Читать книгу Tribal Law - Jenna Kernan - Страница 11
ОглавлениеSelena’s skin went cold. Not from the snow that pelted her in tiny stinging droplets, but from deep inside as she realized that Jason was just sick and wounded and crazy enough to kill her.
“Why don’t we go see your brother?”
“No!” he shouted. “He’s never going to know about this. He can’t. Now get going.”
They reached the loading doors where the second gunman waited. She remembered seeing him at Sammy’s junkyard but could not recall his name. So Sammy’s brother and employee had decided to steal from him, but off grounds. Did they really think Sammy would not figure this out?
“Hurry up,” said the junkyard man, adding a second rifle to Jason’s, and this one was aimed at her face.
“Open the truck,” ordered Jason.
Her mind grasped and rejected several ideas as she stepped up onto the fender, but instead of an escape plan it provided the name of the second gunman. Oscar Hill. Selena lifted the latch that released the lock. Maybe they would just take the tub and leave her. She opened one door. Maybe they would kill her the minute they had the shipment.
Jason peered inside. “Where is it?”
That’s when Selena saw it, a white SUV, no lights, closing fast.
Gabe.
* * *
GABE CRESTED THE rise and spotted a battered pickup parked close to the rear of Selena’s box truck. The side door of her truck was open and something lay on the ground on the passenger side. A second pickup had the box truck pinned from the front. Selena was in the process of opening one of the two hind doors as he closed the distance. Between her and the pickup, stood two armed men.
In emergencies Gabe sank into a kind of animal brain, acting and flowing with the situation. But not this time. This time his heart thumped and his skin tingled with a feeling close to panic, because the men pointed their weapons at Selena.
One wore some kind of full head mask and both held rifles at the ready.
Selena glanced at him, said something to the gunmen and stepped into the truck’s compartment and out of sight.
Good move, Selena, he thought, hoping she would think to lie flat because that truck door would afford little protection from bullets.
As the distance diminished he saw that the pile of something beside the open door was most definitely a body, possibly two. He radioed for backup, shouting the code for a shooting and the location. Then he hit the brakes and turned the wheel so his SUV formed a barrier between him and the riflemen.
“Police. Drop your weapons,” he shouted.
The gunmen spun and raised their weapons at the same time the truck door swung open, sending the masked man staggering forward. Selena, evening the odds, he realized.
Gabe fired at the other man, taking him down. Selena now stood on the gate with a tire iron in her hand. He couldn’t shoot the second gunman without possibly hitting her. The second shooter recovered his footing and his grip on his rifle. Selena swung the iron down, hitting the barrel of his rifle so that it dropped. The shooter grabbed Selena by her long, loose hair, dragging her down. The tire iron clattered to the pavement as Selena fell against her captor.
“Let her go,” ordered Gabe.
“He has a pistol,” shouted Selena.
Her masked gunman gave her a shake and she gripped the hand that threaded into her hair with both of hers.
“Drop your gun or I kill her,” said her captor.
“Jason Leekela, you let me go before your brother finds out about this!”
Gabe knew Jason. He had arrested him more than once for possession.
“Let her go, Jason.”
But he didn’t. Instead he reached in his pocket and drew the pistol she had warned him about. Selena kicked at him. Jason staggered and Selena fell hard to her knees giving Gabe a clear shot. Jason lifted the pistol toward Gabe. Gabe fired.
Jason Leekela fell.
He landed facedown. Selena scuttled backward like a crab as Gabe came forward at a run. Selena sat on the icy road, knees drawn up to her chest.
Thank God she was safe, because he was going to kill her.
She was on her feet an instant later, throwing herself into his arms, burying her face in his coat. The familiar pull of attraction flared as her scent rose up in the icy air, like springtime in January. Still lavender, he realized. The scent was so familiar and still intoxicating, making him ache down low and deep. He drew her in, allowing himself one more full breath and the pleasure of having her arms around him again. In one hand he held Selena. In the other he held his gun.
He tried to pull her away, but she clung.
“Selena. You have to let go.”
She did. Stepping back, her cheeks wet with tears. “I’m sorry.”
That wasn’t going to do it. He had a sinking feeling that she’d crossed a line from which he couldn’t rescue her. He swallowed the lump that rose as he looked down at her forlorn, beautiful face. Why couldn’t he get over her? Why?
“Who is up front?” he asked.
“My dad and Matt Dryer. He shot Dryer and hit Dad really hard with his gun stock.”
“Dryer? The guy from DOC?”
Selena nodded. He ordered her to stand back by his vehicle, knowing he should cuff her, search her for weapons. But Gabe just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he retrieved the rifles and locked them in the rear of his unit. Then he returned to the gunman.
His pulse check told him he’d just killed two men. He glanced back at Selena who watched with wide eyes as she twisted one hand with the other.
“Dead,” he reported and then went to check on Dryer and Dosela.
Frasco had struggled to a sitting position. He had a gash across the top of his head, sending a steady stream of blood down his forehead. He blinked up at Gabe and wiped his eyes. Dryer lay facedown in broken glass.
He pointed at Frasco. “You armed?”
“No, sir,” said Frasco.
“Step back.”
Frasco struggled to his feet, using the door to steady himself.
“On the ground,” Gabe ordered Frasco. “Facedown. Don’t move until I tell you.”
Frasco stretched out, using his arms to keep his head off the pavement. Gabe hated to do this to her father, but it was that or frisk and cuff him.
“How’d you find us?” asked Frasco.
“You were spotted on Route 60. Then I saw the tracks on the turn.”
If not for the fresh snow, he might have missed them and Selena might be dead. That thought made him cold all over. Gabe moved to check Dryer.
“What happened to him?” asked Gabe, motioning to the DOC officer.
“They shot him in the chest is what.”
Gabe did a visual and saw no wound. Then he opened Dryer’s jacket and tore open his shirt, sending buttons flying in all directions. What he found next surprised him. Dryer had been wearing body armor and the shot that should have killed him had been stopped by the vest.
Dryer groaned and his eyes fluttered open. Gabe had never caught a bullet in his vest, but understood it hurt like hell. Dryer winced. Gabe couldn’t tell if he was fully conscious.
Gabe got right to the point. “Mr. Dryer. Frasco Dosela. You are both under arrest.”
“That’s what you think,” mumbled Frasco. Then it almost sounded as if he laughed.
Gabe could not believe he was arresting Frasco Dosela again and on the day of his early release. He knew that his next arrest would likely be Selena and his heart squeezed in pain. This was the second time she had put him in this kind of position.
