by Diana Duncan
Mr. Muscles had to see his death in her eyes.
She planted her feet and stared at him. Didn’t speak. Didn’t blink. She held his gaze until he blinked first. Aidan had called the intimidating stare a dominance issue. Bending, she tugged out his gag. “Did you see us shove your cohorts off the cliff?”
His pale eyes widened. He nodded.
She forced her voice to sound hard and cold. “Then you know I’m not averse to killing.” The other men weren’t dead, but he didn’t know that. He hadn’t seen them swimming in the Pacific.
His Adam’s apple bobbed. He gave another careful nod.
Sweat soaked Zoe’s palms, and trickled in a thin line down her spine. Slowly, she pulled her hand from behind her and pressed the gun to his temple. The fact that her hand was shaking as badly as a junkie craving a fix could only heighten his terror. “How much do you want to live?”
His eyes opened wide and startled. He gulped. “Don’t waste me. I was just having a little fun with you, babe.”
The acrid smell of his fear curled in her nostrils. She swallowed a surge of nausea. Threatening to take the life of another human being was the hardest thing she’d ever done.
No. Meaning the threat was the hardest thing she’d ever done.
She swallowed again. She couldn’t throw up. He’d never buy her act if she yakked on his shoes. “You don’t want to die tonight?”
“No!” The whites of his eyes gleamed in the moonlight. “Don’t shoot!”
“That’s up to you.” She narrowed her eyes, and tried to control her trembling. “The cop is trapped over the bluff. I need him to survive on this godforsaken island. I don’t need you for anything.” She paused to let that sink in. Let him think she was as cold-hearted as she sounded. “You get my meaning?”
“Yeah.” He bobbed his head. “You say it, I do it.”
“He’s less than four feet down, but can’t climb with a dislocated shoulder. You’re tall enough to reach and strong enough to pull him up.”
“You’re the boss.”
She untied his ankles, then moved behind him to loosen the belt binding his hands. “Don’t try anything. Even with both kneecaps shot out, you can still pull him up. I won’t hesitate.”
“I believe you, babe.”
The nausea grew overwhelming, and she retched behind his back. Good thing her stomach was empty. If she weren’t telling the truth about her intentions, why would a hardened criminal believe she’d kill him? Where had all this sudden ruthlessness come from? What kind of person was she?
She stayed behind him and kept the pistol at his back as they walked toward the bluff. A person who was trying to save the man she loved. Zoe staggered and nearly dropped the gun.
Whoa! Love? When had that happened? Probably the moment they’d met. She’d looked up into determined brown eyes shadowed with unspoken pain and claimed him as her cop.
When had it become a reality?
Agony stopped her heart. The moment he’d disappeared over the cliff, and she thought she’d lost him forever.
Muscles had reached the cliff’s edge. Her pulse jolted into triple time as he dropped to his stomach and slid toward the edge.
Zoe moved to one side, spread her legs and trained the gun on his head. “If the cop dies, you die.”
“Now, don’t get trigger-happy, babe. Nobody has to die.”
She prayed not. She was taking a huge gamble. However, she had no choice. Aidan would die if she didn’t get him off the cliff. She’d learned long ago that sometimes you have to risk everything in order to gain anything. “Aidan?” she called.
“Yeah?”
“The bad guy is coming to rescue you. Let him pull you up.”
“What?” He sounded as shocked as if she’d informed him his mother and Letty had just robbed Oregon Pacific Bank. “If this is your plan…”
“Don’t look a gift SUV in the mouth, SWAT.”
“Uh…Zoe? Are you okay? This has been a stressful night, and watching me fall was traumatic—”
“I’m fine. Go with the flow, Aidan.” Stressful was putting it mildly. She was exhausted, filthy, scared and holding Muscles at gunpoint made her sick to death inside.
Muscles scooted farther over and leaned, stretched out his hand. Zoe’s stomach heaved again. Muscles strained and Aidan grunted. Zoe’s fingers tightened on the gun. She prayed harder than she ever had in her life.
A thousand agonizing heartbeats later, Aidan’s dark, tousled hair appeared over the rise. His face came into view, dust-streaked and sharpened by pain. His shoulders appeared, scratched and bruised. Then he was stretched full-length on solid ground.
