Suzi and Michelle had immediately started looking a dresses. After an hour of searching they narrowed it down to a choice of three styles. Michelle trusted Suzi's sense of fashion. The whole thing to her was a dream come true. She was going to have her day as a bride. She wanted everything to be perfect.
Suzi had screamed when Michelle asked her to be her bridesmaid. She was a professional woman, but a woman above all. Most women loved weddings. They discussed Sam at length while they were planning what they would want for the wedding.
"I'm so lucky to have him. He's the most caring wonderful man I have ever met. You come from one hell of a family Suzi. I'm looking forward to meeting your mum."
"She's off somewhere with Greenpeace at the moment, hopefully she will be back next month."
"What was your Dad like Suzi?"
"Oh, he was the strong and thoughtful type. Sam is just like him. I'm so glad Sam found you. He needed someone as nice as you. He has a problem seeing the bad in people. I told him Fiona was borderline psychotic, but he wouldn't listen. He thinks he can fix everyone."
Michelle smiled and said.
"Yeah, that's my Sam."
"Right Michelle, let’s talk hen parties then bridal lingerie."
She gave Michelle a sexy wink and started to look up some local venues.
Fiona had stopped for some fuel at the petrol station just outside Hertford. She had an open bottle of Jack Daniels next to her on the seat. As she return to her car she sat down and took another swig. Her head span, but she drove the last mile to Sam's house.
She pulled up outside and snorted a line of cocaine. It mixed with the alcohol in her brain and gave her a false sense of confidence. In her head it was all straight forward. She would ask Sam for the money or she would tell everybody about his sordid love affair with that disgusting little tranny. The fact that she had already tried this. and failed, never occurred to her. She would take the gun in as persuasion, in case he refused.
Fiona saw Sam's car outside, so she walked to the door carrying the shotgun inside a coat in her left hand. She knocked at the door and waited. It was almost five, Michelle was expecting a pizza that she had ordered. She opened the door and turned around without looking who was there.
"One second, I'll just get my purse."
Fiona pushed through the door and into the hallway. She kicked the door closed with her foot.
"Well look who it is, little Miss tranny pants. He's not got sick of you and dumped you for a real women yet then?"
Suzi had heard Fiona and rushed into the hall.
"Oh, the lezzy shrink as well, what are you two up to? Starting a coven?"
"Piss off Fiona, you have no right to be here. Sam's divorced now, he's free of you." Suzi said.
"He can be, all he has to do is pay me two hundred thousand, and I'll stay out of his life forever."
Michelle couldn't keep quite when she heard that.
"You tried that already, you sent your poison emails, and you know what? No one cared. The world is moving away from pure hate of anyone different. There are still a lot like you, but none of Sam's friends care. So you can do your worse."
Fiona saw red. It wasn't going to plan, this should have been easy.
"Where's Sam? You don't get to talk to me like that. You want my worse, fucking fine, you got it."
Fiona dropped the coat. Michelle and Suzi saw the gun, and backed into the living room. Fiona followed pointing the shotgun at Michelle.
"Whare is he? Where's that tranny loving excuse for a man?"
"He's at work, he won't be back until tomorrow." Michelle said. Hoping Fiona would just leave.
"His fucking car's outside, don't lie."
"He has a small electric car now.”
"Huh, that figures, fake car, fake woman. He really is going down market."
Suzi could see Fiona was at the very least drunk. She knew anything could happen. She saw the barrel of the shotgun wavering.
"Listen Fiona, when he comes back, I'll ask him to call you. I'm sure he will help you out. There is no need for anyone to get hurt."
"No, I think we'll just wait until he comes home. Sit down both of you."
Fiona shut the door behind her.
After a few moments there was a knock on the door.
"Pizza, anyone home?"
"Ignore it, just stay where you are. Fucking pizza, you really are low class scum aren't you Micheal?"
They could hear a muffled conversation from outside. Sam strode into the living room carrying two pizza boxes.
"Don't worry girls, I paid."
Sam took in the worried faces, then turned to his left and saw Fiona pointing the small .410 shotgun at him.
