Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Though, from what little I could see, the only one shooting was Brenda. Whether that was because Ephraim was hurt and couldn’t shoot or because he wasn’t a willing participant in this whole clusterfuck was yet to be determined.
However, I could hear him yelling at her to calm down, but she hadn’t figured out how to do that just yet, as evidenced by the gun that continued to sound each time another vehicle showed up.
I couldn’t believe that she hadn’t looked behind her yet, because if she had, she would’ve seen me crawling toward her.
Whether it was due to the fact that she’d thought she’d killed me, or because she was confident that nothing would show up behind her from the woods at her back, I didn’t know.
Whatever her reasons for not watching her six were, I didn’t care. I just counted my blessings and started to crawl across the asphalt toward the car that was up on its side.
Every single move I made sent a shooting pain into my hand, but what worried me wasn’t the pain. It was the fact that I felt absolutely nothing in my legs. No heat. No pain. No nothing.
Just an oblique blankness that not only alarmed me, but it also sent shivers of fear slithering down my spine.
I’d been shot before. Not once, but three times. All of them had been minor in comparison to what I was feeling now.
A weird sort of resignation started to settle into my bones, and I had a few moments of regret as I made the last four yards to the car by sheer force of will.
As I came to a stop, a wave of dizziness rolled over me, filling me with what could only be described as acceptance.
This was it.
I was about to die.
I’d performed countless missions as a Navy SEAL. I’d been through two deployments. Firefights. Bombings. You name it, I’d been through it.
I’d never thought that I would die like this. I’d thought I would go out in a bang of glory, shooting my way out of a sticky situation.
Yet, I was going to die lying flat on my stomach, while I tried to get the attention of a woman yielding a fucking AR-15.
If I could get her to poke her head out of the car enough, I knew that the police officers would be able to take the shot.
I knew that, at least, one of the men on the other side of the line had a sniper rifle.
Brenda wouldn’t even know what hit her.
But as I started to beat on the one thing I could reach, the tire, I realized that it was hard to hear anything over the gunfire that was still sounding through the air around me.
Resigning myself with what I had to do next, I palmed my gun in my left hand—the one that I only ever practiced with if something were to happen to my shooting hand—and grimaced.
I’d never thought I’d have to actually utilize the skills, but again, I found myself surprised.
I crawled another few inches forward, and my gun clinked against the asphalt, sounding loud in the gap between gunfire.
“Did you hear that?”
I winced at Brenda’s suddenly sharp, raised voice.
“No, I can’t hear a goddamn thing because you’re shooting that rifle in my ear,” Ephraim bellowed. “You’re going to die. I’m going to have to watch you die. Your daughter’s going to be devastated. She’s just gotten to Germany, only now she’ll have to turn around and attend your goddamn funeral.”
Brenda said something in reply, but Ephraim interrupted her before she could finish.
“I don’t know why I should be surprised by this. You knew all along that our son was a fuckin’ rapist, and I supported you even when I knew you were wrong. Supported you through his death. I loved him, but he did wrong, Brenda. You can’t fault someone for something that they were doing to protect their own sister. You need to calm down. You need to put the gun down, and then you need to pray that this isn’t going to escalate into full out prison time. My heart’s not good, and you’re making it worse.”
“Oh, shut up.”
That I heard, and I wanted to applaud Ephraim for his passionate speech. Oh, and finally having the balls to stand up to his wife.
There was nothing wrong with supporting your wife and child. That’s how many wars were started. You believe in your family, almost to the point of recklessness. It’s human nature to want to protect your child.
What is not human nature is to support a child so much that you’re willing to take on the police to do it when there is no possible route of escape.
Even if she did manage to get me out of the equation, she wasn’t getting away with this. Her son would still be dead, and she’d be in prison because she killed a police officer.