Long Range (Joe Pickett Book 20)(56)

“I can search him and cuff him while he’s standing up,” Woods said to Kapelow. “It’s okay. He’ll comply.”

“I gave him an order,” Kapelow said. To Woods, he said, “I gave you one, too.”

Woods demurred. “Boss . . .”

Nate saw Liv’s eyes get big as she fixed on something taking place over his shoulder. Before she could call out to warn him or he could react, Nate was hit in the back of the neck by twin steel-needle probes followed by thousands of volts in an internal explosion of electrical current.

His eyes involuntarily rolled back in his head and he felt his knees give way, but he somehow staggered to his left and stayed on his feet. Nate’s arms flopped lifelessly at his sides. His entire body surged with pain and his mouth filled with a metallic taste. He’d been tased before, but during special ops training he knew it was coming. This was much worse—and more debilitating—because he hadn’t anticipated it. He tried to regain his balance, when he was hit again in the small of his back and he lost all control of his muscles.

Nate pitched forward like a severed tree and he fell face-first into the dirt. Spangles of red and orange burst in front of his eyes. His limbs twitched and he could hear gurgling sounds from his throat, but he couldn’t stop them. He also couldn’t raise his head or move his eyes.

From above him through a painful fog, he heard Deputy Woods say, “Jesus, boss, you didn’t have to empty both barrels.”

“I did when he wouldn’t go down,” Kapelow said defiantly. “We know what this man is capable of. I couldn’t risk it.”

Nate heard the thump— thump- thump of footfalls as Liv ran down the porch stairs toward him.

“Get back. Stay away from him,” Kapelow ordered her.

Then a grunting exhalation of air as Woods scooped her up and held her in place.

“He won’t forget this,” Liv cried. “I won’t forget this.”

“Cuff him and get him up,” Kapelow said to Deputy Steck.

Nate heard the handcuffs ratchet tight on his wrists but he couldn’t yet feel them. He couldn’t feel anything. Then he was rolled to his back and pushed into a sitting position. His head flopped forward and his eyes rested on a tangle of thin wires that were attached to the embedded probes in his neck and in the small of his back. The wires stretched from the probes through the air to a large squared-off black and yellow Taser the sheriff held in his left hand. Kapelow’s service pistol was drawn and in his right.

“If you give me any more trouble,” Kapelow said to Nate while brandishing the Taser, “I’ll give you another jolt.”

It wasn’t necessary. Nate lost consciousness and slumped over into the grass.

*

SOMEONE WAS SQUATTED down beside him when Nate opened his eyes a few minutes later. It took a moment for him to focus and realize the person next to him was Joe. Nate turned his head: he was sitting down with his wrists bound behind him and his back against the muddy front tire of Sheriff Kapelow’s SUV.

“Where’s Liv and the baby?” Nate asked. His voice was a croak.

“Inside,” Joe said. “They’re okay. Steck went in there to try and calm her down and to give her the search warrant for your property. As you can guess, Liv is not a happy woman right now.”

“I’m glad you made it,” Nate said.

“Me too, but it looks like I was a little late.”

“I would say so,” Nate said. Then he groaned. “Every muscle in my body aches.”

“You’ll recover soon enough, but it looks like you might have broken your nose when you went down. That’ll take longer.”

That’s why his voice sounded unnatural, Nate realized. His nose was plugged with broken bone and cartilage and coagulated blood.

Joe said, “He zapped you with a Taser X2, which has two sets of probes.”

“I’m aware of that. Are the probes out of me?”

“I removed them. He fired both sets into you. That’s fifty thousand volts per shot. What did you do to provoke him?”

“I wouldn’t go down on my knees. He shot me when my back was turned.”

Joe whistled and shook his head. “That’s not exactly procedure.”

“No shit. Do you know what this is all about?”

Joe nodded. “A little, but the sheriff deliberately kept me in the dark. I guess he was afraid I’d tip you off.”

“You did.”

“And I’d do it again,” Joe said. He watched as Deputy Steck emerged from Nate’s house and walked across the yard to join his colleagues. Steck shook his head as if he were in the process of denying to himself he was there.

“So take these handcuffs off of me,” Nate said to Joe.

“I can’t, Nate. I already asked Kapelow and he said no.”

“Why do you listen to him?” Nate asked.

“Unfortunately, he’s in command of the scene.”

“What are they doing over there in my mews?” Nate asked as he chinned toward his falcon enclosure.

Sheriff Kapelow directed Deputies Steck and Woods to search within the structure. They were looking under the eaves and peering between the floorboards of the shack. The hooded falcons inside were upset with the activity and several screeched.