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Ramsey started toward the He hadn’t realized it He yelled, "What the hell do you want? Who are you?"

They were both wounded, cursing, one of the rifles on the ground The tall guy on the ground ed to ju back toward the forest Ramsey raised his Smith & Wesson and fired He saw a chunk of tree bark fly into the air He fired again He heard one of the otten one of theone deep into the forest He wanted to go after theh Blood was seeping through the denim He realized in that instant that he hurt like hell

Raiun He was still at risk He was in the open and they were hidden in the trees He saw an old22 on the ground where the bowlegged guy had dropped it It was banged up, not very powerful, thank God, but powerful enough to do the job, accurate as hell froe

Hethere on the porch, frozen, staring at hi the door behind hi He looked down to see his jeans ripped through the outside of his thigh, the blood oozing through the thick deni Slowly, he eased her down She clutched his right leg She was ain

He kept her against his right leg He didn’t want to get any blood on her, that would be all she needed to freak her out all over again But she’d overcome her fear to coht, sweetheart The bad one, at least I hope they are You’re really brave, you know that? I’ood too

"I didn’t lie to you We kicked butt, didn’t we? We beat the bad guys They’re gone" But for how long? What the hell did they want? Who were they? What did they want?

HE was seated on the single chair in the living room She stood over hi The bullet had gouged a gash through the outside of his thigh, ripping away skin, a bit ofIt wasn’t bad He was very lucky

He poured vodka over the wound It burned like hell, but she was standing right there, so scared, her face whiter than high ritted his teeth and kept pouring until he was as certain as he could be that the wound was clean It probably needed to be stitched, but he couldn’t do that, no way, since he couldn’t sterilize a needle and thread The last thing he needed was an infection He pulled the skin tightly together over the gash, then put soauze over it Then he ripped soht to hold the edges of skin together beneath the gauze, and pressed it down Pain hissed out between his gritted teeth She ht knee "It’s all right It just hurt a little bit, not bad That was the worst of it, putting that tape over it"

He laid down htly away froet soeneric aspirin froe juice He laughed and wiped his unshot wound"

His leg hurt, but that was the least of his proble her face as pale as ne He locked the front door, shot home the dead bolt, and fastened the chain Maybe later he’d go get that old22 rifle He knew theback They had no idea he had no ability to contact the outside world They’d think he’d called in the troops i around It would be too dangerous for theet help He had bought hi there, not an inch from him, and he knew he had to deal with this and he had to deal with it now

"Let’s sit down," he said, and held out his hand There were some flecks of blood on the back of his hand He hoped she wouldn’t see it

Slowly, she gave him her hand He sat beside her on the sofa He carefully moved the bowl of bloody vodka to the far side of the sofa

"I don’t knoho thoseher not to be afraid, not to worry so nize either of them?"