Cut and Run 6 - Stars and Stripes

If it’s you they want, they’ll need to get through me first,” Zane said. He nodded at Mark and Joe. “Cover my ass.”
    Mark nodded and traded the shotgun in his hands for Zane’s rifle. Zane took a deep breath and opened the front door.
    The Three Bandanas were in the yard, using the flames from the truck as partial cover. Ty was on his knees in front of Blue Bandana, a shotgun held to the back of his head. His cast was gone, and the side of his face was bloody. In fact, he was bloody almost everywhere. A large stain was spreading at his ribcage where he’d been shot, and more was flowing from his hairline.
    Zane had to fight not to rush forward. “What’s this about?” he called out, trying to keep his voice even and calm.
    “You know how much money you cost us?”
    Zane shook his head, gritting his teeth as he stared at Ty.
    “You found our stash, Zane. Ty told me. You were going to go expose us.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Zane called.
    “Bullshit! We were supposed to have it all moved by now, but with all this attention we couldn’t risk it. We got nothing to show for it! The money and those damn cats were all supposed to be in Mexico tomorrow.”
    Zane narrowed his eyes. The voice was familiar. “Cody?” he said with a sinking feeling, realizing he hadn’t truly believed it until now.
    Cody reached up and yanked the blue bandana down. The others followed suit. Ronnie, another of Harrison’s ranch hands who’d ridden to the pump house with them, was behind the red bandana. Zane’s knees went weak when his cousin Jamie pulled the black bandana off his face.
    “It was you?” he asked, barely able to get the words out. “Why?”
    “You said yourself, there were more than four,” Cody said with a sneer.
    Zane was breathless with shock and his mind was racing. It had been about drugs all along, but why? Like Ty said days ago, they were too far from the normal routes for it to make sense. Was this the first wave of some sort of cartel expansion? A chess move in a game being played hundreds of miles away? And what the hell did big cats have to do with any of it?
    “Guys . . . you’re looking at a hell of lot more time if you go through with this than you would for selling drugs or poaching exotic animals.”
    Cody shook his head. “You don’t understand, Zane! We got us a deal down in Laredo. He wants his money, and he wants his goddamned tigers. We don’t deliver, we’re dead men. He’ll think we swindled him.”
    “You’ll get life for this. Attempted murder. Hell, kidnapping, assault on a federal agent.”
    “He’ll kill us anyway!” Cody shouted, and he worked the action on the shotgun. Ty squeezed his eyes closed at the sound.
    The rage and terror bubbled up and Zane snarled. “You hurt him, and I’ll kill you.”
    “You can try it, Zane.”
    “Ty and I can help you get out of this. This isn’t the way. Do you have any idea how many people are in this house?”
    Cody’s eyes flickered to the house and he shook his head. “We don’t want no one to come to harm, that’s why we want to talk.”
    Zane eyes were drawn back to Ty. All color had drained from his face. He was losing too much blood. The only thing holding him upright was the lasso around his neck, but he raised his head and met Zane’s eyes.
    “What do you want?” Zane asked Cody.
    “We want the money,” Jamie called out. “What Uncle Harry’s got in that big safe of his. It’s the only way we can get out from under the man we owe. Get Uncle Harry out here or Cody blows Ty’s brains out.”
    Zane swallowed hard and met Ty’s eyes once more. It didn’t even take a moment’s thought. He half-turned toward the door, but Harrison stepped out and onto the porch with him.
    “Boys,” Harrison called in a deep voice that carried well over the yard. “This ain’t the way to go about this.”
    “Your meddling is going to cost us our lives,” Ronnie shouted.
    “They’d have gotten away with it too!” Ty said, his words almost slurred and sounding half-delirious. “If it hadn’t been for you meddling kids.”
    Cody put his boot on Ty’s back and then jerked on the lasso. Ty arched, reaching up to grasp the rope before it could cut off his air.
    “Shut your damn mouth!”
    “Give us the money to pay off what we owe,” Jamie told Harrison. “We disappear. Stuart and his boys take the fall for the poaching and the drugs. Nobody gets hurt. If you don’t, we burn it to