Page 114 of Hey, Daddy

Shasha bent down to breathe for her again, getting the rhythm of when to do so rather quickly, and came back up to find the barrel of a gun in his face.

Shasha froze.

An angry howl, one the likes I’d never heard before, came from somewhere to my left.

Then my daughter came out of nowhere and kicked Rich so hard in the crotch from behind that he doubled over.

Shasha used it to his advantage, disarmed Rich, then pushed him over sideways.

He tangled up in a heap next to the other two, moaning and groaning on the floor.

I looked over to see my daughter staring down at me in horror.

“I forgot my laptop,” she breathed.

“Pick up the phone and talk to 9-1-1, tell them what’s going on,” I urged.

I’d think about how terrifying it was that my teenage daughter was here right now with a man that had a gun pointed at a person later.

For now, I had a sole focus.

Crunch.

Another rib broke.

“Dad, they said that the ambulance is right around the corner,” Desi whispered.

She’d heard the crack, too.

Shasha gave her a rescue breath.

He pulled back and placed his fingers to her throat, his eyes closed, and then they snapped open as relief hit them.

“Stop, she’s breathing,” he urged.

I did, feeling for myself half a breath later.

And there it was.

A pulse.

“Goddamn,” I breathed, relief hitting me like a ton of bricks.

“Her sugar is still low,” I said. “Tell the…”

The paramedics entered through the door at a run.

I gave them a rundown of the situation, and they took in the plethora of victims.

“Her first,” I urged, snapping the closest paramedic’s gaze toward me. “Her heart stopped. We performed four minutes of CPR.”

The paramedic dropped down onto his knees as the second one started to go toward the pile of people behind me.

“No,” I said. “This one. Both of you go. I’ll take those. The scene is still unsafe.”

That had them both freezing and turning toward me. “Get her out. Take her to the hospital. Shasha, go with them. Can you take Desi, too?”

Shasha read the situation very clearly.

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