Survival Mission - Chapter 18
As Trevor listened to Jim, he counted four other voices stating their readiness. He knew Ziggy wouldn’t be making the party, which left five mules with Jim as their de facto leader. He could take Jim out now, no problem, but didn’t want to risk alerting the other mules to LE presence. Still, he wanted to be as close to the mule as possible, to arrest him as soon as the loser touched his delivery.
He crept closer until he reached an area of significant undergrowth that was taller than him, where he squatted.
There was nothing else to do now but wait. And pray that Valerie was already in her car, driving home, no matter the cost to his heart.
***
Valerie lay face down on the ground, her arms flat around her head. Her muscles screamed from forcing herself to remain still and her temple pounded. The wet trickle that she felt on the side of her face was no doubt blood, but she dare not risk swiping at it.
The mule—Jim from what she’d overhead of his conversations—thought he’d knocked her out, or she was certain he would have hit her again. Or worse. When his voice sounded in a way she knew he wasn’t facing her, she risked a peek and saw the AR-15 holstered around his shoulders, the handgun in a side holster.
If she played dead, she might survive. Trevor said LE were on their way, but she hadn’t seen any sign of help.
A sudden sensation of something in her nose caused her to involuntarily sneeze.
No!
She scrambled to her feet. She had no choice but to run for her life.
“What the hell?” Jim’s irritated voice chased her as she began to zigzag through the woods, hoping against hope that he’d miss when he shot.
Shots rang out, tree bark exploded next to her. She kept running, until she tripped over a root and slammed to the ground.
***
Trevor heard the sneeze and homed in on the shape he’d missed, so focused on Jim. Valerie. He pulled his Glock and fired at Jim, but he wasn’t fast enough. Jim got off a round of his AR-15. No human could outrun semiautomatic bullets, not at such close range.
It was a split second between when the criminal fired at Valerie and Trevor fired his weapon. But he lived a thousand lives in that flash of time. He saw what Valerie and he could have become, the gift they’d been given at the worst possible time. And knew he’d never get over the loss of the woman he’d fallen in love with in less than a day.
***
Valerie landed on her knees, hard, the force pitching her forward onto a pile of rocks. Pain seared through her side. Another shot sounded, but it was different from the rifle fire.
A handgun?
Thud. Something, someone, fell nearby. Was it a second mule?
More footsteps, leaves crunching. She curled into a painful ball, terror gripping her. Her killer would be upon her any second!