Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of violence.
Background
Pure evil has invaded Cody's home. He'll do anything he can to protect his family.
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Summary: When Cody stumbles across an assassination attempt on a camping trip, the hitmen shoot him and leave him for dead. His brother, Jack, finds and rescues him with the help of other campers.
At the hospital, one of the evil Lehman brothers shows up again. Dressed as an orderly, he injects toxin into Cody's IV. Jack and the FBI agent assigned to the Lehman case burst into the room. Cody is placed into a medically-induced coma for weeks to allow the poison to clear his system.
Home after almost six weeks in the hospital, his first night is spent with Jack and his family and the ER trauma doctor who originally treated him.
As night falls, he fears the worst. He is awakened in the middle of the night by noise in the house. His mother (who also lives there) is roused from sleep, as well. When they try to call 911, they realize the killer has blocked the cell phones and has the downstairs receiver. He orders Cody downstairs. In order to keep Lehman from coming upstairs to 'fetch him', he agrees to go down.
As he descends the stairs, Lehman shoots him in the leg and he falls. Rolling behind the couch, he tries to track the man from his voice, but his shots in that direction fail to hit their target. He's told that Jack and family are already dead and that the young doctor who saved his life is also a target of their rage.
End of the previous segment:
Anger and unbearable grief overwhelmed Cody, crushing the breath out of him, sending waves of pain through his chest. They'd killed Jack. "No!" he screamed. He stood, planning to shoot into the muzzle flash as Lehman shot him down. As he did so, he realized that the killer had moved again, either with incredible speed or knowing that his words would distract his victim. He stood directly in front of the couch now and grabbed Cody's tee-shirt as he rose, hitting the revolver out of his hand and swinging back to hit Cody in the face with the butt of his weapon.
Cody sagged, his knees no longer able to support him.
"Stupid, McClellan. Very stupid." Lehman put the muzzle of the revolver under Cody's jaw, shoving upward and inward. "I'd expected more of you, considerin' what all I read about you. Your credentials led me to believe the night would go much better." He pushed harder into Cody's throat, making him gag. "It's okay, though. I think I can still save the evenin'."
Lehman pulled him around the side of the couch, dragging him to the stairs. Cody stumbled, the ringing in his head too loud and insistent for him to focus or regain his balance. Lehman laughed; a loud, booming declaration of victory that filled the living room and rolled ahead of them up the stairs. "Time for a little family reunion, McClellan. I figure I'll take out your mom and daughter first. We'll take our time. Your mamma is quite a looker for an old gal, and I've always had a fondness for little girls -- always so scared, so hopeful that they can do somethin' to get out a' death. Yep, we'll take our time with the women. And don't worry; I'll let you watch." He laughed again, and Cody tried to understand the rush of words. "Then the boy. I don't know why the stuff Ethan shot into you in the hospital didn't kill you like it should have, but we'll figure it out together. I have another shot all ready for your kid --"
As they began to mount the stairs, Cody's left hand brushed into Michael's ugly, tissue paper covered rock on the small table beside the landing. He grabbed it, lifting it and fiercely swinging it into the killer's face. He hit the man hard, on his right cheek. Lehman squealed and Cody felt warm blood splatter across his arm.
Both men crashed to the bottom of the stairs, stunned. The back of Cody's head slammed into the hardwood floor and stars exploded around him. He lifted his hand unsteadily to his face, pushing against his eyes. He had to get up, had to stop Lehman before he could mount the stairs and discover the entry into the attic. He turned his head to the right, squeezed his eyes shut and opened them, hoping that the dizziness and lightheadedness had passed. His Glock lay two feet away, wedged between the bottom of the couch and the floor.
Lehman rose slowly to his feet, gingerly touching the bloody gash on the side of his face, weaving as he stood. "Blood!" he roared. "My blood!" He kicked Cody's legs. "Look at me!" he raged, "I'm going to kill you and then I'm going to find your family. They'll suffer because of you, McClellan, more than you can imagine!"
