Page 12 of Outlaw Ridge: Reed (Hard Justice: Outlaw Ridge #6)

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Hallie felt the shot blast into her.

The impact was sudden and forceful, knocking the wind out of her and sending her staggering back. Reed swooped in to stop her from falling.

Hallie sucked in a sharp breath, her hand instinctively reaching for the spot where the bullet had struck her Kevlar vest. The force of the blow roared through her chest, but the vest had done its job, stopping the bullet from killing her.

She was alive.

Pain and fire flared in her chest, but it was a far cry from the life-threatening injury it could have been. The adrenaline came. A slam of it as powerful as the bullet had been. It sharpened her focus and she knew there was no time to dwell on the pain. Reed and she had to move.

Reed had already gotten started on that though. He took hold of her arm, dragging her by the side of the concrete steps and pulling her flat onto the ground. Judging from the angle of the shot, they weren’t exactly out of the line of fire, but they weren’t right out in the open either.

Since the blistering hot bullet fragment was burning a hole in her, Hallie fought to get the vest open, to get that bullet away from her skin. She managed it with Reed’s help, but he didn’t take the vest off her. He merely flipped back the side so it wasn’t touching her.

Another shot came. Then again. Both slammed into the concrete just above their heads. Someone obviously wasn’t giving up on killing them.

“Declan, do you see the shooter?” Reed called out.

“No,” he promptly answered. “But the shots are coming from the roof of the house just up the street.”

Oh, God. There could be someone inside that house. Someone innocent who’d gotten caught up in this and could now be killed. For that matter so could Declan and Reed. All of them were in danger, including Shaw and the CSIs.

“Tell everyone to stay down,” she managed to say while Hallie still fought to regain her breath. The pain was continuing to rip through her, making it hard to think. Or breathe.

“Stay down,” Reed relayed to the others.

Of course, that order wouldn’t extend to Shaw and Declan. Or Reed himself who had already levered himself up to return fire. They’d all be focused on putting an end to this.

And she prayed they could.

If they could just stop the killer here and now, then the danger would be over. No one else would have to die. But first, they had to catch the SOB.

“I could lean out from cover just a little,” she suggested. “It might draw the shooter out enough so you—”

“No,” Reed snarled. “You’re not going to make yourself a target. Shaw’s already on the way over there. He’ll try to come up on the shooter from behind.”

Hallie hadn’t seen or heard Shaw, but she noticed that Reed’s attention was to his right where he’d likely gotten a glimpse of Shaw. It was likely that Shaw had gone out the back of the crime scene and was now making his way to the shooter. Maybe the gunman wouldn’t spot him and try to kill him.

“I’m going to return fire,” Reed told her. “Not at the house. Too risky in case someone is inside,” he added when she opened her mouth to object. “I’ll fire into the air. I just want to keep this asshole’s focus on us. Put your hands over your ears,” he tacked onto that.

She did, and Reed pointed the barrel of his gun into the air and fired. Despite her hands muffling some of the sound, more pain roared through her, this time from the deafening noise of the blast. But the ploy seemed to work because the gunman sent another shot their way.

Not just one either.

But a flurry of them that smacked into the yard and the steps.

“Either he’s not that good of a shot, or he’s panicking,” Reed muttered.

That’s exactly what she’d been thinking, too. Maybe the gunman had believed he’d take her out with that one shot so he could then flee the scene before anyone sussed out his location. When that hadn’t happened, then he hadn’t known how to put an end to this.

The images of all three of their suspects flashed into her head.

Corman, Jay, and Luther. Any one of them could be doing this, but at the moment, Jay was the obvious candidate.

He’d been in the area just minutes earlier, and instead of actually leaving, he could have made his way to the house across the street, climbed onto the roof, and waited to kill her.

Of course, Luther was in town, too. Or rather he had been just a half hour earlier. And Corman could have easily gotten here. Heck, he could have been the one to send Jay that note to lure him to the scene so he’d be suspected of this attack.

Obviously, they still had way too many questions and were short on answers.

“Hands over your ears,” Reed instructed, and the moment she did that, he fired into the air again.

They waited for the gunman to return fire.

And waited.

But the shots didn’t come.

“Hell, he’s getting away,” Reed snarled, and he sprang to his feet.

Hallie wanted to pull him back down. To keep him safe. But she knew Reed would have no part of that. Neither would she.

Despite the godawful pain and very little breath, Hallie forced herself to get up. Every muscle in her chest was still throbbing, still on fire, but she shoved the vest back in place, hoping that if she got shot for a second time, it would still protect her and keep her alive.

Reed opened his mouth, no doubt to tell her to get down, but he must have realized that was a lost cause. “Be careful,” he snapped instead, and they took off running.

They raced across the street, their footsteps sounding like thunder as they hit against the pavement and sidewalk.

Thankfully, Hallie couldn’t see the woman that Reed had mentioned who’d been peering out her window.

Since her house was right next to where the shooter had fired those shots, she prayed the woman had taken cover and gotten out of harm’s way.

Hallie’s gaze darted around the area, searching for any signs of the shooter, as they reached the other side of the street, she nearly collided with Reed, who’d stopped and was looking to his right. There, just emerging from behind the house, was Shaw, his face a mix of relief and frustration.

“Did you see him?” Reed panted, his eyes still scanning the surroundings.

Shaw shook his head. He was panting, too. “No, by the time I got here, he was already gone.”

Hallie’s heart sank. Oh, God. The killer had escaped.

This wasn’t over.

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