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.
If he wasn’t careful firing it, he’d run out of bullets with this one, as well.
“This way.” Amy headed for another side street. They ducked down it, and he turned as he ran. Looked in all directions. Watched for anyone in pursuit. Whatever the cartel’s number two was doing with Jeremiah, Noah was glad he was doing it somewhere else.
The last thing they needed was for her brother to show up now, when they had hardly any ammo, no plan and no backup.
“How far are we going?” Her breath came heavy and she started to slow. “I feel like we’re going to be running forever.”
“I don’t think he followed, but I could be wrong.” Noah slowed with her. He rubbed her back, between her shoulder blades. She glanced over, a small smile on her face. Until she saw his arm.
“You’ve been shot!”
He dropped his good hand and twisted to look at the wound. Okay, that made his head swim. “Right now it’s not important. We need to keep moving and keep watch. We have to be careful, but I think we need to get out of town.”
“You need to go to the hospital.”
Was she going to have another panic attack? They’d dropped the deputy off there. Maybe they could walk that far, and he could get his arm seen to. The nurse had to treat them, despite her obvious fear.
In the meantime he was going to do his best to ignore it. Because what was the point in letting everything slip into defeat? They were down, but they definitely weren’t out. Noah wasn’t going to quit until they were forced to admit they’d been bested. Not in the sense this was a competition. But he needed to consider the fact Jeremiah had them outmanned and outgunned, and while they weren’t going to quit that did mean the possibility they might lose. Big.
“How are we going to get anywhere?” She lifted both arms, then let them fall by her sides. “We can’t call for a ride, and we don’t have a car.”
“For now let’s just keep going.” The point was to stay alive, and that would only happen if they weren’t cornered.
She blew out a breath, but nodded. She took his hand and they speed walked together. Past the houses of people hunkered down. He figured it was like waiting inside for a storm to pass, hoping there was minimal damage.
They had no idea what was going on out here.
“Maybe the sheriff issued a warning. Like an Emergency Alert, or something.” Pain let the words slip out, when otherwise they’d have stayed in his head. Just thoughts.
Amy shrugged one shoulder. “Good. I’d hate for someone to get hurt.”
“Agreed.”
“Oh.” She glanced at him. “I didn’t mean—”
“I know. It’s okay. I’m okay.”
She raised one eyebrow.
Noah tugged on her hand. “Come on.”
“There.”
Amy dragged herself from her thoughts and looked up the street. Across on the other side a man hauled out two suitcases to the open tailgate of his SUV.
When she saw who it was, she pressed her lips together. Noah wanted to ask that guy for help? He probably didn’t even remember her, because she’d been the faceless, nameless bookstore employee. But she remembered perfectly the look on his face when he’d been practically yelling at her about why they didn’t have the latest bestseller. Like the tiny small-town bookstore could stock every book in the world. Just in case he wanted to buy it.
“What?”
Amy didn’t even know how to explain it. She settled on saying, “Just don’t expect a warm response. You might wanna lead with the gun, follow up with the badge and maybe think about punching him.”
Okay, so that wasn’t what she thought he should do. But so far, today was shaping up to be pretty bad, and she was scared. Noah had been shot. He had a few bullets, and then they would be defenseless.
The man looked over as they approached. Amy wriggled her hand out of Noah’s. She didn’t want the marshal to appear soft. Injured, but not a pushover. This guy wasn’t the type to think kindness was a good thing.
“I have a question.” Noah’s voice rang with authority. “Is there a shelter-in-place order in effect?”
“So what if there is?”
There was.
Noah said, “Do you have a phone that works?” He shifted to show the man his badge. “I need to call in.”
“What’s that got to do with me?”
“If you don’t have a phone, I’ll need to take your car. If you want to give us a ride that’s fine, or I can just commandeer it.”
“You guys can’t really do that.” He stuck his chin out. “And even if you could, I’m not letting you steal my car.”
“I’ll bring it back. Or the marshals service will pay you for it.”
“You think I care about that? You’re not taking my car.”
Amy glanced behind them, just to make sure no gunmen were going to start shooting at them for about the hundredth time today. “Maybe we could get some medical supplies. Or a washcloth. The marshal has been shot.”
Perhaps that would appeal to him. Though Amy doubted it. It occurred to her that maybe going into this assuming the man wouldn’t want to help them had been the wrong thing to do. It could have affected his impression of them.
Amy shook off those thoughts. It was what it was. She tried to be positive normally. To see the best in people. But where had that gotten her? She’d had to face the fact her brother was working with a cartel instead of getting a legitimate job to support his son. He’d taken the easy route. The quick payday. She tried to be honest, and where had that gotten her? Doing the right thing brought her here. On the run with a wounded marshal, trying to convince the meanest person in town to help them.
The man shot her a look, like she’d recently crawled out from under a rock and he didn’t like the look of her.
Noah said, “We really need your help.”
The man turned away. At the last moment she saw the smirk on his face. He reached into the car and came back with a gun.
Amy nearly screamed in frustration. “Seriously? You can’t shoot a federal agent! Do you know what the repercussions of doing that are?”
He turned to her. Amy realized she’d said that aloud. She took a step back and lifted her hands. “We’re leaving. Try not to shoot a federal agent in the back while we do.”
They were just trying to get out of here. Why did this guy have to pull a gun?
The man said, “I’m within my rights to defend my property.”
Noah said, “Hold up a second, Amy. This guy is going to put his weapon down. Then we’re going to leave.”
She hadn’t figured he would want to turn his back on someone with a gun. Amy moved behind him, but with enough space. Even as she took those couple of steps she felt the heat of anger rise in her.
“You know what?” she yelled at the guy over Noah’s shoulder. “You need to back off. We’ve been shot at. Noah has been shot. We have bigger problems right now than you being belligerent. Forget we ever came over here and spoke to you. You’re not worth it. But if you cause problems for us—”
“You can take the car.” The voice was female.
They all turned. A woman stood at the doorway. Amy expected her to look beaten down, but she didn’t. Chin high. Nice outfit, something Amy would have worn to work in an office. She was older than Amy, owning her fifties in a way Amy would like to say she would do when she reached that age.
The woman jingled a set of keys in her hand, then tossed them.
Amy caught the keys.
Belligerent guy turned. “Mandy—”
“They need help.” She turned and went back inside. Like that was all she had to say. Like her man wasn’t standing in front of them, holding a weapon. She evidently didn’t want to wade in, just did what she could to resolve the situation and then bailed.
Amy clicked the locks. A car beeped, but it wasn’t the SUV.
A second later the garage door started to roll up. Inside was a sporty full-size car. White, with vanity plates. Evidently the wife, or girlfriend—whatever she was to this guy—was a sassy gal. Amy almost smiled.
The man’s lips thinned.
She nearly screamed out her frustration this time. Again. She’d lost count. “Are you going to shoot us?”
Even as she asked, Noah ushered her around the back of the SUV. He called out, “If you could not, that would be great.”
The guy stood there. Held the gun while they pulled out of the drive. Stared at them as they drove away in the woman’s car.
Amy shuddered.