Don't Be Careful by Terry Toler

Author:Terry Toler [Toler, Terry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

25

Kaley remained seated. With her gun pointed at the two men.

Standing might be more practical. Sitting inhibited her mobility but made her a smaller target. It also gave her a persona she was going for. A tough girl who wasn’t afraid of them. She could be nonchalant while threatening.

Jamie said to always come across confident when facing down a threat. You either wanted the bad guy to be terrified or underestimate you.

These two men were surprised and fearful at first. After assessing the situation, they’d clearly become emboldened and didn’t see Kaley as much of a threat. She didn’t see them as much of a problem either. They were at least twenty paces away. Both had handguns on their hips, but they were latched to a holster.

Stupid.

It would take too long for them to draw. She had an assault rifle. A bit of overkill for that small a space, but Jamie said always bring more firepower to a gunfight than you need if possible. The modified special forces weapon would chew the two men up faster than a woodchipper.

“I wouldn’t make any sudden moves if I were you,” Kaley said, with as much bravado as she could muster. The rifle was off her lap and pointed in between them. Her finger on the trigger, ready to fire at the slightest twitch of a muscle.

The only thing that didn’t quite fit the persona she was going for was her voice. More on the soprano side. She wished it were deeper, gruffier. Kathleen Turner like. A smoker’s voice, although Kaley abhorred smoking and would never touch a cigarette, even if it did help deepen her voice.

“I remember you from the Visitor Center,” Benji remarked. He was the one wearing the Wisconsin tee shirt. The one she encountered inside the Visitor Center. She knew his name from a brochure she found on the counter. It had his picture along with his brother Willy’s.

Willy was standing to the right. Benji to her left. She hadn’t determined yet which was the one more likely to do something stupid.

“Yeah. You were there,” Willy said. “What are you doing here? Did you follow us? Are you trying to rob us? Why don’t you lower that gun?”

“Where’s the blonde-haired girl?” Kaley asked roughly.

The two men looked at each other. A clear sign of recognition.

“We don't know nothing about no blonde,” Benji said. Clearly the stupid one.

“You realize you just said that you do know something about the blonde,” Kaley said.

The man twisted his lips to the side and his forehead burrowed like he was confused.

“When you say you don’t know nothing, it means you know something,” Kaley said, with disdain in her voice. “If you knew nothing, you’d say you know nothing. Did you even graduate from high school?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Benji said.

“Never mind,” Kaley said. The ingrate obviously hadn’t taken elementary English.

Willy took a step toward her. Kaley turned the gun toward him, and he stopped in his tracks.

“What do you want from us?” Willy asked, escalating the tone and the tension in the room.

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