Читать книгу Colorado Manhunt: Wilderness Chase / Twin Pursuit - Lisa Phillips, Jenna Night - Страница 17

“Looks like it set down over there.” Noah pointed out the windshield, then made a right turn.

“That’s the park area out front of city hall.”

“If it’s clear of trees there’s probably enough space to land.” He still didn’t like this, though. He had no phone signal. No way to tell if the occupants of that helicopter were friend or foe. One meant rescue, the other meant more running.

The marshals, or the cartel?

He turned a corner. On the sidewalk, an older woman wearing warm clothes and white sneakers hustled along. More than a power walk. She glanced behind her, then hurried down the street. Running away.

At the far end of this street, on the corner at the crosswalk, two men stood together in conversation. Both had dark hair and red-tipped ears from the cold. No gloves, black boots. The bottom half of their pant legs were wet.

Men from the woods. Possibly the same ones who had chased them. He didn’t know.

Noah kept driving. What else could he do? Then he saw a side street halfway down the block. He tapped the gas and took the turn faster than he should. At the last second he saw the men recognize them.

Noah gripped the wheel.

Amy twisted to look out the back window. “He got his phone out.”

“They’ll be calling in a sighting of us. Are they following?”

“I don’t think so.” Her voice still shook. That quaver of fear he didn’t like.

It might be realistic to be scared, and he wasn’t going to tell her not to be. Still, Noah would rather Amy were somewhere safe by now. Or that she’d never gotten into this situation in the first place.

But that would be impossible. Life was about choices, and she’d done the right thing. It had cost the life of her nephew, but she was moving on. Trying to get free.

He wanted to be there to the end, if he could.

If she would let him be part of the happy ending of her story.

“We need to ditch this car.”

Amy said nothing. Noah pulled into someone’s driveway. The sheriff’s department probably had GPS on all their vehicles. If he and Amy were going to get out of here, then they needed a way to do that without being tracked.

He pulled up the emergency brake and shut the engine off, leaving the keys inside. “Come on.”

They hopped out, and he shifted places with her so he could hold her right hand and have his gun in his right hand. He wanted her with him. Connected. And he wanted to be able to defend them both.

“Seems weirdly quiet,” she commented as they turned onto the sidewalk.

“Empty.” No one was outside, apart from that older lady he’d seen running from the two men.

Across the street Noah saw the slats of a blind in someone’s front window snap shut. They were being watched? Or whoever it was wanted to make sure they stayed out of sight.

“This feels weird.”

Noah squeezed her hand for a second to try and impart some reassurance in her. Hopefully it worked. But until they were actually out of here, neither of them was going to relax.

“It’s up here?” He pointed with their joined hands.

Amy nodded. “To the right.”

“Okay.” He didn’t want to go out into a common area if they were going to be exposed, so he slowed at the end of the street.

Then he checked behind them. No one had followed. He crouched and looked around the corner. Please be the marshals.

The helicopter rotors had powered down. A group of men milled around. Noah drew his phone and took pictures of them, trying to zoom in far enough to make out…

That was the cartel’s number two.

His stomach dropped. “It’s not help.”

They needed to get out of here, and fast. Too many men. They were outnumbered, and outgunned. Noah would love to arrest that guy right now. Take him in. Get all the respect and accolades for bringing down a key player in the cartel, one they’d never been able to pin down. A man on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

Now he was here. Surrounded by foot soldiers all looking for Amy.

“Who is…?”

Behind the cartel number two, another man climbed from the helicopter. Jeremiah Sanders. Amy’s brother.

Noah shifted. “We have to go.”

The street was still empty. They needed a car. A way out of town.

“What—”

He cut her off. “It’s not help. It’s more of their guys.” He tugged her back down the sidewalk. Should he tell her?

“Noah.”

She knew. “Your brother is here.” Amy said nothing. “I don’t want to be standing around when they spot us.”

She nodded, her face flushed. Her hair was disheveled. “Okay.”

He picked up the pace and they started to run. But where? Aside from that sheriff’s department vehicle, how were they supposed to get out of town to a safe place? He wasn’t about to steal someone’s car. Help appeared to be limited.

It was like the whole town had been put on lockdown and every resident confined to their homes. Which was good, as it helped them to avoid collateral damage when bullets started flying. Who wanted an innocent caught in the cross fire?

But the eerie quiet was bizarre enough it caused a niggling feeling in him. How were they supposed to get out? Her brother and all his cartel buddies were here. Jeremiah had escaped prison for the express purpose of flushing out Amy so he could get revenge.

Amy squeezed his hand. “Jeremiah is really—”

A man turned the corner at the street where they’d left the car.

“—here?”

There was no time to answer her question. He shoved her across the street. “Go!”

Noah raced with her to the far side of a car parked on the street. She crouched behind it as the first bullet flew at them. Then he crouched and returned fire over the hood of the car.

Jeremiah was here.

Amy resisted the urge to clap her hands over her ears and pretend she was anywhere but here. It might work for a toddler trying to hide from the world, but she was a grown woman.

She slid the gun from the back of her waistband and crawled to the rear of the car. If the gunman came into view, and there was anything she could do, then she would absolutely defend herself. But Noah was a marshal. He was the federal agent here, and she wasn’t.

He would probably never forgive her if she put herself in danger.

The man was out of sight. Noah fired again. She heard the cartel guy grunt as one of the bullets Noah had fired struck him. She didn’t want to be glad for someone getting hurt, even if it was a criminal, but there was nothing else they could do. These people were trying to kidnap or kill her. Right now they were like a swarm of ants crawling over a summer 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.