Total pages in book: 189
Estimated words: 181808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 909(@200wpm)___ 727(@250wpm)___ 606(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 909(@200wpm)___ 727(@250wpm)___ 606(@300wpm)
“The way they graded this hillside, and the house looking down on the road, right about now, I’d start praying for a miracle.”
Larissa swallowed hard. She’d never been so scared in her life.
“Isn’t there something you can do? Like call SWAT?”
“You’ve been watching too many movies. I get enough funding to hire three deputies, bullets, and an occasional uniform. The nearest SWAT team is thirty minutes away. Besides, I have a better idea.”
Hearing a shuffle of footsteps, Larissa pressed her hand to her mouth, terrified.
“On the count of three, I want you to shuffle over here, next to me.”
Nodding, she prepared herself.
“One … two … three.”
Larissa shuffled over the rocky ground to Knox’s Bronco, holding her screams back when a barrage of bullets hit their vehicles.
“Fuck,” Knox hissed, hunkering back down.
“What?” she gasped.
“They took out my motor. They knew what I was going to do.”
Larissa looked at him blankly. “What were you going to do?”
Knox looked at her like she had marbles for brain neurons. “Get the hell out of here and let others deal with this shitshow when they get here.”
As his Bronco was blocking her Jeep, their only option left was to try to make it to the trees. On foot, she would become a liability.
“You should go; get to the woods. You don’t happen to have another gun in your car, do you? I could cover you.”
Knox’s eyebrows rose. “You expect me to leave you here to face them alone?”
“There’s no sense in both of us dying,” she replied practically, even though she was terrified.
“Do you know how to fire a gun?”
“I do.” She nodded. “My dad taught all three of his daughters how to shoot a gun. Do you have another?”
“In the back of the Bronco.”
“I can climb inside—”
Knox was already shaking his head. “Look at the seats in the front—they’re torn to ribbons. You wouldn’t make it to the back seat.”
“I could try.”
Knox suddenly raised his gun to fire next to her.
Shaking, Larissa turned her head to find a man lying on the ground next the Bronco’s bumper.
“I told you, you wouldn’t have made it.”
“I see that,” she whispered hoarsely.
The dead man’s blank stare was directly in front of her.
Hopelessness filled her. How many times had her sisters warned her that she reacted without thinking? Hadn’t having sex with Moon a big enough wakeup call? No, she came running out here, placing herself and the baby in danger. All she’d had to do was call the sheriff and let him handle it. Instead, she was going to die.
Knox looked at her curiously when she started to bow her head. “What are you doing?”
“Taking your suggestion—I’m going to pray.” Larissa pressed her hand over the tiny child she was carrying. “Psalm 18:2. ‘The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in Whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
When she raised her head, she saw Knox studying the group of trees behind them.
Sure the men from the house were there and were about to release a spray of bullets, she placed a hand on his forearm. “Would you like me to say a prayer for you?”
“No need. The answer to my prayers just arrived.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Holy shit!”
Taking one glance at what was going on, Moon hunkered down as he ran toward the thick trees. Hopefully, the people who had Knox and the midwife pinned down hadn’t noticed him on the crest of the hill.
He took out his gun, cocked it as he made his way in the direction of Knox’s vehicle, then called Viper.
“How bad is it?”
“You already know?” Moon asked, making sure to keep his voice whisper soft.
“Knox pushed the panic button.” Then Viper asked, “Which level?”
“Red. Seven. Knox is next to his vehicle with the midwife. SUVs a foot before crest. Split right, left.” With that, Moon disconnected the call and silenced his phone.
Stealthily making his way forward, he heard the sound of gunfire. He maintained his focus and kept a steady pace as he moved through the trees, carefully trying to step over limbs and looking for trip wire. With the firepower being leveled at Knox, he wouldn’t be surprised if they had them.
The break of gunfire felt deafening in the woods.
Looking around the tree he was hiding behind, he saw Knox and the woman behind the door of the Bronco.
Moon pulled his head back. How was he not surprised that woman had managed to be there? She was clearly becoming the bane of his existence.
Looking around, he found two men cautiously maneuvering themselves closer to Knox through the trees. Seeing one already dead by the bumper, Moon’s eyes went to the other left side of the road. There were two in the woods and another making his way across the opposite side of the Bronco.