the yard of Leekela’s place. Sammy had a younger brother who had a build just like this and he was rumored to be an addict. Jason Leekela, she thought.
He came forward, rifle barrel swinging from her to her father. Her dad dropped and reached for Dryer’s pistol.
“No!” she shouted, drawing the man’s attention for just a second.
Then he swung the rifle around and struck her father with the wooden stock. Her father dropped on top of Dryer. Dryer’s pistol skittered on the icy pavement to within inches of her boot.
She did not make a move to touch it.
“Smart girl. Always were smart, Selena,” said the masked gunman.
Did he know her, too?
The second gunman had vanished. Was he waiting at the rear of the truck?
The masked gunman pointed the rifle barrel at the pistol at her feet.
“Kick that over here.”
She did and he retrieved it, tucking the weapon in the pocket of his ragged army-green jacket. She was sure now. She’d seen him in that jacket in town, looking gaunt, and his eyes had been bloodshot then, too. His brother’s dark double, the family’s cross to bear. She’d even felt sorry for him, but that was before he pointed a gun at her.
“Now, open the truck.” He motioned her to walk before him. Would he shoot her?
The fifty-foot walk was the longest of her life.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” she asked.
“Do you?” he replied.
“Jason, what is Sammy going to say when he finds out his own brother is robbing his shipment?”
She heard him halt and turned to glance back at him. The rifle barrel dipped.
“How did you...? Never mind. He won’t find out.” His shoulders heaved as he released a whine. “Damn it, Selena. I didn’t want to have to kill you.”
Selena’s skin went cold. Not from the snow that pelted her in tiny stinging droplets, but from deep inside as she realized that Jason was just sick and wounded and crazy enough to kill her.
“Why don’t we go see your brother?”
“No!” he shouted. “He’s never going to know about this. He can’t. Now get going.”
They reached the loading doors where the second gunman waited. She remembered seeing him at Sammy’s junkyard but could not recall his name. So Sammy’s brother and employee had decided to steal from him, but off grounds. Did they really think Sammy would not figure this out?
“Hurry up,” said the junkyard man, adding a second rifle to Jason’s, and this one was aimed at her face.
“Open the truck,” ordered Jason.
Her mind grasped and rejected several ideas as she stepped up onto the fender, but instead of an escape plan it provided the name of the second gunman. Oscar Hill. Selena lifted the latch that released the lock. Maybe they would just take the tub and leave her. She opened one door. Maybe they would kill her the minute they had the shipment.
Jason peered inside. “Where is it?”
That’s when Selena saw it, a white SUV, no lights, closing fast.
Gabe.
* * *
GABE CRESTED THE rise and spotted a battered pickup parked close to the rear of Selena’s box truck. The side door of her truck was open and something lay on the ground on the passenger side. A second pickup had the box truck pinned from the front. Selena was in the process of opening one of the two hind doors as he closed the distance. Between her and the pickup, stood two armed men.
In emergencies Gabe sank into a kind of animal brain, acting and flowing with the situation. But not this time. This time his heart thumped and his skin tingled with a feeling close to panic, because the men pointed their weapons at Selena.
One wore some kind of full head mask and both held rifles at the ready.
Selena glanced at him, said something to the gunmen and stepped into the truck’s compartment and out of sight.
Good move, Selena, he thought, hoping she would think to lie flat because that truck door would afford little protection from bullets.
As the distance diminished he saw that the pile of something beside the open door was most definitely a body, possibly two. He radioed for backup, shouting the code for a shooting and the location. Then he hit the brakes and turned the wheel so his SUV formed a barrier between him and the riflemen.
“Police. Drop your weapons,” he shouted.
The gunmen spun and raised their weapons at the same time the truck door swung open, sending the masked man staggering forward. Selena, evening the odds, he realized.
Gabe fired at the other man, taking him down. Selena now stood on the gate with a tire iron in her hand. He couldn’t shoot the second gunman without possibly hitting her. The second shooter recovered his footing and his grip on his rifle. Selena swung the iron down, hitting the barrel of his rifle so that it dropped. The shooter grabbed Selena by her long, loose hair, dragging her down. The tire iron clattered to the pavement as Selena fell against her captor.
“Let her go,” ordered Gabe.
“He has a pistol,” shouted Selena.
Her masked gunman gave her a shake and she gripped the hand that threaded into her hair with both of hers.
“Drop your gun or I kill her,” said her captor.
“Jason Leekela, you let me go before your brother finds out about this!”
Gabe knew Jason. He had arrested him more than once for possession.
“Let her go, Jason.”
But he didn’t. Instead he reached in his pocket and drew the pistol she had warned him about. Selena kicked at him. Jason staggered and Selena fell hard to her knees giving Gabe a clear shot. Jason lifted the pistol toward Gabe. Gabe fired.
Jason Leekela fell.
He landed facedown. Selena scuttled backward like a crab as Gabe came forward at a run. Selena sat on the icy road, knees drawn up to her chest.
Thank God she was safe, because he was going to kill her.
She was on her feet an instant later, throwing herself into his arms, burying her face in his coat. The familiar pull of attraction flared as her scent rose up in the icy air, like springtime in January. Still lavender, he realized. The scent was so familiar and still intoxicating, making him ache down low and deep. He drew her in, allowing himself one more full breath and the pleasure of having her arms around him
