Page 83 of Lethal Weakness

“Hear me? You tell me where she is, or I’ll gut you until your screams draw her out.”

“No,” I groan, squeezing my eyes shut against his light.

His light lowers– No, it raises above my head completely, scanning the hill behind me, finally giving me a chance to see as I blink through the splotches in my vision.

Avery. Please, don’t let it be Avery.

She’ll be so scared.

“Start talking, or I’ll–” He raises his boot to stomp on my leg again, and I brace for the strike of agonizing pain, but instead thunder cracks in my ears.

The man in front of me jerks, stumbling back as a dark spot blooms on his forehead. Utter chaos erupts in front of me.

Flashes of light move forward, and some move back as shouting and small explosions fill the air.

I cower against the ground, smashing my palms against my ears, but my eyes fall to the man now slumped near my feet. A line of blood streams down his forehead from a bullet hole… And his vacant, lifeless eyes are staring right back at me.

Dead… He’s dead…

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dead person. Not as graphically as this.

And the gore continues all around me as bodies hit the dirt one by one. Am I dead already? This has to be hell.

A man jumps on top of me out of nowhere, and a scream hurtles from my throat as he straddles my waist. His hand shoots out, gripping my jaw brutally to keep my head still as he raises his gun, and I can’t fight it. My panicked flails don’t affect him at all.

The barrel comes down, inches from my forehead, and I freeze. This is it… I’m dead.

Avery…

My eyes focus on the man above me, but he’s not even looking at me. He’s not looking at the innocent woman he’s about to murder… He’s looking up and behind me.

“I’ll kill her—” the man warns right before his head explodes.

I can’t cower from the matter raining down on me; I can only scream as the man’s body is flung off of me.

In his place is someone new, kneeling over me, bracing me between their thigh and opposite calf, but not trapping me… Guarding me with their body.

I can hardly see his face, but I can feel him.

Jack.

My soul knows he’s the one protecting me.

His left shoulder jerks back, and he grunts, but his rifle is tight to the pit of his right shoulder as he aims, firing continuously into the thicket. Each explosion makes my body flinch as metal casings trickle down on me.

“Got momma bird. Alive in enemy fire,” he speaks, but it’s not to me. “Keep your head down,” he says gently, and this time I know it was meant for me.

“Avery,” I force through ragged breaths I hadn’t realized I was gasping. “Avery,” I repeat, and it’s all I can choke out.

He fires one shot, a second, and then a third, and I watch the bodies hit the ground. He’s killing these men… All of them.

“She’s safe.”

My entire body deflates against the ground like all of my remaining energy was being reserved to find out if my baby was okay… My face melts into the grass as I sob, and I don’t even care to see the destruction happening. My baby is safe.

“I’m broadside on an uphill slope. Targets are regrouping,” he speaks into the air again, and I realize he must be wearing a radio. He glances at my ankle and assesses the damage.

“Ah,” I cry when he tests the clamp.