Unease made Leo grit his teeth as he watched the flicker of the heat over the ancient, cracked tarmac.
Their prey was out there, somewhere uphill, returning from one of the valleys in the hazy mountain range. The old highway was the only way back for them. And they would end up right in the trap Leo and his friends had set up.
The plan was simple and perfect—in theory.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," he said. "This looks too easy."
Spike, standing next to him, wiped the sweat from his brow. "Don't worry, pal. We'll get them this time." He gestured at the felled tree blocking the road a hundred yards downhill from where they stood.
Leo shook his head slowly. "Let's hope so." Gazing up and down the highway, he tried to locate the reason for his doubts, but everything looked as planned. The tree they had cut down an hour before would stop any car coming from the mountains. And as soon as it would pass their current location, they'd fell another one, cutting the vehicle off from escape.
Their three companions across the road looked alert and ready for the fight.
Flora squeezed Leo's arm. "Hey, don't worry, big brother! This is the day we'll catch them." She tilted her head and gave him a lopsided grin. A gust of hot wind swept a strand of matted black hair over her face, hiding one of her eyes. The other glinted at him, the tiny wrinkles at its corner mischievous. "You'll get your sweet revenge."
"This isn't about revenge." That's what Leo kept telling himself.
She used the arrow she held to brush the unruly strands away. "If you say so."
He resisted the urge to hold and protect his sister like he used to when they were kids. "I doubt that the ones who murdered..." Try as he might, he couldn't force himself to speak his wife's name—the pain was still hot. "I doubt the bastards are in that car. And we're not here to kill anyone. We'll just capture them as hostages."
Flora shrugged and squinted at the arrow as if disappointed it wouldn't taste blood today.
"But..." Leo tried to pinpoint his unease once more. "This all looks too easy to me."
The desiccated, leafless trees lining the road mocked him with their silence.
With a grunt, Spike swung his axe, embedding it into the trunk next to them, preparing it for its task to close the trap. "Don't worry," he said. "These Gaters are daft and soft. Their asses and cunts will be ours to pick today."
"Pick ass as much as you want, but the cunts aren't yours to take, Spike," Flora said. "And anyway, before you can do any picking, you must crack that car they have." She used the arrow's tip to prod the axe-man's buttocks.
In a swift motion, Spike turned and glowered at the woman. His jaw moved as he chewed whatever herb he was chewing today. "Watch it, girl. And, by the way, this here's my can opener." He brought the blade of his axe within an inch of her nose. "It opens skull, too. Do you want a taste of it?"
Leo wasn't surprised when Flora's arrow struck Spike's groin with a whack.
"Dammit, woman!" Her victim growled as he held a hand over his private parts, bending forward. "I was just kidding." He spat, and the herb he had been chewing smacked the ground at her feet. Then he stood straight and raised his axe once more. "You'll regret this."
His grin was somewhere between a smile and a menace.
"Stop it, both of you." Leo stepped between them. "We've got to keep our wits about us. You idiots can squabble when our work is over and done." Standing a head taller than Spike, he stared down at him until he got a nod in return.
Then he turned to face his sister and to give her his best scowl. But she had already retreated to sit on a nearby rock, where she was cleaning her fingernails with the tip of her arrow and whistling an off-key tune. "You too, Flora," he said. "Keep peace."
"Sure, bro." She looked up, cocked her head, and flashed her teeth.
Leo took an exhausted breath, the hot thrill of getting his hands on the Gaters replaced by stale frustration. He'd rather change Hope's diapers at home than ambush strangers and keep his little troupe of wildcats in line. "One of these days, the two of you will get us all killed."
"Relax." Flora had abandoned her fingernail cleaning and strutted over to Leo. "We've just been fooling around, Spike and I. Right, Spike?" Taking the arrow between her teeth, she put both her palms on Leo's shoulders, at the base of his neck, and kneaded his tense muscles.
Spike replied by slamming his axe into the tree.
Leo grasped his sister's arms and pushed them down, proudly admiring her fierce, almond-skinned looks as she bit the arrow. "What if they take another way back? What if they don't come through here at all? We don't even know where they went."
She mumbled something unintelligible into the wood she was biting.
"The Gaters always come through here when they return from the mountains and head back to their gated village." Spike pointed his axe uphill. "And if Flora doesn't skewer us all with that arrow of hers before they arrive, we'll have them by their balls." He took a step away from the woman. "And by their boobs."
Before Flora could take the bait, a whistle sounded. One of their companions on the other side of the road waved his arms at them.
"They're coming." Leo squinted his eyes and looked up the valley. The highway threaded its way through a cluster of dreary ruins far uphill. Apart from these buildings, the dry landscape lay desolate, subdued in shades of dark stone, bleached wood, and ochre sand under a pale blue sky.
Nothing moved but the heat ghosts over the tarmac. Only some tumbleweeds rocked gently in the wind, piling up against the guardrail.
But then, a cloud of dust caught his attention. It was at least a mile up the highway, near the ruins.
It had to be them—their prey heading for its trap.
"They'll be here in a few minutes." He checked the tree that Spike had been working on. "Are you done with it? Is it ready?"
Spike grinned, turning the scar across his cheek into a dark crevice. "The tree's ready as a hoe. One little nick, and she'll bend over for us."
"Asshole," Flora said.
"Shut up." Leo's heart pounded against his ribs. "Both of you, stop your nonsense. Hide and get ready. We'll get them this time."
"The bloody Gaters don't have a clue what's waiting for them." Flora ignored Leo's orders and squinted as she eyed the approaching plume of dust.
Leo wiped the sweat from his brow and nodded, reluctantly.
It all looked so easy.