Drury

by Delores Fossen

  Hell. That was not what Drury wanted to hear. It meant backup couldn’t get to them, and he figured that wasn’t an accident. No. This was all part of someone’s sick plan to get to Caitlyn.

  “My advice is to get out of there,” Grayson went on. “Fast. I’ll get to Nicole as soon as I can.”

  Which might not be very soon. Or in time. Because if she was truly innocent in all of this, she would be easy prey for the kidnappers to finish off.

  “Someone’s on the roof,” Kara said, and she pointed to the building across the street. “And he’s got a gun.”

  “Get down on the seat,” Drury told Caitlyn.

  Because of his position, he had to lean down to see the shooter on the roof. He was in the shadows, but Drury had no trouble figuring out where the guy was aiming. Not at the car.

  But rather at Nicole.

  Oh, man. This thug was going to gun her down. Nicole must have seen him, too, because she managed a strangled scream and got to her feet. She staggered toward the car.

  There was no time for Drury to debate what he had to do. No time for anything because the first shot rang out and blasted into the sidewalk, just a few inches from Nicole.

  Nicole kept coming toward the car. Kept screaming for help, too. And knowing it was a decision that he could instantly regret, Drury opened the door. He took hold of Nicole’s arm and pulled her inside.

  “Go now!” Drury shouted to Kara.

  The deputy sped off as the bullets slammed into the car.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Caitlyn’s heart went into overdrive, but she figured she wasn’t the only one in the cruiser with that reaction. The bullets were coming right at them, and it was possible they’d just let one of their attackers into the car.

  “Go faster,” Nicole insisted. “They’ll kill us all.”

  Nicole certainly sounded terrified. Looked it, too. Caitlyn peered around Drury so she could see the woman. And she saw her all right. Nicole’s face was a bloody mess, and judging from her ragged breath and wincing, she was in a lot of pain.

  Kara did hit the accelerator, and the tires of the cruiser squealed as the deputy turned off Main Street. Caitlyn couldn’t tell where she was going, but she prayed they could outrun whoever was attacking them.

  “I have to frisk you,” Drury told Nicole. “Put your hands on your head and don’t make any sudden moves.”

  The woman didn’t object. Nicole just nodded and did as he’d instructed. Drury kept himself positioned between Nicole and her while he checked the surrogate for weapons.

  “She’s not armed,” Drury told them after he’d finished.

  Caitlyn released the breath she’d been holding, but she didn’t feel much relief. Since Nicole wasn’t armed and she was injured, it meant she’d likely been telling the truth. It also meant she needed medical attention.

  “Call the hospital,” Drury told Dade. “If the shooter isn’t tailing us, we’ll take Nicole to the ER.”

  It was necessary, but Caitlyn knew it wouldn’t necessarily be safe. For any of them. After all, an armed thug had gotten into the hospital to take Ronnie, and while that particular kidnapping had been fake, it was a reminder of just how easy it would be for a gunman to get inside.

  If one wasn’t already there.

  In fact, those thugs could have injured Nicole as a way to lure them all into a trap.

  Caitlyn looked at Drury to tell him that, but judging from his expression, he already knew.

  “We’ve got a tail,” Kara warned them.

  Even though Drury pushed both Nicole and her lower on the seat, Caitlyn managed to get a glimpse of the SUV that was coming up fast behind them. It was too much to hope that it was someone from the sheriff’s office who’d made it through that fiery roadblock.

  “Something’s wrong with my phone,” Dade said. “I’m not getting a signal.”

  Caitlyn hoped it was just a matter of them being in a dead zone. There were some places in Texas where you couldn’t use a cell phone, but they were just outside town where that shouldn’t have been a problem.

  While still volleying his attention between Nicole and that SUV, Drury took out his phone and handed it to Caitlyn. “See if I’ve got any bars.”

  Her stomach sank when she saw no signal on the screen. She shook her head. “Nothing.”

  Several seconds later, Kara verified the same.

  No. Now they had no way to get in touch with Grayson and the others to tell them where they were heading. Once they knew where they were heading, that is. Right now, their only goal was to escape before this attack escalated.

  “Maybe the SUV’s got some kind of jamming device aimed at us,” Dade suggested.

  That didn’t help with her nerves. “Is that even possible?”

  A muscle flickered in Drury’s jaw. “Yeah. I’ve seen devices that can shut down services for up to a mile. Any chance you can put some distance between us and the SUV?” he asked Kara.

  “I’ll try.” She slowed, only so she could make another turn, and gunned the engine again.

  The problem with getting away from the SUV, though, was that they were heading farther and farther away from town. And they couldn’t go to the ranch. Not with possible gunmen in pursuit. At least the men weren’t shooting at them.

  Not now anyway.

  But Caitlyn figured that probably wouldn’t last. Added to that, the men probably had their own backup all over the area. There weren’t that many roads in this part of the county, and they could have someone stashed on each one of them. Of course, that meant those someones had stayed hidden when Mason and the others had been checking the roads.

  Drury glanced at Nicole again. “Did the men who kidnapped you have you in that SUV?”

