AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The woman in his arms whimpered. Blood ran down the side of her face, her eyes glassy from the injury.
“I know you didn’t kill that woman in the trees, and you didn’t kill the teller at the bank.” Clare shrugged a tiny bit. “So far you haven’t taken a life. Let’s keep it that way.”
Gage moved beside her, half a step to the left. Trying to get a better angle so he could maybe shoot the guy in the head. Too risky in her estimation, but she wasn’t surprised he would try. That was the kind of cop he was—always thinking about the life he’d save and the result that would accompany it.
No one else would be hurt.
Except Clare.
She’d been waving the EMTs over to the injured, practically dead woman. Trying to pray that the doctor’s wife lived. Even if she didn’t all the way believe that would work. Or that God would listen to someone like her.
Then she’d heard the gunshot.
Reacting purely on instinct, Clare had raced across the park with her gun out. Seen the commotion on the street and then the crash. That SWAT was in the middle of it had been a relief, but she didn’t fully assimilate that until she was in the store. And then she’d seen the woman being held against her will and all thought went out the window.
So here she was.
Gage might not like it, but she would do everything she could to help.
“I’m gonna shoot her.” The guy sneered. “Just so you quit meddling.”
“She can leave,” Gage said. “You and I can talk this out. But you let both women go.”
“Or better yet,” Clare found herself saying, “let her go and take me instead.”
The SWAT guys reacted. Clare wasn’t interested if they didn’t like her idea. She just had different tactics than they employed. Her life for years had been war. Far more savage than hometown law enforcement.
“Yeah? So you can talk me to death. Ruin things even more.”
The woman whimpered again.
Clare couldn’t look at the woman. Not when that would create a connection she’d have to feel if the woman was killed. Right now she just needed to be a faceless innocent victim. “Your crew has a leader. You’re two down, and he’s scrambling.”
“Because of you!”
“Don’t make this worse,” she said. “Right now your leader is the one with the problem, not you.”
Gage shifted, his gun still raised. “Put the gun down and put your hands up.”
Clare had to admit she liked standing side by side with him. But it couldn’t last. She couldn’t let these cops hurt the innocent, which meant she moved in then. Someone made a frustrated noise, low in their throat. She didn’t wonder who it was.
“Let her go and take me.”
The gunman stared at her, desperation and the gleam of narcotics in his gaze. Too glassy. He had no ability to be rational or calm. “You wanna save her life?” He shifted.
Clare grabbed for the woman when he shoved her away.He’s going to shoot her.That was how he’d get shot—something he might’ve seen as his only way out. But they needed the information he could give them.
She held the woman with one hand and kicked at his gun hand with the other. His hand flung up at the force of the impact and he cried out. The gun went flying.
Clare spun with the woman, gathering her up in case more shots went off. She had to have her body between the gun and the innocent person.No one else is dying on my watch.
“Clear!” Gage flipped the guy onto his front. “You’re under arrest.”
She walked away, clutching the woman while he continued talking. Doing his cop thing. “Let’s get you outside. We can have EMTs check you out.”
Gage called out, “Blake! Escort the woman outside. Clare, you’re not going anywhere.” The lethality in his voice made her stop.
She couldn’t do anything else when he spoke with that authority.
