Hunted, page 20
The way he moved around the table, his focus intent on Ruby and nothing else, chilled Beth to the bone. It was the focus a hunter, a true predator, had for its prey, and she knew with absolute certainty that Ruby was as good as dead.
He raised the rifle to his shoulder, and that was Beth’s cue. She wasn’t about to stand around waiting for her turn. As quietly as she could, she grabbed the box of ammunition from the table and ran in the opposite direction. Moving as fast as she could, she headed back down the road a short distance before veering off into the tall grass beside it. If she could make it to the shelter of the trees, the road that led to Cullen’s house was on the other side, and she’d have a better chance at surviving.
Her heart was pounding so loudly, it was roaring in her ears. Distantly, she heard the echo of a shot, and she thought she heard Ormsby cursing, but she didn’t turn to look back. She was halfway to the trees, and she knew looking back could get her killed.
“Just a little farther, God, please,” she begged.
After a few more yards, she couldn’t resist glancing back to see where he was. As she did, a stinging burn ripped across her right shoulder. He’d found more bullets, and he was standing beside the van, working the bolt. She knew what was coming, but she couldn’t stop now. She stumbled but kept running, every stride like moving through water.
Time had simply slowed down. Decades passed before the second bullet hit, tearing through her body. This time she fell. Her hands skidded against the hard dirt under the grass as she came to a jarring, tumbling halt on the ground.
“Get up, get up, get up!” she panted, gritting her teeth against the pain that bloomed near her left hip, echoing through the rest of her body with searing sharpness.
Struggling to roll over, to get back up and run, she looked down at her left side where, low on her pelvis, blood was rapidly spreading through her shirt. As she watched, stunned, the white fabric turned red, and her pain intensified tenfold.
The exit wound seemed small, and the inane thought that Ormsby must be using ammunition designed not to fracture on impact drifted through her head. Otherwise, the wound would have been much larger.
She tried to get her legs to respond, but they wouldn’t support her. She was left to face the horrible knowledge that unless God provided a miracle, she was going to die.
The last few days raced through her head, a jumble of images of her family, her friends, Ethan. She wondered if they would ever find out what had happened to her, and she thought of Chase, of what he’d gone through with the death of his girlfriend. She knew that her death would destroy him, and a wrenching wave of grief nearly doubled her over. Anger quickly followed, and she looked around for any weapon she might use—a rock, a tree branch—but there was nothing.
She heard someone coming toward her, then Ormsby appeared through the grass, his face full of rage. Time was up, she thought, as her vision faded to pinpoints of light surrounded by flashes, and everything disappeared.
Chapter 38
“Well, this isn’t the end scenario I’d envisioned for us.”
Beth opened her eyes, startled to realize she’d drifted off. She was on her back looking up at Ormsby, who stood over her, rifle cradled in his arms.
“You look like you’re in some pain. Tragic, that.” He slung the strap of the gun over his shoulder and knelt.
Brushing her hands aside, he palpated her abdomen roughly. His face a study in clinical detachment, he then turned her over to look at the entrance wound. When he let her fall back, the impact made her pain intensify to nearly unbearable levels, and she screamed weakly.
“You’ll live—or you would if I got you to a hospital. Unfortunately, that isn’t in the cards for today.” He stood and looked around, turning his face toward the sun.
Teeth chattering, Beth spoke. “Y-you kn-know you won’t get away with th-this. My family will never st-stop until you’re found.”
He shook his head. “Oh, I don’t think so.” His tone was confident. “No, by the time I’m finished here, I’ll be the last person they look at. I would never leave something so monumentally important as my alibi to chance. I have a plan. If you’d only gone along with me, had realized how serious my intentions were toward you, we could have avoided all this… unpleasantness. I would have offered you the keys to the kingdom. I thought you knew the rules, but then you went and dirtied yourself with that half-breed deputy. You sealed your fate then, you know.”
