A shiver of foreboding went down Sonny’s spine. “Granny always said, if a coon was big as a bear, it’d be the baddest thing on God’s earth.”

“She was right!” Snake kicked the cage, then whooped when the coon went for his boot. “Look at that bitch go. She’d rip my throat out if she could!”

“Run right up your leg,” Sonny agreed.

Snake stopped smiling. “Why do you think Dr. Cage and that Ranger didn’t kill you last night? That was a hell of a risk, dropping you off at the hospital like that.”

A swarm of yellow jackets rose up in Sonny’s chest. “The Ranger wanted to. It was Dr. Cage who saved me. He said he couldn’t kill a man in cold blood.”

Snake shook his head in wonder. “I wish we could fly over to Toledo Bend. You oughta rack out in the backseat of the truck while I drive.”

Not a chance, Sonny thought, despite his exhaustion. If Forrest decided that last night’s events made him a liability, he would never reach Toledo Bend alive. It was even possible that this decision had already been made. Billy Knox was a businessman; sentiment didn’t figure into things. And Forrest was like an admiral on a battleship, moving plastic figures around on maps with a stick. To him every soldier under his command was expendable.

Sonny turned at what he thought was the sound of footsteps, and a tall, rangy man in black pants and a high-collared shirt walked around the corner of the house. Sonny was so jumpy that he leaped to his feet, but Snake raised his rifle in greeting. The newcomer was Randall Regan, Brody Royal’s right-hand man.

“What are you doing here?” Snake asked.

“Delivering a message,” Regan rasped, like a man with laryngitis. “Last night Forrest said no phones, period. And I think ours are being tapped.”

“What’s wrong with your voice?” Snake asked. “You swallow a wasp or something?”

Regan scowled, then unbuttoned his collar, revealing a nasty reddish-purple bruise that covered his throat.

“What the hell did that?” Snake asked.

“Penn Cage. He braced me in a public restaurant about the Royal Insurance bitches you dumped out in the swamp. He knew every detail. I didn’t say a word. But later, he sucker-punched me in the bathroom.”

This answer worried Sonny, but Snake started laughing so hard that Regan buttoned his collar again, all the while looking like he wanted to strangle Snake Knox.

Once Snake stopped laughing, he said, “What’s your message?”

Regan’s reply sounded like the wheeze of a diphtheria patient. “Brody doesn’t want you to wait until tonight. He wants it done right now. Or as soon as it can be done. He wants you to get word to Forrest.”

“Tell Brody not to worry. Forrest knows what has to be done.”