Saving Us (Mitchell Family #6)(46)
Author: Jennifer Foor

John just stood there, aiming the gun at Rick. “This is your last chance. Let the girl go.”

Rick laughed again. I heard the gun click. A lump formed in my throat and I felt like I could’t breathe. I swallowed it and closed my eyes. Sure, I could try to throw my head back at him or kick his shin, but he could also shoot me just as easily.

“John, please just listen to him. I need you to get to Conner. Lower your gun and let us by.” I think that both John and Rick were equally shocked. John shook his head. He didn’t want to do that. I asked again. “Please!”

He bent over and sat his gun on the floor. “Now, just let the woman go.”

Rick shook his head. “I don’t think so. Amy here is my ticket out of here. Move out of my way!”

“John, please. You need to get to Conner.” I was pleading with him. He had to know how important it was to get to Conner. The room behind us was silent and that was never a good sign. I couldn’t even begin to let myself think that he could really be gone.

John backed away and held up his hands. I hated being forced to walk past the man, but Conner seemed to be my only concern. He just had to be okay.

I looked back when we reached the foyer and saw John rushing down to the floor in the family room. I could hear him saying Conner’s name and telling him to stay awake. That meant that he was alive…right?

Rick pushed me out of the house. He kept the gun pointed at my belly as we made our way to the hidden mail truck. I looked all around the property and didn’t see all the police cars like John had told Rick about. I should have known it was bluff. If the police were on their way, we would be long gone before they arrived.

After pushing me into the back of the truck, Rick shut the door and climbed into the front seat. He reached into his pockets and I heard him cussing. “Shit! I dropped my damn keys in that house.” He pointed the gun back at me. “Come here!”

I crawled forward. “Give me your hands.”

I lifted my hands up in front of him. He grabbed a zip tie and wrapped it tightly around my wrist and then secured it to the seat belt. “You try to get free and I will kill you. You understand?”

I nodded and watched him climb out of the truck. Once he was gone, I slumped down on the metal truck floor and let myself break down. This was the absolute worst thing that I could have ever imagined happening. I just had to know that Conner was going to survive this. My tears continued until I heard the back door opening. I spun my body around in case it was Rick.

Heather climbed inside. She held her finger to her lip. “Shh, I don’t know how long we have. She grabbed the zip tie and looked around the truck for something to break it with. It wasn’t like there was a pair of scissors laying around. Heather smiled and pulled out a knife from the waist of her pants. She started rubbing it back and forth until the tie came loose. I shook off the sensations of how tight it had been.

Before I could turn around to climb out. The driver’s side door flew open. I put my hands back and pretended I was still hooked up, while Heather ducked her body behind the driver’s seat so that he couldn’t see her. We stared at each other as the truck engine started.

Heather reached over and touched my belly. I was shocked at first, but she looked up at me with tears in her eyes and pointed to her own. I knew right then that she was trying to change because she had a chance at real happiness herself. I cried more imagining never being able to see or touch Conner again. The mail truck started whipping around as Rick attempted to get off of the ranch. I lost my balance and went rolling across the bed of the truck. Rick slammed on the brakes, sending me crashing back into his seat. He grabbed me by the neck. “How did you get free, bitch?”

Heather grabbed him by the neck and started choking him with a plastic zip tie. “She had help!”

I watched his face turning red as the air was being cut off. Finally, his hands let go of me. I fell back against the hard metal floor. Rick was digging his fingers into Heather to try to free her hold on his neck. I saw the gun between his legs. There was no hesitation as I took a deep breath and threw my body forward.

As soon as I had it in my hands, I slid back and aimed it right at Rick. “Put your hands in the air, or I will blow your God damn head from here to Texas.”

Heather slowly let go and backed away from the seat. Rick laughed. “Yeah, right. You expect me to believe that you even know how to use that?”

I aimed for the window right beside his head and fired. It was loud and I was pretty sure I had busted out at least one of my eardrums. Heather held onto her ears and tried to keep her eyes on what was going on.

Right away, Rick held up his hands. “Alright! Alright! What do you want now?”

I froze. What was I supposed to do now? Was I supposed to let this man, who had possibly killed the father of my child, just go to prison? Oh hell no!

I aimed the gun at his thigh and fired. He grabbed his leg and screamed out in agony. “That was for all the times you lied to me.

I shot him in his arm. “That was for all the times you laid a hand on me.”

“Stop it! Please!” He was pleading with me to spare his life, but all I could see was Conner lying on that floor.

I shot him in the stomach. “That was for everything you did to me and the people I care about and for forcing Heather into hiding just because she didn’t want to hurt people anymore.”

He cried more. I knew he was in pain and all I wanted to do was smile. “Please, Amy. Call an ambulance. I’m going to bleed out here.”

“You stopped at nothing until you took him away from me. Was it that hard for you to know that I was truly happy? I hate you. You are the real life devil and you deserve to spend an eternity in Hell for what you’ve done.”

Rick made one last attempt to get to me. He threw his body in my direction and I fired.

His body slumped over me.

Heather helped me push him off so that I could stand up. We could hear police sirens in the far distance and knew help was coming.

She grabbed my hand and we both pushed open the back doors to the mail truck. Police cars surrounded the truck and we were met with officers running toward us. They surrounded the truck, but what they found wasn’t going to be what they expected. The only thing left inside was Rick’s lifeless body. He may have taken his first wife’s life. He may have ruined his second’s, but I’d be damned if I was going to let him take anything away from me anymore.

I kept hold of Heather’s hand until I saw the ambulance pulling up in the distance and then I ran as fast as my pregnant body would allow. The only place I wanted to be was with Conner. I just had to know if he was still alive.