No Woman Left Behind (3 page)

Chapter Four

I went down hard, my arm tangling in the tablecloth. As I fell, the contents of the table came with me—china, crystal, flowers and food. I hit the floor with a jarring thud. Mom screamed and my dad shouted something I couldn’t understand.

“Stay down,” Slash ordered. “Someone is shooting at us from outside.” He rolled off me and came to a crouch. “Everyone keep still.”

I shook off my daze and pushed up on my elbow. I could see Slash illuminated by the glow of the streetlight outside. He was making his way toward the front door in a low crouch, a gun in his hand. He must have had his shoulder holster on under his jacket.

There was a noise at the kitchen door and Sasha walked into the dining room. “What’s happening? Who turned off the lights?”

“Get down,” we all shouted at the same time.

Without a word of protest, Sasha dropped. Good reflexes born from the old Soviet era, I guess.

“What’s going on?” my dad hissed at me.

My mom’s favorite glass vase exploded in one corner of the room. “I don’t know. Someone is shooting at us. Just stay down, okay, Dad?”

“What? Why?”

“I have no idea.”

“What’s Slash doing?”

“Saving us, I hope.”

Slash murmured something into a cell phone. He was by the front door in a protective crouch. Where the heck were the FBI agents who were supposed to be watching him? I hoped they weren’t on a bathroom break or something.

I could hear my mom’s sobs, so I got up on my knees and began crawling. As I moved toward her, I glanced at the kitchen and saw the door move slightly.

“Slash!” I screamed, just as a man dressed in black opened the door and fired, strangely, at the chandelier.

I rolled under the table. Crystal shards rained down on me, but I barely felt them because I was already covered in all the food and crap from the table. Slash must have returned fire because I heard a thud and the intruder ducked back into the kitchen. My mom started shrieking. Slash dashed across the room.

“Get them out of here,” Slash shouted at me as he kicked open the kitchen door and went in low, disappearing from sight.

I scrambled out from under the table, shaking something wet and gooey from my cheek. I’d lost a shoe and my heart was pounding so hard I thought I might pass out. My eyes had adjusted to the dim light and I saw the shape of my mom huddled against the wall. My dad was sitting in front of her protectively. Sasha still lay motionless on the floor.

“Come on,” I said, grabbing my mom’s hand. “Sasha, get up. Now. Everyone follow me.”

Sasha crawled forward and stood in a crouch, bracing himself against the wall.

“Stay low,” I warned them.

To their credit, my mom and dad came to their feet without a protest. I debated taking them into the living room where I could retrieve Dad’s gun, but I wasn’t sure it was actually loaded and the area was way too open and dangerous with multiple hiding places. Instead I led them down the opposing hallway toward Dad’s study.

The house remained ominously quiet and dark. I couldn’t hear the intruder or Slash. I carefully opened the study door. After a quick peek into the room, I ushered them in, hoping no one was in there. I couldn’t see a darn thing.

“Get in the closet,” I whispered, closing the study door behind me. No lock, so I couldn’t secure it.

Everyone crowded in the closet except me. I started to close the closet door without getting in.

“What are you doing?” my dad said, grabbing my hand.

“I’m staying out here. I’ll hide behind the chair. If the intruder goes for the closet first, I can take him from behind.”

My dad’s mouth fell open. “What?”

“Just get in and be quiet. I’ll be okay.” I pushed him in, still protesting, and clicked the door shut. Snatching the heavy crystal paperweight off his desk, I crouched behind one of the stuffed chairs perpendicular to his desk with a full view of both the study and closet doors.

I heard sirens in the distance and nearly cried in relief. It was about freaking time.

I hoped I was doing the right thing. My initial instinct was to go look for Slash to see if I could help, but intellectually I knew that was a dumb thing to do. First, I had no idea if Slash and the intruder were even still in the house. I hadn’t heard a door open or slam, but that didn’t mean anything certain. They could still be out there stalking each other. I didn’t need to get in the middle of that.

Second, if they
were
still in the house somewhere, the odds were high of me getting shot by either the intruder or Slash if I went creeping around the house trying to find them.

Third, there wasn’t much I could do to help Slash anyway without a weapon. I could retrieve my dad’s gun, but if my dad saw me with it, he’d try to wrestle it away from me. All I needed was for my dad to shoot himself trying to protect me.

No, I had to use the paperweight as a weapon. If the intruder entered and went for the closet—a statistically high probability given that I could hear my mom sniffling from out here—I could draw attention away from my folks.

The sirens became louder and I figured we were minutes, if not seconds, from rescue.

Suddenly, the door to the study opened. Quietly, silently. My breath froze in my throat. I could see the silhouette of a man creeping through the doorway. He had a gun at the ready. It definitely wasn’t Slash. He was thicker and his shape was different. I pushed my fear aside. I had to focus.

The man paused and then, hearing the soft noises from the closet, headed toward it.

I clenched my fist around the paperweight. It seemed pathetically small now in comparison to a gun, but I wasn’t going to stand by and watch him shoot my family. The man stood to the side of the closet door, reached forward and put his hand on the door handle.

