by Connor Mccoy
The barrage of gunfire from the other side stopped. Jubes must have spooked the shooter!
Jubilee tried to stand up, but she suddenly slid back down to the floor and cried out. “Brandon!”
Damn! Was she hit? Brandon joined her. No, she’s probably still weak.
“Get the door!” Jubilee nodded her head. “Hurry!”
Brandon reached for the door’s knob. His sis had bought them some time. He quickly turned the knob and pushed the door open.
“Hey!” Zell’s voice rang out from behind the door that led outside. “You little bastards still in there? I’m going to skin you alive!”
“Shit!” Brandon grabbed his sister and hoisted her up. She fired her remaining shots at the door as Brandon hauled her through the doorway.
Once inside the workshop, Brandon slammed the door, then tripped its locks. It just took one flick of Brandon’s finger to switch on the three locks that held the door tight against the frame.
The closed door helped muffle the terrible sound of the bullets. The amount of ammo Zell was pouring out was unreal. He surely could blast his way through the kitchen door if he hadn’t done so already.
Jubilee panted. “Thanks.”
Gathering his wits, Brandon fled from the door and looked around the workshop. This small room was where Doc Sam kept his household tools. The collection of pipes in the corner evidenced his plumbing work. The small wooden table had a scattering with small tools and parts, since Doc Sam reserved his larger work for his garage.
Unfortunately, the workshop contained no exit door. The only door Brandon and Jubilee could locate was a closet door.
The sound of a door snapping loose traveled through the workshop door, chilling Brandon to the bone. The look in Jubilee’s eyes told him she was no less petrified. Zell Lutz finally had blown away the hinges from the back door and gained access to the kitchen.
“Brandon!” Jubilee pointed to the door. “What do we do?”
If Zell could shoot open the kitchen door, he could do the same to the workshop door.
“Physical barrier!” Brandon pointed to the table. “Help me!”
Zell could shoot through hinges, but he couldn’t demolish a wooden table unless he had a bazooka or explosives. As Brandon scooted the table against the door, he hoped Zell had not found them either.
Jubilee struggled to push from her end. Brandon winced. He feared Jubilee might reinjure her arm. He opened his mouth to tell her to stop, but the table by then had reached the door. With an added burst of strength, Brandon pulled it all the way across.
Footsteps approached. “Hide!” Brandon called to his sister. If Zell still managed to get in, then Brandon and Jubilee had to be scarce when he showed up.
Domino scampered to the other side of the sofa to try intercepting Evander. If he wanted to get to the hall, then he only could do so from either side of the sofa. Domino vowed to make sure he didn’t cross past her unless he took a few rounds of lead.
But suddenly, things changed in a hurry. “Mom!” Brandon cried out from the kitchen, “Zell!” Brandon’s shout was accompanied by a sudden round of gunfire from the kitchen.
Oh my God! Brandon and Jubilee were under fire in the kitchen!
Crouched down, she raced toward the hall door. But she got no farther than two paces when a loud gunshot pierced one of the portraits hanging on the wall. Domino quickly ducked and rolled back to the sofa, and just in time. Evander had emerged from the other side of the sofa, on the end opposite Domino, just far enough away that he could not lunge at her physically.
Fortunately, the gap between them afforded Domino the chance to turn and fire at him. Evander rapidly turned and ducked behind the sofa. Domino thought she had hit his shoulder but couldn’t be sure.
Unfortunately, scaring off Evander for the moment did nothing to stop the second gunman from continuing his line of fire from the other side of the front door. As soon as Domino shot at Evander, the mystery assailant fired off a round that zinged so close to Domino’s ears that it sent a fierce tremor down her body.
Shit! Shit! She was pinned down in the living room by two assailants. But if Zell Lutz was not shooting at her from just outside the living room, then who was it? Did the Lutz cousins hook up with some help? It would explain their sudden abundance of ammunition. Their mysterious friend probably loaded them up with ammo just before they carried out their attack.
