Chapter Twelve #2
The woman sounded genuine, but Caroline had a ton of questions for her.
She was certain Jack did, too, but she didn’t get any more info from her because Grace ended the call.
Maybe the deputy that Gunnar sent out would be able to intercept her and take her to the sheriff’s office.
Caroline put that thought on hold, though, when she looked ahead and spotted the red car.
Her breath vanished.
Because the car was practically wrapped around the utility pole. She couldn’t imagine Scotty or anyone else surviving that kind of collision.
Gunnar pulled the cruiser to a stop, and he threw open his door. Kellan and Jack did the same.
“Stay here,” Jack told her. “Let me check things out before you see him.”
He was trying to protect her, to shield her from seeing Scotty. Part of her appreciated that, but if there was any chance Scotty was alive, there might not be much time to talk to him.
But she didn’t get a chance to remind Jack of that because of the movement in the ditch.
Caroline caught it from the corner of her eye. Just a glimpse of someone next to the old ranch trail that was across the road from Scotty.
And that someone fired a shot at them.
JACK HAD BEEN so focused on getting to Scotty’s car that he hadn’t seen the shooter in time.
That was a big mistake.
Because the shot slammed into the back window. Right where Caroline was sitting. There was a bullet-resistant panel over the glass, and it held. The window didn’t shatter, but Jack also knew it might not hold up if someone continued to fire straight into it. And that was exactly what happened.
A barrage of bullets came, all blasting into that one area of the window.
Jack didn’t have time to return fire or even pinpoint the shooter.
He scrambled back into the cruiser, catching on to Caroline and pulling her down on the seat.
She was already about to hunker down, and she tried to drag him with her.
He couldn’t take cover, though, and he didn’t close his door. Not with his brother and Gunnar out there. So Jack shifted his position and tried to make sure they were okay. Both Gunnar and Kellan were on the road and were crawling their way back to the cruiser.
Gunnar had also left the door open, and like Jack’s, it was on the opposite side from the shooter. It would give Kellan and Gunnar two ways to get back into the vehicle.
Well, maybe.
Jack had to rethink that idea when several of the bullets skittered across the surface of the road.
None of the shots hit them, but the gunfire did pin them down.
Which was likely what the shooter intended to do, because almost immediately, more bullets blasted into the window before the attacker’s aim returned to the area near Kellan and Gunnar.
Whoever was pulling the trigger definitely had a target in mind.
And that target was Caroline.
He didn’t intend to let this snake shoot her, and that meant he had to do something now to stop it.
Jack pushed her down on the floorboard so he could move to the side of the cruiser where so many of those shots were being aimed.
Not that he was especially eager to get closer to the bullets, but he needed to get a visual on the shooter. And he got one, all right.
“He’s in the ditch,” Jack muttered under his breath.
The ditch, he knew, was deep and extended for miles. Worse, there were ranch trails where someone could have—and likely had—hidden a vehicle.
In this case, the trail was littered with trees and thick underbrush. Plenty of places for a gunman to use for escape. Jack didn’t want to let things get that far, though. He needed this person, preferably alive, so he could get answers.
Their attacker was low enough, the high banks of the ditch acting as cover, and only the person’s head, shoulders and weapon were visible.
He was wearing a ski mask. Jack couldn’t even be sure the shooter was a male, but whoever it was had to have some backup weapons because he or she wasn’t taking time to reload.
There were only a few seconds in between each new round of gunfire.
“Scotty,” Jack heard Gunnar say, and there was plenty of concern in the deputy’s voice.
Jack soon saw why. Scotty’s car door creaked open, and the man tumbled out onto the ground. He was alive, thank God. That was the good news. But even from the twenty or so feet of distance between them, Jack could see the blood on his shirt. Scotty was clutching his chest.
“He needs an ambulance,” Caroline blurted out, and that was when Jack realized she’d lifted her head up enough to look out his open door and toward Scotty.
Yeah, he did need an ambulance, badly, but unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen as long as there was active gunfire in the area.
