All these thoughts were warm and fuzzy around my mind right up until I caught sight of Maze running full speed chasing a brown furry thing. Oh, good grief. Maze found a squirrel to torment. You’d think that boy would learn, I thought shaking my head. He let out some playful barks up into the tree; paws perched halfway up the trunk. He just wanted the yummy smelling brown thing to come down and play with him.
My brothers were walking toward the park’s restrooms stiffly. We were all so tense. It would be good for us to hang out here for a few hours and just run around, like, oh, I dunno, kids, maybe? I made a sour face at that thought. Williams tried to steal our childhoods, our lives. But mom gave it back to us. We knew how to play. Well, we knew how to play fight!
I raised my hands above my head and pulled myself easily up on point, stretching. I allowed my back to roll down so I touched my toes. I held my nose to my knees for a moment just enjoying the feel of my muscles.
Keeping Maze within sight, I found a nice spot of grass and sat down. I stretched one leg out to the right and leaned down to drape myself flat on it. Then I stretched the other leg out to the left and crawled in an arch around to stretch across it, too. Mom and I used to warm up like this when we’d do yoga together. I focused on my breathing … in through my nose, out through my mouth. I glanced toward the bathrooms, but Alik and Evan hadn’t come out yet.
I breathed again, in through my nose and out through my mouth, and abruptly stopped. I held my breath. My heart started racing with adrenaline as my fight-or-flight instinct kicked into overdrive.
Something wasn’t right.
I could feel it.
Chapter 40 Playtime at the Park
I took a quick inventory trying to figure out what I was sensing. Maze was nosing in the grass by a sycamore tree some fifty yards away. Evan and Alik were still not back from the restrooms.
Something wasn’t right.
Shoot. What is it?
I focused on feeling for my brothers and felt nothing unusual. They were still in the restroom where it felt like Evan had devised a way to increase the efficiency of the toilet. Apparently, it was broken and was constantly running, wasting water. Evan, our environmentalist, couldn’t just let that go. But his handyman efforts were annoying the heck out of Alik, as usual.
Maze was fine. I was too far away to feel mom. It wasn’t that. Then, what was—?
And that’s when I felt eyes boring into the back of my head. In one quick movement I jumped up, around and into a crouched position. My eyes caught sight of a red dot dancing on my ankle. What the heck?
Then I felt him. He was grinning into his weapon’s telescope relishing the feel of the trigger, wishing he could aim a few feet higher at my heart. The red dot was coming from a laser sniper rifle!
Without thinking, I jumped and dove to my left, toward our parked truck just in time to hear a sharp whistle and thump. The dirt where I had been crouched half a second before exploded in a whisper as the bullet hit.
I felt his anger at the missed shot. Staying on my belly, I crawled commando-style the rest of the way to the truck to use it as a shield.
He had been so excited to see me separate from my brothers, even if it were just for a few minutes. He figured the best way to take us down was one-by-one.
I let out a low whistle getting Maze’s attention. His ears perked up immediately and his sharp yellow eyes locked onto mine. Maze didn’t just run, he flew toward me and was at my side almost instantly. He looked at me, ready for instructions, the fur on the back of his neck standing and a low growl deep in his throat told me he understood there was danger and he was ready for battle.
I peered around the edge of the truck looking toward where I sensed the gunman. Pushing my panic aside, I forced myself to feel.
He wasn’t alone and these guys had revenge on their mind. Oh my goodness, they were the same group of thugs that attacked us at the motel. We had embarrassed them to their boss, and they wanted payback.
Just then, I realized my brothers were about to walk out of the brick building that housed the bathrooms. They were about to be sitting ducks to the shooters. We were strong and fighters, but we weren’t invincible. I had no doubt we could be shot and killed.
All this time, I’d been so worried about rescuing mom I hadn’t even considered what would happen if I were captured. If we’re caught, Williams would no longer need to keep mom alive. Matter of fact, she was a liability because of all the information she knew about him. If we die, she dies.
Panic rose in my throat hot and violent enough to make me feel sure I was going to throw up. Swallowing hard, I allowed myself to react instinctively.
I slipped the truck’s front passenger door open and crawled inside, ordering with just a glance, for Maze to follow. I thought I remembered Evan leaving the keys in the ignition when we first pulled up, and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw them still dangling from the steering wheel’s column.