Page 65 of Beehives and Broken Heroes

“If running and hiding don’t work, then you fight. And you fight with everything in you.”

- Brandon Carroll

“Look, the balloons!” Jo pointed through the trees. The hot-air balloons lit the black sky ahead of the women as they made their mad dash like a beacon of hope. Allie loved those cursed balloons! She loved them so much.

The women were still running, but the speed and the energy they’d had at the beginning had quickly dwindled as two miles had gone to three and three to four. Allie’s lungs ached something fierce, but they couldn’t stop.

She forced a little more speed that encouraged Jo to put it on as well. “Keep going. We have to—”

“There they are!” a deep voice bellowed behind them.

She glanced over her shoulder. Mr. Scowl and Mr. Smiley, who didn’t look so smiley now, had just breached the last hill between them and the fairgrounds. There was nowhere to hide now. They came charging down the hill just as the blacktop under screen number two came into view.

“Second wind!” Allie said, digging in and sprinting faster than she had before. Jo followed suit. They dashed to screen number two and under it. A blueberry briar caught the bottom of Allie’s pant leg and scraped across her ankle. Jo kept running, but she stopped when she saw Allie trapped. “Keep going! Get help!”

Jo stepped back toward her.

“Jo! Go. One of us has to get away. Go!” The tone that came out of Allie’s mouth wasn’t like she’d ever heard before, but it did the trick. Jo nodded, and she made a quick surge across the parking lot toward the balloons.

Allie reached down and ripped her pant leg free, then made a sharp left and ran along the edge of the blacktop and forest. She needed to find something to defend herself with.

“You go after that one,” one of them barked. “I’ll get this one.”

“Fight,” she told herself. “Brandon said fight.”

Heavy steps pounded fast behind her just as she spotted a branch. He was almost on top of her now. She grabbed the branch, turned, and swung it into his face. He dropped like an anvil. She’d also played baseball as a kid. Not softball, but good ol’ hard-ball baseball with the boys at the field across town. And she had a killer swing.

She darted off across the blacktop as the man pulled himself up, the scratchy bark of the branch digging into her palms. In no time, he was in hot pursuit once again, his heavy breathing nearing with every foot she crossed.

A thundering sounded in her ears. Her lungs protested as she shot in a straight line for the balloons and the crowd beyond that. She could do this! She could escape. She was so close.

Allie kept her eyes on the balloons just as Mr. Not-So-Smiley came tearing around one of the baskets on the ground. Her gait let up a little, surprised, and a heavy hand came down on her shoulder, swinging her around. She lost the branch.

The thundering got louder.

Mr. Scowl dug his hands into her arms, dragging her right up against his body. He leaned down close until his face was in hers—one side was red, scratched, and bleeding from where she’d hit him. “Where do you think you’re going, pretty little thing?” He yanked Jo’s bandanna from her hair. “Are you Brandon’s girl, or is that the other one?”

She stomped on his foot.

He released one arm and stepped back from her, but he held tight to her other.

“Let. Go. Of. Me!”

He groaned and swore but kept his grip on her other arm sure. She flailed in his grasp, trying to get free, then saw Jo tear around the same balloon as Mr. Smiley. She froze. Mr. Smiley was making a break for the trees. Jo sprinted toward her. Then the strangest thing happened—a trick of the mind, for sure.

Several horses with riders raced through the parking lot toward her. Another large group of riders and horses funneled out from the balloons. The second group went after Mr. Smiley, while she and Mr. Scowl stood immobile, watching what was happening with their mouths wide open.

Swayzie Westbrook pulled a rope from her saddle as she neared Smiley; she wound it and let it fly. It came down over Smiley’s head and shoulders, and Swayzie pulled, then dallied her end around her horn. The man thrashed back and forth, trying to escape, but it was man against horse now, and he wasn’t going anywhere.

A second later, Wyatt and Judd Westbrook were off their horses and had the man down on his gullet—face pressed to the pavement. Lucky Preston, Porter and Nash Slade, and Cash circled.

Judd laughed. “Now I know how you roped Lucky into marrying, Swayze.”

“Please,” Swayzie said. “Lucky put my rope on his ownself.”

The Westbrooks and Slades broke out laughing. The man on the ground thrashed, and Wyatt shoved his head down.

“What in the blue blazes is goin’ on here?” Allie yelled. That seemed to snap Tobias out of his daze, and he yanked her back to him.

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