Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. All characters in sexual situations are 18 or older. Thanks for reading!
The man to Theodore's left edged closer. On Theodore's other side, a man moved along the bookshelf toward Freddie. Theodore channeled his rage. He couldn't afford to be out of control. He remembered what it felt like to step up to the plate for a big at-bat. Or, what it was like to pin Reginald to the lawn. That was the feeling he needed. "Freddie, I don't think I should pretend to be bad at this. These people aren't the fucking Gellings."
"Agreed." Freddie nodded. She stepped away from Theodore, pulled a thick leatherbound book off the shelves, and pretended to skim its pages.
"Not a great time to catch up on your reading, Freddie." Penelope glanced around the room. "What should we do?"
"Don't run." Pieter sipped his brandy. "The problem last time, Mrs. Nisha, was that you tried to run. Your husband has the money to pay us. Willingly stay with us a day or two, I promise we'll treat you well. Resist and well..." He shrugged.
"So, as I understand it, you found out my mother left home. How?" Theodore worked hard to control his voice.
"She came to us asking to borrow money. She'd spent all she had. She told us she'd borrowed cash from some bad people. It wasn't hard for us to connect the dots, little man." Pieter smiled. "Put your sword down, and I promise I'll answer the rest of your questions. We'll have time until the ransom is paid. I am a gallant host." He bowed.
"When my mother found out you were ransoming her, she ran. You lost her before you could even contact my father." Theodore spit on the lush carpet. He glanced at the man to his left. The man's right hand was inching inside his jacket, where he no doubt harbored a pistol. Theodore took a deep breath. "You shot her in the back and left her for dead. I think we'll refuse your hospitality."
"Teddy, what are you -" Penelope gasped as her son drew his sword. In one motion, Theodore plunged it into the man to their left, piercing the man's hand under his jacket and no doubt his heart. The man's gun hissed. Several bullets exploded through his jacket and dug into the carpet by his feet.
"Get on the floor, Victoria!" Theodore pulled his sword out of the man and charged Pieter.
Victoria dropped to her belly and covered her head with her hands.
"Fight!" Meredith clapped her hands with glee.
"Kill him, Teddy!" Penelope's shout was savage. She watched her son and Freddie charge at the men. While Theodore rushed at the large man by the hearth, Freddie worked her way around the edge of the room. Freddie looked like a dancer. She spun forward, taking down a man with the spine of her book to his throat. She leapt at the second man before he could unholster his firearm, broke his arm, and sent him flying through the large window next to the hearth. The sounds of breaking glass and the man's screams quickly faded. "Yes... Freddie... tear them to pieces!" Penelope screamed. Then there were hands on her hair, yanking her painfully backward. Her locks fell halfway out of their pin. She'd forgotten about Annabelle. But Annabelle hadn't forgotten about her.
About the time Theodore arrived at Pieter, the barrel-chested man drew his pistol. Theodore arched his sword and caught the gun, sending it across the room. He lunged at Pieter, but the man was quick.
"We only really need the Mrs." Pieter snatched the poker from the hearth and swung it at Theodore, catching his sword.
Freddie rounded the first corner of the room. The fourth man in her gauntlet had his gun aimed at her breast. When he fired, she intercepted the bullet with her book then swung the cover into the side of his head. She caught his limp body and shielded herself with it. She could hear the hissing while others fired at her, and she felt his body jerk as his body absorbed metal.
Victoria looked over at Meredith's unstylish shoes. "Get down, Ms. Cooks." There were so many shots going off in the room, it sounded like they were in a den of snakes. She watched Meredith finally join her on the floor, but Victoria's eyes bulged when she saw a red blossom bloom on the front of Meredith's patchwork bodice. "You've been shot!" Victoria crawled over to her erstwhile roommate and looked for the wound. "I think we need to put pressure on it."
Penelope clutched at Annabelle's hands, which still gripped Penelope's hair. "Let go... let go... Ms. Wilson." Penelope was dragged backward on her butt out into the hall. A second after they were out of the doorway, a bullet whistled through it and hit the wood paneling on the other side of a hallway with a loud crack.
"You're not going to ruin our investment again, Mrs. Nisha." Annabelle dragged her hostage to the room that would serve as her jail cell. "Stop struggling, bitch."
"Nobody... gets to call me bitch... but Teddy!" Penelope thought about how helpless she was. Her son needed her, and this woman was pulling her away. "Nobody... but Teddy... pulls... my gods-dammed... hair!"
A good mother helps her son when he's in mortal peril.
She turned her body sideways, pushed her feet off the wall, and sent her body smashing back into Annabelle. They crashed in a pile. Penelope was quickly on her feet. "Teddy... needs... me." With a mother's strength, Penelope lifted Annabelle into the air and threw her into the wall. The woman made an even louder crack than the bullet had. Annabelle fell to the floor and didn't rise. Huffing and puffing, Penelope turned back to the library and charged through the doorway.
"You're short... you're fat... and you're a fucking kid." Pieter swiped with his poker. The young man had been trained with a sword, but he hadn't been tutored on how to handle a brute attack. The heavy iron tool, clanged into steel, denting and chipping the sword. He drove Theodore back toward the roaring fire.
"I'm not... a kid... I'm nineteen... prepare to... taste... Nisha steel." A sudden memory cut through the chaos. Theodore's mother had called his penis Nisha steel. A smile quickly flittered across his face. The moment his concentration waned, his sword was jerked from his hand by the poker. It clattered away from him across the hearthstones.
Freddie had worked the room in a U. She had only two more men in line, then she could help Theodore. She tossed the bullet-ridden book at one of the men, crouched, spun, and picked up a pistol. She aimed while still spinning, taking out one, and then the other man.
Weaponless, Theodore balled his fists. He charged Pieter and tried to duck the poker, but it caught him on the shoulder. Pain lit up his right side, but he barreled on, catching the larger man with a fist to the stomach. Theodore's back joined in the pain party, and he knew he'd been struck again. He didn't slow, he kept his flurry of punches going at Pieter's middle section.
Freddie turned and aimed at Pieter, but the man was too close to Theodore for a clean shot. She closed one eye, trying to judge whether it was safe to finish the man off.
"Nooooooo!" Penelope screamed. She could see her son was losing to the larger man. She charged across the library, her bosom bounding before her in bra and bodice. She blindsided Pieter, crashing into him and Theodore, making Pieter drop the poker. She kept her balance, but Pieter and Theodore crashed into an armchair. "Defenestration... Teddy." Penelope backhanded Pieter across the jaw, further stunning the man. She then lifted him under his arms.
"Shit... Mom." Theodore's body throbbed with pain, but he stood and picked up Pieter's feet. He could see the muted reflection of his own bloody face in Pieter's polished, brown shoes. He and his mother carried the heavy man to the broken window. "Throwing someone... out a window... with you... Mom... is better than hitting... a homerun." They swung Pieter between them, gaining momentum for the toss.
"I'm... so proud of you... Teddy." With strength Penelope didn't know she had, she swung the stunned man toward the window with Theodore. They let go at the right moment, and Pieter left the building without so much as a scream. She craned her head out of the window. The man who had once left her for dead lay unmoving on the lawn. He was joined by another motionless man, the one Freddie had tossed outside earlier. Penelope turned back to the room. "They're all... down." It was true. Everyone but Freddie was on the floor.
