Page 14 of Avenging Laura

Staying along the wall, she used it as an anchor as she slowly made her way out of the room. Following the sounds of the screams, she gritted her teeth against the pain as she slowly slid and limped into the hallway.

She had to stop every so often to catch her breath and get her bearings. As the screams got louder the closer she got, the dizziness she was feeling got sharper. She was nauseated from the pain coursing through her body.

Why she was doing what she was doing she had no idea. She didn’t know what good she would be for the person she was heading toward when she couldn’t stand on her own. God help her, she just hoped she could get them focused on her long enough for the child to get away. That’s the best she could offer. Would it be good enough, she didn’t know.

Slowly making her way down the hallway, she peeked around the corner to see Ziegler standing there, his hands crossed in front of him as he watched whatever was going on. Pulling herself back out of sight, she leaned her head against the wall and tried to catch her breath.

Fuck! This was going to hurt like a bitch. She knew he was carrying a weapon. She had to figure out a way to get close enough to grab it and take him out. How, she didn’t know because she was so out of it.

Closing her eyes, she said a prayer to the big man upstairs to give her the strength she needed to help the child that was screaming. She didn’t know if help was on the way, but she needed to buy them time.

When she opened her eyes, they landed on a large pipe that was just barely large enough for her to grab hold of and use as a weapon. She felt some strength coming into her system. She knew it was adrenaline. That was going to be her best friend right now. She hoped.

Grabbing the pipe, she gripped it as best as she could and took several painful deep breaths as she steeled herself for what was about to happen. Saying another quick prayer for steadiness and accuracy, she pushed herself away from the wall and turned toward her opponent.

As she came around the corner, she made a noise that apparently drew Ziegler’s attention since he turned toward her. When he realized it was her, his eyes got wide for several seconds before a smirk came across his face.

“Ah, I love a feisty piece of tail. Yours is definitely good. I can see why your SEAL likes it so. Your sister, I hate to say, didn’t like it when I compared the two.”

“Guess it was for you since you had to force yourself onto someone. I didn’t feel shit. Can someone really say it was rapewhen they didn’t feel it? I mean a finger probably would have been felt more than that thing you call a dick!”

“Bitch!” Ziegler spewed as he stalked her way.

Laura waited until he was close enough before bringing the pipe up and swung. She swung with everything she had in her, her anger, pain, fear, and determination fueling her in that swing as she connected it with Ziegler’s head, knocking him into the wall. Screaming, she continued to hit him in the head and neck with the pipe as he slid down the wall, unmoving.

“Ziegler, what the hell is all that noise?”

Laura was startled as she heard Cyrus’s voice coming from the room as well as the voice of the child crying in the background. Limping toward Ziegler’s body, she grabbed his weapon and took the safety off.

Raising the weapon as best as she could, her strength already starting to deteriorate, she walked toward where Cyrus’s voice came from. Before she could get into the room he came storming out.

“What the fuck? How the hell are you still alive?”

“Just like they always did, you underestimated me, Cyrus. That’s always been their biggest mistake. Now it’s going to be yours. Get down on your knees and put your hands behind your head,” Laura ordered, trying not to pass out where she stood.

When Cyrus laughed, she knew he could see she was fading fast. Her hand that held the gun was shaking badly. She’d be lucky if she actually hit her target if she was forced to fire the weapon.

“You can’t even stand, you stupid bitch.” Cyrus laughed as he started toward her.

BANG

BANG

BANG

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Highlander, General McCoy, Dominick, and every person they had at their disposal, including Tex, who was now in the room with them, the teams HR guy Brody, and Beth, who was on screen from San Antonio were all going over all the information that they had gotten from Kathy about Cyrus Placid, his mother, and several other of the women that David Pratt had affairs with that resulted in children.

“If I remember correctly, Dad was a military history buff. He was all about doing his duty for God and country, even it if it was bullshit,” Dominick remembered as he looked up from the papers he was reading.

“Ok,” Captain Irby slowly said, looking over at Dominick in confusion.

“He’s right. I remember Laura talking about that. It was during one of our cases when we were trying to find the location of one of the human trafficking rings. The suspect was a huge military buff and conspiracy theorist. California has several abandoned military bases,” York remembered, snapping her fingers at the memory.

“Shit I forgot about that. I remember overhearing a conversation between my dad and Adamson years ago abouthow abandoned bases around the country would be perfect hideouts because no one goes near them and so many are not in use. No one would think to look there, and some are still considered military property so the police couldn’t go on them without the MPs with them.” Dominick remembered it as well.

“What bases do we have near here that would be considered a good hiding place?” Captain Irby pulled out her phone to find the answer.

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