“But—”
“Situation is still the same. If I have to face Glen guns blazing, doing it by myself gives me a better chance.”
“I don’t want to leave you,” she whispered.
“I know, freckles. But do it anyway.”
She nodded.
Relief flooded his entire body. They didn’t have time to fight this out. Knowing she was safe would allow him to focus. He kissed her hard once more then hoisted her up and through the impossibly small window.
“Get out of the blast range and stay hidden until Whitaker gets here,” he told her as she wiggled her hips through. Once she made it, he winced as she fell forward. It was a long way to fall and no good way to catch herself.
But at least she’d be alive.
He couldn’t see out the window to make sure she was all right, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway—he was running out of time. Only forty-five seconds left on the countdown. If he had more time, he might have tried to call in support and see if there was any way he could disarm it, but there was no way that could happen now.
“Why are you doing this, Glen?” he called out. “It doesn’t need to be this way.”
He didn’t actually expect Carrico to answer, but he did. “This wasn’t what I wanted. Any of it. I just hope it’s worth it in the end.”
Tanner was done with the cryptic statements from this guy. He wasn’t waiting any longer. Bree was safe.
He shot at the front window once to try to get Glen’s attention focused in that direction, and then he stormed the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
She and Tanner really were going to need to have a long talk about exactly what it meant to be ateam. Team did not mean one person stayed in jeopardy while the other ran for her life.
But when the clock was ticking and some sort of bomb was about to blow up the whole building, it wasn’t time for an argument. So she kissed him and wiggled out that tiny window and fell what felt like a thousand feet to the ground.
But she damn well didn’t run to safety. Instead she immediately grabbed the biggest stick she could find and headed around to the front of the shed.
If Tanner was coming out of there guns blazing, then she was going to help him by coming from the back, club swinging.
As she sprinted around the building, Glen’s attention was caught by the front window of the shed shattering. She ran as fast as she could toward the skinny man, even as Tanner came bursting out of the shed door, firing his gun in Glen’s direction.
Glen was hit by one of Tanner’s bullets, but only in the arm, not enough to take him down. And then he was firing, too. Tanner, out of bullets, dived to the side to get away from the shots firing his way.
She knew it wasn’t going to be enough.
“No!” She screamed to get Glen’s attention before he could fire at Tanner again and continued to run at full speed, branch raised.
Glen spun around to face her, and she knew he was going to get the shot off before she could hit him. She prepared herself for the feel of a bullet, but when the shot rang out, no pain came.
Instead, it was Glen who fell from a shot to the head. Bree spun to see what had happened. Did Tanner have another bullet she didn’t know about? He was running toward her, leaping over Glen’s body and pulling her against his chest and behind one of the larger trees.
Not two seconds later, the shed exploded, sending pieces of wood and metal flying out as shrapnel. The tree saved them from it ripping into their bodies.
Tanner held her away from him and looked down at her, fear clouding his brown eyes. “Are you okay?” He began patting her down, looking for wounds.
“I’m fine. How...? Did you shoot him?”
“Excuse me. Can I get a little help over here?” The voice was coming from the other side of where the shed had stood. They both rushed over through the smoke and debris to find Ryan Fletcher leaning up against a tree, gun next to him.
“Fletcher? What the hell are you doing here?” Tanner rushed to his friend’s side and helped ease him to the ground.
“I was on my cell phone with Sheriff Duggan when Whitaker called in what was going on. I was closer, so I rushed over here. Made it just in time to shoot someone I’ve never met then get blown to kingdom come.” He smiled. “Everybody always says an attorney’s job is bloody.”
