Page 55 of Last Girls Alive

He stepped forward as Katie took two steps to the side. She anticipated his move and kept eye contact.

“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” he said.

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

He lunged for her just as she gave him an uppercut punch to the stomach. It wasn’t full force, but hurt him nonetheless. Keller doubled over, gasping for breath—the wind had been temporarily knocked out of him. She listened to him wheeze for about a minute. Katie didn’t want to pull her weapon until absolutely necessary, but he wasn’t going quietly.

Keller regained his composure and when he looked at her he was seething with rage.

Katie blinked but kept her eye on him—readying herself to pull her weapon to keep things under control until backup arrived.

Before she could outmaneuver Keller again, taking away her full concentration of the room, one of the wooden chairs sailed across the bar and struck Katie’s lower back. Her body slammed down onto the floor and she lay there, staring upward at Keller approaching fast. Not taking the time to acknowledge the shooting pain she felt down her back and legs, she rolled twice to get out of Keller’s reach, but ending up looking up at a large man with an extremely long beard gazing down at her.

If there ever was a time to use her combat fighting skills—it was now.

Katie concentrated on her breathing and being in the moment, which slowed everything down around her—the voices, the movement, the background sounds. At least that was what it appeared to do for her. It was a technique that she had learned from one of the people who trained her to work harder, faster, and stronger if she was going to survive the army.

The long beard of the patron almost touched her face as he stared down at her. His mistake. The repulsive gray and white hairs almost touched her, so she took the opportunity to kick him in the groin where he dropped next to her, moaning and groaning in a fetal position.

Katie scrabbled to get to a standing position—that’s when she felt a surge of pain radiating through her back.

Keller lunged at her like a bear. He ran directly for her, grabbing her in a tight hug and lifting her up like she weighed less than a bottle of whiskey. Pushing her onto the bar, she didn’t struggle; instead, she was able to bring her arms and fists together, breaking his grip. She rolled, jumped down behind the bar and skirted to the inventory room. It seemed her best choice even though she had never been in the room and wasn’t sure if there was a back door to the place.

There had been a recent delivery and the stacked bottles of booze provided an excellent cover for her. Katie tucked behind them, pulled her gun, and readied herself. She searched for a way out, finding a sliding wooden door leading to the back of the parking lot.

“Scott!” Keller yelled.

Steadying her grip on the gun, she stepped out from behind the stacked boxes.

“Stay right there!” she commanded.

Keller laughed. “What are you going to do?”

Katie readied the gun. “Take one more step and you’ll find out.”

Even though Keller thought he was a tough guy, he was smart enough not to tempt fate.

Two more men burst through the door behind Keller.

“Stay back!”

The men stopped instantly when they saw the gun she had targeted on Keller.

“You know, Keller, we could have done this the easy way and answered a few questions, but no, you have to go commando and, guess what? You’re going to jail.”

Katie heard commotion from the bar area.

“Katie!” a voice yelled.

McGaven pushed his way past the men at the door with his weapon trained out in front. “What’s going on?” he demanded. Glancing at Katie, he said, “You okay?”

“Fine,” she said, gritting her teeth. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“Alright, everybody, back into the bar,” McGaven said. “Now!” Turning back around, “Well, well,” he said to Keller. “We meet again. I knew you would crawl out from under a rock someday.”

“McGaven,” Keller grumbled.

McGaven lowered his weapon and put handcuffs on Keller.