He drew the rifle back over his shoulder and settled it in his arms as though it were a child. His face twisted, revealing the ugliness beneath, and all his handsomeness disappeared. “Even if I had decided to let you go at that point, Ruby would’ve pursued the matter. So we decided to have a little fun with you.”
“The stalking—that was you and Ruby?”
Ormsby shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. The theory now is that you’re the one responsible for all those actions. Maybe that’s the truth and you just don’t know it. Maybe I’ll let you die thinking you’re crazy.”
“Why’d you kill her?” Beth had to struggle to stay awake through the weakness and the pain, but she managed.
He raised the rifle and double-checked its load. “She was a loose end. There’s no way she’d keep her mouth shut. She broke protocol—went to the cops with your underwear, you know. She wasn’t capable of keeping her mouth shut and not telling people what she’d done. I can’t have that.”
“They know it’s you,” she told him. “We m-met yesterday, and everyone knows it’s y-you.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re lying.”
Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, and she shook her head. “No. I put it together, wrote the story.” Her voice was fading. “They know.”
“Damn you. Do you know what I’ll have to do to get away now, to start over?” He cursed virulently and kicked her legs, the jolt agonizingly painful. For a few moments, she thought he was going to use the butt of the rifle to beat her to death, but he seemed to regain control. “It doesn’t matter. By the time they come looking, I’ll be long gone.”
“Why did you do this?”
“For the prestige, why else?” He scoffed. “I didn’t kill a single person who didn’t deserve it. The only thing I do regret was causing the death of that little boy. He was truly an innocent victim in all of this.” Seeing Beth’s surprise, he chuckled.
“You mean Taylor Bolen? It was an accident.” She was having a hard time following his words, and she wasn’t sure she wasn’t imagining half of their conversation.
“It wasn’t really. I was setting up another altar, disguised in my robes, and I didn’t see the vehicles. I got too close to the road, and I think I startled one of the drivers, though I’m not certain which one. It was all over before I could have done anything to stop it.” He shrugged and sighed. “I suppose this is the end. I hate to do this, I really do, but you’ve left me no other choice. We could have been good together, Beth.”
As he raised the rifle to his shoulder and settled the gun in, she shook her head, unable to move her gaze from the open end of the barrel.
“Chad, you don’t have to do this. There has to be some other way.”
He snorted. “Somehow I expected you to be different. I’m disappointed. In the end, you’re begging for your life just like all the others. That actually makes what I’m about to do a little easier.” Sighting down the barrel, he aimed at her chest. “One shot to the heart should do it, I think. There’s too much chance little bits of you will be left behind with a shot to the head, you know, and besides, I don’t want to mess up your beautiful face. With much luck, you won’t feel a thing.”
As she watched his finger curl around the trigger, she drew in what she knew would be her last breath, and tears flooded her eyes.
“Ethan, I love you,” she whispered, needing to send the words into the universe, regret pouring through her that she’d never have the chance to tell him in person. “I’m so sorry.”
The world went silent like a flash. She waited for the impact of the bullet to tear into her heart, but it never came. Instead, she watched as Ormsby’s hands relaxed and the rifle fell from them. His body twisted, and he collapsed on the grass at her feet, not moving.
She didn’t understand what had happened, and she couldn’t seem to think through the haze that was growing thicker in her mind. The pain in her abdomen was getting worse, and closing her eyes, she realized how tired she felt. She would rest, just for a minute, then maybe she would be able to get up, to run. Just for a minute, she thought… and then there was nothing.
Chapter 39
Wyatt was wrapping up a call with the state police, bringing them up to speed on what was going on, when Gretchen appeared in the doorway, her face pale.
“Hold on. What?” he asked.
“Dispatch needs you downstairs now.”
“Let me call you back.”
He threw the receiver into its cradle and sprinted through the office door after Ethan, who’d left as soon as Gretchen had spoken. He caught up with him quickly, and they thundered downstairs.
“What’s happened?” Wyatt asked as they rushed into the dispatch center.
