Shadow Of Misgivings, Nora Kane [great novels .txt] 📗

broken, it was covered in a spider web pattern of cracks. Margot drove her heel into the window and the glass fell away. She snagged the mace as Brantley came around the corner.

Margot scrambled away just ahead of Brantley’s bullets. She ran around to the back of the Prius, stopped, and put her back against the trunk. Over by his tipped over bike, she could see Marv on the ground. He wasn’t moving and his pistol was laying by his hand.

Brantley came around the car and Margot grabbed his gun. She knew she couldn’t overpower him, even though he had to be weaker than before. Margot pushed the gun away just enough so the volley of slugs she fired didn’t come her way and then sprayed his face with the mace.

She was hoping for the chemical spray to debilitate him enough so she could twist the gun out of his hands and use it against him. While it definitely caused him some serious pain, however, it never loosened his grip on the machine gun.

He punched her across the temple while she was trying to dislodge the gun from his grip. The blow spun her around and sent her to the ground face first. If Brantley could see, she would have been a goner, but he was still trying to get the burning chemical out of his eyes. He couldn’t take aim even though she was only a few feet away.

Margot ran to the other side of her car again while Brantley tried to blink away the mace. She looked through the window again but couldn’t find her gun. Margot could hear sirens in the distance but didn’t think they would arrive before Brantley recovered enough to shoot her. If she decided to run, she’d have to make it a long way before she could find any cover. The odds of getting a bullet in the back were high.

“Come on Margot, why make this so difficult on both of us?” Brantley said.

The fact he was talking made it seem like he was recovering quickly. The alligator back patter on the window didn’t make it easy to see inside, so she kicked in that window as well.

“You can’t run or hide. Margot. Why don’t you quit being such a stubborn bitch?”

Margot crawled in the car and found the gun. She could see Brantley’s boots moving by the back of the car. He was coming around to finish her off. She shot him in the foot as he moved past her. He fell on his back and sat up pointing the machine gun her way. Margot shot him in the face twice. He fell back as he pulled the trigger, shredding the trunk of the Prius as he fell.

Chapter 7

Margot sat up on the hospital bed. Just doing that made her dizzy. She had suffered a concussion and lost a lot of blood, though not from bullet wounds or she would probably be resting in the morgue instead of a hospital bed. The knock on her head had bled a lot but she’d also cut up her elbow and her ankle busting out her car windows. The adrenaline rush of avoiding getting cut in half by machine-gun fire had kept her from noticing. When she’d realized Brantley's last volley had gone over her head she had relaxed and ended up passing out from the loss of blood.

“Maybe you should lay back down,” Radcliff told her. She wasn’t sure how long he’d been there, but she knew he had been there when she woke up.

She smiled at Radcliff, told him, “Just give me a second,” and then found the remote that adjusted the bed and raised up the back so she had something to lean against. Once she did that, the dizziness went away and Margot almost felt like herself again.

“You don’t have to sit up on my account,” Radcliff told her. “You took quite the beating.”

“Yeah? I’m feeling better though. Besides, you should have seen the other guy.”

“I did, it wasn’t pretty, but I have to admit I liked seeing it all the same. I would have sworn coyotes ate that bastard.”

“Shaw thought the same thing. To be honest, I was leaning toward that as well. Turns out it was wishful thinking.”

“People don’t usually get up after being shot five times.”

“Yeah, though it looks like only four actually broke the skin.”

“He won’t be getting back up this time.”

“If I’d shot him in the head last time, I would have saved everyone a lot of trouble. How’s Marv?”

“Better than his bike and a whole lot better than those three guys on ice back at their clubhouse.”

“Seriously, how is he? He saved my life back there.”

“Well, his chopper took most of the bullets and he knocked himself out cold when he fell down.”

“Most of the bullets?”

“Unfortunately, not all of them. They took a lot of bullets out of him and sewed him back up. He’s got a fighting chance and I’ve got a feeling that dude is a fighter.”

“He’s going to be pissed I told you guys about the clubhouse. That one was supposed to stay between the two of us.”

“Yeah, but I’m glad you did. Failing to report a triple homicide would be considered a felony and while I like the way things are going with you and me, I’d have a hard time overlooking that.”

“Yeah, that would be asking a little much,” Margot agreed. She couldn’t help thinking how he had delayed taking in Dean Stone the day Mal had tried to kill Stone for the cartel. Radcliff was a straight-laced guy and he had already stepped over the line for her. He’d nearly got himself killed in the process. Margot had decided at the time that she’d never ask him for that kind of favor again.

“I’m not going to ask