Page 31 of Acting on Instinct
See? Shewasa liability.
At that moment, there was another scream in the back, and Ty must have made some hand signal because as the three robbers in the front shifted their attention toward the sound, Rory leaped toward the man who had covered Ty with his gun and sank his teeth into the man’s arm.
The scream that robber’s throat emitted sent bitter cold waves racing across Kira’s scalp.
Rory shook the man’s arm until the rifle dropped to the ground.
Ty leaned down, grabbing up the gun as he rolled and landed on his feet. Stepping forward, Ty pointed the gun at the door guard’s head. “Down on your knees,” he yelled to the door guard over the sound of the man howling and begging for relief from Rory’s bite.
Split seconds, Kira’s mind had trouble keeping up.
Everything came back into focus when the man next to Kira dropped the loot bag, fumbling with his rifle sling to draw his weapon around.
Kira grabbed the rifle on his back and tugged it down with all her weight, so he couldn’t bring it forward to shoot. As the man spun to force her to release her grip, Kira spun along with him.
She was well aware that there was still a gunman out of reach.
The man with the pickaxe dragged Abdul from his office by his hair.
Kira saw that Abdul’s face was bloody and swollen.
The fourth guard lowered the gun toward Kira.
How Rory knew that was happening, she had no clue. In the blink of an eye, Rory released the man on the ground and leaped with one bound from the center of the store, over the case, to latch onto the gun arm of the newly arrived threat.
Kira pulled harder on the rifle in her hands, wondering if she should tip it toward the guy on the ground to try to shoot him. But she decided she had no idea what would happen, and there might be ricochets that might hit Ty. Besides, that man had curved into the fetal position, gripping his arm to his chest and sobbing loudly.
Now, Ty held control of the room.
With a few commands, all guns were in his possession, all robbers lay in a neat line, face down, with their hands laced behind their heads, their legs bent at the knees, feet crossed at the ankles.
Rory sat in front of them, and every robber knew that Rory was salivating for the opportunity to chomp into them.
Kira didn’t know what role to play here, so she stood where she was.
The police sirens shrilled into the parking lot and raced to the front of the store. Wheels clipped onto the sidewalk as the officer slid from under the steering column and hid behind their engine. Using their megaphone from their car, the officer called, “Durham P.D. Weapons down. Hands up.”
“Kira,” Ty said, “put your hands up and go outside and let the officer know what happened.”
Walking gingerly over the shards of glass, feeling the splinters crunch under her feet, Kira made her way through the store that had just minutes before been a work of art, a beautiful room. Abdul had spent many hours of effort to make it lovely for people when they came in. It was destroyed, and she was heartsick for Abdul, devastated for Nu’ma.
Kira moved slowly at the door, using her hip to open it wide and slide outside. There, she explained that these were men who had come in dressed as ICE, and that they had been ready to be compliant until the axe came in, and they started silly stringing the cameras, and that her boyfriend was a soldier from Fort Bragg, and he and his working dog had taken control of the room, that the owner had been hurt and needed an ambulance, and that there were four men, all of them had been armed with a rifle and a handgun.
The police officer was reluctant to go in because he was alone. “Get behind the engine. We’re waiting for backup.”
Kira was furious. “My boyfriend is inside holding a rifle on the four robbers.”
In a growly, ‘don’t you dare tell me what to do” voice, the officer said, “Ma’am, I am not going in there without backup.”
And so she stood next to the squatting officer and waited for more sirens and more squealing tires to race toward the scene.
When the police had amassed enough backup to feel comfortable, Ty handed authority over to them.
While the police zip-tied, patted down the robbers, and confiscated the weapons, Ty moved over to Abdul and rendered first aid while Kira called Abdul’s wife to tell her not to come to the store; to stay away for now.
With Rory lying at her feet looking like he’d had the best day ever, and Ty doing a masterful job of field dressing Abdul’s wounds, Kira was struck by how even-keeled Ty and Rory were.
It had been the same in Tanzania when Omar was killed. It was the same in D.C. when London was shot. There was hyperfocus and adrenaline, then calm and professionalism.