The continuing gunfire coming from the kitchen terrified her. What the hell was going on? The shots sounded muffled, as if they originated from outside the house. Zell Lutz must be trying to shoot his way inside the house. Brandon, Jubilee, run and hide!
Domino had to disorient these men so she could get to the kitchen. If Evander was close enough to the sofa, and if he had fled to the other side as soon as Domino shot at him, then maybe…
She was close enough to the other side of the sofa. It might work. She dove onto her back, then kicked up her boots and slammed them hard into the sofa. It struck someone on the other side. Domino took the opportunity to switch out a clip. Now she was fully armed again. She sprang up, keeping low, running toward the hall.
At that moment, the second gunman emerged through the front door. Out of the corner of her eye, Domino saw he was far more fearsome than either of the Lutz brothers. A tall man with a mustache and steely eyes, he aimed his firearm in her general direction.
Domino picked up speed. He rained bullets behind her and then just over her. Domino slammed onto her belly. The shots penetrated the wall close to her. It was a miracle she escaped a fatal shot.
“Damn!” Evander scampered out from behind the sofa, fumbling, grasping the side of his head, where the sofa had struck him. “Damn bitch!”
The mystery man stopped firing. His clip must have been empty. But that didn’t stop Evander from springing up and discharging his own weapon. Domino fled backward from the hall, toward a loveseat. There was just enough space between the back of the loveseat and the wall to take cover.
The tall gunman started reloading his gun. “Go after her. Now! Don’t let her take cover and snipe at us!”
Evander did as he was told, though with his open mouth and shaking head, he didn’t seem happy to be doing it.
I’ll make you regret coming after my family. Domino fired once, but Evander was too close. He fired three times, his shots tearing into the loveseat. One of the bullets blasted some stuffing into Domino’s face. She was tempting fate. But for the sake of her family, she would do no less.
And for her willingness to stare death in the face, she found a reward. Evander was close, but his aim was still too imprecise to hit her. The man had spent his recent days on crystal meth. It had played havoc with his body’s coordination. He should have been able to score a hit by now.
Too bad for him, Domino was much better.
As he crossed into view, Domino squeezed her trigger. Evander fell back against the wall. Between screams, he called out, “The bitch shot me! Diablo! She shot me! Dammit!”
“Useless shit!” the man said with a grunt, apparently the “Diablo” Evander had addressed.
Suddenly, the loveseat was pelted with gunfire. Domino quickly drew back and pressed hard against the wall. Diablo was hitting her position hard, giving Evander time to get out of range.
Footsteps were approaching. As Diablo fired, he was closing the distance between them. Domino had curled herself into such a tight ball that she could not see exactly from where he was marching. He could show up on either side of the loveseat before Domino could turn and shoot.
The gunfire stopped. A shadow crossed over the wall. Diablo was here.
“Alright, woman, if you want to suck in air for another minute, you throw that gun out at the count of three. If you don’t, I’ll bleed your entrails all across this floor.”
Diablo had cornered her. Domino had no way to get to her babies. And if she didn’t surrender, she might not be able to see them ever again.
“One…” Diablo began.
Chapter Thirteen
“Two…” Diablo continued.
I don’t have a choice, Domino thought. Surrender would at least keep her alive. However, giving in to these men also opened herself up to terrifying possibilities. These men did not sound like the type to be gentle with their captives, particularly women.
Damn them! I swore I wouldn’t let myself be cornered again. Never! She had imagined that at least she would go down fighting. But for the sake of her family, some sacrifices would have to be made, however unpleasant they were.
“Alright!” Domino raised her gun. “You want it? It’s coming!”
“Throw it now!” Diablo barked.
Domino threw her arm back, ready to toss the weapon out.
Suddenly, a new hail of gunfire froze Domino’s grip in place. Did Diablo break his word and shoot anyway?
But none of the bullets hit her. Diablo suddenly cried out, “Goddammit!” and fled. Evander also was screeching. Someone else was shooting at these men.
Who? Brandon? Jubilee? Dammit! Tell me it’s not you! I told you to get out of here!