Keeping his hand over his eyes, Cody moaned loudly and bent his left knee. Pain arced from the wound in his upper leg to his head, assaulting everything in between. He concentrated on the gun, trying to judge exactly how far to reach, how quickly he could grab the weapon and roll back to face his assailant.
"Look at me, McClellan!" Lehman screamed. "I want you to see this coming!" He kicked again.
Cody rolled toward the Glock, pushing hard with his left leg and rolling over his wounded shoulder and arm. Pain tore through him as he grasped the butt of the gun and jerked it free from its resting place, nearly dropping it as it came free.
Two gunshots sounded, almost simultaneously. He felt one burn across his back, heard it bite into the wooden floor behind him as splinters exploded upward. He rolled back to face Lehman, raising the gun to where he estimated the man's head to be.
He was not there.
Cody froze, aiming his revolver at the empty air. His heart pounded and he gasped for breath. His frazzled mind struggled for some explanation. The room felt suddenly calm again, but there was no peace in that. The old, reliable grandfather clock chimed the half hour. Cody swallowed.
Someone moved at the front door, and Cody swung his weapon that direction, craning his neck to see.
It was Jack. Cody blinked and frowned. It couldn't be. The Lehmans had killed Jack. They'd killed everyone.
"Hey, Code." Jack lowered his weapon and took a step forward. His voice was calm and quiet, like he was talking to a baby or an injured animal.
Cody had a sudden memory of Jack kneeling beside him the night Pam died, speaking in this same soft, gentle voice. He kept his gun pointed at the approaching apparition.
Jack put his free hand out, palm toward his brother. "Cody, it's me, man. Put your gun down, huh?"
Cody squeezed his eyes shut and gulped in a lungful of air. It hurt; everything hurt.
Jack took another step forward.
At the sound of his footfall, Cody opened his eyes and followed his movement with the Glock. How had the Lehman gotten over by the door? Why did he look like Jack? His hand began to shake again.
Jack called up the stairs. "Mom? You up there? I think I may need you down here." He never took his eyes off of his brother. He bent and lay his revolver on the floor, rose and kicked it away from him. "Look, man. I put mine down. You put yours down, too, okay?"
Cody held the gun steady at Jack's chest, adjusting his aim as his brother moved forward. From above, the men could hear the clatter of Rachel and the children making their way out of their hiding place in the attic.
It occurred to Jack that Cody may well shoot him and that, very probably, his mother, niece, and nephew would see it happen. He drew in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. Even if Cody didn't pull the trigger, Aulers and his band of merry men would be arriving at any minute. If he couldn't get his brother to lower his weapon before then, the end could be the same, with Cody as the victim instead of him. He was sure the feds wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet in Cody if they thought he was going to shoot them.
He stopped and looked down, prayed, then cleared his throat. "Cody, pay attention." He used the same tone he would for a perp just before an arrest. "I told you to put the gun down. Now do it . I'm not messing around, and I'm not telling you again."
Cody's hand, already trembling, began to quake and his whole body shook. He bit his lower lip, closed his eyes again and forced his hand to open from around the butt of the gun, balancing the weapon on the palm of his open hand.
Jack stepped forward and took it. "How are you doing?" he asked, putting the gun in his own empty shoulder holster.
"Same as always," Cody responded. "Shot and broken and smacked in the face."
Jack knelt beside his brother, found the wound in Cody's leg and pushed hard against it. "Gee, Code," he said, "didn't I tell you not to do this again? If you really want to see the good doctor you can always just call her on the phone. Invite her out for coffee or something. Probably be a lot less traumatic, for both of you. I know it'd be cheaper."
Cody tensed suddenly, pulling air into his lungs in a rush and cried out as he jerked himself into a sitting position. Jack tried to push him back down but Cody fought him. "He's up there, Jack! Lehman! He's after Mom and the kids! He's still here! I didn't get him! We've got to go --" He stopped suddenly as Jack pulled him up and pointed .
