Page 147 of Proof of Guilt

Theo then took out his phone, and while keeping watch of the situation on the porch, he also sent a text to someone. Probably Gabriel. Because a few seconds later, Ivy saw her brother glance down at his phone screen.

“Put on your seat belt,” Theo told her.

Ivy was certain her eyes widened. “Why? What are you going to do?”

“Play a game of chicken to get these guys to scatter so that Gabriel can pick them off. But I want you belted in and as far down on the seat as you can go in case something goes wrong.”

And there was plenty that could go wrong.

She managed a nod and did as he said. Ivy also kept her gun ready just in case this situation went from bad to worse.

“Hold on,” Theo said the moment they were in place, and he hit the accelerator.

The cruiser lurched forward, but Ivy couldn’t see what was going on. However, she could hear it. The men cursed.

And then a shot blasted into the windshield.

* * *

THEO HAD ALREADY braced himself for the shot that came right at them. The ones that followed, too. He gave the steering wheel a sharp turn so that his side of the cruiser bashed into the back porch railing. The impact certainly jarred Ivy and him. Seemed to jar the house, too.

But it didn’t stop the gunmen.

Four more bullets came crashing into the cruiser’s engine and his window, cracking and webbing the glass to the point that it was nearly impossible for him to see.

He could hear, though.

And what he heard was Gabriel returning fire. Good. It was just as Theo had instructed him to do with that text he’d sent him.

Judging from the angle of the returned fire, Gabriel did indeed have the right angle or at least enough of one to get those gunmen. Maybe that meant Al had scrambled out of the way so they could put a quick end to this.

Since the side of the cruiser was now directly in front of the porch, Theo tried to peer through what was left of the glass. It took him a few seconds, but he saw the gunmen. Both were now in the back doorway of the house and didn’t seem to be reacting to the tear gas. Maybe they had some kind of filtering equipment beneath those ski masks.

Both of the gunmen were leaning out from cover to continue firing. The one on the left was shooting into the cruiser. The one on the right was aiming in Gabriel’s direction. No doubt to try to pin him down.

There was no sign of Al.

It was possible the thugs had dragged him into the house, and because the lights were off, Theo couldn’t see any

thing in there, much less try to figure out if the man was alive. Later, he would need to do that, but for now he had a much more immediate problem.

There was another round of shots, these going into the engine, and it didn’t take long for it to start spewing steam. They’d obviously shot out the radiator, which would make it impossible for Theo to use it for an escape. They certainly wouldn’t get far enough away from those gunmen to do any good. Still, he’d known that right from the start. That meant they had to make their stand here and hope Gabriel and the hand could do enough to capture the shooters.

Now that they’d disabled the engine, the shooter shifted back to his window. The bullets tore a big enough hole in the glass that the shots started coming into the interior of the cruiser. He was betting these guys had a lot of ammo, and as long as the one kept Gabriel out of the picture, it meant the other one could continue blasting until he shot Ivy and him.

Another chunk of the glass came flying right at him, and Theo had no choice but to duck down. He didn’t stay there, though. He came up off the seat, and he used one of the holes in the window to take aim so he could fire. He double tapped the trigger and sent the thugs ducking back inside.

It didn’t last.

After only a few seconds, the thugs started shooting again. This time the glass fell right onto Ivy. She quickly lifted her hand, putting it over the back of her head, but Theo knew that wouldn’t be enough to keep her protected.

The shots continued, coming at them nonstop, but there was other gunfire, too. It was coming from the pasture behind the barn. Probably one or more of the hands. Hopefully, that meant they knew that Al was out of the way so that he wouldn’t be hit.

“Stay put,” Theo told Ivy.

As expected, she lifted her head just enough to make eye contact with him, and he saw her shake her head. “You’re not going out there.”

It darn sure wasn’t something he wanted to do. Not with bullets seemingly coming from every direction, but he couldn’t just sit there and let Ivy be hit. Something that could happen any moment now that the shots were coming into the vehicle.

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