Close To Danger (Westen #4)(84)

The words drummed repeatedly in her head like war drums pushing her faster and faster.

The shack came into view, a solid brown mass rising out of the snowy bushes and dormant trees.

“Slow down,” Harriett’s voice whispered harshly, her hand grabbing onto Chloe’s arm like a vice. With a hard jerk, she spun her around and behind a thick tree trunk. “We have to be smart about this.”

“He could be hurt.”

“Could be.”

Great. That didn’t help her anxiety.

Her face must’ve said exactly that, because Harriett tilted her head slightly to one side and held her attention with one arched brow. “He’s not dead.”

“How can you be sure?” Chloe asked.

“There’s two different kinds of gunfire.”

Chloe opened her mouth to ask, but Harriett shook her head.

“Listen.”

There was a bang-bang-bang sounding like firecrackers. Then a pause. A woman’ voice screaming. Followed by a single shot. Covering her mouth with her hand to keep from screaming, Chloe stared at Harriett for an explanation.

“Rapid-fire, Wes’s Glock. Single shot, sniper rifle.”

“He could still be hurt.”

“Is there a back entrance?” Harriett asked, studying the back of the wooden structure. No windows were on this side.

Chloe shook her head. “One on each side and a big window on the other side from here.” She pointed to the right. I came out that way. Wes was watching for Hannah to approach from the other one when I left.”

“We’ll go in the way you came out. Slowly.” Harriett stepped in front of her to lead the way.

Chloe stayed right behind her, step for step.

More shouting, followed by gunfire. This time from Wes.

Thank, God! He was alive and sounded…antagonistic. What was he doing? Trying to piss her off? Trying to get killed?

Hannah screamed something and fired again. The building shook.

Heedless of Harriett’s effort to grab her again, she shot around the corner of the shack.



*



Stretching out his leg, Wes cleared a path to the opening on the opposite of the shack from the one he’d sent Chloe out. He’d already replaced the magazine in his gun with the fresh one and used half of the fifteen bullets in it. Once those were out, his only weapon was his knives, which meant he needed to get to Hannah before she could blow a hole through him with the sniper rifle.

The key to the plan was to manipulate Hannah to do what he wanted—move closer and between the exits from the deer blind. If she believed he’d positioned himself in the right section of the shack and zeroed in on that area, then he could flank her to the left and get the drop on her.

Snow and branches crunched in the direction she’d last fired from, but moving more center again.

She was already making the move. Now to reinforce the idea in her head.

Pressing his weapon to the far right of the window, he shouted, “It wasn’t my fault Isaac got careless and got shot!” He let off another burst of gunfire, keeping a few bullets in reserve for later. As soon as the last of five rounds left the gun, he lunged to his left, beneath the bottom ledge of the window.

Immediate return fire hit the shack. “My brother was never careless! He was a better shot than you! A better man than you!”

Another high-powered bullet slammed into the shack, this time bursting a hole in the wall right where Wes had been seconds before. Clutching his gun in his right hand and the hilt of his knife in the other, he crouched near the opening. With a deep breath to steady his heartbeat, he peeked outside, leaning out just enough to see Hannah’s body crouched near a felled log between two thick tree trunks, less than fifty feet from the deer blind. Using the scope of the rifle, her attention was focused on the far side of the structure.

This was his chance. Even if she got the rifle up fast enough, he could be on her before she had a chance to fire. The key was a guerrilla attack. Shock and stun her.

Wiggling his body out the door so slowly to not draw her attention, he tightened his grip on both weapons.

He was only going to get one chance at this.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Pushing his weight onto the balls of his feet, crouched and ready to explode like a defensive end toward the quarterback, he gave a quick thought to Chloe.

A dark growl from W?den, drew his attention.

As if his sheer thought conjured her up, movement occurred to his right.

His heart sank.

In the woods outside the far end of the shack stood Chloe.



*



Despite the snow-covered underbrush, Gage darted between trees in the direction of the gunfire up ahead. Out of his peripheral vision he watched Cleetus and Daniel flanking each side. The three of them made a net to prevent the crazed waitress from escaping. She needed to be contained. Her bloody rampage needed to stop here. The last thing they could let happen was her getting back to a town full of innocent people.

Right now, he had two innocent people to worry about.

His deputy and friend was up there. Bobby’s sister, now his sister, was up there, too. His heart told him to hurry. His head whispered caution.

Two more sprints, and suddenly what looked like a shack came into view. This had to be the deer blind Cleetus said was up here.