picnic.
She bit back a whimper and crawled close to Noah. Over his shoulder she saw two men round the corner. “More of them are coming.”
He looked. “And they’re bringing friends with them.”
Amy got ready to run when he told her to. She’d never anticipated wanting to leave this town as badly as she did right now. In fact, she had thought she would live here the rest of her life, hiding from her brother and his friends.
She looked over. Two men ran up behind the first two. They tackled them from behind. Shoved them to the ground and hit them with what she realized were baseball bats. Amy winced. Locals? But whether they were or not, Amy didn’t want to hide behind this car forever. She was exposed in the street. Out here, waiting for someone to pick her off.
She spun, aiming the gun around her just in case more people ran up from another direction. The two men who had tackled the gunmen advanced on them next. The first one started to close in on her and Noah saw the star badge on his belt.
“Marshal?” The man then eyed her. “Is this business all about you?” Instead of answering him, Noah said, “We need a car.” He stood up, keeping her behind him. Making it clear she was under his protection. “Then we’ll be on our way, and you can have your town back.”
The man eyed him and Amy. “Or we can turn you two over to them and it’ll be done a whole lot faster.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. Nor did she like the look in his eyes. “We’re leaving.” She put all the confidence and bravery she didn’t feel in her voice. It didn’t matter what they tried. They weren’t the thing she feared.
Jeremiah was here.
She lifted her chin. “We need a car.”
“I’ll give you a ride,” one of the men suggested.
Before she could object to that—no, thank you—Noah did it first. “That’s not happening. I don’t want more collateral damage than there already has been.” He waved at the two men on the ground. Blood had pooled on the sidewalk. Were they dead?
These guys were wild cards. She wouldn’t have gone with them even if Noah had agreed to it. “Let’s go.” She put her hand on his arm.
Noah took a step back, then another. She had to move, as well. The two of them backed away from the men, Amy behind him the whole time.
When they were far enough away, Noah turned. “Come on.”
They jogged back toward the sheriff’s department vehicle. When they turned the corner and she could see it, Amy breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Noah glanced over. The look on his face was like he wanted to smile, but this wasn’t the time. True. But it was nice, even just for a second, to have that shared moment of connection.
He pulled open the driver’s door. “They busted out the radio.”
She got in on the passenger side and saw the damage. “That isn’t all they did.”
Wires hung down under the steering wheel.
Noah got in. He selected two and touched them together. Trying to hot-wire it? Whatever he was attempting to do, it didn’t work. He sat back in the chair. “We aren’t getting out of here in this.”
“What are we going to do?”
He looked at his phone. “Still no signal. I’m beginning to think someone’s blocking it deliberately.”
“Because my brother is here now, and he doesn’t want to be found?” She didn’t want to see the look in his eyes, so she watched out the front window of the small SUV.
Noah touched the back of her hand, his palm warm. She wanted to shut her eyes, but if she did that she wouldn’t be able to see danger coming.
“I’m going to keep you safe, but to do that we need to keep moving.”
She nodded and he squeezed her hand. Amy turned to him then. “Thank you for being here.”
His eyes softened. “There’s no way I’d let you do this alone.”
The words warmed her. She felt the corners of her lips curl up as she opened her mouth, ready to tell him he’d been sent here for his job.
The back window of the car shattered. A bullet hit the front window and lodged in the glass, splintering it out in every direction.
If they’d been any closer to each other…
Amy screamed.
Noah reached over and shoved her head down. She was already ducking. He looked at the side mirror, then out the back. Couldn’t see anything.
The crack of gunshots continued. A steady stream. Not automatic fire, just relentless. They had to get out of there. But stepping out of the car meant being in the line of fire.
Noah let down the emergency brake. Then he cracked the car door enough to stick his foot out. He twisted and pointed his gun out the space between the frame and the door and fired three shots while he kicked off the ground. They needed momentum. Getting the vehicle moving from a complete stop required a good push, but he got it going.
The small SUV started to roll. Along the street, thankfully slightly downhill. He kicked again to gain some speed. Amy looked up from the passenger seat.
“Stay down until I tell you. Then I want you to get out as fast as you can and run for it.” He could cover her. What mattered was that she get away.
She grabbed the door handle but didn’t pull it. “What about you?”
“I’m going to be covering you. So when I say, just run. Okay?” That last part was rhetorical. He wasn’t looking for her agreement, and given the look on her face she knew that.
Knew they had limited options.
Knew this was about her being safe and getting away.
Still, she said, “I don’t want to get lost.”
“I don’t want to lose you, either. Especially not when my phone isn’t working.” He took a breath. “I don’t want to get separated.”
The car rolled to the cross street. This was going to be fast, and they both had to be prepared to do what they needed to do. As soon as they’d cleared the last house, he said, “Go now.”
Amy yanked the door handle and stumbled out of the rolling vehicle.
Noah did the same on his side, already firing as he got out. One perpetrator, end of the street, ducked behind a car.
Noah fired twice. The slide on his gun jammed. He was empty.
The man lifted up and fired. Before Noah could move, fire sliced through the outside of his right arm. He cried out.
The SUV cleared his hip. If he stayed here he was going to get shot, so he raced after her. Noah holstered his gun as he moved, wincing at the burn. He could feel the wet of blood on his arm and the sleeve of his jacket.
He caught up to her partway down the street. “Gun!”
She glanced around wildly, then must have realized what he’d said. He’d love to have explained it to her. Thankfully, she handed over the one she held and he holstered his weapon to be ready to use the other.
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