Page 50 of Never Wed an Outlaw

Stop. You're hallucinating,I told myself.

I'd read about it before in a hundred true crime stories. When a person believes they're backed into a corner, they'll hang onto any hope, however crazy, wrong, or impossible.

Except it wasn't just my imagination this time. Something heavy dropped into the bushes off to the side a second later, far from the gate. My heart began racing.

It couldn't be Dusty. And Jesus, if it was him, and he hadn't seen their car...he had no clue what kind of mess he'd wandered into.

I gripped the door tightly, peeling it open a crack, straining my ears. I wished they'd tell me if this was real, or if I'd just fallen for the biggest case of wishful thinking ever.

“Hurry up. We need you back at the keyboard,” Franco's nasty voice whispered behind me, making me jump. “Tony says you've had your break long enough.”

Turning slowly to face him, I looked him dead in his evil eyes, wondering if my glance betrayed anything.

My shirt caught his blood when half his face exploded a second later, spattering me in sudden red mist.

Shock. Awe. Horror.

Franco stood for about two more seconds, as if his body hadn't realized he'd just taken a hole through the head, and then dropped swiftly at my feet.

“The fuck was that falling out there?” Tony yelled from the hallway.

I turned back to the door, my knees shaking, only catching a quick glimpse of the dark, shadowy figure outside before my knees went into overdrive. I hadn't run so hard since cross country senior year. Every muscle fiber in my body came alive, knew this was my last chance, knew I had to get the hell away from the dead man before his friend caught up.

“Sonofafuckingbitch!” Tony slurred one long curse through the screen, hurled it open behind me, and whipped out his gun.

“Roll!” Dusty's voice roared. He hit the ground, reaching for me several feet away, throwing his entire weight into his legs to crawl.

He tackled my knees, pushing me onto my butt, just in time to dodge before the gunshots exploded in a messy circle around us. Grass and dirt flew high into the air, raining down against my face.

Dust crouched on one knee, his gun drawn, holding my face against the earth with his other hand. Protecting me.

What happened next was in God's hands. I pressed my face deeper into the soft, cool grass, coiling into a fetal position, expecting to feel hot lead rip through my body any second. And that was if I didn't catch a bullet through my brain or heart first, making sure I wouldn't feel anything ever again.

Three more shots in loud succession. So fast, so angry, so deafening I couldn't tell who fired.

After the fourth shot, there was another sound. Something hit the ground, falling onto the bushes next tothe door with awhoosh.Dusty's hand wasn't tangled in my hair anymore.

Slowly, I turned, halfway covering my eyes before I forced myself to look up. Dusty dashed several yards in seconds. He stood over the bushes, his lips peeled back in a hateful grin, gun aimed at the ground.

Tony's voice was faint, muffled. I couldn't understand anything.

“I ain't here to listen to you beg after you almost offed my girl, motherfucker. Shut up. Whine to Old Scratch when he meets you in the fuckin' fire.” Dusty's words were clear and savage.

Tony screamed for half a second before the last loud shot silenced him forever. Dust climbed over his body, shaking one of the bushes. He had his phone in his hand before I even got up.

“Get every prospect on duty out here right now. I need backup. No, I ain't ruining Joker and Skin's honeymoon for this. Just some fuckin' trash for the night crew to pickup. You heard me, kid.” He shoved his phone back into his pocket, staring angrily at the dead man in the bushes while he pulled out his pipe.

“Jesus, Dusty. It's a miracle. If you'd showed up a second later, I might not be –“

“Work,” he snapped, cutting me off. The sparks centered in his grey eyes glowed like steel knives catching light. “You told meworkwas the reason you weren't at the wedding. Hannah, what kind of fuckin' work are you doing when I show up here, and have to kill two assholes before they kill you?”

I froze, my mouth hanging open.

Words wouldn't come. Being dead suddenly didn't seem half bad compared to being caught in this stupid, reckless lie.

“Dusty...Daniel...I fucked up.” I closed my eyes, wondering if using his real name would soften him.

“Darlin', you don't know the half of it.”

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