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to wipe away
the tear trickling down the side of her face.
    “ An’ he was here to finish the
job?”
    Scarlett nodded again. The older woman patted her
hand.
    “ Then Ah’d say the bastard got
wha’ he deserved.”
    Scarlett turned to look up at her mother. “Does that
make what I did right, ma?”
    Ruby stared for a long moment into her eyes. “I
don’t know, sweetheart.”
    The swinging door into the front room burst open and
Cash strolled through.
    “ Yes. It does,” he said. “Yes, it
absolutely does.”
    Cash walked right up to Scarlett and pulled her to
her feet. “Scar, that sonofabitch was here to kill us.”
    “ He came for me.”
    “ And we were just in his way. He
didn’t care.”
    The younger woman looked down, her hands hanging
limp in her brother’s. “I just...”
    “ Cut the crap, Scar. That guy was
walking garbage! He...”
    “ Cash!” Ruby
interrupted.
    “ He was! He was a low-life hired
thug. You saw the sores and the tracks on his arms.”
    The older woman rose and stepped up to her son. “His
life still matters, he was still a person.”
    Cash’s gaze burned into his mother for a moment
before he turned to Scarlett. “No. It doesn’t. He was walking
sickness. But he’s dead now and we have to deal with that .”
    Scarlett looked over to her mother then back to
Cash. “So, what do we do?”
    “ We call the police.” Ruby
squinted and cocked her head to the side.
    Scarlett felt small under her mother’s gaze, as if
she’d asked the most ridiculous question ever.
    “ No.” Cash’s voice was firm and
commanding.
    “ Excuse me? This is mah home. This
man broke into mah house and tried to kill mah family. Why the hell
not?”
    Cash turned his head slowly to look at his mother
again. “Mama, I know this is hard, but you gotta trust me. We need
to think of the bigger picture here. So far, we’ve had no idea the
circumstances of Scarlett’s amnesia. Now it’s clear someone, that
man, tried to kill her.”
    An uneasy feeling crept in at the edges of
Scarlett’s mind. It was the same feeling she had when she left
Rishabh’s. Her family was in danger, because of her own actions.
“He’s right.”
    Ruby looked between her children with a wrinkled
brow. “Not sure Ah understand.”
    “ Whoever tried to kill her before,
did it because she was a threat,” Cash continued. “Up until now
they thought she was indeed dead. Now, they know she’s alive. And
they’re going to make sure she does not stay that way for very
long.”
    “ Won’ they jes’ send sum’mon
else?”
    Cash shook his head and leaned against the table. “I
don’t think so. I heard this guy talking on the phone. He was just
a hired killer. My guess is that he got Scarlett’s license plate
number and had someone look it up. Scarlett’s current identity died
with this man, for now.”
    Scarlett spoke up. “Then we’re back to the question
of what to do.”
    “ First, we get the blood cleaned
up. Ma, I know you’re no stranger to blood. Can you take care of
that?”
    Ruby nodded.
    “ Good. Scarlett, I want you to
stay here. Don’t come out of this room.”
    Cash started to walk out of the room when Scarlett
called to him. “What about you? What are you going to do?”
    He stopped and turned his head, just enough to see
his sister from the corner of his eye. “I’m gonna make a phone call
and get rid of this body.”
    * * *
    The old car rumbled down the freeway. Scarlett was
amazed that the beat-up machine could even reach fifty-five miles
per hour. When they finally reached highway speeds, the doors
rattled and vehicle shook like it was going to fall apart. One of
the half-melted knobs for rolling up the windows fell to the
floorboard with a thunk.
    Instead of a media and navigation interface, the
dashboard held a simple radio with a narrow slot. Two tiny, fading
letters, CD, sat below the slot. Scarlett had to keep the windows
down to air out the stale liquor and sun-baked vinyl odors. The
damn