AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It didn’t matter. The two hitmen were walking up on her to finish the job and Pony would be damned if he was going to let that happen. For his own sake, if not hers.
He popped off a careful shot, keeping it a little high to make sure he didn’t hit Piper by accident. This far away, and with everyone so close together, it was dicey business taking any shots at all, but he had to drive the killers off her or Piper was dead for certain.
The two killers jumped like startled jackrabbits, spinning away from Piper and toward Pony. Almost immediately, they fired back, likely at the sound of Pony’s gunfire more than anything, but their bullets still landed uncomfortably close to him.
Pony was actually a little impressed. These guys were no slouches. Taken by surprise, yes, but they had recovered and responded fast.
Still, he had the cover of the alley and was shooting from the shadows, so he was able to take careful, controlled shots while the two killers were forced to shoot wildly while simultaneously running madly across the park in search of cover. And run they did, away from Piper, back the way they’d come, and the furtherthey got from her, the faster Pony was able to pop off shots at them.
More shots, then, this time from Piper. A glance told Pony she was up, clutching at her side, firing her pistol one-handed at the gunmen.
“Piper!” he shouted. “Come to me!”
A close shot skipped off the bricks a foot from his head, driving him back further into the mouth of the alley for a second. He dropped lower, coming back around the corner of the wall to fire off more quick shots at the two gunmen as they fled out of the park and into the darkness.
Piper came towards him at a run, loping awkwardly towards him, clearly hurt. She shot as she ran, not so much aiming as using the gunfire to keep the bad guys from being able to shoot back. The whole way, Pony found himself urging her on faster, praying that none of the hastily-shot return fire from the two killers would find her.
She finally cleared the mouth of the alley. Pony could hear her gasping for breath and she was clutching at her side, but he didn’t see any signs that she was bleeding.
“Pony,” she said between wheezes. “I can explain.”
“I seriously doubt that,” Pony said, firing another pair of shots at the retreating hitmen. “Doesn’t matter. Now’s not the time. How bad are you hit?”
“Both rounds hit the vest. The one feels like I got kicked in the ribs but I don’t think it went through.”
So she had been wearing a vest. Smart.
“Can you ride?” he said.
“My bike is over there,” she said, gesturing to the far side of the park.
“I didn’t ask that,” Pony said, nodding toward his bike. “Can you ride?”
Piper looked genuinely stunned at the offer. Silently, she nodded.
“Listen,” she said. “Harris. Harris is…”
“Later,” Pony said, looking across the park in the direction the hitmen had disappeared.
They had vanished into the shadows, totally out of sight, but Pony knew they were still there. Nobody was shooting at them just now, but that could change in a hurry.
“You need to understand…” Piper said.
“No, you need to understand,” Pony said, looking her in the eyes at last. “Right now, those hitmen are regrouping and figuring out what just happened. Reloading, maybe getting some heavier firepower from a vehicle they have stashed over there.”
“All right,” Piper said. “What do…”
Her voice was suddenly drowned out by a torrent of automatic weapons fire. Bullets slammed into the brick all around the entrance to their alley, forcing them to cringe further back into the depths to avoid getting hit.
As if to underscore the gunfire, a pair of headlights switched on, aimed directly at the alley. Pony could hear the revving of a heavy engine behind those lights.
He pointed Piper toward his bike. “Get on.”
“Pony…”
“Unless you want to arrest me for firing a gun in public.”
“I never wanted to arrest you.”
