. No one else is coming for you. Darren could smell the musk of his blond hair, could feel the heat in his body rev up the closer they got to the shore. Calls had been made on the way, and by the time they arrived, pulling onto shore not too far from Levi’s granddaddy’s boathouse, Sheriff Quinn was waiting, as were Marnie King and her daughter, Dana. Marnie, hair slick with rainwater, hanging in limp chunks around her head, ran into the shallows at the shore and reached for Levi before he could even climb over the side of the boat. She kissed his cheeks, his dirty arms, cried as she looked over the top of his head and said to Darren, “Thank you.” Once on land, Levi ran to his sister and she hugged him tight and swung him around. Darren left the family to themselves. Marcus didn’t take off the life vests until he was safely on land, where he assured Quinn he’d hit the captain in self-defense. The sheriff got a good look at Jim and his mullet lying prostrate on the floor of the boat and let out a whistle. “Oh boy, this gon’ be a goddamn mess.”

Darren climbed off the boat as well. There was no way he was riding that thing back across the lake. He’d find some other way to get into town. He’d started walking in that direction on the road that led out of Hopetown when he heard the shuffle of tiny footsteps in the red dirt and sand that made up the roads out there. He turned and saw Levi coming up behind him, his face wide open like a daisy drinking in dew, like Darren was the sun that made all things possible. “But what about Daddy?” he said. He must have been chewing on this question the whole ride to Hopetown. Gil was gone. That was one prayer answered. He was back home with his sister and his mama; that was another. “Is Daddy still coming home soon like he said?”

Darren looked at the boy and was for a moment speechless.