voice halted her in her tracks.
“Run, Mia. Run,” Calvin yelled, lunging for the stocky Asian man near
the office door.
A hefty Black guy slammed his weapon across the back of Calvin’s
head.
Mia sprinted down the hallway past the study and powder room,
aiming to get her weapon. She kicked herself for not bringing it inside.
They wouldn’t kill Calvin, but they could hurt him if he didn’t cooperate.
She slid a cast iron skillet from the cooktop.
“Go get her,” someone yelled from the office.
Several things crashed to the office floor. Calvin put up one hell of a
fight. Mere seconds had passed when Mia’s pursuer rounded the corner.
She slammed the skillet into his chest, causing him to fly into the wall.
He recovered and reached for her arm. The skillet crashed down onto his
head with a backward swipe. This time, his body hit the ground, right on
top of his gun.
Damn.
Her feet pounded on the hardwood floor as she raced for the front
entrance, aiming to find some type of reinforcements. An armed man
came off the path to the porch. She slammed the front door, locking it.
Keys jiggled in the tumbler.
Mia ran top speed toward the kitchen ahead of a spray of bullets that
landed in the cabinets. She slid toward the island like a baseball player
trying to reach the home plate. She scrambled around the counter,
bolting to the deck and made it to the table.
“Nowhere to run,” a man with an ivory complexion said as a Latino
guy calmly stepped over the threshold onto the deck as though nothing
out of the ordinary had transpired.
“Don’t be so sure of that.” She snatched the Ruger, aimed, and pulled
the trigger five times taking out the biggest threat. Mia didn’t wait for
the Latino man’s advancing body to hit the ground. She hit the stairs.
The ivory man took cover in the dining room and held up on a perfect
vantage spot.
Three armed men raced toward her. Damn, how many did they send?
Mia’s heart sank, but adrenaline kicked in as she turned back.
She had to make it to the Lincoln.
“Mrs. Atwood, don’t do it,” he yelled as she climbed from the patio
chair to the railing.
He aimed his Glock and fired.
Mia took a flying leap from the banister and dove into the water.
Karen D. Bradley has penned
several contemporary fiction
novels— Love Runs Deep, Life
on Fire, and Shattered Illusions.
Recently, she ventured into
film making by writing and
producing a short film based
on one of her novels. Visit
Karen on the web at
www.karendbradley.com