AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He saw the blood first. It hit the grass in large drops. If he were any closer, it would have splattered on him. The smell of gunpowder filled the air and the shouts broke into the new stillness, breaking it into a choppy mix of too loud and too quiet.
He saw the feet. Men’s shoes, slacks. The gun shots had stopped. He lifted his head enough to glance around, but heard no more shots. He looked up to see the man’s face.
Then the recognition set in. Hunter knew this man. And the fact that he was here now and had witnessed this had to be a good thing. He crawled as fast as he could toward where Nicholas was now on his knees.
Blood poured from his shoulder. He’d been hit and was already pale. He can’t die, Hunter thought, but then he heard another noise.
Car tires squealed. Hunter looked up just in time to see the car flying at them. He yanked Nicholas’s shirt, pulling him off the road in just enough time to miss having his legs run over. The car took off with another squeal as it turned and sped off down the road.
“Now do you believe us?” Hunter shouted. “That guy was hired by Jeremy, Vanessa’s ex-husband. Probably to kill me. He’s after her, and he’ll kill her, then take that little girl and keep hurting her like he did to her mother for years. Is that what you want?” Hunter had a handful of Nicholas’s shirt, and it took all he had not to shake him. “If you don’t start listening to us, you’ll be the reason Jeremy succeeds in killing Vanessa. Do you want her death on your hands?”
Nicholas stared back, white-faced, mouth slack, blinking at him. He was in too much shock to answer or even register what Hunter was saying.
“Come on,” Hunter said. “We need to get you inside. They might come back when they realize they didn’t actually kill anyone.”
Hunter got to his feet, still looking around cautiously. The speeding car might have been a diversion. But no shots flew at him. He hauled Nicholas to his feet and slung his uninjured arm over him so he could pull him along.
Nicholas’s feet dragged, and he thought he might pass out at any moment. At least the guy was light. Hunter could carry his almost-dead weight with no trouble. Which was good, because there were a lot of stairs.
