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Excerpt - Return of the Fallen

If he lived to be a hundred, he would never forget what happened next. Justine pushed him behind the counter next to the terrified server, then turned, side-kicked one of the men and sent him flying halfway across the room. The gun discharged. The bullet hit a stack of cups and shards of china hurtled through the air.

Justine... What the hell was she doing?

In flash, Justine had the weapon out of the downed man’s hand, turned and shot one of the remaining two through the head. The man fell back onto a table, capsizing it, as she pivoted to face the other, just as he opened fire on her. She ducked in time, rolled across the floor to the sounds of shouted warnings from Edmond, and fired off a single shot that caught the third man squarely between the eyes.

Edmond could only gape in astonishment as he watched her pick herself up from the ground and put another bullet in the first, still unconscious man’s head. He got up from behind the counter and rushed over to her, trembling and not ashamed to admit it. When he reached her, she looked so...different. Her eyes burned with an intensity he had never seen before and her expression was cold and hard as she stared at the dead men lying at her feet.

“You killed them... Jesus, Justine.”

“We have to get out of here,” she said.

Edmond stood stock still, his gaze riveted to the bleeding corpses.

“Edmond. We have to go. Now.” She grabbed him by the arm and spun him around to face her. “They must have spotted you when you drove by the house and followed you here.”

She bent and gathered the weapons. One of the guns she jammed in her pant waist, another disappeared inside her jacket. The last she handed to him.

Who was this woman? He stared at her, unable to believe what she had just done, then looked down at the gun in his hand. He had never fired a gun in his life. Who have I been living with?

Justine turned to the server who still cowered behind the counter in shock. “Do not call the police,” she said, “for another ten minutes. Understand?”

The young man nodded at her, his eyes wide with fear.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Edmond followed her, dumbfounded, to the front door.

“Shit!” she said the minute they stepped outside. A car traveling down the street at a high rate of speed screeched to a halt in front of the café. The next thing he knew, Justine yanked him over to a flat bed truck parked several feet away. She stared at the truck’s door for a second. The lock popped up, just as one of the men exited the car and got off a shot, narrowly missing Edmond’s head.

“Get in,” she yelled, pulling the door open.

He did as he was told and ducked again when a bullet hit the windshield. Who were these guys?

He crawled in a panic to the driver’s seat and caught sight of Justine from the corner of his eye, standing next to the passenger door, a gun in each hand blazing fire. Two of the men went down. The third kept shooting. A second later, Justine nailed him as well then jumped into the truck beside him. Before she even got the door shut, another car pulled up. More gun-toting men piled out.

Now what? They were trapped inside the vehicle with more killers approaching. They had to get away from these people. Before he had a chance to finish his thought, the truck roared into life--by itself. He turned to Justine to see blood streaming from her nose. Her fists, still clutching the weapons, were raised to her temples.

“Are you hit?”

“No. Drive!”

Edmond did not stop to question how the truck had started, but threw it into reverse, floored the gas pedal and peeled rubber, steering the car backward at an insane rate of speed, away from the killers. Before hitting the intersection, he skidded into a ninety degree turn and shot forward, speeding along the main street in pre-rush hour traffic. A quick glance in his rearview mirror revealed the men had returned to their car to give chase.

Between clenched teeth, his hands shaking so badly he could barely control the wheel as he wove in and out among the slower-moving cars, he said, “Can you please tell me what the hell is going on?”

“Watch out.”

Edmond pulled left in time to avoid rear-ending a van.

“I’ll tell you everything, I promise. But first we have to lose these guys.”