He Can Fall (She Can... #4.5)(16)

“Stop moving.” Her voice broke.

“You don’t want to hurt anyone,” he said in a calm voice.

“Fuck you. I don’t care.” She raised the butt of the gun to her shoulder. Her gaze darted to the door and back. Suspicion narrowed her eyes. “Did you hurt Win?”

Sean didn’t answer. The gun was a double-barreled shotgun, manual load. The maximum number of shells it held was two, and it had already gone off once. If she shot Sean, Amanda and the others would be OK. Sean had had many narrow escapes in the past. Maybe he’d used up all nine of his lives. But damn, the thought of never seeing his wife or kids again hollowed out his chest. What if Amanda was pregnant? Sean would never know.

The girl cranked back the hammer. Sean braced himself, but her eyes went wide. She dropped the gun. With an expression of complete surprise, she collapsed to the floor.

Behind her, Amanda stood, a chef’s knife clenched in her hand. The blade gleamed with blood. A drop fell to the white tile, spreading on the porcelain into a perfect red circle. Sean jumped forward, easing the knife from Amanda’s grasp. Her pupils were dilated, her complexion white as paste. He folded her into his arms.

She trembled against his chest for a few seconds, then pushed herself away and wiped her eyes with her palms. Her gaze fell to the girl on the floor. “I should try to stop the bleeding.”

Sean assessed the girl. The knife had entered her back low, probably piercing one of her kidneys. She wasn’t a physical risk anymore, but he quickly patted her down for weapons. He rolled her on her side, exposing the wound. “OK, but be careful.”

“Just get the phone lines back up.” Amanda grabbed a thick oven mitt and used it to apply pressure to the wound.

“Glenn, do you have some tape?” Sean asked the innkeeper.

Glenn pointed to a drawer. “There’s some first-aid tape in the kit. Will that do?”

“For now, yes.” Tape in hand, Sean bolted from the kitchen into the cold air. Behind the garage, he found the cut in the phone line. Using the knife he’d taken from the first man he’d killed, he stripped the wires, then twisted and taped them together. They could make a call, but the line would need a real repair.

He went back inside and called 911 before making his way upstairs to the room over the garage where he’d left Mia. The door opened with a squeak. “Mia?”

“Sean.” She emerged from under a sheeted table and hurled her tiny body into his arms. “Is my grandpa OK? What happened to Tanner?”

“Your grandpa is hurt a little, but I think he’s going to be fine, and I called for an ambulance. The sooner we get Tanner to a hospital, the better.” As much as he wanted to promise her Tanner would be fine, he couldn’t. She trusted him, and he had a feeling she’d be able to sense a lie.





An hour later, while the paramedics worked on Tanner and Glenn, Sean flushed the blood from the shallow cut on Amanda’s neck with antiseptic. It wasn’t deep enough to require stitches. The knot on her head didn’t worry him either. It was the haunted look in her eyes. Had he ever had that look? He’d barely seen the first man he’d killed in a gunfight on the streets of Iraq. Bullets had been flying, smoke and dust drifting through the air in a cloud. Men screaming. Men dying. He’d seen only a uniform and a gun. The enemy.

This was different. Personal. Insidious.

Evil.

His gaze moved to the paramedics, who were starting an IV on the girl. Glenn and Tanner had been stabilized and moved to an ambulance. Still unconscious, Carl had been loaded into a second ambulance, which was now waiting for the wounded clerk.

Sean wrapped the blanket tighter around his wife’s shoulders.

“I’m all right,” she said for the fifteenth time.

“I know.” He was the one who was shaking.

“Then why do you keep looking at me like that?”

“Because I love you.” He kissed her temple.

“Right back atcha.” She pressed his hand to her cheek.

“They’re taking Grandpa to the hospital.” Mia tugged on Sean’s sleeve.

He wrapped her blanket tighter around her shoulders too. “You want to ride with us?”

She nodded.

“Can you get a coat and dry boots?” Sean asked.

Mia scurried off.

Sean took his wife’s arm.

She let him, leaning close to his ear. “I know you’re worried about me. I didn’t want to do it, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let her shoot you. I love you, and she chose to pick up that gun. I’m sorry for her but not sorry enough to sacrifice you.” Her gaze blinked to the paramedics, who were lifting the girl onto a gurney. “Do you think she’ll live?”

“Probably.” Sean hugged her to his chest.

“If she does, she’ll go to prison, right?”

Sean looked back at the wounded girl. Her eyes fluttered open and filled with hate as she met his gaze. Goose bumps rose on his arms. “I sure as hell hope so.”





CHAPTER NINE

Sean held Amanda close to his body. They shared a love seat in the living room of Glenn’s private quarters at the inn. The ER doctor didn’t think she had a concussion, but told Sean to keep a close watch on his wife anyway. As if he’d be able to take his eyes off her for a minute.