I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind and pulled the trigger a few more times, dropped the empty magazine, and slammed another one home.
As a group, we laid down heavy fire on the invading force, but they kept coming, flowing into the room and then quickly finding cover. How many fighters did Randall have?
Motion off to my right, down past a line of tents. A door to the outside flung open and a few men poured in. Had our people out there been overrun? It was, in fact, out there where I’d heard the first of the gunfire. If it hadn’t been my own men, retreating, it had to be…
A bear of a man emerged in the open door.
Randall.
I did a double-take. It was really him.
Crouched down near the doorway, he glanced in my direction, leering at me with the arrogance I remembered so well from his cabin.
Looking as though he’d won the day.
But the fight was far from over…
He raised his weapon, and I lunged to get out of the way, finding concealment behind a tent.
The bullet cut through the mesh fabric and found its home a few feet from me. My heart thudded in my chest. That had been a close one…
Staying crouched down, I hurried to the other side of the tent. I heard the unmistakable voice of Randall, who was calling out orders to his men to continue laying down heavy fire on my people.
A volley of fire erupted from my own fighters, followed by yells of pain and agony on both sides, as Randall’s men shot back in a frenzy.
Inching out from concealment, I took aim at Randall and pulled the trigger.
The shot went wide, slamming into a section of wall just to the right of his shoulder, and he was quick to find cover a moment later. He was nimble for a man of his stature.
Randall hollered out more orders, but it was clear that his men were up against a competent force. The people of Ellis Woods weren’t well trained, but they were fighting for their town and their families—and their very survival.
Then, I saw something I thought I’d never see. Randall rushed from behind his cover and hurried toward an open door that led into another part of the building. Away from the fight that he’d been leading his men in.
He’d directed his men to fight until their final breaths escaped their lips, but he was going to run?
What kind of a leader was this?
One word came to mind. Coward.
“I’m coming for you,” I muttered, feeling more than a little appalled that he was going to get away.
Because this particular man? He was mine. I’d been waiting for this since he threatened my wife—and I wasn’t going to be running through the forest trying to get away from him this time.
Still hunched over, I raced along the far wall of the room. I fired off a few shots at Randall’s men who were in my path, taking them down before they could do any harm to me or my people. Off to my left, the firefight was still in full effect.
I spotted Marlon, shouting commands.
And then I heard him screaming my name.
“John! Get to Randall!” he shouted, pointing toward the door I’d seen the bear-man go through. “I’ve got this hall; you take care of cutting off the head!”
Cutting off the head. I knew exactly what that meant. I had to cut off the head of the snake that had coiled itself around the town of Ellis Woods. And though I was hesitant to leave my people here, I did trust Marlon to look after them. If anyone could lead them through the battle they were currently in, it was him.
I had a bigger, more bear-like fish to fry.
I turned back to the doorway and hurried toward it. Randall couldn’t have gone far. And something told me that he wasn’t exactly fleeing. He was expecting me to come after him.
In fact, I was willing to bet that he was actually counting on it—and that it was what he actually wanted.
But I was no fool. I’d been in the service for far too long to make it easy for him.
So I reloaded as I stayed crouched down, and then in the next moment, I was rushing through the doorway.
Because Randall and I had an appointment to keep. And I was looking forward to seeing the expression on his face when I finally got him where I wanted him.
36
The moment I got to that doorway, I found myself racing down a long, windowless corridor, then I passed carefully through another door into a large room, similar to the one I’d just been in. My eyes were up and snapping to the left and right as I tried to find the man who had started all of this. The man who had built the cabin that ended up saving Angie and me—but who had then decided that he needed to kidnap Angie and use her as a hostage against Bob, and had allowed his cousins to try to kill me in the process.
The guy who had then been responsible for us fleeing through the woods when Angie was in no shape to travel. The guy whose presence had led to that precipitous slide down the river—and her descent into the water.
The guy who had nearly led to us dying in the wilderness.
By God, I wanted to get my hands on him. I’d been waiting to get my hands on him for days. And it was even more important now, because I knew without a doubt that this particular battle wasn’t going to be over until I had either taken him prisoner or killed him. Those men in the other room might’ve been outnumbered by my people, but they were obviously still willing to fight.
I needed to get Randall out of the way and, hopefully, take that fight out of them.
Even more than that, though, I wanted him under my power. I wanted to know what the hell was going on here. Why he had so many men and weapons, and where they’d come from.
I surveyed the room. There were a few tents, lined up in rows. But there didn’t appear to be anyone in here—except for Randall, who I knew had to be hiding somewhere. A quick scan around revealed a barricaded emergency exit, and there were no other doors leading to other sections of the building, other than the way I’d entered.
But why would Randall go into a room in which there was only one exit?
Though I couldn’t understand this man’s actions, I knew all I needed to know—he was here, and I was going to find him.
I crept through the first row of tents and came to a quick halt, my gun up in front of me as I turned slowly one way and then the other.
“Where are you, Randall?” I shouted out. “I know you’re in here, and you know I’m going to catch you. Come out and let’s do this like real men.”
Bang!
The tent next to me shook as a bullet ripped right through it, and I dove in the other direction, taking cover behind an enormous metal stove.
“Whoever’s standing at the end of this will be the real man!” I heard him scream. “Nothing decides how worthy you are like winning in a fight to the death!”
“A fight to the death,” I muttered, jumping to my feet. “If that’s what you want, buddy, then that’s what I’ll give you.”
I took off in the direction of his voice, but I moved carefully, keeping my weight on the balls of my feet and dodging from object to object, trying to keep them between me and where I thought he was. They weren’t going to offer me cover from the bullets, but they would keep his eyes off me.
And if he couldn’t see me, he didn’t know where to aim.
“What the hell is going on here, Randall?” I asked, wondering if he was one of those bad guys who liked to talk about exactly what they were doing and why. Given his love for bragging, I suspected that he was exactly that sort of guy. “Where did you get all these men? All this equipment?”