With the howl of police and ambulance sirens just up the road, Cullen and she started running. Hoping to stop the driver from killing the ranch hand. However, there was a lot of distance between Jamie and them.
The driver slammed on the brakes, but Leigh couldn’t tell if he’d hit Jamie or not. She couldn’t tell if Jamie was still alive. Worse, she couldn’t see the driver. But she heard what she thought was the passenger’s-side door opening.
“He’s grabbing Jamie,” Cullen said, pulling up so he could take aim.
Leigh immediately understood why he’d do that. The killer had to know backup was on the way, and he could use Jamie to escape. But there was a possibility that was much worse. Maybe he was about to kill Jamie so he could eliminate him as a loose end.
“I can’t risk shooting,” Cullen snarled like profanity.
No, he couldn’t. Because he might hit Jamie instead. The windshield wouldn’t help with that, either. There was a gaping hole from her own shot, but the rest of the glass had cracked and webbed. It was as effective as putting a mask on the killer.
She heard the door slam, and the driver quickly turned the truck around. So that it was facing Cullen and her again. It came at them. Slowly this time. Like a predator stalking its prey. Since that slow pace could mean the driver was preparing to fire at them, Cullen and she moved back behind the boulders. Even if they were belly-down, it wouldn’t stop them from being shot, but it was better than standing out in the open with a killer bearing down on them.
“Be ready to jump out of the way,” Leigh warned Cullen.
The driver held the snail-crawling pace until he stopped just a few yards away from them. Leigh saw some movement behind the damaged glass, and a moment later, Jamie peered through the fist-sized hole in the windshield. She could only see part of his face, but it was enough for her to know he was terrified.
“Me for you,” Jamie said, his voice trembling with fear. He aimed those fear-filled eyes at Leigh. “That’s the deal I’m supposed to tell you. If you don’t trade places with me, I’ll die.”
HELL.THATWASthe one word that kept going through Cullen’s mind.
It was bad enough that Leigh and he had to face down a killer, but now Jamie was in the middle of it.
Cullen seriously doubted that Jamie was in any shape to fight off the killer, especially since he was almost certainly being held at gunpoint. Being told what to say, too. The killer had no doubt told Jamie word for word what he was supposed to say to Leigh and him.
He made a quick glance at the road and spotted a cruiser and an ambulance. They’d turned off their sirens, but their lights were still flaring. Leigh obviously saw them, too, and she fired off a text. “I told Vance to try to get Dawn out of here and take her to the EMTs,” she relayed to Cullen. “I don’t want him or the ambulance coming any closer.”
That was a wise decision. If the cruiser came speeding in, it might help Leigh and him by giving them some cover, but it could be a deadly move for Jamie. If the killer didn’t shoot him on the spot, he might try to flee with him. Then, the snake could just murder Jamie once he was in the clear.
But Cullen wanted to make sure this SOB didn’t get away.
“Me for you,” Jamie repeated.
“And how do I know you won’t gun all three of us down if we make this trade?” Leigh called out to the driver.
There was a short silence, probably for Jamie to get his instructions, and he finally said, “You don’t know. It’s a risk you’ll have to take if you want to keep me alive.” Jamie’s voice trembled. Then, it broke. “Don’t take the risk,” he blurted out. “Don’t trade yourselves for me.”
Cullen could see enough of Jamie to spot the barrel of a gun as it jammed into the ranch hand’s temple.
“All of this is to cover up you murdering Alexa,” Leigh called out. “And it’s stupid. Backup’s already arrived, and you won’t be able to get out of here. Just toss down your weapon, let Jamie go, and I’ll see what kind of deal I can work out.”
Jamie winced when the gun dug even harder into his head, but he didn’t say anything for several seconds. “You’re lying. There’ll be no deal,” he said, obviously repeating what the killer had told him.
The killer was right about that. No way would he get a reduced sentence when he’d murdered at least two people and attempted to murder others, including cops. Still, maybe there was a way to bargain with him.
Or her.
Cullen couldn’t rule out that it was Kali behind the wheel. It wouldn’t have taken much muscle to force Jamie into the truck at gunpoint.
“If your plan is to get away, you’ll need money,” Cullen called out to the killer. “You could consider it a ransom. I’ll pay you to release Jamie.”
“Money won’t fix this,” Jamie said, repeating his instructions. “But Leigh and you will. This is your last chance,” Jamie added. “Me for you.”
“Any chance you have a shot?” Leigh asked him.
Cullen studied the distorted images behind the heavily tinted glass. “Maybe. I figure the killer is still behind the wheel. Maybe keeping low. But I could keep the shot to the side so that it won’t hit Jamie.”
Well, maybe it wouldn’t. Cullen doubted the driver had Jamie fully in front of him like a human shield—there wouldn’t be enough room for that—but any shot would be a risk. If Cullen didn’t kill the driver, then he or she could turn the gun on Jamie. Of course, the odds of that happening were already sky-high.