Page 65 of Shadow Burn

The courier’s gaze shifted past Jasper and locked on Katherine. Hatred flashed there now, bright and ugly beneath the professional calm.

Katherine had survived him, exposed him, and kept the papers out of his hands. Once might have been luck. Twice made her a problem he wanted to erase.

“Step away,” Jasper ordered. He wanted to move Katherine back inside immediately, but he couldn’t fully cover her and do so. No way would he turn his back on the man in front of them or lower his gun.

The courier moved, but not backward. His hand came up beneath the folder. Jasper saw the gun.

The courier fired at the gate camera. The camera above the intercom exploded in a burst of sparks and shattered plastic.

Jasper was already moving, pivoting toward Katherine as the shooter swung the weapon toward her. “Katherine, down!”

The second shot cracked across the yard.

Jasper hit her before the sound finished, driving her sideways into the gravel behind a boulder and keeping his body between her and the gate. Heat tore across his upper arm, sharp and immediate, followed by the wet warmth of blood.

Katherine’s breath punched out beneath him. Her eyes were wide as she peered up into his face.

“Stay down,” he told her.

Mack appeared from the east side of the compound, armed and moving fast and low.

Another shot rang out, snapping into the gravel several feet away and causing Mack to jump behind the small gate house. Jasper came up on one knee, using the boulder as partial cover and returned fire through the bars.

The shooter was already retreating into the SUV, a hitch in his step that explained the scuff Katherine had heard on the tile in her rental. The driver threw the SUV into gear, and the shooter grabbed the frame, half-turning to fire again.

Jasper squeezed the trigger, his bullet nailing the man in the upper leg as the SUV lurched backward. He buckled hard, his knee nearly giving out beneath him. He swung into the passenger seat as the driver accelerated.

Jasper fired at the SUV’s tires, hitting at least one. That didn’t stop it. The tires must have been self-sealing. Mack took a shot at the engine block. The driver corrected and swung the rear end around as the shooter fired out the passenger window.

Jasper covered Katherine again, as the bullet took a chunk out of the boulder.

Garrett emerged, weapon drawn as he ran toward them. The SUV went tearing down the road. Jasper ran to the gate and tracked it until the taillights vanished around the first curve.

He lowered his weapon and heard Katherine race up behind him.

“Jasper, you’re bleeding!”

Pain arrived a second later, hot and insistent, blooming along his upper arm. Blood slid down his sleeve and dripped from his wrist onto the gravel.

Her hair had come loose, and panic had blown her eyes even wider.

He wanted to shake her and yell at her for endangering herself. The two urges collided so hard he had to breathe through them.

Garrett reached them first, weapon still in hand, gaze sweeping the road, the gate, the broken camera, Jasper’s arm, and then Katherine. “Everybody okay?”

“Yes,” Jasper said.

Katherine pointed at his sleeve. “No, you’re not. You’ve been shot. We need to get you to the hospital.”

Jasper eyed the torn sleeve and blood. “It’s just a graze.”

Garrett studied the wound. “Vivi can stitch you up.”

Mack scanned the road beyond the bars. “SUV’s heading west.” I’ve got CB on comms. He’s already moving.”

“Raise CB. Tell him to see if he and his Outlaws can track it but do not engage,” Garrett said.

Mack nodded and spoke into his radio.