Page 31 of Fire and Ice

"Oh God, don't shoot the boy!" She walked right in front of Benny, wringing her hands.

"Are you out of your mind, woman?" Benny shouted at her. "Get out the way."

"Don't shoot the boy," Maia repeated in a shrill voice.

"I think she's lost it." Tommy observed. "Women, huh?"

"Get out of the way!" Benny put away the pistol and backhanded Maia.

"Miss Pierce!" Both Kyle and his mother screamed.

Maia was hoping for exactly this reaction from Benny. She flew back and landed on her ass right in front of Tommy.

"Tommy, lock her in the stock room and take her cell phone," Benny told the taller guy.

"Come on, darling," Tommy said leeringly.

It was then that Maia attacked.

CHAPTER FIVE

Tommy reached down to pull Maia to her feet. Halfway up, she leaned forward and with all her might and making sure she had firm purchase with her feet, cracked the back of her head against Tommy's nose and forehead causing him to crash spectacularly into a row of display racks.

Never taking her eyes off the other two men, she pushed Kyle out of the way at the same time Benny was leveling his AK-47 at her.

"Bitch!" Benny screamed.

Maia lunged forward and knocked the rifle upward, causing it to discharge into the ceiling. At the same time she delivered a palm strike to Benny's nasal cartilage with her right hand, bloodying his nose and stunning him temporarily.

Syd raised his gun shakily at the wrestling pair, muttering, "Shit. Shit. Shit."

Maia instantly swung Benny around towards Syd and with her hand guiding the AK-47—which Benny was still holding—pointed it at a stupefied Syd and blew his head off with a blast from the assault rifle. Then, yanking out the pistol that was stowed in the front of Benny's pants, she kicked the back of his knees, forcing him to kneel, and shot him in the head, execution style.

Tommy held on to his weapon in his fall and started to get up, firing blindly. He could not see clearly as he was tearing up from his bloody nose.

Betty had ducked behind the counter (still screaming) and Kyle dived to the floor for cover. Maia didn't even try to dodge any bullets; she knew Tommy's shots were going wide.

She calmly raised Benny's pistol at Tommy and said, "I'm putting you out of your misery, asshole."

It was over in seconds. Maia walked over to Kyle and asked, "Are you okay?"

Kyle sat up and scrambled away from her asking, "Who are you? What are you?" There was fear in his eyes. He had been courageous throughout the ordeal and now he was afraid of her. She sighed.

"We need to talk," Maia said and hauled him unceremoniously to his feet, pushing him in front his mother who had emerged from behind the counter.

Betty was whispering, "Oh my God ... oh my God. You saved us ... how did you save us?"

"Nobody can know that I did this," Maia said. "We'll pin this on another customer, a good Samaritan who saved us all. He saw something through the glass door that something was wrong so he snuck in from the backdoor. You guys do have a backdoor, yes?" Betty nodded, Kyle's eyes had narrowed. "He saved us and got out the same way. It's a long shot, but at least there's no camera footage. You understand me?"

"Who are you?" Kyle yelled, finally regaining some of his courage.

"I work for the good guys, Kyle." Maia eyed him levelly. "I get rid of scum like them." She jerked her head to the three dead bodies on the floor.

Police sirens started wailing in the distance. Betty had apparently pushed the alarm when Maia went on the offensive against Benny, Tommy, and Syd.

"We don't have much time. Are you both with me?" Maia said in her no-nonsense tone.

"Are you going to kill us, if we don't play along?" Kyle shot back.

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