Lehman lay several feet from them. He was on his back, staring sightlessly up the stairs he had wanted so badly to climb. His gun lay in his limp, lifeless hand, no longer the threat it had been only seconds before. His blond hair looked white and ghostly in the slab of moonlight shining through the curtained windows. The movement of the tree outside played across the man's face, hinting at life that had fled.
"I think I owe you a new rug," Jack said flatly. "I don't know if this one can be saved."
Cody sagged in his brother's arms. "It's done?"
"It's done." Jack lowered Cody gently back to the floor, returning his attention to the injured leg.
Cody raised a hand to his face, wiping the blood away from his mouth, moaning softly as he moved. "I'm so tired of those guys hitting me in the face."
"It won't happen again. I promise."
Cody blinked up at the ceiling, dragging in shaky breaths. "I thought they got you," he whispered.
"They tried. Our Lehman snuck in the kitchen door."
"You heard him?"
"No; not me. Laine had gone into the kitchen for a midnight snack. No lights, of course, because she was cheating on that stupid diet she's always pretending to be on. She heard him. She ... she shot him with the gun I keep in the top of the cabinet in there." He paused, thinking about how hard it had been to see his wife holding the weapon, her face white, eyes fixed on the intruder; of how difficult it had been to remove the gun from her iron grasp. "Kind of an embarrassing way for such a big deal hitman to go out, I guess. Taken down by a cute little thing with no more experience with guns than watching me at the target range."
"It was enough."
"I guess."
Cody shivered at the thought of his sister-in-law going face to face against the Lehman brother. The thought of her gentleness against the madman's violence made him sick to his stomach and he exhaled sharply. Or maybe, he thought, the evening was beginning to take its toll. "She's okay?" He focused on Jack, trying to read through his older brother's closed expression.
"Mad. Furious. Maybe even a little scared now that the initial shock is over. But she's okay." He knew that would pass, that she would be tormented by this night for the rest of her life and that even knowing she had no choice would not save her from the demon that was now a part of her soul. "She's okay," he hoped aloud again.
"Thank God." Cody's tone carried more true gratitude than relief.
"I already have," Jack said quietly. "Several times. I have a feeling I'll be thanking Him for tonight every day from now on."
Cody stared at the dark ceiling a second longer. "Heard from Aulers?" He heard the noise of his family nearing the top of the stairs and turned his eyes in that direction, watching as they began the short descent. They were safe, he realized, really safe now. Tears welled behind his eyelids, stinging, threatening to spill down his face.
"He ought to be on his way here by now. I decided not to wait." As Jack spoke sirens wailed faintly in the distance. "And there comes the Calvery now," he observed. "Right on time ." He smiled down at Cody. "You owe me big time, little brother. Three times in a month I've dragged your backside out of the fire."
Cody nodded slowly. "It's been a good month."
"How do you figure that?" Jack raised an eyebrow.
"You've been there every time."
Rachel, Katie and Michael reached them, scared and relieved and crying. They crowded around the men, hugging and laughing through their tears as the sirens grew closer.
Author Notes
Nearly done, y'all. I know this is long, but it didn't seem right to chop this part up. Thank you for understanding. :) Is the font too small? I have it et at 'cursie' size 22. and it still seems too little for comfortable reading...
Cast of characters in (or mentioned in) this segment:
Cody - early 30s, widowed, raising his two children with the help of his mom. Private investigator. Wandered across an assassination in the middle of a state park.
Jack - mid 30's, married, father, and a police detective. Cody's brother.
Rachel - jack and Cody's mom
Michael and Katie - Cody's children, 12 and 6, respectively.
Lehman - a killer who, along with his family, targets minority civil rights leaders and politicians
Aulers - FBI agent assigned to the Lehman case before Cody and Jack's encounter with the killers.
Abby Kitman (the good doctor) - the ER trauma doctor that first treated Cody at the hospital.
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