Page 119 of Only One More Lie

“Are you okay?” She scanned him. Saw the blood on his shoulder.

Then she continued to rake her eyes over him, looking for any more telltale signs that he’d been hit by that bullet—and hit somewhere critical.

“It was Heath,” Ranger muttered as he hovered near the man. He'd already kicked the weapons away to ensure nobody else would grab them.

Andi glanced at Heath and saw the blood on his chest.

Tears wanted to spring to her eyes, but they couldn't. It was too cold for them to flow.

Despite that, she leaned toward Duke and ran her hand along the side of his face. “Can you hear me?”

He moaned, and his eyes fluttered open. Then he started to push himself up before grimacing.

Before he answered, his gaze went to Heath.

Once he saw that the man was down and no longer a threat, Duke’s expression relaxed. “Now I’m okay.”

As Gibson and his men surrounded them, Andi pulled Duke’s head to her chest and held him.

An hour later, paramedics and more police officers had arrived on the scene. They’d had a crew move the trees out of the way so vehicles could get to them.

Duke sat in the back of an ambulance, a paramedic tending to his wound. The bullet hadn’t fully pierced his skin but only skimmed it. Stitches should suffice.

Andi had hardly left his side since everything went down.

As they sat in the back of the heated ambulance together, a paramedic in front of them, the doors opened.

Gibson appeared. “Can I have a moment?”

The paramedic nodded and climbed out. Gibson shut the doors behind him to keep the heat in before taking the paramedic’s seat across from them.

“That was some showdown back there,” he said. “At least from what I've heard.”

“I've never seen reindeer act like that,” Duke muttered.

“They pretty much saved our lives,” Andi said.

“A Christmas miracle?” Gibson grinned. “Although Ihaveheard that reindeer do things like that. I've just never seen it with my own eyes before. It was pretty spectacular.”

“Do you have any other updates for us?” Andi asked as she reached over and squeezed Duke's hand.

Duke squeezed back, not wanting to ever let go.

“Actually, I do.” Gibson’s grin faded. “Some of my guys managed to track down Caleb.”

Duke's eyes widened. “That's good news. How did you find?”

“He was hiding out at a local hotel, and somebody spotted him. Said he was acting suspicious. He had Tim with him and was holding the man hostage. Apparently, Tim discovered what Caleb was up to concerning the drugs and confronted him. That's when things started to fall apart.”

“Did Caleb tell you anything else?” Andi asked.

“As a matter of fact, he did.” Gibson leaned forward with his elbows on his legs. “Apparently, there was a guest here last week who recognized him from back when he lived in WashingtonState and was involved in drug trafficking. He began to threaten Caleb, which made him nervous.”

“Did Caleb confess to all of this?” Duke asked.

“He did. Once he started talking, he spilled everything. About how he was involved with taking drugs over the border and selling them. He had been doing it since he was fourteen, he said. He had a guy who helped him with the fake IDs. He made a lot of enemies in the process of doing that.”

“I'm assuming when one of those enemies found him here that he was in big trouble,” Andi said.

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