Chapter 22

Case settled her holsters on her hips and checked the distance from the guns to her hands. She adjusted the left one to hang a little lower. When she was satisfied with their placement, she picked up her duster and pulled it on. Last, but not least, she placed her black Stetson on the top of her head and then canted it to the side.

As she walked down the sidewalk, her boots thudded into the hard wooden planks and her spurs jingled. Everyone got out of her way and she could feel the excitement build, as she took up a spot in the middle of the town's only road.

She looked up to see the sun's placement in the sky and then back down at the sun-bleached dirt of the road. She closed her eyes to rid them of the spots leftover from the sun. As the purple circles faded, she opened her eyes and saw she wasn't alone anymore.

Another lone figure stood at the other end of the street. Dust settled around her feet as she came to a stop and faced Case. They both knew the whole town was watching them from behind partially closed shutters, but they ignored their audience and focused only on each other.

"You know, you don't have to do this, Deputy."

"That's Sheriff now, thanks to you," the woman said.

"Well, I guess congratulations are in order. And you don't have to thank me. I'm glad I could help," Case replied sarcastically.

"You didn't have to kill him. He was a good man."

"He challenged me. I never would have wasted my time on him otherwise."

"He was in love with me. What did you expect him to do when he found us?"

"Walk away. Accept that the better woman won. His death was his own doing. I just pulled the trigger," Case argued.

"He never would have challenged you, if he'd known who you were."

"And you never would have slept with me, right? Outlaw not good enough for ya, huh?"

"It was never like that. I don't care who you used to be. I care about who you are, who you're going to become."

"And that's why you challenged me?"

"I challenged you because I'm the law around here and you killed a man. I didn't have a choice."

"Neither do I."

There was silence as they stood and watched each other. By unspoken agreement, there were no more words exchanged. A minute went by and then Case watched the Sheriff draw her gun. It seemed to happen in slow motion and by the time the tall woman had her gun free of its holster, Case had already pulled the trigger on her own gun three times.

It took a moment for it to register on the other woman's body that she'd been shot, but then she fell to her knees and collapsed onto her side. Case stood there in shock for another moment as she realized her reflexes had reacted without her permission. She'd never meant to kill her. She hadn't intended to draw her gun at all.

Case ran forward to the Sheriff's body and skidded in the dirt on her chaps-covered knees. Her gun was still clutched in her hand, but she barely noticed it as she tried to pull the woman's body into her arms.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. Please don't die. Please don't leave me. Not again," she cried, the tears leaving streaks of white down her dust smudged face.

The Sheriff looked up at her and smiled.

"Next time," the woman coughed a little on the words.

"Wait! No, don't go. Not yet. I need you."

The Sheriff reached up to her leather vest. She grasped the silver star pinned to her chest and pulled it off. She lifted her arm and pushed it into Case's hand. Case closed her fingers over the hard metal and the soft flesh.

"Never forget," the Sheriff coughed and Case could smell the copper scent of blood coming from the back of the woman's throat. "That I love you."

The Sheriff closed her eyes, and then her body went limp in Case's arms.

"I love you, too," Case whispered.

As Case closed her own eyes, everything seemed to shift and dissolve. Instead of holding her lover's body, she was standing in a room. A man lay dead on the floor and she could hear a woman and children crying.

Case didn't open her eyes, but she could see nonetheless. A little boy and two young girls were huddled with their mother in the corner of the room. She'd herded them there after killing the man. They were all crying and the sounds were increasing as their hysteria went unchecked.

"Shut up!" Case yelled.

She couldn't think with all their noise. The crying subsided a little, but it didn't stop completely.

"Just let the children go. Please, they're just children. They don't understand any of thi..."

"I said shut up! Just shut up!"

The little boy began wailing and his mother tried to put a hand over his mouth to quiet him down. It didn't really help and Case could feel her control slipping. She was no longer detached and she knew that was not good in her line of work.

Case knew what she had to do and stalling wouldn't make it any easier. She couldn't stop the tears and she didn't even try. She knew it wouldn't throw off her aim.

Case raised her eyes and then her gun. In four quick shots, she placed a bullet in the boy's head, the mother's, and then the two girls'. It was suddenly very quiet and the only sound she could hear was her own breathing through the ringing in her ears. Then she turned the gun around and raised it to her own head. She heard the click and that was all. Then her photographic memory reminded her that the gun had already been fired six times; the accidental shot, the shot to Tony's head, then the four shots for the rest of the family. She resolved to use a different gun in the future, one with extra bullets.

