Chapter Sixteen
Caroline had had no trouble hearing the sound of something falling on the old wood floor of the inn. But she didn’t know what it was and had no idea what had suddenly put that troubled look on Jack’s face.
But she soon found out.
“Tear gas,” Clarie managed to say at the exact moment the deputy began coughing.
Almost immediately, Caroline felt her eyes, nose and throat start to burn, and if it truly was tear gas, she figured it wouldn’t be long before it basically incapacitated them. It wouldn’t knock them unconscious, but they wouldn’t be able to fight if they couldn’t breathe. If they couldn’t see.
And it was quickly getting to that point.
“This way,” Jack snapped, and he tipped his head toward the hall. He had his left arm crooked and pressed to his face while he continued to grip his weapon in his right hand.
Both Caroline and Clarie rushed away from the window and toward him. When she looked out into the hall, she saw the wisps of the white fog. Yes, definitely tear gas. And as bad as it was right now, they weren’t getting the full impact yet. That fog was rolling their way.
But where was the intruder who’d likely set all of this in motion?
She didn’t see any signs of anyone, but it was possible the person had put on a gas mask. If so, he or she could come through that fog after them.
Jack’s eyes had to be burning like fire—hers certainly were—but his gaze still slashed all around. A few seconds crawled by, and then he motioned for Clarie and her to follow him. The three of them barreled out into the hall with Jack in front of her and Clarie behind.
They ran fast but didn’t go far, only a couple of yards, before Jack ducked into one of the other rooms, and he shut the door behind them.
Caroline soon saw why he’d chosen this one.
There were no boards on the window, something he’d probably learned from Gunnar and Manuel when they’d done their initial search of the place.
No boards would mean both easy access for an intruder and escape for them.
Jack hurried to the window and threw it open. “Keep watch,” he said, his voice rough and raw.
Caroline knew there was a good possibility that a would-be killer was waiting for them out there. That could have been part of the plan all along. Get them out so they could be gunned down. But the primal part of her brain was screaming for her to escape from the tear gas and get some fresh air.
Jack went out the window first. The moment his feet were on the ground, he glanced around again.
He was looking for anyone who might be there to attack, but in the same motion, he took hold of Caroline’s arm.
He pulled her out with him, pushing her against the side of the inn. Keeping in front of her to protect her.
She dragged in a long, much-needed breath. Then another. And she blinked hard to clear away the remnants of the tear gas. The rain helped, but her eyes were still stinging and she couldn’t see clearly.
Clarie climbed out of the window then, landing on her feet right next to Caroline, but they didn’t stay put. Maybe because Jack believed the intruder would be coming to that room, to that window.
Keeping close to the wall, they hurried through the weeds and underbrush. It wasn’t easy. The ground was soft from the rain, and Caroline’s shoes bogged in the mud while the bushes scraped and poked at her. Still, it was better than being in there with the tear gas.
They ran, weaving in and out of the ground clutter until they were at the edge of the porch that stretched all the way across the front of the inn. They dropped down next to what was left of the porch railing. Not far from the cruiser. But to get to it, they’d have to go out into the open.
“Stay down,” Jack whispered to her, and he maneuvered Caroline behind one of the overgrown shrubs while he peered around the corner at the porch. “I don’t see anyone,” he added.
Good. Maybe they’d get a few minutes to regroup and recover. They desperately needed that, and then maybe they could pinpoint the location of the person who’d gone inside.
As her eyes and mind started to clear, Caroline got a horrible thought.
What if the person was already gone? It was possible that he or she had already escaped, maybe because they believed the tear-gas ploy had failed.
If so, then Jack and she were right back where they started—without any proof as to who wanted her dead.
“I’ll text Gunnar and let him know our location,” Clarie whispered, taking out her phone.
While she did that, Caroline got as good of a grip as she could manage on the gun that Jack had given her. Even though her hand was weak, she needed to be able to help if it came down to a fight, and everything inside her said that was exactly what was going to happen.
“Gunnar lost sight of the woman by the trees,” Clarie relayed when she got a response to her text. “He’s going to look for her while he makes his way here to us.”
