Chapter 16
When Sydney approached the barn, she could hear the muffled cries of a woman inside.
She was still resisting her attacker, and Sydney feared that if she waited much longer, it would be too late to stop it.
But as she approached the barn, even with a gun in her hand, she couldn’t stop her hand from shaking.
It felt stupid for her to be so afraid, considering she wasn’t the one who was being attacked. The woman needed help, and Sydney dug deep to find her courage.
Sydney wasn’t sure what she was about to walk into, but she was certain she couldn’t sit by and do nothing while the woman suffered. She tightened her grip on the pistol and then turned the corner into the barn.
On the other end of the barn, a man was unbuckling his pants as he held the woman down.
“Just enjoy it, sweetheart,” he said.
“Stop, leave me alone!” The woman fought back but struggled as the man used his brute strength to keep her down. “Stop!”
Sydney raised the weapon as she neared, wanting to get close enough to make sure she didn’t miss her shot. But then Sydney realized the moment she pulled the trigger, everyone in the house would know something was wrong and the other gunmen would come rushing to help their partner.
Sydney saw a shovel nearby and decided to grab that instead on her way over. She was just about to raise the shovel to strike the man when the woman who was being attacked noticed Sydney over her left shoulder.
The attacker must have noticed the woman looking at Sydney because the man turned and saw Sydney approaching as well.
When everybody made eye contact with each other, time froze. Sydney didn’t move, and neither did the criminal. It wasn’t until the woman screamed that both of them dove into action.
The man shoved the woman to the ground while Sydney swung the shovel around, missing the gunman, but only barely. The man rushed at Sydney, but she used the shovel to keep him back.
“Where did you come from, huh?” he asked. “I should have picked you out instead of that old hag!”
The man lunged forward, snatching the shovel from her hands. Sydney then quickly reached for the pistol. Trying to keep this quiet was unavoidable now, and the only thing that mattered was stopping this man before he could hurt either of them.
But the man was quick, and just before Sydney could pull the trigger, the man rushed into her, pushing her over and once again knocking her to the ground where he used the shovel’s handle to pin her down by the throat as he used his body weight to keep her immobile.
Sydney buckled and tried to kick the man off, but he was too heavy.
“Looks like you and I will have some fun then now, huh?” He laughed, but his victory was short-lived.
The woman he had originally attacked rushed over to help Sydney. The woman clawed at the man, raking her nails across his cheeks as she wrapped her arms around his neck in a chokehold.
With the criminal distracted, Sydney had enough time to get to her feet. But even together, they couldn’t keep him down for long. Eventually, he knocked out the other woman and punched Sydney so hard in the stomach that he knocked the wind out of her and dropped her to her knees.
Sydney gasped for breath while the criminal towered over her. His face was red, sweaty, and bloodied from where the woman had scratched him. He had an enraged look, and Sydney was certain she would die.
In a single desperate attempt for survival, Sydney retreated, searching for another weapon for her to use, but there was nothing. And with all the noise they were making, Sydney feared it was only a matter of time before the criminal’s friends joined them in the barn.
Just when Sydney thought all hope was lost, she saw the pistol she had dropped earlier. She and her attacker noticed the weapon at the same time.
The pair reached for the gun at the same time, but Sydney managed to get both hands on it while the man only had one. However, he used his other freehand to clamp over Sydney’s. The massive size difference in his hands gave him the upper hand as she tried to fight him off.
The criminal easily peeled Sydney’s fingers back from the weapon before she reached the trigger. She fought back, kicking and punching, hitting anything thing she could reach, but it was useless to fend him off.
The criminal held a look of joy as he turned the weapon around on Sydney.
With Sydney’s hands still on the gun, too, it almost looked like she was aiming the pistol at herself.
But even more terrifying than the gun aimed at her, it was the maniacal madness on his face that frightened her the most. It was the look of a man who cared little for life.
“You’re going to die now, bitch,” he said. “And then I’m going to make sure we dump you in the same grave after I’m done with that other whore!”
Sydney continued to fight and struggle against the criminal, but for the first time in her life, she finally believed that this was going to be the end.
She was literally staring down the barrel of her gun, and she never believed she would be in a position like this.
Her life was about to be over before it began.
It could’ve been the fact that Sydney suddenly realized she was going to die or the idea that this man would continue to spread his evil, but something inside of Sydney provided her with a primal burst of strength and speed.
She would never be able to tell where it came from or how it had happened, but she swung her fist around and planted a stiff right hook against the criminal’s face.
The force of the blow knocked the man off balance, and he lost his grip on the pistol.
She quickly took control of the gun and then made sure she was in a good shooter’s stance.
Once her feet were planted on the ground, her shoulders squared with both hands on the gun, she placed her finger on the trigger.
She remembered her father telling her how important it was to be certain when you pulled the trigger.
And in that moment, she had never been more certain of anything else.
Sydney squeezed the trigger three times, putting all three bullets into the criminal’s chest. Each percussive blast sent a kickback of resistance through Sydney’s arms when she fired again. And just like that, the criminal stumbled backward until he fell to the ground.
At first, there wasn’t any blood, but then his shirt was suddenly stained in blossoms of crimson flowers. His blood bubbled up as the criminal’s final heartbeats sputtered, and then, finally, he was still.
He would never hurt anybody else again.
“Frankie?”
The voice was coming from inside the house, and Sydney realized the other criminals had heard the gunshot. She located the woman who was attacked and saw she had been knocked unconscious, and she tried waking her.
“Hey, we need to get up,” she said, gently padding the woman on the cheek, but it did nothing. Sydney glanced over her shoulder at the barn’s entrance and realized they were never going to make it out of there in time.
It might have been possible for her to leave alone, but Sydney wouldn’t abandon this woman after they had fought together. She aimed her pistol at the entrance, prepared to make her last stand, but then she heard a familiar voice nearby.
“Hey! Hey, over here!”
Sydney glanced out one of the barn windows and saw Teddy waving his arms, catching the attention of the criminals who were sprinting toward them. Teddy was completely unarmed, and Sydney feared they’d kill him.
But Teddy’s distraction didn’t take all the criminals. A few lingered behind, and they started to jog over to the barn to investigate the shooting.
Sydney had a decision to make. As the adrenaline wore off, she started to think more clearly. She could make a stand against the men coming, which would, in all likelihood, end with both of them dead, or she could hide.
The empty stalls had plenty of hay, and Sydney had used them as hiding spaces ever since she was a little girl. She knew it would help them conceal themselves from the men, so Sydney grabbed hold of the woman and dragged her to the nearest stall.
They disappeared just as the men entered, and Sydney covered them quickly. But Sydney made sure to keep one small little opening so she could see what was going on.
“Frankie!” the first man shouted, and he rushed to Frankie’s side.
But as the man checked his comrade, it was clear to him he was dead, and he slammed his fist into the dirt.
“That fucking bitch!” He glanced around, hoping to find her, and when he looked into the stalls where Sydney was hiding, she feared they had been found out.
But Sydney breathed a sigh of relief as his eyes passed over them without even noticing.
“Hey, we need to make sure we’re thinking straight about this,” the other man said, trying to calm the first man down. “We have guns and vehicles and more manpower than we need to handle any situation. We will find out who did this.”
“Just do me a favor,” he said, his chest heaving up and down with each deep breath. “I get to kill them when we find them.”
“Fine,” the calmer man said.
They had survived the first brush with death, but the threat was still hanging over their lives. Sydney had no idea what came next, but she hoped Teddy was faster than he looked.