Diablo’s rapid footsteps told Domino he was fleeing. She dared to look out from behind the loveseat. Both Diablo and Evander were no longer in view.
With her gun at the ready, Domino scampered into the open, keeping her head down. The gunfire was coming from the right side of the living room. Diablo was crouched down, hiding on the far side of the sofa, near the guest room where Domino and her children had stayed. Evander was nowhere to be seen, although the closet door on the wall opposite Domino now was open, a solid clue as to where he had fled.
Blood drops were scattered across the floor. They could belong to Evander, but some of them might have originated from Diablo, if he had been hit. But who was helping her?
“You sons of bitches…you picked the wrong house to hit.”
“Sam!” Domino said with a gasp.
The doctor hobbled along the wall, leaning against it for support. His hands were clutching a rifle. His left arm was held in place by a sling. The door to the treatment room yawned open behind him.
My God. Domino was chilled by his appearance. His walk reminded Domino of a zombie. His skin looked ashen, almost gray. Tremors ran down his body. If he hadn’t been following alongside the wall, he easily could have toppled over, given his weak gait.
“Shit!” Evander sprang from the closet. “It’s the Doc!”
Doc Sam sprayed the area with a fresh volley of bullets. Diablo huddled farther behind the sofa. Sam kept walking as he fired. Domino swallowed hard. Doc Sam didn’t look well enough to duck and cover. He was walking into certain death. If either Diablo or Evander wanted to take him down, he was wide open.
Evander fell back toward the hall. From his position, Doc Sam could turn to shoot, but he would open himself up to Diablo. Diablo and Evander lay too far apart. One could nail him if the other was targeted.
Domino turned and fired on Evander. Evander fell back into the closet with a yelp. He screamed, but Domino could not tell if she had hit him or if he had yelled in fright.
“Domino!” Doc Sam shouted. “Go! Get your kids!”
“Sam!” Domino’s heart pounded. She didn’t want to leave him to the mercy of these animals.
“This is my last stand,” Doc Sam said. “Don’t make it yours! Run!”
Run. That last word sounded gentle, like a father speaking to a daughter. Sam must know what he was doing.
And so Domino obeyed. She turned and ran for the hall.
“Diablo!” Evander screamed, “She’s running!”
“Run after her!” Diablo shouted. Sam pelted him with more gunfire, keeping Diablo ducking and covering as the gunman continued to spout orders. “If you screw this up, I’m going to blow your brains all over the goddamn floor!”
Evander fled down the hall. Doc Sam wanted to turn and aim, but the wall kept him from spinning around enough to take a shot at the man. He sighed. Domino would have to be on her own.
He was practically at the end of his rope as things stood. He had tied off his wound as best he could, then slipped on a sling to keep his left arm anchored in place so his right hand could hold onto the gun. He had managed to escape from his treatment room and grab a firearm from one of his secret compartments. Unfortunately, Diablo and his goon squad had discovered another one of his home’s concealed armories. He didn’t know how, but he wondered if either Zell or Evander had done some scouting around his home while they were here and found something that looked suspicious enough to bring to Diablo’s attention—a section of wall that Diablo recognized as a false panel.
I’m definitely getting old if I slipped up and didn’t hide all my armories well enough, Doc Sam thought.
His vision blurred again. Trying to keep it in focus was hell. He didn’t have much longer to carry on. He just had to worry about handling this Diablo bastard.
“You’re a stubborn son of a bitch,” Diablo said from his hiding spot.
“Ask my daddy. My ancestors bore and bred my family line that way,” Doc Sam retorted, followed by a painful cough.
A click rattled through the air. It was the sound of a gun being reloaded. Diablo would be able to open fire again. Sam let his gun hang off the sling around his neck and reached on his belt with his right hand for his last little surprise.
“You should have fled,” Diablo said. “You might have saved your hide. Now you’re going to die here.”
Doc Sam clutched “Daisy” in his hand. “Let me…” He stopped to suck in a deeper breath. “Let me tell you something. I always knew I’d die here. I just aim to die well by taking a mud sucking, lowlife like you with me.”
