Roughshod Justice. Delores Fossen

out through the space.

      And she fired again.

      This time at Jameson.

      From their new position, Kelly could no longer see Jameson, but he’d probably tried to shoot the woman. Judging from the sounds Kelly then heard, Jameson had been forced to take cover, as well.

      Kelly figured Jameson wasn’t going to like what she was doing, but she leaned out enough from the minivan so she could see if she had anything close to a clean shot. She did.

      And she took it.

      Kelly aimed, fired, and the bullet crashed through the glass and into the woman’s chest. Like her decoy comrade, she fell, but that wasn’t the only sound Kelly heard. Jameson cursed—the profanity aimed at her.

      “I told you to stay down,” Jameson snarled, and in the same breath, there was another shot.

      Sweet heaven. Who was Jameson shooting at now?

      Kelly scrambled around Hank and made her way to the rear of the minivan. There, she had a good angle to see Jameson. To see the glare that he tossed her, too. Obviously, he wasn’t happy that she had changed her position or that she fired that shot. Kelly wasn’t especially happy about it, either, but she saw it as a necessary choice.

      “Put down your gun,” someone shouted.

      Gabriel. He had apparently arrived with backup. Good. Kelly hoped he had brought a lot of deputies with him so they could secure the hospital.

      “He’s there,” Hank said, motioning in the direction of the far side of the building.

      There was a man carrying a handgun in the spot where Hank had indicated. However, the man didn’t drop his weapon as Gabriel had ordered. He turned and fired a shot, no doubt aiming for the sheriff.

      Jameson took care of the guy. He double-tapped the trigger, but he hadn’t gone for kill shots. The bullets went into the man’s shoulder and shooting arm. He stayed on his feet, but his gun clattered to the ground.

      Suddenly, there were the sounds of footsteps. Plenty of them. And they were all converging on the injured man. With his gaze still firing all around him, Jameson reached the guy first, but Gabriel and a deputy soon joined him. Another deputy stepped out from the back door where the gunwoman was still sprawled out. She was almost certainly dead. It gave Kelly a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach to know she’d killed someone, but if she hadn’t, Jameson, Hank and she could have been murdered.

      “Don’t kill me,” the gunman yelled, attempting to hold up his hands. Hard to do, though, with his injuries.

      Kelly had been right about the gunshot wounds. They didn’t appear life-threatening, but he was bleeding and needed medical attention. That wouldn’t be difficult to get since they were in a hospital parking lot, but Gabriel likely wouldn’t let any of the medical staff approach until he was certain it was safe.

      Even though Kelly knew Jameson wasn’t going to like it, she started to make her way toward them. She did keep low, though, crouching, and her pace wasn’t exactly fast since she was still unsteady.

      When Jameson spotted her, he didn’t curse, but she could tell that’s what he wanted to do. “Stay behind cover,” he warned her.

      She did, but that didn’t stop her from getting a better look at the gunman that the deputy was now cuffing. Just as everyone else she’d encountered, Kelly didn’t recognize him, but when the man looked in her direction, he did something strange.

      He smiled at her.

      Jameson and Gabriel noticed that smile, too, because they both shifted their attention to her. “You know him?” Jameson asked her.

      Kelly immediately shook her head. But the man just kept on smiling.

      “I know you,” the injured gunman growled, “because you’re the woman who hired me.”