“You’re taking me to the sheriff’s office,” Caroline concluded.
Jack couldn’t figure out a way to sugarcoat it. “I am.”
She sat there, obviously weighing her options as he’d done earlier. She was smart. Smart enough to keep her mouth shut about regaining her memory because she didn’t know the snakes from the good guys. And that meant she’d soon figure out that the only choice she had was to go with him to the sheriff’s office. That didn’t mean she’d like it, though.
Jack had to slow down as he approached the last turn that would take him to town. They were about six miles out now.
Not far.
With Kellan no doubt already en route, it meant he had only a couple more minutes before he could do something about this tail. He wanted to question whoever was behind that wheel. If it was Kingston, he would question him even harder, because maybe he, too, had been at the abandoned hotel the night Jack’s father was murdered.
Jack took the turn on the road, and while his attention hadn’t strayed from the sedan, he watched it even closer now. Though he soon figured out there was no need for watching, because the driver immediately sped up.
Hell.
Kellan was still nowhere in sight, but Jack got a glimpse of something he sure as heck didn’t want to see. The driver’s-side window of the sedan lowered. A hand came out. One holding a gun.
“Get down!” Jack shouted to Caroline and Lucille.
Not a second too soon. Because the shot slammed into the truck.
Chapter Four
Caroline ducked down and grabbed on to Lucille to make sure she did the same just as a bullet blasted through the truck’s back window. The safety glass shattered, but the pieces that pummeled them had a plastic coating to keep them from being lethal or cutting them to shreds.
The second shot could fall into the lethal category, though.
It slammed into the driver’s side of the glass, missing Jack’s head by what appeared to be a fraction of an inch.
Fear roared through her, but so did anger. Whoever was doing his—Kingston, maybe—was putting Jack and Lucille in danger, all so he could get to her.
Of course, the flashbacks came. Nightmarish memories of the other attack, the gunfire the night Jack’s father had been murdered. Jack was no doubt reliving some bad stuff, as well.
“I can hold the steering wheel so you can return fire,” Caroline offered.
With narrowed eyes, he spared her a glance, looking at her as if she’d lost her mind. “You’re staying down.” And he caught onto her neck to push her lower. “I have no intention of confronting this jerk with Lucille and you in the vehicle. I’ll do that later when it’s just me and him.”
Jack didn’t leave any room for argument on that, and he hit the accelerator again just as the shooter sent a third bullet their way. Since Lucille was shaking and mumbling a prayer, Caroline put her arm around the woman to try to comfort her.
Mixed in with the sound of a fourth shot, Caroline heard something else. The howl of a police siren. It gave her a jolt of relief. Then, a wave of more fear. Because this was probably Kellan.
The shots stopped instantly, and behind them was the screech of brakes. When Jack cursed, she risked lifting her head to see what was going on. The shooter had stopped and was turning his car around.
No doubt so he could get away.
Jack pulled to the side of the road, and that was when Caroline looked out of the front of the truck and spotted not one but two cruisers. Two deputies were in one, and they sped past them, heading in pursuit of the gunman. Kellan was driving the second cruiser, and he pulled up next to Jack.
“Is anyone hurt?” Kellan immediately asked, glancing up at the shot-out glass, then his brother. Then, at Caroline. Kellan was probably good at poker, because she couldn’t tell what he was thinking other than the obvious concern for his brother and them.
Jack made a quick check of her and Lucille, but his attention didn’t stray far from his rearview mirror. Keeping watch for the sedan that had sped away from them.
“We’re okay,” Jack assured his brother. “I need to get them to the sheriff’s office.”
Kellan gave a quick nod. “I would have all of you get in the cruiser with me, but the guy might return, and I don’t want you out in the open. I’ll follow you back and send out another crew of deputies to assist in chasing down that car.”
Jack matched his brother’s nod and took off. “It’ll only take us a couple of minutes to get there,” Jack told Lucille and her.
Minutes. Not long before she could be walking into a lion’s den. But then, as Jack had said, for her it was the lesser of twoevils. She definitely didn’t want to hang around, waiting for a gunman.
