Chapter 8
David whipped his head toward the shattered window of the cabin, his heart hammering against his ribs. Through the jagged frame, he saw that Clara had managed to slide her bound hands down around her hips, tipping her chair backward to smash the glass against the exterior wall. She was bleeding from a fresh cut on her forearm, but her eyes blazed with desperate defiance.
"Dad, run!" Clara yelled, kicking her legs out to knock the heavy wooden table away from the wall.
The guard holding the shotgun hesitated for a split second, glancing back toward the noise. That fractional loss of focus was all David needed. He lunged sideways, throwing his entire body weight against the man’s arm just as the shotgun fired. The deafening blast blew a massive crater into the wooden porch roof, sending a shower of burning embers cascading down around them.
Mayor Henderson shrieked, ducking low and scrambling toward the tree line like a frightened animal.
David wrenched the heavy weapon from the guard’s grasp, reversing the stock and smashing it down across the man's temple. The guard collapsed into the dirt without another sound. Panting heavily, David didn't waste a second. He vaulted back through the shattered window into the cabin, landing beside Clara.
"I've got you, baby, I've got you," David whispered frantically, pulling a pocketknife from his trousers and sawing rapidly through the thick nylon ropes binding her wrists and ankles.
The ropes fell away, and Clara collapsed into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably as she buried her face in his torn shirt.
"We have to go, Dad, now," Clara whimpered, clinging to him so tightly he could barely breathe. "They have more people coming. I heard them talking on the radio."
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David scooped his daughter up into his arms, carrying her toward the broken window. But as they reached the frame, the heavy front door of the cabin was kicked completely off its hinges with a resounding crash.
Standing in the doorway was not another thug with a shotgun, but a local police officer in full uniform, holding a heavy-duty assault rifle pointed directly at David’s chest.
