Page 294 of Rangers Last Promise

Vance must have dragged him through the rear door.

The deputy’s weapon is gone.

Blood runs from a cut above his eye.

“Drop your guns,” Vance says.

Mara aims at him.

“Let Deputy Cole go.”

“Drop it.”

“You’re not leaving this hangar.”

“I don’t need to leave. I only need to reach the fuel truck.”

I look toward the vehicle behind him.

His left hand holds a road flare.

If he lights it and drops it near the leaking fuel line beneath the truck, the entire hangar could go up.

“You’ll die too,” I say.

“Harlan already decided I’m dead.”

“Then help us take him down.”

Vance’s mouth twists.

“You think testimony will save me?”

“No.”

Mara’s voice is cold.

“But it might keep Harlan from murdering anyone else.”

“People like Harlan don’t go to prison.”

“They do when twenty-three bodies are pulled out of the ground.”

Vance glances toward the open hangar door.

Outside, Harlan’s men are losing ground.

Two are down.

Another has surrendered.

The jet remains trapped on the runway.

Harlan is no longer in the doorway.

Vance looks back at us.

“He left the plane.”