Page 24 of Maverick Detective Dad
“You think that’s the killer in the truck?” Theo asked.
Noah had punched down his airbag as well and peered through the damaged glass of the windshield. He shook his head. “Can’t tell. I’ll keep watch. You run the license plate.” Noah lifted his gun, taking aim at the truck, but he also started firing glances all around them.
Those glances gave Everly a much needed jolt, a reminder that the killer could be about to try to finish them off.
The truck’s front license plate wasn’t hard to see since it was practically right in their faces, and from the back seat, she heard Theo clicking away on his phone. There was no need for them to call in the crash since Grayson and the Bulverde cops were already on the way.
“The truck’s registered to a George Millard,” Theo relayed several moments later. “He lives just up the road.”
So, maybe the crash hadn’t been intentional. Then again, the killer could have stolen the truck. But Everly immediately rethought that. If the killer had been the one behind the wheel, he likely wouldn’t have wanted to risk colliding with a cruiser.
“Hell,” Noah muttered again.
Everly didn’t have to ask why he’d said that or why there was a mountain of fresh concern on his face. It was because she saw, and smelled, something.
Gasoline.
It was coming from the truck. Either the crash had caused the gas tank to rupture or else someone had tampered with the vehicle to make sure it would do that.
Since the truck was blocking her view, Everly could no longer see what was left of the box, but she could smell something else. Smoke. She remembered the white billows coming from the box when the truck had collided into it. Sweet heaven. Had the killer put something in there that would start a fire?
Obviously, that horrible thought occurred to Noah, too.
“We have to get out,” Noah insisted.“Now.”
NOAHDIDN’TESPECIALLYwant Everly, Theo and him to be out in the open where they could be gunned down, but if they stayed put, the truck could explode and take the cruiser right along with it.
He could see the flames now shooting from the remains of the box. The killer had probably added some kind of incendiary device inside. One that could quickly turn deadly if the fire reached the gasoline.
What Noah couldn’t see were any signs that there’d been a body inside with that device. If there was a silver lining in all of this, it was that. Of course, the killer might be planning on having bodies today by murdering Everly and him.
But Noah had no intention of letting that happen.
Theo opened the back door of the cruiser, and with his gun drawn, he glanced around. He motioned for them to do the same. Not exactly an all clear because there was no way Theo had that kind of visibility what with the smoke, but this was a risk they still had to take.
When Everly got out, Noah climbed across the seat to get out right behind her. Other than the airbag scrapes on her face, he couldn’t see any visible injuries, thank God, so he got her moving as fast as he could manage.
Hooking his arm around her waist, he jumped the ditch with her in tow, and they landed on a soft patch of grass on the other side. Because of the uneven ground and probably because she was still unsteady from the wreck, Everly stumbled, nearly falling before Noah caught her.
Noah fired his gaze all around them, at the pasture and the woods while he tried to look for any signs of danger. Impossible to do because of that damn smoke, but he could still smell the gasoline and the fire and knew at the moment that was a greater threat than a killer would be.
“The driver of the truck’s getting out,” Theo reported to them.
Noah had already geared up to start running with Everly, but that caused him to stop and curse. Even though he heard the sharp sound of fear that Everly made, he couldn’t take the time to reassure her that they would get out of this. No. He just had to focus on making sure they didn’t die.
Positioning Everly behind him, Noah hunkered down so he wouldn’t be an easy target, and he took aim when he saw the driver opening his door. His body braced for the threat.
To shoot if necessary.
And he waited, the precious seconds ticking away. Even at this distance, Everly and he would likely be killed from a blast. Theo and the driver of the truck would be for sure, but if the driver hadn’t been the one who’d set all of this into motion, they couldn’t leave him to die.
“Wait here,” Noah warned Everly. “And get all the way down on the ground. Cover your head with your hands.”
It was the best he could have her do while he tried to assist Theo. Noah couldn’t tell Everly to run and hide because that might be exactly what the killer was waiting for them to do. If they got separated, that would make it easier for someone to pick them off one by one.
The door of the wrecked truck creaked open, and more of those seconds crawled by before a man with gray hair and a scratched-up face practically fell out of the cab and onto what was left of the front bumper of the cruiser. Noah had only gotten a glimpse of the truck owner’s DMV photo, but he was certain this was the local rancher, George Millard. The man had likely just been caught up in the chaos.
Theo must have thought the same thing because moving fast, he helped the still stumbling, dazed man to the tiny space between the vehicles and the ditch. Then, because Theo was all cop and clearly wasn’t going to risk them being gunned down, he frisked him.
