Free Dead or Alive by Trevion Burns

That’s why I’m still with him even though he’s been trying to get rid of me for a while now.  But now I see that you’re more than equipped to help him on your own.  I’m sure that you’d take much better care of him that I ever could.”
    “You’re damn right,” Barbara spat. “Now get!  Go on.”  She motioned to the stairs of the basement with her gun.
    “Please don’t shoot me,” Violet pled as she passed, arms still raised.  She made it to the first step of the basement stairs before turning to Barbara, who was still facing Remy, taking in the woman’s vulnerable state.  Before she could think herself out of it, Violet leapt from the stairs and wrapped an arm around Barbara’s neck, immediately taking her opposite wrist in her hand, locking the chokehold in place.
    “Oh shit!” Remy cried out, and had the good sense to duck just as Barbara pulled the trigger of the shotgun out of pure shock, sending a bullet crashing through the ceiling as the air was stolen from her lungs.
    Violet tightened the arm she had around Barbara’s neck when the old woman began to struggle, sure she could feel the exact moment Barbara’s air supply was completely blocked off.
    Remy watched in horror as Barbara began to turn blue. “Good god, Chambers, don’t kill her.”
    Without responding or loosening her hold, Violet looked at Remy just as Barbara’s eyes began to roll into the back of her head.  Within seconds, she was out cold.  Violet eased Barbara to the floor before bracing herself on either side of her limp body, holding her ear next to the woman’s thin lips. Looking up at Remy, Violet saw him with both hands digging into his hair, and nodded to him.  “She’s out.”
    “Yep, I noticed that.”
    “Grab the gun.”
    With hesitation, Remy swiped the gun from Barbara’s limp hands.  “Is she--?”
    “Remember those two tomboy sisters I told you about?  Well, when I was little we used to play this game all the time.”
    “I’m sorry, this is a game?  Because it looks a lot like you choking a poor old lady to death.”
    “Poor old lady?  She was about two seconds from blowing both our heads off.”
    Remy cut a look at Violet.  Even if their lives had been in grave danger, she still looked a little too proud of what she’d just done.
    Violet placed her hands squarely on her hips, eyebrows raised.  “She’ll be fine.  In a couple hours she’ll wake up with no idea what happened.  It’ll be like she took a long nap.”  Violet quickly grew exasperated at the pure horror on his face.  Her shoulders slumped.  “Like I said, Sally, me and my sisters used to do this to each other all the time.  Pull your panties up. She’s fine. She just had a rifle pointed straight at our skulls.  We had to get her before she got us.”
    “Us?  She has a shrine of worship for me hanging on her basement wall.  If anybody was going to go, it was going to be you .”
    Violet scoffed and rolled her eyes.  After a few seconds passed, her frown melted into a laugh.  “You’re right,” she admitted.
    Remy wagged a finger at her.  The handcuffs that were still locked around his wrist jingled as he did. “You know, I always did have a knack for picking the wrong women, but holy shit baby, do you take the cake.  By a mile.”
    “Are you really whining to me about swiping the wrong hostage?”
    “You don’t get to call yourself a hostage, anymore.  If anything, I’m your hostage now.”
    “Do you hear yourself?  Pretty sure I just saved you from a lifetime of reenacting the movie ‘Misery’ with little miss Kathy Bates over here.”  She motioned to Barbara passed out on the floor.  “Call me crazy, but I think some thanks are in order.”
    “Are things back home so boring for you that you have nothing better to do than follow a criminal around everywhere he goes?” He could see that he hit a nerve with that one, so he tucked it in his back pocket for later.
    “You don’t know