Izzy’s heart was thumping in her chest when Lila Booth stepped into the aisle and faced down that policeman. When she was younger she’d had a deathly fear of heights, which she’d conquered by spending a horrible, fearful day climbing Mt. Shasta with her psychiatrist, so she knew fear, but this was much worse. However, terrified as she was, she somehow fought her fear like she did back then and not knowing where her own courage had come from or how she’d summoned it up, she’d joined Lila Booth, pointing her gun at the police officer.
People had listened to him and they’d started filing out of the store without panic and when Lila had started toward the policeman, she went along, staying by her side and when Lila hid her Glock in her long coat, Izzy did the same, hiding her gun inside the thrift store denim jacket.
“ Right behind you,” Black said and she felt the big man’s presence as they made their way toward the policeman and hopefully the exit beyond. Could they really get lost in the crowd? It seemed impossible, but what else could they do? She heard the sirens getting closer. In minutes, probably sooner, the store was going to be crawling with cops, probably SWAT teams.
She had been surprised when they came abreast of the policeman and Lila pointed her gun at the other one hiding on the ground in the garden supply aisle. How she’d known he was there was beyond Izzy. Had she not seen him, they’d’ve been captured for sure.
At the exit, the sirens were piercing. Squad cars pulled up as people started to pick up their pace, as if they sensed something was about to go wrong and they wanted to be out of harm’s way.
Izzy crossed her fingers. They were so close. Maybe they’d get away after all.
Frightened as he was, Mouledoux was furious, too. These women were armed, dangerous and would certainly kill again. He couldn’t let them get away. But that’s what he was doing. They were at the exit and in an instant they were going to fade into the crowd outside and they’d be in the wind.
“ Take the shot!” he said to Peeps.
“ You got it.” Peeps dropped to the floor again, peeked around the Miracle Glow, aimed at the back of the blonde’s head, was about to fire when something heavy landed on his back, causing his shot to go wild.
“ What the fuck-” Mouledoux said as a wolf like animal shot past him. He pulled his weapon as the animal skidded around the end of the aisle and got lost among the patio furniture.
“ Got one of ’em,” Peeps shouted as the black man crashed into Isadora Eisenhower.
Izzy was at the door, then through it, relief flooding through her, they were going to make it, she thought as a shot rang out and Black lurched forward, slamming into her, knocking her to the ground and knocking her wind away as she skinned her hands on the pavement.
“ What?” she gasped the word, barely getting it out.
“ Black’s been hit,” Lila said. “You have to get up. We have to get him out of here.” She offered her hand.
“ Okay.” Izzy grabbed it.
“ Where’s the car?” Lila pulled Izzy to her feet.
“ There.” Izzy was still gasping as she pointed.
“ Shit,” Lila said as a blue and white police car pulled up and the officer riding shotgun jumped out.
“ What happened here?”
“ This man’s been shot.” Lila dropped to her knees, looped an arm under Black’s right shoulder. “We’ve got to get him out of the line of fire.” She turned to the store, pointed to the man with a gun. “There’s a couple crazies in there shooting up the place.”
The officer went for his gun and the man in the store dove for cover.
“ Help me here,” Lila said to the other officer, who was out of the blue and white now.
“ Okay.” He helped her drag Black away from the entrance.
“ Get the car!” Lila said to Izzy.
“ For him?” the officer said.
“ I’m a doctor,” Izzy said, able to breathe now. “We can have in him the emergency room at Rogue Valley before you can have them roll an ambulance.”
“ We shouldn’t move him,” the officer said.
“ He’ll bleed out if we don’t,” Izzy said.
“ We should wait,” the officer said as two more blue and whites careened into the parking lot.
“ Now, officer!” Izzy fished into Black’s pocket, pulled out the keys. “The car’s there. Get it.”
Lila grabbed the keys, took off at a run.
“ Too late,” Black said, looking up at her.
“ It’s not too late.” A crazy thought struck Izzy. She looked at her skinned hands, remembering what happened to her the last time she’d skinned them. She turned Black onto his side, ran a bloody palm into his wound.
“ Hurts,” Black said.
“ What are you doing?” the cop said.
“ Checking the wound.”
“ Let’s go,” Lila shouted.
Izzy turned. Lila had pulled up behind the blue and white. To the cop she said, “Okay, help me get him into the car.”
“ I don’t think so,” he said.
“ What’s going on here?” It was an older cop from one of the other blue and whites.
“ She’s a doctor and wants to take him to Rogue Valley Emergency, but I don’t think we should move him.”
“ You trying to think for yourself?” the older cop said, “trying to second guess the doctor?” He looked pained. “Get him in the car!”
“ Alright, alright,” he said and the two cops got Black into the backseat as Izzy ran round to the passenger’s side. She pulled open the door, was about to get in, when Hunter thundered past her, taking the middle of the front seat.
“ Get in,” Lila shouted and Izzy did.
Lila hit the gas and they shot out of there.
Chapter Sixteen
“ Police,” Mouledoux shouted, but he didn’t step into the center aisle. That could be suicide. There were two dead feds, who knew how many others in the store and he and Peeps were the only ones armed. For right now, it didn’t look good. They could straighten it out, but by then it would be too late.
“ Throw out your weapons,” a deep voice shouted back. The Eisenhower woman was getting away and these jerk water cops were letting her.
“ They think it’s us behind this.” Sweat was running down Peeps’ forehead and from where he was in the aisle opposite, he looked terrified.
“ Yeah,” Mouledoux said.
“ What are we gonna do?”
“ I think we should throw out our weapons.” He went to his knees, pulled his piece, put it on the floor, slid it out into the aisle, giving it a healthy push down the center toward the exit.
“ I don’t like giving mine up.” Peeps pulled his thirty-eight to his chest, almost as if it were an infant.
“ Peeps, there’s dead people here. Those cops aren’t gonna be impressed by our badges. They want us to slide our guns away, then they’re gonna want us to lay out spread-eagled on the floor.”
“ We’re cops, for Christ’s sake.”
“ If we were them, we’d already be dead, so let’s not tempt them. Okay?”
“ Yeah, yeah.” And like Mouledoux had done, Peeps slid his thirty-eight down the center aisle, well out of reach.
