Jurassic Heart (24 page)

I tried to move as quickly as I could down the hill without making so much noise they could hear me coming. From what I’d seen on the security camera feed, the two guys were heading toward the trench with my as-yet-unidentified raptor in it. There was little I wouldn’t do to protect that skeleton now. It was the culmination of years of work and….

Suddenly I could hear them, and I froze, hoping the noise of the rain would cover the sound of my heavy breathing. As they drew closer, I ducked behind a tree, feeling stupid and wet and a little bit scared. It had seemed like such a good idea, coming out here and confronting the people who had repeatedly made my life miserable over the past few months. Now my impulse seemed silly and dangerous. From this position, I could just about see the site of our raptor find, and that was the most important thing. If they headed for my baby, I’d go after them like a savage mama bear.

I prayed Hunter had gotten to the police right away and that they were coming. That thought filled me up: help was surely on the way. I just had to watch them, make sure they weren’t doing any damage, and wait for the police to arrive.

The heavy footsteps came closer and closer to where I was still crouched, thighs burning, among some thick tree roots, cold and wet and shivering.

“Oh shit,” one of them cursed, and I could hear them starting to run.

“Hey!”

I recognized that voice—Boner’s—and I couldn’t tell if they’d noticed him first or if he’d caught them about to do something stupid. I had to dash out from where I’d been hiding, not sure if I was too close and they’d see me.

“The police are on their way!”

And oh fuck, that was Hunter.

“Stay where you are!”

He was much farther up the hill, and I decided to loop back around to where the two men had broken in, to block off their escape route if they decided to run. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to manage that—I was pretty sure they were bigger than me—but at that point, they didn’t know I was out there, and I hoped that put me at an advantage.

Halfway along that path, I finally got a look at where they’d managed to cut through the chains of the security fence. There was one hole big enough for a man to squeeze through. I stayed hidden as best I could while Boner and Hunter shouted to each other.

Then I heard the gunshot.

I physically heaved, afraid I’d throw up, the fear was so bad. Hunter or Boner. Hunter or Boner. There was no way of knowing who’d been shot at or if the gunman had hit his intended target. Hunter or Boner.

I loved them both.

The sound of running forced me to pay attention again. The two men were closing in on where I was hiding, moving closer quicker than I could process my own thoughts. They were, still unaware that I was out here. That was my only advantage.

It was ridiculous and probably extremely stupid, but all I could think to do was trip them.
This is not fucking
Looney Tunes, a voice in the back of my head snapped. I ignored it. Someone was chasing the guys down the hill, shouting for them to stop, and if I tuned in, I could probably have recognized the voice. The thought of figuring it out, Hunter or Boner… I wasn’t ready for that answer.

They were only seconds away when I executed my terrible plan, stuck my foot out, and managed to trip one of them. Only one.

He went down with a loud thud and a crack I hoped was one of his fucking bones, but the other guy was still running. There was nothing for it—the only thing I could do was throw myself out onto the man with the intention of knocking him over.

This guy was so much bigger than me. I’d been a skinny, nerdy little runt for most of my life, and this guy was built like Hunter—big and burly and broad across the shoulders. He grunted, probably thinking his friend had tripped over something, not realizing he’d been tripped on purpose.

As I grappled and tried to shove him over in a direction away from our delicate trenches, he sharply elbowed me in the neck, and I went down like a sack of potatoes. It had stalled him enough, though, that when Hunter caught up with us seconds later, he managed to grab the guy by the back of his shirt and throw him against the fence. With a sickening thud, the man’s skull collided with one of the metal fence posts, and he crumpled to the ground.

The relief that help had arrived was short-lived; police sirens were screaming up the dirt road, but that wasn’t enough. I hadn’t heard Boner’s voice since the gunshot, and my own pain, a dull throb in my throat, was nothing compared to how badly he might have been hurt.

“Boner,” I gasped at Hunter, so, so afraid for my best friend, my voice a harsh wheeze.

