Black Flagged
Page 33
���We just want our cut of this charity, and we won���t bother you after that. We���ve got two families, so we���ll need at least������
Alex���s glance drifted to the man near the street. Same type of clothes, hats, shoes.
Something���s off. Shit. It���s not the same guy I saw before. No long hair. Stay calm. There might be another guy out there.
Suddenly he didn���t feel very secure. Behind the door, he couldn���t see below Manson���s mid-stomach, or below his elbows.
The guy could be holding a sawed-off shotgun down low, and I���d never be able to react in time.
His eyes darted out beyond Manson and the man on the sidewalk, to the numerous bushes and evergreen trees within view across the street.
The other guy could be sighting in on my head right now.
He glanced back into the library, at the window. Or hop up on the bulkhead door under the window and blast my head off. Alex felt queasy, but maintained his posture and focus. He reached back without looking and closed the door to the library. He glanced through the kitchen at the family room.
They could blast me through one of the side family room windows from here.
All of his attention was focused on the front door. Alex couldn���t believe he had made such an elementary mistake. He stepped forward into the mudroom, eliminating the great room windows as an opportunity to take him down, and refocused on what the man was saying.
Something about getting his share of the bounty?
���I gave away all I had to spare. That���s it. I need you to get the fuck out of here. Now!��� he shouted.
���That���s bullshit! You got plenty hidden in there������ the man started, with his right hand pointed accusingly at Alex.
���Someone���s in the backyard!��� screamed a panicked voice from deep inside the house.
He instinctively slung the rifle around with his left hand, twisting his body slightly to the right. The AR-15 rifle pointed high on the man���s chest within the barely discernable flash of a second, and he disengaged the safety before the barrel settled. The man grinned, showing his brown-stained teeth. Alex could see what looked like blackened decay on one of his incisors.
���Get him around front where I can see him, or I���ll kill you where you stand!��� Alex hissed.
���Ten seconds! Ten���nine���eight������
The man raised his hands to his mouth, and Alex almost pulled the trigger. He took a few shallow, controlled breaths, and eased all pressure off the trigger, shocked at how far he had involuntarily pulled it. The man whistled three times, three short, sharp whistles.
������seven���six���five������
���He���s running around front!��� Kate yelled from somewhere near the top of the stairs.
Alex kept his own focus just to the side of the scope. At this range, he wouldn���t miss, even without sighting in. The man stared at him impassively.
������four���three������
Manson barked something toward the driveway, and the third man suddenly appeared. Manson yelled for him to join ���Rick,��� and Alex watched as the third man walked over to ���Rick��� near the top of the driveway. The man tried hard to conceal a weapon on the right side by his body. Alex couldn���t determine the weapon type, but guessed it to be a modified shotgun, with either a shortened barrel or no shoulder stock.
The phone rang and he ignored it. He needed to focus on the man standing on his mudroom stoop.
���Charlie Thornton���s calling!��� he heard from upstairs.
���See what he wants!��� he yelled back, shifting his gaze from the man on his porch to the two men standing on his sidewalk.
���He says the man that just ran out has a shotgun!���
The man on the porch didn���t appear to have heard her, and continued to stare at Alex.
This guy���s fucking crazy.
���You gonna quit pointing that thing at me?��� Manson grunted.
Alex lowered the barrel slightly, but kept it aligned with the vertical center of the man���s body.
���Not until you���re out of my sight. Come back again, and I���ll kill you. If I see you approach this house with that shotgun your friend is carrying, or any other weapon, I���ll kill you.���
���Don���t worry Alex���you won���t see us next time,��� he warned, turned to leave.
Alex considered shooting him in the head, and then gunning down the other two. He���d probably get one of the others right away, hopefully the guy with the shotgun, then pop out of the mudroom door and tag the other one. He knew it would all be over in a matter of seconds, but something stopped him. The pressure eased off the trigger, and he was once again surprised by how close he had come to killing this man.
Manson walked straight across the landscaped bed, pushing through tightly spaced, waist high evergreen bushes, and trampling the remnants of a large, decayed perennial. The gunman no longer made any attempt to conceal the short barreled shotgun, and brazenly slung it over his shoulder.
I know I should take them out now. All standing in a pile like that. I���ll never get a chance like this again.