And then Sam threw “Daisy” as hard as he could.
The force of the throw threw his balance off so terribly that he plummeted to the floor. But he knew what his girl would do. It was a flash grenade. And judging from how far it was sailing, it would soar over Diablo’s head and detonate very close to him.
A second later, “Daisy” exploded.
Doc Sam shut his eyes against the brilliance that would be emptied out by the grenade. Diablo screamed.
Yeah, I bet you weren’t expecting that. The doc would have laughed if his chest didn’t hurt so much.
Now for the final move. Doc Sam rolled over, trying to sit up. His legs were too weak. He couldn’t stand. But he had to at least aim his gun toward the space between the sofa and the front door.
The light subsided. Diablo was thrashing around, but by now Sam’s vision was so poor that all the man could make out was a moving blur.
“Damn.” Doc Sam raised his gun. If he could just see, he’d nail Diablo. Fearing that he was losing his chance, he aimed where he thought the center of the blur would be and pulled the trigger.
He fired every last shot he had. The blur danced around like a cat on a hot tin roof. Sam tried to focus. Did he hit Diablo at all? The only clue he had was that Diablo’s shouts seemed to intensify as he fired. Then, the blur sped off to the right.
Diablo must have fled through the front door. Doc Sam kept squeezing the trigger even though the gun discharged nothing. He was spent and had no energy to reload, if he had any clips left.
He sighed. Well, I guess that’s it. If he had managed to nail Diablo, Sam hoped the bastard would have the good sense to bleed to death in his front yard.
Domino poured on the speed. The gunfire from the kitchen never seemed to stop. The barrage now sounded much louder, as if it was taking place inside the kitchen itself.
“Zell!” Evander shouted from ahead of Domino, “Zell, watch the bitch!”
As Domino neared the threshold to the kitchen she quickly took stock of what just had happened. The kitchen door was lying on the floor. The hinges hung off the doorframe, bent, twisted, and smoldering. Zell must have shot his weapon at the hinges to take off the door.
As for Zell Lutz himself, he was aiming at the door to Doc Sam’s workshop. One of the hinges hung off, reduced to a
bent piece of metal. But the other two hinges remained on, and the door, in spite of being pelted along the cracked edge, remained intact.
Brandon! Jubilee! Domino kept a fearful eye out for them, but she spotted no trace of them, nor any blood to indicate they had been struck. She quickly figured if Zell was aiming at the workshop door, he might think her babies were inside that room!
“Get away from that door!” Domino roared as she swung her gun around, ready to propel lead through Zell’s head.
But Evander’s earlier warning already had tipped off Zell. The Lutz cousin pulled away from the workshop door and fled back outside.
As for Evander, he turned toward the workshop door, aiming his gun at it.
Domino shrieked. “Stop!”
Her throat caught. No, she gave away the game. This asshole might not be the smartest tool in the shed, but he caught on that she wanted to protect something…or someone inside that room.
“What’s the deal?” Evander asked, “You got somethin’ in there you don’t want to hit? Let me guess. Your kids? The boy and that girl who got the arrow in her?”
Domino held her gun on Evander, but he quickly added, “Uh, no. You put that gun down or I’ll fill that door fulla holes.”
“Don’t make me laugh. Your clip is practically out by now. I haven’t seen you reload, and that door is strong enough to absorb a bullet.” That last part was a shot in the dark, as Domino didn’t know how strong the workshop door actually was. Bluffing might be her only way out of this. “So, I say you move or my next shot goes right in your gut.”
“Is that so? You like killing people?” Evander licked his lips. “Does that turn you on?”
“I’m trying to protect those I love,” Domino replied, “I don’t know what you’re after except another fix of your damned crystal meth.”
A shiver ran through Evander’s body. “Actually, I want to get out of here without being shot by that maniac Diablo. They send those guys, reapers, from Middleburg to get us if we don’t make ourselves useful. So, yeah, I can’t leave here without scoring on the doc’s stuff.”