Quinn couldn’t hear what was being said as he raced from the house to behind a pile of lumber and then over by a sailboat covered in a tarp and set up high on a trailer. He snuck around the side of the boat to where he could see and hear Lillie dog-cussing Dusty Nix, telling the man to lower his weapon or he’d be sprouting a new asshole in his forehead.

Nix stood close to the old Chevy truck, his dead father on the ground between him and Lillie. He pointed a military rifle right at Lillie. Lillie’s headlights shone bright on the compact little man.

“Goddamn,” Nix said, yelling. “Just get out the way, bitch.”

Nix lifted up the AR as Lillie pulled the trigger, the man’s weapon spewing and chewing up the front of Lillie’s Charger, shattering the glass and knocking out one of the headlights.

“Woo-hoo,” Nix said. “Come on. Get you some.”

Quinn popped up around the side of the boat with his Beretta 9 and shot the man four times. He dropped hard and fast. The house fire grew with the wind, chewing up the house, flames higher now and shining down onto where both Nixes lay dead by the old truck.

“TJ and John Wesley?” Lillie asked.

Quinn shook his head, still tasting the soot in his mouth. “House was clear.”

“That Dusty Nix sure had a way with words,” she said. “It’s killing me not to know what he was about to say next.”

“He told you to get you some.”

“And I was fixing to when you popped up and shot his ass,” Lillie said. “Damn. Can’t you let a woman have a little fun?”

Quinn was still catching his breath while Lillie walked up to the old Chevy and opened up the driver’s-side door. Inside, they found a young white girl with a blonde ponytail shivering in the backseat. When Lillie placed a hand on her shoulder, she jumped as if being zapped by a live wire. Her lip was split and her face was a mess of makeup that looked to have been melted away by the fire.

“Chastity Bloodgood?” Lillie asked.

The girl nodded and Lillie offered her a hand to pull her out of the beaten old truck. As Quinn stood by, he glanced over Lillie’s shoulder and down the road as a black SUV started up and sped out fast back toward the bridge.

“All that girl knows how to do is run,” Chastity said.

“She can’t get far,” Lillie said.

“Go to it, Marshal,” Quinn said. “I’ll make sure everything gets sorted out here.”

Lillie ran to her Charger and cranked it, the car revving to life with one headlight. She fishtailed out in the busted shells and sand following TJ Byrd. Chastity stared down at the dead men and then up at the burning house, the stilts under it creaking and groaning.