Just Once - Page 35
Then the odds changed.
One moment Caleb was sweating under a pile of angry men, the next moment Caleb was tossing them off him like some sort of movie superhero as he sprang to his feet and caught something he didn't even know was there until he felt the impact. Too stunned at this turn of events to do anything else, Caleb opened his hand and glanced down to see what it was he had just caught.
It was a bullet.
“Holy . . . SHIT!” Caleb shouted.
“You're welcome,” Art chuckled, his daughter in his arms, as he walked over to check on his brother.
Caleb just looked dumbfounded. “You?” was all he managed to get out, his eyes dropping back down again to the bullet.
“Us,” Art corrected, tousling his daughter's hair.
“Did I do good, Daddy?” she asked.
“You did great, princess,” Art assured her.
The little girl gave her best “grown up” nod by way of response, but couldn't resist favoring her father with a happy smile.
“Reckon you got your proof,” Art told his brother with a grin.
“Reckon so,” Caleb absently agreed, his attention still firmly on the bullet in his hand. Then everything caught up with him at once. “What the fu-” Caleb automatically paused to correct himself as much as possible since he was in the presence of child. “Hell, Art! What? The? Hell?”
“Relax, little brother,” Art said with a wink. “It's all over.”
“Over?” Caleb repeated. “The hell it's over!” he swore, his accent coming full to the forefront in his excitement. “I just caught a mother . . . lovin' bullet, and there ain't no way in Hell that's the only thing I'm gonna get to do in this here fight!”
Art looked at Caleb like he thought his brother was completely insane. “You have strange priorities, you know that, right?” he sighed.
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