Page 18 of Child In Jeopardy
Lana knew all of that was true. But she also knew that Slater wouldn’t just let Buck drag her away from here.
“So here’s my suggestion,” Buck went on. “Lana and me get in this SUV, and I drive off. I dump her a couple of blocks over—”
“No,” Slater said, his fierce gaze locked on Buck. “You’ll let her go now and will surrender to Austin PD.”
Buck made a snarky yeah-right. “And I guess you’ll say I’ll live happily ever after.”
“No,” Slater repeated. “You’ll be arrested and tried. But the alternative is dying right here, right now. At least with a trial you stand a chance of walking away a free man.”
He did. But Lana tried not to think of that as a possibility. She wanted this monster to pay for what he had done, for what he was continuing to do.
Lana tried to keep her breathing steady and tested some of her muscles. Slowly, the movement was starting to return. Not enough for her to have full control over her body, but she could maybe do something. Lana did more testing, trying to loosen the muscles in her neck while she tried not to panic over Buck’s tightening grip around her throat.
She made direct eye contact with Slater, trying to let him know that she was about to attempt something. Something helikely wouldn’t approve of, since it would be dangerous. But anything she did at this point could turn out to be fatal. It was the same if she did nothing at all.
Yelling to give herself a jolt of adrenaline, Lana rammed the back of her head into Buck’s face. She put as much force behind it as she could manage, and when he howled in pain, she rammed her elbow into his gut. That wasn’t nearly as effective as the headbutt, but it was enough to cause him to loosen his grip on her. The second he did, Lana dropped to the ground.
The sound of the shot immediately blasted through the air.
For a horrifying moment, she had no idea who’d been shot, and she was terrified that Buck had managed to shoot Slater. She looked up, trying to pick through the blaring morning light, and she saw Slater. Standing and with his gun still aimed.
Buck collapsed next to her.
She saw the blood spreading on the front of his shirt, but that didn’t stop Buck from reaching for her. He was going to try to pull her back into that human shield position. But Slater put a stop to that. He took hold of her arm and dragged her away from Buck, and in the same motion, he kicked away Buck’s gun.
Three other cops, including Sonya, moved in, all of them continuing to keep their guns trained on Buck. He didn’t move, though. Didn’t try to grab her again or attempt to fight back. Not that he could have. Lana was pretty sure he was bleeding out.
Slater hoisted her up, moving her behind him and anchoring her between him and a car. Good thing, too, since Lana didn’t have the feeling back in many parts of her body and she wasn’t sure she could stand on her own.
“Ambulance is on the way,” someone shouted. Several of the Austin cops moved in and one began to check the wound on Buck’s chest. “Is this the guy wanted for murder?”
Slater muttered, “Yes,” but continued to stare at Buck. “Did you kill Stephanie?” he asked.
Buck laughed. Or rather attempted one, anyway. It sounded more like a throaty gurgle. “No comment,” he managed.
So, even now, he wasn’t going to confess to relieve his conscience. Maybe because he thought he was going to live. Lana seriously doubted that, though, and obviously so did the cop tending to his wound. He was adding pressure to try to slow the bleeding, but it wasn’t working.
“Did you kill Sheriff Cliff McCullough?” Slater tried again.
Buck didn’t snarl out a verbal response, but he stared at Slater for a long time. In the distance, Lana could hear the wails of an ambulance.
“Did you kill him?” Slater repeated, speaking now through clenched teeth.
“I’m not gonna give you that,” Buck muttered, his voice growing weaker while the rage still flared in his dying eyes. “Here’s what I’ll give Lana and you. The truth. I’m not working by my lonesome. I’ve got a helper. A cold-blooded one. And Lana and you are going to die.”
Chapter Seven
Slater fought the adrenaline crash with another cup of strong black coffee. Even though it was his third cup, he could still feel the fatigue all the way to his bones. Judging from the exhausted look on Lana’s face, she was dealing with the same thing.
That and the flashbacks.
Yeah, those had already started, and Slater figured they wouldn’t be letting up anytime soon. Buck had come darn close to killing both of them, and that wasn’t something they’d just be able to shut out.
Lana stood at the window of the break room in Austin PD headquarters, drinking her own cup of coffee and staring out at the crime scene that was now being processed in the parking lot below. Buck’s body had already been moved, and there was a final canvass going on for any evidence Buck might have left behind.
Slater had had to surrender his gun, of course. That was standard procedure, though he was certain none of the cops here thought he’d overreacted. Deadly force had been necessary, period, and if Slater hadn’t shot and killed Buck, then Lana might be dead. There were plenty of witnesses and even surveillance footage to back that up.
He and Lana had already given their statements of the incident. Technically, they were free to go, but Lana hadn’t jumped at the chance to go back to the safe house only to return so that Slater could observe Marsh and her parents’ interviews.