Page 51 of Search for the Truth

He should have remembered Sheriff Trouble was still in the house.

Liam watched in bewildered awe as Blake coolly walked around him and planted herself near his feet. Her arm was raised. Liam realized a beat too late that Blake had a gun.

And she wasn’t waiting for an invitation to use it.

Blake opened fire with a steady hand and even steadier focus.

Liam collected his breath and awe to not waste the attack. He looped his arm around Ray’s waist, then pushed and pulled him around the corner and into the longer main hallway that split the house.

The second he was clear, he yelled back as much to Blake.

She let out the third shot and then was a flurry of motion rounding the corner.

“He ran,” she hurried to say. “No hit.”

“Are you okay?”

Blake nodded. If Liam had more time, he would have really taken the situation in, looked at the woman and her calm, but now everyone outside knew they were needed. Though, he was hoping the shots had scared them away. Liam was hauling Ray into the first room to their left when Blake slipped the phone out of his pocket.

The light flashed on at the movement. He could see he was still on the call with Price.

“Price, Ray’s been shot, maybe dead, and Liam looks like he took a bullet to the arm too,” she hurried. “There’s a man in a dark red rain jacket, bald, with a gun. I think I scared him off, but he might come back. The other two are unaccounted for.”

Liam straightened to stand.

He’d been shot in the arm?

“The kids and Lola are locked in my bathroom,” she added. “I’m putting you back in Liam’s pocket and hushing until y’all get here.”

Blake did exactly as she said. She put the phone in Liam’s pocket and set her gun back to ready.

“Can you still fight?” she asked him. Her eyes flashed to his right arm.

That pressure he felt earlier was starting to fill with pain. He guessed Ray’s shot hadn’t just been a graze.

That wasn’t going to stop Liam.

He nodded.

“Take the gun and stand guard in the bedroom. I can handle things out here.”

Blake didn’t like that.

Her voice was steel.

“I’m not leaving you.”

It was such a direct and resolute statement that Liam was momentarily caught off guard. He wanted to combat it in the next, but the sound of footsteps sounded near the back door.

Were they really that brazen to come in despite knowing the people inside were armed?

Then again, hadn’t the bald man shot Ray without hesitation?

Was he coming back with help? Were they about to be caught by three men instead of one?

Blake had her hand wrapped around the gun. She positioned her body to have the best shot at whoever came into view.

It wasn’t a good angle.