“I’m keeping watch,” Cullen assured her.
Leigh was already doing the same thing. Because even if Jimbo had been the one to set the fire, it was possible he’d stayed around to try to ambush them. That possibility, however, bit the dust when she saw Jimbo stagger out the front door.
The man’s head and chest were bleeding, and he was clearly dazed. Added to that, his shirt was on fire.
Cullen and she threw open their doors at the same time. They also drew their guns as one. Cullen sprinted across the yard toward Jimbo, catching onto him to take his weight and slapping out the fire with the sleeve of his coat. Leigh went to help, but she also looked all around the yard to make sure there was no other threat.
Jimbo mumbled something she couldn’t understand and collapsed. If Cullen hadn’t had hold of him, he would have fallen face-first to the ground. Cullen grabbed the man’s arms, dragging him away from the house.
In the nick of time.
Because a chunk of the roof came crashing down and sent out a cloud of smoke, ash and cinders. When some of those cinders landed on Cullen, she had to use her own sleeve to stop them from igniting into full flames.
From the corner of her eye, she caught some movement to the right, but the wind shifted, sending the thick smoke right at them. She couldn’t see her hand in front of her face much less someone who could be yards away. But the good news about that was the person might not be able to see them, either.
Leigh heard the sharp cracking sound, and for a split second she thought the rest of the house was collapsing. But then she knew what it was.
Gunfire.
Someone had just taken a shot at them, and the bullet tore into the ground just a few feet from where they were dragging Jimbo.
Cullen cursed, and he tried to shove Leigh behind him. “Get down,” he snapped.
No way would Leigh do that. Not with someone shooting at them. She moved to take Jimbo’s other arm to help Cullen drag him to the side of the truck so they’d have cover.
“Did you see the shooter?” Leigh asked Cullen. “I think he was running up from the right.”
“I didn’t see anyone,” he said. His words rushed together with his heavy breath, and he peered over the front end of his truck. The shot came right away, skimming across the metal hood and slamming into a tree behind him. Cursing him, Leigh grabbed Cullen and forced him back down.
What he’d just done was way past being dangerous, but it’d helped pinpoint the direction of the shooter. He was in or near that area with the old farm equipment. Equipment that was plenty large enough to conceal whomever it was she’d glimpsed from the corner of her eye.
It had to be the killer.
But why hadn’t he been in place to shoot them when they’d arrived? It would have been the perfect time since their attention was mostly focused on the burning house. Later, she’d give that some thought, but for now she needed to work on how to get them out of this.
They couldn’t stay put. They were too close to the house, and it would collapse. No doubts about that. And when it went, some of those fiery chunks of wood could land on them. Plus, Jimbo was bleeding and needed medical attention ASAP. Leigh sent a quick text for an ambulance and backup.
More shots came, all of them slamming into the truck, but some of the bullets seemed to have come from different angles. The gunman could be on the move, maybe making his way to them so he could shoot them the moment he rounded the truck.
“Watch the front. I’ll keep an eye on the rear,” Leigh told Cullen.
Cullen dropped down on the ground next to Jimbo so he could look out underneath the truck. “He’s coming this way,” he snarled, and he shifted his gun to take aim.
Cullen fired.
The pain shot through Leigh’s ears. It’d been necessary though. With the angle of his shot, Cullen would have likely only managed to wound the gunman in the leg, but that might be enough to stop him.
Cullen cursed again. “Smoke,” he snapped.
That was the only warning Leigh got before another cloud of smoke came at them. It was thick and smothering, and it must have gotten to the gunman as well because she heard someone cough. And then she heard something else. More of the house collapsed, and the blazing debris landed between them and the shooter.
“I’m dying,” Jimbo muttered, drawing her attention back to him. Unlike Cullen and her, he wasn’t coughing, and the man seemed to be on his last breath.
Leigh needed him alive, and the only chance they had was to get him to a hospital fast. She reached up, fumbling for the door, and opened it as wide as she could manage.
“Get in and stay down,” Cullen told her through his coughs.
“You do the same,” she insisted.
She took hold of Jimbo’s arm, and while Cullen and she both tried to keep watch, they hauled the man into the center of the seat. Cullen quickly followed, getting behind the wheel. He threw the truck into Reverse and gunned the engine.
Leigh braced herself for the hail of gunfire.
But it didn’t come.
Still, she kept her gun ready while Cullen sped out of the driveway. Once they were out of the cloud of smoke, she looked around, trying to pick through the yard to spot the person who’d just tried to kill them.
Nothing.
The shooter was nowhere in sight.