“Some people used to call me the Lizard King and for a while I liked that name,” Ron said. “God knows I earned it. But they really used that name because it made me into something less than human. Something twisted. But that ain’t me, Kyle. I’m not really like that most of the time.
“You stick with me and you’ll learn things,” Ron said. “I had to learn everything on my own because I grew up in a house of idiots and morons. Those people had real problems. I’ll tell you about my mother some time. She didn’t even know what it was like to be happy. She didn’t teach me how to be happy. I had to learn it myself. And I’m happy, Kyle.
“Especially now,” Ron said. “Now that I finally have what I’ve always wanted: my own family.”
Ron reached out and patted Kyle on his shoulder. “You’re like the son I never had,” Ron said.
Kyle felt cold and sick.
*
ON THEIR WAY BACK DOWN the hill, Ron walked side by side with Kyle. When he placed his hand on his shoulder Kyle tried not to recoil from the touch.
“You’ll learn things from me, Kyle,” Ron said again. “You’ll learn that you don’t need to take anyone’s shit ever again. You’ll find out that it doesn’t matter how people look at you because you’re actually superior to them. You’ll have contempt for them but I’ll teach you how to hide it and how to use it to your advantage.”
He went on along that line and Kyle tuned him out. But Ron’s hand stayed on his shoulder.
*
“WELL, LOOK AT THAT,” Ron said. His voice was cold.
They were approaching the cabin and at first Kyle didn’t know what Ron was talking about because there were too many trees in the way. But when he stepped to the side a couple of feet, and away from Ron’s hand, which fell away, he saw it.
Tiffany’s upper body was halfway out of the side window. She was stuck fast and was frantically wriggling her hips in an attempt to get free of the window frame.
Kyle had the strange thought: She looked like a thrashing tongue sticking out of the exterior wall.
“Stupid whore,” Ron said in a low tone. “Stupid fucking whore. What is she thinking?”
Ron reached over and instead of placing his hand on Kyle’s shoulder he gathered the back collar of his shirt in his hand and pushed, propelling him down the hill.
“Stupid fucking whore—hips too wide to fit out the window,” Ron said in a furious whisper.
Kyle had to break into a jog to prevent himself from being run over.
Their footfalls must have made a racket and alarmed her because Kyle saw Tiffany stiffen and look up to see them coming. There was absolute terror in her eyes.
“It was her idea!” she yelled. “Amanda was the one who made me do it.”
Kyle felt terrible for Tiffany. She was just stuck there, completely exposed. The glass from the window she’d broken out was in shards in the grass near the foundation of the cabin. He could see long cuts in her arms that were bleeding.
“Stupid, stupid,” Ron said as much to himself as Kyle. Then Kyle was heaved aside. He landed on his hands and knees as Ron rushed past.
“Stay!”
As if he were commanding a dog.
Kyle looked up as Ron lumbered toward Tiffany in a half-run. He could see the man fishing inside his jacket with his right hand.
“I’d blow your head off but I don’t want to do any more damage to the cabin,” Ron said to Tiffany in a roar.
“Please, no,” she begged. “It was Amanda’s idea. She made me do it, really. She’s back in there pushing right now. Please, Ron, no.”
He slowed as he got to her. Kyle could see that Ron was flushed and was breathing heavy again from coming so quickly down the mountain.
Tiffany had her hands braced below her under the sill of the window so she could keep her head up. There were tears in her eyes and her mouth was twisted.
Ron raised his pistol and pointed it at her head. The muzzle was several inches away from her temple. She closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip.
Kyle said, “Ron, no, don’t hurt her—”
There was a sharp loud crack and Tiffany’s arms gave out. She flopped forward and her face thumped the log wall of the cabin. Her hands dropped limply and hair streamed straight down. Blood pattered on the broken glass.
Kyle could smell the sharp smell of gunpowder as it drifted to him in the breeze.
Ron shook his head from side to side as he holstered the pistol.
“Stupid cunt,” he muttered to himself. Ron roughly unlocked the training collar from her neck. Tiffany’s body swayed as he did it. When the collar was free he rammed it into his jacket pocket.
Then he turned angrily to Kyle and started to mock how he’d said Ron, no, don’t hurt her—Kyle could tell because it had happened so many times before in his life—when Ron seemed to catch himself.
Kyle blinked tears out of his eyes. Ron seemed to be ashamed of what he’d almost done.
“Help me get her out of here, Kyle,” Ron said in a soft voice. He turned his back on Kyle and grasped one of Tiffany’s arms. Before he pulled, he put the sole of his boot against the cabin for leverage.
Kyle stood up. His feet felt like they were encased in concrete as he trudged slowly to the cabin.
“Come on.”
Kyle reluctantly grasped Tiffany’s left arm with both hands. Her body was still warm and supple, but there was no resistance.
“Grab it tight,” Ron said. “Now on the count of three. One, two, three…”
Kyle put his thighs into it. Tiffany’s body came out of the window frame much easier than he thought it would. So fast, in fact, that he lost his balance and fell backwards. Tiffany crumpled heavily next to him.
He looked up to see Amanda’s horrified face filling the open hole. Her mouth made a perfect O.
“Ron, I told her not to do it. I tried to make her stay.”
Even Kyle could tell she was trying to lie but wasn’t good at it.
Ron narrowed his eyes and thrust his face toward the open window. “Amanda, don’t think you’re gonna lie your way out of this.”
Amanda filled the O with the heel of her hand and retreated.
*
“WELL, THIS WASN’T how I thought this day would go,” Ron said after nearly a minute. His breath had returned to normal. Kyle could hear Amanda crying to herself inside and it wrenched at his heart. He wasn’t used to grown women crying around him.
Ron bent down and touched the tips of his fingers to Tiffany’s neck.
“Dead.”
Kyle stepped back.
“Where are you going?”
Kyle shrugged.
“Go in the shed and grab one of those blue plastic tarps. We’ll wrap her up in it, then I’ll show you where the bodies are buried.”
*
WHEN KYLE WENT into the cabin for his coat Amanda looked up at him with red eyes. She was seated in a chair facing the corner where Ron had ordered her to sit until he came back.
She said, “I don’t want what happened to Tiffany to happen to you, either,” she whispered. “Or me.”
PART FIVE
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE