Page 6 of One Cry Too Loud (Coastal Crime Unit #9)

T here had been many times in my life when I had to act quickly.

In fact, if I really stopped to think about it, there would probably be just as many days in my life that included this kind of thing as there were without it.

All of that was to say that, at this point, my mind barely needed to register the danger for my body to react to it.

I jumped toward Holly. Sure, there were two other people in this room, and there might have even been an argument to be made that VanPelt was the smarter person to save.

He was, after all, the billionaire funding all of our missions these days.

I wouldn’t be making that choice, though.

Holly was my friend. Holly was one of the sweetest, kindest, and most ferociously capable geniuses I had ever met in my life.

More than that, she was a woman. And though my grandfather had been dead for years, I had little doubt he’d spin in his grave if he knew I left a woman to fend for herself in a situation like this.

Besides, VanPelt saw the car. He knew it was coming. He had time to react.

My body slammed into Holly. I pushed her out of the way, knocking her against the wall and then sliding to the floor.

It didn’t happen an instant too soon. As soon as I felt the English woman against me, I heard the horrible and unmistakable noises of shattering glass, twisting metal, and screeching brakes.

More than hearing it, I felt it. I felt the heat coming off the engine. I felt the glass as it showered over us. I felt Holly’s heart beating like a fist trying to break free from her rib cage, pounding so hard that it shook my own chest.

An alarm began to blare through the area.

“Are you okay?” I asked, looking down at her.

Her entire body shook. Her face, always a touch pale, was ghostly white as she opened her mouth to answer me. “What-What happened, Jack?”

“ A car,” I said, swallowing hard. “A car slammed into the shop.”

“A car?” She asked. She was dazed. She was in shock. Her words came out so confused that I had no doubt that she really didn’t understand what I was saying. “Why?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, pushing myself upright. “It might have been a coincidence, but I doubt it seriously.”

I grabbed Holly’s hand and pulled her up. While I was doing that, my eyes scanned the area, looking for Nate. VanPelt popped up on the other side of the car. He had cuts and scrapes across his face, but he was standing up straight. So, it seemed to me that all of his injuries were just surface.

“Go to the back room,” I said to Holly, pointing to the area where she’d come from a few moments ago. “Stay there until I come and get you.”

“I can’t,” she said, shaking her head, her entire body still trembling. “I need to stay. I need to help.”

“I can do that,” I answered. “Right now, I just need you to get to safety. I’m not sure what’s going on here yet, and until I do, keeping you out of the line of prospective fire is my number one priority.”

I pulled her toward Nate.

“You good?” I asked.

“Better than my vase,” he muttered, looking over at the already ruined art project. His tone and the steadiness of the way he moved toward us told me that, while Holly was in shock, VanPelt was definitely not.

“Take her to the back room,” I said, speaking over the blaring alarm. “Keep her there, and both of you stay awake until the ambulances get here. Given the fact that there’s an alarm, I doubt they‘ll be much longer.”

“And what about this?” Nate asked, looking past me and at the car. “This was intentional. It has to be.”

“You let me deal with that,” I said, grabbing my gun, and pulling it from it’s home on the holster on my hip. “Now go.”

I turned, confident that they’d do as I said, and moved toward the car.

The airbag had gone off. So, I couldn’t see whoever was in the driver’s seat.

I had no idea if it was some poor old lady who’d lost control of the car or some masked bastard who’d slammed into this building in an attempt to take the three of us out.

I moved cautiously, slinking to the driver’s side with my gun pointed forward. My muscles were tense and my eyes were planted on the car, on the airbag obscuring my view.

As I rounded the car, as the airbag became inconsequential thanks to my evolving vantage point, I heard a scream from inside.

My muscles tensed,and for an instant, I thought about shooting.

I didn’t, of course. I had trained too well and been too good to allow my first instinct to rule my motions in a moment like this.

The scream returned.

“Help me!”

I blinked, looking into the car. It was a woman. No. It was a girl. She couldn’t have been more than seventeen. She had a bloody nose. It was probably broken, thanks to the airbag, and she was panicking. “Help!”

“Calm down,” I said loudly, over the alarm. “Other than your nose, are you hurt?”

“I didn’t do this!” She yelled. As she took me in, she saw the gun in my hand, and the panic ratcheted up about a hundred notches. “No! Please don’t! I didn’t do this! The car did it! I swear! I tried to stop! I tried to turn the wheel, but it didn’t matter! Please! You have to believe me!”

“I’m not going to shoot you,” I said, stuffing my gun back into the holster. I pulled at the door and opened it. The girl spilled out, panting and jerking.

“I didn’t mean to do this!” She screamed. “I don’t know how it even happened! I wasn’t supposed to have this car. It’s my dad’s. He’s going to kill me. Oh my God. He’s going to-”

“Are you hurt?” I asked, steadying her. “You can worry about your father after we deal with making sure you’re okay. I promise you, as a father, it’ll be his first priority too.”

“It shouldn’t be your first priority, Jack Harrington,” a voice said from inside the car. No. It was more than just inside the car. It was from inside the speakers. “You have bigger things to worry about.”

“What?” I asked, my eyes growing wider. “How are you-”

“These cars are all computer boards,” the voice said from inside the car speakers. “This one just happened to be driving by.”

“Who the hell are-”

“Fifteen seconds,” the voice cut me off.

“That’s how long it took for me to take control of this car, this deadly weapon, and throw it at you.

Imagine what I could do in thirty seconds.

Imagine what I could do in thirty minutes.

” There was a beat of silence, and then this followed.

“Stay away from me. Stay out of my business. You tell that English bitch I said so. If you don’t, next time, it won’t be just you who is in harm’s way. ”

I heard Nate’ voice shout from the other side of the room. Looking forward, I saw his head peeking out from the other room. “What’s going on?” He asked.

“Something bad,” I said, taking a deep breath and taking all of this in. “Something very bad.”