Alive. Safe.
The breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding exploded in a rush, and Zoe reeled in relief. She’d saved him!
She fought down tears and the burning lump in her throat. No time to get emotional. Stay focused until Aidan was truly safe. She shuffled sideways, putting herself between him and Muscles, who sat watching her. She wiggled the gun. She’d never realized before how incredibly heavy a weapon could be. Both physically and mentally. “Scoot back. Don’t get up until I say.”
“No arguments from me, babe.” His cautious movements put ten feet between them.
Aidan struggled to his feet behind her, his breaths harsh. He had to be in killer pain by now, but headstrong Irish grit kept him going. And she loved him for it. Elation sang inside her. She loved everything about him.
He rested an unsteady hand on her shoulder. She suspected she was supporting more of his weight than he realized. “Dammit, Zoe! Of all the stubborn, rash…” His voice was hoarse with strain. “You risked your life—” He inhaled shakily. “I told you to leave.”
Okay, maybe she didn’t love his bossy side so much. “And if I had, you’d be a jigsaw puzzle right now. Did you really believe I would walk away and let you die?”
“You should have put your own safety first.”
“Right.” Anger and lingering terror made her shake. “Show up at your mother’s house with pieces of you in a box? Sorry, Mrs. O’Rourke, but I was too worried about my own hide. Guess it will have to be a c-closed-casket s-service,” she choked out.
He whispered a curse and pressed against her back, body to body. As close as they could get to a hug under the circumstances. He was trembling violently. His fingers squeezed her shoulder. “Thank you for saving my life,” he murmured into her ear. “But you scared the ever-loving crap out of me.”
“And you didn’t scare me?” she muttered. “I’ll have to add hair dye to my budget to cover all the gray.” She glanced at Muscles. The wound on his head had soaked through the pad. She’d have to fix that before they left. “We don’t have time for this.”
“No. We don’t.” Aidan inhaled again, and she felt him struggling for control. “Hell, Brenda Starr, you’ve turned me upside down, inside out and every which way but loose.”
“Ditto, SWAT.” She cast a quick glance over her shoulder, and her heart stuttered. He was battered, weary and patient suffering clouded his eyes. “Will you be okay? You look terrible.”
His sensual mouth slanted in a crooked grin. “And they claim appearances are deceiving.”
“Can you hold the gun on Muscles while I cuff him?”
“I think I can manage.” His tone was wry. “Even with my left hand, at this range, I could hardly miss.”
She moved to his left and passed him the pistol.
He gestured at Muscles. “Up.” In spite of his condition, or maybe because of it, he looked and sounded dangerously lethal.
Muscles slowly rose, and Zoe studied the big man. “I’m sorry about…bullying you into helping the cop.” He was a criminal who had tried to kidnap her and kill Aidan. Apologizing to him probably seemed ridiculous. But he was a human being and she had threatened his life. She couldn’t do anything but apologize. “I didn’t have a choice.”
He shrugged. “Business is business, babe.” Aidan gestured with the pistol again, an
d they all walked toward the tree line. Muscles barked out a nervous laugh. “At first, I thought you were gonna whack me for copping a feel. A pissed-off chick packing heat is freaking scary.”
“I’m not ecstatic about it, either, punk.” Aidan scowled. “And unless you want to meet a lot more ‘pissed-off chicks’ in your questionable future, keep your hands to yourself.”
Muscles spread his hands, palms out. “Chill out, 5-0. You took a taste. You gotta admit, she has a nice rack under that sexy shirt. Small, but perky.”
A low, savage growl rumbled in Aidan’s throat, and Zoe glanced at him in alarm. Rage vibrated off him in almost visible waves. “Shut the hell up.”
Zoe’s instincts prickled, and the hair rose on the back of her neck. Not at Aidan’s anger. At the familiar, eerie sense of being stalked. Just like before, every nerve screamed, every muscle went taut. She peered into the gloom. Was the underbrush moving? “Aidan! I think someone is—”
The ferns parted, and the cougar prowled into the clearing.
