Wyatt blinked at her in surprise, and then his gaze dipped down to the gun that was inches away from him. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“And you shouldn’t have been a cold-blooded killer, so I guess we’ve both screwed up, huh?”
Wyatt flashed his smile once more. The sight chilled her. “Veronica, you’ve got more steel in your spine than I thought.”
She’d show him steel, or rather, lead, when she shot a bullet into his chest. “Why do you want Jasper out here? Is he next on your hit list?” she whispered. “Another EOD agent that you’ve been paid to take out, one that you were supposed to link back to Cale?”
“Give me the gun, Veronica.”
She couldn’t back up because the patrol car was behind her. She couldn’t move forward because Wyatt was blocking her path. “Get back!” she yelled.
He didn’t get back. “You won’t shoot me.” So confident.
“Yes. I will.” She was just as confident. “You were the one on the side of that road, shooting at me. Not Jimmy. You.”
He still had that slight smile on his lips. “How are you gonna prove that?”
“When Jasper gets h-here, he’ll take you into custody. We’ll find Jimmy. We’ll get proof that you were behind everything and not—”
“Your Jasper’s gonna die today. Cale’s gonna die. They’ll both go out in a gun battle as they try to save you.” He gave a slow shake of his head. “But they aren’t gonna save you, either.”
Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. “I can save myself.”
“No, you can’t.” Then he lunged for her.
She shot him. Didn’t so much as hesitate. The gun blasted and her ears rang and the bullet slammed into his stomach.
His eyes widened in surprise as he looked down at the blossoming red on his shirt. Wyatt stumbled back, and she took that opportunity to slam her shoulder into him and knock him to the ground. Then she ran as fast as she could—not toward the old highway, but toward that long, black car that sat near the side of the crumbling house. Jimmy’s car. Because she could just see the top of Jimmy’s head in the car.
She yanked open the passenger door. “Jimmy!” He was inside, his hands and feet tied. And his chest was bleeding. So much blood. She reached for him, yanking the ropes free that bound his wrists. He’d taken a shot straight to the chest.
“Ms. Ver...on...” He tried to speak, but the words just came out as a rasp.
“It’s okay. I’m going to help you, Jimmy.” He’d escaped this hellhole of a ranch once. She wasn’t letting him die there. She tried to slide him over to the passenger side. Wyatt had left the kid behind the steering wheel. She’d move him over and drive them both out of there. She rushed around to the driver’s side and—
“Veronica!”
Her head jerked to the left at that bellow. Wyatt was on his feet. He had reached into his patrol car. Pulled out— Oh, no, that was a shotgun in his hands. He’d gotten a shotgun, and he was pointing it at her.
She jumped into Jimmy’s car. The back window shattered behind her. Ducking, she searched under the seat for the keys. Nothing. Not there. Not...
“I’ve got the keys, Veronica!” Wyatt called out. “Why don’t you come and get them?”
She wasn’t coming for them...because she didn’t need them.
She grabbed the wires underneath the dash. Yanked down hard. Twisted them. Jerked the ends together and...
The motor sparked to life. During all of Cale’s car talks with her, he’d made sure to teach her a few tricks over the years.
“Hold on,” Veronica whispered to Jimmy. Then she slammed the vehicle into Reverse.
She glanced up, just in time to see Wyatt standing behind the car. Aiming his shotgun at her. She slammed her foot down harder on the accelerator.
The back bumper rammed into Wyatt even as he fired the gun. The blast had her jumping and yanking the wheel to the right. The car swerved, but beneath her sweat-slick hands, she managed to keep the vehicle steady. She glanced around wildly. Wyatt had disappeared or maybe—maybe she’d just taken him out and he was on the ground. Either way, she wasn’t about to get out of the car and check. She was just getting her and Jimmy the hell out of there.
She shifted, preparing to head straight out on that bumpy drive, when a shotgun was shoved into the open driver’s-side window. The shotgun pressed right against her head. “Get out or die right there,” Wyatt snarled.
She froze.
“Get. Out.”
Slowly, carefully, she eased from the car. Jimmy whimpered beside her. “No...Ms. Ver...on...”
The right side of Wyatt’s face was covered in blood. His stomach was soaked red. But the guy was standing strong. The second she cleared the car, he jerked her against him. “Guess what?” he whispered as he put the barrel of that shotgun under her chin.
She didn’t want to guess anything. She wanted to see Cale once more. She wanted to see Jasper. Jasper. She wanted him so much.
“It’s empty.”
It took a moment for the words to register. Then she heard Wyatt’s smug laugh. “You could’ve gotten away.”
She wasn’t looking at him. Barely felt the shotgun as it was yanked away and dropped in the dirt. Her gaze was on the driveway before her. A blue car was fishtailing as it swerved down that jagged road. And to the right, a motorcycle was coming right out of the overgrown brush.
Wyatt bent and pulled a small pistol from the holster on his ankle. “This is the moment,” he said in her ear, “the life-or-death moment that everyone talks about but so damn few get to experience. I’ll give this moment to you.”
Jasper had just jumped out of the blue car. He was closing in on her. He had a gun gripped in his hands. “Let her go!”
Cale was shoving away from the motorcycle. He was armed, too, with a small gun that he had pointed right at Wyatt. “There’s no way out for you, Wyatt! Get away from my sister!”
“Neither one of them will shoot,” Wyatt whispered in her ear. “Because they’re scared they’ll hit you.” He’d positioned the gun under her chin, holding it in exactly the same spot he’d put the shotgun. Only this time, she was betting this gun was loaded and ready to kill. “Or maybe they’re just afraid I’ll pull the trigger.”
Her head was tilted back against him as she tried to get away from that weapon. But there was no place to go. She couldn’t get free.