Page 90 of Midnight Ride

“Show me your creds, lady. I don’t believe you.”

“My badge is in the house. I’m not lying to you.”

Ponytail laughed and I saw he had an earring in one ear. “Don’t believe you, girly. I’ve come a long way for this guy and I’m taking him with me.” He waved the gun at Eldon. “Get in the back of the Jeep.”

The second the bounty hunter turned to glance at the Jeep, Eldon charged him and tried to get the gun out of his hand.

Bang.

The gun went off and Eldon dropped to the driveway.

I reacted and emptied my gun into that ponytailed fucker and killed him dead.

Eldon was bleeding bad, and I rolled him over a little bit trying to see where he was hit.

Gut shot. Couldn’t be worse.

Eldon curled up holding onto his belly and groaning real fuckin loud.

Crying my eyes out, I jumped into Eldon’s pickup and backed up close to him. He was too heavy for me to lift, and he couldn’t get to his feet on his own.

“Help me get you into the truck, babe. Can you get up a little bit?”

He struggled and kind of flopped in the open back door. Once he was part way in, I had a helluva struggle getting him in the rest of the way.

As soon as his legs were in and I could close the door, I slid behind the wheel and took off down the mountain heading for the highway.

“Hospital, Eldon. Tell me where it is.”

“Sicamous.”

I barely heard him over the pounding of my heart. I figured I’d have a fuckin heart attack before I ever got to the hospital.

“Don’t die, Eldon. Please don’t die.”

He didn’t say anything after that, and I could see in the rearview that he wasn’t conscious anymore.

I drove into Sicamous and followed the GPS to the medical center.

Sicamous Medical Center.

I parked at the front door and ran in to get help.

“Can someone please help me get my husband out of the truck?” I screamed to a waiting room full of people. “He’s been shot and it’s bad. Really bad. Please don’t let him die.”

An orderly in blue scrubs appeared with a stretcher and he and a nurse ran outside with me. They got Eldon out of the back of the truck, and the orderly got him onto the stretcher and pushed him inside the clinic.

“Straight down the hall.” The nurse pointed and the orderly ran with Eldon into a treatment room. The doctor came runningand they stripped off Eldon’s jeans to see the damage and the doctor shook his head.

“We don’t have surgical facilities here, ma’am. We’ll have to send him to Enderby. That’s the closest.”

“Can’t you help him, please? He’s in so much pain.”

“I’ll clean up the wound and sedate him for the trip. That’s the best I can do in a hurry, and this is a rush situation, ma’am. I’ll send your husband by ambulance to speed things up and you can follow. Time is of the essence for a patient in his condition.”

“Thank you so much.” I brushed my tears away and watched the doctor and the nurse prep Eldon for the trip.

The ambulance was there by the time the doctor and nurse had Eldon ready. The paramedics rushed in and took him, and I followed them outside.

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