Landon

by Delores Fossen

  Tessa hated that he’d been forced to kill a man, but she wished he could do that to all four of them.

  The fact that one of their comrades had fallen didn’t stop the other three from firing. And running. They were heading away from Landon and her and were almost certainly in pursuit of Courtney.

  “Stay behind me,” Landon instructed. “I need to get you to Grayson so I can help Courtney.”

  Tessa wanted that. Well, she wanted part of it, anyway. She wanted Landon to save Courtney, but Tessa wasn’t certain she’d be any safer with Grayson than she was with Landon.

  Landon got them moving again. This time toward the back of the hair salon. It was also the direction of the sheriff’s office. Of course, that was still buildings away. To Tessa, it suddenly felt like miles and miles, and it didn’t help that the shots were still ringing out.

  And getting closer.

  God, were those men coming back?

  Part of her hoped that meant they’d given up on chasing Courtney, but her mind went to a much worse scenario. They could have already killed Courtney and were now doubling back to take care of the other lawmen, Landon and her. Since Kade, Grayson and heaven knew who else were out here, the thugs could be firing those shots at them.

  There was no Dumpster at the back of the salon, so Landon pulled her into the recessed exit at the rear of the building. It wasn’t very deep, just enough for them to fit side by side, and like before, Landon instructed her to keep watch. She did, and Tessa listened.

  The shots had stopped, and she could no longer hear footsteps. In fact, she couldn’t hear anything, and that caused her heartbeat to race even more. Something was wrong.

  And she soon realized what.

  The door behind them flew open, and someone put a gun to Landon’s head.

  “Move and you die,” the man growled.

  * * *

  IF IT WOULD have helped, Landon would have cursed, but it wouldn’t have done any good. One of the thugs had a gun pointed at him, and that meant Landon had to do something fast before the thug killed him and then turned that gun on Tessa.

  “Drop your guns,” the man ordered. “Do it!” he added, and this time he put the gun against Tessa’s head.

  Landon couldn’t risk it, so he did drop his gun, but he didn’t drop it far. Just by his feet. Tessa did the same, and hopefully, that meant he could grab them if it came down to it. Of course, in the small space, Landon might be able to overpower the guy.

  “Who hired you?” Landon asked.

  Though he figured getting an answer, much less a truthful one, would be next to impossible. Still, he had to try while he also came up with a plan to get Tessa out of there.

  The guy didn’t say a word, but Landon could hear some chattering. Probably from a communications earpiece he was wearing. Landon wished he could hear the voice well enough to figure out who was giving these orders.

  Landon’s phone buzzed in his pocket. Likely Grayson. But he didn’t dare reach for it. Grayson would take his silence as a sign he needed help.

  “There’s no reason for you to keep Tessa,” Landon tried again.

  “Shut up,” the man barked. Judging from the earpiece chatter, he was still getting his orders.

  Landon looked at Tessa. He expected for her to be terrified, and she probably was, but that wasn’t a look of terror in her eyes. It was determination.

  And something else.

  She didn’t move an inch, but Tessa angled her eyes to the left. It was Landon’s blind side because of where he was in the recessed doorway, but Tessa must have seen something. Grayson maybe? Then, she lowered her eyes to the ground for a second.

  Landon hoped like the devil that he was making the right interpretation of what she was trying to tell him—to get down—and he readied himself to respond.

  But nothing happened.

  The moments just crawled by with the thug behind him getting an earful from his equally thuggy boss. And with Tessa and him waiting. Landon didn’t want to wait much longer, though, because there were two other hired guns out there somewhere, and he didn’t want them joining their buddy who had a gun on Tessa.

  “Now!” Tessa finally said. She didn’t shout it, but she caught hold of Landon’s arms and dragged him to the ground with her.

  Just as the shot blasted through the air.

  Even though he’d been expecting something to happen, his heart jumped to his throat, and for one sickening split second, he thought maybe Tessa had been hit. But she wasn’t the one who took the bullet.

  It was thug number two behind them.

  Both the thug and his gun clattered to the ground, and Landon didn’t waste any time gathering up their weapons and getting Tessa the heck out of there. Since he figured it was an ally who’d killed the guy, he followed the direction of the shot, and he got just a glimpse of Courtney as she ran away. She was the one who’d fired the shot.

  But now someone was firing at her.

  The bullets blasted into the walls of the building as she disappeared around the corner. Landon needed to disappear, too, or at least move Tessa out of what was to become a line of fire. It didn’t take long for that to happen. The shots came, and Landon pulled her between the hair salon and the barbershop.

  It was darker here than in the back and other side alleys. That was because the perky yellow window awnings on the side of the salon were blocking out the moonlight. Landon could barely see his hand in front of his face, and that definitely wasn’t a good thing. He didn’t want to run into one of the two remaining gunmen.

  Of course, there could be more.

  Since that wasn’t exactly a comforting thought, he pushed it aside and pulled Tessa into a recessed side exit of the barbershop. They couldn’t stay there long, but it would give him a chance to check in with Grayson.

  “See who texted me,” Landon said, handing Tessa his phone and her gun. Since he didn’t want anyone crashing through the door as the other thug had done, he volleyed glances all around him. And listened for footsteps.

  “Grayson,” she verified. “He wants us to try to get to the bakery shop just up the street. He says we should go inside because the other deputies and he are creating a net around the area. They’re closing in to find the gunmen, and they don’t want us caught in cross fire.”

  Landon didn’t want that, either, but the bakery had been closed for months now and was probably locked up tight. It was also three buildings away from the barbershop. Not very far distance-wise, but each step could be their last.

  “What should I text Grayson?” she asked.

  Her voice was shaking. So was she. But then, she’d just had a man gunned down inches behind her. Thank God Courtney was a good shot or things could have gone a lot worse. Though Landon hated that Courtney was having to fight a battle when she’d given birth only a week earlier. It didn’t matter that Courtney was a federal agent; her body couldn’t be ready for this.

  “Give Grayson our location and tell him we’re on our way to the bakery.” Landon hoped they were, anyway.

  It was too risky to head to the street. The lighting would be better there, but it would also make it too easy for the thugs to spot them. Instead, he led Tessa to the back of the building again, and he stopped at the corner to look around.

  Nothing.

  Well, nothing that he could see, anyway.

  He doubted Courtney was still around to take someone out for him, and that meant he had to be vigilant even though he couldn’t see squat. However, he could hear. Mainly Tessa’s breathing. It was way too fast, and Landon touched her arm, hoping it would give her a little reassurance. It was the best he could do under the circumstances because he had to keep her moving.

  Landon dragged in a deep breath, hooked his arm around Tessa’s waist and hurried out from the cover of the buildi
ng. No shots, but Landon knew that could change at any second. As soon as he reached the other side of the barbershop, he stopped again and made sure there wasn’t anyone in the alley ready to ambush them.

  He cursed the darkness and the shadows, and he moved himself in front of Tessa, racing across the open space to the next building. Two more and they’d be at the bakery. Landon only hoped by the time they made it there, Grayson would have it secured.

  “Let’s move,” Landon whispered to her, and they started across the back of the next building. But they didn’t get far before Tessa stumbled.

  Landon tightened his grip on her to try to keep her from falling, but she tumbled to the ground anyway. Then he darn near tripped, as well. That was because there was something on the ground. And Landon immediately got a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  Because that something was a dead body.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Tessa barely managed to choke back the scream in time. A scream would have given away their position, but it was hard not to react when she fell onto the body.

  The person was still warm. And there was blood. But Tessa had no doubt that the person was dead, because there was no movement whatsoever.

  “Courtney,” she whispered on a gasp.

  “No, it’s not,” Landon assured her. But he did more than give her a reassurance. He got her back to her feet and moved her into the alley on the side of a building. Probably because the person who’d done this was still close by.

  The light was so dim in this part of the alley that it took Tessa several heart-racing moments to realize Landon was right. It wasn’t Courtney. It was a man.

  Quincy.

  His wheelchair was only a few feet from his body and had been toppled over. There was also a gun near his hand.

  What had happened here?

  Tessa could think of a couple of possibilities. Maybe he’d been shot in cross fire by the thugs he’d hired? Or maybe the thugs worked for someone else? It was also possible Courtney had done this. After all, Quincy was a threat to the baby, her and maybe anyone else who crossed his path.

  It was hard to mourn the death of a snake like Quincy, but Tessa realized the goons were still around because she heard several more shots. If they did indeed work for Quincy, maybe they didn’t know their boss was dead.

  “We need to keep moving,” Landon told her under his breath.

  They did, and Tessa forced herself to start running. Landon helped with that again. He took hold of her, and they ran through the back of the alley to the next building. They were close now to the old bakery where Grayson wanted them to go, but it still seemed miles away.

  More shots came.

  And these were close. Too close. One of them smacked into the wood fence that divided the alley from the town’s park, and the shot had come from the area near Quincy’s body.

  Tessa hoped that once the thugs saw that Quincy was dead, they’d back off, that no more bullets would be fired. But almost immediately, another shot rang out. Then another.

  Landon slipped his arm around her, but it wasn’t preparation to get them running again. He pulled her deeper in the alley, and his gaze fired all around them. He stepped in front of her when they heard some movement near Quincy’s body, and Tessa got just a glimpse of not one of the gunmen but Courtney.

  The woman was leaning over Quincy and touched her fingers to his neck. It seemed as if she was making sure he was dead.

  “Courtney,” Landon whispered.

  Tessa glanced out again and saw Courtney’s head whip in their direction. She got to a standing position and turned, heading their way.

  Just as there was another shot.

  This one smacked right into Courtney’s chest, and Tessa heard her friend gasp in pain as she dropped to the ground.

  Oh, God.

  Courtney had been hit.

  The new wave of adrenaline slammed into Tessa, and she would have bolted out to help her if Landon hadn’t stopped her. Landon cursed and stepped out from the building, but he almost certainly couldn’t see the shooter, since the bullet had been fired from the alley of the building over from them.

  Courtney groaned, the sound of sheer pain, and while she was gasping for breath, she was also trying to lift her gun. No doubt trying to stop the gunman before he put another bullet in her.

  “She’s wearing Kevlar,” Landon said.

  Because her instincts were screaming for her to help Courtney, it took Tessa a moment to process that. The bullet had hit the Kevlar, not her, and that meant she might not die. Not from that shot, at least, but the next one went into the ground right next to her. The only reason it didn’t hit her was that Courtney managed to roll to the side. But Courtney was still writhing in pain, still gasping for air and clearly couldn’t get to her feet to run.

  Landon’s phone buzzed, and Tessa saw Grayson’s name on the screen. He passed it back to her so she could answer it.

  “What’s your position?” Grayson asked.

  “We’re still two buildings away from the bakery. We need help. Can you get to us?”

  “Not right now. We’re pinned down. There’s a sniper on one of the roofs, and every time we move, he fires a shot. He hit one of the reserve deputies.”

  That didn’t help steady her heart. “Courtney’s been hit, too.”

  Grayson belted out some profanity. “We’ll get there as soon as we can.” And he ended the call.

  Tessa knew that he would, but soon might not be soon enough. Plus, there was no way an ambulance could get anywhere near the scene. Not with all the gunfire.

  “I’ve got to help Courtney,” Landon whispered, but Tessa heard the hesitation in his voice. He made a split-second glance at her as she slipped his phone back into his pocket. “Stay put and keep watch around you.”

  That was the only warning Tessa got before Landon stepped out. He pivoted in the direction of the shooter, and he fired. Tessa prayed that would put an end to the immediate threat.

  It didn’t.

  She saw the gunman’s hand snake out, but this time he didn’t fire at Courtney. He fired at Landon. Her heart nearly went out of her chest as Landon scrambled to the ground, using a pair of trash cans for cover.

  As Landon had told her, she kept watch around her, but Tessa also tried to do something to stop that thug from gunning down both Courtney and Landon. Courtney was in the open, an easy target, and bullets could go through the trash cans where Landon had ducked down. She had to help. She couldn’t just stand there and watch them die.

  She waited, watching, and when she saw the gunman’s hand come out again, she took aim and fired. Almost immediately, the guy howled in pain, and while she certainly hadn’t killed him, at least she’d managed to injure his shooting hand. However, that didn’t stop him from firing.

  Again and again.

  The man was cursing, and he was making grunting sounds of someone in pain, but that didn’t stop him from pulling the trigger, and he was shooting at Landon. Maybe because he thought Landon had been the one to fire that shot at him.

  Courtney moved again, managing to get on her side. And she even tried to take aim, but she was clearly in too much pain to defend herself. The gunman’s next bullet slammed into her again, and Tessa heard Courtney’s gasping sound of pain.

  Mercy, she’d been shot, and this time Tessa didn’t think the bullet had gone into the Kevlar. Landon must not have thought so, either, because he came from behind the trash cans and he raced out. Not toward Courtney.

  But toward the alley where the gunman was getting ready to send another shot right into Courtney. To finish her off, no doubt.

  Landon put a stop to that.

  He pulled up, pivoted and double-tapped the trigger.

  Even though there had been so many shots fired all
around them, those two sent Tessa’s heart into overdrive. Because now both Landon and Courtney were in the open, and if Landon’s two shots didn’t work, then the gunman would try to kill them both again.

  Tessa was ready to do something to make sure that didn’t happen when she heard the movement behind her. She started to whirl around, bringing up her weapon in the same motion, but it was already too late. Before she could even see who was behind her, someone hooked an arm around her neck. Stripped her gun from her hand.

  And whoever it was put a gun to her head.

  * * *

  HELL. THE GUNMAN wasn’t down.

  Landon didn’t know how the guy had managed to stay on his feet, not after Landon had put two bullets in him. He’d aimed for the guy’s chest, figuring he, too, was wearing a vest, but two shots at this close range should have sent the guy to the ground. They didn’t.

  The man was gasping just as Courtney was doing, but he not only stayed upright but also pulled the trigger. Thank God the shot was off or Landon would have been a dead man.

  Another shot came in Landon’s direction, and he scrambled to the side. This time when he aimed, he went for the kill. As much as he would have liked to have this guy alive to answer questions, that wasn’t going to happen. Landon put two bullets in his head. This time it worked, and the guy didn’t manage to get off another shot before he collapsed onto the ground.

  Just in case there was some shred of life left in the clown, Landon kicked away the man’s weapon. There was no time to check and see if he was truly dead, because he didn’t want to stay out of Tessa’s line of sight for another second. Plus, he could still hear gunshots just up the street, which meant Grayson and the others were fighting for their lives.

  He hurried to Courtney to see how bad her injuries were. There was blood, but from what Landon could tell, the injury was to her shoulder, a part of her that the Kevlar hadn’t protected. She would live. Well, she would if she didn’t bleed out, and that meant he had to clear the area so they could get her an ambulance.

  “Clamp your hand over the wound,” he instructed Courtney.