Livvy wanted to argue. She wanted to stand her ground and help Ethan catch this SOB, but she had to think of the baby. Plus, an argument could play right into their attacker’s hands. It couldgive him the window of opportunity that he needed to finish them off.
She rolled into the narrow opening beneath the house where she was out of the line of fire and also protected if the chunk of roof did indeed fall.
But Ethan wasn’t safe.
Neither was Grace.
They had both moved out from their meager cover and had taken aim at the spot in the field where they’d seen that movement. Both of them fired. And fired. They sent two more rounds of bullets into the ground, and at least one of the shots must have hit the roots because one of the stalks toppled to the side.
And that was when Livvy saw him.
A man wearing dark pants, a black shirt and a ski mask. He seemed to freeze for a moment, and then he must have realized he was exposed. He bolted out, darting toward the cruiser, no doubt to use it for cover so he could continue his attack.
He ran fast, leaping across the ditch, and he was only a couple of inches from cover when Ethan fired again.
The man howled in pain, and still moving toward the cruiser, he slapped his left hand over the side of his head. Ethan had obviously hit him, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. He dived behind the front end of the cruiser. The moment he landed, he yanked off the ski mask, and Livvy saw the blood dripping from the side of his head. Part of his ear was missing.
And she also saw his face.
Anthony.
He saw Ethan, too. With a feral sound of pain and fury ripping from his throat, Anthony took aim at Ethan and started firing.
Chapter Eighteen
Ethan had no choice but to stay low and hope like hell that Anthony didn’t kill him. Because if he managed to do that, it’d make Livvy and Grace easier targets. No way did Ethan intend to let this SOB hurt them and the baby.
“Tell those cops coming to back off,” Anthony shouted. “Or I’ll gun every one of them down.”
Ethan didn’t doubt that one bit, and while he couldn’t see the main road, he figured both backup deputies and the ambulance were there waiting. Waiting for Grace to let them know it was safe to approach. Right now, the entire area was nowhere near safe.
Not with Anthony out for what he no doubt would call justice.
This attack and the others had to be about avenging his mother’s death. Well, probably. It was possible that Anthony had told them a pack of lies about that and he could be doing this for another reason.
Ethan saw the man reloading, and he levered himself up enough to fire a shot at Anthony. It came close, very close, but it ended up ricocheting off the bumper of the cruiser.
Cursing a blue streak, Anthony finished the reload, and Ethan once again had to get belly down onto the ground.
And the shots came.
Mercy, did they.
The bullets were hitting the side of the house, only inches from him and the opening where Livvy had taken cover. Ethan looked at her, meeting her gaze for a split second, and in thatblink of time, he saw all the emotions that were in a whirlwind inside him.
He didn’t want this for her. He didn’t want this for their baby. But at the moment, he didn’t have a way to stop it.
“This won’t bring back your mother,” Ethan shouted, knowing he couldn’t reason with Anthony but hoping for the best anyway.
“No, but it’ll punish Sunny and Vernice,” the man spat out.
So, thiswasabout his mother. Considering that Sunny had been the main target of the earlier attacks, it didn’t surprise Ethan that Anthony had mentioned her. But he still didn’t know why the man wanted her dead. And what the heck did Vernice have to do with Anthony’s mother?
“Why Sunny?” Ethan shouted. “She was just a kid when your mother was killed. She had nothing to do with that.”
Anthony fired off a few more shots. “Sunny knows why.”
“I don’t,” she yelled back. Obviously, she was still conscious and feeling strong enough to return verbal fire. “Why?” The volume of her voice and her anger actually went up on that single word question.
