Page 91 of Snow in Texas

“Yeah. Fine. We’ll head back soon.”

“But…” Pup protested, and Riley swung the barrel of his gun toward the prospect.

She wasn’t going to get a better opportunity than this.

Best not to waste it.

Jenny regretted that in all her target shooting, she’d never done a real-life drill. She could knock the hell out of a target if she had calm conditions and plenty of time to stare down the sights. But afforded none of that, she dropped her phone, jerked her gun up, and fired.

The .45 kicked like an old friend in her hand.“A lot of gun for a lot of woman,”her father had joked once, when she’d been a tall and stringy teenager. Her arm absorbed the recoil and she didn’t blink.

The shot went in Riley’s shoulder. A bright spot of crimson opened up in his white shirt.

He made a sound like a gasp, and took a step back.

And then his gun was coming to her.

All of this in the span of a heartbeat.

Then she had to move.

She ducked down behind Crockett’s chair and then rolled into the wall. It felt like a coward move, but if Riley was going to shoot Crockett, he already would have done so.

Sound of the grocery bags hitting the floor; paper crackling, fat red grapefruits bouncing across the boards like basketballs.

“Motherfucker,” Riley hissed.

A hand grabbed Jenny’s wrist and she scrambled after Pup as he pulled her around the corner and into the kitchen.

The prospect was out of breath, face white and sweat-filmed. “Shit,” he said. “Shit, you shot him.”

“Got any better ideas?”

“Yeah, let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Yeah.”

She’d dropped her purse when she’d ducked, and she didn’t have her phone, but…

Riley’s footfalls echoed as he moved toward them.

The phone wasn’t important.

The back door was just off the kitchen and she shoved Pup toward it. “Go, go.”

He yanked it open, and the doorframe exploded with a shower of splinters and paint flecks. A gunshot. Three of Riley’s friends stood in the backyard, weapons trained on the door.

“Shit!”

“Back inside!”

Pup slammed the door just as another shot snapped off a section of molding.

They were trapped in here with Riley.

Trapped!her mind shouted.No, no, no, no, no!

She whirled, gun at the ready, and Riley stood right behind her, two arm lengths away, his gun centered on her chest.

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