the same time. I have to work.”
“So you keep everyone at arm’s length and save the world all by yourself. Alone.”
She huffed out a humorless laugh. “Why would this be any different than any other day of my life?”
He winced. “Guess I know where I stand then.” He took a step back. Away from her. “I have to get this bullet out.”
Aiden strode away.
Two more cars pulled in. A black SUV and another silver car. Millie’s. Before the cars even parked, Bridget raced for her own and climbed in.
Someone yelled, but she turned the key as fast as possible and peeled out. Probably spraying them with gravel in the process.
It didn’t matter.
She couldn’t be here. Not when her presence meant death.
Twenty-four
He didn’t even look back when she peeled out of the parking lot. A crowd had gathered, mostly cops and federal agents who’d shown up, along with patrons of the diner. Aiden even saw Millie with Eric at the edge of the crowd.
“Ambulance?”
Aiden sagged against the car but held up a hand. “I’m good.”
The sarge drew near with a pair of tweezers and an evidence bag. He tugged out the bullet from Aiden’s vest and dropped it in the bag. “I don’t need to tell you…”
“I know.” Aiden fully understood what would have happened if he hadn’t been wearing protective gear. Or if the bullet caliber had been higher. The shooter closer. “I’m good.”
All this would probably hit him later. When he got home and looked in on Sydney in her bed. Sleeping, innocent of all the things that happened outside the safety she lived in. He didn’t want her to know the truth. Especially considering the heightened risk right now.
He still thought Bridget’s suggestion was overly drastic, considering the pool of people who made up his support system here in Last Chance. Leaving that group, and the eyes and ears of people in town who knew who they were, would be foolhardy. But he could see why she would think running was the best choice.
He wouldn’t deny that her tendency to flee from danger frustrated him, as though safety came from anonymity. But he did understand it.
“Okay.” The sarge patted him on the shoulder. “You’re done for the night, though. Soon as we wrap up here, you should go home. Tomorrow when you wake up, and you feel like you were hit by a truck, don’t be surprised.”
Aiden nodded but said nothing. He should go explain all this to his boss. Conroy had arrived and was headed over. There was no reason he shouldn’t tell them both how Bridget had witnessed the former fire chief, the now-deceased final member of the founders, murder a woman years ago. The victim was likely buried under a stack of cold cases on someone’s desk.
It needed to be closed.
Conroy shook his hand. “How do you feel?”
Aiden made a face. Conroy chuckled. “Been there.”
“I was wearing a vest,” Aiden pointed out. “And I’m pretty sure it was not a sniper who tagged me. Not like what happened to you.”
Conroy shrugged and turned to the sergeant. “Are we searching for the shooter?”
Basuto nodded. “Will headed out, and Frees caught up with him as soon as he showed up. They are out to a one-mile radius now, but haven’t seen anyone that matches this Clarke guy’s description.”
Aiden winced. “We should also be looking for a tall, dark-featured woman wearing a sling on her arm. Ask Zander. He knows her.” Sasha might have ditched the sling, but he couldn’t imagine she would choose to go without it, considering how injured they had told him she was. “Her name is Sasha, and she works with Millie and Bridget.”
Conroy’s eyebrows rose. “This Clarke guy has an accomplice?”
Aiden shrugged. “We don’t know yet whose side she’s on. I’m guessing Millie could fill you in about that.”
Sergeant Basuto rocked back on his heels. “Speaking of filling us in, are you going to let us know why you let a person of interest who might be a material witness drive off in her car?”
“She isn’t going to leave town. That’s what she wants me to do.”
Basuto snorted.
Aiden shot him a look and saw Conroy do the same.
The chief frowned. “Doesn’t she know you’d never leave town willingly? I mean, you might go on vacation or whatever. But you’re way too much like me to uproot yourself and go live somewhere else.”
It was probably the pain in his chest, but Aiden almost passed out right there. The chief thought they were alike?
Sergeant Basuto