“Give me the basics of what happened as fast as you can,” I demanded.
“Ann and I showed up because we were coming to get Iris and take her to some special agent lady that Ann knew because we suspected Jennings,” he started to rattle off. “Jennings must have been not far behind because he showed up. He shot Ann when she tried to go after him,and then turned and went for Iris. He hit her over the head with his gun, and she went down. He was so caught up with all the others, I slipped out the door. I was going to get in the car and drive to get help, but he’d slashed all the tires of the vehicles. I came down here hoping someone would come by and call for help.”
Shit. I needed to get up there and check the situation.
“Is he still in there?”
“I…I don’t know,” he responded. “I heard another shot fired, but then I noticed the fire and wasn’t sure what to do.”
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I directed. “If both women are injured, I can’t carry them both, so I need you to come with me. But you are going to stay by my side the entire time. Do you understand?”
I didn’t fully trust him yet, so there was no way I was having him at my back.
He quickly held up his hands in surrender with a panicked look on his face. “Yes, got it.”
“I’ve already called in for backup and help, so it should be on the way, but we need to get those women and my dog out of there before the fire gets to the house.”
He nodded, and we began walking up to the house.
“No talking, and no noises. Understood?” I instructed.
He nodded again, and we quietly walked up my dirt path just to the side of my gravel driveway.
We passed all three vehicles and noticed that they did in fact have all their tires slashed. As we crept closer to the house, I could see that the front door was open.
A moment later, something bolted out, and I heard a low bark. Sarge came rushing toward me, barking again and doing circles. This was his alert bark—his recall signal—to let me know he’d found something important and I needed to follow him.
I gave Steve the universal signal to be quiet with my finger over my lips, and he nodded. I pulled out my gun as I approached the doorway…and then I saw blood. Not a lot, but drips and streaks scattered along my living room and hallway. That’s when I saw her—Iris—sitting half upright and holding her head.
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered, bolting into the house and crouching down beside her.
“Are you okay?” I asked, running my hands over her body to check for blood.
“I’m okay,” she said, her voice very raspy.
Sarge came to sit right next to her.
“Is there anyone else here?” I asked as I scanned the house quickly.
“I…I don’t think so,” she said. “Jennings shot Ann, but then he hit me over the head and I blacked out. I…I don’t know where they are.”
That explained the blood. My guess was he dragged Ann somewhere, but he wouldn’t just leave Iris here for good. He would come back.
“Steve,” I called out to him but in a quieter tone.
He popped his head through the doorway immediately as I waved for him to come over to where Iris and I were. To his credit, he came over immediately.
“He’s one of the good guys, Hector,” Iris said to me, likely sensing my hesitation around him.
“Can you walk, or do I need to carry you?” I asked her, knowing we needed to leave now.
“I just need to sit here for a moment and let my head stop spinning.”
“We can’t do that, Iris,” I told her. “We need to leave now. I’ll carry you.”
I started to scoop her up when she turned to me, holding her hands up. “Just give me a few minutes.”
“We don’t have a few minutes, Iris,” I said gravely. “The area around the house is on fire, and the wind is causing it to spread quickly. We need to go now.”