Muscles rapidly backed up. “Holy crap! Rico didn’t say anything about wild animals!”
Aidan pointed the gun at the big cat. “He smells the blood on you. Don’t move.”
The cougar snarled, and stalked toward Muscles, who again backpedaled.
“Freeze! Every time you move, he moves.” The sinews in Aidan’s arm roped as he aimed, prepared to shoot. “I’m working left-handed, and don’t want to hit you by mistake.”
Muscles yelled, “Freeze? Hit me by mistake? Screw this!”
Then everything happened at once. Muscles panicked and bolted for the woods. The cougar leapt. The gun roared.
The cat flinched away from the noise and scrambled aside. It regained its balance, turned and followed the fleeing man into the trees. Aidan spun, shooting twice more. The cougar veered off track, but didn’t falter. “I missed, dammit!”
Horrified, Zoe strained to see through the gloom. “Will he make it?”
“I don’t know. Damn.” Aidan leaned against a wide trunk. “At least the gunshots slowed the cougar down. The gym rat got a head start. If it helps any, he has better odds now than tied to a tree.”
It was the proverbial last straw. Zoe dropped to her knees and burst into tears.
“Hey!” Aidan crouched at her side, his voice deep with concern. “Sweetheart? What is it?” His hand skimmed over her. “Are you hurt?”
“I was so m-mean to him.”
“What?” Incredulity rang in his question. “He’s a criminal, Zoe. He kidnapped us. He molested you and tried to kill me.”
“I—I know. But he’s still a p-person. He did save your life. I p-pointed a gun at his head and told him I would shoot him, and I meant every word,” she sobbed. “I hit him and tied him up and ordered him around and was such a b-bitch to him and now he’ll probably die a horrible, grisly death. No matter what, he doesn’t deserve that.”
“Come here.” He urged her up, his one-handed movements awkward. His good arm hugged her close to his warm, hard body. “You’ve had a rough day, and you’re suffering post-traumatic stress. Everything will be all right.”
Rough day? The master of understatement. “Look around, SWAT. How can you s-say everything will b-be all right?”
“I just fell over a cliff and survived, thanks to you.” He tipped up her chin, and wiped away her tears with a gentle thumb. “You have to get it together, honey.”
“Have to find it, first.”
He chuckled and briskly rubbed her back. “Where’s my glass-always-half-full girl? I need her in order for both of us to make it through this. And we have to go, sweetheart.”
“Right.” With difficulty, Zoe squelched her tears along with the out-of-control emotions threatening to tear her apart. Suck it up, Zagretti. He’s right, things have to get better. “I’m just slightly frazzled around the edges.”
“No wonder.” He brushed his lips over hers, a quick, soft caress that filled her with warm resolve. “C’mon. The gunshots will alert the rest of the bad guys.” He tucked the pistol in his waistband and urged her toward the tree line. “And I’m out of bullets.”
Ashamed, she wiped her face with her shirtsleeve. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall apart and endanger us.”
“You’re doing damn good,” he murmured. “You can fall apart after this is over, for as long as you want.”
“I’ll hold you to that, SWAT.”
After a fast adjustment to his sling, which had held up well, considering, he rapidly covered their tracks while she snatched up their things.
They slogged into deep shadow. Shades of gray splotched the choking blackness, along with occasional slices of silver moonlight. She groped for the steady warmth of Aidan’s callused palm, and his strong fingers entwined with hers. Insects chittered and small bodies scurried out of their path. She’d never realized how many predators prowled at night. Leaves rustled overhead, and she tensed. An eerie cry echoed in the damp air. An owl. She stared up uneasily at the huge, winged silhouette wheeling into the sky, and stepped on a prickly bush. “Ow!”
He stopped and glanced down. “I forgot you were barefoot.”
She smiled. “You had one or two things on your mind.”
“We’re hidden here, and you can move faster if your feet are protected. Have a seat.” He steered her to a fallen log. “Pass me the cardboard from your notebook.” He folded it into crude insoles. She held them in place while he wrapped the homemade braided rope in spirals around her foot. She tied the ends at the ankle, and he extended his hand. “I need the manicure scissors. I can’t believe you made rope with them.”
