Deadly Chase - Chapter 20
The prints matched, giving them enough information to obtain arrest warrants for the two teens.
A visit to Harris’s home was useless. The older woman who answered the door had obviously been sleeping off either a drunk or high, and had no idea where her son might be.
They drove to a second location, a rundown log cabin not far from the Salmon River. Overgrown landscaping and weeds filled the front lawn. Assorted trash, beer bottles and a cardboard pizza box littered a front porch whose floorboards didn’t seem like they would hold much weight.
“It won’t win any House Beautiful awards,” Miriam said with a wrinkle of her nose.
“Imagine what the inside looks like,” he said, imagining the squalor within.
As they stepped out of the car, one of the windowpanes shattered and Alex threw himself in front of her as bullets flew all around them.
Searing pain filled his shoulder, but he fought it back as they scrambled to find protection behind the police cruiser.
“Are you hit?” she asked, seeing him grimace as he leaned against the back bumper.
He nodded. “I’ll be okay.”
She muttered a curse and called in for backup. “10-999. Officer has been shot. We need assistance at 1000 Salmon River Road.”
Bullets ricocheted off the cruiser, the sound loud. Lily was barking inside the car, sensing the danger and wanting to be by Miriam’s side.
Miriam bent beside Alex and urged him forward to inspect the wound. She hurried back toward the cockpit of the cruiser, reached in and took out a first aid kit. She opened the kit to take out gauze that she applied to his shoulder with pressure. The pain made black circles dance before his eyes, but he fought it back to maintain consciousness.
“We have to keep them from leaving,” he said, worried that if he passed out, their two suspects might be able to overpower Miriam and Lily, and escape.
“They won’t,” she said with conviction and peered over the edge of the trunk. Another barrage of gunfire erupted, driving her back down.
*
“AR-15. Somehow converted to an automatic,” Miriam said, her mind racing, considering what she could do to keep the suspects pinned down and get Alex to the hospital. He might say he was okay, but he was bleeding heavily from the shoulder wound.
She braved another look over the edge of the cruiser and heard shouting from inside the cabin. She called out, “Brandon. Sam. It’s not too late to make things right.”
Someone tossed out a curse, but then more yelling came from the cabin. Loud enough for her to hear over Lily’s barking.
“This is crazy, Sam.”
Obviously, Brandon was not on board and Miriam tried to use that to her advantage. “You can come out now, Brandon. It’ll make it easier on you.”
The door opened only a bit before it slammed shut again.
“Don’t bail on me,” she heard, probably from Sam.
“I didn’t sign up for this,” Brandon said and a second later, he stepped out onto the front porch, his hands held high.
She’d been so focused on the two teens, she hadn’t heard the sirens approaching. As Brandon walked down the steps, two other police cruisers pulled up and her fellow officers spilled out. An ambulance jerked to a stop just behind them.
A stream of curses came from inside the cabin, but then Sam tossed the gun out the door. “Don’t shoot. I’m unarmed,” he shouted.
Miriam gestured to her fellow officers and commanded, “Hold your fire.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Miriam. I love you,” Alex said from beside her.
His eyes were glazed, his face pale from his blood loss which probably explained his words. She came to a crouch, opened the back door and signaled to Lily to come with her. She stood behind her door to instruct the two teens. “Sam, come out with your hands up. Both of you get on the ground, face down. Hands above your heads.”
She held her breath, expectant until Sam did as she asked, and both Brandon and he laid down on the ground. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief and give another hand command to have Lily stand down. She was grateful she hadn’t been forced to use the powerful pit bull to control either of their suspects.
The minutes after that were a blur as her colleagues swept into action to handcuff the teens and the EMTs rushed from the ambulance to take care of Alex. Jasper had a hospital just a few miles outside town and as the ambulance pulled away, Miriam prayed Alex would be okay.
Dillon joined her. “You should go. We can take care of things here.”
She glanced at the two teens being loaded into the squad cars. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Go take care of Alex and I’ll take care of Lily for you,” he said, and she didn’t hesitate. She handed him Lily’s leash, rushed into her cruiser and took off after the ambulance, nearly riding on its back bumper in her haste to be there for Alex.
Her heart pounded in her chest as they wheeled him out and into the ER. Fear filled her and a cold chill covered her body as she waited for word. Minutes that seemed like hours passed, but then an ER doctor came out.
“He’ll be fine. We’ll keep him overnight, but you can see him now,” the kindly older man said.
She rushed into the ER room where Alex lay propped up in bed. His color was way better than before, and he smiled as she entered.
“Doctor says you’ll be fine. That was a stupid thing you did,” she said, recalling how he’d shielded her body with his.
“Better me than you,” he said and held out his hand, inviting her to sit beside him.
“I had my vest on,” she reminded but then hesitated, not sure how to continue.
“Miriam?” he pressed, took hold of her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“I know you were a little out of it, but you said you loved me. I hope it wasn’t the blood loss talking,” she teased, trying to make light of it because that’s what you did after you had faced death and survived.
With a smile and his hazel-gold eyes gleaming, he said, “It wasn’t the blood loss. I love you, Miriam. I have forever only…I wasn’t sure you could forgive me for leaving.”
“I didn’t for the longest time, but I’m not sure I ever stopped loving you,” she admitted, leaned forward and kissed him, letting the years of loss and pain slip away with that kiss.
He returned the kiss, his mouth mobile on hers. He reached for her but groaned at the movement of his injured shoulder, forcing them apart.
“I guess we’ll have to pick this up when I’m not sitting in a hospital bed,” he joked with a wry grin that made him look like the boyish teen she’d always loved.
“Does that mean—”
“I want you in my life. I don’t want to spend the next ten years and more without you,” he said, suddenly serious.
“I don’t want that either, but your life is in Boise—”
Alex shook his head. “It is, but I’m willing to go wherever you want.”
She thought about all the painful memories he had in Jasper and knew that was a sacrifice she couldn’t let him make. “I hear Boise is in need of police officers,” she said with a smile that promised forever.
“I hear that as well,” he said and leaned in for another kiss, ending the pain of the past and sealing the promise of a future together forever.
*
Look for more K-9s on Patrol in Decoy Training by New York Times bestselling author Caridad Piñeiro. Out now!