Caroline welcomed the backup, but she knew it would also pose a big problem.
They wouldn’t be able to fire if they heard or saw something, because they wouldn’t want to risk hitting Gunnar.
Plus, this meant Manuel was alone and without backup.
The deputy wouldn’t be a primary target for the attacker, but he was still at risk.
Jack glanced back at her, their gazes connecting for a moment, and she saw the fear on his face. Not fear for himself but for her. Caroline wished she could do something to assure him that it would be okay, but she wasn’t certain it would be.
And that cut to the bone.
Once again, Jack was in trouble because of her.
Maybe she should have just gone off on her own, far away from him. But while that would have been the smart thing to do, it would have crushed both their hearts. She didn’t want him hurt, or worse, but at least they were together.
“I’m going to get in the cruiser and drive it over here,” Jack said. “I’ll get as close as I can. Wait here with Caroline,” he added to Clarie.
But Caroline was already shaking her head before he even finished. “You can’t go out there. If this person had tear gas, you know he’ll have a gun. He’ll be watching the cruiser.”
Jack didn’t disagree with any of that. He couldn’t. However, the look he gave her let her know that he was going to do it anyway. Maybe because he felt it was the only option they had.
“We can wait for Gunnar,” Caroline tried, though it wasn’t much of an argument.
They could be attacked before the deputy made it to them, and he had his hands full looking for the woman.
If they managed to capture her, it could possibly give them as many answers as catching the person who’d used that tear gas on them.
Jack levered himself up, and he gave her one last look. A dozen things passed between them. A silent conversation that Caroline wished she could have said aloud.
She had so many things to say to him.
“Be careful” was the only thing she managed before he moved away.
Keeping low, Jack left the meager cover of the shrubs and started for the cruiser. Like their trek from the window, it wouldn’t be easy. He’d have to deal with the soggy ground along with the rocks and tangled underbrush.
Clarie moved in front of her, protecting her as Jack had done, but Caroline kept her eyes on Jack until he disappeared behind what was left of a hedge. She maneuvered herself up so she could try to see him, and that was when she heard the sound behind her.
Caroline pivoted, bringing up her gun.
But it was already too late.
JACK WAS ONLY a few yards away from the cruiser when the front door of the inn opened and the tear-gas canister came shooting out.
Hell. Not again.
He only got a glimpse of the person who’d launched it, someone wearing black clothes and a mask. But whoever it was immediately stepped back, using the darkness and the white cloud of gas to hide behind.
“Caroline,” Jack said on an oath. He couldn’t see Clarie or her, but he figured this was some kind of ploy to get to her.
And it could work.
Jack had a fast debate with himself about getting into the cruiser so he could use it to get closer to the women and give them some cover. But with the uneven ground and some large landscape rocks, he could get stuck. If that happened, he might be too late to save them.
Cursing, he turned around and started running to get back to them, but the gas stung at his eyes like acid.
Plus, even though he’d only gotten a few whiffs of it, he was already finding it hard to breathe.
It had to be a lot worse for Caroline and Clarie.
They were right there, next to where the canister had gone off, so they were no doubt getting the brunt of it.
With that thought racing through his head, Jack cut through the same shrubs and weeds he’d just trampled through so he could make his way back to them.
He seriously doubted that their attacker had simply tossed that canister just to make them more miserable than they already were.
No. This was some kind of ploy—Jack could feel that in his gut.
He could hear the women coughing. That was a good sign because it meant they were alive, but their instincts would be to run. To get as far away from the gas as possible. That would take them out into the open where they could be gunned down, and they wouldn’t even be able to see their attacker.
Jack tried to keep watch around him. Hard to do, but he kept pressing. Kept moving. And his heart went to his knees when he reached the side of the porch and didn’t see either Caroline or Clarie. They’d moved.
But where?
The weather didn’t cooperate as he listened for them. The sky unzipped, the rain pounding down on him, making it hard to hear. It would clear the air, but it wouldn’t happen nearly fast enough.
Jack kept running, and he finally heard the coughing again. No sounds of a struggle with a would-be killer, thank God, and he needed to make it to them to keep it that way.