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If Tenn thought he had the upper hand, the Learys soon disabused him of that notion They also sounded like this whole situation was an inconvenience I knew Tenn was putting on a show I did not think the Learys were doing the same

I thought they ht be perfectly fine with murder if we made them work too hard to take Elliott After all, if they'd wanted leverage, they now had both Elliott's son and his ex-wife Only Tenn was in their way

One gun was pressed to my head, one to Elliott's, and two more trained on Tenn My only comfort was that Elliott provided Tenn a full-body shield Unless the shooter had excellent aim, if one of them shot at Tenn, he'd probably hit Elliott I couldn't find it in me to care about Elliott Not when his crappy decisions had landed us in this situation in the first place

"Look," Tenn said, "we don't care about whatever you ith Elliott Trade him for Scarlett, we'll take Thatcher, and the three of us alk away No interference We'll disappear"

"I'uy said "Elliott needs some help stayin' focused"

"Can't let you do that," Tenn said, voice easy, eyes hard

I started to shake I couldn't help it I wanted to hold it together, but Tenn couldn't talk his way out of this Ito communicate without words

Take Thatcher and go Leave me

It's not that I wanted hiet otten that far But he had to get Thatcher out of here Death aside, the only outco Thatcher I agreed with Tenn on that point We were not going to let them take my son

I don't know if Tenn read ave a subtle shake of his head, his eyes flicking to et him to leave me?

I couldn't Into take Thatcher and leave ed

Shocking the hell out of ainst Tenn's arasped out, his crystal blue eyes twisted with remorse A little late now I couldn't find it inhiot out of this without anyone getting shot Or worse

"Let's do what the guy says" Elliott jerked his chin up a fraction, indicating Tenn "He can take my wife and kid and—"

"She's not your fucking wife" Tenn squeezed his arhter around Elliott's neck

Elliott got his point before I did "Yeah, yeah, she's not evento do with this"

"Fine, we let her go and keep the kid" Such a reasonable tone for the inconceivable