Dr. NoSleep

He stared at me, but without focus.

He listened rapidly.

Most of his awareness was on the front door.

The conversation was ongoing.

I forced myself not to shift my eyes toward Emery, knowing it could give the game away if I did.

Instead, I continued to use my peripheral vision, watching as Emery sat slowly up and reached for the baseball bat Robbie had left propped against the wall.

He grabbed the bat and stumbled to his feet.

Shouts came from the front door, followed by four quick gunshots from inside the house.

The crack of more gunshots sounded, this time from outside.

Emery froze, still several feet from striking distance.

Tony tensed at the noises, shoving the bat deeper into my mouth.

Then he turned and saw Emery.

As he yanked his bat out of my mouth, I whipped my hands up and grabbed it, stopping Tony's motion.

This gave Emery just enough time to lunge forward and swing his bat, even weak and woozy from the head injury.

Tony blocked the incoming blow with one arm and tried to yank his bat free from my grasp with the other.

I didn't let go.

Instead, I let him pull me to a sitting position as he tugged on the bat.

As Emery swung again, Tony let go of his bat altogether, once again knocking the blow aside and this time yanking the bat away from the injured man.

But I had his baseball bat now.

I got it turned around and swung it as hard as I could for my sitting position, aiming at his right knee.