Free Cowboy Girl Annie by Fay Risner Page A

as they were in the alley, they edged toward
the dumpster with their guns drawn. Annie figured Big Ed was
worried about an ambush now that he knew she carried a
gun.
    Sirens rang out. A parade of squad
cars screeched to a halt behind Big Ed's car. The cops were in a
hurry to end the fire fights of the last few days by not letting
another one get started.
    Jake groaned as he peeked around the
dumpster. “Oh no, here the cops come already with their guns drawn.
Big Ed and his men have their guns aimed right at this dumpster.
We're bound to be full of bullet holes by the time this all goes
down.”
    “ What's a few more holes to me. I
already have one in me. Actually, two if you count the front and
the back of me,” Annie joked.
    “ This is no time to joke. I don't
have a hole in me yet, and I don't want one,” Jake complained with
a white knuckle grip on his doughnut sack.
    “ Now just trust me, Skinny Jake. This
plan of mine is going to work out all right. Just go along with
everything I say,” Annie whispered to him. “Here, you hold my
doughnut sack.” Annie saw the death grip Jake had on his sack and
pulled her sack back from his out stretched hand. “Don't you mash
my doughnut because you're all nervous.”
    “ Oh Annie, I won't,” Jake replied
reaching for the sack with shaky hands.
    Annie gave him her sack. “Fine, but
I paid good money for that doughnut. Whatever you do don't drop it.
Not in less you really want to see me mad.”
    “ Yes, ma'am,” Jake
snapped.
    Annie scooted until she was half
exposed at the end of the dumpster so Big Ed could see her. She
waved at him friendly like just to make sure she had his attention,
and to tick him off just a little. It felt sort of like waving a
red hanky at a mean bull. Now she had to make sure she dodged this
mad bull when he charged her.
    “ Oh mercy!” Jake cried softly.
“You're just asking to get shot again, Annie.”
    “ Hush,” she hissed.
     

Chapter 17
     
    The remaining two henchmen, with Big
Ed in the lead, had their guns out and were just waiting to get
close enough so they wouldn't miss when they shot. Evidently, they
hoped to shoot Annie and Jake and be long gone before the cops got
close enough to stop them.
    Annie stuck her arm around the side
of the dumpster and fired into the side of it. She chuckled when
she saw the thugs duck and freeze. They thought she was shooting at
them, and it tickled her.
    They had good reason to feel that
way. Any other time, she might have shot as many of them as she
could before the gun went empty. Today killing Big Ed and his
galoots wasn't in her plan.
    Jake was hissing in her ear again.
“Cowboy Girl Annie, you have a way of completely bamboozling me.
What did you do that for? If we don't have enough trouble, now
you're wasting bullets. Cain't be too many more left in that gun,
and us headed for a shootout with four armed men.”
    Annie chuckled. “Last count of heads
I took behind this dumpster we only have one gun and I'm holding it
so there ain't a we to this shootout.”
    “ I'm trying to tell you that gun
doesn't have enough shells left in it to kill all four of those
men,” Jake reminded her.
    “ Now why would I want to harm any of
those men with cops coming here to witness me do it?” Annie
asked.
    “ I'm glad to hear you thought of
that. The other thing, I'm saying is somebody isn't going to like
that dumpster shot full of holes, and we ain't got any money to pay
for fixing it. I'm just saying,” Jake griped.
    “ That won't be our problem. I didn't
shoot the dumpster,” Annie said in a hushed voice over her
shoulder.
    Jake's face went blank. “You
didn't?”
    Annie gave him a hard look. “Jake,
read my lips. That's exactly what you say if you're asked by the
cops.”
    Annie used her blouse tail to give
the pistol a fast wipe down. She threw it into the alley just out
of reach of Big Ed.
    Jake gasped. “Oh, have mercy on us.
Now you're giving Big Ed that gun which was our