I spent a precious two seconds calculating the weight of the paperweight, the speed at which I would throw it, and the distance before leaping up and hurling it directly at his head.

I missed. By a mile. So much for two-second calculations under extreme duress.

The paperweight crashed into the closet door and fell harmlessly to the floor. I was
so
not going to be hired by the National Baseball League any time soon.

The intruder turned to shoot at me. Thankfully, two things happened to disturb his aim: first, I was already in mid-jump over the chair toward the desk, and second, my dad flung open the closet door at that exact moment, hitting the arm holding the gun. The bullet hit the ceiling as I landed hard on the other side of the chair, rolling quickly to my feet. My dad and Sasha were already struggling with the intruder. Grunts filled the room as I jumped into the fray, fists swinging. I had no idea where the gun had gone or whether the intruder still had it.

“Hey, hey. Stop. Stop it.”

The voice was familiar. We all froze. My dad and Sasha immediately slid off him. My mom took a step out of the closet.

The intruder sat up, rubbing his jaw. “What the hell is going on here?”

I sat back on my heels, staring at him in disbelief.

It was my brother Beau.

Chapter Five

“Beau?” I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Beau is the middle child, sandwiched between our brother Rock and me. I stared at him. “What are
you
doing here?”

“I was on my way over to visit Mom and Dad when I heard a call on my car scanner that shots were fired at this address. I hightailed my ass those last two blocks with my heart in my throat. I came in through the side door with my key. I heard voices in the study, so that’s where I started.”

Before I could say anything, two shadowy figures appeared in the doorway. “Police. Everyone on the floor with your hands locked behind your heads. Now.”

We all complied instantly. The policeman had pulled out a flashlight was pointing it at us. My dad started talking.

“My name is Winston Carmichael. I’m an attorney. This is my home. The individuals in this room are my wife, children and house staff. Someone was shooting at us.”

More police entered the room, waving flashlights around and making me dizzy. “The house is clear.”

My brother lifted his head from the floor. “I’m Detective Beau Carmichael with the city-wide robbery unit at the BPD. My service weapon is on the floor next to the chair. It’s been discharged. My badge is in my pocket.”

A policeman discovered Beau’s gun in front of one of the bookshelves. He slipped on a pair of rubber gloves and bagged the weapon.

“I understand, Detective. But you know I have to cuff you until we can get this sorted this out. Is everyone okay?”

“I think so,” Beau answered. “Lexi, are you good?”

“
Good
is a relative term. But thankfully I’m uninjured.”

My mom, dad and Sasha confirmed they were all fine.

“Okay, everyone be calm and cooperate,” Beau instructed. “This will be over shortly.”

I felt cool plastic slide around my wrists and then one of the policemen helped me stand up. Another policeman assisted Beau to his feet and then wrestled his detective badge out of his pocket. He handed it to the first officer who had entered the room.

“It’s legit.”

I was scared to ask, but I had to.

“Did you find anyone else in the house?” My voice wavered.

“Not yet. Why? Is there someone missing?”

“Yes, my boyfriend. He was here with us, but he went after the intruder. The last time I saw him, he was headed into the kitchen.”

“Whoa. Wait.
You
have a boyfriend?” Beau interrupted.

My dad harrumphed. “His name is Slash.”

“What? Slash is your boyfriend?” Beau and Slash sort of knew each other from a case I had recently wrapped up.

Before I could reply, another figure stepped into the room. “There’s no one else here. But the back door leading out from the kitchen is open and there’s blood in the kitchen.”

My heart skipped a beat. Blood? Where was Slash? Was he okay?

The policeman in the doorway shined the flashlight at Beau. “So, Detective Carmichael, can you tell us what’s going on here?”

“I have no idea. I came late to the party. I was on my way here to visit my parents when I heard on the scanner there were shots fired at this address. Came in a side door and found my family hiding here. My sister, Lexi, wasn’t in the closet with the others and jumped out at me, hurling something at me and startling me. I discharged my weapon, but missed her. You’ll have to ask her for an accounting of what happened before that.”

The policeman shined his flashlight at me. “You’re Lexi?”

“Yes.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“What’s that in your hair?”

I shook my head and something plopped to the floor. “Chowder, I think.”

“So, what happened?”

“Someone shot at us through the dining room window while we were having dinner. The first shot...it almost hit me. About the same time, we lost electricity. Slash called the police from his cell, I think. A minute or two later someone entered the house through the kitchen—I don’t know if it was the same person who shot at us or someone else—and starting shooting again. My boyfriend returned fire and chased the intruder. While he did that, we ran back here to hide in the study. Then Beau, my brother, came in. I thought he was the intruder, so I attacked him. In turn, he shot at me, thinking I was the intruder, but missed. We all jumped on him until we realized who it was.”

My brother narrowed his eyes at me. “I’m damn lucky you’ve got bad aim. You almost brained me with that paperweight.”

“Well, you almost
shot
me.”

