One Grave Less

guns pointed at him. We, on the other hand, would like to take him alive and he knows this. Are you following?” The paramedics nodded.
    “This is just stupid,” said Gracey.
    Liam ignored Gracey and went on as if he hadn’t heard him. “His chances of getting away are very good. He’s well armed. He’s lost only a gun and one knife. He has a host of other weapons on him.”
    “He’s shot,” said Gracey. “Like I said, he’s not Superman. He needs medical treatment.”
    “He can stand the pain until he gets to his buddies,” said Liam. “They will have advanced medic training. They can patch him up and get him to a friendly doctor or a private clinic. They are well funded. And dangerous. These are the guys who didn’t mind setting one of the museum guards on fire who was giving first aid to one of their buddies.”
    “You?” said Chanell. “You did that? You SOB.”
    “The point is,” said Liam, “he’ll let you get him to the ambulance where it’s the two of you and maybe a guard and he’ll make his escape. He won’t mind killing you to do it because the chance of him getting caught again is fairly small.”
    “I’ll get the syringe,” said the second paramedic.
    They loaded it with sedative and stood there holding it. Diane supposed they were wondering who was going to give it to the man. She was wondering the same thing. So was the kidnapper, judging from the smile on his face.
    “Like I said, here’s where it gets tricky,” said Liam. “Diane, I need you to come over and hold the gun. If he moves, shoot to kill immediately.”
    “Okay,” said Gracey, “enough is enough. This is police business.”
    “The faster we do this, the faster the paramedics can get to your partner,” said Liam.
    “This is police business.” Gracey jutted out his chin and put a hand on his black slicked-down wavy hair. “We can take care of it.”
    But he didn’t move to take care of it.
    “I need someone who won’t hesitate,” said Liam. “Don’t make this about you. You have police training, not soldier training. You don’t have the skills necessary for this kind of prisoner. You hesitated a fraction of a second. That’s why he got your gun. It’s not your fault. It’s the difference in training.”
    “The Fallon woman sure doesn’t have the training,” said Gracey. He looked at Diane with what she thought was a disgusted smirk.
    Liam smiled. All the while he spoke he never took his eyes off the prisoner. Nor did he now. “How do you know?” Liam said.
    “What?” said Gracey, looking from Liam to Diane.
    Diane didn’t know what the heck Liam was playing at, but she didn’t say anything.
    “See that blood all over his face and crusted in his eyes? Diane did that. She was fighting him when I got here.”
    They all stared at Diane in bewilderment, except Liam, and kidnapper guy—who laughed out loud.
    “You don’t see her with blood all over her face, do you?” Liam said. “I’m just saying, Diane is the one to do this.”
    Diane wondered why Liam thought that. It disturbed her.
    She walked over to him and without altering the gun’s aim, he replaced his hand with hers, transferring the gun to Diane. He took the syringe from the first paramedic, took a look at the bottle it came from. He walked around behind the man kneeling with his hands on his head.
    “You know she will shoot,” Liam said, “without—”
    Quicker than Diane saw, Liam grabbed him around the throat and pumped the needle in his muscular neck. When he finished, he tossed the syringe toward the paramedics. He held the man in a headlock.
    “As I was saying, she will shoot without hesitation. I think you know this. You can live to fight another day. We both know you can break out of the hospital because they aren’t going to be as serious as I am about this. People just won’t believe your skill level. Be nice and don’t fight the drug and you won’t get your head blown off by a woman.”
    Liam let him go. The kidnapper didn’t move. Liam came back over to Diane and took the gun.
    “Officer Pendleton needs attention,” he said to the paramedics.
    “Oh, sure,” they said, rushing over to attend to Pendleton.
    Gracey stared at Diane the whole time.
    Great , she thought. Now everyone’s going to think I’m some kind of supersoldier . She would be interested to know what Liam was thinking. He believed she would have killed a man without hesitation. Why did he think that of her? Was it true?
    “What