Page 28 of Rangers Last Promise

“We’re behind an overturned table.”

“Because I put us here.”

“And I appreciate it. Now move.”

The calmness of her voice should warn me.

It doesn’t.

She drives her knee into the outside of my thigh, hooks her boot around my ankle, and uses my own weight to shift me far enough to roll free.

I catch her arm before she crawls toward the bar.

“You’re bleeding.”

“It’s a scratch.”

“I’ll decide that.”

Her eyes narrow.

“You may have been my brother’s medic, but you aren’t mine.”

The words hit a place I keep buried.

I release her.

That’s all the opening she needs.

Mara pulls her sidearm from its holster and moves behind the heavy end of the bar.

Wolf glances at me.

“Grant warned you about telling her what to do.”

“When?”

“Every day.”

Trigger’s voice comes through the darkness near the kitchen.

“Back door is secure. I’m going into the alley.”

“No,” Sheriff Tate orders. “Wait for my deputies.”

“We might lose him.”

“We might also put you in front of his rifle.”

Trigger stops, but I can tell from the set of his shoulders he doesn’t like it.

Neither do I.

Waiting goes against everything the Army trained into us, but Tate is right. We don’t know how many shooters are outside or whether the power failure is meant to pull us into an ambush.

Sheriff Tate takes out his radio.

“Unit Two, approach from the south without lights. Unit Four, block the north end of Main Street. Possible shooter positioned east of the Last Stand Tavern. We have shots fired into the building.”