"What the hell's going on Fiona?"
"Over there Sam. Sit next to rest of your weird family. A tranny, a lezzy and a poof. A real bunch of freaks."
Sam could see the anger flash in Michelle's eye's. He hoped she wouldn't do anything stupid.
"Fiona what do you want? Let's stay calm and talk about it."
"Right then, Sammy boy. Two hundred thousand, in my account now, or you get to choose which of these bitches I kill.
"You wouldn't do that Fiona, you're not a killer."
"You don't know what I'm capable of Sam. I married a weak excuse of a man for money didn't I?"
That stung Sam. He had guessed that was why she married him. He had loved her at first, he thought she had loved him.
"I don't have that much money. I paid off the mortgage on this place as a wedding present for Michelle. I only have nine thousand left. You can have that if you will leave."
Fiona snapped.
"You fucking queer. You go from being married to a real woman, to marrying that fucking tranny freak. I should shoot your fucking cock off."
The shotgun swung towards Sam. Michelle panicked at seeing Sam being threatened. She rushed to defend her man. Michelle reached Sam and was about to push him out of the way when the gun went off.
The room filled with the stench and smoke of the gunpowder. Screams erupted. Sam saw Fiona eject the cartridge and pull another out of her pocket. He felt the wound on his leg, wet and bloody. He leapt in front of Fiona as she put the new cartridge in. He drew back his fist and hit her as hard as he could. His fist went numb with pain as it connected with her . Sam was sure he heard a crack, he must have broken her jaw.
Fiona slid down the wall unconscious. He turned to see Suzi screaming.
"Michelle no!"
Michelle was on the floor moaning. Sam's training took over. She had damage to her groin and her femoral artery. He applied pressure to the wound to try and stop the bleeding.
"Get an ambulance Suzi!"
He could hear Michelle's breathing slow. She would need CPR soon.
"Sam you're bleeding, let me take over."
"Suzi please apply pressure here. I need to administer CPR."
The surgeon in him had taken over, he was all business, trying to save the life of his patient. As he breathed for her he noticed the tears falling from his eyes onto Michelle's face. He worked tirelessly to keep her alive. He could feel himself slowly growing cold. His own blood loss was taking it's toll.
The paramedics arrived and quickly assessed the situation. Sam refused treatment until he saw Michelle was intubated. He passed out in the ambulance as it sped toward Harlow hospital.
Sam woke as the paramedic bandaged his leg. He looked across and saw Michelle hooked up to the ECG. Her heartbeat was faint, then, to his horror, it stopped. Sam fought to stay conscious as he heard the steady tone that meant Michelle's heart had stopped.
©Leeanna19 2022
Comments
We do love them Cliff Hangers
Okay Leanna break out the paddles for all your readers. You gave everyone their own heart attack.
I shot a rabbit one time with a 410. Knocked him down and then the jumped up and ran off. I never carried it again. I shot one more rabbit in my life but it was with daddy's 12ga. He didn't run off but wasn't worth dressing out either. Gave up on daddy's shotguns and shooting anything for sport. There's no sport or fun in killing something. I only do it to protect the livestock.
Hugs Leanna, excellent writing skills.
Barb
Life is a gift, don't waste it.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Thanks Barbara, as you say,
Thanks Barbara, as you say, the .410 is the lowest gauge shotgun, but it was almost point blank.
Leeanna
As a Texan turned Okie....
I can confirm that 410 is not the lowest caliber shotgun. In fact shotguns are not measured by caliber at all. Shotguns are actually measured by guage. Caliber is a measurement of the projectile or the bore of the barrel and the projectile is matched to the bore. Guage is a completely different measurement and refers to a circle whose measurement never changes. 10 gauge is the largest shouldered shotgun and only 10 shells fit in the circle that is used to determine shotgun shell gauges. 410 is the smallest gauge shotgun and 410 shells fit into the gauging circle. Any shotgun at point blank range can be devastating from further back the size of shot used and the barrels choke would be determining factors in about of damage. Bird shot annoying, buck shot devastating and then the in between sizes of shot vary. The choke controls the spread of the projectiles and buck shot fired from a gun with a tight choke could damage the gun and injure the gunner. I have over explained and given unnecessary information but my daddy took me shooting and hunting to try to make a man out of me. Now he is dead killed by covid and his wife won't give me my hunting rifles one was mine and the other was left to me when my grandfather passed away.
