One Night Standoff - By Delores Fossen Page 0,16
you to make a call,” Clayton said, handing his phone to Lenora. “Call my brother Dallas. It’s the first number in my contacts. And ask him to run the plates of that SUV.” He gave her the license-plate number and hoped knowing who owned the vehicle would also help them identify who’d just taken shots at them.
Lenora made the call and was still in the process of trying to explain to Dallas what was going on when Clayton spotted the road just ahead. He slowed, bringing his truck almost to a stop, and he saw the other vehicle flying up the road toward them.
Not a police cruiser.
But the SUV that their attackers had driven.
Since those men would definitely see his truck and maybe attempt to block their escape, Clayton had to do something fast. He damn sure didn’t want to have to drive in Reverse on the trail. Not with a pair of assassins bearing down on them. Besides, even if he could manage to outrun them, eventually the trail would end and Lenora and he would be trapped.
Clayton slammed on the accelerator and bolted out onto the road. The SUV hit its brakes. Not for long, though. It only took a few moments before the driver readjusted and came right after them.
“Get down,” Clayton told Lenora, but he didn’t wait for her to do that. He pushed her down onto the seat. “Tell Dallas we’re traveling east on the farm road outside of Sadler’s Falls. We have two men in pursuit, and I need the locals out here now. These men are armed and dangerous.”
He hadn’t thought it possible, but her voice was even shakier now. She managed to tell Dallas what he needed to know and then pressed the end button.
“Dallas says he’s on it,” she relayed to Clayton.
Clayton didn’t doubt it. Dallas would immediately call the locals and send them in this direction. He only hoped it’d be soon and that their attackers wouldn’t start shooting again. It was hard to be accurate shooting from a moving vehicle, but he didn’t want one of these SOBs getting off a lucky shot.
“Hang on,” Clayton warned her, a split second before he went into a sharp curve.
He had to fight to keep control of the truck, and the right tires dug into the dirt and gravel shoulder. Another round of rocks battered against his truck, and it sounded like gunfire.
“Oh, God,” Lenora said, and she started to lift her head.
“Stay down,” he warned her. “They’re not shooting.”
That obviously didn’t steady her nerves, and while still repeating oh, God, she put her hands over her belly. Protecting the baby. From what Lenora had told him she was a trained agent, but there wasn’t enough training in the world to stay unrattled while your unborn baby was in danger. Even though he’d only learned about his fatherhood just minutes earlier, he was feeling the same thing.
Clayton went into another sharp turn just as the SUV accelerated, and it slammed into the back of his truck. The jolt caused a whiplash effect, with his body jolting forward, then back, and Clayton tossed his gun on the seat so he could use both hands on the steering wheel.
“I’ll keep watch,” Lenora insisted.
And even though he didn’t want her to do it, she levered herself up a little and fastened her attention on the side window. She also lifted her gun, getting it ready. There was no way Clayton would let her lean out the window and return fire, and that meant he had to do something now to defuse this mess of a situation.
He saw the sign for Sadler’s Falls ahead, and without slowing as much as he should have, he took the turn on what had to be two tires at most. The truck wobbled, but he immediately corrected and got control.
Behind them, the SUV squealed to a stop.
Clayton didn’t take the time to figure out why the driver had done that. He put the pedal to the metal and got Lenora out of there.
Chapter Six
Lenora kept her attention plastered to the side mirror. It’d been nearly an hour and a half since she’d last seen the two gunmen in the SUV, but she wasn’t taking any more chances. She’d already made enough stupid mistakes, and she couldn’t afford to make more.
Even though that might be exactly what she was doing now.
That’s because Clayton had insisted on driving them to his family’s ranch, which she estimated was now only a few miles