a reason to live(93)

He and Jack reached Jenn’s Jeep at the same time, their guns still pointed at the woods as they leaned down and looked inside.

All four women were belted in and hanging in various degrees of pissed-off terror.

Except for Maxine.

She dangled lifelessly in the back seat.

“Call for an ambulance,” Mia shrieked when Max pried her door open.

Lying on his back, Shane kicked out the passenger window next to Sage and crawled inside. Her eyes were open and blood was dripping from her forehead.

“Talk to me, baby. Where does it hurt?”

“Maxine first,” she cried out, grabbing his hand as he pushed the hair out of her eyes. “You have to save her, Shane. Please.”

He kissed her hand, said a quick thanks to God she’d survived, then moved a few inches further in and assessed Maxine. Her pulse was weak and thready, her breathing shallow and labored.

“We gotta risk her back,” Shane shouted. “There’s no time for an ambulance. I think the bullet nicked her lung. You gotta get her straight to the hospital.”

Max lowered Mia to the ground and then kicked out the back window. Together, he and Shane released Maxine from the seatbelt and got her out of the Jeep as quickly and safely as they could.

Jack rescued Jenn and Sage while he and Max carried Maxine as slowly as possible to minimize further damage. Once she was loaded, they ordered Sage and the others inside with Maxine to keep her calm while Max drove.

“Aren’t you coming with us?” Sage cried out before he shut the door.

“This ends tonight,” Shane bit out. “He won’t get a chance to get near you again.”

Sage’s face paled and she opened her mouth to argue, but he stopped her protest with a quick, hard kiss before he slammed the door. When he turned, Jack tossed him a sniper rifle and a bulletproof vest he’d pulled out of the back of his SUV, then handed Max the keys.

“Get Maxine to the hospital. Once she’s in surgery, call Barry at home and let him know the situation; tell him Heller’s been shot. By the time he gets here, we should have taken care of Heller. Shane and I will head to the hospital as soon as we’re done here.”

Max jerked his head and climbed in, rolling down his window as he started the vehicle. “I want him dead,” was all he said, then he threw the SUV into drive and punched the gas, leaving Jack and Shane watching until they were out of sight.

“You left your radio in the SUV. I take it you’re not goin’ to call this in?” Shane asked.

“Nope. Plausible deniability as to why I didn’t call it in. He tried to kill my wife and shot my aunt. This is personal. You got a problem with that?”

“Not in the fuckin’ least.”

Shane turned to Jack and dropped his equipment. “Put the vest on under your shirt. Heller’s trained to go for the body shot, not the head, but he’ll take the head shot if he sees the vest.”

They pulled the shirts from their bodies, neither saying a word. Both were distracted with worry for Maxine. When they’d pulled their shirts back on and picked up their guns, Jack ordered, “Check his vehicle for keys,” as he handed Shane a flashlight.

Shane moved to Heller’s truck and looked inside. “He took the keys,” he shouted.

Both men pointed their flashlights in the direction of the ground, looking for the blood trail left behind by Heller. Once they found it, they followed the trail into the woods and picked up their pace, both sweeping the forest floor with light as they went. The amount of blood they tracked meant he was bleeding steadily, and with any luck, he’d bleed out and save them the trouble of killing him.

They kept pushing forward, ducking limbs and crawling over downed trees. Ten minutes later, they stepped into a clearing near a river. Scanning the ground, they found the blood trail leading downstream. It disappeared into the water.

The river was running fast, so Shane scanned the width and knew Heller couldn’t have made it across in his condition.

“Think he tried for the other side and got swept away?” Jack asked.

“Possible,” Shane answered, but he kept moving down the river.

Fifty feet from where the blood trail ended, it picked back up. Heading back in the direction of the road.

“He doubled back?” Jack rumbled.

“Yeah, and he’s got the keys,” Shane bit out. “Tell me we’ve got cell service out here. We don’t have time to wait for Barry.”

Jack shook his head and they both double-timed it back through the woods.

“He couldn’t just bleed to death,” Shane grunted.

“These bastards never make it easy.”

By the time they made it back to the road, the truck was gone.