  She dragged in a long breath and looked back at the vehicle. “I think so, yes. But I didn’t see any kind of equipment in it that could jam phones. They had a lot of guns, though.”

  “Think hard,” Drury pressed. “Is there anything about them that will help us out of this situation?”

  She started shaking her head again but then stopped. “One of them is injured. He fell when they were chasing me, and he hurt his shoulder.”

  It wasn’t much, but maybe it would be enough if it came down to a face-to-face showdown. Of course, maybe there were more than two men in that SUV.

  Drury tipped his head to his phone that Caitlyn was still holding. “Keep checking the phone to see if we get a signal, but stay down.”

  The words had no sooner left his mouth when Caitlyn heard a sound she definitely didn’t want to hear.

  A gunshot.

  The bullet crashed into the back windshield. The glass held, but it cracked and webbed.

  Another shot.

  Then another.

  Both tore into the glass even more, and Caitlyn knew it wouldn’t be long before the bullets made it through.

  “Hold on,” Kara said a split second before she slammed on the brakes so she could take another turn.

  Caitlyn was wearing her seat belt, but she still slammed against Drury, and Nicole hit the window and door, causing her to make a sharp sound of pain. She obviously needed to get to the hospital, but that couldn’t happen until they lost the goons behind them.

  “Still no phone signal,” Caitlyn relayed to them after she checked the screen again. She’d hoped that the turn Kara had made would have been enough to lose the jammer. But no such luck.

  She got proof of that when the next shot bashed into the window.

  “The shooter’s leaning out the passenger’s-side door,” Dade said, looking in the mirror. “Let me see if I can do something to stop him.”

  “Be careful,” Drury warned him, and he looked at Nicole. “I need you to move next to Caitlyn so I can try to take out the driver f
rom this window. So help me, you’d better be an innocent victim in all of this.”

  “I am. I swear, I am.”

  Drury apparently didn’t take that as gospel because he took out his backup weapon and handed it to Caitlyn. “Watch her,” he said.

  Caitlyn would, along with keeping an eye on the phone screen, but now she had a new distraction. Drury was putting himself right in the path of those bullets, and there wouldn’t be any glass to protect him.

  Drury maneuvered himself around Nicole, putting the woman in the middle of the seat, and he lowered the window. Leaned out. And fired.

  From the other side of the car Dade did the same.

  Both got off several shots, and that seemed to do the trick of stopping the gunman from continuing to fire. Now if they could just get away from them and regroup.

  “Hell.” Drury added more profanity to that. So did Dade. Both of them quit shooting and dropped back in their seats.

  And Caitlyn soon figured out why.

  The SUV rammed into the rear of their car.

  * * *

  DRURY HAD SEEN the impact coming. Had tried to stop it from hurting Caitlyn and Nicole, but he failed. The jolt slung them around like rag dolls, and even though Caitlyn was wearing a seat belt, her body still snapped forward.

  Nicole yelped in pain. Heaven knew what this was doing to her if she truly did have broken ribs. An impact like that could puncture a lung.

  And worse, it didn’t stop.

  The driver of the SUV plowed into them again. Then again.

  Drury glanced back, hoping like the devil that the collisions were tearing up the front of the SUV, but it must have been reinforced because he couldn’t see any damage at all.

  Unlike their car.

  The back end was bashed in, and the windows were holding by a thread. The SUV and the bullets were tearing the vehicle apart. Which was no doubt the plan. After that, these thugs could pick them off one by one.

  “Still no signal on the phone,” Caitlyn said, though he wasn’t sure how she managed to speak. Especially not when the SUV rammed into them again.

  This was obviously a well-thought-out plan, and they’d been waiting for Caitlyn and him to leave the sheriff’s office. In hindsight, that was a mistake. Of course, there could be an attack going on there, too. With Ronnie in the building, his comrades might try to break him out of jail.

  “I’m turning on Millington Road,” Kara told them. She was fighting with the steering wheel, doing her best to keep them out of the ditch—where the SUV driver was apparently trying to force them to go.

  Just when Drury thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did.

  After the SUV rammed them again, the shots returned. The shooter was barely leaning out of the window, and he started sending a spray of bullets into the back windshield.

  “Oh, God,” Kara said.

  Drury’s gaze whipped in her direction to see what’d caused that reaction, and he soon saw it. A fire just ahead. And it stretched across the entire width of the farm road. Drury hadn’t seen the fires that Grayson had described near the sheriff’s office, but he suspected this one was identical to those.

  Set by the same people.

  People who clearly wanted them dead.

  Kara slammed on the brakes, and even though they were still a good forty feet from the fire, the wind was whipping the smoke in their direction. They couldn’t see far enough to know how deep those flames extended, which meant they were now officially sitting ducks.

  The SUV braked, too, but it wasn’t nearly enough. It slammed into them again. The hardest impact of all, and this time it didn’t just send them flying around. The car jolted.

  Because it wound up in a ditch.

  The car immediately tilted, the tires on the passenger’s side sinking deep into the ditch. Drury figured these thugs weren’t just going to drive off and leave them there. They also had help nearby because after all, someone had set that fire.