“Over that way,” he said, pointing, and looked at the two guys on the ground, making sure they weren’t moving. One of them was groaning in pain. “Go, Nick!”

“Here,” I said, shoving my unused flashlight at him. “To get the cops….”

“No. You need it more than I do.”

“I’ll find him,” I said fiercely.

He took it, whether because he agreed or to shut me up, I didn’t know.

Stumbling around the dig in the dark and the driving rain was difficult, especially now that I only had occasional flashes of lightning and strategically placed tarps to guide me. Still, I knew this dig like the back of my hand, knew it better than anyone else. I had to let instinct and my memory guide me through, hoping I didn’t fall into an unmarked trench by accident. I wasn’t going to be able to help Boner if I broke my leg.

Another flash of lightning and I spotted him, his blond dreads fanned out around his head as he lay flat on his back.

“Boner!” I gasped as I scrabbled toward him, afraid in the most basic part of myself. Afraid all the way down to my bones. “George!”

I couldn’t see any blood, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. My heart was pounding in my sore throat when I finally reached him and gently touched his face, then pressed my fingers to the side of his neck, trying to find a pulse with trembling fingers.

When I found it, I felt like crying.

When he rasped, “Hey,” I did.

“You stupid idiot, I thought you were dead,” I sniffed.

“Arm,” he said, nodding at his right bicep. Sure enough, his left hand was wrapped around his arm, just above the elbow.

“Those fuckers got you?”

“Don’t think so,” he said. “It just grazed me. Still hurts, though. Thought I’d go down. Make sure they didn’t try to shoot me again.”

I was distracted by the sound of cops running down the hill and jumped up.

“Watch out!” I yelled at them. “Don’t fall in the fucking trenches! Go over by the trees. The trees!”

“Ambulance?” Boner croaked.

“Oh shit,” I muttered. “I don’t have my cell on me. I left it in the trailer. Can you move?”

“I’d prefer not to.”

“Shit. I don’t wanna leave you.” I dug around in his pocket until I found his flashlight, and then waved it around until I saw a cop come down the hill toward us.

“Is someone there?” a female voice called.

“Yeah. My friend got shot.”

I heard her muttering into what I guessed was her radio as she continued to edge down the hill.

“What the hell is going on out here?” she muttered.

“We’re digging up dinosaurs,” I said. For some reason, Boner found this hilarious. “Please,” I said. “I don’t think he’s badly hurt, but he needs to see a doctor.”

The woman crouched next to us. “I’m Officer Romano,” she said.

“I’m Nick,” I said. “This is Boner.”

“Boner?”

“George,” I offered. “But trust me, if you know him for more than ten minutes, you’ll learn why we call him Boner.”

“Hi, Boner,” she said gently and brushed a few of his dreads off his face. “How are you doing?”

“I’ve been shot,” he said simply.

“Okay. There’s an ambulance on the way. Do you think you can walk to the top of the hill to meet them? I’m not sure trying to get a gurney down here is a very good idea.”

“Can you help?”

“Of course.”

Officer Romano and I each took a side and helped Boner struggle to his feet. He didn’t seem to want to let go of his arm, and I wasn’t about to force him to. Instead, we hobbled up the hill like some strange six-legged creature.

“Do you know what’s going on?” I asked as the trailer finally came into sight. “My… Hunter was still down there when I went to find Boner.”

“I’ve had a few updates,” she said. “We’re going to need to question you all, you know that, right?”

I nodded. “But Hunter’s okay?”

“Yes. He’s fine.”

I helped Boner sit on the edge of a picnic bench. The sky was still thick with thunder, but the rain was starting to ease off into a heavy drizzle, filling the air and sticking my clothes to my already soaking skin. Boner was shivering, so I ran into the trailer and grabbed the blanket I’d wrapped around him earlier and folded him into it again, scared he might be going into shock.

The ambulance arrived at the same time Hunter came back over the crest of the hill, escorted by a police officer. I was torn between them once again as a paramedic hustled Boner into the back of the ambulance. I wanted to be with both of them.

