Phipps didn’t seem to notice. He looked around the room, at a discarded condom, at what Haley was, or rather, wasn’t wearing. “Jesus Christ, Kite, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
They’d caught Ramirez unaware, but even with Haley’s face on his crotch, he’d managed to grab a handgun. He’d shoved Haley to one side—probably saving her life, though he hadn’t given a shit about that—and managed to fire two shots while hitting the floor on the opposite side of the bed. A brave effort, but no chance against three guys in flak jackets with shotguns.
“What was I supposed to do?” she asked. “You took your goddamned time getting here.”
“And you had to…you know?”
“Yeah, I did. Got a problem with that?” She stood up, made no efforts to cover herself, fixed her eyes on each of the three men in turn. The fourth, Kane, came from the other room, blinked, and she glared him down, too. When they had each looked away, she reached for the miniskirt and her bra. “Next time, one of you assholes can do it, I’ll carry the gun. How does that sound?”
Ramirez had a four-year-old daughter. Haley didn’t know she was in the house until she heard whimpering in a closet. Phipps and his men were out there in an instant, screaming orders, guns up, ready for more violence.
“It’s just a kid!” Haley shouted. She ran into the front room, still pulling on her top. “Get out of my way. Put down the guns.”
She forced the men from the door and called into the closet, trying to calm the girl. Took twenty minutes to coax the poor kid out of the closet. Kind of friends and enemies her father had, the way his life had ended, it was probably a good thing she’d known enough to hide.
It was thinking of Ramirez’s daughter that fortified Haley and made her decide to get into the truck. There were kids in the cult; she could help them. “Thou sayest,” she said.
Brother Timothy gave her a half smile. He helped her into her seat, then shut the door. Haley looked out the window at another family passing by on the sidewalk. A girl, maybe twelve, thirteen, looked her direction and said something to her mother, who glanced Haley’s direction and then turned away just as quickly.
Timothy got into the driver’s side and produced a set of keys. His truck grumbled to life and he pulled away from the curb.
“Say goodbye to the lone and dreary world,” Brother Timothy said. “You will never see it again.”
Mighty and Strong: Available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in e-book format. Watch for book #3, The Wicked, coming in June, 2011.
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