Chapter 8

B rittany stared resentfully at the gunman who had come up on her and Anthony, leaving her no time to even scream or to react in any way.

"Wow, wow, wow, look at that. Anthony got free."

Anthony just stared at him, angry, and she realized that this must be one of the gunmen who had tied him up in the first place.

Damn it all, they were back to square one. "What are you doing?" she asked, blustering. "We need help getting him to a hospital. He's injured."

"Yeah, he probably is," the stranger replied, taunting her. He wore a dark sweatshirt with the hood pulled up over his head, so it was almost impossible to see his face. "But since I had the pleasure of inflicting those injuries, it's not likely I'll be helping him."

She gasped in horror, hoping he would believe her act. "Why would you do that? He's never done anything to you. Why would you hurt him?"

"How do you know he's never done anything to me?" he asked, looking at her. "That's a hell of an assumption to make."

She stared at him. "You're right," she muttered, "I don't know why I thought that. I just assumed you were out here being mean."

He laughed. "Well, yes, I am. It's part of my charm," he said, with a snarl in her direction. "But that's okay. I'm just waiting for the rest of your party. Until we have everybody all in one place, I guess you're safe, at least for a few minutes. After that?… No promises."

Her heart sank. No way to hide the fear that suddenly swept over her, and the gunman would know it too, as it would definitely show up on her face.

He laughed. "That's right." He gave her a smile. "Anthony here got it once already, and his buddy is around here somewhere. So, if you think you'll try anything, you have another think coming. You better be careful from here on out. Every move you make, you think about the consequences," he threatened, his tone turning low and deadly, "because I'll shoot you, just as easily as I'll shoot them."

"Them?" she repeated. "Did you hurt his partner?"

"Yes, I hurt his partner," he confirmed in that same deadly tone, "and you don't see anybody out here rushing to their rescue, do you?"

She froze at that but still asked, "Why not?"

"Shit, is that all you do, ask questions?"

"You have to admit you started with a pretty strong opening," she muttered. "So why wouldn't I be asking questions? Why aren't the police down here helping them?"

"Because they don't know he's missing, for one thing."

Anthony at her side muttered, "Because his brother used to be a cop." He spat on the ground.

"So, is your brother a part of this too?" she asked the gunman.

" Nah , he's not part of anything. Besides, he's far too uptight to be a part of this. He hates the shit Anthony gets into. They barely talk anymore. Anthony, you should know that by now. No wonder you're still just on foot patrol, even after all this time."

"Doesn't matter whether I know it or not," Anthony argued. "When you get attacked by people you know, it makes you second-guess everything."

"Not a bad thing to second-guess the shit you're doing in your life, Anthony. I mean, did you really think you would just blast through life and not have to pay for your father's sins?"

"My father's sins, not mine," Anthony snapped. "I didn't have anything to do with the shit he did."

It was hard to see the age of the man in front of them, but he had a seedier tone to his voice, as if he'd been through more in life than she had. She looked from one man to the other. "I'm a little confused," she admitted, "and considering that I'm in trouble here because of trying to help Anthony, I would like to know what's going on." She kept her tone as stiff as she could, as if she were more interested in what was going on, than the actual thought of being in trouble here, all the while hoping Baron could find them in time.

The hooded man just laughed. "I don't give a shit if you're curious," he snarled, "and Anthony may be prepared to tell you about his father and his history, but I'm not," he muttered. "And why should I anyway? I've got better things to do than answer your shitty little questions."

She turned to look at Anthony, the young cop beside her, and he shrugged. "My dad's a piece of shit," he muttered, "and it doesn't seem to matter how much we try to get rid of his influence because it keeps coming back on us."

"But it's what your father did, not you." She frowned at Anthony and asked curiously, "What's your last name?"

"It doesn't matter," he muttered.

She thought about it and then added, "I don't suppose your dad is connected to that Galloway gang case that was never solved a while back, was he? The one where he was allegedly part of that treasure hunt?"

Anthony stared at her, as the gunman laughed. "See? Look at the notoriety in your world," the gunman said. "Even some dumb chick from town knows about it."

"It doesn't matter whether I heard about it or not," she replied. "You know how it is with rumors that have been around forever."

"Yeah, well some rumors have a basis of truth," the gunman muttered, "and this guy had better be willing to cough up the truth. Otherwise there will be hell to pay. Understand, Anthony?"

"Why don't you go ask his father?" she suggested.