Carrie slid a phone across the desk, speaking into her headset. “I have Cullen Jarvis for you, sir. Mr. Jarvis, hold on just one moment.” She transferred the call to the handset.
Wyatt picked it up, aware of Ethan pacing behind him. “Cullen? What’s going on?”
“I’m out here on my land, and so is little Beth Hudson. She’s been shot. She’s alive, but it’s a mess, Wyatt.”
“What? Goddamn it. How bad?”
“She’s losing blood, in and out of consciousness. It’s a low gut wound. I winged the bastard who did it. He’s out of commission for now.”
Wyatt closed his eyes. “What’s the ambulance’s ETA, Carrie?”
“Fifteen minutes, maybe ten.”
He returned to the line. “Listen, Cullen, the ambulance is on its way, and it should be there in about fifteen minutes.”
“I’d feel better if it was closer to ten,” Cullen said, his voice tight.
“Okay. Hold on. Do we have anyone out there we can get to him sooner?” he asked Carrie.
“Jason’s close. He just crossed back over from Jefferson County.”
Of course it would be him. “How close?”
“Five minutes, maybe less. Want me to send him?”
“Yes, and get him on the phone. I want to talk to him. Do we have Cullen’s cell number?” She nodded, and he returned to the call as she picked up another phone and dialed. “Cullen, I’m going to turn you back over to dispatch. I need to let Jason know what he’s coming in on, okay?” He handed the receiver back to her, then turned to Ethan, whose face was colorless with fear as he paced, hands in his hair. “There’s no easy way to say this. Beth’s been shot.”
Ethan staggered backward, taking the words like a physical blow.
Cursing, Wyatt caught him and eased him into a chair, shaking him. “Cullen’s with her. He says she’s stable, but she’s been hit twice, once in the shoulder and once in the abdomen.”
“But she’s alive?” Ethan rasped.
Wyatt nodded. “For now.”
Carrie spoke up quietly. “Sheriff, I have Jason.”
“Stay here while I talk to him, do you hear me?”
His eyes black against the paleness of his skin, Ethan nodded, then dropped his head into his hands.
Taking the phone, Wyatt kept a close eye on Ethan as he drew a deep breath and nodded for Carrie to connect the call. “Jason? Listen, you need to head over to Cullen Jarvis’s. We’re sending you the exact location now. Beth’s there, but she’s injured.”
After a split-second hesitation, Jason responded. “What do you mean ‘injured’? Is she okay?”
Wyatt cleared his throat. “She’s stable, but she’s been shot. Cullen apparently disabled the man who shot her, but she’s in trouble. The ambulance is on its way, should be there about ten minutes after you get to her. You’ll be the first one on the scene, and you’ll need your first aid kit, okay?”
When Jason responded, he was obviously in shock. “I… oh, God. Okay. Wyatt, my parents—”
“They’re here. I’m going to them directly.” He glanced at Ethan to see how he was faring. His head bowed, he had his hands clasped around his neck as though to hold himself in one piece. “I’m sending Stacy in your direction, and the state police are on their way as well. Can you handle this?”
Jason let out a shaky breath. “I—I guess so. What about Ethan?”
“He’s here with me. I’m going to go now. Good luck, son.” He hung up, then moved to Ethan’s side and touched his shoulder. “Come on. We need to go tell her family. Carrie, we’ll be in the main conference room if there’s any news.”
Ethan stood, dazed, and let Wyatt guide him down the hall. As they neared the door to the department, he shook himself. “I need to go out there, to Cullen’s. Beth needs me.”
“No, sir, you’re not going out there. You’ll wait here in town with her family, and we’ll all go to the hospital when they bring her in. I don’t need you on the road in the state you’re in. We’ve got enough of a problem on our hands.”
Ethan bucked up, and for a moment, Wyatt was certain he was going to have a literal fight on his hands, but then he sagged against the wall and nodded. “You’re right.”
