Page 62 of Peril in Piney Woods

Meg turned to the final man, her weapon leveled on him, his leveled on her. “You still have time to run,” she suggested.

“No way,” he snarled.

She pulled the trigger and sidestepped because she knew he would do the same. The impact of his shot jerked her shoulder.

Another shot blasted in the air.

The man stared down at his chest where blood had started to bloom. Meg looked to her left. Griff stood at the counter, her gun locked in his hands.

The man crumpled to the floor.

Griff had shot him. She apparently missed.

Meg ignored the pain that radiated down her arm as she retrieved the woman’s weapon and then the two belonging to the men. That was when she spotted the path a bullet had grazed along the side of the third man’s head. So she hadn’t missed entirely.

She suddenly became aware of all the crying and shouting around her. Deputy Battles was suddenly at the counter. The other deputy was ushering the people outside.

Griff appeared at her side, ushering her away from the bodies. “An ambulance is on the way. You should sit down.”

She glanced at her left shoulder. Damn. She’d been hit. On some level she had known it.

Damn.

She looked at Griff then. “You saved my life.”

She hadn’t even known he could use a handgun, and he’d saved her life.

“Come on,” he ushered her from behind the counter and toward a chair.

She glanced around. The place had cleared out in record time. A table to her left had been overturned. An obvious bullet hole marred its shiny red surface.

Her gaze went to Griff. “Are you hit?”

He shook his head as he settled into the seat next to her. “When I hit the floor and rolled under that table, I pulled it down for cover. The only shot the guy got off missed me.”

Worry swam through her head, which was also swimming. “You could have been killed.”

He grinned. “But I wasn’t and neither were you.”

She blinked, her eyes stinging. Griff had saved her life.

Chapter Fifteen

Pampered Paws

Pine Boulevard

Friday, May 10, 9:00 a.m.

“You’re sure about this?” Jodie said.

Dottie stood next to her, both eyeing Elle with mounting worry.

She smiled. “I am positive.”

Jodie turned to Dottie. “Don’t get any ideas about taking one of those cruises anytime soon. I can’t do this alone.”

Elle laughed. She’d turned the shop over to Jodie and given Dottie that bonus she so richly deserved. Both were thrilled. Elle had also turned over her former cover as Megan Lewis to the past. She was back to being her true self, Eleanor Holt, aka Elle. No more being a detective or an undercover agent or a spy. She was just Elle from Piney Woods, Tennessee, who wasn’t sure what she intended to do next in terms of a career.

---