Toby saw me and started crying. I held him closely to me, trying to quiet him down.
“Honey, we are going to get out of this. Everything is ok,” I said.
“I’m scared,” Toby cried.
“I know,” I said. “I’m scared, too. But it’s going to be just fine.”
I held Toby close to me and started moving out of the back window of the car that was completely shattered. Placing a jacket that was lying in the back over the sharp edges I helped Toby get through the opening. And then I carefully climbed through myself.
“Stay here,” I said to Toby as I walked around to the driver’s side area of the car.
“Mason!” I said.
Mason looked up at me. Relief washed over his face. “Are you ok?” He asked.
“Yes. Can you move?”
“I don’t know,” Mason said. “Something is stuck here.”
I surveyed the situation and noticed that Mason’s seat belt was still buckled. His hands were pinned under him and he was having trouble reaching it. I moved in and squeezed my slender hand behind him and undid the buckle. It came free.
“OK, let’s see if we can slide you out quickly,” I said.
“Alright,” Mason grunted as I helped him put his arm around me and he pushed himself out of the shattered driver’s side window.
A moment later he was standing shakily beside me. His knees had taken a beating and he was banged up pretty good, but he was not seriously injured as far as I could see.
“We have to get out of here,” Mason said. “They might be coming back. Call the cops.”
I was already dialing 911.
Then I heard the voice over my shoulder and my world came crashing down around me.
“Guess you don’t know when to stay dead!”
I hid my phone, leaving the speaker on as it connected with emergency operators. Quickly I shoved it into my pocket so they couldn’t see it.
The voice of Bernie was hanging on the cool, morning air.
“Yeah, I guess we get to kill you the fun way,” Sheila said.
I was now facing them. Their smug, arrogant faces were coming down the hill towards us, both holding guns on us.
“We haven’t done anything to you,” I said. “Why are you doing this?”
I knew those statements were silly, but I wanted to give the police ample time to locate my cell phone signal. It was our only chance of getting out of here.
Sheila laughed. “Wow, I guess you don’t watch the news. Thanks to your antics, most of my family is dead!”
“I had nothing to do with that,” I said. “I was with you guys last night.”
Sheila laughed. “And imagine my surprise when I found out about my family being massacred and the name that seemed to be on everyone’s lips.”
“You don’t need to do this,” Mason said. “We can talk this through.”
“Shut up!” Bernie yelled.
“Yeah, we are done talking,” Sheila replied. “It’s time for a little justice. Hell, its way past time.”
I stood there frozen in place. My mind was racing frantically for something that would help us out of this. But there was really nothing we could do. We had finally run out of time and we were now at the mercy of this psychotic duo.
Our lives were over.
CHAPTER 31
Mason
I braced myself for the impact. My first thought was to jump in front of Libby and Toby to protect them at least for a few extra seconds, but Bernie had a gun on me and Sheila had a gun on Libby. I had no idea what might happen to Toby afterwards.
This was the end of the line.
Still, I had to try something, no matter how futile.
“Freeze!”
The voice came behind them, from above.
My eyes darted upwards toward the loud voice calling down at us. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Two uniformed state troopers with pistols drawn right on Sheila and Bernie. I had to blink my eyes to make sure I was not imagining this. No… they were there. It was real.
Bernie and Sheila looked at each other, outraged and very confused. They also looked very frightened. They had a few options. They could shoot us and guarantee that they would both be shot instantly, or they could surrender and hope some judge went lenient on them.
“Throw down your weapons now!”
The state trooper’s voice was full of force and anger. I knew that his trigger finger was itching.
“You have no choice,” I said. “You might get a shot off, but you will both be dead. Is it worth dying over?”
Sheila and Bernie were too shocked to say anything. Their hands were both shaking. Fear was all they knew right then. And it was glorious to see. I felt the power shifting. True heroes in uniform had arrived just in time to rescue my family.
And I would be forever grateful.
“THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING! You have three seconds to drop your weapons!”