by Dale Mayer
“We’re sitting ducks,” he said. Quietly he grabbed her hand. “Follow me.”
And just like that they were up and racing away, Salem at his side as they went deeper into the woods. Bullets fired in their direction once more.
“We can assume they escaped the barn,” she gasped.
“Yep, they’re out and free, or they have backup.”
“Who would that would be?”
“It could be any number of people, but I see two possibilities.”
“Who?” she cried out.
“Either Billy, who we left tied up inside the house, or … Ross.”
Chapter 13
She hated to concede he had a point, but it was valid. “If it’s Ross, he parked somewhere out of sight and walked.”
“He probably parked at Jed’s and walked in. He could have released Billy, and now we’ve got both of them after us.”
“Shit,” she said. She picked up her phone and called her father. “Did you see anyone on foot?”
“No,” he said slowly. “Roger said he thought he saw a shadow, but, when he went to investigate, no one was there.”
“We’re under heavy gunfire,” she murmured. “We had two of them pinned in the barn, Jed and Bobby, but now we’re in the trees running away from the house.”
“You stay hidden,” her father ordered.
“You be careful, Dad,” she snapped. “There’s likely four now, all heavily armed. At this point, I want the bloody National Guard.”
He chuckled. “You won’t get that, but you will get us. And we do have word that Fort Collins is on its way. They’re about ten minutes out.”
At the mention of ten minutes, her heart gave a sigh of relief. “We can handle ten minutes, or rather I can.” She turned to look around to see Pierce already gone, Salem at his side. “Pierce and Salem are heading back toward the house and the barn, so I don’t know that they can.”
“Get them to stay where you are,” her father cried out in alarm.
“Not happening, Dad. He’s already too far gone for that. Get here as soon as you can. I’m going after him.” And she wasted no time pocketing her phone, racing behind Pierce. She wasn’t at all sure what he was up to, but she knew he wouldn’t go down without a fight, and she wouldn’t let him go down alone.
Swearing silently under her breath, she came up to a copse of trees where she could see the house clearly and almost cried out in surprise when a hand smacked around her mouth.
Pierce whispered in her ear. “You should have stayed behind.”
She shook her head, brushing off his hand. “What, and let you run off and have all the fun?”
His white teeth flashed in the dark. “Hardly, but at least here I don’t have to worry about somebody circling around and back again.”
“No,” she said, “you don’t. On the other hand, I’m not sure that’s any help.” Then she passed on her father’s message.
Together the two walked to the edge of the copse where they could see the house. He looked at it and said, “I don’t want Pete to lose that house.”
“I don’t think we have any choice,” she said. “There are too many bad guys. Better the property than our lives. And definitely can’t lose Salem. Pete needs her.”
“I want you stay here,” he said. “There might be four of them loose now, but I can knock that number down to half. There’s a good chance I can take their weapons, and that’ll give us a decided advantage.”
“What can I do to help?”
He leaned over and kissed her again. “See? That’s what I mean. Just the right kind of attitude.”
“Not quite,” she said. “I don’t want to get shot, and whatever you’re planning on doing is likely to get us both in that condition.”
“No,” he said cheerfully. “That’s not on my agenda. What I want you to do is stay here for five minutes. When you hear an owl call, come toward the call.”
“How will I know where that is in the darkness?” she asked.
But, once again, he was gone, Salem a mere shadow at his side in the dark. Hedi hated always being left behind, but she didn’t have a choice right now.
The minutes ticked by slowly. She kept checking her watch, wondering how long to give him. He’d said five minutes, but five minutes was not very long.
At the five-minute mark, she started counting mentally, making it go to six minutes, seven minutes. At the eight-minute mark, she stood, leaning against the tree. She hadn’t heard anything, not a gunshot, not a crackle of a branch.
And then suddenly he was right there beside her. Salem shoved her nose into her hand. Hedi stroked and scratched the beautiful animal’s neck and chin. She watched as Pierce dropped a heavy load to the ground at her feet. She could hear his heavy gasping breath now that he allowed himself to let it go. His load took the shape of a large prone male. “Which twin is it?”
