Targeted (Callahan & McLane Book 4) by Kendra Elliot Read Free Book Online

painfully aware he wasn’t armed. The figure vanished and he pressed forward, pumping his legs harder. Twice he tripped on the uneven ground but managed to stay upright.
    A cracking sound came from ahead to his left and he changed course. He saw low branches move and he pushed harder. The shouts of officers behind him grew fainter and the figure came into view. It was a blond man in a dark-yellow sweatshirt.
    “Oregon State Police! Stop!”
    The man didn’t stop, but Mason had gained ground. He estimated less than twenty yards between him and the suspect.
    The blond man’s arms flailed for a split second and he dropped out of sight. Mason heard him shout in pain.
    Seconds later Mason stood over a man writhing in the dirt, clutching at his right arm. He’d fallen into a wide shallow ditch.
    “On your stomach, arms out to your sides!”
    “I fucking can’t! I think it’s broken!”
    Mason stepped down into the ditch, rolled him to his stomach, put a knee on his back, and yanked his arms out to the sides as the man shrieked.
    He didn’t have cuffs or a gun, but the pain distracted the suspect from noticing. Mason knew he had a dozen officers with cuffs not far behind him. He pulled the man’s left arm behind his back and awkwardly searched him for weapons with his other hand.
    Footsteps crashed through the woods. “Over here!” Mason shouted. “He’s down! Over here!”
    A Lincoln County deputy burst through the brush. “I need your cuffs,” Mason said. “Help me check him for weapons. He thinks he broke his arm.”
    “You take him down?” The deputy jumped into the ditch and handed Mason his cuffs. He ran his hands over the man’s legs.
    “Nah, he tripped.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Really. That’s what happened. Hey, you tripped, right?” He poked the man in the back.
    “Fuck you. Watch the arm! ” he shrieked as Mason pulled on his right arm to cuff him.
    “Here’s another set.” The deputy handed him a second pair to link to the first to give the man’s arms more room. Three other officers, including Nora Hawes and Ray, stumbled into the area.
    “Nice job, Callahan!” Ray slapped him on the back. Mason stood, breathing heavily as he looked around for Ava. The adrenaline felt like fire in his veins and he wanted to tear down the trees to find her. She showed up a second later and he relaxed.
    “What were you doing in the woods?” he directed to the man on the ground.
    “Not illegal to be in the woods,” he snapped in reply. “You can’t arrest me.”
    “Then why were you running?”
    “Because you ran after me!”
    Mason stepped to the side and knelt to get a good look at his face.
    It was one of the guys from the bar incident.
    “Did you enjoy the pitcher of beer I bought you?” Mason asked.

    Ava listened to the suspect whine as he stood next to a deputy’s vehicle while Nora made arrangements to have two deputies take him to the hospital. A wallet in his pocket had revealed the man’s name was Tim Jessop and he lived in Depoe Bay. Mason’s three detective friends stood nearby, arms crossed on their chests as they watched every movement the suspect made.
    “I know this guy,” muttered one of the local deputies. “I’ve arrested him and his buddies a half-dozen times for being stupid.”
    Ava grinned. She could easily imagine the types of things Jessop and his friends had done to draw the disdain of the police. Most probably involved alcohol. According to Mason, if he hadn’t calmed down the group with a pitcher of beer last night, the idiot would probably be sitting in a jail cell still cooling off.
    Maybe if they’d called the police Denny wouldn’t be dead.
    She shook her head, hoping Mason’s brain hadn’t followed the same train of logic. They had no evidence the men had anything to do with Denny’s death. Yet.
    The deputy knew the names of several of Jessop’s friends. He pulled up their driver’s license photos on his computer and the four OSP detectives immediately