Chapter 16 #3
“It was kinda buried amongst all the other comments that had been left in the last few days, but she said, and I quote, ‘After today, we won’t have to read Ember’s stupid posts anymore…because I’m gonna kill her.’”
The men were speechless for a second before Doc said, “Send what you found to Trigger. I need to find Ember.”
“I will. I’ll be praying,” Beth said, then disconnected.
Doc immediately clicked on Ember’s name on his phone and waited with his heart in his throat for her to answer. The call went straight to voice mail.
“Fuck,” he muttered, then turned and stalked down the hall.
His entire team stayed with him.
“Where is she supposed to be right now?” Lucky asked.
“I don’t know exactly, but she was going to take Julio and Marie out to that piece of land she was eyeing to turn into a running and shooting facility.”
“Call Julio,” Grover ordered.
As he walked, Doc did just that. The phone rang twice before Julio answered. Doc didn’t waste any time with pleasantries. “Where’s Ember?”
“I’m sorry, who is this?” Julio asked.
“Doc. Where is she? Are you guys together?”
“No. The movers arrived early and she let me head out to get moved into my apartment. Why? What’s wrong?”
“Is Marie with her?”
“Yeah, they went out to look at that land.”
“How long ago?” Doc asked.
“Maybe a little over an hour? Why? What the hell is going on?”
“Have you heard from either of them?” Doc couldn’t take the time to explain how Ember could be in danger.
“No.”
“Shit. Okay. If you do, will you call me back immediately and let me know?”
“Yes. Are they in trouble? What can I do to help?”
Doc liked Julio. He didn’t really know the man, but he appreciated his concern and immediate offer to help. “I’m headed out to the property they were going to be looking at. I’ll be in touch.”
“Do you want me to go out there too?” Julio asked.
Doc didn’t have time to discuss what was going on, but he also didn’t want to leave Julio vulnerable, just in case Marie was a threat to him as well. “No, sit tight. And if Marie happens to stop by, do not open the door. Call me immediately.”
Julio obviously wasn’t stupid. Doc’s warning was enough for him to figure out that Marie was involved in whatever was going on. “Oh, crap. Okay. If there’s anything I can do though, please let me know.”
“I will.” He clicked off the phone without another word.
“I’m driving,” Trigger told Doc.
He didn’t complain. It wasn’t a good idea for him to get behind the wheel of a car right now anyway. As they walked toward Trigger’s car in the parking lot, Doc tried to call Ember again. It went to voice mail once more.
“Fuck,” he muttered as he climbed into the passenger seat of Trigger’s Blazer.
Lefty and Brain got in the back seat and the others all headed for Oz’s Expedition.
There was no discussion about Doc overreacting or even if they all needed to go.
It was just a given that they’d all band together when one of their own was in danger.
Please be all right, Doc thought to himself as Trigger raced toward the vacant property.
Ember regained consciousness, and the memories of what Marie had done flooded back instantly.
She couldn’t lie in the dirt, just hoping someone would happen to come by.
She also didn’t want to risk Marie returning to make sure she’d actually killed her.
She was very lucky the woman hadn’t shot her point blank as she’d stood over her.
Her side still throbbed, and her face hurt like hell, but Ember forced herself to sit up.
The world spun around her as she tried to get her bearings.
Using her shoulder, Ember did her best to wipe away the blood that was dripping off her chin.
She didn’t dare touch her cheek where the bullet struck.
She had no idea if the bullet was inside her face or if it had just grazed her.
At the moment, that was the least of her worries.
Rolling to her knees in preparation for standing, Ember knew immediately that was a bad idea. She was far too dizzy to safely walk anywhere. Glancing more than a dozen yards away, to the spot where her car had been parked, almost made her lie back down on the ground in despair.
How in the hell was she going to get to the main road when she couldn’t even walk?
Then Craig’s face flashed across her mind.
She wasn’t ready to quit. Not when she had someone so amazing in her life.
Ember had never been a quitter, and she wasn’t about to start now. She pictured the various coaches she’d had over the years, yelling at her, telling her to keep going, to stop being a baby. To pick up the pace. To get this shit done.
All the miles of running, the back and forth laps in the pool, the pushups and sit-ups… All of it was in preparation for this moment. Not the Olympics, but to get herself up out of the dirt and to find help.
Inch by inch, Ember crawled away from where Marie had shot her and headed for the dirt track. Once there, she knew she’d have to go at least a mile before reaching the paved road…but she’d do it, even if it took all damn night.
As she crawled slowly, Ember got mad. She had no idea what the fuck Marie’s problem was, but she’d make sure the woman paid for trying to kill her, even if it was the last thing she ever did.
At one point on her way to the dirt road, Ember came across her cell phone, smashed to pieces. Marie must’ve done that before leaving. Wanting to cry, she continued, ignoring the way her knees and hands were getting scraped by the rocks she crawled over.
Then Ember heard something that didn’t fit with the calm and serene atmosphere around her.
It was the sound of a car. And it was coming toward her. Fast.
Panicking, thinking Marie had decided to return after all, Ember looked around for a place to hide.
The other woman would make sure she succeeded in killing her this time.
Unfortunately, the scrub brush in this part of Texas didn’t lend itself to concealing a person.
The best Ember could do was try to cover herself with tumbleweeds and pray Marie would be so panicked to find her missing, she wouldn’t search the area too hard before leaving again.
