Jenna could have smacked herself. She did know that, or at least that rumor. “Yes, from what I’ve heard.”
“Fine.” He tucked the drive into a pocket. “We’ll take the punks in, get their side and watch this, but if this doesn’t prove what you’ve said beyond a shadow of a doubt, I’m coming back for statements.” He cut a glare to Jon. “And I don’t fucking care if you’re still playing wannabe superhero, Johnson. There are ways for us smalltown law enforcement types to get answers out of you military assholes, too.”
Jon’s brow furrowed. “I hope you keep that charm to yourself when you have to work with those ‘military assholes’,” he said. “We’re a tight circle. You don’t want to land on the wrong side.”
“We got incoming!”
Jenna startled at the warning shout, belatedly realizing that she had heard what sounded like an approaching engine. But she’d been too focused, and really, they were in a parking lot. Traffic happened.
Except she had about a heartbeat to realize that what was happening was not mere traffic.
Drew spun around, stumbling gracelessly off the edge of the curb and catching himself on his cruiser. Beyond him, his partner struggled to hold on to the guy Jon had tackled previously. Beyond them, an old Bronco was swinging sharply sideways into the center of the lot as what looked like a high-powered rifle slid out the passenger window.
Her heart shot into her throat.
Jon tackled her to the ground as rapid explosions tore through the air. The sound of shattered glass followed like an odd after-beat. They rolled until she found herself pulled to sitting, Jon’s hand on her nape and his dark eyes boring into hers. “Stay low and get to the back. Put solid walls between you and these windows.”
He wanted her to run? Jenna licked her lips. Something tore into the concrete near her foot. “Shit! Okay. Okay!”
Jon tugged her to her feet, turning as he stood, and raised a gun she didn’t even know he’d had on him out toward the source of the enemy gunfire. “Go,” he barked, before squeezing the trigger.
Jenna turned and sprinted for the back counter, trying her best not to look around at her store. At least she hadn’t had any customers inside.
Someone screamed behind her. The sound was full of pain and her chest constricted.Oh my god, what if—No, she couldn’t think that. That would be stupid. Too stupid.
But she realized the gunfire had stopped, and she could hear tires squealing away. And before she could work up the nerve to turn back around to survey the scene, she was absolutely sure she heard Drew’s partner … urgently calling for an ambulance.
Chapter three
Aftermath
“Jon!” Glass crunched underJenna’s sneakers as she spun around and bolted back out the way she’d come. She didn’t understand what was happening. But someone needed an ambulance, badly from the sounds of it, and she didn’t think she would be able to stomach ever so much as looking at that parking lot again if Jon died out there. She didn’t even want to think of him being hurt.
Not for her. Not when he’d barely gotten home.
Hell, she had no idea how long he was planning onbeinghome, let alone what ‘home’ truly was for him anymore. The parking lot of a bakery he’d never known was no place for him to die.
“Jon!”
Drew grabbed her roughly by the arm and yanked her backward before she had cleared the cruisers. “Stop it, Jenna! Just get your ass inside, this is no place for you!”
Jenna twisted, intending to struggle until she was free of his hold, and her gaze snagged on the first body. Rather, on a portion of it, as most of the form was obscured beneath the car. But she could see legs from the knees down and black shoes—not the boots Jon had been wearing—and a growing pool of blood. Her stomach heaved and she ripped her gaze away, searching.
“We’ve got an ambulance about ten minutes out,” Drew’s partner said. He wasn’t speaking to her. He wasn’t speaking to Drew. “Another one will follow.”
Drew tightened his grip as Jenna swiveled to follow the sound of the words. “Fuckingstopit, Hodge,” he snarled. “You’re in the way.”
She would have glared at the asshole, but his partner raced into view.
The man paused and cut them a perplexed look, then said, “He said he needs those apron straps.”
“The fuck?” Drew said.
Jenna wrenched herself free. “Be right back!” She yelled it as loudly as she could, lest Drew think she was speaking to him, and darted back inside. “Eric! Where are those extra straps?”
Shuffling preceded Steph poking her head around the display. “Oh my god, Ms. Hodge, that was—”
“Not now, Steph,” Jenna snapped.
