Page 19 of Families and Other Enemies

Sirens, and the police cars carrying them, arrived from all directions. Brakes screeched. Shouts of “Stop where you are!” and “Hands on your head!” echoed through the alley.

Kellen relaxed her guard. The Virtue Falls Police Force would take it from here.

She put her arm around Ralph and felt him crumple into her embrace.

He was down. He was bad. This wasn’t fun anymore. She pulled out her phone and dialed 9-1-1. “We need an ambulance behind the Catholic church. We’ve got a man who’s in bad shape. Beaten. Kicked.”

Ralph held his belly as if he were holding it together. “Stabbed,” he whispered.

“Stabbed,” she repeated into the phone. “Get here STAT.”

The sirens got louder.

Grabbing the clean blanket from Sophia’s cardboard bed, Kellen pressed it to his wound.

Ralph hissed in pain, his brown eyes wide with suffering. “Sophia, is she—”

“She ran back to the food bank. Bridget and whoever is there will help her, and I’ll check on her after we get you taken care of.”

“Captain, what about those men?” he asked.

Police arrived, the cars blocking off the area, lights flashing blue and red. Uniforms swarmed the area, assessing the scene, unerringly picking up the assailants.

“They’re lucky the police got here to save them.” She locked eyes with assailant number one as they hauled him away on a stretcher. “Before we really gave them something to cry about.”

Ralph released a laugh that became a gasp of pain.

Suddenly, the EMTs were there, their first aid kits in hand, preparing Ralph to be transferred to the hospital.

Kellen stepped back, gave them room to work. “Will he be okay?”

The first policeman on the scene started to utter some platitudes.

Kateri came from the back of the crowd of police cars. “Those careless bastards never think to sterilize their knives.”

“Chest wound.” Kellen knew what that meant. “He’s in trouble.”

“It’s not good.” Kateri waved a hand at the scene. “You involved in this?”

Kellen met her eyes straight on. “So involved.”

“Good. Thank you. One of these guys is local, two in from out of town. Violence is up since they got together. We’ve been wanting to get them off the streets, but couldn’t ever catch them in the act.”

“Glad to help.” Aches and bruises began to come alive in Kellen’s body. That flip—what was she thinking? She hadn’t done anything like that since she was a cheerleader in high school. She put her hand to her wrenched back, watched the EMTs load Ralph into the ambulance and asked, “Do you need to talk to me now? Because I should find that kid. Sophia.”

“We’ll want your account of the proceedings.” Kateri waved her off. “You’ll be in the food bank?”

“I hope so. I hope that’s where Sophia went.” Kellen limped back toward the church. She arrived in the food bank’s brightly lit and dingy hallway to see Bridget and Sophia sitting on a bench. Kellen breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God she hadn’t run away completely.

Bridget held the girl as Sophia cried and gasped, “He told me to run, so I did.”

Bridget exchanged a glanced with Kellen. “Sophia, you did the right thing.”

“But they were beating him,” Sophia wailed. “I never meant for anyone to get hurt. For me. Not him. He was good to me.”

“He’s a tough old bird. He’ll be okay.” Bridget met Kellen’s eyes questioningly.

Kellen shook her head and grimaced.

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