Page 108 of Lost Lake
Adrenaline raced through her. She’d stopped the sniper, but she couldn’t relax her guard. There could be a second shooter.
“You alone?” she asked.
As she suspected, he didn’t respond. Why would he? The last thing he would do was tell her if there was someone else hiding in the woods who could take her out and free him. And he likely wouldn’t tell her his name either. That could come later in an interrogation room.
“Get up.” She tugged on his cuffs to help him stand. “Start moving forward. Try anything funny and I fire.”
She shouldered his rifle, and in case a second shooter lay in wait for them, she cautiously made her way forward. Easing between scratchy branches, she tried to protect her bare arms, but she couldn’t stop with Gabe and Brad still unprotected.
“Gabe!” Not knowing if there was a second sniper, it was risky to yell, but she had to make sure Gabe knew it was her and didn’t open fire. “I stopped the shooter, and I’m coming back.”
He didn’t respond.
“Gabe!” she called out louder.
No response.
“Looks like I got them both.” The jerk in handcuffs cackled.
Was he right? Had Gabe been shot, too?
She shoved him forward, picking up her pace and bursting into the clearing where she’d left the two men. Gabe’s shoulder was covered with blood, but he was ignoring it and still pressing the other hand on his unconscious brother’s wound.
She wanted to race over to him, but she had to keep control of the shooter. She poked him. “On your knees.”
He dropped down.
Gabe growled at the gunman. “You better hope my brother doesn’t die or you’ll pay for it.”
She felt the same way, but tightened her hands on the service weapon to contain her emotions as she took a longer look at Gabe. “You’re bleeding.”
He whipped his angry gaze away from the shooter. “I’m fine. Bullet just grazed my arm.”
There was no such thing as a graze. Every bullet wound could be dangerous, but it would be like him to play it down. “Why didn’t you respond when I called out?”
“I couldn’t take the risk. This creep could’ve captured you and used you to lead him to our exact location.”
That made perfect sense. “Fortunately, I took him down without incident.”
The guy grumbled, and she gave him her practiced detective stink eye.
“Are you okay?” Gabe asked.
“Fine. Backup and ambulance should be here soon. I want to be sure your bleeding stopped.”
“Just a scratch. I don’t think there’s danger of too much blood loss.”
“I meant what I said earlier, you know.” She risked looking away and locked gazes with him. “It wasn’t just something I said in the heat of the moment. I love you, and I don’t want to lose you for any reason.”
Warmth and affection flooded his eyes. “Same for me, and once we find Lucy, we can pursue that to our heart’s content.”
The shooter made a retching noise.
She fired another round of stink eye at him. “Don’t make me gag you.”
“With what? You got nothing to bind his arm means you got nothing to shut me up with.”
Before she could put him in his place, sirens sounded in the distance. Maybe, just maybe, all three of them would get out of this situation after all.
