Page 53 of Lone Star Target

Angel fired.

And the bullet slammed into the woman’s shoulder.

Deanna screamed out in pain, a sound so loud that it seemed to vibrate through the entire SUV. Clutching her shoulder, she fell back, landing on the grassy area, and she continued to wail.

“You shot me,” she shouted as if that wasn’t exactly what she’d planned on doing to Kit and him. “You sonofabitch.”

Deanna let go of her shoulder, took aim at Angel, and she started firing.

Her shots were wild, slamming into the ground and into Angel’s van, but Jace didn’t think any of the bullets had hit Angel. However, what the gunfire was doing was pinning Angel behind his door and preventing him from taking out those two masked men.

“Put a gun in my hand,” Jace told Kit. “And try to get down.”

Though there wasn’t much room for her to actually do that, not with the steering wheel and deflated airbag. Still, he was hoping she could duck down far enough to avoid being shot.

Since his own gun was somewhere in the tangle of those airbags or on the floor, Kit took out the backup weapon that he’d given her, and she pressed it into his right hand. He managed to tighten his grip around it and turn his upper body so he could be in a better position to return fire.

Kit did the same.

They’d need to try to kill those masked assholes if they managed to get close enough to start shooting through the window. Of course, they’d have to do that through the back or risk Angel getting off a shot at them.

Fighting the lack of control he had over his muscles, Jace managed to turn even more so that he now had his gun aimed at the back windshield. Right where the Hummer and the two men were. They weren’t firing. Not yet anyway. But they had crouched down, no doubt so that Angel wouldn’t be able to see their heads above the top of their doors.

Jace waited, volleying glances between the men and Deanna. He could hear his heartbeat thudding in his ears. Could hear the rasp of Kit’s breath. And Deanna’s gunfire, of course.

When Deanna’s shots suddenly stopped, Jace figured she was out of ammo. Yep. He saw her pull out another clip from her pocket. Maybe he could try to stop her before she reloaded, especially since her hands were shaking and that would slow her down.

He was about to instruct Kit to lower the window just a fraction so he could fire out. But there was another slash of headlights. The sound of yet another vehicle racing toward them.

The gray car came into view and braked to a stop. Almost immediately, the driver barreled out.

Hell.

It was Brandon.

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Chapter Nineteen

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“Mom,” Brandon shouted.

“No,” Kit muttered.

She hadn’t wanted Brandon to be part of this. She especially didn’t want it since Jace and she were already facing enough guns, what with Deanna and those two ski mask wearing thugs.

Thugs who were now taking aim at Brandon.

“Don’t shoot him,” Deanna shouted to the pair. “That’s my son. Don’t you dare shoot him.”

That had Kit rethinking that Brandon was indeed involved in the attack. If he was, then Deanna’s order was maybe some kind of trick so that Brandon could get closer to Jace and her and finish the job his mother had started.

Deanna kept her attention pinned on her son. “Brandon,” she said, and there was something in her sister-in-law’s voice. Something that Kit couldn’t quite put her finger on, but it seemed to be a bone-deep regret.

“Mom, what are you doing?” Brandon demanded while he fired glances around. He seemed horrified by what he was seeing.

His mother’s shoulder was bleeding. Real blood. And there was what Kit believed was fake blood on her face. That’d been part of the ploy to get Jace and her out of the house so Deanna could kill them.

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