Stolen Child (Coastal Fury Book 13) Matt Lincoln (chrysanthemum read aloud .txt) 📖

I gained ground on him, and they looked vaguely familiar.

I almost kicked myself when I realized what it was. He was wearing the exact same disguise as the second man from the mall security footage, the one with the gun. He also had a similar ski mask on, though it was more navy than the black I remembered from the video.

“You’re not going to last long!” I hollered at the man as I came upon him from behind. I could hear him panting now, dragged down by so many clothes in the hot sun. There wasn’t much of a breeze, either, so there was no cool wind from the ocean to cool him, or myself for that matter.

As hot as I was, though, it wasn’t nearly as bad as this guy, who was practically dripping onto the asphalt. He still had a gun, though, and I cursed under my breath. I didn’t want to shoot a man in the back, but I wasn’t sure that I was going to get any choice in the matter.

I heard screams and more gunshots ringing out behind me, but I didn’t dare turn around to see what was happening with Nina. The second I turned my back on him, this guy could end up killing me.

I tried to remember if the screams were female or not, but I’d hardly been paying attention. Nina had a low-ish voice anyway, and the other perp could be a woman, too, though, so it wouldn’t really tell me much to remember.

“Stop, or I’ll shoot!” I screamed at the man, holding up my gun but not ceasing my sprint. “I mean it, don’t test me!”

I wasn’t exactly sure if I meant it or not. Sure, the guy had a gun, but he had his back turned to me, and he wasn’t shooting at me right now, like that idiot in the Keys who shot at me without even turning to look while I was chasing him. Still, he had a gun… He was probably going to kick it soon, though, the way things were going for him. Maybe I could just wait it out…

The decision was made easy for me when the man whirled around, seemingly realizing that he wasn’t going to make it wherever he was going before collapsing, and shot in my direction.

He shot at me before he had the time to aim properly, however, and I was a rapidly moving target to boot. The bullet ricocheted off the asphalt, and I had to leap out of the way to avoid it ripping up and hitting me in the face.

I quickly aimed my gun at him, in turn, gaining the split second necessary to make a better shot than he had when he jumped in surprise at the bullet’s odd movements, seeming to have surprised himself with how poor of a shot it was.

I raised my gun and shot him once, twice, three times in the chest. He fell to the ground in a pile of sweat and blood.

I strained my ears to try to hear anything else from behind me as I continued to run forward until I reached the goon, bending down to make sure that he was out. He wasn’t just out. He was dead.

The only thing I could hear at that point, no matter how hard I tried, was the shots ringing in my ears and my own pounding heart. I couldn’t see anything behind me, either, other than the shop itself, so I fell down to my knees beside the man’s corpse, sweaty and exhausted.

16

Ethan

I lay in the hot sun for a few moments, not quite able to collect myself yet. Everything was in a haze until I felt something hot and sticky against my arm. I looked down to see that the goon’s blood was seeping all into my clothing.

Knocked back into reality, I pulled myself up, fumbled for my phone, and called for an ambulance and backup. It was only a moment before I heard sirens, not far from where we were. Police were crawling all over the area, having come in from neighboring towns and cities to help with the search for Mikey.

Eventually, I managed to crawl back to my feet, regain some of my energy, and make it back to the shop, where I found Holm still groaning in a puddle of his own blood.

I knelt down next to him, squeezing his shoulder gently.

“Help is coming, okay, buddy?” I asked him, looking for some sign that he could hear me. “They’ll fix you up real soon.”

He didn’t answer right away, and for a moment, I was afraid he was slipping. But then the trace of a smirk crossed his softly-parted lips.

“Always trying to steal the glory from me, eh, Marston?” he croaked, and I chuckled, glad to see he was alright.

I inspected him more closely, trying to find the source of the blood, but it had pooled all around the right side of his shirt and the surrounding asphalt, so I couldn’t quite make it out.

“Do you know where you were hit?” I asked.

“Arm,” he managed, wincing as he said the word. “I’ll be fine, Marston. Go check on Nina.”

Nina. How had I forgotten Nina? I cursed myself internally and shook my head to clear it.

“Where…?” I started to ask, but Holm cut me off.

“Around the other side,” he rasped, his voice and attention starting to fade as the sirens drew nearer. “Another… another goon…”

And just like that, my partner dropped his head back against the asphalt and slipped into unconsciousness. I reached out to check that he still had a steady pulse. He did.

I leapt up and jogged around to the other side of the boat rental shop to look for Nina and the other perp. I couldn’t remember hearing anything else from their scuffle after the screaming, but that didn’t mean much considering how out of it I’d gotten.

They weren’t behind the shop, but it still didn’t take long for me to find them.

“Stay