With barely a twitch, the guy went for his gun.
Denver fired, hitting him center mass. He flew back into the pillars, dropping onto his face.
Tina screamed and jumped into the car.
Denver slid back inside and gunned the engine. “He’s probably wearing a vest.” In that case, he’d be out for a little while. If not, well, he’d be headed for hell. Denver pulled back onto the road. “How bad are you hurt?”
Tina lifted her shirt and wiped the cut above her eyebrow. “Not bad. We were in bed, and then everything went crazy. The police burst in every door.”
Denver sped up, trying to find the damn ambulance. “The police got there first?”
Tina gulped, still wiping her face. “Yeah. So we got out of bed, and suddenly somebody started shooting through the window with guns and a flamethrower.”
Denver’s hands tightened on the wheel. “A fucking flamethrower?”
“Yeah. Jamie got shot, all the cops shot back, but they didn’t get the guy. So we got out of there while everything started on fire.” Her voice broke on the last. “An ambulance came, and they loaded Jamie. Then I was going for my car when that guy grabbed my arm and pushed me inside.” She swiped a hand across her tears. “Jamie’s friends from the force are expecting us at the hospital. I said I’d meet them there.” Tears mingled with the blood on her cheek. “I should’ve just gone with one of them, but I wanted my car. So stupid.”
“No. Not stupid,” Denver countered, his breath heated. “If you’d gone with them, we wouldn’t know that somebody else has Malloy. How did you know he was in danger?”
She gulped. “The guy with a gun to my side told me. He said we were taking a little trip.”
Denver nodded grimly. All right. He had to get to that ambulance. “How badly was Malloy hurt?”
“I don’t know,” Tina whispered, her voice trembling. “I just don’t know.”
CHAPTER
17
Dr. Isobel Madison crossed her legs and typed quickly, trying to bring up a satellite feed. Nothing. She clenched her fingers into fists and then tried again. The U.S. government was getting so much better at protecting its resources. She took a deep breath and reached for a cell phone. “Status,” she said coolly.
“Have the cop, and we have the girlfriend in a car following the ambulance,” came the short response. “Cop’s been shot.”
“How bad?” Isobel snapped. It wouldn’t do to lose Detective Malloy before she had time to interrogate him.
Her soldier cleared his throat. “One in the arm, one in the leg. We stabilized him at the scene before leaving. He figured out we weren’t legit, so I had to give him a sedative.”
“That’s all right,” Isobel said. “Time until rendezvous point?”
“Thirty minutes.”
The rendezvous point was an abandoned lot on the other side of the mountain where her one and only helicopter could land. There was a time when she’d had a fleet of them under her command. She sighed. “All right. Don’t let him die.”
“Copy that.” The line went dead.
She bit her lip and turned back to the computer.
“Sounds like we have the cop,” Elton Cobb said from the doorway. “I won’t allow him to be killed, Isobel.”
She turned back around. “There are always casualties in a campaign, my love.”
Elton shook his head, his blue eyes so dark, sizzling. His blond hair was trimmed short, and in his light T-shirt with camo pants, he looked like a soldier. “Malloy is a cop, and that means something.”
Oh, for goodness’ sake. Why must she soothe male egos all the time? It was tiresome, but she slid on a smooth smile. “I understand you were a sheriff, dear, but Malloy is working with Denver. With Heath and Ryker. The men who killed your brother.” She kept her voice calm when all she wanted was to give him a good slap. But he was useful, and even more so, Elton Cobb was dangerous. She needed to remember the existence of the man he kept carefully banked. The one who’d kill without mercy.
“I know,” Elton snapped.
She breathed in slowly. “Are you going to protect Detective Malloy at the expense of getting justice for your sweet brother?” Ned Cobb had been a weak, pathetic loser who’d beaten kids to make himself feel like a man. “He deserved better than to die the way he did.” She almost choked on the words.
