“Out,” he said at last, like a word from another world.
I hadn't even realized the SUV had stopped. I looked up and blinked, watching his black hole eyes closely, looking for anything that might give me a clue about his intentions.
“He said get the fuck out,” the bald man snarled, grabbing my left wrist.
He practically dragged me with him through the open door. I rolled on the cement ground, closely shielding my stomach with my free hand.
If anything happens to my baby...so help me God. I'll kill you all.
I stared into the sky. The thick gray blanket of clouds had broken.
The sun covered half my body, no small comfort with the wind blowing and nothing but a thin jacket I meant to change before taking off for North Dakota. I lifted myself up and saw my hand in shadow.
A huge metal canopy covered us. The dilapidated concrete posts and rusted pumps betrayed the location before I saw the building behind them.
It was a gas station, long since abandoned by the looks of it. But why, what the hell were we doing here?
I stood up, looked around, and counted the four men. For a second, I thought they'd forgotten me – but I wasn't that lucky.
I turned around, only to see the obese man with a dull smile, eyes following me. Tired, I pivoted to their boss, the vicious man who could only be Anderson.
“Okay, we're here. You've got me. What is it you're going to do with me?”
He surprised me. I didn't seriously expect an answer, but the man took several steps toward me.
Anderson stopped a couple feet away, took out a cheap pack of gum from his pocket. I watched as he drew away the wrapper and popped a fresh piece into his mouth.
“Lady, I don't give a shit what happens to you. You're bait. Best thing you can do is settle down and shut up.”
“Bait?” My heart leaped into my chest. Fast, hard, and throbbing.
“Yeah.” He smiled very slowly, biting into the nasty blueberry wad between his teeth. “Lover boy knows this place. He'll show up soon and we'll waste him then. I've got too many big plans to wait around for this thorn to cut me. I'm bleeding him out first.”
Behind him, the bald man drew something out of his pocket. It looked like a small tablet with a map displayed.
“That's it? You really think Declan's an idiot? He won't play into your hands and charge you out in the open.” I spoke with as much conviction as possible, praying I was right.
You don't really know, a nagging voice said deep inside me. You and the cowboy have been thwarted at every turn by these goons so far. What's it going to take to break the pattern?
I shook my head. I couldn't even begin to imagine an answer.
“On the contrary,” he said, chewing several more times with his thin lips. “Your boyfriend is quite talented. It's taken a lot of time and energy on my part to lure him out here. But finally, we're almost done with that nosy bastard.”
He looked me up and down, moving his eyes like a serpent. The breeze at my back suddenly felt downright arctic.
He held the silver gum wrapped up in his fingers and released it. I watched the little flap fly away into the wind, shiny and distracting. I only looked at him again when he spoke.
“Declan's a lucky man to have enjoyed his time with you,” Anderson said. “You're not too bad looking. Just the type of sweet young country gal a man could get very used to.”
“Don't even dream of it!” I spat at him.
He smiled, a little wider this time.
“Me? Oh, I wouldn't dream of it. Poor ignorant girl.” He shook his head, hair wavering in the wind like sharp needles, patronizing as all hell.
“After I'm done with your boyfriend, you'll come up north with me. I know some guys in Canada who wouldn't mind having a toy like you – even if you aren't a virgin. Hell, they don't have to warm up the older, more experienced girls like you. They can be as rough and wicked as they want from day one.”
X: Stand Off (Declan)
I found him sprawled out on the dirt, pale and breathing heavily. I slapped his strong jaw, screaming in the older man's ear. If he died on me, I might never find out what the hell had happened here.
“Jimmy! Come back to me. Stay with us, old man.”
He opened his eyes. It took him a few seconds to focus on me. Next to me, Clarence and Tom applied pressure to the wound.
He'd taken two shots in the side. An airlift was on its way, but out here in the boonies, most of the gravely injured were done before they settled into the helicopter.
“I'm sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry,” he whispered. “You can't imagine what they threatened. Sorry, sorry sorry. If I ever make it out of this...I'm sorry, sorry.”
He whispered the same mantra over and over again. A familiar, insane, and awful word that made me want to comfort this man and bust his teeth at the same time.
Mr. Wiloch, the Milt's Sanitation man, flashed in my head for a second. I gritted my teeth and slapped his cheek again, a little harder this time.
“Where did they go? Was there a black SUV? Tell me!”
“Yes...big and black...chariot...out in the badlands.” His head lolled from side to side, the pallor crept in a little more every second. “Please. Oh, God! Didn't mean to...”
A deafening sound in the sky caused everyone to look up. A large chopper with a red cross painted on the side was landing in the nearby field. The paramedics leaped out the open door before its spindly legs even touched the ground.
We cleared the way and the men went to work on the dying Jimmy. In a few dizzying seconds, he was secured to a stretcher and carried to the waiting aircraft.
“Hell if I'm gonna wait around for this,” Tom said. “Come on, Clarence. Let's go meet him at the hospital.”
I stood, dumbstruck as the two men began to walk away from me.
“Hey, hold on!” I yelled.
They stopped halfway to the barn and stared at me. I caught up and ran straight through them, motioning for them to follow me.