"I would love to have a chat with Daddy dearest, but here's the snag.… I can't. Daddy dearest is gone, poof, dusted."

"Okay, and what about the rest of his partners in crime?"

The gunman barked at her, "Some things we just can't get answers for."

Staring at him, she had barely opened her mouth when he snapped at her again.

"No more. Just stop with the fifty questions. How about you just shut the fuck up and sit there. I've heard enough of your prattling. You don't know what you're talking about, and nobody here will explain it to you, so just shut up."

"Or what?"

And, with that, he turned and pivoted back, pointing the gun directly at her. "Or else."

Baron carefully navigated his way back, one house at a time, still on the call with Badger. "Ah, shit."

"What?" Badger asked, refocusing on the issue at hand.

"I hear voices, and I don't like the sound of what's being said."

"Of course not. Stash the cop and go in carefully. You know the drill," Badger muttered, then disconnected.

Baron did know the drill, and, looking around, he found what appeared to be an old cot sitting off to the side, tossed away by the hurricane. He laid Josh on it, trying not to cause any more damage than what had already been done to the young man. Not even a moan came out of him, despite the pain it must have caused. "Damn, I'm sorry," Baron muttered, as he straightened up.

The other man didn't make a sound.

Whispering a command to Kingston, Baron turned in the direction the voices were coming from and carefully crept forward, trying to avoid stumbling through the debris. Staying out of sight, he got close enough to hear. Then, peeking around the corner from his new position, he saw a single gunman standing over Brittany.

"Or else I will pop you one. I told you to shut the fuck up, and I won't tell you again."

Baron winced as the gun was raised and pointed straight at her, while Brittany stood there, still glaring at the man.

Anthony, the young cop with the head injury, called out from his position on the ground, "You don't need to shoot her, for God's sake. It's not as if we can fight."

"No, but she won't shut up."

"Well, she probably will now," Anthony replied.

The gunman stared at the two of them and then made an angry noise.

"You can get the hell out of here as soon as you tell me where my partner is," Anthony declared, without missing a beat.

Silence came from all around them. Baron hadn't seen any sign of another man out here but knew there had been two of them earlier. So, where the hell was that partner?

"I didn't even know you had a partner out here," Brittany exclaimed, her tone loud and strong.

Baron smiled. First, it meant she wasn't injured, and, second, she had just enough of that pissed-off attitude in her tone that he was even happier to hear it. She wouldn't go down and stay down. She wouldn't go down without a fight. She just had to ensure she picked her fights in a way that didn't get her killed in the process. Of course that went for everybody, and, right now, this was a bad deal for anyone.

"Yeah," the gunman grumbled, "I'm looking for my partner, and I don't like the fact that you're out here, nosing around, when no one is supposed to be around this place to begin with."

"Well, if we'd known you were here," she stated in exasperation, "and you'd put up a sign to stay away or something, we might have."

"No, you wouldn't," he argued, giving her an angry look. "You're one of those lousy do-gooders out here, pissing everybody off all the time."

She fell silent at that, and, for Baron, it was just another insight into her character. Maybe she did know when to stand and when to fall because, right now, she appeared to be considering her options.

"Well, at least you've shut up now," he muttered.

She didn't say anything, but it was obvious that something had started to build.

Baron slipped around, checking out the location, wondering where the hell the other gunman was. The last thing Baron needed was to be caught with yet another person out here and not know who and what was going on.

"I don't know where your partner is," she finally said, "but I sure hope he's not hurting out here. It's pretty empty, and it's dark, and a hell of a lot of debris is everywhere."

"I know that," the gunman snapped. "Tell me something I don't know."

She shrugged. "Well, the cops will probably be here any minute."

"Why?"

Baron just caught a corner of the movement, as the gunman turned, apparently unaware they had gotten calls out.

"Because I called them," she stated in exasperation. "I mean, I found an injured cop, after all. Anthony was so out of it, injured and tied up, plus the other cop is missing. What else could I do?"

The gunman swore, loudly and profusely. "You're just nothing but trouble," he snapped, his gaze searching, trying to figure out something. As if he was on the verge of a panic, he raised his gun and fired in the air, and then he fired aimlessly. Brittany ducked, whereas Anthony had no chance to move, but the bullets flew in a circle around him.

