AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then it hit her. The defensive position and all those groans as the attacker landed punches...all fake. “Are you hurt at all?”
“No, but the guy could hit.”
Holt acted as though getting pummeled was no big deal. The other man had rammed his fist in Holt’s side over and over. Any other man would have fallen down in defeat. Not Holt. He created a ruse and lured the guy in. Lindsey looked over at the attacker’s still form and decided the right way to say it was that Holt lured him in and then killed him.
Without missing a beat, Holt checked the attacker for a pulse, then pocketed his weapon. Next he scooped up her gun and handed it to her. She stumbled around in a stupor. She hadn’t even been able to get off her knees.
He held a hand down to her. “Let’s go.”
She took it and got up. Rounding the corner, she saw what he’d been staring at. The tall grass around the back of the house had been trampled down for a long stretch. The path led away from the building and toward a second, much smaller one, half a football field’s length away.
Ducking down, Holt took off. He followed the path, walking beside it. She followed, keeping low. Her footing faltered when she glanced down at the crushed grass and saw blood. Not a tiny trickle. This was enough to leave a long smear.
Panic whirred to life inside her. Her emotions had been bouncing from relief to fear, teetering one minute to the next. Now they stayed locked on blinding fear.
Her fingers tapped against Holt’s back to let him know she was there. He treated her to a short nod and kept going, which was exactly what she wanted. The danger hadn’t lapsed for the Noonans, people she considered both rescues and friends of a sort. Kindred spirits at least.
The storage shed sat away from the house. They kept everything in there from tissues to food. The shed housed their end-of-the-world supplies. They’d been so indoctrinated by Simon Falls that they couldn’t shake the hoarding tendency loose.
Holt looked around with an expression filled with scorn. She thought he might circle the shed looking for windows and thought to warn him. She didn’t have time. He lifted his leg and kicked the door in.
The wood shattered and the lock broke open with a crack. The door bounced, but Holt caught it with his shoulder. Going in first, he moved and hustled...then stopped.
Dread and sadness crashed over her in waves. “What is it?”
Holt didn’t stop to answer. He flew across the room to where Kelly was tied to a chair. He felt for a pulse and cut her free. With gentle hands, he laid her down against the floor.
Lindsey almost missed it all because she was busy hovering over Kurt’s lifeless form. He lay doubled over, almost in the fetal position. She checked for a pulse and couldn’t find one. Convinced her emergency skills were on the fritz, she looked to Holt.
He was already moving. He slid in beside her and felt for a pulse. Then tried again. He turned Kurt over and blood drained from the injury in his shoulder, washing over Holt’s hands to the floor.
He glanced up at her. “We need an ambulance, and fast. I don’t know what directions to give, so you’ll have to.”
As if she could remember at that moment. “Right.”
“Here’s my phone. Press number seven and say medical transport.” He shook the phone. “Not 9-1-1 or anything else. Only number seven.”
With her mind turned to mush, she struggled to understand his message. There were things in the house the police couldn’t see. A treasure trove of intel on New Foundations ferreted out online. “But what about—”
“Connor will handle the rest.”
She had no idea what that meant. Her brain raced to catch up but failed. All she could do was stare at him.
In the beat of hesitation, Holt grabbed her arm. Not hard but enough to kick her out of her stupor. “Now, Lindsey.”
“Right.” She reached for the cell and punched it in.
His hand slipped farther down her arm. “I get the worries, but you need to trust me on this.”
She looked at Kelly, then Kurt. They’d been beaten and shot. Even now bruises formed. Kurt took the brunt, but Kelly had not been spared either. The attacker clearly didn’t care that she was a young woman, which confirmed everything Lindsey already knew about the group.
“Number seven, then Deputy Carver.” Holt nodded at her after issuing the order.
“Why him?”
“As hard as it’s going to be, it’s time to start flushing Falls out.” Holt’s expression grew even darker. “Before he attacks anyone else.”
This time she didn’t disagree or even blink. She just followed the instructions and hoped Holt knew what he was talking about. She wasn’t one to trust and she was placing a lot in him and this Connor person she’d never even met.
