There was something outside the kitchen door.
Awareness washed over him like a wave of ice water, his senses sharpening to needle points. The rasp of a footstep. The kitchen door shook gently and then harder before going quiet. Quinn snagged the pistol from the cushion beside him as he rose from the couch and almost sprawled in the midst of concussive pain. Every joint in his body was full of acid, but adrenaline was washing away everything but the hammering of his heart. He kept low and entered the kitchen, the XDM trained on the door. It was silent now, everything still save the wind. He moved to the window and peered out.
Evening had crept from the tree line, hemorrhaging shadows across the yard as it closed in on the house. But two darker forms moved against the wind, their shapes indistinct in the failing light. They were there, then fleetingly gone around the side of the house.
Quinn shoved away from the window and hurried down the hall to the back door. Maybe it was the brothers, back to take shelter after rethinking their situation. Or maybe it was more of the things like Graham. But they hadn’t looked tall enough. As he watched through the back door’s window, they appeared, merely deeper shadows against the dark. He would not let them come into the house again, no matter who they were. They wouldn’t take anything from him, not now, not ever. If it was the brothers, he would get his father’s boots back. With a yank, he pulled the door wide and crouched in the opening, centering the sights on the taller of the two figures.
“Stop right there.”
There was the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked and he nearly fired his own weapon, but paused as a voice, hard edged but feminine, came out of the darkness.
“I’ll fucking shoot you right now. Drop the gun.”
“Drop yours.”
“Look, we smelled smoke and saw it above your house and came looking. That’s all. We’ll leave and you can go back inside, but if you come out here or make another move, I will kill you where you stand.”
Quinn squinted, slowly taking in the woman’s figure. She was slight and fairly tall, but that was all he could make out. The person behind her was shorter and mostly hidden, but he could see small hands clutching at the woman’s waist.
“Are you alone?” he asked after a long pause.
The woman waited a long time, but the hand holding her weapon didn’t waver.
“I have my son. No one else.”
The little hands around her waist shifted and a small outline of a head appeared at her hip.
Quinn lowered the XDM and shoved it in the back of his jeans. He held up his hands.
“Come in. I won’t hurt you.”
The two shadows stayed where they were, the woman’s gun still hovering on his center mass.