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perhaps one and a half right now, but we’ll work on that.”
    “Those aren’t very good odds.”
    She smiled.  “That’s one way of looking at it.”
    “Are these more of the same people who killed my friends?”  Just saying it made Jimmy’s stomach hurt again thinking about Derek and Jamal.
    “Yes.  They are.”
    “How did they find us so fast?”
    Vanessa shook her head.  “I don’t know.  I took all precautions to ensure we’d be left alone.  Apparently, I didn’t think of everything.”
    “Now what?”
    Vanessa leaned back from the window and leaned against the wall.  “We wait.”
    Jimmy shook his head.  “For what?  Those guys are right outside.  If they know we’re in here, they’ll find us.  We’ll be trapped.  They could set fire to this house…just like last night.”
    Vanessa looked at him with a sad smile on her face.  “Jimmy.  Relax.  I didn’t say we’d wait for long.  Just give me a moment.”  She closed her eyes and Jimmy watched her breathing deepen.  It seemed weird that she’d choose this moment to rest.
    Jimmy wanted to look out of the window again.
    Do not look out the window.
    The voice again, great.  He frowned.  Why not?  I need to keep an eye on those guys.  Someone’s got to make sure we’re protected.  After all, she’s asleep.
    She is not asleep.
    On cue, Vanessa opened her eyes and then removed a small cell phone from her pocket.  She glanced at Jimmy.  “Time to give our guests a proper welcome.”  She pressed three numbers on the keypad and instantly, the house rumbled and shook.  Jimmy heard a sharp boom echo and felt the floor quiver for a moment.  From somewhere down below, he thought he heard someone shouting.
    Vanessa grabbed his hand.  “Time for us to be going now.  Stay close, won’t you?”
    They raced down the stairs and broke out of the closet at top speed.  Stealth didn’t seem to be a factor now as Vanessa tore around the corner of the hallway and headed downstairs straight for the front door.  Jimmy slipped and lost his grip on her hand.
    She skidded to a stop and turned around.  Jimmy saw the shadow behind her.
    “Look out!”
Vanessa dropped as the man behind her opened fire with a mean looking gun.  Jimmy ducked and rolled to the side as the bullets roared out of the gun and bit into the wooden banister, biting off chunks and showering the floor with it.
    Vanessa spun and swept the man’s legs out from under him.  He dropped and his gun clattered away.  Vanessa chopped down with the side of her hand on his neck and the man lay still.
    She raced and grabbed Jimmy.  “Thanks.”
    “Oh, no sweat.”
    The brief glimpse of the first floor Jimmy got made him think a bomb had gone off in the house.  But it seemed like it had blown away from the house rather than inside of it.
    Weird, he thought.
    They zipped down the front steps and Vanessa turned left.  “This way.”
    Jimmy followed her around the other side of the house and saw a small garden shed ahead of them.  He hadn’t noticed that before.
    Another guy appeared around the corner and as he saw them, brought his gun up to fire.
    “Watch out!”
    Vanessa threw herself into a diving roll.  Jimmy dropped for the safety of the porch.
    The bullets streaked along the ground, kicking up dirt and rocks as they hit.
    Jimmy watched Vanessa come out of her roll and launch something small and black at the man with the gun.  It struck him right between the eyes a moment later and he dropped like a bag of bricks.
    Jimmy got to his feet.  Vanessa came over.  
    “You all right?”
    “Was that your-?”
    “Cell phone, yeah.  Now I’ll have to get another.”  She pointed at the shed.  “Let’s get out of here.”
    They ran to the door, which was coming off the hinges and jerked it open.  Inside, a beautiful shiny black Ducati motorcycle sat with its nose pointed out.  Vanessa plopped a helmet in Jimmy’s hands.
    “Put it on.  Quick!”
    She slid