I gave everyone a carefully edited version of events. The ultimatum I gave George and the merciless beating that followed got glossed over as a fight. Bill looked away and kept his face in a ruthlessly neutral expression. Jessie cocked an eyebrow at me, but let it pass. They’d both seen evidence to contrary. Annie still gave me a look of profound disapproval. It was clearly something we weren’t ever going to see eye-to-eye on. I cringed to imagine what her reaction would have been to the real story. Gran looked impassive. She’d known me for so long that she could spot one of my half-truths a mile away. I replayed the conversation I’d had with Carter in as much detail as I could recall. It had been a bizarre and oddly harrowing event, so my recall was right on the verge of photographic. I might have missed an exact word here or there, but that was it. There was another round of pensive looks as the retelling confirmed my earlier claim that Carter was a true believer.

When a true believer buys into things like compassion and charity, you usually end up with someone who makes a profound, if often subtle, difference in the world. They become clergy, take jobs in non-profits, open food banks, or work tirelessly on legal reforms. When a true believer buys into other things, you see similarly profound changes. They’re just not usually for the better. Even worse, you can’t convince a true believer. They know. Or, at least they think they know the truth of things. They’ll defend their position to the bitter end. We weren’t going to talk Carter off the ledge. He knew we meant to interfere. The fight was coming.

I ended the retelling with a stark description of Carter’s almost casual execution of George. I’d initially thought of it as a murder, but the term didn’t quite fit. I’d planned on murdering George in a fit of blind rage and secondhand vengeance. Carter killed George on principle. He believed that George had crossed an inviolate line, maybe even a sacred law, and that the only thing left to do was rid the earth of the abusive prick. Everyone stared at me after that little revelation. I left it to them to draw their own conclusions about Carter's actions.

“So, Carter just offed the guy? Cold and efficient?” Jessie prompted.

“Yeah. There was no hesitation.”

Jessie and Uncle Bill exchanged a look.

“Not good,” said Jessie.

“No, not at all,” agreed Bill.

“We should probably revisit your sniper rifle approach,” I said with a nod toward Jessie.

“No shit,” she said.

I sighed a little. “I don’t love that strategy but, for this guy, it may be the best way. Either of you know someone who’s good with distance shooting?”

Jessie and Bill both got abstracted expressions as they thought it over. I glanced over and noticed Annie give us all a horrified look. I felt an awkward conversation coming on and didn’t see a clear path to avoiding it. On the one hand, I understood. We were casually, well, maybe not casually, but directly discussing the possibility of murdering a man. On the other hand, Annie simply didn’t get it. Jessie and I got it because we’d both stood face-to-face with Carter. Bill got it because he’d been at this long enough to know that some problems required absolute measures. As for Gran, well, who knew about Gran? I sure as shit didn’t have any insights there. It was pretty clear that I didn’t know nearly enough about her to draw trustworthy conclusions.

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“I can’t believe what I’m-,” Annie started.

Jessie whirled toward her sister with a furious expression. “Don’t you even dare! Don’t you even, for one second, get up on that high horse of yours and act like you didn’t know things like this happen!”

“Jessie, I-,” Annie interrupted.

“No!” Jessie shouted. “No, you do not get to pretend about this. Just because evil, murderous bastards don’t show up at your little sanctuary, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Someone has to deal with them! This is not a man we can talk to. This is not a man we can negotiate with. There is no middle ground here. He is coming. He is coming to kill us, and not because he thinks we’re bad people. He’s going to try to kill us because we’re not on board with his crazy fucking plan! If you want to take a pass and run home and let other people do the hard things, like you always do, then go. But cowardice doesn’t make you righteous. So, you will, by all this is holy, keep your sanctimony to yourself.”

Jessie was visibly trembling with what looked like barely contained rage. Annie looked like she didn’t know whether she wanted to be angry, sick, or hurt. Even I felt a little stunned by the raw force of Jessie’s outrage. I guess I recovered a little faster than Annie. I went to say something, only to see Bill furiously shaking his head at me. I closed my mouth and regarded the sisters, who were still staring at each other. Bill probably had a point. I had no idea what their history was aside from a few surface details. What was plainly evident was there were deep and troubled waters at work. It’d be stupid to get into the middle of that. A man could find himself summarily drowned in those kinds of waters. I held my tongue. The staring match lasted for about a minute, but it was ultimately Annie who looked away first.

Jessie let her own stare rest on her sister for a few more seconds before turning to Bill. “I may know a couple of people.”

“Good. I’m pretty sure that the people I knew who did that sort of thing have all retired. Well, that or ended up dead.”

“Hazards of the life,” Jessie muttered.

Something occurred to me that had gotten lost in the shuffle. “Has anyone checked in on Gabriella and her family?”

Everyone sort of blinked at me, then comprehension dawned.

“Shit,” muttered Bill. “No. None of us have.”

“Alright,” I said. “Where did they end up going?”

“They’re at Mercy Heart,” said Gran.

“I’ll go check on them. Assuming social services hasn’t snatched them up, they’ll need somewhere to go.”

“One of us can do it,” said Bill.

I waved him off. “You and Jessie have calls to make. I don’t have anything to contribute right now. So, it may as well be me. Besides, they probably know me the best out of all of us.”

Gran was probably better suited for the task, but I wanted an excuse to leave. Leaving meant that no one could ask me awkward questions that I didn’t want to answer. It also let me avoid Bill and Gran, which I saw as I huge win for me. I also felt responsible for that entire mess with Gabriella’s family. I had failed them with my half-measures. While I couldn’t rewrite what had happened to them, I could at least show my face and face the music like a grownup. Bill followed me out of the house.

“What will you tell them?” He asked.

“I’ll tell them,” I hesitated. “I’ll tell them enough. Enough so they’ll know they’re safe. I guess that won’t be very much in the end.”

Bill nodded. “Don’t dawdle. Do what you need to do, but then get back here. Once things start moving, they’ll move faster than any of us would like. We’ll need enough time to get to Jessie’s place and prepare.”

I wanted to tell him off, but it wouldn’t do any good. He was right. We were on a clock.

“Yeah. I’ll be as quick as I can.”