Ember crawled as far as she could into the scrub brush, doing her best to pull the sharp tumbleweeds over her body.
She didn’t close her eyes this time. If Marie found her, Ember was prepared to fight.
Even if she got shot again, she’d make sure Marie didn’t escape unscathed.
If she could scratch her face, her hands, injure her in some obvious way, the cops would have to be suspicious.
After all, she was the last person who’d seen her. They’d figure it out. They had to.
Holding her breath, Ember listened as a vehicle drove onto the property at an extremely unsafe speed. She heard tires skid against the dirt, then car doors shutting as whoever was in the car exited.
Wait, car doors? More than one? Had Marie brought reinforcements with her?
Was this really her last few seconds on Earth? It was so damn unfair! There was so much Ember wanted to do!
“Ember?” a deep male voice called out.
“Ember? Are you here?” another said.
It took a second for Ember to understand what she was hearing, and when she did, tears leaked from her eyes without her even realizing it.
Craig had come for her, just as he’d told her he would. And he’d brought his team.
For just a second, she let the relief that she’d been saved wash over her—then fresh panic set in.
What if they left before she could get their attention? She had to move! Now!
“Em!” Doc called out again. His gaze swept over the land and his heart fell as he didn’t see anything but the tall grass blowing in the slight breeze.
“Tire tracks,” Brain said, gesturing to the dirt with his head. “They were here.”
“Look…I think it’s a phone,” Lefty said as he headed toward what looked like bits of plastic on the ground.
“What’s that?” Grover asked, pointing ahead of them. They all ran forward about thirty meters and saw laser targets, the ones pentathletes used. There were two of them, lying discarded on the ground—but that wasn’t what made Doc’s heart stutter in his chest.
It was the small pool of blood next to them.
“Shit,” Lucky whispered.
Doc could barely swallow. All he could do was shake his head in denial.
“There’s no way Marie could’ve lifted Ember by herself,” Trigger said. “And there’s no drag marks. But…there’s a trail.” He pointed at scuffs in the dirt that led away from the blood.
Doc looked in the direction of the marks and immediately began to follow. He’d only taken five steps before he heard something. His attention had been on the ground, but he looked up to see what had made the noise.
“Ember,” he whispered, his body frozen for half a second. Then he was running.
The woman he loved was on her hands and knees on the ground. Her hair had sticks in it and her face was a mangled mess. But her beautiful brown eyes were alert and focused on him.
“Craig,” she whispered as he got close.
He checked his speed right before he reached her.
He could hear someone behind him on the phone, asking for an ambulance and relaying their location.
Thankful once again that his team had his back, enabling him to concentrate one hundred percent on the woman he loved, Doc went to his knees in front of her.
“Em!” he said, the anguish easy to hear in his tone.
“It was Marie,” she said without hesitation. “She always was a shit shot. That’s why she’ll never make the National team or the Olympics.”
“Shhhhh, don’t talk. We know. Beth called with the background check information,” Doc told her.
He wrapped his arms around her and sat on the ground.
Rocks dug into his ass, but he didn’t even feel them.
He situated Ember in his lap and turned her head to face him. “Oh, Em,” he couldn’t help but say.
The flesh on her cheek was torn and blood was still oozing from the wound, dripping down her face, off her chin, and onto her shirt.
“I’m okay,” she mumbled. “’Tis but a flesh wound.”
A bark of laughter sounded from next to them.
“The woman’s been shot and she’s quoting Monty Python. If I wasn’t madly in love with Kinley, I might propose right this second,” Lefty quipped.
Trigger knelt beside them and lifted a hand, gently tilting Ember’s head to examine the wound. “It looks gnarly, but I think it just grazed you.”
“Are you hurt anywhere else?” Doc asked urgently.
“No,” Ember whispered. “Not really. She kicked me in the side, but I think the second shot missed me.”
Doc’s anger threatened to overwhelm him. He wanted to find Marie and kill her with his bare hands. Literally. He could snap her neck and wouldn’t feel the least amount of remorse for doing it.
As if Ember could tell what he was thinking, she put her hand on his arm, squeezing lightly.
Looking down at the thin smears of blood she’d left on his skin, Doc had an even harder time reining in his anger. Her palm was shredded from crawling along the ground. But before he could lose it, he felt Ember sag against him, giving him more of her weight.
“Em?” he asked urgently.
“I’m okay,” she mumbled as she closed her eyes. “I’m just tired. And dizzy. I’m just gonna close my eyes.”
Doc glanced at Trigger in alarm. Before he could demand she stay awake and keep talking, she went completely limp.
Brain and Oz helped him get to his feet with Ember still in his arms. They walked next to him, steadying him, as they all headed for their vehicles.
“Ambulance is on the way,” Grover said.
“We aren’t waiting,” Trigger said. “We’ll meet them on the road.”
No one disagreed. As Doc slipped into the back seat of Trigger’s SUV with Ember, he couldn’t take his eyes from her.
He wanted to know exactly what happened out here, but more than that, he needed Ember to be all right.
They’d eventually know all the details, and Marie would pay for what she’d tried to do, but for now, all his concentration was on the woman in his arms.
“I love you,” he whispered into her ear as Trigger backed out the way he came.
Ember didn’t respond. She lay limp in his arms, and Doc prayed harder than he had in his life as they headed toward civilization and the help Ember needed.