I lifted her up and set her on the edge of my living room chair.
“You have sixty seconds to determine whether I carry you or you walk,” I told her. “I’m going to go scan the rest of the house for Ann, and then we are leaving.”
I turned to Steve. “You watch her while I check the house. If something feels off or Sarge starts to growl, you yell out as loud as you can. Got it?”
He nodded feverishly and stayed right where he was.
Less than sixty seconds later, I had passed through two other rooms and then finally made it to my master bedroom, where several drops of blood had led.
My gun was up as I entered. I found Ann slumped on the floor next to my bed. I quickly scanned the rest of the room and noticed my bedroom window on the far wall was wide open. I never opened those—ever. My guess wasJennings either left on his own, thinking neither woman would wake up, or he heard Sarge bark and took off, thinking backup was arriving.
Out that same window, I could see the flames edging closer to the house. I walked in and bent at Ann’s side.
“Ann, are you okay?” I whispered to her as I checked for a pulse and scanned her body for injuries.
“Not really.” Her voice was pained as she spoke.
She had blood coming from what looked like a bullet wound in her side, but as I looked closer, it appeared to be just a superficial wound. It seemed like a lot of blood loss for her injury, but maybe Jennings was also injured.
“I’m going to carry you out, okay? But this might hurt because we need to move quickly,” I told her, scooping her up while scanning the room once more before we slid out into the hallway.
When I returned to the living room, Iris was now standing, though she looked like she could keel over at any moment.
“I can carry her,” Steve offered when he saw Ann in my arms.
I doubted that, given he was roughly five foot eleven and maybe one hundred eighty pounds, but I’d let him try.
Plus, I’d rather have my focus on Iris and have a hand ready to use my gun if needed.
I handed her off to Steve, wrapping her over his back like you would carry a child—piggyback style. To his credit, he supported her and seemed to have a good grip.
“Let’s go,” I said, needing to get everyone out ASAP.
Iris was being really strong now, even though she was obviously in pain.
Just as I reached out for her to take my hand, a massive boom shook the house. I heard a few windows break, but the house itself was fine.
“What was that?” Steve asked, clearly panicked.
“I’m guessing it was my shed,” I said, scanning the room since we had all flinched, ducked down, or at least shifted during the noise.
“Your shed?” Iris asked.
“I have propane tanks in there, which are highly flammable,” I told them. “Which means either the fire has now made it to my property, or someone lit the shed on fire so that it would explode.
“Steve, you still good with Ann?” I asked him, and he nodded.
“Sarge,hier,” I called, telling him I wanted him to come near me. Mostly because I wanted him near Iris in case something bad happened.
“Sarge,schutz,” I told him, pointing at Iris.
“What did you tell him?” Iris asked beside me as we walked as quickly as she could, given her head injury.
“I told him to protect and guard you. I have a gun and you don’t, so I want him to make you his focus,” I said as we walked down my front steps.
I kept my grip on her hand and wanted to get to my vehicle quickly, but I knew Iris needed to walk slower. Iused that to my advantage and scanned the area around us, which was getting harder now that sunset had passed.
Behind me, flames were shooting high in the sky—both from the roof of my house and what was left of my shed.
