The Unrelenting Tide (Islands of Intrigue: San Juans - Christian Romantic Suspense) (26 page)

She held the gun out toward the two men, but they were rolling and punching and thrashing so that she didn’t dare pull the trigger for fear of hitting Carcen.

Carcen’s breaths came in wheezing gasps and every few seconds he scrunched his eyes shut and shook his head. Blood, slick and dark red, coated the side of his head

Donny bellowed a curse as he landed another punch to Carcen’s ribs.

She moved a couple steps closer, the barrel of the gun tracking with each movement Donny made.

Carcen plunged his elbow into the inside of Donny’s thigh.

Donny howled and thrashed out, shoving Carcen over onto his back.

Bracing his shoulders against the deck, Carcen brought both feet up and planted them into Donny’s chest thrusting the man away from him with all his might. But the effort cost him and he was slow getting to his feet. With a grimace, he tucked one arm close to his torso.

Devynne swung her aim onto Donny who could now be taken out safely, but in her haste to pull the trigger her bullet only grazed his side.

He bellowed a curse and kicked out, knocking her legs out from under her. She thudded to the deck and the impact knocked the gun loose. It clattered away into the darkness beyond the reach of the light.

Then someone had her by her shoulders and hauled her up. The cold metal of a sharp blade pressed against her jugular.

Sanchez
. Despair washed over her. She raised her chin and looked into Carcen’s defeated gaze.

“Don’t move another inch, Lang!”

Carcen lifted his hands once more. And with the effort he staggered sideways a step, his breaths gurgling in his throat.

“Now.” Donny gave her a shake. “You are going to come with me back where we belong.” His hot fetid breath puffed against her cheek and the side of her neck. And, as his hand slammed just below her nose to torque her head farther, another scent wafted to her. Chlorine. Her eyes dropped closed. Marissa had said he smelled funny. Donny had taken a turn at the dunking booth right after Carcen. They should have known it was him this whole time.

He looked past her to Carcen. “Lang, one more move from you and I’ll slit her pretty neck.” Sanchez emphasized his words by using the knife’s edge to stroke the length of her throat.

She swallowed, her nostrils flaring as she willed down the bile at the back of her throat.

“I’m not moving.” Carcen’s feet didn’t budge, but he swayed slightly.

“The only reason I haven’t shot you again, is because you’ve convinced Shania here that you are the good guy and she’s lost my gun somewhere around here.” He stroked her throat again. “Won’t take me long to help her see who the good guy really is. The one who really cares about her.”

Despite his words Devynne felt the knife cutting into the skin under her chin.

Carcen took a deliberate step to his left, forcing Donny to angle toward the house to keep him in sight, and jutted his chin toward the blade. “Last I checked, holding a knife to a woman’s throat wasn’t the best way to seduce her.”

“Shut up!”

Carcen tilted his head angling another step. “Give it up, Sanchez. Turn yourself in and I’ll make note of it in my report.”

“Yeah, right.” Donny forced her body to turn some more to keep Carcen in sight.

What was Carcen doing? He might get her killed taunting the beast like that.

Suddenly she felt Donny jolt and his body arched backwards, the knife at her throat cut deeper as he fell away and she heard the report of a shot.

In an instant Carcen leapt forward and grabbed her. “Get behind me.”

But Donny’s eyes were staring sightlessly across the planking of the deck and a chunk was missing from one side of his head.

Devynne wretched and twisted away. But just as quickly she jolted back to scan the brush. Someone had shot him. But who?

Movement came then. Randy pulled himself up over the lip of the rock wall. Limping markedly, a black pistol clutched in one hand, he quirked an eyebrow at Carcen. “I can’t believe you thought I was a stalker.”

Carcen’s lip ticked up on one side. “Only for a few hours. And it was your own fault.”

“Marissa!” Devynne started to run into the house, but Carcen gripped her arm and motioned to her neck.

“Let me see that cut. It’s bleeding pretty good. Marissa doesn’t need to see you like that. She’s been through enough for one night.”

She felt the warm seep of blood soaking her collar then.

Carcen touched her chin and tilted her toward the light. Then gave a grunt of satisfaction. “Doesn’t look like he hit anything vital. Just change your shirt and slap a gauze pad on before you go in to see her okay?” He let her go but a grimace of pain contorted his features.

