No Woman Left Behind Read Online Free PDF Page A

crawling. As I moved toward her, I glanced at the kitchen and saw the door move slightly.
    “Slash!” I screamed, just as a man dressed in black opened the door and fired, strangely, at the chandelier.
    I rolled under the table. Crystal shards rained down on me, but I barely felt them because I was already covered in all the food and crap from the table. Slash must have returned fire because I heard a thud and the intruder ducked back into the kitchen. My mom started shrieking. Slash dashed across the room.
    “Get them out of here,” Slash shouted at me as he kicked open the kitchen door and went in low, disappearing from sight.
    I scrambled out from under the table, shaking something wet and gooey from my cheek. I’d lost a shoe and my heart was pounding so hard I thought I might pass out. My eyes had adjusted to the dim light and I saw the shape of my mom huddled against the wall. My dad was sitting in front of her protectively. Sasha still lay motionless on the floor.
    “Come on,” I said, grabbing my mom’s hand. “Sasha, get up. Now. Everyone follow me.”
    Sasha crawled forward and stood in a crouch, bracing himself against the wall.
    “Stay low,” I warned them.
    To their credit, my mom and dad came to their feet without a protest. I debated taking them into the living room where I could retrieve Dad’s gun, but I wasn’t sure it was actually loaded and the area was way too open and dangerous with multiple hiding places. Instead I led them down the opposing hallway toward Dad’s study.
    The house remained ominously quiet and dark. I couldn’t hear the intruder or Slash. I carefully opened the study door. After a quick peek into the room, I ushered them in, hoping no one was in there. I couldn’t see a darn thing.
    “Get in the closet,” I whispered, closing the study door behind me. No lock, so I couldn’t secure it.
    Everyone crowded in the closet except me. I started to close the closet door without getting in.
    “What are you doing?” my dad said, grabbing my hand.
    “I’m staying out here. I’ll hide behind the chair. If the intruder goes for the closet first, I can take him from behind.”
    My dad’s mouth fell open. “What?”
    “Just get in and be quiet. I’ll be okay.” I pushed him in, still protesting, and clicked the door shut. Snatching the heavy crystal paperweight off his desk, I crouched behind one of the stuffed chairs perpendicular to his desk with a full view of both the study and closet doors.
    I heard sirens in the distance and nearly cried in relief. It was about freaking time.
    I hoped I was doing the right thing. My initial instinct was to go look for Slash to see if I could help, but intellectually I knew that was a dumb thing to do. First, I had no idea if Slash and the intruder were even still in the house. I hadn’t heard a door open or slam, but that didn’t mean anything certain. They could still be out there stalking each other. I didn’t need to get in the middle of that.
    Second, if they
were
still in the house somewhere, the odds were high of me getting shot by either the intruder or Slash if I went creeping around the house trying to find them.
    Third, there wasn’t much I could do to help Slash anyway without a weapon. I could retrieve my dad’s gun, but if my dad saw me with it, he’d try to wrestle it away from me. All I needed was for my dad to shoot himself trying to protect me.
    No, I had to use the paperweight as a weapon. If the intruder entered and went for the closet—a statistically high probability given that I could hear my mom sniffling from out here—I could draw attention away from my folks.
    The sirens became louder and I figured we were minutes, if not seconds, from rescue.
    Suddenly, the door to the study opened. Quietly, silently. My breath froze in my throat. I could see the silhouette of a man creeping through the doorway. He had a gun at the ready. It definitely wasn’t Slash. He was thicker and his shape was different. I