“Billy. He was moving a little slower than the others, but now he won’t do anything until at least morning.”
“What about his weapons?”
“I stashed them back there. I want to pick off one more person,” he said. “Two against two are the odds I’m looking for.”
She smiled, realizing he was at least counting her as an equal, and that made her feel good. “Let me come with you,” she said, “then we don’t have to ditch the weapons.”
He hesitated, then gave a curt nod. “Just remember,” he said, “that I spent a lot of time learning how to do this.”
She nodded. “And you do it damn well,” she said. “But time is definitely of the essence.”
He nodded once and whispered, “Come on,” and he melted into the darkness.
She was amazed at how soundlessly he moved, with Salem always at his side, as if they were back in the war. And essentially they were. The two were a pair. Was Salem’s relationship with Pete like that too?
Was the war ever over for these men?
It seemed to her that every step she made came with a crackle and a crunch. She kept trying to not focus on it, but it was hard because Pierce apparently moved effortlessly and silently.
Suddenly they came up against the side of the house, and she saw Jed, heard him talking. She whispered, “Can you tell if someone is with him?”
“That’s Jed, but is he talking to someone on the phone? I don’t see anyone else.”
Off to their left was a whispered “There you are.” And a rifle barrel was locked and loaded with a clink.
Pierce wasted no time, taking three steps and diving low. She watched as he flattened the gunman to the ground, pulling the rifle from his hands, then he turned and smacked him hard in the head with the rifle butt. Salem latched onto the stranger’s ankle, growling in a most horrible way.
“Easy, girl. We got him.”
Slowly he persuaded Salem to back away from the man.
Hedi stood at Pierce’s side, taking the rifle as he handed it over to her. “Is that Bobby?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Let’s get him to his brother.” He looked at her. “Can you grab his feet?”
“I can for a little way,” she said, “but these guys …”
“I know,” he said. “I carried his brother. Maybe we’ll drag him over there and tie him up.”
And that was what they did. Back at the house, Salem standing between the two of them, Hedi handed Pierce the rifle and said, “I’d prefer to have a handgun any day.”
“As long as I have a weapon, I don’t care. Come on. Let’s go,” he said, running to the corner of the house. In the distance she thought she could hear vehicles. And then Pierce surprised her. He stepped forward, around the corner and said, “Hello, Jed.” He raised the confiscated rifle, aiming for Jed’s chest.
Jed turned on him, pointed his rifle in Pierce’s direction and said, “Don’t you fucking come any closer.”
“I don’t need to,” Pierce said gently.
Hedi watched as Salem kept to the shadows behind her around the corner.
“I can shoot you easily from here,” Pierce continued. “The fact of the matter is, I want you to get the hell off Pete’s property and to leave him and his property alone.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you want,” Jed said, “because I didn’t come alone.” In one hand he held his rifle, still pointed at Pierce, but, in the other hand, a well-bandaged hand, he held the propane torch. “I came prepared too. I’ll burn this place to the ground.”
“I can’t let you do that,” Hedi said, stepping out to join Pierce. “Definitely not happening.” She searched the area for a second man but saw no sign of him.
All of a sudden a gun poked her in the back. “Hate to do this,” Ross said, “but hands up, Hedi.”
“Shit,” she said, slurring the word, slowly raising her hands.
“You too, cowboy.”
Pierce had absolutely no problem doing the same.
“See?” taunted Jed. “Not alone.”
Ross chuckled. “Not such a smartass when a gun’s pointed at you, are you, Pierce?”
“I’m enjoying the entertainment here. Thanks, Ross,” Jed said, his rifle lowered to his side now, but a wild-eyed expression overtook his face, topped off by a madman’s smile.
Hedi turned to look at Ross. “I’m really sorry you did that, Ross.”
“I thought about it for a long time, and I figured I was running away with my tail between my legs and with nothing to show for it. Whereas, if I stayed here, I still could get it all,” he said calmly.
