Page 95 of Down to One

"It's me, baby. I'm here. I'm here. Are you okay?"

"But, but, I don't understand. The game...your streak?"

Landon's entire body crumpled and the weight of his chin came to rest on the top of her head. She could feel it moving across her hair as he shook his head with a chuckle of more disbelief than amusement.

"The streak is fine, baby. The streak is fine."

Katie smiled. Not a happy-go-lucky grin, but a content and satisfied bowing of her lips as her head melted into the lap of her own personal hero.

"I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but I ever see you in my neck of the woods I’ll have you strung up with a noose."

Katie and Landon both tensed up in each other's arms as a male voice she sorta recognized said, "I’m from Detroit, bitch, and your punk ass wouldn’t dare step foot in my neck of the woods. But none of that matters right now, does it? Because if you move a muscle, I’ll blow your fucking head off."

"El?" Katie wrestled herself up onto an elbow, gasping at the sharp pang in her neck when she craned it around the room.

It was Ellis alright, looking like some badass gangster with his stance wide, elbows locked, both hands wrapped around the grip of Kyle’s gun. Kyle was on the ground in front of the barrel, chest heaving, left arm cradling his right elbow, which had already doubled in size. There was no remorse in his eyes though. No concern for his predicament. He only glared back at Ellis with lips curled up in disdain.

"Don’t try to act all tough," Kyle said. "I can see it in your eyes, you don’t have the nerve you fucking faggot."

Landon hopped to his feet, jostling Katie aside in the process. He was halfway to the coat stand near the front door before Katie realized where he was headed.

"No! No Landon DON’T!"

His steps didn’t falter, his eyes already glazed over and set with the same mad dog stare that had taken over his face when he tackled Mickey Smith. The same determined line that settled across his brow right before he walloped Johnny St. Pierre’s fast ball over the left field wall.

"LANDON PLEASE NO!"

The Louisville Slugger slid up into his hand, the most natural thing in the world, and he took two test swings on his way over to Kyle who had suddenly lost all color in his face. Kyle’s mouth fumbled open, but he never got the protest out before another piercing scream reverberated across the room. Katie never found out if it came from herself or Kyle because her world finally turned to black.

LOCAL NEWS

KBSN CHANNEL 9

GERI:Welcome back toWake up Idaho with Geri and Terry.It’s sunny skies all week, and I for one can’t wait. Here’s a crazy story coming off the police blotter this morning. Did you see this one, Terry? An assailant broke into a residence yesterday evening on the southeast side of town. The attack took place at an apartment complex on Riverdale Street. The victim, a single woman, was home alone when a man forced his way in and began assaulting her. At some point, a friend arrived and helped her fight him off by—get this Ter—breaking both his knees with a baseball bat.

TERRY:What?! Whose apartment did he break into? Al Capone’s?

GERI:Police officer Marcus Weatherby was on site and told our reporter that this is an ongoing investigation, possibly tied to another case, so they’re not currently releasing the names of the victim or the assailant. But the hero in this story is the friend, a man named Ellis Jackson. Apparently he works with the victim, who went home early sick. He stopped by to check on her, tackled the assailant, then took matters into his own hands, to say the least, with a Louisville Slugger.

TERRY:Whoa, both knees? Ouch! That’s a story that’ll make some criminals reconsider their work week. Speaking of baseball, let’s turn it over to Duke Carmichael at the sports desk. Pretty exciting night at the Mavericks game yesterday we hear, Duke.

DUKE:Oh Terry, you have no idea. Landon Ryan was in rare form at yesterday’s double header and I think sports fans are still scrambling to make sense of it all. The Pirates tried to sneak in a fast one by switching up their pitching roster,putting the slugger up against Johnny St. Pierre in game one, but Ryan blew everyone away with a homer and two doubles, taking his hitting streak to twenty-eight games and leading the Mavericks to a three run win.

But Ryan was visibly agitated at the beginning of game two. He struck out on his first plate appearance, had some sort of scuffle in the dugout, then never returned to the field for the second inning. Since he did take a turn in the batter’s box, MLB rules state that he officially played the game and, without a recorded hit, his hitting streak is officially capped off at twenty-eight.

Some are saying he and Coach Gerber had words, others are saying it’s the wrist injury, maybe some sort of family emergency. The Mavericks have yet to release an official statement, but rumors from the clubhouse confirm this could put a knife in any of John Maverick’s plans to name Ryan as team captain.

chapter 44

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Landon asked as he circled a sponge across Katie’s bare back. He’d dragged her away from the news and into his oversized bathtub in his oversized bathroom to watch the sun rise over the city, yet Katie couldn’t give any of it much attention. She hugged her knees in closer and closed her eyes as the soapy water ran down her skin in warm rivulets.

"Yeah, it’s time," she answered.

"Then I’m mad at you," Landon said.

Katie twisted her top half around in the bubbles to raise her brows at him. "Why?"

"Because I have to leave today and I barely got any time with you. If you were going to quit your job, you should have done it a week ago so I could have taken you to the banquet instead of Layla. I’ve never been more excited to see a beautiful woman go away."

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