“Let me drive the truck, guys. There's other business I need to take care of. I've got another car for you two.”
My LTD had a thin sheet draped over the top. It hadn't moved from the garage in weeks, not since I took it for short hops into town and back. Had to make Anderson's boys think the vehicle wasn't totally idle.
“I don't know about this, Declan. We can always take one of our own cars.” Clarence shuffled his feet.
Neither of them trusted me. And in some ways, I couldn't blame them. Ever since I showed up on the ranch, their world divided by happy laziness and backbreaking work had been turned upside down.
“Listen, guys. I know we've had our differences. But you better believe me when I say I won't let Misty disappear into that bastard's hands for good.” I nodded my head, turning to face the car again.
“You can think whatever you want. And you'd probably be right – this is all my fault. But I'm a man who rights his wrongs, especially when it's the love of my life on the line.”
I pivoted around, just in time to see the older workers look at each other.
“What's so special about this car?” Tom asked.
“GPS tracker on it. Don't worry, no one's gonna pursue you. I need you to take that thing and drive as fast as you can to catch up with Jimmy. They'll think it's me. They'll never see the truck coming, let alone anything else I've got planned.”
The men locked eyes, exchanging a litany of unspoken worries. Finally, Clarence slapped the dust off his jeans and walked toward the driver's door.
“Alright. Just this one time...come on, Tom.” He waited for his partner, who moved a little more slowly, more cautiously. “You got the keys?”
I managed a weak smile and dug into my pocket. I popped the trunk, grabbed my hunting bag, and tossed the keys into Clarence's hand.
“Thanks for doing this. You're helping Misty a lot. Helping everyone, in fact.”
He nodded sheepishly and popped the door. I ran to the front and opene
d the garage door for them. For a second, I waited, watching the LTD rumble onto the narrow path and into the late dusk.
Darkness was coming. If I wanted to catch them exactly where I thought they'd be, I had to move before sunset. I refused to think about what they'd do if I failed to reach their little base before nightfall.
The LTD was a small pinprick in front of me. I watched its red lights flicker as it slowed, and turned off on the ramp.
I kept going on the lonely road, wondering if I'd ever see my old car again.
The lonely Dakota trails were nearly deserted at this time of day. I drove through town, pressing onward toward the shadow ensconced peaks that had swallowed up the sun.
My hunting bag was in the trunk of this old truck now. I stuffed my pockets with everything I thought I'd need.
As I neared the old gas station, not far from the God forsaken soil where I found that awful note, I reached into my pocket. The ridges were rough against my fingers.
Two little canisters. One bright, and one caustic.
All these weeks and months tracking Anderson, and it all came down to this. These two hand held explosives were my last chance at turning everything around.
Give me the element of surprise, I quietly prayed, eyes focused on the dim yellow line in the road's center. Just this once.
I saw the black SUV parked beneath the canopy. My truck protested as it tore into the off road ruggedness of Dakota earth, kicking up dust along the way.
Anderson's vehicle had its lights off. Next to the busted gas station, it looked like a sleeping eel in the ocean's depths, ready to strike out with teeth and terror whenever it awoke.
They heard the noise before they saw me. I didn't turn my headlights on until I was right on top of them.
A gamble? Absolutely. For all I knew, the bastards would've had Misty up front.
But Anderson had always been a coward, a creep with a Napoleonic complex who preferred to live away from his men.
I grinned into the darkness as my lights surrounded the two thugs. The gorilla bared his teeth and screamed. The bald man looked up, mouth twisted in a silent O.
I swerved at the last second and plowed straight into the corner of the black SUV. Several dark silhouettes ran out the back of the gas station.
The vehicle spun. Glass and metal fragments sailed high into the air, raining onto the ground like shrapnel confetti.
Now!
I unbuckled my belt as soon as the vehicle came to a full stop. I threw myself across the passenger seat and kicked at the latch, hoping the crunched in SUV wasn't blocking my exit.
The door popped. My knees hit the pavement hard. But there wasn't any time for pain.
My ears pricked up. Two, three, four male voices shouted. The notes of a single feminine voice sang higher into the growing darkness.
I threw myself underneath the truck and held my breath.
Two pairs of footsteps moved on both sides of me. Anderson's men tore open the doors and stared at each other.
I shivered, chilled as I imagined their thuggish faces peering through the shadows, confused and enraged. The second they saw me, I was going to get a bullet.
“Show yourself! Right now, you fucking coward.” I recognized Anderson's voice, shakier and shriller than anything I remembered.
His footsteps moved closer. Carefully, I turned, searching out the pointy tips of Misty's boots.
At last, I saw them. She was several feet away, next to another man – probably the driver, standing and staring at the smashed up remains of his vehicle.
“I'm going to give you to the count of three,” Anderson said, stopping next to the man on my left side. “If you don't come out before then, we'll waste the girl.”
I reached into my pocket. Anderson began to count.
“Both of you, aim your sights on her. One...two...”
Blotting out Misty's crying was hell. Just before he bellowed the last number, I tightened my fist, screaming into the night.
“Misty! Get down!”
The canisters rolled out both sides. The flash bang exploded first, bright as lightning. Everything turned red, even though I plastered my eyes at the ground and threw both hands across them.