Baron ducked but kept an eye on the scene. When silence fell, he straightened up to see that the gunman had disappeared. As a way to gain cover, it wasn't bad. Yet, when he heard a motor starting up off to the side, Baron swore and ran in that direction, but it was too dark. And, with no lights on, the vehicle took off harmlessly, just to the side of him. Swearing, he raced back to where Brittany was crouched beside Anthony. "Hey," Baron murmured. "Are you guys okay?"

"We're okay," she muttered, looking up at him, "but if you'd been here just a minute earlier…"

He nodded. "I was just coming in, and I heard part of the conversation, but I couldn't get into position to do anything about it." Baron glared down the road. "Badger is on the hunt too."

"Well, that won't do us any good though. Isn't he in New Mexico?" she asked, glaring at him.

"Never underestimate the guy. He is a wizard when it comes to support. Plus the other cops are on the way too," he added, "but I don't know if we'll stop this guy."

"Not likely," Anthony muttered, hanging his head.

"Why is that?"

He shrugged. "None of our cops are great at rescue. Nobody's got any training really. No budget money. While everybody wants everything, they don't want to pay for it," he muttered. "At the last council meeting, it was brought up that there had been very little search and rescue training and that the police officers needed more, but the council denied the request, saying we had no need for that because nobody here ever got injured."

When she snorted at that, he nodded. "Wish they lived out here near my grandma's place."

"I get it. You have no idea what it's like when you're up against people and budgets," Anthony muttered. "All they want to do is spend money on their pet projects, but nobody wants to spend money on health and safety." He turned and looked back at Baron. "We still don't know what happened to my partner, Josh."

"I've got him nearby. He's alive, but I don't want to move him too much, not until we see what his injuries are. I already carried him a house or so over from here."

At that, Anthony got up and slowly walked toward him. "Show me."

He led them to where the other cop was unconscious.

"Damn." Anthony approached Josh. "He really is out, isn't he?"

"He sure is," Baron confirmed. "You both took blows to the head, and Josh has a bum leg."

"Caught us by surprise," Anthony admitted, "I didn't see anything. One second I am walking, and, the next thing I know, I'm seeing stars. It was so dark out too. They must have had night vision goggles because he didn't seem to be hampered the same way we were."

"Night vision goggles sounds about right," Baron replied. "Military issue is pretty easy to get online, anytime you want nowadays." He bent over, double-checking the officer on the makeshift bed, before turning to look at Brittany. "Are you okay?"

"I am," she replied, with a smile in his direction, "I'm glad you found Josh." Just then, Kingston walked over stiffly and put his nuzzle into her hand. "Oh my gosh," she cried out, as she crouched to say hello. Kingston got a happy greeting. She looked over at Baron. "You didn't send him after the gunman?"

He shook his head. "No, I didn't know where the gunman's partner was, and we didn't know for sure how many bad guys we were even dealing with, until he mentioned his missing partner," Baron explained. "So I didn't want the dog to get shot, considering how trigger-happy our gunman got earlier."

"He was, and that was crazy," she noted, "and not a whole lot you could have done without a weapon yourself."

She kept harping on that, and it was pissing off Baron, but, from her point of view, he could also understand the sentiment. Honest to God, he felt that way himself to a certain extent. His priority had to be keeping them safe, so going after the armed bad guy in the dark wasn't the right move. He looked back over at Anthony. "How are you feeling?"

"Like crap, and even more so after seeing Josh." Anthony motioned at his partner. "He told me to stay put, but I was bound and determined that we could do a quick search and go home. I didn't listen, and now he's hurt too."

"Hopefully it's not as bad as it could be," Baron replied. "However, if the backup doesn't show up soon, I think I should just pick him up and take him down to the hospital."

"I thought you didn't want to move him."

"I don't, but it's not doing him any good to just lay out here. Plus he's already been moved. I'm not sure what is the lesser of the evils at this point," he muttered, "but I saw no broken bones. It'll take a CT scan to sort it out."

"We don't have anything like that here," Anthony pointed out, "so you'll have to go to a bigger hospital."

"And that's why we have ambulances."

"Except that no ambulance will come down here," Anthony pointed out, and it stung. "This is no-man's land right now, and nobody is supposed to even be here," he stated, shooting them a glance.

"Ah, well, if that dirty look was for my benefit," Brittany replied, rolling her eyes, "I've just been here trying to find some of my grandma's things."

"And yet," the cop added, his tone turning harsh, "it's not just you here, is it? It brought us down here too."

