Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (69 page)

Dad
cocked the trigger.

The world seemed to hold its breath.

“Stand down, Mr.
Alley
,” an officer warned.

BLAM
!
Dad sent a shot to the ground just in front of Ted’s feet
.
Glory knew Dad never missed, it was just a warning, but the officers didn’t know that
.

White sparks came from two of the officers’ guns
.

BANG
!
BANG
!

The sound reverberated through the woods
.
One bullet got Dad in the right arm, sending the gun to the ground
.
Blood poured down his bicep as his limb hung loosely at his side
.
Shock spread over
Dad
’s ashen face
.
At first
,
Glory thought the second shot had missed
.
Then Dad clutched at his abdomen. Dark
red liquid spurted between his fingers
.

“
Dad
!”
Glory
screamed, fists pounding on the window. “
Dad
!
”

“You
son-of-a-
frickin’
...
” she heard Dad let out a string of obscenities
.
“I only wanted to scare th
at
jackass
.
”
He doubled over and eased himself i
nto
the grass, panting hard
.
His gun was quickly confiscated
. They cuffed his hands, which upset Glory further. It’s not like he could fight anymore. Dad closed his eyes and
moan
ed
. Then he went still and quiet.

Brandon
started a fight with the officers in
an effort to try
to get to
their father
.
Patrice
let out the worst sob Glory had ever heard
and
then
crumpled to the ground
.
Sirens sounded in the distance.

“Please don’t die,
Dad
dy
,
”
Glory
mouthed the words
because her voice quit working
for a moment
.
All she could do is watch as the ambulance pulled up, its red lights bounced off the house and all the people.

“
This is my fault
.
If I hadn’t taken the
Elboni
, the
star riders
wouldn’t have come and eaten the chickens, and you wouldn’t have whipped me, and I wouldn’t have gotten the welts
...
I’m so sorry
.
So sorry
!
Please, Dad, please, hold on. I promise I’ll make everything right if you can just hold on.
”

S
he lay down on the seat, and cl
utched
the stuffed bear, feeling numb all over
.
But the seat was unusually warm
and grainy
.
Like sand
.

Glory
sat up with a jolt
still
holding Mister Bear
.
This time
s
he was glad to be back in the Bamboozle
.

“
Dad
can’t be dead,”
s
he whi
mpered
.
“He’s too tough for that.
”

Suddenly, she was bowled over by a hug gone wild.

“Glory!
”

She’d forgotten about
Clash
being in the Bamboozle. Heck, she’d forgotten about the Bamboozle until a second ago
.

“
Glo,
”
He
pulled her at arms leng
ths
. “Y
ou’re crying—what happened?”

“I-I’m not sure.” Glory found it difficult to swallow
.
She hugged the stuffed bear close to her chest,
staring at the sand, but not really seeing it
.
The
scene
back
home kept playing over and over again in her mind
.

“I was back o
n
Tullah
, but I don’t know
for sure, t
he whole thing might have been a magical hallucination.”

“What happened?”

“The police and social services were at my house
.
Dad
shot at Ted Filmor
e
’s feet
,
not to kill, just to scare him
.
”

Clash’s eyes looked extra big behind his thick glasses.
“
Why?”
he gasped.

“I
f only Lady
Gost
hadn’t sent me here, I never would
’ve
gone through the blue door
,
and M
iss
Crenshaw wouldn’t have seen the welts
.
It’s the
Wybbil
s fault for eating the chickens and causing me to get a whipp
ed
.
”
She went on and on
,
but when
s
he got to
true
the source of h
er
problems it led back to
her own disobedience.
“If only I had stayed away from Queen’s Mesa
like I was supposed to
, I’d never have gotten into this mess.
”

“Slow down.” Clash took her face between his palms, forcing her to look him in the eye. “Explain to me exactly what
happened.”

“
Th
e police shot my Dad
. The shock on his face…I’ve never seen him look like that before…so helpless. But
I don’t know if it was real or no
t
. I don’t know if he’s alive or dead. I don’t know if I should grieve
,
or laugh
,
or what
.
”
She
flung her
arms
around
Clash
.
He hugged stroked her hair and tried his best to give comfort.

“There, there, now, I’m sure everything will be okay.”

“I’
m not. I’
m so confused
.
What
should
I do
?
”

“I don’t know.
”

Her body was wracked with a shudder. She pulled away and
curled up in a ball,
squeezing Mr. Bear
,
begrudgingly admitt
ing
that
it
gave
her some
comfort. Clash
gave up on giving advice and
simply la
y
down behind her
, pressing
his body against her own, draping an arm over her waist. There was nothing steamy about it, just a friend trying to let her know that he was there, and she wasn’t alone.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Glory said.
“I mean I wish you weren’t, because this is a horrible place to be, but I’m glad for your company.”

“
I knew what you meant.”

The two of them
watch
ed
the oval of sky above.
“My Dad took a bullet in the arm and one in the gut
.
Blood gushed everywhere
.
I’ve never seen him look like that—so
white, so
frightened.”

“You know,”
Clash
said
.
“My uncle was a medic in the Os
h
ian
ic
War
.
He said gunshot wounds always bleed a lot
.
His experience was that if
a soldier d
idn’t
die instantly
, and
a
skilled medic got to him really
fast,
the chance of survival was as high as ninety percent
.
My uncle called it the
golden hour.
”

“
The
golden hour
, huh.
”
Glory soaked up the new term a minute
.
“
The ambulance got there fast.
”

“
Sound
s
like your Dad
fell
easily within that golden hour
.
And don’t forget
the
Fire and Rescue
Station
is only a few miles from your house
.
They
have that helicopter, too.”