Cole: The Mangler: Book 1 (A Phoenix Club Serial thriller)

CHAPTER 8: We All Fall Down

The next gunshot took out the front driver's side tire, bringing the RV to a grinding halt as the front end dipped to the left and the wheel dug into the snow and gravel. Running on pure adrenaline and desperation, Rick continued to gun the engine even though it was a futile attempt.

Reality set in when he saw Daniel approaching the RV in the side-view mirror. Rick gave up trying to move the massive rig and bolted from his seat. He grabbed a knife from the drawer and sliced off the coffee pot cord and hurriedly tied the side door shut, then rushed into the bedroom with his family.

"What happened?" Kiley cried. "Why did we stop?"

"He shot out the tires." Rick looked frantically around the room.

"What're you looking for?" Janet whispered with a tremor as she held the twins in her arms.

"Something I can use as a weapon."

The side door of the RV rattled and shook against the cord.

"Oh, God!" Kiley gasped. "He's coming!"

Rick yanked out a dresser drawer and busted off the front panel. He stood between the door and his family, wielding the inadequate weapon. Everything inside him insisted it was futile to fight, that all was lost, but he couldn't stand down, couldn't surrender his family without a fight.

The outside door ripped open, and the twins squealed in terror and huddled deeper into their mother's embrace. Kiley sat next to her, holding her mom and her little brothers, her face pressed against Janet's shoulder, crying.

Heavy footsteps entered the RV and came toward the bedroom. Rick moved to the side of the door; if he could catch him by surprise, hit him in the head, then maybe—

"Come on out, Rick," Daniel called. "I know you had to try, can't blame you for that. But it's over. We both know it."

Rick trembled, shaking apart inside. The man spoke true, and it hurt like hell. Still, he clutched the drawer panel, incapable of willingly turning his family over to the madman.

"Come out," Daniel warned, "or I'll start firing through the door and walls. What are the chances I'll hit one of the kiddies? Or your pretty wife? You willing to risk it?"

Fuck! Rick gripped the makeshift weapon and looked desperately at his family. The cold hard reality was—a bullet would be more merciful than what these monsters meant to do to them. But it was in his blood, in the very fiber of his being to preserve the lives so precious to him. Even though the humane decision would require him to tell the man to shoot... he wasn't capable of speaking those words, of giving the command to kill his family.

Rick moved to the bed and sank onto the end, shoulders hunched. Tears welled and ran down his face. "I'm so sorry," he whispered in despair. "I'm so sorry..."

Janet and the kids joined him on the bed, hugging him hard, crying with him.

"It's not your fault, Daddy," Kiley sobbed.

"It isn't," Janet whispered through her tears and kissed his face. "You tried, baby, you tried... there was nothing else you could do."

Rick pulled them close, clinging to them in desperation.

The bedroom door slid open, and Daniel stood before them, gun in hand. "That's sweet," he murmured dryly. "But family time is over."

Rick went numb as he and his family were herded out of the RV and into the bitterly cold afternoon. They stuck close together, he and Janet each carrying one of the twins, as they trudged through the snow toward the cabin. Janet gasped and her steps faltered when they neared the porch and spotted the gutted caretaker—still alive—and the younger inmate squatted next to him, drenched in the man's blood... bits of innards clinging to his fingers.