Page 75 of Rangers Last Promise

“That's what Hampton wants us to figure out.”

“Or what he wants us to believe,” I say.

Doc's gaze meets mine.

“Exactly.”

Hampton has already lied.

Someone else fired at me.

Miller transmitted the order that sent Grant's team into the valley, but Hampton refused to say who actually gave it.

Now he has left us another clue.

Eight.

Seventeen.

Twenty-three.

I don't know whether Hampton is helping us or leading us exactly where he wants us to go.

And I have a feeling finding out could get another one of us killed.

8

DOC

“Take off your shirt.”

Mara says it like an order.

I look at her across the table.

Wolf makes a choking sound behind the bar.

Trigger, who has an ice pack pressed to the side of his head, suddenly looks far too interested in the conversation.

Sheriff Tate closes his eyes.

I suspect he’s reconsidering every decision that led him to this moment.

Mara points at the blood soaking through my shirt.

“You were shot.”

“Grazed.”

“You keep saying that as though it makes the blood disappear.”

“It doesn’t require stitches.”

“You haven’t looked at it.”

“I know what a graze feels like.”

“So do I. Take off your shirt.”