Shielded In The Shadows

Jayden’s gun lay on the floor where he’d dropped it. At least ten feet away. Chances of him getting there before Kyle shot one of the

women, or him and then the women, were pretty slim.

He had to get Kyle to come closer to him. To create a chance to grab the younger man, to take his gun.

Suzie had turned on the television and was standing next to Kyle. He’d wrapped his free arm around her neck, holding her close to him.

“Let’s just go, Kyle,” she said softly, looking up at him. “Just me and you. We can go out the back door and get away from here. Go where nobody will ever bother us again.”

Kyle glanced at her for a second, almost as though he was considering the option.

“You’re the kid from the neighborhood,” Emma said from beside him. “Isn’t he, Suzie?” she asked.

Jayden had figured as much, as well. Was more focusing on being poised to cover her body with his if he saw any hint of movement in that trigger finger. Something told him the guy wasn’t going to kill Suzie. He loved her.

And he was emotionally unstable, too. The odd way Suzie was holding her arm, had propped it on her wrist when she’d had to use her good hand to hold the TV remote, was evidence of the young man’s propensity for violence.

Suzie didn’t say a word.

“What’s she talking about?” Kyle pulled his arm tight around Suzie’s neck. “You got someone else now, too?”

“You know I don’t, Kyle,” Suzie said, staring up at him. Jayden wasn’t a great expert on relationships but it looked to him like the woman really loved the guy.

“Then who’s this neighborhood kid?”

He was looking at Jayden when he asked the question, but the way he pulled against Suzie again made it clear who he was talking to.

“You,” she said. “I told them I met you in our old neighborhood. They don’t know...”

Know what?

Emma’s leg pressed against Jayden’s. Maybe she knew. Maybe she was just scared. He had to get her out of there. To make certain that she had a chance to have her baby.

She’d lost one already. She wasn’t going to lose a chance to have another...

“What don’t we know?” Jayden asked quietly. There was no point in threatening Kyle. Their best hope was to get him to relax enough that he’d come closer. If nothing else, they had to do all they could to diffuse his panic as much as possible. He was like a bomb; any little change could set him off.

“You really don’t know?” He was looking at Emma, a sneer on his face. Like he had one over on her.

“I didn’t tell anyone, Kyle,” Suzie said. “Not then, and not now. I told you so. I told you I’d protect you and I always have...”

He looked at Suzie then, as though what she’d said really mattered to him, and Jayden leaped. He didn’t think. Didn’t plan. Just leaped off the couch and toward that gun, knowing that he’d either get to it in time, or feel its spray mutilate his insides.

Either way, he was giving Emma and Suzie a chance to run.

* * *

Emma heard the shot ring out before she realized what Jayden was doing. He moved. Blood spattered. Horror filled every sinew of her body.

And she saw Kyle drop to the floor with Jayden going down on top of him.

“Kyle!” Suzie screamed, blood on her clothes, her chin.

Emma rushed toward the bodies as Suzie dropped to her knees beside them. It took Emma a second to realize that Kyle was free of Jayden. That Jayden was kneeling over the fallen young man, his fingers at Kyle’s throat. And that officers were piling in through the front door like someone was throwing a surprise party.

Her gaze landed on the floor where Jayden’s knee rested beside Kyle’s hand. His gun was still tangled up in his fingers, and it took her a second to realize that it had fallen to the floor, too. Kyle still had his gun?

Nothing made sense for a second.