“You’re hit too.” She was torn. Who to help first?

Randy lumbered up onto the deck. “I’ll see to him. Go to Marissa.”

Chapter 22

Sheer relief coursing through him at having the situation finally contained, Carcen stumbled a sideways step as Devynne disappeared into the house.

Randy gave him an assessing look. “You don’t look so good, my friend.”

“I don’t thin—” he staggered and his legs melted out from under him.

“Whoa!” Randy took him by the arm and eased him to the deck. Carcen felt numbness begin to settle into his hands and feet and he blinked hard to bring the porch light back into focus. “Were you hit anywhere besides this gash to your head?”

“I don’t— better call 9-1…”

Randy hissed and tucked the phone he’d already dialed between his head and shoulder as he quickly patted down Carcen’s body to assess any other wounds. This was not good. Not good at all.

“9-1-1, how may I help you?”

“Uh, I have a gunshot wound. Not me. A cop. Sheriff Lang has been shot and I need someone here now! I don’t know if he’s going to make it.” Randy whipped his own t-shirt off over his head and pressed it against the seeping gash above Carcen’s left ear.

“Okay, sir. Please stay calm. Are you safe?”

Stay calm? He’d show her calm. “Yes, I’m safe. The shooter is dead.”

“I have you calling from 1020 Sea Mist Drive. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me where he’s shot?”

“Uh, I see a good size graze on his head. I don’t know if he’s been hit anywhere else. There’s a lot of blood.”

“Okay, sir. I need you to put pressure where the blood is coming from.”

“I’m already on it.”
Lord, please… a little wisdom here
. “I have pressure on it.” In the distance a siren sounded. “I can hear your guys coming now. The shooter said other cops were down. I don’t know if they are dead or not. He said they were.”

“Okay, multiple units are on their way. Just keep pressure on till they get there. Where are you on the property, sir?”

“Lowest level deck at the back on the ocean side of the house.”

Devynne stepped out onto the deck then as he heard the dispatcher relay their whereabouts to the ambulance crew. Her eyes rounded and immediately filled with tears as she glanced from Carcen to him and back again. “No.”

He swallowed hard having no assurances to offer. “Ambulance is on its way.”

Chapter 23

The next hours passed in a blur for Devynne. The ambulance had arrived and whisked Carcen to the hospital. But snatches of phrases whispered from one paramedic to another like, “blood pressure is in the tank,” and, “prep the MedEvac,” left her despairing of hope. The one pinprick of light in the cave of darkness was that the bullet hadn’t penetrated his skull, but had carved a path above his ear that caused massive bleeding and likely had left a severe fracture.

Devynne had borrowed a paramedic’s phone and mechanically dialed Jackie and Lamar who were still in Leavenworth, and stumbled her way through the horrible conversation. Carcen would be life-flighted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Devynne would get there as soon as she could. Jackie and Lamar were headed there now.

Randy, who had a gunshot wound in his thigh and a nasty gash on his head from a rock he’d hit when he toppled, was also loaded in an ambulance and rushed away.

Officer Boyd had been found badly beaten and left for dead behind the guest house, but it looked like he would make it. And Shannon, who Sanchez had knocked out from behind and then shot in the back, would have terrible bruising, but her flak jacket had taken the bullet. Whether Sanchez had hoped that his bullet in such close proximity would kill her or just put her out of commission they’d probably never know. Shannon had driven Boyd to Friday Harbor’s Peace Health Medical Center herself after reporting that the screaming which had been coming from Honey’s, was a recording pumped through speakers wired to her back deck and turned on with a remote trigger.

Sullivan and Sanchez had been loaded into body bags and taken away by the coroner, but only after hours of photographs and videos were taken of the yard, her house, and guest house.

Now as the doors slid open on the 14th floor of Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Devynne stepped out. The nurse’s station was just to her left, but she couldn’t seem to put one foot in front of the other. What was she going to do if he hadn’t made it? Terror bowled over her and her hands shook so hard she set Marissa down beside her.

“Is this whewe Uncle Cawce is?” Marissa clutched her pink silk blanket, glancing around wide-eyed.

Devynne pressed her lips together. She needed to get a grip and be strong for her daughter. “I think so, honey. Let’s go see if we can find him. What do you say?”

