EMP Catastrophe , Hamilton, Grace [crime books to read txt] 📗

leveling the gun barrel straight at him. Second time must be a charm. Her heart cried out in negation, warring with the screaming instinct in her stomach. I want to hurt him. I don’t want to hurt him. Not like this.

“That’s where that gun got to,” Andrew drawled, taking another step forward. Kathleen took another one back, feeling like she was dancing with him. Her back hit the guard rail. There was nowhere else for her to go.

I want him to regret what he put us through. I don’t want to kill him. But I might have to.

The man holding Allison leaned down to whisper in her ear, his lips curling into a leer. Allison let out a choked sound and then closed her eyes as if in defeat.

“Get your men and get in your truck and get away from us,” Kathleen said, knowing this would be his final warning, but she had to give him one more chance. “I know how to use this. Let my daughter go and no one will get hurt.”

Andrew smirked at her. “I’m not letting you go anywhere.”

Fear overwhelmed Kathleen, overpowering any morality holding her back. Her finger hooked around the trigger. She squinted, tears in her eyes, and deliberately pointed the gun just over Andrew’s shoulder. She considered taking a warning shot to scare him until he backed off and show she meant business, but her hand trembled. What if she hit Allison?

Allison whimpered and Kathleen watched the man holding her snarl into her ear, turning to push her sideways just enough so that she was out of Kathleen’s line of sight. Kathleen’s breath caught in her chest—this was her only chance. She couldn’t doubt her choices any longer. If it was between these men and Allison, Kathleen would choose Allison every time. She pulled the trigger, slow and easy, but she still wasn’t prepared for the shock or sound.

The recoil sent Kathleen’s arms jerking up and over her head. She barely held onto the gun. The ringing whine of the gunshot deafened her for a brief moment. The men surrounding them looked from her to their fallen leader in horror.

In front of her, Andrew’s hand flew to his neck. A spurt of blood cascaded through his fingers, darkening the collar of his shirt. His eyes looked like round coins as he took another dragging step towards her, as if he suddenly couldn’t control his feet. She aimed the gun back at him and hoped no one could see her shaking hands. A cold wedge of ice settled in her stomach at what she’d done.

She’d shot someone. She’d shot someone.

“Don’t come any closer,” she whispered. “I’ll do it again. Just try me.”

Andrew collapsed to his knees like a rag doll. Kathleen tried to hold back a sob. She hadn’t meant to hurt him so badly. She just wanted to scare him enough to make him leave her alone. Andrew’s fingers moved just enough for Kathleen to see she’d shot him in the neck. With a sudden spike of numb terror, she realized she could go to prison for this, that she might join Max in his orange jumpsuit attire. What would her parents think? Both children imprisoned for drugs and murder.

Kathleen would lose her children. She’d lose her husband. Her whole life ended because she tried to defend herself and her daughter from men who would have done much worse to them.

Andrew collapsed onto his stomach with a gurgle. Kathleen side-stepped around him, drawing the attention of the crew from their dying leader to her. Don’t back down now, she thought, and pointed the gun up at them. “Let my daughter go,” she said, surprised at how steady her voice sounded.

Tears cascaded down Allison’s cheeks. Sobs shook her shoulders. Kathleen wished she hadn’t killed Andrew, whispered silent apologies that Allison had been exposed to such violence. Would Allison hate her for what she’d done? She couldn’t let a thought like that distract her. Not now.

The man holding Allison loosened his grip, and Kathleen took three long strides forwards, wrenched Allison out of the man’s arms, and shoved Allison behind her. Slowly, she began to edge back towards their fallen bikes. Kathleen waved the gun at them. “You think I’ll end it there?” she asked, her words coming from a place of both fight-or-flight and motherly protection. “If you come after us again, I’ll shoot all of you. You follow us, you’ll all be on the ground.”

The gurgling from Andrew turned into a whimper followed by a terrible silence. The man who’d been pawing at Allison eased back towards the beige truck with his hands held up, palms out. “We won’t, ma’am,” he said softly.

“Don’t be stupid again,” Kathleen shouted as she let go of Allison to upright her bike. “Do you understand me? Don’t you ever threaten anyone like you just did again.”

The men didn’t answer, the same shell-shocked look mimicked on all of their faces. They glanced from her to their now unmoving leader on the gravel. A pool of blood seeped out around Andrew’s head and Kathleen tried not to imagine the blood creeping towards her. She thanked her lucky stars that Andrew’s face was turned away from her, that she couldn’t see the emptiness of it.

Allison sobbed as she scooped up Kathleen’s backpack and managed to get on her bike. Kathleen stuck the gun back in the holster and jumped on hers, terrified that the men would try to block them now that the threat was removed. They didn’t do anything but move out of her way, and Allison hung Kathleen’s bag from her handlebars as they peeled out onto the flat road that led towards Galena and far from the chaos behind them.

Allison cruised ahead of her, picking up speed until they were full-out pedaling away from the truck and the dead man. Kathleen could barely keep up, but she was grateful for the distraction. Dusk raced across the sky in purple and pink twilight. The ice wedge inside