Page 78 of What Doesn't Kill Her

“You can’t have karate classes if you’re up here.”

“Karate!” Rae’s fist shot out. “Hyah!”

“But maybe we could rent a lookout next summer.”

“I’d need a cell phone.”

Oh, this was going to be good. “Why?”

“How else could I call my friends?” Apparently, even before the words were out of her mouth, Rae realized that wasn’t going to fly, so she added, “How can I call Daddy to come and save us if I don’t have a cell phone?”

Kellen’s temper rose fast and hot. “Daddy did not come and save us! I’m willing to give him credit for the last sprint, butwe—”

“Listen!” Rae jumped to her feet. “Do you hear that?”

Kellen exhaled her frustration. “I do.” She opened the door and called, “The helicopter is here.”

Max glanced at the monitor on the kitchen table. “There’s no one out there.”

Zone strapped on his sidearm and handed Max a rifle. “Let’s take every precaution.” He looked at Kellen.

She patted the holster strapped to her side under her jacket. Because the helicopter should be carrying Nils Brooks, coming to pick up the Triple Goddess and carry it to safety. But by the time Kellen and Rae woke this morning, Max and Zone had been out to the battle site and located the bodies, mangled by the predators who nightly patrolled the woods: bear, coyotes, bobcats and hawks. The firearms had all disappeared. That left one man out there, a ruthless killer, unforgiving of failure, who if he could, left no evidence of his passing.

They would take no chances now.

Max came out on the deck and held the rifle at ready. “Go inside, Rae.”

“I want to watch!”

“As soon as we recognize the guy inside the helicopter, we’ll let you watch.” Kellen put a gentle hand in Rae’s back and pushed her into the lookout.

“This might be a bad guy?” Rae asked.

“Might be,” Kellen agreed.

“I am really tired of bad guys,” Rae said in disgust. “They make my lifevery difficult.” She went inside.

“Smart kid.” Zone stood just inside the door with the well-wrapped Triple Goddess slung over one shoulder and Kellen’s bag slung over the other.

Kellen watched the fast two-man helicopter hover over them, then drop slowly over the almost-flat bare gravel below the lookout.

The engine slowed. The door opened. Nils Brooks stepped out. He was the pilot. There was no one else.

“Perfect,” she breathed.

Max lowered the steps from the deck to the ground. He started down, but Kellen caught his arm. “No. I get to do this.”

He stepped back and allowed her to go down first.

She ran down the short slope to meet Nils. She opened her arms.

He was grinning. “It’s real?” He opened his arms and prepared to hug her. “It’s really real?”

She sucker punched him in the face.

He staggered backward, stumbled down the slope and fell on his rear.

She pulled her weapon and stood over him, pistol pointed at his bleeding nose. “That’s for not giving me all the facts before I took the job!”

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