For some reason, instead of following her, he crouched low and ran toward the living room. She froze in the doorway and watched as he snatched up a small object from the floor and hurled it out the window. The instant he released it, he was back down, then his arm whipped out again. A second object—she realized too late that it was a grenade—flew through the now-broken window.
Based on the explosions that followed, Gil had pitched them through his living room, out the shattered front windows, over the yard, and into the street. Then he dashed to the wall and hit the light switches, plunging them into darkness.
“Gil?”
“Ivy! Get in the bedroom and call 911. Then stay there. Don’t walk through the house.”
She kept her eyes on him as he moved along the edges of the walls and did something that silenced the alarm. In the quiet, she heard Gil whisper. “Yeah. It’s Dixon. Two grenades just detonated in the street outside my house.” A pause. “I know they were grenades because before they were in the street, they were in my living room.” He was closer now, returning to where she waited. Another pause. “Yeah, we’re good.”
Gil continued to talk, but Ivy’s focus was now entirely on the red dot dancing around on Gil’s chest. Without pausing to scream or even think, she reached into her purse and retrieved the gun she’d been carrying for the past few days.
She followed the direction of the beam. It was coming from the back deck. She pointed the gun at the back windows and broke one of the cardinal rules of discharging a weapon.
She fired blind.
41
GIL TACKLED IVY and covered her body with his own. He pressed his lips to her ear. “What was that?”
“Red dot.” She gasped the words. “Your chest.”
She’d unloaded her weapon into his back windows, but Gil had no way to know if she’d hit anything. Sirens wailed far in the distance, but hopefully the knowledge that help was on the way would be enough to keep their attacker from trying again.
“We’re going to stay on the floor and move into the hall. You with me?”
Ivy’s head moved up and down. “Let’s go.” Gil rolled off Ivy but kept her hand tight in his. It took a long minute to army crawl to the hall, but once they made it, there was nothing more they could do but wait.
The sirens grew closer, then stopped and everything was quiet.
“They’ll check the perimeter of the house before they come in,” Gil whispered to Ivy. “Won’t be long now.”
She didn’t speak, but her hand clenched around his and she didn’t relax her grip while they waited.
The garage door opened. Then he heard a soft snick that indicated the door that led from the garage to the house had opened.“Dixon? Ivy? Talk to me!” Morris, or someone who sounded a lot like Morris might if he were scared to death, called out.
“We’re in here! We’re fine.” At least Gil hoped they were. He was fine, but Ivy might be worse for wear after he’d landed on her.
Then Zane’s and Luke’s voices carried from the yard, repeatedly, with the same basic theme of, “Let us in there now!” Morris had probably refused to allow them to come in until he’d cleared everything.
“Talk to me.” Morris approached.
“Did you get the shooter?” Gil asked as he ran a hand over Ivy’s cheek.
“I didn’t. You did though.” Morris was back to his disgruntled normal.
Ivy froze under Gil’s touch. “What?”
“Found Preston laid out on the street. Two wounds.”
Gil, not looking at Morris, pressed his palm against Ivy’s face. “How bad?”
“Depends on your perspective. Do you want him to live?”
“Yes,” Ivy answered immediately.
Morris grumbled something that sounded a lot like “women” before he said, “He’ll probably pull through. One was to the leg. One hit him in the shoulder. Found a weapon on the deck. Won’t be surprised to find his prints. Paramedics are hustling him to Wake Med.”
He looked from Gil to Ivy then back to Gil before landing on Ivy, who was still holding the weapon in her left hand. His eyes went wide. “Youshot him?”
