Isobel smiled. “He hasn’t asked me.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to go, but there still hadn’t been a conversation.
“Maybe you should ask him,” Megan said. “Girl power and all that.”
That wasn’t going to happen. Isobel reached forward and held Jack’s hand. He was still breathing normally, and that was good. She knew the women were trying to keep her mind off things and keep her calm. She appreciated it, she did, but it didn’t change the fact that she was barricaded in a bathroom with her seriously injured son and her traumatised daughter.
“Fifteen minutes,” Elle said. “Why does time slow down when you want it to pass?”
“Horrible things always slow down time,” Megan said. “Like childbirth. Claire said her labour lasted almost four months. Grunt said it felt like longer.”
“Grunt?” Isobel said.
“My monosyllabic brother-in-law. Built like a mountain. Looks like King Kong. Talks in grunts.”
“Oh.” Isobel looked at the door, wishing she could see through it to the rooms beyond. Was Callum even still out there? Had he gone out to fight the men upstairs? Would they hear it down here if he had?
“Fourteen minutes,” Elle said.
“Stop counting. You’re making it worse,” Megan said.
And then an explosion rocked them. Isobel dove for the space on the floor between the toilet and the bath, holding Jack’s hand and keeping Sophie pressed tightly to her. Sophie woke and started crying. Another explosion. Shouting. Another explosion, smaller this time.
And then the gunfire started.
They came through in three areas. A blast took out a section of the ceiling above the kitchen area, another the ceiling in one of the bedrooms and a third came from the tunnel. Callum was positioned behind the kitchen counter and fired up into the hole above him. Shots came back, but it was hard to tell if he hit anything.
He heard Dimitri rushing into the bedroom, and more shots were fired.
“We’re going to die,” Ryan said as he crouched beside Callum and fired at the tunnel. “And we’re running out of ammo.”
They heard a grunt from the bedroom, and a man came flying out into the living area, followed by Dimitri. He launched himself at the militia guy, taking him out with a kick to the head. He grabbed the guy’s ammunition belt, tossed his gun to Callum and strode back into the bedroom. A few seconds later, there was another explosion.
Ryan fired into the hole that had been blown through the tunnel barricade. “Building that barricade was a waste of bloody time.”
Dimitri came running back in and headed straight for the kitchen. “Cover me.”
Callum aimed into the hole above the kitchen and fired rapidly. Dimitri ran to a spot under it and lobbed a grenade through the hole.
The explosion brought down more of the ceiling. There was a scream. A gunshot. Silence.
“They’re killing their wounded,” Ryan said.
At the other end of the room, the rubble shifted and the muzzle of an automatic weapon poked through the debris blocking the tunnel entrance.
“Take cover!” Callum ordered.
The men dove for the floor as bullets sprayed the room.
They heard a thud, and someone landed on the floor beside Ryan. Ryan was on his feet in a second, knocking the gun away from the militia guy and kneeing him in the stomach. Ryan shoved him back into the living area and followed.
“Dimitri, the automatic,” Callum called.
“On it.”
Callum aimed for the hole in the ceiling and pulled the trigger as soon as he saw something. There was a grunt, and a man fell into the basement, landing in front of Callum. He was dead. Callum helped himself to his gun. Ammo wasn’t going to be a problem after all.
Ryan was fighting hard with the other militia man.
“Get it done,” Callum said.