Wyatt studied him. “Come on. Take a breath, clear your head, and let’s do this.”
As they headed for the conference room where the family was, Wyatt prayed for all that he was worth that Beth would survive. If she didn’t, he knew without a doubt that Ethan wouldn’t either, never mind what losing her would do to Jason and the rest of her family, and the tragedy would be compounded tenfold.
Chapter 40
Following the directions Cullen Jarvis had given dispatch, Jason found the overgrown gravel road with little difficulty. As he reached the crest of the hill, he stopped to avoid hitting the white van parked on the road.
“Dispatch, this is unit sixteen. I’m on scene,” he said as he got out.
He grabbed the first aid kid from his trunk as he searched for any sign of Beth or Cullen. A path had been beaten into the dry grass, and he started down the slope of the hill, shouting their names as he followed the broken trail. Halfway down the hill, he heard Cullen.
“Here, Jason!”
A flash of light came from near the trees, and he hurried in that direction. He was about thirty feet away when he saw them. Beth and Cullen were nearly under the trees, and she was on her back, her legs bent at the knee. Chad Ormsby was lying on the ground about twenty feet away from her, his left shoulder and side stained with blood. When Ormsby saw Jason, he tried to get up and crawl away.
Before Jason could move to stop him, a shot rang out, and the doctor jerked his hands to his head, screaming. Ears ringing, Jason jerked around to see Cullen holster a pistol.
“I told you to keep your sorry ass where it was, you bastard. Jason, get over here with that kit.” An ATV sat behind Cullen, and a black sniper rifle was on the ground in front of the vehicle.
Jason complied, dismissing the doctor as he hurried to Beth’s side. Her eyes were closed, and the front of her shirt was absolutely soaked with blood. He knelt on the grass opposite Cullen. “Beth, can you hear me? Beth? It’s Jason. Talk to me, sis, come on.”
“She’s unconscious.” Cullen’s voice was calm as he pressed his hands firmly over her abdomen. “She’s been in and out since I got here. Get that kit open. Do you have anything I can use to put pressure on this wound?”
Jason pulled out several large compresses. “These. Will they work?”
“Open them.” As soon as they were out of the package, Cullen grabbed them with one hand and pressed down over the wound in Beth’s abdomen. “Do you have a blanket in that kit?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Cover her as best you can. We’ve got to try to keep her from going into shock.”
Feeling lightheaded, Jason shook out the thin, foil-like blanket and tucked it around her shoulders and chest. He wrapped her abdomen as best he could with Cullen’s hands still holding the compresses. She moaned, and Jason’s attention jerked to her face.
“Beth? Come on,” he pleaded, blinking away tears.
He placed a hand on her forehead, and she turned her head toward him but didn’t open her eyes. When his radio crackled on his shoulder, he jumped.
As he moved to answer the call, he realized his hands were trembling. “Yeah, unit sixteen here.”
“The ambulance is having a little trouble finding the road they need to turn onto,” Carrie told him.
Cullen jerked his chin toward Beth’s wound. “You take these, and I’ll go lead ‘em in.”
After relaying the message, Jason placed his hands over the wound. Cullen showed him just how much pressure to apply and where before he stood. He stopped to tell Ormsby something in a low voice, then, moving faster than Jason thought the older man could, he hurried to his ATV and roared off toward the road.
Taking a deep breath, Jason swallowed as he kept his eyes on his hands, praying like he never had done before. The few minutes it took Cullen to lead the ambulance in seemed to stretch on forever. When the EMTs reached Beth, one of them gently eased Jason out of the way.
Standing back to let them work, he glanced at his hands and saw that they were covered in his sister’s blood. He swallowed convulsively and hoped he wasn’t going to be sick, but he took a few steps away from her just in case. After a moment, his stomach settled, and he moved back to take a bottle of sterile water from the first aid kit.
“How is she?” he asked the EMTs as he rinsed off his hands.
Dan, the senior tech, gave him a quick nod. “She’s holding her own.”
