the engine, he checked the rearview mirror and saw the car hadn’t moved.
“Buckle up.”
“Stop doing that,” she said again.
“Doing what?” How did asking her to buckle up resemble treating her like a lady?
“Being so...attentive.”
Or...attentive. He’d go with that. “I’m being attentive by making sure you wear a seat belt. Okay. Would you rather I let you go through the windshield if we wreck?” He drove into a U-turn and approached the other car.
“I was going to put my seat belt on, just not in your time frame.” She connected the belt with a firm snap.
“You get grouchy when you’re tired and hungry, you know that?”
“So do you. I’m not grouchy. Are we fighting? It started out okay, but it seems like it graduated into a fight.” Her face crimped into a befuddled frown.
“I get grouchy?” Trevor realized he was hungry as he stopped beside the parked car and Jocelyn rolled her window down, gesturing with her other hand for the man to do the same.
The stranger gaped at them, a deer-in-headlights stare, and then jerked into action. He yanked the gear into drive and tires squealed as he sped off.
“Not a curious onlooker.” Jocelyn closed her window as Trevor whipped the SUV into another U-turn.
The big engine easily caught up to the car, a green Prius. He flipped on the flashing lights along the top of the windshield.
The Prius turned right. Trevor followed, turning on the siren. The Prius didn’t stop. Instead, the driver drove toward Main Street. Late at night, traffic didn’t concern Trevor much, but his luck ran against him when a moving truck pulled out from a side street. The Prius dodged the front end and Trevor veered to miss the rear.
The Prius crashed into the front of a liquor store, shattering glass and tearing down the front wall. Screeching to a stop, Trevor jumped out, drawing his gun. Jocelyn did the same and he wished she wouldn’t.
The man had gotten out of the Prius, the crunched driver’s door left open. Trevor jumped over debris and ran to the back of the store. The man kicked open the metal back door and ran into the alley.
“FBI! Stop!” he shouted.
The man ran down the alley toward the road, and to Trevor’s horror, Jocelyn appeared from around the corner. As he saw the subject aim his gun, Trevor’s blood left his head. But Jocelyn ducked back around the corner of the building just before a bullet hit the concrete.
He gained on the running man.
Jocelyn peeked out from her hiding place and aimed her weapon. “FBI! Stop!”
The shooter fired in answer, hitting concrete again as she leaned out of sight.
A man who’d shoot at a law enforcement officer was a dangerous one. Trevor put all he had into his run. The man glanced back as he veered to the left, away from Jocelyn, and sprinted down a busy street. He toppled a few chairs in front of a café. Trevor leaped over those and saw the man shove a middle-aged woman out of his way. She sprawled to the concrete sidewalk.
Trevor veered around her, quickly assessing her to make sure she was all right before charging after the heartless man who’d plowed into her.
He gained some more on him. The man glanced back and swung his gun, very poor aim. He fired and Trevor feared for innocent lives along the way.
Closing the gap, Trevor grabbed a hold of the subject’s shirt. The man rolled onto his back, gun waving as he tried to steady it for aim. Trevor knocked his wrist and then punched his eye.
The subject’s head jerked backward, and Trevor almost wrestled the gun from his grasp, still holding on to his own gun, but the man moved his arms and legs in a practiced way to throw Trevor off. He knew how to fight. Trevor should have anticipated that. His hold loosened just enough for the man to escape. Trevor got to his feet just as a blur of a shape passed him. Jocelyn, running at full speed.
Stumbling into a run, Trevor took up chase behind her, cursing his mistake of overconfidence.
The man ran into an Indian food market, located in a strip mall. He tipped over a display of spices. Boxes and containers scattered over the floor. Jocelyn jumped over most of the mess but smashed one of the boxes in her chase. Trevor cleared the spices in one easy leap. The man ran down an aisle, pushing a shopping cart and the woman behind it. She bumped back against the shelf of jars, knocking some of those, one breaking when it fell. At the end of the aisle, the man twisted and fired haphazardly. Jocelyn shot back, not aiming to kill. She wanted to talk to him as much as Trevor did. But she missed.
Bursting through swinging double doors, the man ran into the back of the store. Jocelyn and Trevor followed.
Trevor put his hand on Jocelyn’s arm to make her stop. He peered around the wall and ducked back in time to avoid being shot. Shouts of workers echoed as they scurried to get out of harm’s way.
Peeking around the wall, Trevor saw the man running for the open overhead door, where workers had stopped unloading a delivery truck. The truck still ran.
Jocelyn must have thought of the same thing, because she headed for the driver’s side.
Trevor reached the side of the truck just as the man opened the truck door. He would try to get away in the delivery truck. Hauling the driver out, the man climbed up into the truck while the driver sprawled to the ground.
Seeing the gunman turn and aim his weapon at Jocelyn, Trevor felt another moment of dread. Jocelyn would be shot!
He dived for her. Tackling her to the ground, he heard the bullet ping a nearby Dumpster. The gunman shut the truck door.
Trevor shot at the front and rear tires as he scrambled to his feet and ran for the driver’s door.
“Out of the truck! Now!” Trevor had the man’s head in aim.
The man looked from Trevor’s gun to his face, his own gun not raised enough to fire with any accuracy. His hands had been occupied trying to drive away, and now he was caught. Trevor knew it. The gunman knew it.
After a brief stare-down, the man held up his hands, making sure Trevor saw that his fingers were off the trigger. Trevor stepped forward and opened the door.
“Step out of there,” he said. “Nice and easy.”
He backed up as the man complied.
“I didn’t do it.”
“Nobody said you did.”
Jocelyn appeared next to him with cuffs. “Turn around and put your hands on your head.”
The man did.
“You’re under arrest for assault with a deadly weapon,” Jocelyn said. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you do or say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to police and to have
