Page 4 of Midnight Escape

The riders disembarked, throwing their legs across the seats. Still on alert, Danny couldn’t get a good look at the man on the back of one vehicle, but the hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention. When the man stepped in view with a shotgun held low at the man’s side, Danny nearly drew his weapon. Only patience and training held him back, hoping to resolve the situation without gunfire.

The man didn’t hold the weapon threateningly, so Danny remained still, somehow knowing Wayne had his back. Damn, he couldn’t see all the men straight up unless he took his focus off the weapon.

Silence remained between his greeting party, and the tension from the three men held strong. The man with the shotgun never took his eyes off Danny, but through his peripheral vision, the other men scanned the area as if they expected someone to jump out and interfere. As one began to move toward the helo, Danny knew as soon as they tagged Wayne, their welcome would change.

Within moments of the man moving out of his sight, the click of the door opening sounded loudly in the still air. The man began yelling in Spanish that we’d reported them to the authorities. How he knew that, Danny had no clue, but he didn’t have time to ponder it.

Adrenaline snapped into his veins as the man lifted the shotgun and, with what appeared to be menace, cocked the weapon, dropping the shell into the chamber. Without thought, Danny launched himself sideways. He ignored the painful impact of his left shoulder and the ground, pulled his weapon and fired as a shotgun blast boomed in the air.

Chapter Three

Immediately, the other man in front of Danny drew a weapon from the back of his waistband, racing to the ATV, firing behind him as he retreated. Danny fired and missed—an oddity for him—and quickly rolled on his back after hearing two shots. That turn was in case Wayne needed him or if the asshole attempted to shoot him in the back.

Seeing Wayne drop out of the seat, using the door as the only protection it provided, his examiner fired three quick rounds. Rolling back over and flattening himself on the ground, Danny ignored the unmistakable odor of the pot plants. Frustration wrenched him as he watched the third man race away on an ATV. With the drop in the man’s shoulder, one of them landed a shot.

“Did you get his pic off?” Danny’s question came out more breathy than usual in a combat situation. Of course, a close-range shotgun, with no cover, hadn’t occurred before today.

“Yeah.”

Danny jumped to his feet, keeping his weapon trained on the man who’d held the shotgun. Seeing the weapon had dropped from the man’s hand, Danny closed in, kicking the weapon out of the way.

“Mine’s alive but needs an ambulance,” Danny heard from behind him.

“Mine too.” Stepping back from the man’s possible reach, he scanned the area, watching the other man get away. He’d left his phone line open with HIS headquarters, but with it lodged in his left pocket, he had no idea if they’d heard anything—surely the shotgun blast—or if he’d broken it during his dive.

The corners of his lips lifted when he saw a truck racing through the field and cut off the retreating ATV. Backup had arrived. Then he heard a thump. Turning, expecting the other threat to be back in the ballgame, but seeing Wayne on his back mixed in with the crop sent a jolt to his system. Quickly reaching Wayne, Danny gulped at the redness of his examiner’s hand that clutched to the side of his lower abdomen.

With a steely resolve, Danny took the chance no other threat was imminent and replaced his weapon in his pocket. Down on his knees, he jerked the phone from his pocket. A quick visual assessment screamed the urgent need of medical attention. With his phone to his ear, lodged between his shoulder and cheek, he demanded, “I need Life Flight and two ambulances.”

“Copy. Life flight. Two buses. Standby” was the response he received.

Dropping the phone, so he could use both hands to staunch the blood flow, he urged Wayne, “Tell me.”

The pain blazing on Wayne’s face reinforced Danny’s request for Life Flight. “One bullet. I don’t feel the pain in my back, so maybe lodged.” His examiner groaned and took a few deep breaths that seemed to help calm him. As calm as the man could be with a bullet in his abdomen.

Seeing the blood flowing around his hands, Danny didn’t need to see the wound. He couldn’t do anything about it anyway, so he did the one thing that could help. He kept his hands over Wayne’s to staunch the flow of blood.

Wayne hissed. “Fuck, it hurts.”

“I expect it does.” Danny visually examined Wayne’s body for any other injuries. He’d first thought of the two shots between Wayne and the third man but remembered the man who got away wildly shooting behind him. The metallic tinge of blood floated from Wayne. “Are you injured anywhere else?”

Gritting his teeth, Wayne’s voice began to waver. “Isn’t this enough?” His eyes fluttered and his consciousness began to slip.

“Stay with me, Wayne.”

The blood flow from Wayne began to slow, but it hadn’t stopped, which worried the hell out of Danny. He’d been the one to land them here. He’d been the one who’d decided to greet the men with fake pleasantries instead of standing their ground from the beginning. Losing Wayne would weigh heavily on him. But, most importantly, Wayne’s family would suffer a great loss.

Shifting those thoughts aside, he jerked his head around at the roar of an engine. Relaxing a notch, he turned to see Wayne struggling to keep his eyes open as Danny’s gut wrenched at the pain Wayne suffered.

Hoping to give Wayne a smile, he asked, “So, did I pass?”

A quick grin appeared on his examiner’s face before it turned to a painful grimace. “You did good, kid.”

Good?He’d gotten his examiner shot. Who does that and passes their licensing exam?

Danny heard fast movement through the plants approaching. A quick turn confirmed Boss and Sugar behind him. “Life Flight ETA two mikes,” Boss informed him. Those two minutes passed agonizingly slow.

Blessed relief slid through his system at the echo of the Life Flight. The approaching sirens actually shifted into an angry mood. He understood the sheriff’s department had a large area to cover, but their slow response helped not one iota.

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