She nodded gravely, then smiled. “But you’re wrong.” And she dropped, kicked out, hit him hard in his kneecap. When he buckled, she flipped, kicked him in the jaw, and down he went. She grabbed his rifle and turned, holding it on Jed.
Drunk Jed was a little slow to react—or more entertained with Hedi taking down Ross—and was caught off guard, his rifle still at his side, still pointing downward.
Pierce looked at her, then at Ross groaning on the ground and said, “Wow, nice job.”
“Aikido,” she said. “Ross, you should have left. But don’t you worry. Now you’ll for sure get free room and board again but also an awful lot of very unwelcome company.”
With Ross and both Bobby and Billy taken down, that left just Jed. And, hearing the vehicles in the distance, Pierce stepped forward and said, “Jed, put down your firearm and the torch.”
“Hell no,” Jed snapped. “This ends here and now.”
“Absolutely it does,” Pierce said quietly. “Your three backups can’t help you now. It’s just you.”
“I didn’t need them anyway,” he roared. And he raised his firearm.
But, instead of firing, he lit the torch. Pierce swore, took aim and said, “Put that out, or I’ll shoot you down.”
Without warning, Jed fired but, because of his bad hand, missed. Pierce bolted to the side and dashed behind his truck as Jed laughed like a loon. He’d obviously flipped a mental switch and was incapable of rational action or thought.
Realizing Hedi was behind him, they split and came up on either side of Jed. But he was already lighting bits of grass with the torch as he moved toward the house, laughing more and more. Flames licked up the dry overgrown grass, racing in all directions.
At the front veranda Jed howled, “You can’t stop me,” he said. “Even if you shoot me, I’ll drop this, and it’ll light up this place like nothing.”
“We’ll put it out before it gets anywhere,” Pierce said calmly. “We have to redo that deck out back and put in a ramp anyway, just like for this veranda.”
“No fucking way Pete’s coming home,” Jed said. “This is Ross’s place, and he doesn’t want no broken-person ramp.” He turned the torch toward the steps.
Pierce jumped him, knocking away the rifle, but Jed sent blue flames at him. Pierce jumped back, and Jed, realizing his advantage, started to laugh again.
“Come and get me,” he jeered. “You think I don’t want to toast your skin alive for what you did to my hand?”
The vehicle din got louder. “This won’t end well,” Pierce said. He used hand signals to keep Salem behind him. If Jed saw her, he’d make her his first target. She deserved better than that. He called out to Jed, “The cops are coming. Everybody in town and even from neighboring counties who can give us a hand are headed here. You sure you want to take a bullet and die this way?”
“Why the fuck not? At least I’ll see this place burn. You took away my wife and kids. You blew up my hand. You ruined my life.”
“Oh, grow up,” Hedi snapped beside him. “You’re the one who chased away your wife and kids. You’re the one who ruined your life. And no way in hell we’ll let you just stand here and burn down Pete’s place.”
“Well, Pete ain’t coming back,” he snapped. “So shut the fuck up.”
“Jed?” A thin but valiant voice called from the first vehicle to come up the driveway. Even in the dark the voice was recognizable. “What the hell are you doing, man?”
Pierce barely caught Salem as she went to race past him. Giving her a hard command to wait, she sat but squirmed in eagerness. She’d had no trouble recognizing Pete’s voice. But the danger wasn’t over. Jed had a personal hatred for the dog …
Jed faltered. He turned to the pickup parked sideways in the drive.
Pete opened the door so everybody could see him. Jessie hopped out of the driver’s side, came around to Pete, dropped his wheelchair down on the ground and helped him into it.
Pierce and Hedi exchanged a glance, both wondering how Pete got here and ended up in Jessie’s vehicle.
Jed’s face worked up into a big frown. “What the hell? Ross said you weren’t coming back.”
“Would you shut that torch off please?” Pete said quietly. “You’ll burn down my house, and I need it.”
