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“Those grenades won’t help you if he’s got Sarah right beside him.” A frown crouched between her eyes as the wheels turned in her head. “I’m going to yell to Sarah to run. When you hear that, grab a grenade and throw it to the side of where Max is standing. Even if Sarah is near, his body will help block the shrapnel. She might be injured but I think she will survive. If it lands right.”
The worry in her eyes told him she wasn’t sure about this plan. He kissed her quickly with fervor. “I know it’s not perfect, but we’re running out of options.”
As he moved toward the door, he spotted three figures moving at the tree line and squinted to make out their identities. “Max has Sarah and Michelle.”
Annie whirled but stayed back where she couldn’t be seen. “Michelle? I’ll bet Sarah saw her out there and that’s why she ran off. She probably thought she could help her, but Max is a hard adversary. Don’t trust anything he says, Jon.”
“I won’t.” He moved to the open door and stepped out with his hands in the air. The pistol he’d been using protruded from his front right pocket, and he hoped Max would focus on it and nothing else.
“Let the women go,” he shouted. “You can take me instead.”
The women were in front of Max, and he gestured with hisgun. “I’ll take all of you. Send Annie out too. She’s led me on quite a chase, and I want to thank her for making it so challenging.”
“She’s not here. She went out the window just before you came. She’s probably circling around behind you even now.”
“Don’t trust him!” one of the men yelled from inside the block house.
“I told you she went out the window,” Jon said.
Max smiled. “Nice try. I’m not giving you the chance to yank out that peashooter in your pocket. Toss it away. And there’s something else in your pocket. I want it out too.”
Jon pulled out his gun and threw it down, then tossed out the grenade in his pocket. He had more he didn’t think Max could see from where he stood.
“Ah, I see you made your way into my armory.” His voice went cold. “You’re going to pay for that.” He gestured with the gun. “Come here. I want to make sure you don’t have any other weapons before the fun starts.”
At least he seemed to have bought Jon’s lie about Annie’s whereabouts. He glanced at the women with a plea in his eyes and short jerk of his head away from Max. At the same time Annie screamed, “Run this way!” from Jon’s right.
He dropped to one knee and grabbed the grenade from his waistband. The women leaped into motion at the sound of Annie’s voice, and he yanked the pin from the grenade and tossed it to his left by Max’s right foot.
Max saw it and started to run, but it went off almost immediately.
The women dove behind some pine trees as the explosion shook the ground. The tremor it created threw Jon onto his back, and he scrambled to regain his feet.
He scooped up his gun and held it ready, but Max lay motionless on the ground. Had the women survived? And where was Annie? Moving that direction, his gaze darted between Max’s prone body and the pines where he hoped to see Sarah and Michelle still standing.
“Annie!” He watched for any movement to his right. “Sarah, Michelle, are you okay?”
Everything in him wanted to see the women, but Annie had warned him not to trust Max, and he didn’t dare move away until the man was either dead or completely incapacitated. He went to Max, who was on his belly. Blood poured from the side of his face, and his eyes were closed. Jon grabbed a length of rope sticking out of Max’s back pocket and trussed up his hands with them before he checked his pulse. It was thready but still beating.
Now to find the women.
***
The ground’s shudder from the grenade threw Annie to the ground. Praying, she had picked herself up and ran to find her sister and Michelle.
“Sarah!” Where was she?
Annie had her gun out and ready. Deep down, she suspected Max might be a demon incarnate and would survive the blast. But she hoped she was wrong and he was at least unconscious.
A moan came from the stand of pines to her left, and she went that way. She found Sarah on the ground and knelt beside her. The coppery scent told Annie she was injured before she saw the blood matting her sister’s blonde hair. More blood coated her cheek. Her lids fluttered, but her eyes didn’t open.
Annie touched her neck to check her pulse. She had trouble finding it at first, then sighed when she detected it. Faint, but there. Her right pupil was dilated, and Annie thought she’d suffered a concussion. She needed to get help.
A moan came from behind her, and she found Michelle behind another tree. There was a gash on her arm, but it wasn’t bleeding much. There was a goose egg on her forehead that was concerning though. Annie checked her pupils, too, and found them of equal size, so she should be okay. She’d likely hit the tree during the explosion and suffered the contusion.
She didn’t want to leave the women, but she had to see if Max had survived the blast. If she was sure it wouldn’t put Jon in jeopardy, she would have been shouting his name, but if Max was still out there, he’d likely hear too. She pushed back pine branches and hurried through the underbrush to where she’d last seen the men.
A flash of red caught her eye, and she saw Max lying bound on the ground. He wasn’t conscious. Relief made her knees weak. “Jon?” she called.
