Page 37 of Maverick Detective Dad
In other words, if someone was lying in wait across the street or behind the house, he wouldn’t be spotted. And that’s why Noah drew his gun. He had to be ready in case the worst happened.
“Move fast,” he instructed Everly. He didn’t want to waste any time getting her into the SUV so they’d be behind the bullet resistant sides and windows.
Hudson went first, and with Everly between them, they started out of the house. Noah closed the door, figuring that Everly could lock up with her phone once they were inside the vehicle. However, they hadn’t even reached the last step on the porch when he heard an odd swishing sound.
His first thought, a really bad one, was that someone had just fired a bullet through a silencer. Obviously, it was what Hudson thought as well because he yelled “Get down.”
Hudson ran toward his SUV, throwing open the door and using it for cover while he fired glances all around them. Noah did the same, and his heart dropped to his knees when he saw the small dart syringe sticking out of Everly’s neck.
“I’ve been hit,” she murmured, her eyes already going glassy, and she practically tumbled into his arms.
Noah silently cursed every word of profanity he knew, and he frantically yanked out the dart so he could feel for a pulse. It was there, thick and throbbing, but Everly’s eyelids were fluttering down. She was losing consciousness.
“Call an ambulance,” Noah shouted to Hudson, and as the last word left his mouth, Noah caught the movement from the corner of his eye.
A blur of motion from someone running away.
He hadn’t even gotten a glimpse of the person’s face, but Noah thought it was a man. Maybe the killer.
Noah had a fast debate with himself as to what to do, and he hoped he made the right decision. “Get Everly inside the SUV,” he told Hudson, giving him the dart so it could be tested, “and call for an ambulance and backup.”
Knowing that Hudson would do as he’d said and that he’d protect Everly with his own life, Noah took off running in the direction of where he’d seen that blur of motion. Yeah, it was a risk. Anything he did at this point could be, but he figured he could outrun any of their suspects, and he didn’t want the SOB to get away so he’d have the chance to come at them again.
The raindrops began to spatter on his face as Noah tore his way across the side yard and into a thick row of hedges and shrubs that divided Everly’s property from her neighbors. Hedges and shrubs that led to a greenbelt and some trees. Way too many places for someone to hide, and this area would have been out of range of Hudson’s scanner.
Noah kept checking over his shoulder to make sure no one was coming to attack Hudson and Everly. And he tried not to think of Everly. Tried not to see that blood on her neck from where the dart had slammed into her. But he thought of her and saw it anyway. Maybe, just maybe, the killer had used only a sedative, something designed to knock her out but not do any real damage.
He couldn’t lose Everly.
He just couldn’t.
Noah glanced over his shoulder, and he saw that Hudson had thankfully gotten Everly in the SUV. That caused Noah to breathe a little easier, and he turned his full attention back to the hunt for a killer. He still didn’t see anyone, but even over the thudding of his own heartbeat in his ears, he was almost positive he could hear running footsteps.
Using his forearm to shove aside some low-hanging branches, Noah broke out into a small clearing just in time to see someone duck behind one of the huge oak trees that dotted the landscape. Thankfully, the person wasn’t going in the direction of the house, but it was possible he was heading to a road on the other side of the thick greenbelt. If he’d left a vehicle there, and he almost certainly had, then he could get away. Or rather try to do that. But Noah had every intention of making sure that didn’t happen.
“I know you’re there,” Noah called out, hoping to get the idiot to leave cover and show himself.
It didn’t work, but he heard footsteps again. The killer had gone back on the run so that’s what Noah did, too. Not easy to run though, with the rain now stinging his eyes and while trying to fight off the worry about Everly, but the stakes were sky-high, and he needed to stop this guy.
Noah caught another glimpse of a black shirt sleeve, but he had no idea which of their suspects this could be. Maybe Bobby, but heck, it could be River, too, if he’d lied and hadn’t actually been heading to the sheriff’s office. River could have been calling him from right here in Silver Creek. In fact, he could have faked the explosion so it would give him a motive for coming here.
But Noah didn’t rule out Jared either.
This guy was flat-out running, something that Jared had led them to believe he couldn’t do, but it was possible Jared had lied as well about just how mobile he was. In fact, it was possible there was nothing physically wrong with the man. He could have used that wheelchair to make them believe he was innocent.
The rain was coming down even harder now, and a crack of lightning jabbed through the sky. The quick round of thunder that followed told Noah that the lightning had been close. Too close. Not good because he was running through trees that could be struck at any moment. Added to that, the killer could have set explosives along the way to make sure anyone in pursuit wouldn’t be able to catch him.
That didn’t cause Noah to turn back though. He just kept running and shoved through the thick underbrush into another small clearing.
And that’s when he saw it.
Not the killer but the phone lying on the wet ground. Since it could be a lure to draw him out so he could be gunned down, Noah shifted directions. He skirted around the phone and went toward the road.
The sound he heard had him cursing.
A vehicle. Not the soft idling of an engine either, but the roar of someone gunning it. There was the squeal of tires on the wet gravel surface which meant the killer was trying to get out of there fast.
Noah ran even harder, and he rammed his way through more underbrush to leap out onto the road. He immediately took aim in the direction of the sounds of that engine.
