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Did you dream that someone gave me a balloon? Ruger lumbered out of the bedroom and plopped at my feet as though this was an ordinary night, as if evil hadn’t entered our home.Ĭradling my son’s head on my shoulder, he wrapped his footy-pajama-clad legs around my waist. I raced across the room, into the hall, dropped the bat, and scooped him into my arms. I leaped out of bed, the bat held low, my fingers clasped in a death grip around its base. So, unless you’ve got some sort of death wish, I suggest you leave now. You made a fatal error coming here, my friend. I don’t know what you hope to achieve, I said, my voice low but fierce, and I don’t care. Noah! Could there be two intruders? What if they kidnapped my son? What if they poisoned Ruger? What if they were biding time till one of us moved? I summoned my mind to clear. Footsteps hit the hall outside my bedroom. My right shoulder twitched, flinched, anger and fear tousling inside me.Ī click coiled through the darkness. After all my family has endured, I might never stop beating this guy. I curled my fingers around the handle of the bat. Breathed in…out…in…out…tried to steady my nerves. Why wasn’t the stranger moving? What did he want? My chest tightened, and I parted my lips. Did more than one intruder enter my home? But tonight? Didn’t he recognize the date?īelow me in the living room, the grandfather clock ticked…ticked…ticked…echoing through the floorboards, its hands counting off the seconds till chaos shattered the silence. After all, he’d trained Colt in search and rescue to help the living as well as the dead. Why did Niko leave tonight of all nights? I understood the draw of finding a lost hiker. My husband lost the deadbolt keys, or I could have engaged the added locks we installed after the killer clown kicked in the door, leading from the mudroom into the kitchen-the main entrance guarded by the dullest flood light in existence. For weeks the local papers had reported on drug addicts breaking into homes.
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![killzone shadow fall chapter 8 killzone shadow fall chapter 8](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mAHM0nwDGgc/maxresdefault.jpg)
If I left this bed, the movement might trigger an attack. My heart was working overtime, blood sluicing through my veins, adrenaline spiking well beyond normal limits. A home invader would never announce his presence. The stranger did not move, did not budge. The shadow morphed into the silhouette of a rounded head and elongated face, but blackness obscured the torso and limbs. Niko kept a spare gun in the safe, but the safe was in the living room. In search of my bat, my hand rummaged between the bed and nightstand. A chill rattled my bones as though someone tossed the last shovelful of dirt on my shallow grave. What if the intruder incapacitated Ruger? Or worse, killed him. If only Colt hadn’t left with Niko, but New Hampshire Fish & Game called and asked for assistance in tracking a lost hiker.Ī gazillion scenarios raced through my mind in the span of a few seconds. If an intruder entered our home, he wouldn’t hesitate to leave his post to protect me. Where’s Ruger? He always blocked the doorway to Noah’s bedroom. My heart slammed into my ribcage, my breath growing more and more ragged. Blackness enveloped the bedroom except for a glint of moonlight speared through the picture glass window above my head. The loft stair creaked, and I bolted upright in bed. She hovered over me, bi-eyed-one turquoise, one cognac.
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I cracked open one eye, but everything was foggy, hazy. Antiseptic filled my sinuses, and I gagged. Steel clanged against thin metal, the wheels grinding across the bed of the ambulance. Seconds later, they rolled me into the cool night air. With slurred speech, I asked, Is my baby all right? There’s too many injuries, a different female voice said. I struggled to raise my lids, but I did not have the strength. Through thin slits, two different colored eyes stared back at me, one brilliant turquoise, one cognac. But the neck wound- If I let go, she’ll bleed out. Pain riddled my body, multiple injuries searing bone deep.Īn unfamiliar female voice said, You need to let go of her, sir. He pulled me into his lap, rocking me, crying, praying for my survival. I squeezed my eyes shut, my head woozy, slipping into and out of a semi-conscious state. His demon-like chortle stopped my breath.
![killzone shadow fall chapter 8 killzone shadow fall chapter 8](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RWhbiJoAhqE/maxresdefault.jpg)
When Niko fell, those bricks drove into his spine and incapacitated him long enough for the masked assailant to scramble to his feet and flee.īut not before he hovered over me and offered one last warning. It had taken me days to edge the garden in slanted bricks. The bullet struck Niko in the shoulder, and he flew backward and landed in the garden I’d created around the apple tree. They were so preoccupied with tending to my wounds, the masked man got a shot off before he fell. Colt and Ruger barreled inside and over to me, whimpering, licking the blood off my face.