Page 45 of Venom's Sting

Meli has smartly positioned herself to shoot whoever comes out the door, assuming it’s not my mother, so I follow her directions. “Mom, it’s Amy. If you’re here, shout to me so we can find you.”

My mom yells, “Run, Amy. It’s not safe. Get the hell out of—”

She’s cut off abruptly, as though someone shut her up. That infuriates me. Tossing the axe aside, I pull out my gun. I’m not above shooting someone to save my mom. Good thing I was quick about it because the door swings open and a man I don’t recognize emerges. He’s carrying a shotgun. The second his eyes land on me, he raises his weapon.

He doesn’t get it all the way up because Meli presses her pistol to the back of his neck.

“Drop your weapon. Do it now,” She demands. Her adorable French accident makes her words seem much less threatening than they would otherwise be.

I reinforce her words by lifting my own weapon and pointing it at his chest. “Do as she says,” I say tightly. “If she doesn’t riddle you with bullets, I sure as hell will.”

Being boxed in with weapons bearing down on him from both sides, he doesn’t really have a choice. He gently tosses his gun off to the side. It lands on the ground with a satisfying thud.

“Get on the ground, face down,” I tell him. “Put your hands behind your head.” I don’t like him being on his feet near Ven’s mother. He’s twice her size and I can see him trying to jump her if he turns around and realizes how small she is.

He kneels and then moves onto his belly. When his arms come up behind his head, I realize that we don’t have anything to tie him up with. I can tell by the look on Meli’s face that she’s realized the miscalculation we’ve made right along with me. The only thing that I can think of to solve our dilemma is to use the thin belt I’m wearing. It’s more ornamental than practical but it’ll have to do. I stash my weapon, remove the belt, and kneel beside him, bringing both hands down to the small of his back and bind him as tightly as I can, wrapping the long belt around his wrists multiple times in order to make it more difficult for him to escape.

“Anyone else in the root cellar?” I ask.

“Just Rufus’s daughter,” he responds. This man doesn’t seem particularly scared or upset by us getting the jump on him and that worries me.

I scoot around him and step down into the cellar. It’s dark but I see something move in the shadows. It takes only a moment for my eyes to adjust, and I realize that it’s my mom lying on the ground. Her wrists and ankles are bound, but she’s trying to sit up.

“Amy, is that really you?”

I rush to her side. “Yeah, mom. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Sweetheart, you shouldn’t be here. It’s not safe for you.”

“I’m not alone but we need to get you out of here before Granddad returns.” I concentrate on untying the knots in her ropes.

She stammers, “Your grandfather has finally lost his mind. He calls me by my mother’s name and…” She trails off as I pull the last of the ropes off her.

Glancing up at her hurt expression, I finish her sentence, “Yeah mom, I know. His sons kidnapped you. We know all about it.”

“Who’s we?” she asks, her eyes big and scared.

I pull her up by one arm. “I’ll tell you about it later. Right now we need to get back to town.”

She nods, allowing me to lead her out of the cellar and into the daylight. She blinks at the bright sunlight, making me wonder how long she’s been underground. She’s also not too steady on her feet.

I ask, “How long has been since you had your medication?”

Glancing up at me, she replies, “Early this morning, Dan’s always good but he had to go out and I haven’t seen him since.”

Before we can make it five feet, Meli comes careening into us. My hands come out to catch her, not understanding why she’s colliding with us. Then I see two men over her shoulder. The man we tied up is now free and he has a buddy who looks almost like his evil twin standing at his side. To be honest, they both look a bit evil with their dark hair and matching smirks. They’ve also both got their weapons pointed at us.

“You ladies didn’t actually think you could just walk in and take the place over, did you?”

I step forward, pressing my mom behind me. “We just came for my mom. Let us walk out of here and no one needs to get hurt.”

One of the men scoops my axe up off the ground and gives it a brief once over. The other points Meli’s big pistol at me and says, “Hand over the gun and any other weapons you have.”

It takes every ounce of self-control I have not to get into a screaming match with this guy. I slowly remove my gun from the holster and toss it in his direction. He picks it up and laughs. “Look Boyd, it’s small, like a toy.”

The other man reaches out and maneuvers the barrel away from his face. “It can still do damage, Brock. So how’s about you don’t point the damn thing at me.”

Brock murmurs an apology, and they turn their attention back to us. “Come on ladies, we ain’t got all day. Rufus is meeting us at the ranch. He wants to have a word with you.”

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