“I had a talk with my mom that was long overdue.”
I took a sip of the Coke Hayes had brought out for me and studied his face. There was worry there but there was also relief. “About Hadley?”
“Yeah.”
“How’d it go?”
Hayes picked up a chip and dunked it in some salsa. “Mom doesn’t see how the tension is eating away at all of us. Not yet. Her pain and fear are still overriding everything. But I’m going to hope I planted some seeds that will grow. And, at the very least, I cut off the latest emergency.”
“What was that?”
“Hadley not wanting to stay at my parents’ with everything that’s going on.”
I broke off a piece of a chip and popped it into my mouth. “She likes her independence.”
“That she does. I just hope my mom starts to see why.”
“I think she will with time. The more you gently bring it to her attention, the more she’ll start to see the signs on her own.”
“It was you who made me realize I needed to do it.”
“Why me?”
Hayes nodded. “You showed me that there is more power in facing the ghosts and tearing them down, than pretending they don’t exist.”
I reached over and laced my fingers with his, relishing the feel of his rough palm. “I’m glad I decided to face them.” And no matter what happened, I always would be. Because I got these stolen moments with Hayes. I knew what it felt like to be cherished by him in every way imaginable.
He leaned in and brought his mouth to mine. Comfort and fire, a combination that was solely Hayes, burned through my veins. The shattering of glass had both of our heads snapping up. I gaped at the hole in my window, and the rock I could see on the floor.
“Get inside,” Hayes barked as he scanned the forest.
“Hayes, don’t. You don’t know who’s out there or if they have a gun.”
He pushed me towards the back door. “Go. Call the station for backup. Tell them I’m in pursuit.”
I swallowed down the bile that crawled up my throat and ran for the door as Hayes took off for the forest. I scrambled for my phone, calling nine-one-one and relaying the details. The dispatcher assured me that deputies would arrive in twenty minutes. But twenty minutes was too long.
I moved to my gun locker in the corner and went for my rifle this time—better accuracy. I closed the cabinet with a bang and locked it. Moving for the back door, everything stopped as the crack of a bullet filled the air. Then there was nothing but silence.
37
Hayes
Bark flew as another bullet hit the tree next to me. I let a few choice curses fly as I ducked behind a tree for cover. “Time’s running out. Reinforcements are on the way.”
I just needed whoever this was to make one dumb move. To leave himself open for a shot or give me enough of a visual that I could make an ID. Something.
Another bullet flew past me, embedding itself in a downed log. “You need to work on your shooting. Why don’t you come out here, and we can settle this man-to-man?”
Only silence greeted me. “Too scared? Is that why you try to get the jump on women who aren’t expecting it?”
A hail of bullets peppered the tree I stood behind. Now, I was getting somewhere. I bent and picked up a good-sized rock. Pulling my arm back, I sent it flying into another tree about fifteen feet away. Bark splintered, and the unsub turned his gun in that direction. I aimed, catching sight of the movement, a hand or arm maybe. I fired, and the man hollered.
I charged forward, but before I could make even a few feet of progress, the crack of a bullet filled the air. Fiery, burning pain lanced my shoulder. The bloom so red-hot I saw stars. Another bullet whizzed past my head, and I was forced to duck behind another tree.
Footsteps pounded the forest floor, not towards me but away. Less than a minute later, that changed to hoofbeats. The force they echoed with told me he was getting away at a gallop.
I took a breath, my lungs rattling with the adrenaline dump. Looking down at my shoulder, I winced. Blood soaked through my short-sleeve uniform shirt. I carefully rolled it up. “Shit.” It was only a graze, but it was deep.