Havers swore, then asked as if just remembering Goldie was supposed to be here, “Where’s the blonde?”
“I had to dump her back up the road. Women.”
Havers mumbled his agreement. “Can you hurry it up?”
“Almost done,” he said, feeling the man getting antsy. Havers wanted this over with as much as Donovan wanted to put off the inevitable. “This bag is heavy. I’ll carry it to the car since you’re still bleeding.” He could almost hear Havers considering this. It clearly wasn’t what the man had planned. He saw him glanceback toward the highway. Probably wondering if they might be running into the sheriff on the way. Max must have been wounded, if not killed.
“Sure. Why not.”
GOLDIE HAD GONEto the other side of the armored car, but then she’d spotted an outcropping of rock and dropped down behind it. She’d been afraid to even look, for fear she might be seen. Then she heard Donovan’s voice and that of the other man, who Donovan had called Havers.
She held her breath as she tried to hear their conversation. She could tell that Donovan was nervous. He expected Havers planned to kill him, she realized. That’s why he’d sent her off to hide. Why hadn’t he kept the gun?
Because he was no killer, she thought. She glanced toward the highway. She could see Max’s patrol SUV, the driver’s-side door standing open, but no sign of the man. Remembering the two gunshots she’d heard, she feared he was lying wounded in the sagebrush.
She looked at the pistol she still held in her hand. She couldn’t stay hidden here. Maybe Havers wouldn’t come looking for her, but maybe he would—after he killed Donovan. She couldn’t wait for that to happen.
Easing out from behind the rocks, she started toward the armored car when she saw Max. He was limping badly and had just reached the back of the vehicle. He hadn’t seen her. But she’d seen him and noticed that he wasn’t armed.
She hurried to the front of the armored car and as she reached it called, “Donovan?”
“What the hell?” she heard Havers say. “I thought you said you dumped her back up the road?”
Donovan cursed. “I did. She must have followed me.”
“Of course she did.” She heard Donovan let out a cry of pain. “Come on, blondie,” Havers called. “Come join us. Don’t make me come after you.”
Hiding the gun behind her, Goldie glanced around the corner of the vehicle. The man called Havers swung his gun in her direction, but she quickly jerked back out of sight as he fired in her direction. But in that split second, she’d seen Max coming up behind Havers.
Havers must have heard the sheriff approaching as well because as she came around the corner, this time the gun clutched in both her hands, Havers had his gun pointed at Max. Donovan was on the ground next to the bag of money, his head was bleeding and he was out cold.
“Any last words, Sheriff?” Havers asked.
“I’m right here,” she said behind Havers, and he started to turn as she pulled the trigger at the same time he did. Havers went down hard.
She looked from him to Max, terrified she had gotten him killed instead of saving him. He was holding his shoulder, blood oozing between his fingers, but he was smiling at her. She rushed to him. “We have to get you to a doctor,” she said, seeing that his leg was also bleeding. “Put your arm around me.”
“I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my life,” he said as he leaned into her, and they headed for his patrol SUV. “I didn’t know you knew how to shoot a gun.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Max Lander.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Max didn’t remember much of the hours that followed. Later he would learn that he’d radioed Rance to get out to the site where the armored car had gone off the road. “Luca Havers and Donovan Cole are there. Better call the coroner to meet you and the state boys.”
He would also learn that Goldie had driven him to the hospital and stayed while he was taken to surgery to remove the bullet in his shoulder and sew up the leg wound since the bullet had gone right through the flesh.
When he awakened in the hospital, it had felt like déjà vu. He was back where he’d been months ago, waking up to be told that he’d been shot. Again. And again, Goldie was there by his bedside. From the expression on her face when he opened his eyes, she’d expected him to turn her away like he had the last time.
“Goldie,” he said and reached for her. He couldn’t remember everything, but he wasn’t turning her away ever again. He hugged her to him as best as he could with his injuries.
She only left his side when the doctor came in, telling her to go home and get some rest.
Max saw her hesitate. “Get some rest. Come back later.”
She nodded and left as Deputy Rance Fletcher came in.
“Keep it short,” the doctor told the deputy. “He needs his rest too.”
