Here Comes Trouble (36 page)

This shit has to stop, he thought and revved
the four-wheeler before he popped the clutch and started toward the
woods. Another shot pinged off of the fender of his ATV and took a
chunk out of the plastic.

"Sonofabitch!" Joel cursed then pointed the
machine toward the middle of the field, hoping he was out of the
line of fire of whatever the guy was shooting at. When another shot
chipped wood from the only tree in the middle of the field, Joel
knew the shots weren't random. Someone was shooting at
him
.

With that knowledge, he realized he needed to
find cover fast and the scrawny tree in the middle of the field
would be his only hope of salvation. The only reason the guy had
missed so far was because he'd been moving. He knew his luck on
that front would run out as soon as the guy led his shot right.
Joel stopped the ATV, and jumped off then ran to the tree and
crouched behind it, scanning the woods with his eyes to try and see
where the shooter was hiding.

If he got shot and killed out here in the
field, people
would
probably assume it had been a hunter
trespassing on his property. It wasn't deer season quite yet, but
he had enough of them on his property, and if a guy was going to
trespass to hunt, he wasn't going to worry much about when the law
said he could do it.

But this guy wasn't hunting, he was trying to
kill Joel. When Joel looked around the tree trunk again another
shot rang out then echoed right before he heard a thud as the
bullet embedded in the tree. He ducked and sat against the tree
looking toward the barn, gauging the odds of getting back there
without a bullet in his back. Not real good.

Someone came around the corner walking toward
the woodpile and he held his breath. It was Terri and she was
walking right out in the open.

Joel scrambled to his feet then yelled,
"Terri, go back!
Run!
" If she got shot, because of him he
was going to shoot himself. "Run, Terri...
go get
help
!"

She waved at him and held her hand to her ear
as if to tell him she couldn't hear him and kept on walking across
the field. The shots had stopped too as if the shooter was just as
surprised as he was to see her, like he didn't know what to do
now.

Confusion was a good thing in Joel's
estimation, because it bought him time. He darted from behind the
tree and hopped on the four-wheeler and cranked it in the same
motion. Ducking low over the handlebars, he headed full throttle
toward Terri who was halfway across the field now.

For a man who bought a ranch to make his life
calmer and more peaceful, Joel had more trouble than he could shake
a stick at lately. Maybe he should have stayed in law, he thought
for the tenth time in as many days.

Joel didn't let up on his speed, he traveled
full out toward Terri who had now stopped walking.
Not good
baby, you shoulda kept moving
, he mentally chastised and
gritted his teeth as another shot rang out and Terri stumbled then
looked toward the woods.

Joel had almost reached her when another shot
rang out and one of the back tires on the ATV exploded jerking the
handlebars from his hand. The machine started to roll, and he
pushed off with his legs, praying he'd get clear, so he wouldn't be
crushed.

Landing hard on his left shoulder, Joel
watched in slow motion as the rear end of the vehicle rolled up and
over toward him. He knew it was going to land on him and tried to
roll away, gritting his teeth for the impact. The left back wheel
bounced off of his shin and pain shot up his leg, before the handle
bars trapped his hips. Black spots danced behind his eyelids and he
felt like he might throw up as he lay there trying to catch his
breath.

It could have been worse, it could have
landed on your chest idiot.
Terri is in danger
, he told
himself,
do something
!

"Joel!" he heard her shout then she was
standing over him trying to push the heavy machine off of him. She
was too little to move it, but she kept trying.

"
Leave
it--Run back to the barn and get
help, baby," he hissed through his teeth. He moaned when she
shifted the bike and something in his leg shifted too. "Someone is
shooting at me. Get low and run--
now!
"

He heard a truck engine then saw his truck
round the barn, bouncing over the uneven ground toward them. A shot
rang out and he heard a thunk as a bullet pierced the fender.
Another one came and the windshield exploded, but the truck didn't
stop until it stood between him and Terri and the woods.

The door on the side away from the woods
opened and his mama slid down with a .306 hunting rifle in her
hands. She leaned back inside and threw out several boxes of shells
then slammed the door. Without a word, she knelt then steadied the
rifle on the front bumper and put her eye to the scope tracking the
barrel along the woods.

He saw a smile kick up the corner of her lips
and she pulled the trigger. The recoil sat her back and she yelped.
She had to pick a damn gun that would likely make mush of the bones
in her shoulder, he thought and tried to wiggle out from under the
ATV to help her.

Bones crunched in his calf and Joel groaned
then broke out in a cold sweat. Terri sat down and lifted his head
onto her lap, then kissed his forehead.

"Lay still, sweetheart. We'll get some help,"
she said softly with tears in her eyes. She stroked the hair at his
temples and Joel closed his eyes and tried not to pass
out.

Another shot rang out, and he wasn't sure if
it was his mama or the shooter in the woods who fired it, and at
this point he didn't particularly care. The truck was still
drivable and both of them could get out of here, even if Joel
couldn't. He could die knowing they had survived.

"Grab mama and get in the truck and haul ass,
baby...call the police," he pleaded weakly.

"I called the police," Curly Rhodes said over
by the truck. "I want this bastard dead before they get here," she
told him and fired again. "We need to wrap this up quick, so I can
go see my grandbaby get born," she said.

Terri gasped and twisted toward Curly.
"Jenny's in labor?"

"Yeah, that's why I was coming out here, then
I heard the shots, so I went back to the house to get a
gun."

"Mama, you're not Annie Oakley, please just
take Terri and go back to the house!" Joel told her with
frustration.

Terri rubbed his temple again and said, "Where
are you hurting, sugar?"

"Leg is busted," Joel replied and moaned again
when a fresh round of sharp pains shot up his leg.

