Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
Carter stared at the dot on his phone. Mia hadn’t answered any of his calls and he’d gone from assuming she was on her way to the ranch to actively worrying that something had happened. He’d been pissed when he came home and she wasn’t there. He’d tried to warn her going out wasn’t a great idea but he hadn’t wanted to scare her to death about her uncle and that her life might be in danger.
The dot wasn’t moving and his mood shifted from pissed to worried. He grabbed his keys and raced from the cabin. Two minutes later, his tires squealed as he roared around a curve and raced down the road toward the stationary dot. If anything had happened to Mia, he wouldn’t forgive himself.
Mia opened her eyes and couldn’t understand where she was. It took a full minute for her to comprehend that she was on her left side looking out the splintered but still intact windshield. The headlights of her car lit up the trees and disappeared into the sky. She took a deep breath then halted abruptly as pain screamed through her torso. Breathing shallowly, she inventoried her state, raging headache and her mouth tasted coppery. Wiggling her fingers and toes for reassurance, she concluded that other than a bump on the head and some hopefully just bruised ribs, she was all right. Thank God for the airbags. The blood in her mouth was probably a result of the airbag inflating right in her face. Her lip stung when she ran her tongue over it, likely a cut also from the shock of the airbag. Still, she was alive.
Gravel crunched and footsteps scraped along, and she froze. Someone had run her off the road. Were they coming back to help, or finish the job? Someone was coming down the embankment. Two someone’s by the sound of things.
Terror made her heart slam double-time, making her breathe even more shallowly. What the hell was she going to do? Even if she could get her seatbelt undone, she would have to crawl up across the passenger seat and go out the passenger side window and then she’d have to jump down to the ground. She wasn’t sure she could do it.
The sounds were louder now. Mia swore. She didn’t have a choice. Chances were good whoever it was would try and kill her. She couldn’t stay there and help them succeed. She jabbed the release button on the seatbelt hard, and thankfully, it freed her. It took several tries to shift enough to get her feet beneath her, Finally, she crouched with her feet straddling the open space where the driver’s side window used to be.
She tried to straighten up and pull herself upward, but she didn’t have the strength in her arms and her ribs protested the harsh pulling of each attempt.
She glanced out the windshield. Maybe she could push it out and get out that way. She’d just lifted one foot to kick at it when a voice said, “Don’t fucking move.”
She jumped and let out a small scream. Looking up, she met the gaze of Mikey. He was looking down at her through the passenger-side window. “What do you want, Mikey? Why did you run me off the road?” she demanded.
He just grunted and she quickly concluded that he was having problems climbing onto the side of the car. While he was struggling with that, she could still kick out the windshield and get away. She gave it a kick, once, twice, and then pushed at it with her hands.
“What the fuck are you doing? Stop it. Stop or I’ll shoot you.”
Mia looked up at him again. He was still struggling to get onto the side of the car, gun clutched awkwardly in his hand. She had nothing to lose because he sure as hell wasn’t planning to let her leave the car alive. Even with a massive headache, she knew he was going to shoot her either way.
She continued to push and the window gave way. She half stepped, half fell out of the car onto what remained of the windshield and the ground. Pushing herself to her feet, she turned to run and skidded to an abrupt halt. There in front of her was Nakoa, the gun in his hand aimed directly at her heart.
Carter’s stomach was in knots as he broke every speed limit posted to get to the stationary dot. He rounded the last curve and swore. An SUV was parked haphazardly on the other side of the road. No headlights, and no movement from inside.
Carter slowed down as quickly as he could without locking up the brakes. He pulled over to his side of the road and turned off his truck. Then he hopped out, grabbing his gun from his waistband. He moved quietly to the other vehicle and peered through the gangster blacked-out windows. Empty.
The sound of voices floated up to him. Cautiously, he moved around to look over the side of the embankment. The scene below made his heart stop. Mia, lit up by the beams of her headlights, standing with her hands in the air.
“Nakoa, what the hell are you doing?” Mia cried.
“Shut up, Mia.”
Carter strained but he couldn’t make out the other man, Nakoa, in the darkness. He stood outside the glare of the headlight beam.
Another man approached Mia from behind.
“Don’t stand there, you stupid fuck. I’ll end up shooting you,” Nakoa yelled from the darkness.
“I was just trying—” the other man started.
“Get out of the fucking way,” Nakoa snarled.
Carter wanted to shoot him, but he couldn’t see him enough to be sure, and if he missed, then Nakoa would be free to shoot Mia. He aimed instead for the man behind Mia. He fired off a shot and the man screamed as he went down on one knee. Carter quickly moved from his position and started down the embankment keeping low so he wouldn’t be framed against the night sky.
Nakoa fired off a shot toward where Carter had been and then fired another one in his general direction.
“Nakoa, help me. You gotta help me. I’m hit,” the other man wailed.
“Shut up, Mikey.”
“Come on, brother,” he moaned.
Carter was almost down to the bottom of the embankment. He lost sight of Mia on his way down, but he was confident she’d gotten away.
Nakoa was still outside the beam of light so Carter couldn’t get a fix on him. He waited, hoping Nakoa would come forward to help Mikey. The sound of sirens ripped through the darkness.
