Richfield & Rivers Mystery Series 1 - Combust the Sun by Andrews, Austin

the honor of descending the hill to examine
bloody bodies. There was too much road traffic.
    I
dug hurriedly through the Jeep debris and located my cell phone. No cell tower
signal. That was the last straw!
    "What
is the fucking purpose of having a phone to save me, when there's no signal? Do
I need to be saved in a populated area? No! I need to be saved when I'm in the
middle of butt-fuck nowhere, shot at by a bunch of cowardly little
assholes..."
    "You're
bleeding. I think it's coming from your mouth, along with a few other terrible
things, like your language."
    "My
language? You don't think this is a situation that might call for a little
language?" I shouted at her, glancing over my shoulder up the hill to make
certain we weren't on the second wave of a death charge.
    Even
though Elmo was crying out in pain, I steeled myself and crawled over him to
the luggage to retrieve my .357 and shells, shaking so badly I could barely
load the gun.
    Suddenly
the men were back, descending the hill, sliding down the sand toward us, two of
them. They must have been waiting for the traffic to clear before coming after
us.
    Callie
whispered, "Oh my God!" and clutched Elmo to her.
    I
was shaking horribly now, the barrel of the gun moving back and forth like a
psychotic metronome. Six bullets, two men. Maybe. They obviously have guns,
but they might not realize we do too. I slithered down in the seat to rest
the gun barrel on the window ledge to steady my shaking hand and got my head
down as close to the gun as possible, telling Callie to lie still. I wanted
them to get very close. Close was my only hope.
    The
two men loped toward the car abreast of one another. Barrel-chested,
linebacker-looking men. They were no more than twenty strides from us. I knew I
had to pull the trigger. Suddenly, from up above, a shrill whistle pierced the
air. The men stopped in their tracks. A man on the hilltop frantically waved
his arms in the air as if directing a jetliner into its berth. The men below
turned and, without a sound, scrambled back up the hillside. Three car doors
slammed. Tires squealed onto the highway. Thirty seconds later a highway patrol
car, its red light on, whizzed past us up above, having apparently scared them
into moving on. I yelled up to the patrol car and hit my car horn, which made
no sound.
    "Omigod,
this is a nightmare! I told you it was a bad idea for you to come on this trip,
and now I've almost gotten you killed!"
    "It's
okay, Teague. It was just a very close call, but we pushed them back with our
energy and the white light," Callie said.
    "The
guy whistled. That's why they went back," I said sarcastically.
    "We
put the protective energy out there, and it merely manifested itself as the guy
whistling them back," Callie said. I couldn't respond because she had hold
of my jaw. "I think you bit your tongue," she said, crawling into the
backseat and opening an ice chest, taking out a few cubes and wrapping them in
a handkerchief. "Hold this against your tongue." As she tried to help
me, she could barely use her arm and I worried out loud that it was broken. She
insisted it wasn't but said I could take a look at it for her when we got to
the motel room. I didn't want to tell her that I wasn't sure if that would be
tonight or two days from now. We were out of sight of the highway. It was pitch
dark, I had no idea if the tires were flat or the gas tank leaking, or if the
car would even run. Callie pulled herself slowly out of the car, circled it,
looked under it, and reported that she thought we just needed to find a trail
that would get us back up on the road.
    "The
top of this car is completely bashed in. My cosmetic mirror would be in
the suitcase on top of the car. I hope it's not broken," she said
seriously.
    "Oh,
me too," I smirked.
    I
found Elmo's "Bute" painkiller before cranking over the engine and
forced a pill down him. My legs were Jello like from fear, and my body felt
like I'd been pummeled with a large