Angela clattered into the house and broke into a racking sob. Pushing past Alec, she sank to her knees next to Douglas.
“Nooo,” she moaned, “Noooo…”
“It’s all right,” Douglas said, his voice a throaty groan. “Better this way .
“He was shooting,” said one of the guards next to Alec. “You can see the bullet holes all over the walls. He was trying to bust out.”
The bullet holes were all up near the ceiling, over the windows, well above head level. Ignoring the guard, Alec bent down on one knee beside Angela, next to his father.
“Why?” he asked. “I would have saved you. I wouldn’t let them take you.”
Douglas managed to grin at his son. “How do you…” a gasp of pain, “…how do you think I found out about the cancer rate in the settlement?”
Alec’s head drooped.
“Only had… a few months left,” Douglas panted. “Sorry to scare your boys… tried not to hurt them…”
He closed his eyes.
Angela collapsed over the dead body. Tears won’t help him, Alec said silently. Then he realized that the tears are always for the living, not the dead. All right then. Cry for both of us. Alec couldn’t cry. Not now. Perhaps not ever. But surely not now. There was too much to be done.
Too much unfinished work hung in the balance.
He straightened up and turned to the guards.
None of them had moved a millimeter. They were staring at Alec, their own lives showing in their eyes.
“It’s all right,” he told them softly. “You saved us all a lot of trouble.”
They did not relax, but that did not matter.
“You,” he pointed to the one nearest the door.
“Get Jameson and Will Russo here. There’s work to do.”
Then he glanced down at Angela’s sobbing form.
To the other two guards he said, “Get outside and don’t let anyone in here until I tell you to.”
They hurried out of the house. The guard who had been upstairs had to step, shakily, over Douglas’ body. Then he ran to the door and left.
Alec knelt down beside Angela again and took her tear-streaked face in his hands. “It’s time,” he said, as gently as he knew how.
She gazed at him searchingly. “Time for what?”
“To begin.”