Leanna peeked into the kitchen window and saw Gabriel eating from one of the takeout boxes. The others were piled up on the table, and the kid was scarfing everything down as if he’d been starved.
“Meow.” The fat gray cat landed with a thud next to Leanna, causing her to duck.
Axe yanked her back behind the garbage cans, and they flattened themselves against the wall. He pointed to the double cat dish near the kitchen door.
The cat rubbed himself against the screen door, yowling at the empty bowls.
Sure enough, Gabriel opened the door.
“Hey, Panchito,” he said. “I got a fish taco with your name on it.”
The cat dashed in, and Axe’s hand whipped out, blocking the door from closing.
Gabriel shouted, and footsteps thundered toward them from two sides.
“Get into the house.” Axe grabbed Leanna and pushed her into the house.
Shots rang out, and Leanna screamed when Axe whirled around, landing a roundhouse kick on a man with a gun.
“Shut the door,” Axe shouted. “I’ll handle this. Protect the kid.”
“I don’t need protecting,” Gabriel said.
Leanna stared into the barrel of a shotgun and raised her hands.
Outside, thumps and grunts, curses, and sounds of bodies punched and kicked had Leanna’s heart in her throat.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” Leanna said. “But you have to tell them to back off before someone gets hurt.”
Gabriel kept the shotgun trained on her. He craned his neck to the kitchen window, and his expression flickered between cringing and glee and back to worry.
“Who’s out there?” Leanna asked, keeping her eyes on Gabriel.
“Two older dudes. I don’t know them, but they’re kicking your guy’s ass,” Gabriel said. “Ohh. That must have hurt.”
Leanna lunged and grabbed the shotgun. She wrestled it away from the kid and kicked his butt, causing him to fall.
She pumped the bullets into the chambers and yanked the kitchen door open. Her father and Axe’s father were both beating on Axe.
Leanna shot into the air, getting their attention.
“Get your asses in here, right now,” she commanded like a schoolmarm. “All of you.”
Axe grinned, holding two guns to his chest. “You heard her. Inside. Now, and no fighting.”
The two middle-aged men dusted themselves off, glaring at each other like fighting cocks circling the ring.
Leanna stepped back as Axe gestured with the gun to his father to enter while holding the other gun on Leanna’s dad.
“Why, Papa, it’s good to see you too, and let me pat you down.” She propped the shotgun, which was no longer loaded, against the wall and frisked her father.
Two knives and another handgun later, she had her father disarmed. “Will we have to tie you up?”
“Only if you tie him up,” her father said. “He wants to kill me.”
“If I wanted to kill you, I would have already,” Axe’s father, Vinny, growled. He, too, had his guns and knives on the kitchen counter where Gabriel was admiring them.
“I don’t know about all of you, but I’m starving,” Axe said. “Now that we’re all going to behave, let’s eat and see what we can do about getting Carmelita back.”
