Page 31 of Carter's Battle

She continued to push and the window gave way. She half stepped, half fell out of the car onto what remained of the windshield and the ground. Pushing herself to her feet, she turned to run and skidded to an abrupt halt. There in front of her was Nakoa, the gun in his hand aimed directly at her heart.

Carter’s stomachwas in knots as he broke every speed limit posted to get to the stationary dot. He rounded the last curve and swore. An SUV was parked haphazardly on the other side of the road. No headlights, and no movement from inside.

Carter slowed down as quickly as he could without locking up the brakes. He pulled over to his side of the road and turned off his truck. Then he hopped out, grabbing his gun from his waistband. He moved quietly to the other vehicle and peered through the gangster blacked-out windows. Empty.

The sound of voices floated up to him. Cautiously, he moved around to look over the side of the embankment. The scene below made his heart stop. Mia, lit up by the beams of her headlights, standing with her hands in the air.

“Nakoa, what the hell are you doing?” Mia cried.

“Shut up, Mia.”

Carter strained but he couldn’t make out the other man, Nakoa, in the darkness. He stood outside the glare of the headlight beam.

Another man approached Mia from behind.

“Don’t stand there, you stupid fuck. I’ll end up shooting you,” Nakoa yelled from the darkness.

“I was just trying—” the other man started.

“Get out of the fucking way,” Nakoa snarled.

Carter wanted to shoot him, but he couldn’t see him enough to be sure, and if he missed, then Nakoa would be free to shoot Mia. He aimed instead for the man behind Mia. He fired off a shot and the man screamed as he went down on one knee. Carter quickly moved from his position and started down the embankment keeping low so he wouldn’t be framed against the night sky.

Nakoa fired off a shot toward where Carter had been and then fired another one in his general direction.

“Nakoa, help me. You gotta help me. I’m hit,” the other man wailed.

“Shut up, Mikey.”

“Come on, brother,” he moaned.

Carter was almost down to the bottom of the embankment. He lost sight of Mia on his way down, but he was confident she’d gotten away.

Nakoa was still outside the beam of light so Carter couldn’t get a fix on him. He waited, hoping Nakoa would come forward to help Mikey. The sound of sirens ripped through the darkness.

Nakoa swore and lunged for Mikey. He grabbed the other man and pulled him out of the light. Carter could’ve shot him but with the cops arriving any minute, it might have been difficult to explain why he was shooting at a man who wasn’t shooting at him. He moved forward and started searching for Mia. She couldn’t have gotten far.

The sound of an engine reached him. Nakoa and Mikey were leaving. That was good and bad. “Mia,” he yelled. “It’s me. Where are you?”

“Carter?” her voice came from his right.

“Mia?”

“I’m here.” came her response and then he saw movement.

The cops arrived and were shining their flashlights down the embankment, calling out to see if anyone responded. He made it to her in four long strides. “Mia,” he said before promptly wrapping her in his arms.

“Thank God!” she mumbled into his chest.

Flashlight beams lit them up and then they were surrounded. The sound of an ambulance arriving above drowned out the officers’ chatter.

Mia pulled away from Carter and put a hand up to block the light. “I…I,” she started and then her legs gave out. Carter caught her and immediately picked her up. He made his way back off the embankment with her in his arms. His pulse was pounding due to the exertion and his relief that he’d gotten to her in time. He set her down again by the ambulance.

“No, I don’t need?—”

“Let them check you over. It was a bad accident.” He captured her gaze and tried to ask how she wanted to deal with this, but she seemed dazed.Shit. Did she have a concussion?

“Miss Ryan?” an officer asked.

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