And it’d come from those trees.
Yvette screamed, a bloodcurdling sound that ripped through the air, and she dropped to her knees. Judson couldn’t tell if she’d actually been shot, but he knew he had to do something. If Yvette truly was in a danger, she could be killed right in front of him.
“Get down in the seat and stay in the cruiser,” Judson told Addie while he threw the car into Drive and moved up closer to Yvette.
It wasn’t easy, since the road was so narrow, but he turned the cruiser sideways to make it easier to reach Yvette through the driver’s side door. That wasn’t a huge precaution, considering that someone had already tried to kill Addie and him, but it was better than him just bolting out where he could be gunned down.
Judson threw the cruiser into Park and opened his door. He drew his gun and automatically braced himself for the sound of another bullet.
But none came.
However, even over the sirens, he could hear Yvette moaning, and she was now clutching her chest.
Livvy moved her cruiser, too, parking so that she was right next to the passenger’s side where Addie sat. Hopefully, Livvy would be able to protect her if things went to hell in a handbasket.
And they did.
Damn it, they did.
The gunfire blasted out from the trees. A spray of shots that slammed into the cruisers and the pavement. They would have likely slammed into Judson, too, had he not dropped down, using the front end of the cruiser for cover.
Judson considered leaning out, trying to pinpoint the shooter, but the bullets were coming too close to him. Pinning him down.
“Stay low,” Livvy shouted a split second before Judson heard more gunfire.
From Livvy this time. And he cursed when he glanced behind him and saw that Livvy was behind her cruiser door and was returning fire. She only managed a couple of rounds before the shooter shifted his aim and sent some shots her way.
Cursing, Judson levered himself up and fired where he thought their attacker was, and he did some praying. Praying that Livvy and Addie weren’t getting hit, since bullets could eventually get through both the window and the body of the cruisers. He also added a prayer that he could get Yvette out of this alive. Even if she was working with the gunman, she could give them answers as long as she wasn’t dead.
But she wasn’t screaming.
And she was moving.
Judson could see the blood spreading out from her, sliding across the pavement. There was way too much of it, and if he didn’t do something soon, Yvette would bleed out.
“I’m driving closer to her,” Judson let Livvy know.
He jumped back in the cruiser, giving Addie just a glance. He wanted to make sure she was all right, wanted to give her some kind of reassurance, but there wasn’t time for that.
“Call for an ambulance,” he told her. Not just to give her something to do, either. If he could get Yvette into the cruiser, they’d need EMTs out here right away.
Addie’s hands were trembling when she took out her phone, but she made the call while Judson pulled up closer to Yvette. As close as he could get without hitting her. He aligned the back door with the woman and glanced at Addie again.
“Stay down,” he repeated.
Just as a shot slammed into the window right above her head.
The glass cracked and webbed but held. Still, it could break at any second, and that’s why Judson knew he had to move fast.
“All the way down in the seat,” he told Addie, but she was already heading in that direction.
“You, too,” she managed to say. She must have known, though, that wasn’t something he could do. Not yet, anyway.
Behind him, he heard Livvy returning gunfire. Bullet for bullet. And he hoped Livvy would keep this SOB occupied while he got to Yvette.
Judson bolted from the cruiser again, staying low while he scurried toward Yvette. She still wasn’t moving or speaking, but when he latched onto her arm, he saw her eyes open just a slit.
Alive.
