Page 119 of Track of Courage

“She’s next,” he said and lifted his arm.

Dawson grabbed the man’s ankle and yanked. Sorros jerked, just a little off-balance, but it was enough for Dawson to dodge the blow, for Sorros to land on one knee in the river.

Dawson launched himself onto him, still woozy with pain. He scrabbled onto the man’s back, put him in a sleeper hold, even as they crashed into the water.

Sorrosfoughthim,anelbowtohisface,afisttohisribs.StillDawsonheldon,thewaterturninghim numb.

Darkness didn’t win today.

Sorros managed to turn, get a fist in his nose, and Dawson tasted blood. But the momentum of the blow landed Dawson on the man’s chest.

Dawson roared, dripping blood, and grabbed the man’s throat.

He shoved him down into the frigid water.

“Daws!”

Nope.

“Dawson!”

Sorros slammed another fist into his head, and Dawson barely felt it, his adrenaline hot, his body shaking.

But Sorros grabbed a rock, even as he thrashed, and this time—

Everything blinked black, just for a second, and when it cleared Dawson lay in the water and Sorros was running down the shoreline.

His gun. He needed his gun—but the cool water turned his body to lead. He pushed up, growling—his head spinning, pulsing with heat.

A blur of movement out of the corner of his eye—Deke and a couple of his deputies running hard down the shoreline.

Deke’s linebacker build barreled into Sorros, taking him down with a thud over the river’s roar.

Sorros shouted, but the deputies descended on him.

Dawson clawed for the shore, trying to pull himself up, but his leg didn’t want to work. He lay like a beached trout, gasping.

Nice. Just perfect.

“Dawson!”

The voice was female, and he spotted Flynn running out of the forest, holding her gun, breathing hard. She ran over to him, holstered her weapon, and grabbed his jacket. “What in Sam Hill are you doing?”

He stared at her. “I dunno! Taking a dip?”

She parked her retort behind a grim slash of her mouth and dragged him onto shore. Grabbed her scarf off her neck. “You’re bleeding.”

Really? He couldn’t feel it, but when she shoved her scarf against his nose, he flinched.

Okay, so yes, Sorros might have broken something.

“When did you get back?” he asked.

“Apparently just in time. Can you walk?” She got behind him, as he held his nose, and put her hands around his shoulders and started to lift him.

Pain shafted through him, and he nearly opened his mouth like a baby and let out a shout. But he clamped it shut and managed to let only a deep moan escape. Then, “Just give me a minute.”

Down shore, Deke’s deputies were cuffing Sorros. Deke crunched his way back up shore to him.