Read Online Gone South (A Butterscotch Jones Mystery Book 3) by Melanie Jackson - Free Book Online

a few other cars as well, but they were headed into the city instead of out.
    “Chuck.”
    “I see them.” Chuck pulled out his phone. “Damn, the batteries are gone.”
    “We could turn back. Maybe go to police headquarters. ”
    “You think they’ll let us?”
    No, not really. I sighed and refastened my seatbelt . I hoped the cups stayed in their cup holders.
    Rain began to fall, just a few fat drops, but I wasn’t thrilled to see it . It didn’t take much rain to make the dirt roads around Seven Forks impassable .
    “We can’t lose them on the highway.” Chuck was thinking out lo u d.
    “But off - road?”
    “Out there, traction counts more than speed. They have mass but we ha ve maneuverability.”
    “Let me have your gun , ” I said.
    “Why?”
    “You’re driving. If things get nasty I’ll have to be the one to shoot back.” I didn’t add that I was probably the better shot in that kind of situation . Chuck practiced with stationary targets at a shooting range . Though I hated hunting, I sometimes had to deal with things that moved fast in bad weather .
    “You’d do that?”
    “In a heart beat.” I didn’t like shooting animals but I had no problem shooting vehicles.
    Chuck reached the same conclusion I had and handed over his service revolver. He had checked before we left the apartment but I open ed it again. It was fully loaded .
    “You handle yourself well,” Chuck said, checking his mirrors. He was getting ready to exit the highway and not in an approved manner .
    “I don’t like guns but I’m not afraid of them.”
    “You can find the way if we leave the road and head into the back country?”
    “Of course. I’d prefer it.”
    “I’m glad one of us is confident that this is a good idea .”
    I am afraid of jails, afraid of strangers who can put me in jails. Or kill me. But I am not afraid of the forest. Show reasonable respect for its denizens, know your terrain , and you’ll be okay. Mostly. Though I wished like anything that we had Max along if we were going to be spending time in the woods at night.
    The E scalades didn’t like our leaving the tarmac and as I had feared, they started shooting the moment that it looked like we would get away . There were no cars in either direction so no one impartial to call for help.
    I didn’t shoot back until we reached a band of tree s that offered cover and they somehow managed to hit a tire. We wouldn’t make it far traveling on a flat and we couldn’t very well stop to change it. Our pursuers had to be disabled so we could escape on foot .
    Chuck had his hands full, controlling the car that was trying to pull left , so I rolled down the window, released my seatbelt , and then swung myself so I was sitting in the window opening.
    “Butterscotch!”
    I laid my right arm on the top of the R over and si gh ted on the neare st Escalade. The ground was bump y, so it was nothing short of a miracle that I managed to eventually shatter the windshield . Fortunately, the driver panicked and slewed sideways and the second Escalade T-boned it. It wasn’t a fatal crash, but it would slow them down.
    Unfortunately, we only had one bullet left.
    “Get us as close to the riverbed as you can,” I said. “It will be easier to walk the banks than push through the undergrowth.”
    Chuck didn’t say anything. His face was pale but he was calm. I guess getting shot at wasn’t as scary as smuggling a girlfriend across the US border. Also, as I had reason to know, Chuck is good in a crisis.
    Though the batteries were dead, we took the phone, the gun with one bullet, a car blanket , and a survival/first aid kit Chuck kept in the back .
    “The rods?” he asked.
    “No. I don’t need them.”
    We heard angry voices.
    “This way,” I said and started down the hill where there were boulders to hide behind while we worked our way toward the stream .
    There were few deciduous trees in these woods, but those grow ing there were doing their level best