His Every Defense (13 page)

There was the sound of gunshots, so loud that Kallie thought her eardrums had been blown out.

Milliseconds later, glass was shattering.

Another shot rang out and another. Kallie crawled behind a table that had somehow been knocked over.

She was shaking, and she picked up her hands and saw they were bleeding, she didn’t know why.

People were screaming now. She couldn’t see her brother, but she did see Terrence as he came towards her with his gun pointed in her direction. His eyes were wild, completely insane. She’d never in her life looked at someone and seen such a lack of humanity.

I’m going to die now, she realized.

Terrence said something, but with the ringing in her ears, she couldn’t understand him at all.

And then, like a shadow from the corner of her eye, there was a flash of movement.

The gun went off again—but she wasn’t dead. Not even hit.

Terrence had been knocked off his feet by the flying shadow—only it wasn’t just a shadow. It was Hunter.

She’d never seen someone move so fast.

Terrence was fighting back, but Hunter was like a man possessed. He picked Terrence up and threw the man halfway across the room, and his gun went flying.

Given Terrence’s extraordinary size, Kallie had no idea how Hunter was able to throw him like that.

Hunter ran and picked the gun up and jumped on Terrence, whose baseball cap had been knocked off his head from his fall.

Hunter began hammering away at Terrence’s head with the butt end of the gun.

There was blood everywhere.

Terrence was nothing but a ragdoll in Hunter’s hands.

When Hunter was done with him, the larger man collapsed in a heap, and Kallie couldn’t even look at what had been done to him. All she knew was that there was blood everywhere and her ears were ringing as she crouched behind the table.

Hunter turned and came towards her now. “Are you okay?” he croaked at her, but she could barely hear him.

She nodded, not sure that she was okay. Her thoughts were so slow and jumbled.

And then she saw Hunter’s chest.

At first, she thought she must be hallucinating.

The blood on the right side of Hunter’s shirt was almost purple. And there was a tear in the fabric of his shirt, and beneath it more blood, and exposed flesh and—

“Hunter,” she said. “Hunter, you’re hurt.”

He looked down as if seeing the wound for the first time himself. He put a hand over his chest. Blood was splattering the floor now. There was so much blood everywhere, and for the first time, Kallie realized that most of it had come from Hunter.

He’d been shot.

“I think I need to sit down,” he said, but his face was almost white as he spoke, and when he took his next breath, there was a strange sucking, gurgling sound that made Kallie scream.

And then Hunter fell face forward, hitting the floor with a sickening thud.

As Kallie rushed to him, her brother came to her side. “Let me help,” Sean said.

“Let me help.”

She didn’t know where Sean had been during the shooting, but he was here now, and he wasn’t hurt.

Kallie heard sirens getting louder from outside the restaurant.

She glanced over at Terrence. He lay about five feet away from them. His face was a mask of gore, and she was pretty certain the man was dead.

Still, she was terrified he would get up again and start shooting, somehow.

The sirens grew even louder.

Help is on the way, she thought, as Sean felt for a pulse in Hunter’s neck. Sean looked terrified.

He’ll be okay, she told herself. Help is on the way.

“Is he alive?” she shouted. “Sean? Is he alive?”

Sean wouldn’t look at her. He was still feeling for a pulse.

And then the door burst open and police and firemen and EMTs arrived on the scene—more people than Kallie could comprehend.

They were gathering in little circles around Terrence and Hunter. People were shouting. Asking questions.

Sean was trying to tell a police officer what had happened.

Kallie was watching them tend to Hunter, waiting for someone to say that he wasn’t really shot. She waited for Hunter to sit up and tell her he was okay.

But it never happened.

And soon they were whisking Hunter away, and she was screaming for him, screaming for him, and the ringing in her ears grew louder again. Sean was trying to talk to her but she couldn’t hear anything he was saying.

She tried to run from the restaurant then, but she couldn’t get free. Hands were grabbing her, faces were looking at her, mouths moving. She couldn’t understand them, she just wanted to get free. She had to get out of there.

But they wouldn’t let her go.

THE END

Stay Tuned For Book 11 in The Series, Coming in November.