“Give me your keys,” he said as I started toward him, satisfied the paramedic would take good care of Boner for the moment.

“What?”

“Leave me your keys. I’ll lock up for you, then come down to the hospital.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded. “Of course. The police want to question us, and I need to give them the number of the security firm so they can get the tapes. You should go with him, Nick. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

I pressed a kiss to his mouth, holding on for as long as I dared, then a few moments more.

“Go on,” he said as he pulled away. “I won’t be long.”

I couldn’t help but feel like I was splitting myself in two. I didn’t want to choose between them, but Hunter was right, Boner needed me, and I trusted Hunter to deal with securing the site.

By the time I got back to the ambulance, they had an IV drip in Boner’s hand, and it looked like they were ready to go.

“Can I come?” I asked them breathlessly.

The paramedic nodded, and I hopped up inside, surprised when Officer Romano climbed in next to me.

“It’s standard procedure for a shooting victim,” she said in explanation, and I nodded. Boner looked so pale. He was pale anyway, but now his skin had a sickly gray hue, and I hated it. I hated that someone had hurt him like this.

When we got to the hospital, the nurses whisked him into a room, and I was forced to wait outside until the doctor came out and said he was going to be okay, they didn’t need to operate. He’d been lucky; the bullet had grazed his arm and not penetrated it, so he just needed to be bandaged up and looked after.

“I can do that,” I said. The doctor smiled and nodded, saying they’d keep an eye on him for another hour or so, and then if he was stable, they’d release him with some strong painkillers.

I checked my phone and was a little surprised to see it was nearly four in the morning. It felt like everything had happened so quickly, and yet I was still in the dark about the details and how it actually went down. I wanted to talk to the police now, as much to tell them what I knew as to find out from them exactly who those guys were.

The series of attacks on the site had been going on for so long, the thought it could be over was blissful relief. Knowing Boner was safe and Hunter was on his way was enough. I put my head back and slept.

H
UNTER
WOKE
me, gently shaking my shoulder not too long after I’d fallen asleep; my muscles had only just started to cramp. He still looked damp, and I was hyperaware of my own clothes drying and sticking to my skin.

“Is Boner okay?”

“Yeah,” I said as I rubbed my tired, itchy eyes behind my glasses. “They should let him go soon.”

“Good.”

I waited a moment. Then he pulled me roughly up and into his arms.

“I didn’t know,” I said with my face buried in his chest. “When I heard the shot, I didn’t know if it was you or him. I’ve never been so scared.”

Hunter pressed his lips to my head and held them there, giving me time to find the strength to hold myself up again. I wasn’t ready to admit I was torn between the two people I loved—that was too close for comfort just yet.

“The police will want to talk to us in the morning,” Hunter said. “I’ve been told we can all go home tonight, though.”

“Who were those guys?”

“I don’t know. They wouldn’t tell me. The fact that one of them shot at Boner was enough to keep them in custody overnight, though. I told them you’d want to press charges for trespassing too.”

“Damn right I do.”

When we sat down, he took my hand and laced his fingers with mine over his knee. Since I wanted it too, I let him.

I napped on Hunter’s shoulder for a while until the doctor came and said Boner could go home. Then Hunter drove us back to the motel, helped me get Boner’s drugged-up ass into bed, and kissed me good night… good morning; the sun was coming up. I had already called Sam and let him know what had happened. He was going to try to coordinate something for the morning, but I couldn’t think about that.

I watched Hunter leave, his car pulling away into the hazy morning light. I kept my eyes fixed on the car until it turned the corner, out of sight, then finally stripped down to my underwear and crawled into bed behind Boner.

He wasn’t quite sleeping and pulled my arm around his waist, letting me hold him.

“Don’t ever do that to me again,” I murmured against his shoulder, letting the movement of my lips act as a hundred little kisses. “I love you too much. Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

“I won’t,” he said. “I love you too.”

For a while I didn’t sleep, wanting to be there in case he woke up and needed me for something. It took a while to unwind too, to let go of all the stress the night had caused. When I finally slept, I was plagued with nightmares.