Something Wilder(30)

“Terry,” Leo said flatly, passing the journal to Lily and looking up at Terry in stunned confusion. “Man, what do you need with a gun?”

“You brought a gun?” Walter shrieked. “I couldn’t even bring my bidet!”

When Bradley leaned forward to look, Terry broke free of their hold, lunging for Leo. Ripping the bag from Leo’s hands, Terry backed up, pulling out the gun. Looking around wildly, he reached for Nicole, and before Leo could process what was happening, Terry roughly grabbed her arm and jerked her back against his chest.

Lily let out a broken cry, and a spiraling shimmer of panic shot through Leo.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Bradley said, hands up and voice high with shock. “What’s happening?”

“Terry,” Lily said, her voice quaking violently. She immediately tossed the leather-bound notebook onto the dusty ground between them. “Terry. Hey. Take it. You can have the journal. It’s fine. Just put the gun down.”

Leo held his hands up. Fear scaled his chest like a jagged sheet of ice. “Let’s calm down. We just wanted to know what’s going on.”

“What’s going on is you’re being a nosy little bitch.” Spittle flew out with Terry’s words, getting trapped in his mustache. “Go chase after the hot daughter some more, Leo, and just forget about this.”

“Someone skin this man alive,” Nicole seethed, gritting her teeth against the press of the gun.

“Nic,” Lily whispered, “be quiet, honey.”

“You’re not going to shoot her, come on,” Bradley said. “This is just a big misunderstanding. You’ll put it down, and we’ll keep the trip rolling along like before. We’ll pretend this never happened. Right, Lily?”

Lily swallowed. “Of course.”

“It’s not that simple,” Terry said. His eyes roved the scene: over their faces, across the landscape, behind him where the lip of the canyon loomed far too close. Scrambling forward, he bent awkwardly around Nicole’s body and grabbed the journal before scooting away from the rest of them.

“Lily,” Walt murmured, “what the hell is in that book?”

“It’s just my father’s notes,” she said, and swallowed. “He can take it. It’s fine.”

“Okay,” Leo said placatingly. “Terry, you have the journal. Let Nicole go.”

“I’m taking her with me,” he said, voice tight. “If you follow us, I’ll shoot.”

Anger and panic were a salty tide rising in Leo’s chest. He couldn’t let Terry leave with her.

He would worry later about what was in the journal, about the loose cannon Terry had morphed into, about what any of this was really about. Right now, he had to get the gun out of Nicole’s face. His eyes shifted to where the barrel pressed into the soft skin of her cheek. Her eyes were squeezed closed, her pulse a riot in her neck. Without thinking, Leo exploded forward, grabbing her free of Terry’s hold and tossing her behind him. Immediately, he wrapped a hand around Terry’s fingers on the gun, wrestling it skyward.

A shot rang out, and everyone but Leo and Terry ducked for cover, screaming.

Terry wrenched the gun free, shuffling back a few more steps. If possible, his skin grew redder, face flushed with anger as he swung the shaking gun at Walt, then Leo, and finally to Lily crouched with Nicole in her arms, off to the side.

“Just—chill the fuck out!” he shouted.

“Terry,” Bradley said, his voice shaking. “Man, put the gun down. I’m not fucking kidding here.”

“I should have known it would be like this,” Terry seethed. “Surrounded by a bunch of cowards. We shouldn’t have come here as a group.”

“Don’t do this,” Bradley said quietly. “Why are you doing this right now? Don’t ruin the trip, man.”

But Leo knew that ship had sailed long ago. Holding his shaking hands out where Terry could see them, Leo—with his heart in his windpipe—took a cautious step forward, and then another. “Terry. I’m going to reach for the gun, and we’re going to put it down. You can take the book and go. Whatever you need. It isn’t worth this.”

Leo reached out, wrapping a hand around the barrel, but as soon as he tilted it to the side, Terry registered that he was fucked. Panicking, he reached with his other hand to try to claw at Leo’s face, and before Leo knew exactly what was going on, the two were wrestling with a loaded gun between them. He heard Lily cry out his name. His heart was in his skull now, pounding, pounding; everything around them was dust and panic and noise.

Walt grabbed on to Terry’s gun arm, trying to help Leo wedge the barrel from Terry’s grip. The gun came free, falling to the ground in the melee. Bradley came for Terry’s other arm, finally managing to drag Terry away. Furious, Bradley wrapped his fists in Terry’s shirt, walking him backward.

“Are you out of your mind?” Bradley shouted into his face. His normally placid expression was tight with adrenaline and fury. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Red dust had kicked up, leaving them all disoriented; Leo had no idea whether the rocky lip of the canyon was in front of him or behind him, so he carefully went down to his knees, feeling around to regain his bearings. Somewhere in the past thirty seconds, the shouting had stopped sounding like individual words and was now only a din. Squinting up into the gritty cloud, Leo reached forward to grab Bradley’s calf, desperately yelling for him to let Terry go and get down.