Page 147 of Montana Manhunt

“Give yourself up, Violet. If you do, I’ll make it fast. If I have to hunt you down, you’ll pay,” Hanson yelled.

She stumbled and fell against a tree. Violet groaned. “Z, how close is Noah?”

“Five minutes. Keep pushing.”

Oh, man. She didn’t have five minutes left in her. At most, Violet had a couple of minutes. Maybe not even that long. “Tell him to hurry.”

“Copy that. Two hundred feet ahead is a hillside with caves. On the other side is a river.”

“Roger that.” Violet increased her speed, but the closer she got to the safety of the caves, the more she stumbled.

A wave of dizziness hit her with the force of a tidal wave. No matter how much she fought to stay on her feet, the ground rose to meet her.

Violet hissed as pain spiked throughout her body. She had to keep moving. Hanson couldn’t be that far behind her.

Dragging in a deep breath, she pushed to her feet and staggered a few yards closer to the rocky incline.

The only warning she had of impending doom was the sound of rocks shifting behind her, then a heavy weight slammed into her, taking Violet to the ground. Violet bucked to throw him off and slammed her elbow into Hanson’s side.

He howled in pain and fury as she twisted to face her attacker. “You’re finished, Chief. Give it up.”

James wrapped his beefy hands around her throat. “You’ve been nothing but trouble since you landed in my town. I’ll be doing everyone a favor by getting rid of you.” His hands slowly squeezed, cutting off Violet’s air supply.

From somewhere far off, she heard a shout, but her entire focus was on the growing pressure on her neck. Violet shot her hands between the chief’s arms and slammed her fists against his elbows to break his death grip on her throat.

When he grunted and pitched forward, Violet wrapped her right arm around his neck, hooked two fingers into the side of his mouth, and yanked his head around. She bucked her left hip to throw Hanson’s weight to her right and followed him over to his back. Violet hit him with a right cross that didn’t have its usual power because of the knife wound. Instead of knocking out the police chief, she merely stunned him.

Run. She needed to run. Violet stood zero chance of overcoming her enemy in her weakened state.

She scrambled away from the injured policeman and ran for the hillside. Before she’d sprinted over 50 feet, a heavy weight slammed into her from behind, taking her to the ground again.

Violet saw a fist size rock and palmed it as the police chief roughly turned her over and glared down at her, blood oozing from his busted, puffy lip.

He pressed the edge of his knife to her throat. “You’ve caused me enough trouble, Violet. It’s time for you to die.”

She shifted her grip on the rock. “Your son will be disappointed that you cut him out of the game.”

“If he survives, Jeff will be recuperating for a long time. Don’t worry. I’ll take pictures after you’re dead so he can enjoy knowing the job is finished.” The chief’s facial expression hardened as he changed the hold on his knife and pulled back his hand, preparing to plunge the knife into her body.

Violet whacked James on the temple with the rock.

He groaned and fell forward on top of her. He lay still.

No matter what she tried, Violet couldn’t budge his dead weight from her body. Man, how much did Chief Hanson weigh?

“Violet!” Noah ran into the small clearing with Grant close on his heels. He grabbed the chief’s shirt collar, dragged him off Violet, and tossed him aside.

She drew in a deep breath, glad to have the extra weight off her chest. “Good timing.” Her voice sounded hoarse.

“Are you all right?” Noah cupped her face between his palms.

“I will be.”

“Where are you hurt, baby?”

“Left shoulder and thigh. Shoulder is the worst.” And now that the adrenaline was fading, the pain in her shoulder grew in intensity, adding more nausea to her misery. “Did you bring my mike bag?”

Two men ran into the clearing. Both had badges hung around their necks and pistols in their hands.

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