Once Doug left, Manos backed away from where Sophia still hid and made his belligerent tone lessquarrelsome. “Come now, Sophia. We can talk.”
“I’ll come if you stay by the door. Rambo is getting worse. Step back.”
Manos did back up a few feet and crossed his arms. “Fine, have it your way. Now get out of that stall before he kills you.”
Sophia angled herself over to the one spot where she hoped, with any luck, she could reach the stable rifle before he understood her plans. Rambo didn’t like her moving. He pawed the ground and snorted to emphasize his dislike of her leaving him. “It’s okay, baby. Calm down. Good boy.”
Once she cleared the fencing, Manos headed toward her. At the last minute, she veered away, reached for the rifle, and held it pointed his way. “Stop, Manos. Don’t move you scum-sucking son of a bitch.”
“Tsk tsk, such language from a lady?”
“Maybe a lady wouldn’t use those kinds of words, but an FBI agent wouldn’t hesitate. Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“You’re going to get Doug to come join us, and then I’m going to call the police.”
“I have joined you.” Doug’s voice came from behind her, and she knew then why a stupid grin had lit up Manos’s face.
Without hesitation, she swung the rifle and shot the gun from the asshole’s hand, this time making sure she hit skin and bone. What she didn’t expect was to hear Sam’s voice behind Manos warning him to stop where he was. Only the idiot didn’t listen. He ran to her, grabbed the rifle barrel, and swung her around so her back would be toward Sam.
Fed up from playing with the jerk all evening, sick and tired of hiding her skills, she kept hold of her weapon but brought her knee up and drove it into his lower stomach, loving the squeal of discomfort he let loose.
Doug, seeing his boss in trouble, lifted his gun from the ground with his left hand, and took aim. He shot off the first round and would have fired again if Sophia hadn’t shoved Manos at him, giving her the perfect cover to run behind one of the stalls.
Sam joined her and spoke, “You alright?”
“Yeah. What are you doing here? I thought we agreed I’d handle tonight.”
“Yeah. We agreed you’d call me too. Guess my chauvinistic tendencies got the better of me. It’s the old thing – you didn’t call, you didn’t write… Sue me.”
Grinning, Sophia just patted his arm. “Poor baby. I’ll make it up to you. Now what are we going to do here? These guys aren’t giving up easily. And there’s a few hours before the raids will be happening. We can’t let them go.”
“Nope. Not going to happen. Look, I’ll go around the back and find the door the big guy came through, maybe sneak up behind them.”
“Okay. I’m fine here. In the meantime, I’ll shoot a few rounds to keep them occupied.”
Sophia let loose three bullets and sat back on her heels to listen for Sam’s entry. In the meantime, Rambo had gone way past any thought of calming down. He screamed his anger and ran from one end of the pen to the other, stopping to paw the air, bucking, his head swinging from side to side. He hadn’t liked her leaving him, and he liked it less that bullets were flying and those men were posing a threat.
When Sam appeared at the back door, Sophia waited for him to let her know he’d caught them unaware, only that’s not what happened. Tired of waiting, Manosnow held Doug’s gun and stepped into the open with the muzzle against the big man’s head.
Forcing him into the open, he shouted, “You drop that rifle, Sophia. And tell your friend to come out, or I’ll shoot this idiot – right here, right now.”
Sophia saw Sam step into the lighted area, and she watched as he lowered his gun. “Okay, I’m here. You don’t have any quarrel with Sophia, let her go.”
Sophia knew that they’d come to the end of the final round. That for Manos, it was now or never. She’d seen that look many times in the eyes of a killer. They reached a pinnacle where they were willing to do whatever it took to win. She lifted the rifle, took aim, and made a once in a lifetime shot… even for her.
The bullet hit the small, red button that was the automatic gate opener to Rambo’s pen, and he flew into the stable, kicking and pawing and taking his fury out on the men who’d made him the most nervous. Those who now blocked his way to freedom.
The hoof that clipped Manos in the head, put him down instantly. Then the horse did a number on Doug before Sam yelled, waved his arms, and scared him away. The crazed beast finally turned to Sophia who ran to open the door to freedom. He flashed past her, hightailing it for the fresh grass he smelled in the far paddock. He cleared the fence and ran to the end where he heaved in disgust at the treatment he’d just endured.