EllieJo Jayne
Thanks, I've ammend it. Not
Thanks, I've ammend it. Not many in the UK have much to do with guns, thankfully. You can get them, but need to be kept in locked cases, you get a visit from the police etc. The way knife crime is here, guns would be a disaster.
I'm an archer, I'm just glad the knife crime idiots don't use crossbows. A bit difficult to conceal I suppose
Leeanna
From the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/apr/12/coroner-national...
I remember that 3 years ago.
I remember that 3 years ago. I shoot longbow and recurve. I met a guy once who made his own crossbows. He made one with a 400lb draw weight. You had to wind it to load it. When he tried it at a target on a barn it went through both sides, and kept going. People think bows are toys. For 1000's of years they were almost WMD's.
Leeanna
Of course the crossbow was such a terrible weapon
that its use was forbidden against christians.
However, the longbow was an even more effective weapon in skilled hands: range, penetrating force AND high rate of fire.
As a weapon for assassins - not so good. Hard to hide
Despite that: Remind me not to make you angry at me.
It's nice to see you know the
It's nice to see you know the English meaning of longbow. What UK archers call an American flat bow, a fiberglass bow with a shelf, is called a longbow in the USA. In the UK a longbow is usually a one piece wooden bow D shape .
The crossbow can have a better range. It needs little training to use. It is very slow. The longbow in the hands of a man trained from childhood could loose 12 arrows per minute. You loose an arrow, not fire it. Fire was a term used when cannons and matchlocks were used in battles.
Leeanna
Got my curiosity up
Certainly not the tiny little things they show in the western movies. Mass times velocity would be the the total speed and impact of the arrow at initial contact with the target. The bows shown in the video would put a lot of that into the flight of the arrow. https://improvedarchery.com/american-flatbow-vs-english-long...
How deadly is the longbow in the hands of one skilled in the art? I can draw and fire the pistol on my hip 3/10 of a second, I would NOT want to engage anyone skilled with a longbow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEG-ly9tQGk
Hugs Bru, Leanna, now ladies, I've received pics. Leanna, Connie sent me pics of you at the Yorkshire arts festival. I love your Ivory colored shirtwaist dress. I want to borrow.
Bru darling, what was that you were or weren't wearing at the Snow Queen Festival in Norway last month? A silver white sparkly little? Was that a dress? Wear something I could borrow would you? I'd be afraid to step out of the bedroom in that dress.
Hugs Ladies
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Caliber, gauge and bore
Gunsmiths had to make things complicated, so there are three different systems for measuring the size of a gun. Caliber is a measure of the diameter of the barrel, but there are two different ways to measure the diameter of rifled barrels, and two different scales so that a .38 caliber handgun and a .357 and a 9mm are actually all the same size or very close.
For shotguns, gauge is usually used which is related to the WEIGHT of a lead ball that would fit in the barrel. So a ten gauge barrel would hold a ball that weighed a tenth of a pound, a twelve gauge would hold a ball that weighed a twelfth of a pound etc. The smallest gauge was usually a 28-gauge.
But the smallest shotguns are measured by bore, like a musket. A .410 bore is actually very close to the same size as a .45 caliber pistol round. In fact, derringers were made that could hold either a .45 caliber cartridge or a .410 bore shotgun shell, and fire whichever was loaded at the time. There actually were smaller bores than .410, such as .360, .280 and .240, but I don't know if anyone makes the smaller sizes anymore.
I researched this stuff for various western and detective stories I've written over the years. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Blimey.
From one nail biting cliffhanger to another. You need to give your readers a break from time to time, Leanna. Our engines cannae take it!
☠️