My mother wailed and collapsed into the chair I’d been hiding behind.

The officer let out a loud sigh. “So, Lexi, is your boyfriend in law enforcement?”

“Not exactly.”

“Not exactly?” The officer paused, considered. “But he was carrying a weapon?”

“Yes. He usually does.”

“Wait. I thought he was a computer geek,” my dad interjected.

“He’s that, too.”

Beau frowned. “Um, I thought he was a federal agent.”

“He’s definitely a federal agent.”

“So, which is he?” the policeman asked. “A geek, a police officer or a federal agent?”

“A mixture of all three, I guess.”

“I thought he looked manly,” Sasha offered.

The policeman held up a hand. “Stop, everyone. Let me get this straight. An unknown assailant shot through the window from outside the premises, followed by an armed intruder actually entering the house and continuing to discharge a weapon. However, no one is clear if the intruder in the house is the same individual who shot at you through the window. So, technically we could have two perpetrators. Then your boyfriend, who was also armed, returned fire on the intruder in the house and chased after him. You’d all run in here to hide when Detective Carmichael arrived and discharged his weapon at you, his sister, after you attacked him, thinking he was the intruder.”

“That’s it in a nutshell,” I said.

“Right. At this point, no one knows where your boyfriend Slash—who is either a member of law enforcement, a federal agent, or a simply a poser—is located.”

“He’s not a poser,” I said. “In fact, there should have been an FBI tail on him. You should check that out, too.”

The policeman sighed, punched some numbers on his phone, strode to the doorway and began talking rapidly.

I let out a big breath and leaned back against my dad’s desk.

Beau walked over and joined me, scooting closer until we were touching shoulders. “So, sis, when did this love connection with Slash happen?”

“There’d better not be any love connection,” my dad growled. “We’re going to have to have a serious talk about this man.”

My left shoulder ached where I’d hit it during my duck-and-roll. “It’s complicated, Beau.”

“I’ll bet. But for you to call him your boyfriend is pretty significant. It must be serious if you brought him home to meet Mom and Dad.”

“Nothing is serious.” My dad’s voice was hard. “She just started dating him. How is it that you knew about this Slash guy and didn’t tell me?”

“Hey, don’t get mad at me. I didn’t know he was Lexi’s boyfriend.”

I closed my eyes. Was there a do-over button for this evening?

The officer in the hallway stepped back into the study. “Take the cuffs off. They all check out. You, Lexi. I need you to tell me more about your boyfriend.”

“She can’t,” my dad said. “Apparently she doesn’t know his name or what he does for a living.”

One of the policemen tugged on my cuffs and my arms were released. I rubbed them.

“What do you mean she doesn’t know his name?” The policeman walked over to me. “You’re dating some guy and you don’t know his name?”

“Not exactly. He goes by Slash.”

“Like the famous guitarist from Guns N Roses?”

“No, as in short for Backslash. It’s hacker lingo.”

“Okay.” He wrote something down. “You got an address for this Slash?”

I thought about it. “Actually, I don’t. He usually comes to my place.”

“A phone number?”

I rubbed my hands over my forehead. “He has several. He usually calls me from different numbers. Security and all, you know.”

“Hold on. You’re dating a guy and you don’t know his name, what he does for a living, or where he lives?”

“It does sound pretty bad when you put it that way.”

“And he’s supposedly followed by the FBI?”

“It’s for his own protection.”

The officer shook his head but didn’t ask any further questions.

Jeez. Welcome to Meet the Parents Night From Hell.

Beau helped my mom up from the chair so the policeman could get her cuffs off. “Look, this Slash guy is legit as far as I know,” he told the police officer, making me feel better. “He was tight with the feds and helped run that recent terrorist situation at the high school Lexi was trapped inside. I saw him in action. He’s definitely got some kind of law enforcement or military training. He seems like a good guy. My gut instinct says he’s the real deal. Lexi, why would someone be shooting at him?”

“Slash was the target?” my dad asked.

I hadn’t even had time to think about who might have been the target. “I have no idea. Maybe it was random. A house invasion or something.”

If that were it, we were all damn lucky Slash had been with us. But thinking about Slash reminded me of the blood in my parents’ kitchen. My stomach churned. I knew he could take care of himself, but what if he’d been shot? And why hadn’t he come back? What if he were lying somewhere bleeding to death?

I started to hyperventilate. Beau must have noticed, because he put an arm around me. “It’s okay, Lexi. The officers are already doing a sweep of the neighborhood, looking for Slash and the perps. It’s standard procedure. Plus, if someone’s bleeding, they should be able to track it. Don’t worry. Slash can take care of himself.”

I swallowed, feeling dizzy and light-headed. The adrenaline rush had faded and I tried to calm my breathing and get my focus back. But I was scared. More scared than I ever thought I would be.

“I know. He’s...he’s good like that.”

Suddenly the lights came on and we all blinked. I shielded my eyes until my sight adjusted. And just like that, I saw him standing in the doorway, flanked by two officers.

Slash.