With the lack of an easy out, it suddenly hit her again what she'd just done and she had to get out of there. She ran through the house trying to find the front door, but every door seemed to lead to another room or a stairway. Finally, she found the way out. She went through and Rain stood there waiting for her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Case opened her eyes. Her heart was pounding, but she didn't make a sound or move a muscle, as she tried to sort through all the images from her dreams.

Normally, she couldn't remember anything about her dreams, except a lingering feeling of terror or dread, but this had been crystal clear. She could almost taste the dust in her mouth and smell the acrid scent of gunpowder embedded in her nostrils. The images of the old western town were still vivid in her mind's eye and hadn't faded away. She felt an ache in her chest when she remembered holding Rain's dying body in her arms. There had been nothing she could do to take her actions back, though everything in her had wished that she could trade places with the woman, if it would just save Rain's life.

And Case had no doubt that the woman was Rain. The hair was a little different and the face was a bit more angular, but it was still her. And she'd killed her. She didn't have to think too hard about what that probably meant. She was afraid she was going to lose Rain, maybe even have to kill her herself, or maybe she'd end up doing something that would get the agent killed.

As she went over the dream again, she remembered what had woken her up. The Massucci hit. She'd made a mistake and it had cost a woman and three kids their lives. Antonio had actually commended her for that part, though. He'd appreciated her thoroughness. If she'd left any witnesses, he would have been forced to have her killed too, in order to make sure there were no living connections that could lead back to him.

But with that thought came the first glimmer of an idea.

No witnesses. No loose ends. No connections. No evidence.

Antonio wanted her dead, but he hadn't made it public yet. Only a few select people probably knew about it. Doc, maybe some of the other bosses. Antonio's personal staff.

The outside world disappeared for a moment as a plan began to take shape in her mind. She was a little surprised at how easy and how crazy it was, but if everything went smoothly, both she and Rain would be home free. Maybe not together, but alive. And that was what mattered.

As she felt Rain stir beside her, Case pushed the bulk of the plans to the back of her mind. Rain was very cute when she was first waking up and Case enjoyed the feeling of protectiveness that came over her when Rain was in such a vulnerable position.

Rain slowly opened her eyes and then turned her head to see Case watching her.

"Morning," Rain whispered, and then cleared her throat.

"Actually, it's about three in the afternoon," Case informed her with a smirk.

Rain shrugged.

"Same difference. So, what's for breakfast?"

"Wanna order pizza?"

Rain thought about it for a second and then nodded.

"Yeah. That sounds good."

Case extricated herself from Rain's embrace in order to reach for the phone book on the bottom shelf of the nightstand. Rain sat up and looked around the room for a moment and then stretched before she climbed out of bed.

"I'm gonna go take a shower," Rain said, and went to the bathroom, while Case found the number for the closest Pizza Hut.

Case placed their order for a large pizza with ham and pineapples, as well as breadsticks and a two-liter of Coke. After getting confirmation that it would be delivered in about half an hour, she hung up and then checked her voicemail. There were no new messages, so Case placed a new phone call, one that would begin putting her plan into action.

"Joe, here. You got the word?"

"Babycakes."

"Yeah, you got the word. Who'm I dealin' with?"

"You don't recognize my voice? I guess it has been a long time since I needed your particular skills," Case grinned.

"Case? That you? What's shakin'?"

"My ass, but you still can't touch it."

Joe laughed.

"And that's a damn shame. So, whatcha need, girl?"

"I need five demolition charges with a blast radius of fifteen meters each and remote detonators to link them to one control with an activation area of one kilometer."

"Okay, I can get you the explosives, but you'll have to talk to someone else about the detonators. Day after tomorrow soon enough?"

Case thought about it. As long as she didn't get a new assignment, a few days wait would be fine.

"Yeah. I think that'll work. So, you know somebody I can contact about the detonators?"

"Of course. All ya had to do was ask."

Case could hear the smile in his voice and listened as he gave her a number and reference password that would let him get a nice kickback if Case made a purchase. After a few pleasantries, she hung up and dialed the number.

"Hello?"

It was a woman's voice.

"Hey, Joe said I should call you. Sweet cheeks."

There was a loud exasperated sigh.

"God, I don't know why the hell I let him choose that as his password. The guy's touched in the head." The woman sighed again. "So, what can I do ya for?"

"Well, Joe said you might have what I'm looking for."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?"

"I need a detonator set for five demolition charges that will link all five to a single key that can then be activated from about one kilometer away."

