Angels Fall

world. I can track you as easy as I can walk down the street in the Fist. You want me to finish Brody here and now? Is that what you want? Want me to put a bullet in his head while you're hiding like you did back in Boston? Think you can live through that one again?"
    In front of the cabin, Rick dragged a bleeding Brody to his knees. And pressed the gun to his temple.
    "Call her back here."
    "No." Brody's heart squeezed as the barrel pressed hard against his temple. "Think about it, Rick. Is that what you'd do if it was your woman's life on the line? You killed to protect someone you love. Wouldn't you die for her?"
    "You've known her a couple of months, and you want to tell me you'd die here for her?" 
    "It only takes a minute. When you know, you know. She's it for me. So pull the trigger if that's what you have to do. But it's ruined for you now. That's your service revolver you're holding, not Joanie's gun. How-are you going to explain Reece shooting me with your service weapon?"
    "Adjust. I'll adjust. I'll make it work. You call her back. Now."
    "You hear me, Reece?" Brody shouted. "If you hear me you keep running." When Rick kicked him down, he landed on the arm where a bullet was lodged. It screamed.
    "I've got no choice," he said to Brody, but now his face was pale and ran with sweat. "I'm sorry." He lifted the gun.
    Struggling not to shake, Reece brought the rifle to her shoulder. She sucked in a breath, held it. And pulled the trigger.
    It sounded like a bomb. It felt like one had exploded in her hands as the recoil slammed into her. She fell back, fell down. And because she landed flat on her back, the shot from Mardson's revolver flew over her head.
    Still she scrambled up. When she did, she saw Brody and Rick struu ghng on the ground, the gun gripped in each of their hands.
    "Stop it." She rushed forward. "'Stop it. Stop it." Pressed the barrel of the rifle to Rick's head. '"Stop it."
    "Hold on, Slim," Brody panted out. He shifted to get a better grip on the gun. Rick rolled into Reece, knocking her down as he yanked it clear. As he turned it toward his own temple, Brody plowed his fist into Rick's face.
    "It won't be that easy," he told him, and crawled over to retrieve the gun that had fallen out of Rick's hands. "Point that thing somewhere else," Brody told her.
    She sat where she was a moment, the rifle still clutched in her hands. "I ran."
    "Yeah, you did. Smart."
    "But I didn't run away."
    Because he was tired, hurt and queasy, Brody simply sat beside her. "No, you didn't run away." Lo and Linda-gail, the first in only jeans, the other in a trailing sheet, rushed over. "What in the name of Christ is going on?" Lo demanded. "Jesus, Brody. Jesus! You shot?"
    "Yeah." Brody pressed a hand to his arm, studied the palm that came away wet and red betore he looked up at Reece. "Something else we've got in common now." Between them, Rick lay as he was, and he covered his face with his hands and wept.

    AT DAWN, Reece helped Brody out of the car. "You could've stayed in the hospital for the day. A couple of days."
    "I could've spent a couple hours banging a bedpan over my head. I didn't relish either experience. Plus, did you see that nurse they sicced on me? She had a face like a bulldog. Scary."
    "Then you're going to do what you're told. You can have the bed or the sofa."
    "Where will you be?"
    "In the kitchen. You're not having coffee."
    "Slim, I may just be off coffee for life."
    Her lips trembled, but she firmed them against a sob. "I'm making you some tea, and some soft scrambled eggs. Bed or couch?"
    "I want to sit in the kitchen and watch you cook for me. It'll take my mind off my pain."
    "You wouldn't have pain if you'd take the drugs."
    "I think I'm off drugs for life, too. Felt like swimming through glue back there at Rick's cabin. I could hear the two of you talking, but couldn't compute the words, not at first. All I could do was play possum and hope for a chance to take him down."
    "While you were tied to a chair and dopey with pills, he might've killed you."
    "He might've killed both of us. Would have," Brody corrected, "but you didn't run like a rabbit when you had the chance." He let out a long breath when she eased him into a chair at the kitchen table. "Hell of a night, Reece?" he said when she kept her back turned and said nothing.
    "At first," she began, "when I first ran out, that's all it was. Fight or flight, and boy, it was flight all the way. Run and hide. But… it changed. I