“You think you’re funny?” he says, and he pushes the knife a little harder against Katie’s throat. A drop of blood wells up and runs down her pale skin. She closes her eyes. “Step back,” Cole says.
I do as he says, walking backward all the way across the room. He comes forward, pushing Katie in front of him. “Out on the porch.”
I open the door and step outside, all the while holding my hands out at my sides.
“We’re going to go get in that car and leave, and you’re going to step aside.”
“If that’s what you want.” I step gingerly down the stairs, walking backward.
I know, though, that if I let him take Katie to a second location, I’ll never see her again. I will kill him before I let that happen.
Suddenly, I feel a rush of air beside my legs and a big brown beast runs up the steps, all fangs and hair standing on end. “Sally, no!” Katie screams.
I reach to grab for the dog, but he’s quick and fast. He’s gone from lazy and slow to dangerous and quick. Sally snarls and leaps, grabbing onto the arm that’s holding the knife against Katie’s throat. Sally jerks down and thrashes his head back and forth, and Cole screams.
The knife clatters to the porch. Cole lets Katie go so he can shake the dog off his arm, but Sally isn’t letting go. Cole screams and curses, and I grab Katie, shoving her back into the cottage. I pull the hidden gun from my waistband, ready to shoot the man, but he and the dog are one big blur.
Sally pulls Cole into the yard, and Cole scrambles free. I fire off a shot as soon as the dog is out of the way, and then another, but I refuse to shoot into pitch-black darkness, and I’m afraid I’m going to hit something aside from the asshole. “Sally!” I call. Sally comes toward me and sits down at my feet, staring up at me, his big, goofy body smeared with Cole’s blood. He looks up at me like “Anything else I can do for you?” He licks his bloody lips, his great big tongue lolling out of his mouth as he pants.
The police and ambulance arrive at exactly the same time. I identify myself and present my weapon. I need to get to Katie, but know I have to explain quickly about Cole, the dog, and the shots that I fired, but I don’t even know if I hit him. Now it’s up to the cops to find that bastard. After all that, I finally get to go inside to check on Katie.
Katie’s clutching her middle. “Hey, Jake,” she says softly.
“Hey, Katie,” I say back. My eyes fill with tears, because I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my life.
“I think I’m having a baby,” she whispers. Her eyes meet mine. Then I notice she’s standing in a puddle of clear liquid.
I rush toward her and lift her into my arms. “It’s okay. We got this.”
“We do?” A tear tracks down her cheek.
“Oh hell yeah,” I say. I walk onto the porch, carrying her all the while. “We totally got this,” I tell her. But this time, it’s more for me than for her.
She points behind her. “Get the dog, Jake,” she cries. “He’s a good dog.”
“The best dog ever.” I kiss her forehead as the paramedics take her from me. Her parents rush forward and her kids flank them.
“I’m keeping that dog, Jake,” Katie says.
“You can have the dog. But I get visitation.”
“Deal,” Katie says, and I finally get a grin out of her.
They load Katie into the ambulance.
“We need to go,” the paramedics say. “In or out?”
“In,” Katie cries. She wants me.
I climb in with her and she takes my hand in a grip so tight it hurts.
“We’ll follow you in the car!” her dad yells. “The kids are fine! And we got the dog!”
Katie finally takes a deep breath. “Did you kill him?” she asks.
“I don’t think so.”
She lies back against the gurney and heaves out a breath. “I was hoping you did,” she says on a tired sigh.
“Me too.”
32
Katie
I can still remember vividly the day I was notified that my husband had died. I was sitting at the kitchen table supervising a game of Monopoly the kids were playing with a few of their friends. Gabby was playing too, so I didn’t have to pay a ton of attention. She’d partnered with Trixie, who was too little to do math or read the cards, but she loved the camaraderie. She also loved to heckle her brother and his friends.
I took a sip from my glass of wine and hitched a hip on the corner of the counter. I was the luckiest wife on the face of the planet. After our youngest two children were born, we’d decided that only Jeff would remain active in the military. I still was in the reserves, and I had to give one weekend a month to my country, but I didn’t get deployed the way Jeff did. He was on his second tour, and it got harder every time he left.
I walked to the calendar on the wall and marked off another day. Jeff would be home in two weeks. I couldn’t wait.
I bent over to take a baking dish loaded with chicken nuggets out of the oven. I started to flip them all over with a fork and would have to put them back in for a little more cooking.
The doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Gabby said as she set Trixie on the chair they both had been occupying.