“No time,” she answered, holding her weapon with trembling hands.“We’re trapped, and the glass is about to fail.I have to engage.”
“No, don’t—”
Cassie had no choice.“Stay still,” she told Penny, who was crying on the floor in the back.
She flung her door open, used it as a shield as she stepped out and crouched behind it.Three quick rounds punched into it, turning her blood to ice.The instant they stopped she raised her weapon around the edge and returned fire with three rapid shots of her own.
The vehicle rocked suddenly.She whipped her head around just in time to see Penny throw the rear passenger door open.“No!”Cassie shouted.“Stay inside!”
Penny scrambled out anyway and started running for the shoulder.
Cassie quickly laid down what covering fire she could, swearing under her breath.
“What’s happening?”Tristan demanded.
She couldn’t reply, her pulse slamming in her ears, all her focus on trying to hit the shooter in front of her.
He angled the barrel of his weapon and fired.She heard a sharp cry over the sound of the shot.Glanced over in time to see Penny crumple to the ground.
Oh God, no.
“Penny’s down.Get an ambulance out here,” she ordered, struggling to keep her voice even.She fired three more shots at the attacker even though he was right at the end of her range, and hopped back into the vehicle.
She slid across the console into the passenger seat, using the vehicle as cover while she opened the far door.
Penny hadn’t moved.
More rounds hit the rear and front of the vehicle, but the rate of fire was slowing now.She popped out the passenger side during the lull, fired three more shots over the doorframe at the shooter in front of her.
Without warning, the shooting stopped.
Before she could process what was happening, all three shooters disappeared into the vehicles, and they raced away in opposite directions.
Breathing elevated, Cassie stepped out from behind the door and fired at the back of the vehicle in front of her.The SUV’s rear window exploded.The vehicle swerved, but she couldn’t tell if she’d hit anyone inside.It kept driving, putting it well out of range in a split second.
Then up ahead in the distance, she saw why the shooters had fled.Oncoming traffic was heading toward them in the southbound lane.
Battling through the whiplash of fear, she holstered her weapon and ran to Penny.“Shooters retreating,” she said over comms.
“Copy.We’re almost there.”
Too little, too late.
Penny was sprawled on her stomach with her head turned away from Cassie, her body half on the asphalt and half on the narrow, sandy shoulder.Rivulets of blood streamed away from her torso.
“Penny, I’ve got you.”Cassie rolled her onto her side.Bit back a string of curses when she saw the bullet wounds in the middle of Penny’s chest.Goddammit!If she’d just stayed in the vehicle, she would still be okay.“Single round, center mass,” she reported to Tristan.
Penny didn’t respond, brown eyes open but vacant, her breathing shallow and wet as blood bubbled out of the wounds.Her lung was shattered.
“Ambulance is on the way,” Tristan said in the earpiece.
It wasn’t going to get here in time.
Pressing her lips together, Cassie quickly turned Penny onto her back, ripped off her suit jacket, and used it to apply pressure to the wound.Other than trying to staunch the blood loss and lend support, there wasn’t much else she could do.
“Penny, look at me.Help is on the way.Stay with me.”Shit, her voice was shaking as much as her hands, her whole body vibrating under the rapidly draining tide of adrenaline.
Penny’s face was already ashen, her lips turning blue.Bright red blood frothed out of her nose and mouth.
