Ryan’s hands were rock steady, the pain barely noticeable now as he aimed the barrel of his rifle at the target and fired.
The man shouted and dropped to his back, his weapon lying on the ground.Ryan’s boots pounded over the carpet of fallen leaves as he ran for the man.When he reached the man he kicked the fallen rifle away, aiming his own at the guy at point blank range.
The shooter had half turned onto his side, his breathing ragged and uneven.“Don’t...don’t kill me,” he rasped out, grimacing as he struggled to bring his hands up.
Wade moved in like a deadly shadow to search him for weapons, then grabbed the guy by the front of his camo fatigues and shook him once.“Who the fuck are you and why did you attack us?”he growled.
“Or...orders,” the man said, voice weak.
Ryan wasn’t exactly sure where he’d hit the guy, but from the raspy breathing it sounded like he’d gotten the guy in the lung.If they didn’t get what they needed to know out of him now, they probably weren’t going to.“Whose orders?”he demanded.
“Boss...”
Wade let him drop back to the ground with a dull thud and leaned over him.“March?”
Something flared in the man’s eyes at the mention of the name, then he closed them.“Orders...”
Wade shot Ryan a hard look and pushed to his feet.
“You get him?”Cam’s voice called out.
“Yeah, we’re good.Any other targets?”
“Just the one on the ATV.”
Ryan stared down at the nearly unconscious man.“Let’s get him back to the resort.If we can stabilize him, the cops might be able to get more information out of him.”
“I got him.”Wade handed Ryan his weapon and bent to hoist the wounded man over his shoulders.
“Let’s get back,” Ryan said, anxious to get back to Candace and report what they’d found.
When he rushed into the resort’s main building and through the lobby to the lounge ten minutes later, all sweaty from the run and a little chilled from blood loss, he found all the guests huddled together there.Maya and Devon were standing guard with two male resort employees.Where was Candace?
His heart squeezed when he spotted her off to one side of the room with her grandma, still wearing that blood-stained T-shirt, his pistol in her hand.A staggering wave of relief hit him, then she gave a little smile and started toward him.
He met her halfway and caught her around the back in a tight, one-armed hug, careful not to touch her wound and totally ignoring her grandma, hovering at her side.“Sweetheart, you all right?”He buried his sweaty face in her hair, breathing her in.She was safe.That was all that mattered.
She nodded and hugged him with her right arm.“Yes, but you’re bleeding pretty bad.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Jackson said, coming up beside him with a first aid kit.“Hold still and let me at least patch you up for the time being.”
Ryan stood still and let Jackson do his thing, biting back a wince as he probed at the wound.“Did it go through?”
“Yeah.Right through your tricep and then along your side for a few inches.”
That would explain why his arm and the spot just under it burned so bad, from all the torn-up tissue.
Candace dragged her gaze from the wound and up to his face, her expression pinched with worry.“You’re not okay.”
He kissed the bridge of her nose, her mouth.“I’m good.More worried about you.”
She shook her head.“I was lucky, Erin says it only hit skin and muscle.She got the bullet out, give me a few stitches, and bandaged me up.I’m not even bleeding anymore, just sore.”She reached for his left hand, her cold fingers wrapping around it tight.“Can you still use your arm?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.”He didn’t tell her about the numbness or loss of grip strength because there were more important things to worry about at the moment.“Love you.”
“Love you too.”She cupped the side of his face in her hand.“Did you get them?”
“We got three of the shooters, but the fourth got away on an ATV.”