I only had a second before the other grenade went off. I heard the pop and hiss amid the shouts as I rolled to the side, knocking Anderson and the bald man to the ground.
I felt for the wet kerchief and quickly tied it across my face. Gas was still bellowing out behind me when I seized the bald man's rifle.
My boot went straight into his chest and I held him down, bringing the gun's butt into his temple. Anderson was rolling, sputtering and blind like the rest.
Every second was a full blown universe, a vastness where miracles or catastrophes could occur.
I followed the sound of Misty coughing. The sharp tear gas had gotten into her lungs, but her eyes weren't too bad.
She looked at me through the blur. I dragged out a second moist kerchief and bound it across her face. I prepared the primitive masks just for this, soaking them in water, vinegar, and lemon juice to protect us from the effects.
Just then, I noticed the tight plastic around her hands.
I yanked her aside, rounding the back of the gas station, reaching for my pocket knife. For skilled thugs like these, they'd recover quickly, and I couldn't waste a second.
“Stay back here! Use this to cut yourself free,” I said, passing the knife to her.
When I rounded the corner, the big man was up on his feet, stumbling through the chaos and searching for his boss.
“Get down and drop your weapon!” I screamed.
Footsteps echoed behind me. The driver staggered toward me, handgun drawn.
The gorilla bared his teeth, showing no sign of slowing down. “Fuck you!”
I ducked, expecting a hail of bullets to come out the Uzi in his hands. But it was the driver who fired first.
Several bullets flew over my head, straight into the big man's chest. He dropped the gun, grabbed the dark spots lining his enormous stomach, and collapsed on the ground, narrowly missing Anderson.
Half blind, the driver's finger squeezed the trigger again. I crawled toward him.
He aimed lower, toward the dark shape creeping toward him on the ground.
I was too fast. I knocked him low and slammed his head into the pavement.
“Ah, okay. Okay!”
“The gun, give it to me right now.” I tore it from his hands, and looked up just in time to see Misty rounding the corner. “I told you to stay back there!”
Her mouth opened wide. Too wide for simple disagreement.
“Look out!”
A blow like a stone knocked the gun out of my hand. I rolled completely off the driver, crushed by a new weight, going wildly for my face.
Anderson struggled on top of me. He had a long switchblade in one hand, stabbing aimlessly through his diminishing blindness, knowing just one stroke would do me in.
“Fucking nosy do gooder! I'm gonna slit your throat!”
I screamed and wrestled with him. We rolled, several feet further, right off the old concrete blocks near the gas pumps.
His knife clipped my ear. I roared, punching at his thigh.
The burning sensation bored into my head, a hot drill of pure fire. My brain went wild, activating everything I needed for survival.
Anderson's hands fell across my shoulder, hitting my bones. He grunted, and I realized the knife was stuck in the ground.
My arms didn't want to work anymore. My muscles had done too much, and now they moved like rusty iron, slower and weaker.
I punched up. He rocked back, but was surprisingly resilient for such a lean man.
“Declan, stay down!”
I threw my head back. Anderson looked up in surprise just as Misty pulled the trigger.
If she'd wanted, she could have put the bullet right between his eyes. But she nailed him in the shoulder instead, for my sake, giving me the edge I needed to rise.
/>
He thrashed, screamed, and kicked hard, but it wasn't any use. I tore his sleeve and fashioned some makeshift gauze to stop the bleeding.
I smiled through the grit and horror. The irony wasn't lost on me.
After so much time spent fighting for my life, trying to kill the bastard, now I wanted to keep him alive to collect my bonus.
Misty ran over and helped me hold him down. She finished applying the cloth to his shoulder while I searched my pocket for the handcuffs.
“Stop struggling, you slippery bastard. It's over. Do you hear me?”
I wondered if he was processing anything. If the assault on his senses and the wounded shoulder hadn't messed with his brain, then losing everything to me, to Misty and I, certainly would.
The words worked like a spell, or maybe he was starting to feel the fire of a bullet through the flesh. As soon as I said them, he grew quieter, and gradually stopped struggling.
He only rose up and down every couple seconds, flopping miserably like a fish in an ice chest. My hand brushed Misty's as I straddled him, preparing to haul him up with me.
“Hell of a shot out there. And perfect timing too.”
“Don't you like it when I disobey a little?” She said, her lips quirked up in amusement. “Let's get out of here. You really need to have that looked at.”
My face went slack. I didn't understand what she was talking about until she reached up and touched the missing tip of my ear.
I tensed as pain shot through me, and then she pulled away.
“Not until we get him where he's going.” She followed me in silence as we walked to the truck.
I opened the trunk and threw Anderson in it, but not before drawing a phone out of his pocket. I wasn't taking any chances with him in the back seat where he could get up to mischief.
The driver's door opened crookedly, but worked. It had taken quite a beating in the collision with the SUV. I hoped it would work without giving us any other problems.
Imagine explaining this to a towing company.
Misty eyed the ignition as I slipped the key in. Her eyes shared my nervous wait.
The Alpha's Touch Boxed Set (14 Book Bundle) Page 86