Nakoa swore and lunged for Mikey. He grabbed the other man and pulled him out of the light. Carter could’ve shot him but with the cops arriving any minute, it might have been difficult to explain why he was shooting at a man who wasn’t shooting at him. He moved forward and started searching for Mia. She couldn’t have gotten far.
The sound of an engine reached him. Nakoa and Mikey were leaving. That was good and bad. “Mia,” he yelled. “It’s me. Where are you?”
“Carter?” her voice came from his right.
“Mia?”
“I’m here.” came her response and then he saw movement.
The cops arrived and were shining their flashlights down the embankment, calling out to see if anyone responded. He made it to her in four long strides. “Mia,” he said before promptly wrapping her in his arms.
“Thank God!” she mumbled into his chest.
Flashlight beams lit them up and then they were surrounded. The sound of an ambulance arriving above drowned out the officers’ chatter.
Mia pulled away from Carter and put a hand up to block the light. “I…I,” she started and then her legs gave out. Carter caught her and immediately picked her up. He made his way back off the embankment with her in his arms. His pulse was pounding due to the exertion and his relief that he’d gotten to her in time. He set her down again by the ambulance.
“No, I don’t need?—”
“Let them check you over. It was a bad accident.” He captured her gaze and tried to ask how she wanted to deal with this, but she seemed dazed. Shit. Did she have a concussion?
“Miss Ryan?” an officer asked.
Mia nodded.
“Okay,” the officer said, “let the EMTs check you over and then we’ll talk about your accident.” He leaned toward her. “Have you been drinking?”
She bit her lip. “I had two sips of wine at Ohana’s. Talk to Dahlia, the bartender. She can tell you how much she poured me and how little I drank. You can check my blood alcohol if you want. I’ll be under the legal limit.”
She glanced at Carter, and this time she gave him a look that said keep your mouth shut . He gave her a discreet nod to let her know her message was received. He didn’t figure she’d want to tell the truth at this stage. It would just bring up everything else. Besides, if she didn’t say anything, it meant that he might get another crack at hurting Donny. He wanted to take that bastard out for hurting Mia in the worst way.
“Let’s get you checked and then we’ll talk.” The officer nodded to the EMTs and then turned to Carter. “And you are?” he said as he led Carter a few steps away from the ambulance.
“I’m Mia’s boyfriend, Carter Nolan.”
“Okay, Mr. Nolan. How did you come to be here?”
Carter glanced over at Mia. She was on a stretcher now and the EMT was looking at her ribs. “Mia was coming over to my place?—"
“And where is that?” the officer asked.
Carter explained that he was staying on Hawk’s ranch for a while doing equipment tests for the military.”
The officer’s demeanor immediately changed. “You’re one of Hawk’s boys? Okay then, what happened?” The cop seemed to relax instantly.
“Mia was on her way over and I thought it was taking too long, so I called her. When she didn’t answer, I checked her location on my phone. I have her on an app.” Guilt flashed through him. He hadn’t told Mia that he had tagged her phone so he could locate her if he needed to. He was going to have to explain that one. It was standard protocol in a security scenario, but since they were sort of dating, did that make it stalkery?
“Can’t be too careful these days,” the officer said.
“When she didn’t move for a bit, and didn’t answer her phone, I came to see if she was okay. I had just found her when you guys arrived.”
He had no problem lying to the cop. Whatever kept Mia safe. He wasn’t sure if she thought going to the cops was a good idea or a bad one at this point. He had his own opinion on that score, but he needed to speak with her first.
“Okay. Thanks.” The officer said and then headed over to the ambulance. Mia was sitting up now. “She okay?”
The EMT nodded. “Cut lip and some bruised ribs but other than that she’s fine. A couple days of taking it easy and she’ll be good as new.”
“Miss Ryan, can you tell me what happened?”
Mia licked her lip and winced. She shot a quick look at Carter and then said, “I guess I must have dozed off. Been working long hours lately. Honestly, I don’t know what happened.”
“I see,” the officer commented. “You weren’t talking to anyone on your phone or maybe sending a text?”
She shook her head. “No. Oh, my God. My purse. It’s still in the car. My phone is in it.” She looked beseechingly at Carter.
The officer keyed his radio and asked one of the other cops down by the car to check for the bag. Turning back to Mia, he said, “And you’re sure there was nothing else? No one else involved?”
“No, just me. So sorry, Officer.” Mia closed her eyes and then rubbed her face with her hands.
Carter took that as his cue. “Do you think maybe I could take her home?”
The cop turned to look at him just as another officer appeared with Mia’s bag. She reached for it, but the officer offered it to the cop who was questioning her. “Do you mind?” he asked.
Mia shook her head.
The officer opened the bag. He dug around a bit and then pulled out her cell phone. He stowed the device back in the bag and returned it to Mia with a look at Carter. “You can take her home. Just drop by the station to file the report for your insurance,” he said to Mia.
She nodded her thanks. Carter helped her climb out of the ambulance. “You okay?” he asked in a quiet voice as he led her to his SUV.
“Not really. Thanks for saving my life. It was you, wasn’t it? You shot Mikey?”
“Yeah.” He opened the door of the SUV and helped Mia into the passenger seat.
He was guiding the seat belt around her body when she murmured, “This is the nightmare that keeps on giving.”
Carter agreed wholeheartedly, and it was only going to get worse.