Chapter 4

Terry launched herself through the air as though she were playing football with her brothers. She tackled the big man from behind and they both hit the ground as gunfire sounded. Terry rolled one way and Actor the other. Actor raised his arm and fired his pistol, taking down the soldier. He looked to the girl, but she was already getting to her feet. He followed suit, his long legs taking him ahead of her again. He reached a hand back to her. When she didn't take it, he made sure she was still with him and kept running. He didn't see the red spots appearing on the snow behind her.

They reached the truck as it started to pull away. Terry flung herself onto the floor of the truck and scrabbled over to the side. Actor did the same on the other side. Both sat against the sides of the truck breathing hard.

Goniff was standing closer to Terry, watching the road. He thought he heard the snick of a switchblade and turned to look for the sound. He saw Terry with her right arm crossed in front of her, blood dripping from her fingers. She had her jacket off and was trying to cut her bloody sweater sleeve with her knife.

"Blimey Lady! Tell somebody when you're 'it," he exclaimed.

Actor's head shot in her direction.

"I'm okay," said Terry shakily, trying to manage one handed.

Actor was up and over to her in two strides. He took the knife from her and slit the sleeve from above the wound to the wrist. Goniff dug in their duffle bag and slid the aid kit over to the Italian. He cleaned the wound with water from the canteen, dusted it with sulfa and bandaged it tightly. Terry watched his hands the whole time.

"Thanks," she said when he was done.

"Why didn't you say something before?" asked Actor.

"Way I was brought up," she replied. "On a ranch, you get hurt, you finish what you're doing and then you take care of it."

To her surprise he placed two fingers under her chin and lifted her face to look at her. There was wonder and concern on his face. "When did you get hit?"

"That last one you shot," replied Terry.

"You could have been killed pulling a stunt like that," he admonished gently.

Terry gave a shrug, "Better my arm than you. Besides, I was behind you, so I was supposed to be covering your back, wasn't I?"

Actor wasn't sure how to respond to that coming from the girl, especially since she wasn't carrying a gun. "Thank you."

"You would do the same for me," she said.

Goniff squatted down beside them. Actor's hand dropped away.

"She okay?" asked the Englishman.

"I'm fine."

Both men chuckled. Goniff grinned broadly, "You can tell she's the Warden's sister." Terry looked at him questioningly. "That's the Warden's answer, no matter 'ow many bullets 'e's got in 'im."

Terry leaned back against the wall of the truck. The wound burned, but it was lessening with the dressing on it. She glanced at the con man. He was watching her with an unreadable expression. God, she wished he'd quit doing that. She hated when she couldn't read what he was thinking.

"'Ow'd you get 'it?" asked the Cockney.

"She knocked me down to keep me from getting shot," said the con man still wondering.

"I was keeping him from making a touchdown," teased Terry. At Actor's quizzical look, she said, "We played a lot of football when we were kids."

"You must have played rough," remarked Goniff, wondering how she could have brought the Italian down. Actor was wondering the same thing.

"We did," replied Terry.

They drove for another half hour before pulling off down a dirt track and hid the truck in the woods. The snow was gone here and the dirt was dry, making it harder for anyone following them to find them.

Goniff helped Terry out of the back of the truck to where Actor could pick her up and lift her to the ground. She thanked them both and walked around the truck while they retrieved their bags from the back. Craig was standing by the open front door, studying the map her had laid out on the seat.

"We have to walk in from here," he said absently to his sister.

"Okay," she said.

He glanced at her and saw her jacket draped over her right shoulder. He lifted the edge of jacket back to see the bloody bandage on her arm. "Oh for cryin' out loud Terry," he exclaimed more in concern than anger.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Can't you be more careful?" He checked the dressing. "Bullet out?"

"It went through."

Craig shook his head, turning away so she wouldn't see how scared he was.

"I'm sorry," she repeated more adamantly, thinking he was angry.

Actor walked around the corner of the truck just then and heard her words. He approached briskly. "Excuse me, Lieutenant, but your sister was hit preventing me from being shot in the back."

Craig's head whipped around and he stared at Terry. She shrugged her good shoulder. Garrison looked at his second and saw the same expression of surprise and uncertainty as he felt. "Scheiße," he said for lack of a better word. He picked up the map and walked away.

Actor patted her arm, "It's all right." He followed Garrison.

Casino walked up with a smile, "Hey Babe, don't worry about it. He ain't mad. We all been shot. If he got mad every time one of us got hit, he'd be mad all the time."

Terry was trying to comprehend that remark. She laid her hand on Casino's shoulder. "Thank you, Casino. I don't think anybody but you could have put it in quite that perspective."

"Anytime, Babe."