“Yes, yes it does. We’ve been so busy that I feel like we haven’t had a chance to breathe.”
“Exactly,” Adley said, lying there thinking.
“Do you ever wonder what life would be like if we hadn’t been rescued?” Adley whispered.
Macy scooted closer on the couch and nodded. “I was a little younger when we were rescued, but the what-ifs can terrify me sometimes. I mean, look how it shaped us to help abused women and children and both work hard to never be vulnerable again. We’re both proficient in firearms and have taken self-defense classes.”
“I think having that weird thing happen at the park really shook me. I bought three more guns and have them around the house now,” Adley said.
Macy looked around. “Where?”
“I have one here in this drawer in the coffee table,” Adley said, opening the drawer to show her sister. Adley stood up and motioned her sister down the hall.
“There’s one here in the bathroom under the cabinet,” Adley opened the door and pointed to a box of tampons. Adley walked out and pointed at her room. “You know the one I’ve had in my nightstand for years, and then there’s one in here,” Adley said, indicating the kitchen.
Macy’s eyes gleamed as she looked around the room. “Umm, I’m going to say either in a drawer in the island or maybe the storage above the refrigerator,” Macy said.
Adley chuckled. “Yep, drawer in the island.” Adley opened it and showed Macy the gun hidden underneath some kitchen towels.
“I’m going to go to the bathroom; then shall we start a movie?” Adley asked.
“Yep, meet you in front of the TV,” Macy said, heading out of the room.
Adley couldn’t figure out why she was so unsettled because nothing strange had happened since the park. Maybe it was the way they’d grown up, or maybe it was just the changing world today.
Adley dried her hands and reached for the door when the lights went out. She’d never had the lights do more than flicker during a storm. And tonight, it was clear and quiet. Adley opened the bathroom door. Macy was standing outside the door with her finger in front of her lips. The faint light from streetlights allowed Adley to see that Macy had a gun in her hand. Adley grabbed the gun she’d hidden in the tampon box and flicked the safety off.
Adley leaned close to Macy. “Back-to-back and make our way to the kitchen.” Macy nodded.
Adley wasn’t taking any chances. She’d learned to trust her instincts from a young age. When to hide in the cupboard at the clubhouse and when to sneak up to hide under her bed with food and drink for her and Macy.
Every sense was telling her that she and Macy were in danger. She was deeply regretting not putting in a safe room in her house. She’d considered it, but at the time, the business didn’t have a large cash flow, and she’d been living on her savings. Now, because of being frugal, she and her sister might not come out of this.
“There,” Macy whispered, pointing toward the front door. Adley glanced over her shoulder and saw a shadow pass in frontof the streetlight near her front porch. The neighbors behind Adley kept a light on all the time because of having a pool. Their light backlit two men coming toward the back door to her kitchen.
“Two here, but I can’t see if they have weapons,” Adley said. Castle Doctrine allowed her to defend her home and self. The Kansas Stand Your Ground law didn’t require her to retreat before shooting, as long as she was in imminent danger. She could reasonably assume she and Macy were in imminent danger with the electricity being cut and three men coming in from two ways.
Adley grabbed Macy’s shoulder and pulled her down close to the floor, so they were protected by the kitchen island and the wall closest to her front door. If they couldn’t get in, maybe they’d leave.
A loud bang from the front door and the glass shattering in her back door changed the playing field.
“Shoot to stop them, but I wouldn’t mind if one of them could tell us something about why I’m being targeted,” Adley whispered.
“Got it. I’ve got front,” Macy said softly. Adley pulled her gun up to shoulder height, leaning back a little to make sure her shot would go up through the torso. As the first man stepped past the edge of the island, Adley saw the large gun in his hand. She aimed and fired toward center mass, shooting three bullets before moving behind the island. Macy’s gun had gone off multiple times while Adley was shooting. Macy crawled behind the island with her, both of them waiting to see what the last man did.
Adley moved around the island because he was in her house, and she wasn’t letting him.
“Not getting paid enough for this,” he said. As he passed Adley, she shot. A grunt left him, but he ran out the back door and crossed the backyard before she could get another shot fired. She looked out the back door and didn’t see anyone else. Macy nodded that the front was clear. Adley pulled her phone out and called 911, detailing who she was and that she and her sister had shot two assailants in her home and wounded one who ran out her back door and hopped the fence.
She and Macy walked around the men and checked their pulses. Both were gone. Adley’s bullets had hit exactly where she intended and stopped his heart. When she saw the police lights out front, she informedthe 911 operator that she and her sister had placed their guns on the counter in the kitchen and would be sitting on her couch with their hands on their heads.
Once she and Macy were in place, the police came in and cleared her house. She and Macy were instructed that they could lower their hands from their heads. The officers took statements and were waiting for a detective to arrive. Adley walked out with an officer to show him how the power was cut to her house. As they walked back to the porch, a police sedan pulled in. When Detective Stanza got out of the car, Adley was done.
“No, call your captain and get him out of here. Detective Stanza has it out for one of my clients and has continually bothered me about going out on a date when I’ve expressed no to him multiple times. He hasa conflict of interest, and I refuse to have him investigate this incident,” Adley told the patrol officer.
When he didn’t immediately call his captain, Adley stepped over to the older officer who had been talking with Macy.
“Detective Stanza has not listened when I’ve repeatedly rebuffed his attempts at asking me out and has a vendetta against one of my clients. Not only do I refuse to have him investigate this incident at my house, I do not give him permission to be on my personal property or in my house. I want another detective assigned,” Adley said loudly enough for everyone in the front yard to hear.