"No," she snapped, glaring at him. "It's these assholes who were obviously up to no good who got you called out here, not us."

He shrugged. "Well, if everybody would stay out of these zones when they're supposed to," he explained, chewing on his words, "we wouldn't have gotten hurt either."

"Maybe, but saying nobody's allowed to be here didn't make a damn bit of difference to that son of a bitch."

Anthony nodded. "That's very true. I'm just pissed off and fed up, and I've got one hellacious headache."

Just enough petulance filled his tone for her to smile and look over at Baron.

Baron nodded. "Considering we won't get the help that I was hoping for, I think we need to take Josh to the hospital and get both of you checked over. I would feel better if he would wake up."

Almost as if understanding what the difficulty was, a groan came from Josh.

Anthony perked up. "Thank God." With a bright smile, he bent over his buddy. "Wake up. Come on. Wake up, buddy."

It took a few minutes before Josh opened his eyes, and he stared around at them. "What happened?"

"Lots, none of it good," his partner replied. "I'm sorry. It's my fault."

Josh looked at him for a long moment and frowned. "Did we get sucker punched or something?"

"Pretty much," he admitted, "and they're gone, but we survived."

"Are you hurt too?"

"I got taken out," he admitted, "something I'm not terribly proud of."

"I don't give a shit about feeling proud about it," Josh replied, barely coherent. "We're alive, right?" He slowly sat up and swore. "Damn, my head."

"Yeah, they apparently clobbered both of us over the head. Plus you've got a bum wheel too, according to this guy." Then he provided a shortened version of events to bring him up to speed with what was going on.

By the time Josh understood the situation as well, he turned to look at them. "Let's get out of here. I don't feel like anything's broken, but I do need to get my head checked for sure." He looked over at Baron, "You've got wheels?"

"I do, and so do you guys, but you're not driving," he declared, "not with those head injuries."

"I'll take one vehicle, and you take the other," Brittany stated.

He looked over at her and then slowly nodded. "Not a bad idea."

"I'm not letting a civilian drive me to the hospital," Anthony snapped. "I might have a head injury, but I can get myself out of here."

It was obvious that he was still pissed and irritated, so she just shrugged. " Fine , but we're coming behind you to confirm you make it."

He stared at her for a moment, and his shoulders slumped. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Thanks for saving our hides."

With one man on either side of Josh, they made their way to where the vehicles were. The cops now settled in theirs, she walked back to Baron's truck. "I still don't think we should let them drive," she muttered.

"I agree, but what will you do when they are so stubborn? Yet I can't say I blame them or would be any different. And what would you do to stop them? Fight them for the car keys?"

"No." She groaned. "You can't talk sense into men… a lot of times." She waved her hands around, irritated as hell. "I sure can't talk any sense into them right now, not when they're feeling pretty angry over having been taken out like that."

He smiled at her. "It is a bit embarrassing to be found that way," he shared. "For a couple young cops like that, I'm sure this is not something they would want anybody else to see."

"Right," she muttered, "so who gives a crap?"

He just laughed. She got into the vehicle with him, and Kingston got into the back seat. They came up behind the two officers, driving slowly forward. When they got up to the main road, they followed them right through to the hospital.

"I would say that's a sign that they aren't feeling that well," she murmured, as she watched them pull up in front of the emergency entrance.

"Ya think?" Just then, two other cops pulled up behind them.

"Of course they're here now," she grumbled, with an eye roll.

"We don't know where they were before, so remember that."

"Of course." She sighed. "You want me to behave and to keep my mouth shut, but it sure seems like they're never where you need them."

"That's not true either," he pointed out.

"You could just let me grumble for a while."

He burst out laughing and nodded. "That I might do." They were forced to get out and talk to the other officers, who had just arrived.

The story was taken down once and then twice, with parts repeated again for everybody who asked questions, and finally they were told they could leave but needed to stay close—in case they had any more questions.

It took them about an hour answering all the damn questions. By the time she got back into the vehicle, she groaned and hung her head. "I just want to get some sleep now."

He smiled. "Just imagine if you had stayed where you were and hadn't decided to come along with me."

"Yeah, just imagine where we would be," she pointed out.

"Hey, I'm not saying you shouldn't have come," he added. "I am glad to have a level head out there. Yet it would have been nice if you didn't go through all this. It might save you some nightmares."

She smiled and nodded. "I'm not arguing that, for sure," she murmured.