The Forge of Darkness (Darkness After Series Book 3) by Scott B. Williams Page A

resist, so he and his men could quickly kill them all. If they simply ran away, they might come back later with help or may tell others who would come to challenge them in the future. Drake liked doing things right the first time, and in his recent experience, killing most people outside of his little band who got in the way was the right way. He paced his horse back and forth on the road near the entrance to the long lane after cutting a gap next to the gate with the wire cutters he carried in one of his saddlebags. He and the other men were anxious to get moving, and hoping for a brief taste of battle before settling in for a big feast later that night.

Fifteen  

    O NCE THEY ’ D MOVED THEIR gear deeper within the cover of the woods, April asked Stacy and Samantha to stay there and keep Kimberly quiet and out of the wet, wrapped in a poncho she’d grabbed on the way out. She wanted Kimberly far enough from the house for extra safety while she and Lisa and David crept back to the edge of the yard to watch and see what was going to happen next. She felt they were relatively safe even so close, because after hearing the sound of horses she was sure these thugs would be riding down the driveway when they came. For some reason though, they still had not come any closer, and it was not until Lisa whispered that April knew why.
    “I saw somebody move over there in the woods on the other side of the yard!”  
    April stared where she was pointing and at first saw nothing, but then there was a movement. Two figures stepped out of the shadows and quickly crossed the yard to the other side of the house, momentarily disappearing from her view. If it were just one person, she might have thought it was Benny trying to get back inside undetected, but two working together meant that they had to be with the cattle rustlers.
    “It’s a good thing we’re not in the house,” David whispered.
    “Yes, they’re checking it out to see if anyone’s home.”
    “We could shoot them when they show themselves again,” Lisa said.
    “Not now. We don’t know how many there are out at the road, and all that would do is bring them looking for us. Right now they don’t know if there’s anyone around or not. Maybe they won’t look too hard tonight if they think whoever lives here has left.”
    “Look!” Lisa whispered again.
    April saw the two men come around from the back of the house to the edge of the porch. Seeing them there, pressed up against the wall a hundred yards away, she had to admit it was tempting to shoot them both dead right now. They had killed poor Tommy and it made her sick to think about it. And she knew what was coming next. They would ransack the only place she and her friends had left to call home, taking everything of use unless Mitch and the guys got here in time to stop them.  
    She watched with a sinking feeling as the two men stepped up onto the porch and crossed to either side of the door. After what seemed like several minutes but was probably less than one in reality, she heard a crash as one of them kicked the door in and then saw them go inside. April was about to whisper her disgust to Lisa and David when she heard a branch break with a dull snap clearly audible even in the rain. The sound was close—somewhere nearby among the very trees in which they were hiding—somewhere between them and the end of the driveway! Whoever had stepped on that branch was sneaking through the woods on the same side of the yard as they were!
    That Lisa and David heard it too was confirmed when April glanced at them and saw them staring back at her wide-eyed and speechless. She didn’t know if Stacy and Samantha could have heard it from where they were; she just hoped they stayed quiet. The sound was subtle and it was only one pop, but she had little doubt that it was a person. It took something heavy to snap a branch like that. And seeing how those other two men had crept up through the woods from the opposite side of