“I used something much more efficient.” She retrieved the Swiss Army knife from her bag. “I assume this is yours?”
“Yeah.” Her heart ached at the tenderness in his eyes. “Nice to have it back. Pop gave it to me on my thirteenth birthday.” The blade bit through the rope. Aidan bound her other foot. She fastened the rope, and he gave her his socks to pull on and hold everything together. He patted her foot. “There. Not exactly Nikes, but better than nothing.”
“He had these in his pockets, too.” She returned his keys and wallet, and then helped him retie his dress shoes, minus socks. “I’ve never bought designer labels. Silly to spend good money for someone else’s name, if you ask me.” At least that’s what she’d convinced herself.
She stood and turned her foot from side to side, impressed with his ingenuity. The impromptu slipper-shoes were surprisingly comfortable. “What now?”
“Find a place to barricade ourselves until daybreak. Rest and gather our strength. Then reassess.”
The knife snapped shut. In the midst of thrusting it into his pocket, he froze. In the distance, faint sounds echoed through the forest. His eyes narrowed. “Or not.”
She frowned. “Do I hear barking?”
His mouth compressed in a grim line. “They’re hunting us with dogs.” He grabbed her hand. “C’mon, sweetheart. We can’t hide from dogs. Kick it into high gear.”
Running flat out, she clutched his hand and trusted his lead. She couldn’t see a thing except menacing shadows and distorted shapes. Behind them, the barking became more strident. Had the dogs caught their scent?
Aidan dragged her down a bank, and her feet plopped in ice-cold liquid. She gasped at the shock. “It’ll be harder to run in the creek.”
“Also harder for them to track our scent.” The barking grew louder. “Hustle!”
Though the makeshift slippers grew heavy and sodden in the calf-deep stream, she appreciated some protection between her feet and the rocky creek bottom. No time to remove them, anyway.
They stumbled and slipped in their headlong flight. The sideways current dragged against them, making every step an effort.
After slogging what seemed like miles, her calf muscles burned, and her thighs wobbled like cooked spaghetti.
Beside her, Aidan staggered. How could he keep up this pace after being wounded and falling over a cliff? He h
ad to be running on sheer stubbornness. She dropped to her knees in the icy stream and gasped for breath. “I can’t take…another step. Go on…without me.”
He hauled her up. “No way. All for one and one for all.”
If he could do it in his battered condition, come hell or high water, so could she. Zoe stubbornly lifted one leaden foot at a time. She could barely breathe, but set her body on auto pilot and strove to distance fear and pain. She sucked in oxygen. “The Musketeers…really fits.”
He squeezed her hand. “Breathe, don’t talk.”
“Yeah. Tell you…later.”
They pushed ahead. Farther downstream, she cocked her head. The barking sounded fainter, and off to their right. “Did we lose them?”
He slipped, splashing chilly water to his waist, and up her right side. “I doubt it.”
She clung to him, keeping him upright. Would this nightmare never end? “Naturally. Wouldn’t do…to let us get complacent.”
They slogged around a bend. He dodged an overhanging tree limb and laughed raggedly. “There’s my snarky, feisty girl.”
A cramp shot through Zoe’s side, doubling her over. She hugged her ribs. “Lungs don’t…work,” she wheezed. She again fell to her knees, and this time Aidan dropped beside her. Shivering, she planted her hands on the stony creek-bed and hung her head. “Leg muscles…don’t work, either.”
A moment of silence ticked past, broken only by the sounds of their pursuers closing in. “Okay.” Aidan inhaled, catching his breath. His tone was deathly calm. “Hide under the tree roots over there. I’ll lead them away from you.”
Behind them, the barking again became louder.
Fierce determination exploded inside, and she shoved to her feet and yanked him up beside her. “In the immortal words of Mr. ‘Gym Rat’ Muscles, ‘screw that.’”
He uttered another low, ragged laugh. “Or not.”
Helped by the brief respite and energized with resolve, her second wind kicked in, and she jogged downstream beside him. Though she was soaked, frozen, sore and exhausted, it no longer mattered. “You sure know how to push my buttons, SWAT.”
