“Craig Dixon, you’re surrounded! You have no exit route—come out now—hands in the air!”
“So, you told,” he said. And yet he grinned a sick and evil grin. “And here I thought you’d learned your lesson.”
Suddenly she laughed. “You wish,” she said, matching him for bravado.
“You’re a bitch,” he snapped.
“And you’re an impotent loser!” she flung.
He lunged at her, his hands around her neck, a growl coming from deep inside him. He squeezed and shook her, her head slamming against the closet shelf. It took enormous willpower not to grab for the hands that choked her but the self-defense training kicked in. The nail gun was almost too heavy to lift with one hand, so it was slow and she prayed not to lose consciousness before she could at least do some damage. She pressed it into his side and fired—crack, crack, crack, crack.
His eyes were wide and startled as he looked into her eyes, but he didn’t lessen the grip on her throat.
She pressed the gun into his side and fired again. Crack, crack, crack.
An inhuman yowl escaped him, the cry of a wounded animal, and he resumed choking and shaking her and her peripheral vision began to darken. She saw stars for a moment.
Then suddenly he let go and she was dimly aware of some kind of struggle but she couldn’t focus. She fell off the small stack of shelving to the floor, straining to take a breath and to focus. Her hand rose weakly to her neck and she thought, vaguely, I don’t think the police had time to respond...
Then there was a face above her. Pete. The bow hunter. Oh man, he must have found her elk in Cal’s pasture! She had been rescued by an elk hunter. She let her eyes close.
“Medical is on the way, Sierra,” he said, brushing her hair back from her face. “We got him. He’s in custody.”
She looked at him. “Cus...” she tried lamely. Then she coughed. She could breathe better but her throat was certainly damaged. “Custody?” she asked again.
“Yep, in handcuffs, in custody. You’re safe. I’m not leaving you and Medical is on the way.” She could hear a siren in the distance, still a long way off. She closed her eyes again.
“Pete?” she whispered. “Were you shooting elk?”
“No,” he said with a laugh. “I’m hunting more dangerous game. I have a lot to explain to you. After you’ve been to the hospital. Better make sure he didn’t hurt you too badly. Stay awake now. Stay with me—you took some hard knocks to the head—don’t go to sleep on me.”
“He hit me and kicked me,” she said. “Is he dead? Did I kill him?”
“He’s not dead,” Pete said. “But he’s done. You took a little blood out of him.”
She sighed. “Is he going to the hospital, too?”
“Not the same one you’re going to, don’t worry. He’s going to have a couple of FBI agents and some state troopers with him.”
“God, I wish I’d killed him,” she whispered.
“Nah, you don’t want that burden, too. But you gave him to us—you’re a hero.”
“No, I’m a survivor,” she said in a hoarse whisper. Again, her eyes closed. Pete was moving around.
Then there was a new presence. She opened her eyes to look into the piercing beautiful blue of Conrad’s eyes. “Hey, baby,” he said. “Open your eyes and let me look at them, okay? Good, good,” he said, shining a light in them. “You still need a head CT but I think you’re going to be okay.” He took her blood pressure. “Yeah, you’ll be okay now. Sorry I couldn’t get here any faster,” he said, wiping off her face. Coming into focus now, she noticed the wipe he used was bloody. “Just a few battle scars.”
She smiled into those remarkable eyes. “Connie,” she whispered. “I nailed him.”
*
Sierra went all the way to Denver by ambulance so her sister-in-law could examine her and read the head CT. She would have been taken by medical air transfer if Connie had found anything in her preliminary exam that was questionable. Maggie chose to keep her overnight for observation and Conrad stayed with her, wouldn’t leave her side. Then in the morning before she was discharged, she had more company. Cal was back, as he had intended to be, but with him was Dakota.
“Boy, what some chicks will do for attention,” Dakota said, taking her into his big arms and hugging her.
“Don’t call me a chick,” she said. “I’m dangerous.”
“So I hear. Good for you.”
“Aren’t you late for a war?” she asked.
“I’m not late yet. All your drama kind of demanded a visit before I head out again. I thought maybe you could give me some tips in kicking ass.”
“You came to the right person,” she said.
He touched her cheek. “You have a wicked black eye.”
“I didn’t say it was easy. Do you want to come to the Crossing with us? It turns out some of Sully’s campers were actually FBI agents and I’ve been promised a debriefing, which is dangerous-chick talk for an explanation as to how all this crazy shit went down.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss it. And that’s all I’ve got—the day. I have to get back to Fort Hood. I can’t let them leave without me. They made the mistake of putting me in charge. I’m going to rent a car so I can come back to Denver later tonight.”
“Forget about it,” Cal said. “I’ll take you back. I don’t want you alone and getting tired. You’re jet-lagged and worn-out. I’ll stay at Maggie’s place and rest before I drive back.”
“I think he’s going to be a little overprotective as a father, don’t you?” Dakota asked Sierra.
“No help for it,” she said. “Number one sibling put himself in charge many years ago.” She smiled at Cal. “I don’t think he’ll do any real harm.”
They worked it out so that Conrad drove Cal’s truck with Sierra and Dakota because he couldn’t stand to be away from her for five minutes. And Sierra and Dakota were due a visit. Cal drove back with Maggie. Of course that meant Connie sitting through another recitation of all the events that led up to the capture of a serial rapist named Craig Dixon. Fortunately for him, Sierra was not quite as graphic with this brother.
“Are you going to be all right now?” Dakota asked.
“One in five women is sexually assaulted. Some figures claim one in four. Yes, I’m going to be all right. It stole a year and a half of my life. I’m not letting it have any more than that.”
“Plus, she got a little payback,” Connie said.
When they got back to Sully’s there were four campers waiting for them. The first thing Pete wanted to show Sierra was the inside of Priscilla and Clyde’s RV. Even though there was quite a crowd waiting for an explanation, only Sierra was taken inside the RV. Behind a closet pocket door were some computer screens that were operated by electricity and WiFi, controlled by laptop computer and tablets and smartphones. “This is a surveillance van,” Pete said.