Montana SEAL (Brotherhood Protectors #1)(5)

The crack of a rifle rent the air. The man in front of her staggered backward, clutching his shoulder, a bright red stain spreading across his blue chambray shirt. “What the hell?” he said, his eyes wide as he stared at the blood oozing between his fingers. His face blanched and he shot a look at Sadie, as he dropped to his knees.

“Mr. Patterson?” She abandoned the feedbag and reached for the older man. Another sharp report sounded and something hit one of the bags of feed next to Sadie’s head. A trickle of grain spilled out.

Sadie ducked, pulling Lloyd the rest of the way to the ground beside her. She blocked his body with hers and automatically reached for her cell phone in her back pocket. That’s when she remembered she’d left it in her bedroom. Not that it mattered. Cell phones rarely worked outside of Eagle Rock. The nearest cell tower wasn’t close enough to make a difference. Most people still owned landlines.

“Mr. Patterson, are you okay?” she asked.

“Hell, no, I’m not okay. I’ve been shot and I can’t breathe.” His angry retort faded. “Help me up.”

Sadie pressed a hand to his uninjured shoulder. “Stay down. We don’t know if the shooter will fire again.”

“Then get my gun off the rack over my back seat and shoot back,” he demanded, a surge of his anger returning. “I can’t stay on the ground all day or I’ll bleed to death.”

He was right about the bleeding part. Already a pool of blood spread across the pavement.

Sadie’s pulse hammered inside her veins. None of the parts she’d played in any of her movies had prepared her for dealing with a situation like this. But her upbringing on a ranch made her keep a level head and think.

She had to get Lloyd to a doctor before he passed out. “Stay here.”

“I will not.”

“I’m going to get my Jeep and bring it around to block anymore bullets that might come this way. I’ll only be a moment.”

Sadie left Lloyd’s side and crawled toward her rented vehicle. Another shot rang out, spitting gravel up in her face. Crawling took too long. She had to move. Sadie pushed to her feet and launched herself toward the open door of her vehicle. She dove through, landing in a heap in the driver’s seat. Keeping her head below the dash, she shoved the shift into drive and angled the vehicle closer to Patterson, placing the bulk of metal between him and the shooter.

Once she had him covered, she climbed over the passenger seat and out onto the ground.

Lloyd’s skin was an unhealthy gray and his jaw was clamped tight.

Sadie had to stop the flow of blood before she moved him. Ripping the hem of her shirt, she folded the fabric into a pad and reached for Lloyd’s hand covering the wound.

“Let me,” she said.

“You a nurse, now?” he said through clenched teeth.

“No, but I played one in a movie.”

“Don’t need no play actors monkeying around with my shoulder,” he grumbled.

Sadie didn’t have time to argue with the curmudgeon. “Well, it’s all you get. Now, let me help you.” She shoved his hand aside, pressed the wad of fabric to the wound and slapped his hand over his shoulder again. “Hold that while I get you into the vehicle.”

“Damned bossy woman. You sound like Ally.”

She slipped an arm around him and lifted with all her might.

Lloyd helped, but he wasn’t steady on his feet and it was up to Sadie to guide, lift and shove him into the back seat of her Jeep.

“I can drive my own self,” Lloyd said, his voice slipping into a moan.

“Like hell you can.” She tucked in his leg, shut the door and climbed into the front of the Jeep, crawling over the console, keeping her body below the windows, hoping the exterior of the vehicle would stop anymore flying bullets, should the shooting begin again. “We’re taking you to the clinic, and then I’m calling the sheriff.”

“Won’t do no good. Probably some fool hunter who can’t tell a deer from a bus,” Lloyd said, through gritted teeth.

“Might be, but it needs to be reported.” If the shooter had been a hunter, the big question on Sadie’s mind was what was he hunting? He’d hit Lloyd, and then almost hit Sadie, twice. As close as the bullets came, the shooter had to have been aiming at her.

A shot blew out the driver’s side window, blasting tiny shards of glass over her hair and arm. Sadie ducked lower, her heart lodging in her throat.

With Lloyd counting on her getting him to medical care quickly, she didn’t have time to succumb to fear. Settled low in the driver’s seat, she shifted into drive and jammed her foot on the accelerator. Peeking through the steering wheel, she managed to avoid leveling the stop sign and put a hundred yards between her vehicle and the intersection. As she drove toward Eagle Rock, she eventually straightened in her seat, her gaze alternating between the road, Lloyd and her rearview mirror.

Deer hunter my ass. Someone had purposely tried shooting her and Lloyd. Sadie wouldn’t feel safe until the shooter was caught. In the meantime she’d be blowing through that intersection without slowing down. The sheriff would just have to write her up. These were the times she really disliked being in a remote town. Houses were few and far between, and if she’d had her cell phone, she’d still have been out of luck due to the lack of towers passing signals. Where was a tall, dark and handsome alpha hero when you needed one to swoop in with a satellite phone or, better yet, a rescue helicopter?