Page 106 of Toxic

“Alright. In the meantime, stay in the house and stay close to the floor. I don’t want either of you getting hit by a stray bullet.”

His lips brushed my forehead and then he walked away. It took every ounce of self-control not to follow him. It wasn’t until the door shut softly behind him that I realized there was pressure on my arm. Looking down, I saw Daryl physically holding me back. So much for my self-control.

“I’m sorry.”

Daryl frowned at me. “For what, Darlin’?

“That you have to stay here with me rather than being able to go help him.” I tried to swallow down the fear forming a ball in my throat.

Daryl wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Boone knows how to take care of himself. I’d rather be here with you anyway.”

It wasn’t true. The part about Toxic being able to handle himself was, but it didn’t matter how lethal you were if you were outnumbered too greatly. But the part about wanting to be here with me was what wasn’t true. Daryl loved his son. And I knew that after losing his wife and older son, it had to be killing Daryl to stay inside with me. To let his only remaining child walk out to face an unknown threat alone. It was killing me too, after all.

“You could go with him,” I offered. “I’ll be okay here. I’ve been shooting since I was a little girl, thanks to my dad and Gramps.”

Daryl snorted. “Boone would rip me a new asshole for two reasons, Billie. One because two of us together are going to have an easier time than one against these guys. And two, he doesn’t want me out there anymore than he wants you in here alone.This is his way of protecting both of us. Only he thinks I’m stupid enough not to realize he’s giving me the job of protecting you to save my ego a bit of bruising. Trust me, if you weren’t here he’d still have found a reason to have my ass sitting inside this house.”

I stifled a laugh because that sounded exactly like Toxic. He was the kind of man who couldn’t stand the thought of those he loved being in danger. So, he put himself directly in the line of fire, in order to protect us. I sighed. As much as I wanted to be out there helping him, I knew we’d only risk the chance of shooting each other in the dark if we went out there now. It was too late to change our minds. We needed to hunker down in here and try to do what we could to lessen the number of men as they came through that door.

“You have more ammo for these guns?” Daryl asked after a few moments of silence.

“Yeah, follow me.” I took him into Gramps’s room and pulled down a heavy box off the top shelf. Inside was boxes of ammo for both the hand guns and the shotgun. I stuffed as many buck shot rounds into my pockets as I could fit, then brought the rest of the boxes out into the living room.

“Help me with this table, Darlin’,” Daryl said.

Without making a sound, we tipped the dining room table onto its side and positioned it a few feet away from the back door. At the front door, we placed a desk, tipped under the door handle. It wasn’t much, but it was the best we could do with what we had and being as quiet as we could.

“Come on,” he said, and we went back to the table and sat down on the ground to wait.

“How many do you think there are?” I asked.

“Too many,” Daryl muttered. “No way they’d just send a couple guys this time.”

I appreciated that he was being honest with me, because I wasn’t stupid enough to think otherwise. Pulling out my phone, I hit a number and waited. The call went to Butcher’s voicemail. “Damn,” I muttered. It was two in the morning. I wasn’t surprised that my call hadn’t woken him. I dialed another number.

“Yo?”

“Warrant?” I whispered.

There was a shuffling sound, then his voice came stronger over the line. He wasn’t half asleep anymore. “Billie? What’s wrong?”

“There’re men here at the ranch.”

“Brently?”

“Yes. Toxic’s going out to face them, but…”

“Shit. He’s alone. God damn it, I knew I should have stayed. I’m halfway home to Wyoming. Just stopped to catch a couple hours of sleep. Where’s Butcher?”

“At the clubhouse. He didn’t answer his phone.” I was speaking just loud enough for him to hear me.

“Don’t you worry. Turn your phone off so that no one tries to call and accidentally alerts those fuckers to where you are. I’ll get the cavalry there as fast as I can.”

“Thanks, Warrant.”

“Billie.”

“Yeah?”

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