Crouching down, I rush as fast as I can in the direction of Henry’s vehicle. It’s not lost on me that I’m making an idiotic decision. No gun, no protection of any kind, but I have to get to him, have to help in any way I can.
When I’m fifteen feet away, I see Henry standing with his arms held in surrender. His gun is in the holster on his hip. I take in the man in front of him, holding him at gunpoint. I slow my breathing and try to take in any features I can of the man with the gun. He’s about five-foot-ten, wearing dirty blue jeans. Black work boots that are nearly ripped to shreds. White t-shirt that’s ripped on the bottom corner, covered in dirt. He’s got a black mask covering his face, no visible facial hair. Hair is hidden.Caucasian, unable to see eye color. Snake tattoo on his right arm. I try to make out the words inked alongside the belly of the snake, but I can’t. I’m too far away.
“This will teach your crew about getting too close to Chaz,” the man says, his voice quieter now, no longer a yell. I know what’s going to happen before it happens, and I stand, running toward Henry to throw him out of the way.
The gunshot is quicker than I am.
I watch the gun recoil in his hand, and the shot hits Henry before I can take two steps. Henry drops to the ground, clutching at his shoulder. As soon as the man sees me, he holds the gun up to me. Blood pools around Henry’s shoulder as he lies on the ground, motionless.
Instead of running, the man turns his attention to me. “Should have known you wouldn’t be far behind him. Seems you two have been working together a lot, haven’t you, Cunningham?” he spits my name out with a venom that sends a shiver down my spine. Fuck, this isn’t good.
I flick my eyes down to Henry at my feet, and check the distance between my raised hands and the gun on his hip. It’s too far for me to move fast enough, get the gun, aim, and shoot him before he could shoot me first. I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. He could shoot me, and it would be over in a second.
Sirens wail in the distance, and I take a breath. I have to keep him occupied for another minute or two until they get here. Someone had to have heard the gunshot and called it in.
“How do you know who I am?” I ask.
“You and that motherfucker have been hunting us, and you thought we didn’t know?” He chuckles menacingly. “Of course we knew. We know everything.”
“So now what? You kill us and call it a day?”
He lets out a cackle. “No. I think I’ll let you live. Let you have the knowledge that we know who you are, where you live, and we are watching your every move. Let you stew in fear for a little longer.”
“Why?” I ask, unable to hold the question in.
“It’s fun to watch.”
I inch closer to Henry, who lets out a low groan on the ground. Thank fuck, he’s alive. For now, at least.
The distant sound of a door opening and closing sends my heart racing. Please, no. Please, pleasepleaselet it be anyone other than Hannah.
“We’ve been watching you already for weeks, even tonight, while you were on your special date with that paramedic. What’s her name again?”
I don’t take the bait, but my gut churns with the knowledge that they’ve been watching Hannah tonight. That means it’s not just me in danger, it’s her, too. It’sall of my family.
The sirens get closer, and the man takes another step closer to me, gun pointed directly at my chest. One wrong move, and it’s over.
“I’ll leave you with this,” he says, wobbling the gun in his hand. “You’re next. Thorson is as good as dead, so my job here is done.”
I move one inch closer to Henry, listening to his shallow breathing. The dumbass hasn’t realized I’m close enough yet, but the second his guard drops, I’m onto him.
“Do you really think you’re going to make it out of this?” I ask, my voice steady. “To me, it sounds like half the county is on their way here. Are you really going to be able to run?”
“The whole point was never to run. I know I’m not getting out of this alive. The point is to tell you to watchyour back, cause soon, you’ll end up bleeding on the ground like him.”
With that, I move as quickly as I can, reaching down to grab the gun from Henry’s hip. A shot fires, but I’m not hit. Instead of firing again, the man turns and runs down the street. I lift Henry’s gun, click off the safety, aim, and fire at him as he runs. He jerks, clutching at his arm, and running out of sight before I can stand to chase him.
“Fuck,” I curse, turning my attention back to Henry. I flick the safety on, set the gun by my leg, and move to assess Henry.
His shoulder is bleeding like a bitch, but thankfully, it looks like it's too high up to have hit his heart. I can’t be sure it didn’t hit an artery, though. I put pressure on the wound with one hand, while sliding my other hand to see if the bullet went through. When I don’t feel an exit wound, I curse under my breath. This just got a bit worse.
A voice calls my name, and I look up to see Hannah running toward us, a bag in tow. “Thomas,” she calls again.
“I told you to stay in the car,” I tell her, scanning behind her for any more threats.
“You need help.” I can see her shift from fear to all business. Fuck, she’s amazing at her job. Dropping to her knees beside me, she checks his pulse, and once she feels a heartbeat and sees his chest moving as he breathes, she tears open her bag, dumping out the contents. She grabs a pair of gloves and puts them on, ripping open a package of gauze and switching out with me. I let her continue to apply pressure while I open more gauze for her.
“Did you call it in?” I ask.
