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Pa had taught me when I was younger and I still went hunting once in a while, but this was somethin’ wholly different that he was talkin’ about and my stomach was clenched in knots.
“Yea,” I murmured as I pulled back, trying to find my own strength and waiverin’. “Yea, I can scare’em off if they get close.”
“Good,” he said firmly, reaching in behind himself and his leather jacket. He pulled out a black pistol then and held it out to me. “Take this. Get inside upstairs. I’ve blocked off all but the one door, so you know what way they’ll come if they do. Don’t shoot if you don’t have to. You don’t want that on your conscious,” he explained to me so cautiously, his voice low and tempered.
I nodded to him, and I struggled for words. My lips parted, but not a one came out. I didn’t know what to say or do, but I just stared up at him.
“Get up there. There’s no telling when they might come,” he said to me, concern clear as day on his face. I felt like somethin’ more was due, that he yearned to say somethin’ to me. But he didn’t, not then. And he went back to his work.
I turned and went inside, but I was none too pleased about it. Mornin’ felt like an eternity away.
* * *
Waitin’ is the hardest part.
I’ve heard that somewhere before, but never knew it so intimately as I did then. Pacin’ in my own home, keepin’ a watch out the windows into the dark of night. I couldn’t see three feet in front of me, but for some reason I insisted on watchin’ out all the same.
I was a fool to do it that way. If only I’d just have gotten some rest, then maybe I would’ve been awake enough come the approach of dawn to warn Asher.
If only.
But as it was, I dozed off at the window. My eyes slow to open as I looked below and watched that big hunk of a man walk from the farm back to the house, patrollin’ my property to keep it and me safe. Though somethin’ seemed to have him headin’ to the barn in a hurry.
It was the noise of motorcycle engines that woke me up, but my brain was slow to realize that. Slower still to see the shadowy figure comin’ up behind Asher in the dark shadows of approaching dawn.
I screamed in shock! But it was too late, the fella jumped on Asher from behind, and with nary a bit of warnin’, the man had him down to the ground, arm about his neck as the bikers approached with their engines roarin’.
The big brute was hammerin’ punches into Asher’s side, and I pushed myself up and reached around for the gun. Not that I trusted myself to make a shot in the dark at the guy atop Asher from that distance, or any. It was just my first instinct before my brain kicked into full motion.
The gravelly dust in the air along the roadway was getting closer and I rushed on down to do what I could to help Asher, to get the man off of him. By the time I got there the two of ‘em was rollin’ around in the dirt. The brute that attacked Asher was big, but not so big as him. But with his arm locked about Asher’s throat, there wasn’t a lot to be done about him.
I rushed up, kicked the man in the spine, and made him cry out before I shoved my gun in his face.
“Let him go!” I screamed in a panic. Things were falling apart too fast! I had to get Asher up on his feet before the bikers arrived at least.
Thankfully, the hairy brute let go of Asher in a jiffy with a gun in his face.
“You fuckin’ bitch!” he screamed at me, but Asher belted him in the face when the word was still fresh on his lips.
“Don’t talk to a fuckin’ lady that way, you animal!” Asher said, breathing heavy as he pulled a rope from his belt and began to tie the man up.
“Are you okay?!” I asked in a panic.
“Get back in the house, Shelby,” Asher warned me, and it was dire. The bikes were now roaring down the long drive from the road, right up towards my front door. “Thanks for your help, but you can’t be here anymore!”
I stepped back at his insistence, but it was a war within me. I didn’t wanna just abandon him! But as the bikes pulled up, I realized I was too late.
I headed into the porch in order to make my way into the house proper when a shot rang out, shatterin’ the glass of the porch area all around me. I dropped to my hands and knees, a scream stuck in my throat.
Asher dove behind the truck, which he’d set up as a barrier, with sacks stacked up beneath to hide his presence below.
The shootout didn’t last long, as the big thugs got off their bikes and advanced in.
I crawled forwards to get to the house, but there I could see out the front storm door, a big fat man with a shotgun — the guy who must’ve blown out my window! — roundin’ the truck. His gaze turned to me, but before he could swing his shotgun around, Asher was on him!
Asher grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and rammed it into the big lug’s face, shattering his nose. He wrenched the shotgun away from him, then struck
the guy comin’ up next across the jaw with the butt. I could hear the crack of bone and he went down too.
