Don’t fall, don’t fall. Instinct screamed at her to run, but even with Gabriel’s support it was all she could do to keep her feet under her. They were still on grass, which wasn’t nearly as slick as the driveway would be, but every step sent her feet slipping and skating in various directions. Gabriel fared better, maybe because of his boots, maybe because he was heavier and crunched through the layer of ice to the ground. Don’t fall. She clutched the back of his coat in a death grip, hanging on for dear life.
Then they reached the tree line and Gabriel whirled, shoving her behind one of the larger trees and pressing himself full against her as if he were trying to push her into the rough bark. Lolly clung to him, her head buried against his shoulder as she sucked in huge, rapid gulps of air. Random shots splintered the air, the sound curiously flat and muffled, as if it was absorbed by the ice instead of echoing back. Her heart still pounded like something wild, even though they were significantly safer behind this tree trunk than they had been before. But what now? If they ran, they’d be exposed again, at least sporadically. If they didn’t run, then all Niki and Darwin had to do was walk across the yard to shoot them at close range.
Gabriel incrementally leaned to the left, until he could see the house but still presented almost no target, given they were in the darkness of the tree line and Niki and Darwin were hampered by standing on a lighted porch. Even knowing they likely couldn’t see a thing, Lolly’s hands involuntarily tightened on Gabriel’s coat as she tried to wrench him back to safety. She couldn’t move him at all, not even a fraction of an inch.
His right hand patted her shoulder, the movement so absent she knew the reassuring gesture was pure reflex. He was concentrating on the situation, on the two murderous idiots on the front porch. Feeling slightly ashamed for being such a wuss, Lolly forced herself to release him. She’d gotten this far without turning into a spineless blob; she’d make it the rest of the way, or die trying … literally.
“How many weapons did you see?” He breathed the words, the sound barely existent.
“Two.” That didn’t mean there weren’t more, though. For all she knew, there was a cache of weapons in their old Blazer.
“Do you know guns?” he asked.
She shook her head. She knew what a shotgun looked like, because her dad had gone skeet shooting, but her experience was limited to that and whatever she’d seen on television or in a movie.
“Can you tell the difference between a revolver and an automatic?”
That much she did know. “They were both automatics … I think. I didn’t get a good look at the one he had.” Darwin had pulled it from his pocket, but she’d barely had time to register the fact before he’d shoved her against the newel post.
“I don’t suppose you could tell me how many bullets they had in each gun,” he said wryly.
Lolly just shook her head, even though the question had been rhetorical. Had he actually been counting the number of shots? She’d barely been able to think at all, much less keep track of how many shots were being fired.
Then the gunshots stopped, and that was almost more frightening than being shot at. What was happening? Were Niki and Darwin coming after them? She could hear the two of them yelling at each other. She could also hear her own heartbeat, Gabriel’s breathing, and the wind. At this moment, there was nothing else.
“What are we going to do now?” she whispered. Her voice was all but lost against his thick coat, but Gabriel heard her and gave her another of those absent pats.
“We’re going down the mountain. There’s nothing else we can do, no other option.” He didn’t sound happy about that, but she couldn’t think of anything else they could do, either. She’d been prepared to make her way down the mountain alone, anyway, so she wasn’t going to complain.
Gabriel looked toward the house, took Lolly’s hand again, and together they eased away from their protected position behind the tree to move deeper into the woods. His step was quick but sure, and she had to struggle a little to keep pace. Her legs weren’t as long as his, and hiking through the woods wasn’t exactly her thing. She didn’t have many “things,” she realized. She was excruciatingly normal, lived a normal life, worked at a normal job. She liked books and movies, forced herself to exercise, but despite growing up in Maine, she didn’t care for roughing it or any winter sports at all, so she was definitely out of her element right now.
The trees had sheltered the ground beneath them, so there was less ice here, though their feet still made crunching sounds. That meant ice was building on the limbs and branches overhead, and she knew how dangerous that could be; working for an insurance company had given her insight into all sorts of situations, because she’d seen the claims.
Gabriel led her at an angle that generally followed the long driveway toward the narrow secondary road, stepping over fallen dead branches, maneuvering around clumps of wild growth. A couple of times he looked back at her. She felt like a tethered balloon, being tugged along in his wake. Her breath huffed out in rapid gasps. He must have realized that she was struggling to keep up with him because he shortened his stride, but not by much. “It’ll be a bit easier when we can leave the woods,” he said once, as he helped her around an overgrown, brambly bush. “I have soup and coffee in my truck.”
“Dangling a carrot, eh?”
That might’ve been a smile, but it was so dark she couldn’t be sure. “Whatever works.”