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done for her and the sacrifices he’d made and that he had to
scrape the blood from his shoes and that Coffey and Ramirez were
always gossiping about him and there were flies buzzing on the
burgers because she’d run away and he’d had to go to the
barbecue alone and she couldn’t tell Bill the captain that he wasn’t
just one of the guys.
And there she was, pedaling easily, her hair short and dyed, as
pretty as ever, never thinking about her husband at all. Never
caring about him. Forgetting him and the marriage so she could
have a life with the gray-haired man and pat his chest and kiss
him with a dreamy expression on her face. Happy and serene,
without a concern in the world. Going to carnivals, riding bikes.
She probably sang to herself in the shower while he’d been crying
and remembering the perfume he’d bought her for Christmas, and
none of it mattered because she was selfish and thought she could
throw a marriage away, like an empty pizza box.
He unconsciously picked up his pace. The crowds were slowing
them down, and he knew that he could raise the gun and kill her
right now. His finger moved to the trigger and he slipped the
safety off because the Bible says Let marriage be held in honor among
all, and let the bed be undefiled, but he realized that it meant he had
to kill the gray-haired man as well. He could kill him in front of
her. All he had to do was pull the trigger, but then hitting moving
targets from a distance was almost impossible with a Glock, and
there were people everywhere. They would see the gun and
scream and shout and the shot was almost impossible, so he
removed his finger from the trigger.
“Quit veering toward your sister!” the gray-haired man said, up
ahead, his voice almost lost in the distance. But his words were
real and Kevin imagined the dirty things he whispered to Erin. He
could feel the rage building inside him. Then, all at once, the kids
turned the corner and they were followed by Erin and the grayhaired
man.