Chapter Four
The collision happened fast. Too fast for Cullen to do anything to try to lessen the impact.
His shoulder and the side of his head rammed against the side airbag as it deployed. The seat belt snapped and caught, clamping like a vise over his chest and pinning him against the seat.
Probably with some help from the sleet, the cruiser went into a skid, and beside him, Leigh fought with the steering wheel. Trying to keep them on the road. She might have managed it, too, if the driver of the SUV hadn’t come at them again. With the headlights on high beams, the SUV rammed them from behind, the front end of it colliding with the rear of the cruiser.
The impact slammed the cruiser headfirst into a tree.
There was the sound of metal tearing into the wood along with the swoosh of the front airbags when they punched into their faces. It knocked the breath out of Cullen for a couple of seconds, and the powder that’d surrounded the airbags flew into his eyes. Still, he forced himself to react, not to give in to the shock. Because he was certain of one thing.
Someone was trying to kill them.
The first impact could have possibly been an accident. Someone losing control as they came out of one of the trails. But the second collision had been intentional and with the purpose of causing them to crash into the tree. Which was exactly what’d happened.
Cullen glanced at Leigh to make sure she was conscious. She was, but she looked a little dazed. Still, she was already fumbling for her gun, which meant that she, too, had figured out that someone was using a vehicle to attack them.
The SUV came at them again.
This time the vehicle didn’t just plow into them. Instead, the driver began to inch forward, sandwiching the cruiser between the SUV and the tree. Cullen had no idea if the front end of the SUV could actually crush the cruiser like an accordion, and he wasn’t about to wait to find out.
Cullen batted away the airbag so he could take out his gun. It wasn’t an easy task since there wasn’t much room to move around. He finally managed it and soon saw that Leigh was still struggling to draw her own weapon.
“You need backup. I’m armed and stopping whoever’s doing this,” Cullen said, giving her a heads-up.
Leigh might have argued with him if she’d actually had her gun out and if this hadn’t been a life-and-death situation where there hadn’t been time to call for backup. Instead, Leigh just kept frantically shoving the airbag aside and battling to get her damaged door open while Cullen barreled out of the cruiser. He took aim at the windshield of the SUV, right where the driver would be.
Leigh finally got hold of her gun, and she must have given up on getting her door open because she climbed out through the passenger’s side. The moment her feet landed on the ground, she lifted her body, and she pointed her gun at the SUV.
“I’m Sheriff Mercer,” Leigh called out. “Stop or I’ll fire.”
Cullen wasn’t surprised when the driver stopped. After all, the windshield probably wasn’t bulletproof, and he or she had two guns aimed at him. Unfortunately, because of the high beams, the darkness and the heavily tinted windshield, Cullen couldn’t see who was behind the wheel.
But it was almost certainly Alexa’s killer.
That reminder had Cullen moving several steps closer, and he bracketed his right wrist with his left hand so his aim wouldn’t be off.
On the other side of the cruiser, Leigh came forward, too, but she’d barely made it a step when the driver threw the SUV into Reverse and hit the accelerator. The tires fishtailed some, but he managed to keep control.
While he sped away.
Cursing, Cullen ran out onto the road, and he shot at the tires, hoping to disable the vehicle. He needed to see who was inside. Needed to see who was doing this so the snake could be put behind bars.
With her breath gusting and her gun still gripped in her hand, Leigh took aim at the SUV, too, but the driver had already disappeared around a curve. The road led back to the Triple R, but Cullen doubted that’s where this clown was going. Not when there were many trails that the driver could use to turn. Trails that would lead back to the main road.
“I need to call this in,” Leigh said in between those gusts of breath, and Cullen noticed that she was limping when she went back to the cruiser.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
“I’m fine.” It was the tone of someone who didn’t want to be bothered with such questions.
Cullen didn’t blame her for the attitude. Not with the adrenaline and anger pumping through them. But maybe she wouldn’t put up a protest about being examined by an EMT or doctor.
Behind him, Cullen heard Leigh use the radio in the cruiser to call for backup and put out an all-points bulletin on the SUV. What she couldn’t give the dispatcher was the info on the license plates. That’s because they were missing, and Cullen figured that was by design. A way of making sure no one ID’d the vehicle or the driver.
Cullen stayed put on the road, and he listened and kept watch just in case the SUV returned for another round. He actually hoped that would happen, and then he could put some bullets through the windshield instead of the tires.
The wind had picked up considerably, and it was whipping the ice pellets through the air. The sleet stung his face, but he stayed put, and a few seconds later, Leigh joined him on his watch.