“Help him,” she implored. “Please help my baby.”
Lena wiped a trickle of blood out of her eye, finally seeing what the bulge under Paul’s jacket was. A cell phone. The bastard had a cell phone clipped to his belt.
“Please,” Terri begged. “ Lena, please.”
Lena pointed her gun at Paul’s head, feeling a searing hatred burn her throat as she told him, “Drop it.”
Paul swung around, taking Tim with him. He looked up at Lena, gauging the situation. She could tell part of him didn’t believe a woman could actually threaten him, and this made her hate him even more.
She made her voice a deadly threat. “Drop it, you bastard.”
For the first time, he looked nervous.
“Drop the gun,” Lena repeated, keeping her hand steady as she rose to her feet. If she could have been sure of her shot, she would’ve killed him there and then, unloaded her magazine into his head until there was nothing but a stump of spine sticking out.
Jeffrey said, “Do it, Paul. Drop the gun.”
Slowly, Paul lowered his gun, but instead of letting it fall to the ground, he trained it on Terri’s head. He knew they wouldn’t shoot him as long as he had Tim as a shield. Pointing the gun at Terri was just one more way to assert his control over the situation.
He said, “I think y’all should take your own advice.”
Terri sat there on the floor, her hands reaching out to her son. She pleaded, “Don’t hurt him, Paul.” Tim tried to go to his mother but Paul held him tight. “Please don’t hurt him.”
Paul backed toward the front door, saying, “Put down your guns. Now.”
Jeffrey watched him, not doing anything for several beats. Finally, he put his weapon on the floor and held up his hands, showing they were empty. “Backup’s on the way.”
“Not fast enough,” he guessed.
Jeffrey said, “Don’t do this, Paul. Just leave him here.”
“So you can follow me?” Paul sneered, shifting Tim on his hip. The child had realized what was going on and his breath was coming hard, like he was having trouble getting air. Paul kept moving closer to the door, oblivious to the boy’s pain. “I don’t think so.” He looked up at Lena. “Your turn, Detective.”
Lena waited for Jeffrey’s nod before crouching down to place her gun on the floor. She stayed low, keeping close to the weapon.
Tim’s breathing was more labored, and he started making a whooping sound as he struggled to inhale.
“It’s okay,” Terri whispered, inching toward him, crawling on her knees. “Just breathe, baby. Just try to breathe.”
Paul edged toward the front door, keeping his eye on Jeffrey, thinking he was the real threat. Lena took a few steps down the stairs, not knowing what she would do if she reached the bottom. She wanted to tear him apart with her hands, hear him scream with agony as she ripped into him.
“It’s okay, baby,” Terri crooned, crawling on her knees toward them. She reached out, touching her son’s foot with the tips of her fingers. The boy was gasping in earnest now, his thin chest heaving. “Just breathe.”
Paul was almost out the door. He told Jeffrey, “Don’t try to follow me.”
Jeffrey said, “You’re not going to take that kid.”
“Watch me.”
He made to leave, but Terri held Tim’s foot in the palm of her hand, keeping them both in place. Paul pressed the gun to her forehead. “Get back,” Paul warned, and Lena froze on the stair, unsure who he was talking to. She took another step as Paul warned Terri, “Move away.”
“His asthma-”
“I don’t care,” Paul barked. “Move away.”
“Mama loves you,” Terri whispered over and over, oblivious to Paul’s threat as she clung to Tim’s foot. “Mama loves you so much-”
“Shut up,” Paul hissed. He tried to pull away, but Terri held on tight, wrapping her hand around Tim’s leg to get a better grip. Paul raised the revolver, slamming the butt of it down on her head.
Jeffrey grabbed up his gun in one fluid motion, pointing it at Paul’s chest. “Stop right there.”
“Baby,” Terri said. She had staggered, but remained on her knees, holding on to Tim’s leg. “Mama’s here, baby. Mama’s here.”
Tim was turning blue, his teeth chattering as if he was cold. Paul tried to pull him away from his mother, but she held on, telling her son, “‘… my grace is sufficient for thee…’ ”
“Let go.” Paul tried to jerk him back, but still she would not release her son. “Terri-” Paul looked panicked, as if some kind of rabid animal had clamped on to him. “Terri, I mean it.”
“‘… my strength is made perfect in weakness…’ ”
“Let go, goddammit!” Again, Paul raised the gun, striking her even more savagely. Terri fell back, but she reached out with her other hand, grabbing on to Paul’s shirt, pulling it as she struggled to stay upright.
Jeffrey had his gun on Paul, but even this close, he couldn’t risk a shot. The boy was in the way. His problem was the same as Lena ’s. An inch too far and he’d end up killing him.
“Terri,” Lena tried, as if she could somehow help. She had reached the bottom stair, but all she could do was watch as Terri held on to Tim, her bleeding forehead pressed to his leg. The boy’s eyelids flickered. His lips were blue, his face a ghostly white as his lungs strained for air.
Jeffrey warned, “Stop right there, Paul.”
“‘When I am weak,’ ” Terri whispered, “‘then am I strong.’ ”
Paul struggled to pull away, but Terri maintained her hold, clutching on to the waist of his pants. Paul raised the gun higher and brought it down, but Terri tilted her head up at the last minute. The gun glanced off her cheek, hitting her collarbone, slipping in Paul’s hand. A single bullet fired straight up into Terri’s face. The woman staggered again, somehow keeping herself upright as she held on to Paul and her boy. There was a gaping hole in her jaw, fragmented bone hanging down. Blood poured out of the open wound, splattering onto the tiled floor, and the injured woman reflexively tightened her grip on Paul’s shirt, bloody handprints streaking the white.
“No,” Paul said, stumbling back, trying to get away from her. He was horrified at what he was seeing, his expression showing a mixture of fear and revulsion. In shock, he let go of the gun and almost dropped Tim as he fell against the porch railing.
Terri kept her tight grip on Paul, using all her remaining strength to hold on. Blood wicked onto his shirt as she pulled him down to the ground, falling on top of him. She kept pulling at his shirt, pulling herself up toward her son. Tim’s skin was deadly white, his eyes closed. Terri put her head on Tim’s back, the pulverized side of her face turned away from her son.
Jeffrey kicked the revolver away from Paul’s hand, then slid the child out from under his mother. He laid Tim flat on the ground and started to give him CPR. “Lena,” he said, then yelled, “ Lena!”
She startled out of her trance, her body working on autopilot as she snapped open her phone and called an ambulance. She knelt beside Terri, putting her fingers to the woman’s neck. There was a faint pulse, and Lena smoothed back her hair from her shattered face, saying, “You’re going to be okay.”
Paul tried to move out from under her, but Lena snarled, “If you so much as breathe, I’ll kill you.”
Paul nodded, his lips trembling as he looked down in horror at Terri’s head in his lap. He had never killed this close before, had always shielded himself from the dirty reality of his deeds. The bullet had torn through the side of Terri’s face, exiting out of the base of her neck. Black dots were burned into the skin from the powder burns. Her left cheek was shredded, her tongue visible through the damage. Fractured bone mingled with blood and gray matter. Fragments of her back molars were stuck in her hair.
Lena put her face close to Terri’s, saying, “Terri? Terri, just hang on.”
Terri’s eyes fluttered open. She took shallow breaths, struggling to speak.
“Terri?”
Lena could see her tongue moving inside her mouth, the white bone shaking from the effort.