Guardian Ranger (Shadow Agents #2)(59)

“Ms. Ver...on...” He tried to speak, but the words just came out as a rasp.

“It’s okay. I’m going to help you, Jimmy.” He’d escaped this hellhole of a ranch once. She wasn’t letting him die there. She tried to slide him over to the passenger side. Wyatt had left the kid behind the steering wheel. She’d move him over and drive them both out of there. She rushed around to the driver’s side and—

“Veronica!”

Her head jerked to the left at that bellow. Wyatt was on his feet. He had reached into his patrol car. Pulled out— Oh, no, that was a shotgun in his hands. He’d gotten a shotgun, and he was pointing it at her.

She jumped into Jimmy’s car. The back window shattered behind her. Ducking, she searched under the seat for the keys. Nothing. Not there. Not...

“I’ve got the keys, Veronica!” Wyatt called out. “Why don’t you come and get them?”

She wasn’t coming for them...because she didn’t need them.

She grabbed the wires underneath the dash. Yanked down hard. Twisted them. Jerked the ends together and...

The motor sparked to life. During all of Cale’s car talks with her, he’d made sure to teach her a few tricks over the years.

“Hold on,” Veronica whispered to Jimmy. Then she slammed the vehicle into Reverse.

She glanced up, just in time to see Wyatt standing behind the car. Aiming his shotgun at her. She slammed her foot down harder on the accelerator.

The back bumper rammed into Wyatt even as he fired the gun. The blast had her jumping and yanking the wheel to the right. The car swerved, but beneath her sweat-slick hands, she managed to keep the vehicle steady. She glanced around wildly. Wyatt had disappeared or maybe—maybe she’d just taken him out and he was on the ground. Either way, she wasn’t about to get out of the car and check. She was just getting her and Jimmy the hell out of there.

She shifted, preparing to head straight out on that bumpy drive, when a shotgun was shoved into the open driver’s-side window. The shotgun pressed right against her head. “Get out or die right there,” Wyatt snarled.

She froze.

“Get. Out.”

Slowly, carefully, she eased from the car. Jimmy whimpered beside her. “No...Ms. Ver...on...”

The right side of Wyatt’s face was covered in blood. His stomach was soaked red. But the guy was standing strong. The second she cleared the car, he jerked her against him. “Guess what?” he whispered as he put the barrel of that shotgun under her chin.

She didn’t want to guess anything. She wanted to see Cale once more. She wanted to see Jasper. Jasper. She wanted him so much.

“It’s empty.”

It took a moment for the words to register. Then she heard Wyatt’s smug laugh. “You could’ve gotten away.”

She wasn’t looking at him. Barely felt the shotgun as it was yanked away and dropped in the dirt. Her gaze was on the driveway before her. A blue car was fishtailing as it swerved down that jagged road. And to the right, a motorcycle was coming right out of the overgrown brush.

Wyatt bent and pulled a small pistol from the holster on his ankle. “This is the moment,” he said in her ear, “the life-or-death moment that everyone talks about but so damn few get to experience. I’ll give this moment to you.”

Jasper had just jumped out of the blue car. He was closing in on her. He had a gun gripped in his hands. “Let her go!”

Cale was shoving away from the motorcycle. He was armed, too, with a small gun that he had pointed right at Wyatt. “There’s no way out for you, Wyatt! Get away from my sister!”

“Neither one of them will shoot,” Wyatt whispered in her ear. “Because they’re scared they’ll hit you.” He’d positioned the gun under her chin, holding it in exactly the same spot he’d put the shotgun. Only this time, she was betting this gun was loaded and ready to kill. “Or maybe they’re just afraid I’ll pull the trigger.”

Her head was tilted back against him as she tried to get away from that weapon. But there was no place to go. She couldn’t get free.

The two men she loved most were closing in. Just about ten feet away from her now. Why was Wyatt letting them come so close?

Because he’s going to kill them both. Her breath stilled. That was Wyatt’s plan. He was using her to lure Jasper and Cale closer. And when they were close enough, he’d shoot one man, and the other still wouldn’t fire back because he’d be afraid of shooting her.

Neither one of them will shoot.

Wyatt had that part right. But he was still wrong about one thing. “I can save myself,” she whispered again. But it wasn’t just about surviving this mess. She was ready to risk her life for the men that she loved.

You don’t risk your life for nothing. Cale’s number three rule. But this risk wasn’t for nothing. It was for everything. For their lives.

She looked into Cale’s eyes. Her brother was only about seven feet away now. She’d never seen such fear in his eyes.

“It’s going to be okay, Ronnie,” Cale told her. “You’ll make it out of this.”

Would he?

Her gaze darted to Jasper. No fear there. Just desperate determination. An intensity that would have scared her if she didn’t know him so well. He was looking at Wyatt, and promising death. “Get your hands off her!” Jasper snarled.