I was too slow in making a move to avoid him. He caught my arm and pulled me back.
Then the door opened and Colt walked in, carrying a gun, calm as you please. Upon entry, he lifted his weapon, aiming dead on at Denny.
I stared at Colt as I felt the cold steel of the gun hit my temple.
Then Denny said, as if he was hosting a dinner party, “I’m glad you could make it.”
*
“Let her go,” Colt ordered.
“Drop it,” Denny Lowe demanded in return and he jerked Feb in his hold.
Colt’s eyes went to the gun at his woman’s head and his blood, already boiling, starting singing through his veins.
“I said, drop it!” Denny shouted.
“You won’t hurt her, Lowe,” Colt guessed and he was right.
Denny took the gun from Feb’s temple, turned it on Colt and fired.
*
I watched Colt’s big, solid body jerk as the bullet hit his vest and I screamed.
Then I turned and threw my weight at Denny. Taking him off balance, we both went to the floor.
My hands circled his wrist, both of them grappling for the gun.
“Get them out, out, out, out!” I shouted at Colt, struggling with Denny.
“Feb, roll away,” Colt demanded, his voice sounding funny, like he was winded as if he’d just run a race.
“Get them out!” I repeated.
“Roll away!” Colt bellowed, obviously getting his breath back.
It would seem I was the kind of woman who listened when a man bellowed because Colt did it twice and twice I did what he said. I rolled away, onto my back. When I did, Denny lifted the gun but Colt was standing over us. Colt fired and Denny grunted in pain before his gun hand fell.
“Get Melanie out,” Colt told me as he kicked at Denny’s hand and the gun went skidding across the room.
“Colt.”
“Feb, now!”
I got to my feet and went to Melanie, pulling her to hers. She didn’t waste time and, still whimpering, ran directly toward the door.
I didn’t see if she made it, wasn’t paying any attention because Denny had scooted back then he was up, unarmed but charging Colt. When he did, Colt south-pawed him, holding nothing back, his shoulder dipped, his torso twisting at the waist building momentum, he connected direct in the wound at Denny’s shoulder.
The sound was sickening as Colt’s fist struck the seeping flesh. Denny let out a rough howl of pain, fell back and then, like the crazy man he was, without hesitation, he charged Colt yet again, growling like an animal the whole way.
Colt planted his feet, lifted his now bloody left hand and caught Denny by the throat, his fingers curling under his chin and around his jaw. With what looked like little effort, he cocked his elbow and flung Denny away.
Any man in normal circumstances would be humiliated by the ease of Colt’s defense. Colt was essentially fighting with one arm tied behind his back as he hadn’t dropped his gun. But Denny just went reeling, several feet, his good arm windmilling, before he righted himself.
“Lowe, it’s over, stop,” Colt ordered but Denny came right back at him.
Colt didn’t touch him this time, he dodged him and Denny flew by.
“Get outta here,” Colt ordered to me, sounding impatient but his eyes never left Denny. He was focused but he knew I was there and not leaving.
Now Colt brought his gun up, his head cocked to the site and he aimed at Denny and I knew he was finished fucking around, even if Denny was no longer armed. Denny was bent double, one hand to his bleeding shoulder, the other hand dangling useless. His eyes, seething with palpable hate, were on Colt and he was panting like a dog.
I didn’t do as Colt asked. I went to Susie and pulled her dead weight up. I managed to get behind her and grabbed her under her pits, trying to be careful and failing because I was panicked. I pulled her around, yanked her down and she thudded against the floor.
I was bent double, dragging her across the floor, still watching Colt and Denny as Denny grabbed the axe with his good hand, not giving up, so insane he didn’t know he’d lost or not caring. His right shoulder was bleeding, even if Colt didn’t have a gun, he could do little harm with a gunshot wound and an axe in his left, non-dominant, hand.
Then, suddenly, coming from everywhere, the room was filled with men.
“Drop it, Lowe,” Sully demanded but Denny raised the axe unsteadily in his left hand, his eyes on Colt, a half a dozen guns aimed at him.
I fell to my knees then back to my ass as someone else shouted for Denny to freeze and I pulled Susie into my body, between my legs, protectively wrapping my arms around her ribcage. I didn’t know why I did this but I did.
And I didn’t know why I did what I did next.
But I did.
“Don’t, Denny, please, don’t,” I whispered, Denny froze, everyone froze but only Denny’s eyes came to me.
I shook my head at him. “Please. For me?”
“We hafta be together,” he told me.
God, he was totally fucking crazy.
My head was still shaking. “You don’t stop, you’ll get hurt.”
“His has to be the worst,” Denny declared, his eyes shifting to Colt and me, back and forth, back and forth, so fast, he was making me dizzy.
“It has been, Denny. I promise. It’s been the worst, for both of us,” I said and his eyes settled back on me. “When you took me away from him all those years ago, he’s been living with twenty-two years of the worst. So have I.”
“He hurt you.”
“He never hurt me, Denny.”
“He cheated on you with Amy,” Denny told me. “I saw him, you saw him.”
I tipped my head to the side before saying, “You know he didn’t do that. You know.”
“He did.”
“No, he didn’t.”
“February –”