Chapter 17 #2
“Yes, he is,” Michael said with an eye roll. “I’ll go and see what he’s looking for.”
A man came around the side of the house. He stumbled onto Kyle and Jason, and they were every bit as surprised as the man was. Kyle pulled his gun without thought and shot the bandit before he could cry out.
The man went down and, after writhing for a moment, stopped moving altogether.
Kyle felt cold inside. He hated violence, which was largely why he rarely went on patrol, seldom was part of a fight, and almost never carried a gun.
It felt terrible to kill someone, but it had been a case of him and his friends or this man.
There was no choice then. Once again, he prayed that God would have mercy on a dead man’s soul, even if this one had probably been no good while alive.
Another bandit came around the corner, and this time Jason shot the man. The bandit went down like a sack of potatoes, sprawled flat on his face, never to move again.
“Take that, Butch!” Jason spat at the corpse. Turning to Kyle, he said, “That one deserved a lot worse for what he did.”
“What did he do?” Kyle asked.
“You like sleeping at night?” Jason asked.
Kyle nodded.
“Then I won’t tell you,” Jason said.
Kyle felt sick to his stomach. What had Chrissie been forced to endure? What had Jason endured? It was heartbreaking.
“Well, they know we’re here now, so we might as well just—” Kyle was about to shoot the lock when Warren reappeared.
“Don’t waste a bullet. This should do the trick …” He did something or other to the lock and a second later there was a little grinding noise, followed by a click. “Okay, it’s open.”
Kyle’s pulse raced. This was it. Alice was behind those doors, waiting for him to rescue her. He pulled on the ring and opened the door.
“Alice!” he cried. “Alice!”
“Kyle!” But the answering call didn’t come from the cellar. It came from behind him.
Turning, Kyle stared in disbelief. A man held Alice by her arm and was marching her across the yard with the bullets zinging and zipping around them. He and two others each had a hostage. One man was pulling a crying mother and her baby along.
In a moment, Kyle was running. He didn’t dare use his gun. He wasn’t a great shot and couldn’t risk hitting Alice, the old woman, or the mother and her child. So, he did the next best thing he could. He charged.
Like a bull seeing red, Kyle raced across the yard, roaring like a madman. Behind him, he heard others calling and then running, but he didn’t care if he was alone in this. It was between him and the man who had hold of Alice, the woman Kyle was head over heels for.
Kyle hit the man with his shoulder, pushing Alice out of the way as he bore the bandit to the ground. In the chaos and confusion, he hadn’t seen Kyle coming and so was utterly unprepared. He went down like a ton of bricks and lay dazed on the ground.
Kyle was also knocked a little senseless, and he rolled off the man, finding that his ribs were yelling at him again. He couldn’t seem to draw breath.
Beside him, Warren smacked a man with a two-by-four, and Michael came in with his fists.
The bandit that was holding the mother and child in front of him tried to duck behind them, but he fell over one of Kyle’s outstretched legs and tumbled to the dirt.
Michael made short work of him, hitting him so hard the man was out like a snuffed-out candle.
“Kyle!” Alice called, crawling toward him.
Kyle turned and smiled at her. Only, there was a man behind her. He had a terrible expression on his hard face. He snarled, and before Alice could reach Kyle, he hauled her up into the air.
Alice screamed and jammed her fingers into the bandit’s eyes so deeply that even Kyle winced. The man shrieked and knocked Alice to the ground before stumbling away, flailing and howling for help.
With a gargantuan effort, Kyle forced air into his lungs and crawled through the mayhem to her.
Reaching her, he picked her up in his arms and looked down at her dirt-streaked face.
He could feel her breathing in his arms. A wave of relief and happiness washed over him, and before he thought better of it, Kyle leaned forward and pressed his lips to Alice’s.
It was brief, a little peck, but it seemed to have some kind of effect on her.
Her blue eyes shot open, and when they focused on his face, she smiled and drew him down to her.
She kissed him then, warm and loving, and Kyle’s world became a lot better.
He felt like he could fly in spite of the fear and pain.
“Come on, you two lovebirds,” Warren said, taking them both by an arm. “We’re right in the line of fire.”
He dragged them to the side of the house, where several barrels offered some protection.
“Are you okay?” Kyle asked Alice.
She nodded. “You’re here. I’m better than fine.”
Warren brought over the mother and child and the old lady. She’d been shot, grazed by a bullet on the arm, but it wasn’t a bad wound. Alice and the other woman looked after her until the battle was over.
All around them, men lay groaning or dead. It was a terrible scene, but one that still left Kyle feeling relatively good. The sheriff’s men had prevailed, shooting or knocking out most of the bandits.
When they came out from behind their barrels, Kyle’s first job was to find Jason.