KnockOut

they left, and Lissy yelled out right before they closed the apartment door, ‘Bada-boom!’ Then she was laughing her head off, right after she was crying her eyes out. She’s crazier than a loon, guys. You know what? I think Victor knows it.”
    Cully paused, looked like he was trying to make sense of things. “You know, I’m not really sure, but one minute Victor’s bossing her around, and the next it’s like he’s afraid she’ll turn on him. But when she Frenched me, I knew he was mad, really mad.”
    Savich said, “But he didn’t do anything. Say anything?”
    “No, he turned away, like he wasn’t interested. And then Lissy ran after him, laughing. Who was she talking about killing? It wasn’t you; I mean, she wanted to blow you up in Victor’s apartment.”
    Savich said, “She was talking about Buzz Riley, the security guard at the bank in Georgetown they tried to rob. He’s the one who saved my life, killed Lissy’s mother, Jennifer Smiley. Buzz is safe; he took a long-overdue vacation in the Caribbean. Lissy was probably nagging Victor about trying to get down there.”
    Sherlock nodded. “Even if they thought of it, no way could they manage it. Victor knows that. They’ve got to plan on waiting until Buzz comes home.”
    “For sure killing Buzz is on Lissy’s to-do list. Sherlock’s right, they’ll simply wait for him to come home.” Savich fell silent. He stared at his hands, thinking.
    Sherlock, who knew her husband as well as she knew herself, was content to wait. She lightly laid her hand on Cully’s forearm when he would have spoken.
    Savich looked up. “I’m thinking Victor and Lissy stayed close enough to see the apartment building blow. They probably watched to see Sherlock and me go in, then they saw all of us running over here a few minutes later to look for Bernie.”
    Sherlock said slowly, “But they didn’t try to shoot us when we ran out of the building. We were all in the open, running, sure, but we were open targets.”
    Savich said, “We must have come out faster than they expected. Remember, we were running flat out. Maybe they were still dealing with Bernie.
    “Bottom line, we’ve got to assume Victor and Lissy are still out there waiting for us to waltz out this front door, then they’ll try to kill us all.”
    “Now there’s a happy thought,” Sherlock said. She walked to the front living room window and scanned the surrounding trees. “We’re at the very edge of town, all trees and hills out there. They could be anywhere. You really think they’re watching us, Dillon?”
    “Oh, yeah, I would be,” he said, “watching and waiting.”
    Cully said, “There’s only two of them. You think they’d split up— one watching the back and one watching the front?”
    “Sounds reasonable,” Savich said.
    Sherlock said, “Agreed. Now, what are we going to do?”
    Savich pulled out his cell. “I’m going to call in the cavalry.”

62
    PEAS RIDGE, GEORGIA
    They were walked back to the meeting hall, Kjell’s gun shoved against Ethan’s back.
    The door slid silently open.
    “Go in, Sheriff, Mrs. Backman.”
    At the last instant, Kjell tried to grab Autumn, but she jumped out of the way. She ran behind Ethan.
    Kjell stood there, obviously uncertain what to do. Then he called over his shoulder, “Keeper, I need your assistance.”
    Blessed came into the room behind him. He looked haggard, his eyes red from weeping.
    “Stymie them, Keeper.”
    “No!” Autumn jerked away and faced Blessed, her arms out, trying to cover both her mother and Ethan. “No, no, Blessed, don’t you dare stymie them!”
    Blessed grabbed her and lifted her into his arms. “Be quiet, Autumn. You will be quiet.”
    Autumn sank her teeth into Blessed’s arm.
    Kjell said when Blessed moaned, “Give her to her mother before she chews your arm off.”
    Blessed lowered a flailing Autumn to the floor. She ran to her mother, wrapped her arms around Joanna’s waist, and pressed her face into her stomach. She was crying huge, deep sobs that sounded— fake.
    Kjell crossed his arms over his chest and merely looked at each of them in turn, but his focus, his real interest, was Autumn. Blessed pressed his fingers to his arm where she’d bitten him. There was blood on his fingers. He looked at them, his eyes angry. He was panting. “No more of this. It’s time.”
    Autumn screamed, “No!” She ran at Blessed, hitting his stomach with her fists. Blessed grabbed her wrists and