06 - Vengeful by Robert J. Crane

Author:Robert J. Crane [Crane, Robert J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2015-12-01T16:00:00+00:00

25.

Ma

“That’s gonna leave a mark on somebody,” Ma said as she dusted herself off. The landing hadn’t been too rough, more disorienting than anything. Being in steel form didn’t mean blood, bone and fluid didn’t still exist in her body or inner ear, and being thrown through the air was dizzying, if not overly painful. She watched her house collapse in a pile of dust and mess, a cloud blossoming into the air like a low hanging storm as everything came down hard.

“You all right?” Denise asked as she squealed to a halt in the van. Ma turned her head to look and caught sight of Simmons hanging onto the side of the vehicle.

“Fine,” Ma said, brushing herself off as the dust cloud hit. It wasn’t much of one, but it left a little residue. She hauled the door open as it cleared and Simmons pulled himself inside the passenger door. “We just gotta wait for—”

An explosion of boards and plaster in the middle of the house wreckage caused Ma to raise an eyebrow. A steel hand shone in the sunlight, glinting like a mirror as it caught rays and reflected them. Junior pulled himself out of the rubble with a little effort, climbing up on the busted roof like he was getting out of a swimming pool.

“Get on over here!” Ma called, waving him down. He hesitated, and she fixed him with a look. “No argument now, let’s go.”

“You can’t just leave her like this!” Junior called, but he was already heading her way. Slow, but doing it. “You wanted to finish it. We could finish it right now!”

“Or she could whoop you for a while and you could end up like your daddy,” Ma called. She had a little quiver inside, knew the stakes on this one. Sienna Nealon wasn’t someone she wanted to mess with when she wasn’t ready for it. It wasn’t like she was afraid to fight, she just liked to make sure her chances of winning were a little more certain than they looked at the moment. “Don’t be stupid. You done hobbled her by taking out her support for a bit, don’t screw it up by coming at her when she’s mad as hell and has nothing else to lose.”

Junior thundered across the open space between them and turned into rubber before he climbed in the van. The shocks still moved under his weight. Ma aped his move and did the same, slamming the van’s sliding door shut as Denise floored it. Ma made a face; Junior had been smoking in here, and she hated that smell.

Simmons fidgeted in the front seat as the fields whipped by on either side. Denise was running the dirt road at close to sixty. Ma might have pushed it up a little higher, even though she didn’t feel comfortable driving rough roads that hard usually. They bounced a little and she and Junior both hit the ceiling. “Shit!” he said.

“That’s about right,” Ma said as she came back down.

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