Hard Return by J. Carson Black Page B

someone’s after me, if someone knows I’m alive, what are they going to do? Use your brains. How will they try to find me?”
    A pause on the other end of the line.
    “Bingo.”
    “So you think . . . ?”
    “They were trying to get to me? Yes. I’m looking at the other kids. I’m going to eliminate all of them to make sure, but—”
    “It’s you.”
    Landry heard the accusation in his brother’s voice. “I want to get them out of here fast. Any ideas?”
    “I don’t . . .” Gary was silent for a moment. “It could work.”
    “What?”
    “Jim’s training for Robby Marin now.”
    Landry knew whom his older brother was training for. “So?”
    “Then you probably know Monica’s Selfie won the Santa Anita Derby.”
    Landry saw where Gary was going with this. “He’s going to the Derby.”
    “Well, yeah. The horse came out of it okay. Not sure he can get a mile and a quarter but—”
    “Focus, Gary. This is important. He’s taking the horse to the Kentucky Derby.”
    “Uh-huh. Man, he’s loaded for bear this year. Has three with enough to get in the gate, and one on the bubble. So what if he asked Cindi and Kristal to go?”
    “They have to go.”
    “Whoa, bud. They don’t have to do anything. I’m betting Kristal won’t wanna go anywhere.”
    “She’s going to miss a chance to go to the Kentucky Derby?”
    “Her boyfriend was shot to death trying to save her life. Might just be she’s not up to having a good time.”
    “It will take her mind off her troubles.” Even as he said it, he realized he’d said the wrong thing. And truth was, he didn’t really believe that. Kristal was in love—at least what passed for love in a teenager’s eyes. And considering what Luke had done to save her life, it was plain to Landry that she’d loved the right kid after all.
    Gary’s voice broke his thoughts in half. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
    “What’s the matter with me ? I’m trying to save their lives. If the man who ordered that school shot up is after me, then he’s not going to stop until he draws me out. He has one lever, and he’ll use it if he can. You know that.”
    Silence on the other end.
    “You get my point,” Landry said.
    “Sure I do, but I don’t know if I can get them to go. It’s a free country.”
    “Tell them they need a change of scenery.”
    “It’s not like it’s you telling Cindi. Those days are over.”
    “I know my wife. Her first thought is that someone’s trying to get to me through her.”
    “She thinks you’re dead, bro.”
    “Yeah. But—”
    “Look, I’ll do what I can.”
    “No,” Landry said. “You’ll do it. I don’t care what it takes, you get them out of there, and you do it fast enough they don’t talk about it.”
    Landry could almost hear his brother think. “I’m gonna need money. Airfare and a place to put them up.”
    “I’ll reimburse you.”
    Left unsaid between them: Landry had infused Gary’s farm with money several times in the last three years. It was because he loved his brother, and because he didn’t need much money living the way he did, but it was also a way to make sure Gary kept his silence.
    Landry believed in redundancy. He never left something to chance, even loyalty. Even though he knew his brother would never betray him. It might be the only thing he knew for sure. He could trust Gary with his life. He did trust Gary with his life.
    “I don’t feel good about this,” Gary said.
    “About what?”
    “All of it. Letting them think you’re dead—”
    “Stop.”
    “It’s just—”
    “No.”
    “Okay, okay. I’ll get them to go somehow.”
    “Shouldn’t be too hard. Kristal used to love being on the backstretch.”
    “When she was a little girl. She’s all grown up, almost . . . Ah, man, poor kid.”
    “Someone may be after them.”
    “You don’t know that for sure.”
    “I know enough not to take a chance. You know that, Gary. You have to get them to go.”
    “If