She leaned over him and ran her hand down his
thigh to his knee. "Lower," he told her, but her hand stopped.
"It's under the four-wheeler so I can't tell how bad it is," she
told him.

"It's bad, trust me," he said with
resignation. Joel had broken bones before, he played many sports as
a kid and was as rough as they came. This one was definitely on a
different scale. He just hoped it wasn't as bad as he thought.
There wouldn't be any way to tell though until they could get the
machine off of him.

When he didn't hear any more shots ring out
for a few minutes, he breathed a sigh of relief. His mother laid
down the gun and scooted over to them. "Help me get this thing off
of him," she told Terri and started pushing it upright. Between the
two women, they managed to raise it a few inches and excruciating
pain ripped through him.

"Oh, god," he groaned and tried to sit
up.

"Lay down, Joel Thomas Rhodes!" his mother
shouted. Joel laid back down because he knew when his mama used his
middle name there'd be hell to pay if he didn't.

He happened to glance back at the barn and saw
Terri's brother round the corner with several other men. The posse
was late, but at least it had arrived. Better late than never, he
thought, when he saw the women lose their grip on the ATV, then
recover.

If they dropped the damned thing on that leg
again, Joel would probably vomit, and he'd probably lose his leg.
That thought sent fresh nausea shooting to his throat and he
watched fascinated as the black dots closed in and blackness took
him away.

Terri held her grip on the heavy ATV for all
she was worth. Curly was doing the same. They'd managed to lift it,
but holding it or moving it higher was another story. Her upper
body strength was awful at best. She definitely wasn't at her best
either, her arms were worn out and almost useless from holding onto
that limb for as long as she had yesterday. If not for the leverage
of her legs and determination, she'd have dropped her side
already.

"Move, Terri," Ethan said and put his hands
under the seat where she had a grip. His friend Tony, another
paramedic, took Curly's place and told her the same. The men hefted
the machine off of Joel as if it weighed nothing, pushing it
upright. All three of them knelt beside him to examine his injury.
The weird angle of his lower leg and the tented material told her
that he probably had a compound fracture. An open wound with a
break in the bone, maybe displaced.

Tony reached inside of his boot and pulled out
a knife, then slit Joel's pants leg from the hem up to his thigh.
Ethan and Tony groaned, and she gasped at the mangled mess that was
Joel's right calf. Terri knelt down beside him and put pressure on
the femoral artery to stop the bleeding and Tony slit his other
pants leg and cut it off, then divided the material into strips
handing them to Ethan who fashioned a pressure dressing for the
wound.

"We need something to splint it," Ethan said
and looked around the area.

"I have a couple of magazines in the truck I
was bringing to the hospital for the wait, would they help?" Curly
asked weakly and wobbled on her feet.

"Perfect, thanks Mrs. Rhodes," Ethan told her
and tied off the dressing.

"Need more ties for the splint, Tony. Then
we've got to get him to the hospital."

Tony cut off the other pants leg and divided
it into strips, and Curly handed him the magazines. After they had
Joel's leg as secure as they could get it, Terri said, "We need a
backboard to stabilize him in case he has back or neck trauma. He
said he was fine except for his leg, but we need to be careful, he
was in shock when he said that."

"There's an old door in the barn, I'll go get
it," Curly told them and headed for the barn. Tony pushed up and
ran with her. A few minutes later they had Joel on the improvised
backboard and were loading him into the back of the
truck.

Sirens blared at the front of the house and
Terri sent up a prayer of thanks that help had finally arrived.
They'd done the best they could to get Joel stabilized, but his leg
was broken as bad as she'd seen in a long time, and that was saying
something. At least he wasn't shot, she thought. He would survive
this, but would his leg was the sixty thousand dollar question.
Terri swallowed down her fear and hopped up in the back of the
truck with him.

When she put her hand on his chest, he opened
his eyes. They were glazed with pain, and she thought fear. "Terri,
just in case--"

She leaned down and brushed her lips over his.
"You're not gonna die, baby, and whatever happens, I'm here for
you...I'm not going anywhere. That's what I was coming to tell
you."

Even though she knew he had to be in extreme
pain, Terri saw his body relax a little and he closed his eyes
again. The truck cranked and Curly circled in the field and drove
them to the house, as police cars headed toward the barn. She
didn't stop when they passed, she went straight for the ambulance
in the front yard.

Ethan hopped down and slid the door toward the
tailgate, then Tony took the top and they carried Joel toward the
medics running toward them. Terri wasn't letting him ride alone, so
she slid off the tailgate then ran after them.

"I'm going with him," she informed all four
men in a no-argument tone, then stood aside while they transferred
Joel from the door to the gurney. When he yelled out in pain and
grabbed his thigh, Terri felt it near her heart and her stomach
lurched. "Ya'll be careful! And give him some damned pain meds!"
she shouted.

"As soon as we get him inside, Miss," the
medic told her with frustration.

"My sister is an ER nurse, so you'll have that
shit until you get him to the hospital," Ethan grumbled and held
Joel's arm, while the medic started an I.V. line.

Terri shot her brother a heated look then
stepped up by Joel's head and brushed his hair back. She leaned
down and kissed his forehead then told them, "Damn right I am and
you're gonna take care of him, I'll make sure of it!"

Hopping up into the back of the ambulance,
Terri helped maneuver the gurney into the back. The medic got
inside then shut the doors, and before she could even sit down, the
other medic had them moving and the sirens blaring.

As soon as they pulled into the ambulance bay
at the hospital, a trauma team took over Joel's care. She walked
alongside the gurney as long as she could, but she had to wait
outside the examining room while they determined the extent of his
injuries. Terri knew if she went inside she'd just be in the
way.