“The little ones. Maise and Jake can stay. Maise is ten and she can hold a rifle. Jake’s a decent shot.”

“You’re insisting on staying?” I asked.

“I said what I said. I’m playing nice here. If you want to be a hardass on this, I can be less nice.”

I hated these guys.

“Get the kids,” Nan said.

I backed away, and waited for Nan to round the people up. Capricorn had created a barricade that intersected the fence around the field, blocking some of the path too. He and Sveta knelt by it.

“They’re rounding up some kids,” I said. “A good size group is inside. Guy called Enoch. They’ve got some kids in there, and they’re going to start shooting if Hollow Point shows their faces.”

I heard a distant holler that might have been Beast of Burden. The fact they were close enough for me to hear—

“Fighting is trending this way,” Capricorn said. “Sounds like that might happen soon.”

“Victoria, you worded that like the kids were going to be doing the shooting,” Sveta said.

“Some are. The very young are getting evacuated. I’ll go back and get more info, but there are kids Kenzie’s age and younger with guns in their hands and parents expecting them to shoot.”

“No,” Sveta said. “No, that’s not right.”

“No,” I agreed. “Do you think you can do anything about it, Capricorn?”

“Without tipping them off?” he asked. He looked at the building. “Shit. I’d need to keep an eye on things and stay close.”

Meaning we’d be close to any fighting that erupted and we’d have to deal with Enoch’s group if they found a way out and happened to be pissed off.

A stray bullet clipped the side of the house, twenty feet from us. I huffed out the half-breath I’d intended to use to say something.

“Do it,” I said. I flew over to the house. Nan was gathering the kids. Some had bags.

“We’re ready.”

“Through the woods. Keep going as straight as you can. There are more hero capes to the far north, you don’t want to go that way. Too far east and you might run into the villains as they back out. Northeast.”

Nan nodded.

“They’ll take you into custody and keep you safe. What other houses here do I need to go to?”

“Three houses down,” she indicated. “Tony’s cousin. There’ll be kids.”

I hadn’t missed what she’d said earlier. The friends and family thing. She protected her own, and her advice was suspect for that reason. “What about the houses between here and there? Empty?”