Page 80 of Their Property
I held the fabric up with a shaking hand so she could slide under it too. With some fiddling, we tucked the edges into the shelves of the bar and weighed it down with dishes so it served more as a canopy than a head covering. It reminded me of the blanket forts I made with my dad when I was little.
Once settled under our makeshift canopy, Gretchen reached for my hand and squeezed. “You doin’ okay?”
I was shaking less, but I wasn’t sure if I was truly calmer or just numb. My ears rang and felt like they were plugged up with cotton. I could still smell gunpowder and hear muffled voices and shots ringing out.
“How long will this take?” I asked.
Gretchen shrugged. “Couple hours, maybe. They probably brought backup ‘cause last time, Kitty and the crew cleaned ‘em up pretty quick with homemade stink bombs.” She snickered. “It almost wasn’t worth cleaning up all the puke outside.”
“Have they ever gotten close to…?”
“Making it inside? Yeah, we had a couple close calls. Some of the girls had bullet wounds, but we won out in the end. It’s amazing how hard you’ll fight when your only alternative is under the boots ofmen.” She sneered at that final word. “Anyway, we found ourselves a lady doctor after that. Self-preservation can’t save you all the time.”
“Yeah.” I flinched at the sound of glass shattering. It was nowhere near us, but I thought I heard a masculine groan of pain. That sound unfroze me, and my hands clenched into fists. All at once, I had forgotten my fear. Now I fought the urge to jump to my feet and run into the fray to check on T-Bone and Grudge.
Gretchen watched me carefully as I responded to the chaotic sounds all around us. “Your guys are alright, huh?”
“More than that,” I said. “They’re great. I mean, they have their issues, but they’ve always been really good to me.” I swallowed, my throat as parched as a bone. “But I have dealt with bad men too. If I could fight, I would be up there with them.”
“Yeah, I’m still learning.” Gretchen gestured to the gun still holstered on her hip. “Just carrying one around makes you feel a little stronger. And men tend to keep their distance when they see you packin’.”
“I’ll have to borrow one.” My forced smile was cut short by another groan of pain directly after a gunshot. “Fuck! Is there anything we can do?”
“Just wait it out,” Gretchen said sympathetically. “Let them handle it and give them less bodies to worry about. Priya, the doctor, is out there too. She won’t let anything happen to your guys.”
“But what if the doctor gets shot?” I demanded.
Gretchen shrugged. “Then we’re kinda screwed, I guess.”
The maelstrom continued for an immeasurable amount of time. Glass rained down on us, bullet holes decorated the far wall, and indecipherable shouts rang out among the gunshots. I couldn’t tell if we were any closer to winning or losing. The women and the guys seemed optimistic at first, even excited for this fight. But what if it turned out to be way more than they bargained for?
All the while, my legs burned with the need to jump up. To stop cowering back here anddosomething.
“Where you from?” Gretchen asked after a long stretch of silence between us.
“Four Corners,” I said. “But the guys and I came from Sevier. I was working up there.”
Her eyebrows raised. “Oh, they’re letting women work now? That’s a good sign, I guess.”
“Well, there was an uprising, so who knows what’ll happen now,” I said. “But Four Corners is safe and full of opportunities. Women can do whatever they want there.”
Gretchen nodded. “Heard about it. That’s where that lady medic ended up, right? Mari?”
“Yes, exactly! She’s settled down there now with her husbands and kids.”
“Sounds nice, but I couldn’t leave this place. Kitty might leave it to me and her daughter one day.”
“Well, I hope a day comes where you don’t have to defend it with guns.”
Gretchen snorted. “Yeah, that’ll be a while.” She perked up, as if suddenly remembering something. “You trust those guys you’re with?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitating. “With my life.”
But with my heart?I wondered. I felt a little less sure about that. I was reeling from Grudge abruptly pushing me away from kissing him, despite trying not to take it personally. And it hurt that Dyno never said a word about his son, that he assumed I would write him off because of it.
“Even the pretty, long-haired guy that took off?”
I nodded firmly at Gretchen. There was a lot to unpack with Dyno, with all three of them, really. But one thing I knew for certain was that they were trustworthy and would never let any harm come to me.