Marissa’s only response was to slip her little hand into hers.

A nurse, dark skin gleaming under hair braided into corn-rows, looked up as they approached. “How can I help you?”

“We’re, uh… Is Carcen Lang on this floor? He was life-flighted from San Juan Island this morning?”

The nurse’s face blossomed into a white-toothed smile. “Oh good. You’re here. You are Devynne and Marissa, right?”

The first hint of relief beginning to bloom, Devynne nodded.

The nurse gave a follow me gesture and started down the hall. “Maybe now that man will rest. He’s been askin’ for you non-stop. Tried to call you I don’t know how many times. Doctor’s been tryin’ to get him to sleep but he’s refused all pain medication until you got here.” She shook her head with a
tsking
sound, then stopped and pushed into a room through a heavy door. Inside, a curtain was pulled over the entry for further privacy. The nurse unceremoniously scooped it to one side. “Sheriff Lang, your gal is here.
Now
maybe you’ll let me give you that morphine?”

“Gwandpa!” Marissa dashed across the room to Lamar seated in a chair.

“Come here, Sweet Pea.” Lamar pulled Marissa onto his lap and she promptly snuggled into a little ball against his chest as he settled her blanket over her and wrapped his burly arms around her.

Jackie stood by the head of the bed helping Carcen sip some water. But Devynne only had eyes for him. Pale and with a thick white bandage plastered to the left side of his head – but alive and his face softening into a relieved smile as he locked eyes on her.

His gaze darted to the nurse who stood at the foot of his bed with hands planted firmly on her hips waiting for his response. “So pushy!”

He was able to joke! The bloom of relief flowered into euphoria.

Even as he spoke to the nurse he stretched a hand out toward Devynne. “Give me another minute, okay Wanda?”

Wanda threw up her hands and pinned Devynne with a raised-brow look. “Honey, you have one stubborn man. Yes’m, one stubborn man. But he must love you somethin’ fierce.” With a quick wink she bustled out into the hall still muttering to herself.

Devynne realized tears were streaming down her cheeks and one hand covered her mouth.

“Hey.” Carcen wiggled the fingers of the hand he still stretched toward her.

“Hey yourself.” She stepped forward and slid her hand into his, being careful of the IV line taped against it.

“I’m glad you’re here.”

“I’m glad
you’re
here.”

He squeezed. “My head’s too hard to be taken out by a mere bullet.”

“Carcen.” His name emerged on a sob and she bent and brushed a feather light kiss across his forehead. How could he joke at a time like this?

His brow puckered. “You missed.” With his free hand he reached up and tapped his lips. “Right here.”

Without even a thought as to what Jackie or Lamar might think she complied, kissing him softly.

He gave a little sigh his eyes already dropping closed. “I think I should sleep now. Better call Wanda back in here. My head may be hard but it’s killing me.”

Jackie scuttled out the door and Wanda soon reappeared to adjust a valve on his IV stand.

Carcen kept her hand clutched tightly in his until the power of the drug slackened it in sleep.

Exhausted from her long sleepless night, but not wanting to relinquish her hold on his hand, Devynne sank into a chair by his bed and listened as Jackie filled her in on the details.

Just as the paramedics had suspected, the bullet had fractured his skull, but barring any sudden swelling, the doctors had offered a very promising prognosis.

Devynne laid her head down on the side of the bed and wept. They had made it.

She fell asleep right there. Content to be near Carcen and knowing Jackie and Lamar would care for Marissa. She didn’t know how long she’d been asleep when she felt someone tug on her. Blinking sleepily, she realized Jackie was trying to lead her somewhere. A cot had been brought into the room and Jackie eased her onto it, pushing her over onto the pillow.

“Marissa?”

“She’s fine, dear. Napping with Lamar.”

She started to sit up. “Carcen?”

Jackie pressed her back down. “He’s sleeping too. The nurse was just in and said his blood pressure is looking better and his stats are great.”

Relaxing, Devynne let the cling of sleep claim her once more.

The gleam of an evening sunset cast a golden glow through the room when she woke again, this time to quiet voices. Groggily she sat up, batting her hair out of her eyes which quickly widened at the sight of Boyd, Niemeyer, and Randy who was seated in a wheel chair, all huddled in the doorway whispering with Jackie. Lamar and Marissa were not in the room.