“You should have stayed where you were,” Jed said, moving a couple steps closer. He held the torch out in front of him, as if to burn Pete. “We don’t need no broken-down pieces of sorry-ass shits here.”
Pete nodded. “You know what? Ross told me that too. Not in the same words but basically telling me this was a place for only able-bodied men, and everybody else needed to stay in the rehab center. And I’m sorry to say I believed him. My belief in myself had taken so many hits already that I allowed his words to dictate my actions.” He turned to look at Pierce and smiled. “Pierce here reminded me that I’ve been through worse and probably there’ll be worse ahead of me too. But you don’t need to be worried about that anymore. They’ll lock you up for a long time.”
“Why? I haven’t done nothing,” Jed said, laughing uproariously. “So what if I got a blowtorch? Big fucking deal.” He turned it on the grass and lit the grass around him on fire.
Pierce watched him, wondering if Jed realized how close he was to torching his own body. “Is that how you want to die?” he asked softly. “Do you want to burn yourself alive?”
“What do you care?”
Pierce crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t. I’ve seen too many people light themselves on fire over in Afghanistan and India. It’s not a pretty sight. But, if that’s your way to go, well, whatever, man.”
“I’m not suicidal,” Jed roared. “It’s you who’ll burn alive.”
Pierce just stared at him. “I don’t think so. You’re the one looking pretty weak and feeble at the moment.”
Jed looked around, as if seeing the ten men surrounding him for the first time. He frowned. “Who the fuck are you guys?”
“Law-abiding citizens and cops from Fort Collins,” the closest police officer said. “We sure as hell aren’t in our usual jurisdiction, but, if we got to step in, we got to. And you’re causing trouble. Where the hell your local sheriff is, I don’t know.”
“He’s sitting in his office, not worrying about jack shit,” Jed said. “That’s the way he likes it.”
“Maybe,” the cop said, “but that’s not his job.” He turned, caught sight of Hedi and nodded. “So we got one deputy, and that’s it?”
/> “Yeah, nobody else would come,” she said. “And I’ve been fired because I did come.”
The cop raised his eyebrows. “I’m pretty sure there’ll be an investigation.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Doesn’t mean it’ll make any difference. Apparently our sheriff paid everybody to vote him in.”
“Wow. That’ll make for some fun times coming up.” The police officer looked at Jed. “You going to put that out and drop your weapon?”
“Hell no,” Jed said. “You want me to do that, you’ll have to shoot me.”
“I can,” the cop said in a bored tone of voice. “It’s your choice.” He pointed his revolver at Jed. “Make a decision.”
“Absolutely,” Jed said, and he turned on Pierce with the blowtorch and jumped him.
Shots broke out, but Jed was too close to Pierce for a good rifle shot. Jed went down, shot in the shoulder, but still fighting mad. He threw himself at Pierce.
Pierce sidestepped the man, grabbed the blowtorch from his hand, shut it off, stopping the blue flame, and stomped out the grass fire Jed had started.
Jed swore and cussed, and, as they watched, then dropped to the ground, crying like a baby.
Hedi threw herself into Pierce’s arms.
He held her close and said, “It’s okay. It’s over.”
She gave him a quick hug, looked up at him and said, “It might be over, but you damn near got torched.”
“Maybe,” he said, “but Jed was a little too drunk for that.”
Jed was quickly secured, medical aid administered. The rest of the prisoners were taken out, and explanations were given.
Pierce didn’t know how many men were here from Fort Collins, how many were locals. Or why Salem disappeared. He’d figured for sure she’d have gone right for Pete but … He glanced around, his gaze searching the area. She’d had a rough time of it lately; so, if this many men scared her off, that was fine. She could have a private reunion with Pete a little later.
As he looked over the crowd, he found Jessie and Pete. He walked over, squatting in front of Pete, and said, “Man, you’re a sight for sore eyes.”
Pete reached out to shake his hand. “Thank you. And I don’t mean for saving the house. Obviously that’s just property. But thank you for not taking any more lives. This isn’t the war we’re supposed to fight, and we’re never supposed to fight one on our own soil.”