Gabriel lifted his makeshift club like a baseball bat. He was still well back, out of the circle of light, but if either Darwin or Niki looked around they’d surely see him. The stance he took reminded her of watching him play baseball in high school, all those years ago when he’d been young and skinny and arrogant as all hell. He’d hit more than one home run in the old days; he looked poised to hit one now.
Lolly’s heart pounded. She was tempted to cover her eyes with her hands, to hide from reality like a two-year-old playing hide-and-seek, but she had to watch. She had to know what was happening. If she was a betting woman she’d put everything she had on Gabriel. But nothing in life was certain, not even Gabriel McQueen, and tonight their lives hung in the balance.
Abruptly Niki screamed something and turned off her flashlight. Darwin wasn’t as fast, and Gabriel stepped forward, swinging away, his muscular arms bringing the limb around so fast it made a whistling sound. Darwin dropped his flashlight and ducked. Instead of a solid blow, the limb glanced off his head, and with a growl like an animal, Darwin whirled and leapt on Gabriel.
Gabriel couldn’t swing again because Darwin was inside his reach, so he shifted his hands apart on the limb and used it like a bar, making short, hard jabs with the ends and lightning-fast moves to block the wild punches Darwin was throwing, beating at Gabriel with the pistol. The flashlight Darwin had dropped had rolled to the side, pointing away from them, so they weren’t much more than a massive shadow. Gabriel was taller, more muscular, but Darwin was still riding a meth high and was impervious to pain. He landed a solid kick behind Gabriel’s knee and Gabriel went down, but he dragged Darwin with him.
Where was Niki? Lolly realized she could no longer see the woman and she looked around wildly, half-expecting Niki to leap out of the darkness at her, or rush to Darwin’s defense, but … no Niki. Either she’d seized the opportunity to run, or she was biding her time, looking for an opening to either shoot Gabriel or bash him in the head. Lolly couldn’t tell which of the rolling, cursing, grunting men on the ground was Gabriel and which was Darwin, so likely Niki couldn’t either.
Abruptly Lolly realized that she was too far away to help Gabriel if Niki attacked. Without letting herself think about how likely she was to get hurt or killed for her efforts, she copied Gabriel and felt around on the ground until she found a stick of her own, a broken limb that had fallen recently enough that it hadn’t rotted yet. It wasn’t as hefty as Gabriel’s limb, but it was better than nothing. No longer worried about remaining quiet, Lolly rushed toward the fight.
Where was Niki?
Lolly grabbed the fallen flashlight and frantically shone it around, trying to spot the woman. If she was there, she was hidden behind a tree or a bush. She could be behind them, to the left, the right, anywhere … even on the way back to the house. Lolly had seen only the two weapons, but that didn’t mean there weren’t more—belatedly she realized that the fact that Darwin was trying to hit Gabriel with the pistol instead of just shooting him meant that he’d fired all the bullets in the gun and didn’t have any more, at least not with him.
Was Niki out of bullets, too? Was she running after more, or simply running? No way to tell. Lolly darted a quick glance at the fight. Darwin had torn Gabriel’s knit cap off and was trying to head butt him in the face. Quick as lightning, she darted in and slapped Darwin in the face with her stick, which wasn’t big enough to stop him but did briefly pull his attention to her. Gabriel seized that brief moment of inattention to punch Darwin in the face with his gloved fist. The sound was sickening, but Darwin didn’t seem to even notice.
Gabriel was bigger, more muscular; he should have been able to take Darwin down in a matter of seconds, Lolly thought, then remembered how crazed meth could make people. She’d read reports of meth users who had been shot several times by the police and who not only didn’t go down, but kept attacking. Darwin fought like a man possessed, sounds of maniacal rage growling in his throat like an animal.
She had never seen a real fight before, just the Hollywood staged version, never realized how much dirtier and noisier it was. This wasn’t standing toe-to-toe and slugging it out, this was kicking and punching and gouging and anything else the two combatants could do to hurt each other. There were grunts and curses, the sickening thuds of gloved fists against flesh, the icy ground crunching beneath them. Their heavy winter coats prevented any significant damage to their bodies, prolonging the fight and increasing the odds that Darwin might land a lucky punch.
Maybe she could help. Lolly eased closer, raising her stick so she was ready to strike if the chance presented itself, but holding on to the flashlight handicapped her because she had only one free hand to hold the stick. She couldn’t worry about Niki; the woman was either there or she wasn’t. All she could do now, Lolly thought, was help Gabriel in any way she could.
The grappling men rolled almost out of the light, and when they stopped Darwin was on top. He drew back his hand and something was in it. Lolly didn’t hesitate, didn’t try to identify what he held; she simply leapt forward, swinging the stick with all her might, and began trying to beat the hell out of the man who’d tried to rape her. She dropped the flashlight, gripped the stick with both hands, and hit him again and again, on the head, the shoulders, anywhere she could reach.
With a howl he launched himself off Gabriel, straight for her. She staggered back, sick terror blooming in her stomach, her chest. Her feet went out from under her and she went down, Darwin on top of her and his hands fumbling for her throat. He began squeezing.