Page 93 of Texas Hold Em'
I hit the brakes hard, knowing I was going down. I had to take off with as much speed as I could before I crashed. Otherwise I’d be in big trouble.
As soon as my tire hit a patch of gravel on the shoulder, it went down. I let out an undignified scream as I fell, and I was lucky that I hit the grass of the shallow ditch. The bike slid down and out from under me, and I rolled head over heels about six feet into the grass, where I landed on my back in a few inches of stagnant water.
As I stared up at the starry night sky, I heard the Range Rover peeling away.
“Fuck,” I hissed between clenched teeth. I slammed my fists down at my sides, splashing water on myself. “Fuck!”
That was it. My one chance. The closest I was going to get to ending this. Now it had all been in vain. All our efforts, risks, and sacrifices had led to this moment, and I’d let the bad guy get away.Again.
I closed my eyes.You were so close.
If I’d gotten him, I could have killed him. Or arrested him. I could have arrested Caroline and Moss, too. Bringing them in would bring down the entire police department, and maybe I could have transferred to work here in Reno and helped with the foundation of building a new police force free of corruption.
That dream went up in smoke as the night fell quiet.
Bates was gone.
There was no way to know where he was going. Clearly, they weren’t taking him back to Reno. They were running.
How many of his men had the Devils killed? What power did Bates have in Reno? Would he need to regroup? Rebuild? Would he bother coming back, or would he leave it to those who ran it before he ever got here?
I doubted he’d stay away for long. He’d be back when he recovered.Ifhe recovered.
I propped myself up on my elbows and looked down at myself. I was soaking wet. My wet shirt was stained with muck—grass, dirt, and ditch sludge. Grumbling, I managed to climb out of the ditch. On the side of the road, I inspected my body to make sure I didn’t have any wounds I couldn’t feel.
I pulled off my helmet, shook out my hair, and looked both ways down the road. How was I going to get out of here? I hadn’t thought that through.
Irritated with myself, I started walking back the direction I’d come. I only made it about thirty paces away from the bike in the ditch when a headlight swept around the last corner and a bike raced down the street toward me. I leapt off to the side and hunkered back down in the ditch, worried it might be one of Bates’s men, but as the rider got closer, I recognized the bike and the man in the saddle.
I hurried up out of the ditch and met Tex on the road as he got off his bike. He wasn’t wearing a helmet. He bled from a cut in his lip, a gash in his cheek, the top of his ear, and his hip.
Looking him over, I opened my mouth to ask if he was okay, but he gathered me up in his arms and hugged me to him.
Then he unceremoniously held me at arm’s length. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
I blinked. “What?”
“What were you doing, riding after Bates like that? And I told you to stay at Grant’s! What got into your head, Carrie? You could have been killed!”
“But I wasn’t.”
He plunged his fingers into his hair and stared at me with wide eyes. “I thought… I thought… fuck.”
“You thought what?” I pushed.
“None of this would have been worth a damn if you went off and got yourself killed! You’re supposed to stay away from shit like this. Let us handle it. You did your part last night.”
I grinned up at him.
“What’s funny?” he growled, taking a menacing step forward.
“It sounds like you were worried about me.”
A vein grew near his temple. “Worried?”
I nodded.
He threw his hands in the air. “Of course I was fucking worried! I was more than worried! I thought you were going to get yourself killed. And you know who isn’t worth your life? Bates and his sadistic daughter.”
