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Cora quickly ducked behind a pallet of boxes before Boyd could see her. She crouched low, careful not to displace the rocks scattered near her feet.
“No one,” Bear ground out. “But they’re coming. I was the closest, so I got here first.”
“You must be dumber than you look to come here alone and unarmed.” He kicked Bear’s wounded leg with the toe of his boot.
Snarling in pain, Bear said through clenched teeth, “You’re going to have to run forever. We won’t stop hunting you.”
Boyd scoffed. “You sure as hell aren’t going to stop me.” He turned away and began shoving more stacks of cash into the open duffel bag on the floor. “In ten minutes, I’ll be long gone. You think I haven’t thought this through? Ever since that girl showed me the picture she took outside of John Brady’s house that night, I knew I’d need an escape plan. Didn’t want it to come to this, but that’s life. You roll with the punches.”
“That college girl,” Bear said, breathing fast through the pain of his wounded thigh. “You killed her.”
The captain waved his hand like he was brushing away an annoying gnat. “Lindsey Albright got in the way. It was unfortunate that she took those pictures and caught me in the background, but that’s on her. If she hadn’t come nosing around, I wouldn’t have had to shut her up. The sniveling little brat swore up and down there weren’t any copies after I promised to let her go.”
“But you didn’t let her go,” Bear said. “You killed her. Just like you killed your buddy Blackwell.”
Boyd shrugged and continued throwing money into the bag. It looked like he planned to fill it to the brim, only taking what he could carry. “I didn’t need him anymore, and he was getting too greedy. A symbiotic relationship only works if you each benefit. When Magnus was in jail, he threatened me.Me.Said he’d expose all our past schemes if I didn’t find a way to let him walk. That’s when I knew our partnership was over.” His mean hiss of laughter sounded like sharpening knives. “We had a good run, but he was a wild card, and contrary to what it may look like, I’m not much of a gambling man. Can’t leave any loose ends.”
Bear was lying on his side now, clutching a hand over his leg. Cora wanted to run to him and add pressure to the wound or find something to wrap around his thigh. But Bear seemed to sense this because he glanced into the dark where she was hiding and said, “Don’t do it.” She knew he was speaking directly to her, but Captain Thompson misunderstood.
“I’ll do what I want, and don’t insult my intelligence by begging for your life,” he said absently, almost as if he was talking to himself. He moved on to another trunk, threw back the lid, and began yanking out more bundles of cash. “Finn had the good sense not to. Although, in fairness, he fell into the caverns, so he must’ve figured begging would be futile.”
“Where is he?” Bear demanded. His normally deep voice was growing thready and weak.
Captain Thompson snorted. “Probably flitting around in the clouds with a golden harp by now, if you believe in all that nonsense. Finley Walsh was too righteous for his own good. Thought he could earn his way into heaven doing good deeds for the needy. But you and I know better, don’t we?” He zipped the duffel bag shut and stood, hauling it over his shoulder. “One life’s all we get, and nothing comes after, so we gotta game the system.” He aimed his gun as Bear. “Unfortunately, the game’s over for you.”
Cora was crouched low, and she braced herself to spring forward. She grabbed a rock near her shoe and threw it as hard as she could against the opposite wall.
Boyd spun around and shot into the dark. Then he scooped up the lantern and ran through an opening in the far wall of the cavern.
Using her phone light to see, Cora rushed toward Bear. She crouched low and whipped off her shirt, leaving nothing but her thin tank top to stave off the chill. She gripped his powerful leg, trying to locate the wound.
“I knew you’d warm up to me eventually, doll face,” Bear joked in a strained voice. “Just a little bit higher and to the right.”
Cora shook her head. “Unbelievable. You just never quit, do you?”
“That’s what all the ladies say,” he said on an exhaled hiss.
Finally locating the bullet wound on his upper thigh, she used her shirt to tie a makeshift tourniquet, yanking the knot tightly.
Bear made an agonized gurgle in the back of his throat. A light sheen of sweat had broken out on his forehead. As much as he was trying to appear nonchalant, Cora could tell he was in serious pain.
When she was satisfied the tourniquet would hold, she looked him square in the eye and demanded, “Give me your shirt.”
Even through the pain, Bear tried to smile, but before he had a chance to comment, Cora added, “Hurry.We need a bandage to stanch your wound. We can’t take a chance that you’ll bleed out before help arrives.”
That seemed to knock some sense into him. He managed to lift his arms enough for her to pull off his shirt. Then he fell onto his back with a groan. “You have to go after him,” he said after a few shallow pants. “If you don’t stop him now, he’s going to disappear.Go.”
She shook her head, torn between the desire to run after the captain, and the driving need to take care of the wounded man in front of her. She hated the idea of leaving Bear alone in the dark to pass out...or worse.
He laid a huge hand on her arm and surprised her by gently saying her name. “Cora.”
She glanced at his somber face, torn with indecision.
“You fixed me up right good. Thank you,” he said kindly. “I’ll be okay. Now go catch that bastard like the badass cop I know you are.” And because he was Bear, he added, “I promise you can continue feeling me up when you get back.”
Cora rolled her eyes and jumped to her feet. “Don’t go anywhere,” she commanded. Then she slipped through the back tunnel and went to catch a killer.
24