  “Keep watch around us,” Drury warned them.

  They did. Caitlyn, too. She still had his phone in her left hand and continued to check it for a signal. Which they likely weren’t going to get out here. No jamming equipment needed since this spot was far away from any houses and not close enough to the tower for them to have service.

  Part of this sick plan, no doubt.

  But the question was—how would they get out of this?

  They were probably outnumbered, but there were two cops and an FBI agent in the car. Plus, Caitlyn was armed, though he hoped it didn’t come down to her having to shoot.

  However, the men in the SUV didn’t get out.

  Maybe Nicole had been right about one of them being hurt. Or they could be just waiting for the rest of their thug crew to arrive.

  “We can’t just sit here,” Drury said, talking more to himself than the others.

  He looked around to try to figure out how to do this, but there weren’t many options. They couldn’t get out on the driver’s side because that would mean they’d be on the road. With the SUV right there, they’d be gunned down the moment they stepped from the car.

  That left the ditch.

  Both doors were blocked on the passenger’s side because of the way the car was wedged in, but there was another way out.

  “We can crawl out the windows,” Drury suggested. “Once we’re out, we can use the ditch for cover.” Actually, it was more than a suggestion. It was their only option.

  Caitlyn and Dade didn’t waste any time lowering the windows, but while Drury kept watch of the SUV, he scrambled across Nicole and her. No way did he want them going out there first. He snaked his way through the window but didn’t go toward the front of the car that he could use for cover. Instead, he needed to provide some cover for Caitlyn and Nicole.

  Dade got out as well, and he moved back to make room for Caitlyn. Once she was out, Dade hurried her to the front.

  Of course, there were no guarantees that there weren’t other gunmen on that side, but at least they wouldn’t be coming up the road that way because of the fire. Unfortunately, there was plenty of pasture and even some woods for killers to hide.

  Kara got out, helping him with Nicole. He could tell from her labored breathing that each movement only caused her pain to spike, but there was nothing he could do about that now. This was their best chance of making it out of here alive.

  Drury kept volleying glances back at the SUV, and he tried to steel himself for the bullets to start flying. But the goons didn’t shoot.

  Why?

  Maybe because they wanted at least one of them alive? But again, he had to ask himself why.

  There was a cluster of huge trees only about fifteen feet away from the ditch. Close but that would mean plenty of time out in the open. Still, if they could make it there, they could perhaps then go into the woods. The creek was less than a quarter of a mile away, and they could follow it either to the ranch or back into town.

  “We could just wait here and see what they decide to do,” Kara said.

  “Or we could make it to those trees and use them for cover,” Drury countered. The darkness and smoke would help some with that. Still, it was risky. Everything was at this point.

  “Hell,” Dade spat out. “We’ve got to move now.”

  Drury glanced back at the SUV, and he, too, cursed. The passenger’s-side window was down now, but it wasn’t a gun that the thug had aimed at them. It was some kind of launcher. Drury didn’t know if it held a grenade or a firebomb, and he didn’t want to find out.

  “Stay low and move fast,” Drury ordered. “Get to those trees.” He fired a shot at the SUV with the hopes of getting the guy to duck back inside the vehicle.

  It worked, but he knew their luck wouldn’t hold out for long.

  Caitlyn crawled
out of the ditch, dragging Nicole with her. Kara helped, and while they scrambled toward the trees, Dade and Drury continued to send some rounds in the SUV. The bullets weren’t making their way through the windshield, but they were holding the guy with the launcher at bay.

  At first anyway.

  But then the barrel of the launcher came out again. Not the shooter, though. He stayed protected behind the reinforced glass.

  And Drury knew Dade and he didn’t have much time.

  “Run!” he shouted to Dade.

  They did. They took off, heading for the trees. Not a second too soon.

  Because the firebomb ripped through the car.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The sound of the blast roared through her, but Caitlyn didn’t look back. She tightened her grip on Nicole and just kept moving as fast as she could.

  She prayed, though, that Dade and Drury hadn’t been hurt.

  They’d stayed back, to protect the rest of them, but that could have cost them their lives. Still, Caitlyn tried not to think about that, tried not to give in to the fear that had her by the throat.

  With Kara on one side of Nicole and Caitlyn on the other, they made it to the trees and ducked behind them. Caitlyn got her first good look at the effects of the explosion then.

  There was nothing left of the car.

  It was nothing but a ball of fire.

  Of course, it created even more smoke, and this was thick and black, and it took her several heart-stopping moments to look through it and spot Drury and Dade.

  Alive.

  Thank heaven.

  They were running toward the trees, and just when Caitlyn thought they might make it, she saw something else. Something that caused her fear to spike even more. The thug who’d launched that firebomb was leaning out the window again, and this time, he had a gun.

  “Watch out!” she shouted to Drury and Dade.

  But it was too late. The shot slammed through the air.

  The scream wouldn’t make it past her throat. It was jammed there, stalling her breath, causing the panic to rise. It didn’t help when the thug fired off another round of shots.