The EMTs would likely have been able to hear the shots over the police radio, but Kellan had also texted someone, too.
He’d requested both backup from the sheriff’s office and the ambulance.
The EMTs could stay back until they got the all clear, but whoever was coming for backup would move in to help. Maybe that would happen before the bullets ripped the cruiser apart.
“There’s nothing we can do for Scotty right now,” Jack told her.
He pushed Caroline right back down on the floor, but he couldn’t help but notice her face. There wasn’t a drop of color in it, and her breathing was way too fast. Heaven knew what kind of flashbacks this was triggering for her, and it might be too much for her to handle.
She frantically shook her head. “Whoever’s doing this wants me. If we make him think I’ll come out there, he might leave cover enough for Kellan, Gunnar or you to get off a shot.”
So Caroline wasn’t near the panic stage after all. That didn’t mean she was thinking straight, though. “I’m not going to let you go out there,” Jack warned her.
“I agree. I think this person would just gun me down. Maybe he’d do the same to you, too.” Her words rushed out with her frantic breaths. “But we have to do something. Maybe I can call out to him to distract him, to make him think I’m coming out? We can’t just sit here.”
Jack was thinking that sitting there was their safest option. They could wait for backup. Or at least that was what he believed until the direction of the shots changed again. There was a new target for the gunman.
Scotty.
Hell. Jack saw the bullets kick up the dirt around where Scotty had fallen. He couldn’t tell if any of the shots had actually hit the man, but it was possible that would happen.
Kellan and Gunnar used the shift in gunfire to barrel into the cruiser. First, his brother. Then, Gunnar, who immediately started the engine. He pulled the cruiser up, blocking Scotty from the gunman’s shots.
Good. That was a start. It protected an injured man who didn’t appear to be armed. But, of course, the gunman just started firing at the cruiser again. They couldn’t just drive away, either, and leave Scotty unprotected.
The bullets continued to blast into the rear window over Caroline’s head, but even over the deafening sound, Jack heard something else. A siren. Another cruiser was coming up the road toward them.
And just like that, the gunfire stopped.
Part of Jack was glad that someone was no longer trying to kill Caroline, but he knew what the silence meant. The guy was getting away.
“Do you see him?” Jack asked Gunnar and Kellan. He was hoping they had a better vantage point from the front scene, but both shook their heads.
“The shooter’s probably using the ditch to put some distance between him and us,” Kellan concluded.
Yeah, Jack figured the same thing. “I’m going out there,” he said.
That got a loud, quick “No!” from Caroline.
“The gunman could be moving so he can get a shot at Scotty,” Jack reminded her.
That didn’t exactly stop the protest he saw in her eyes, but she didn’t say “No” this time. Instead, she whispered, “Be careful.”
He would, but Jack didn’t take the time to reassure her. That was because he needed to get aim on the gunman before he resurfaced and shot Scotty.
Jack got out of the cruiser, and this time he shut his door in case their attacker came out of the ditch with guns blazing. It would be a suicide mission, with three armed lawmen right there and a backup cruiser just seconds away. Still, desperation made people do stupid things.
Hoping to minimize what anyone could label as stupid, Jack used the cruiser for cover, running to the front end of it and keeping down. Keeping watch, too. And it didn’t take him long to see what he’d been expecting.
The ski-masked shooter.
The gunman peered out from the ditch, and he’d moved all right. The guy was now a good fifteen yards from the cruiser. He pivoted, taking aim at Scotty. Just as Jack took aim at him.
Jack fired first.
Not just one shot but two, and as much as he wanted answers, he went for the kill instead.
And he got it.
The shots Jack fired took the guy down, and even though he was certain he hadn’t missed, he hurried to the ditch to make sure. Keeping his gun aimed and ready, he pulled up next to the ditch and saw the man sprawled in the mud and water that’d been left by the rain.
The guy was dead. Jack was sure of it. But there was someone who was hopefully still alive.
“Get the ambulance in here now!” Jack shouted to Kellan and Gunnar. He started running toward Scotty, and he prayed he wasn’t too late to save him.