Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
“I wanna go,” Katey agreed.
“I’m gettin’ my gun, Merritt!” James roared, back in full voice. He was on his feet now, and I could see him charging away from the trailer through the open door. “You’re on my property, and that means I can kill ya dead.”
He wasn’t wrong, but I suspected that terrorizing his wife and child would be considered extenuating circumstances.
Missy gasped.
“No, no, let him go,” I said. “But where are the bags?”
She pointed to the hallway.
“Let’s all get up.”
“He’s coming right back.”
It was farther down the hill than “right back,” but I nodded instead of saying anything as I stood, still holding her daughter, and made my way to the hallway. She scrambled after me, carrying Lucky, who was an adorable little pit bull mix, and grabbed her rolling suitcase. I put Katey down so she could get hers, and on the way to the kitchen, I made sure to collect Lucky’s bowls and his leash.
“Is there anything else?” I asked when we were at the door.
“No.” Missy was trembling with fear. “I took everything else to my sister’s house last week.”
“Okay, good.” From the porch, I could see that James had reached his pickup, where his rifle sat in the gun rack with the two others.
“I can’t go to her house until I have an order of protection from the court,” Missy told me. “I won’t have that until—”
“It’s fine,” I said, keeping my voice calm. “We’re going to the shelter.”
“Oh no, Merritt, I don’t wanna put those other women in danger or—”
“You won’t,” I assured her as we reached her beat-up Dodge Charger from, like, nineteen eighty-something—much older than the pickup James was on his way back from. Missy should have had the newer car since she was the one driving their daughter, but James’s brain didn’t work like that.
Once Missy and Katey were safely in the car with Lucky, I slipped behind the wheel.
“You both get on the floor,” I ordered, and then I drove directly down the hill at James.
The rifle was loaded, of that I had no doubt, but he worked second shift, so he’d probably only been home maybe two hours. I was guessing he’d started drinking in his truck on the way, and judging by how many empties there were on the coffee table in front of the TV, he’d probably been slamming back beers since he got there. Which meant the flood of alcohol was now hitting him hard, affecting his hand-eye coordination quite a bit.
I scared him, driving right at him, and in his mad scramble to level the gun at me, he dropped it.
“Gonna kill you!” he roared, trying to pick up the gun and falling over in the process.
I stopped the car, got out, walked over, picked him up, and threw him into the empty bed of his truck. He hit hard and let out a moan before the sputtering and cursing started. Then I emptied his rifle, hurled it into the brush, and ground the bullets into the dirt under my heel.
“You think I won’t get my cousins and come after you? I know where you’re takin’ my wife and kid. You should worry about what I’ll do to them and all the other girls at the shelter.”
“Stay away from there,” I warned him; then I turned back to the car and got in.
Of course, he sat up in the bed as I drove away, pulled a handgun from the inside of his coat that he’d probably just remembered he had on him—he was very drunk, after all—and shot at us as I steered the car down the dirt hill. Nothing hit any part of the vehicle, and we were on the road in moments, headed toward town.
“You shouldn’t have provoked him, Mere,” Missy said sadly, sitting up, as did Katey in the back. “He’ll come for us as soon as he wakes up.”
She knew as well as I did that James was moments from passing out in the back of his own truck bed.
“I wouldn’t worry.” I smiled at her. “Everything will be okay.”
“But the other women and children at the shelter—”
“I promise you, all will be well.”
“Yes, but Mere, we—”
“Will the shelter let us keep Lucky?” Katey asked, her voice thready.
“Of course, honey.” And I knew that because The Bower funded the women’s shelter, and I had made certain that all pets were welcome as well. When I had it built, we’d even included a stable, a large chicken coop, and of course, a small duck pond. People had to be able to bring their pets along with them when they fled hell; that only made sense.
“You’re such a blessing to our community, Mere,” Missy told me.
“I appreciate that.”
She reached for me, and I took her hand in mine.
“Thank you for saving us. I was so scared of what he was going to do to Katey, and I knew Lucky was…”