"Will the charges be near each other or in different places within the specified one kilometer area?" She asked, all business now.

"They'll be within twenty meters of each other in a single building."

"All right. Yeah, no problem. I've got several different packs that can be modified for that kind of setup. Do you want the cheap shit or do you want a little assurance that the stuff'll blow when you push the button?"

"I want the best. Money's not an issue."

"Great. How soon do you want it?"

"Day after tomorrow."

"All right, call me again when you're ready to pick it up and you'll get an address."

"Right. Later," Case said, and hung up.

She looked at the time and decided she'd better get dressed soon. There was no sense in giving the delivery guy a free show. She went to her bag and pulled out a T-shirt and shorts and a twenty for the food. Just as she was finishing pulling the shorts on, there was a knock at the door and she heard the shower turn off. Case paid for the pizza and then knocked on the bathroom door.

"Pizza's here," she called through the door.

"Great. I'll be right out," Rain's muffled voice came back to her.

Case set the box on the bed and then lost the clothing again. She still needed to take a shower herself and there was no point in stinking up the clothes until then. Case detested going to the laundromat and tended to wear her clothes until they looked or smelled dirty rather than washing them simply because she'd worn them before. In fact, judging by the size of the dirty bag, it was probably about time to do another load again.

Case dodged around the thought of having to perform the annoying chore and turned on the TV. She sat down on the bed and began eating from the pizza box while she flipped through the stations. A few minutes later, Rain came out of the bathroom and surveyed the situation.

Case pulled another slice from the box and held it up to the clean naked woman.

"Wan sthum?" Case offered through a mouthful of food.

"Oh, that's pretty," Rain replied, as she took the food and bit off a mouthful.

Rain took up position next to Case on the bed and watched the TV channels go by faster than she could really follow. She looked down at the pizza to take another bite and felt a wave of nostalgia come over her suddenly, as an old memory flashed through her mind.

"You know, this was my brother's favorite kind of pizza," she commented softly. "It took him forever to get me to try it, but I've loved it ever since."

Case stopped flipping channels and looked at Rain with a somber expression.

"It must've been hard losing him," she offered.

"Yeah."

Rain went back to eating the pizza and Case continued with her channel surfing. They lapsed into silence for a while until Rain had had enough of the melancholy mood.

"So what are we doing today?" Rain asked.

Case hadn't thought about anything past the phone calls she'd already made, but Rain's question reminded her of something she hadn't done in over a week.

"Actually, I should probably go see one of my instructors. It's been a while since my last training session and I usually try to get in every few days, but it's been crazy this past week," Case said.

"Ain't that the truth," Rain mumbled in agreement.

"You could get some practice in, too. How 'bout it?"

Rain nodded.

"Yeah. I could definitely use the exercise. I'm used to working out just about every day, but this hopping on a plane and flying across the country every other day isn't real conducive to a normal schedule."

"Ah, you'll get used to it," Case grinned.

"Yeah, right."

They finished the pizza and then Case grabbed some clothes from her bag and headed into the shower to get ready to go.

Rain took the opportunity to check her voicemail and was thankful to find no new messages from Doc. She didn't think she could handle another job so soon. Though, when she really thought about it, she wasn't sure she would be able to handle another job like that ever again.

The only reason she'd been able to go through with it at all had been because the Target had been someone she'd wanted to kill for a very long time. She didn't think she would be able to perform quite so well if the person was a stranger. And there was always the possibility that it would be someone she'd met, or even hung out with, before Antonio had moved her into this new line of work.

Rain shook her head. The rate things were going between Antonio and Case, there was no telling how much longer she'd be able to remain undercover because one thing was for sure. Rain wouldn't be able to kill Case if Doc gave her the order and she wouldn't be able to stand aside and watch someone else kill Case either. Not that Carlotti would let her live after she refused one of his orders, but that was beside the point.

"Hey."

Case's voice finally penetrated Rain's consciousness and she looked up.

"You in there?" Case asked her, concern showing on her face.

Rain sat up.

"Yeah, sorry. Guess I got a little lost in my thoughts."

"Yeah. So, are you planning on going like that?" Case grinned and nodded towards Rain's lack of attire.

Rain blushed, which made Case smile even more.

"Give me a minute," Rain mumbled and brushed past Case to get to her bags.

"Oh, don't rush on my account. I've got all day," Case happily informed the naked woman, while she watched Rain pull clothes from her bag and begin getting dressed.

A few minutes later, they were on their way to Case's nearest martial arts instructor.