Harlequin Intrigue January 2021 - Box Set 2 of 2

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Harlequin Intrigue January 2021 - Box Set 2 of 2 Page 30

by Elle James, Nichole Severn


  Raleigh increased the pressure against the zip tie around her wrists. “The second account is yours, isn’t it? The one whoever hired you promised you’d walk away with after this was all over?”

  “Four…” Emily readjusted her grip on the weapon.

  “You don’t have to do this,” she said. “Please.”

  Her former assistant turned to Beckett. “Three, Raleigh. You’re running out of time.”

  Raleigh lifted her wrists above the nail before slamming her hands down onto the nail. The zip tie snapped, and she rushed forward. Catching Emily around the middle, she tackled the shooter to the floor. A gunshot exploded loud in her ears, but she couldn’t focus on that right now. Pure adrenaline and desperation burned through her. Fisting Emily’s jacket by the collar, she slammed the gunwoman back into the cement as hard as she could.

  Her attacker stopped fighting, Emily’s brown eyes wide. The lines around her mouth and eyes softened with unconsciousness. The air rushed from Raleigh’s lungs as she loosened her grip on the woman beneath her. Her fingers ached with the amount of force she’d used, just as they had all those years ago. She could still feel the edges of the rock digging into her hand as she’d brought it down against her aunt’s head that day. Staring at the blood crusted in her palms, she pushed away from Emily. Raleigh fell back, barely able to keep herself upright. Whether from the blood loss or the rush of memories clouding her focus now, she didn’t know, but she couldn’t wait for Emily to come around. Her former assistant had been right. There wasn’t anything she wasn’t willing to do to protect the people she cared about.

  They had to get out of here. She had to get Beckett help.

  “Beckett.” Her hands shook as she got to her feet and reached for him. “Come on. You have to get up. We need to get out of here.”

  A groan rumbled through his chest, and Raleigh couldn’t stop the burst of relief escaping as she battled the burn of tears. Because if she didn’t have this small release, she feared she might shatter right here on the floor. He was going to make it. She had to believe that, but first, she had to get him on his feet. “I’m going to help you stand, okay? We can do this.”

  She collected Emily’s gun from where her former assistant had dropped it. Maneuvering his uninjured arm across her back, she ducked her shoulder beneath his side and forced his upper body up. Panicked seconds ticked by as she used the last of her remaining strength to get him to his feet and wedged him against her side. Her pain receptors caught fire as they headed for the main door. Emily hadn’t moved. Hadn’t given any sign she’d be regaining consciousness, but Raleigh wasn’t willing to wait around for that to happen. The shooter wouldn’t have walked here in case she had to make a quick getaway. Emily had to have a vehicle nearby, possibly hidden. She and Beckett just had to find it.

  Before either of them collapsed from blood loss.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Raleigh.” Her name slipped past his lips as they stumbled from the stall into the main part of the barn together. His head hurt. Hell, his whole body hurt, but it was nothing compared to the sight of so much blood spreading across her shirt. “Stop. You need—”

  “We need to keep moving.” Her fingers fisted tight in his shirt as she struggled to take most of his weight. How she was able to keep walking and drag his injured butt at the same time, he had no idea. Seemed no matter the circumstance, she was determined to prove how strong she could be, but Raleigh didn’t need to prove anything to him. She never had. Well, other than her innocence. “She’s not going to be out for long.”

  Emily Cline. Damn it. She was right. They had to get out of here. The woman had been sent to tie up loose ends, to make sure Raleigh never got the chance to clear her name, and she wouldn’t stop until the job was done. As much as Raleigh’s former assistant had researched him, he knew her kind, too, and he wasn’t going to wait around to see how far the shooter would go to complete her mission. They’d lost this battle, but he sure as hell would find out who was behind this war. He’d do whatever it took, for however long it took, to take them down.

  “I’ve got you. Keep your weight on me.” Raleigh led them through the main barn door and out into the open. The toe of his boot dragged behind him as the stab wound weakened his right leg, but she didn’t show any signs of slowing despite her uneven exhalations. Keeping her gaze dead ahead, she directed them toward the nearest spread of pines to the west. “We’re going to make it. I promise. We just need to retrace Emily’s footprints back to her vehicle, okay?”

  He’d been an idiot. Even if Emily hadn’t caught up with their trail, how the hell had he ever convinced himself Raleigh had taken that money? Every sacrifice she’d made was for the people she cared about. She hadn’t reached for his backup weapon at her aunt’s cabin to make another run for freedom but to give them a chance of survival during the shoot-out. She could’ve disappeared in the middle of the night when they’d made camp, but instead she’d soothed him when the nightmares came for him. Then she’d offered to turn herself in to keep him and their baby safe. Criminals didn’t do that.

  The evidence had been all right there, perfectly staged and easily accessible to anyone who’d come to investigate the missing donation funds, made it look like she’d turned into the kind of criminal he hated the most, the kind that hurt others to gain for themselves. The kind of criminal like his father, a man who didn’t give a damn about the consequences of his selfishness. But that wasn’t Raleigh. Never had been. Everything she’d done had been for the benefit of others, especially their unborn baby. “I trust you.”

  He meant it, too. They were going to make it. Because Raleigh Wilde never looked a challenge in the face and backed down, and he couldn’t help but admire her for that. When it’d come right down to it, he’d been a coward when he’d cut her out of his life after her arrest. He hadn’t wanted to feel the pain of losing another person he’d given a damn about to the wrong side of the law, so he’d convinced himself he hadn’t known her at all, hadn’t loved her. Hadn’t been compromised in any way, but it’d all been a lie.

  Her grip strengthened around his arm draped along her shoulders. “Is it too soon to remind you I suggested we make a run for the trees when the first bullet went through the window?”

  “You can say I-told-you-so as much as you want after we get the hell out of here.” He set his back teeth against the throbbing ripping through his shoulder with each swing of his arm. There was only twenty feet left between them and the tree line. As soon as they reached cover, he’d take a look at her wound. From the amount of blood plastering her sweater to the shirt beneath, he figured she had maybe ten—fifteen—minutes at the most before she collapsed. She was one of the most ambitious, driven and impressive women he’d ever known, and that included the chief deputy of his division. Then again, she could only push herself while pregnant for so long before all that fire ran out. This woman was nothing like he’d come across before, but that didn’t make her immune to the things the rest of the mere mortals on earth physically succumbed to. Infection, blood loss, exhaustion. “We need to get you to the hospital.”

  Ten feet until they’d reach the trees. Green grass bled to dying wildflowers and slightly cooler temperatures in the shade of the pines.

  “I…can’t. I’m still a fugitive, Beckett. If I go there…they’ll take me into custody.” Her hand slipped from his waist. Color drained from the patches of red along her face and neck, those mesmerizing green eyes suddenly distant. Her breathing changed, growing more shallow, uneven. She stumbled forward.

  Beckett caught her a split second before she collapsed, but her weight and the lack of strength in his right leg pulled him down along with her. Gravel cut into his palms as he braced himself from landing on top of her. She was still conscious. Barely. He scanned the rest of the property for any sign Emily had followed their trail. They couldn’t wait for her to catch up. A scream built in his chest as he worke
d his uninjured arm under her lower back and hauled her up over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. His leg throbbed. She was right. She was on the FBI’s most wanted list. They couldn’t walk right into a public hospital without alerting local PD and the feds. She’d be taken back into custody, and he’d have to answer for not bringing her in. “I’ve got someone who can help. A former combat medic. He’s a marshal. I trust him.”

  But could they take the risk?

  “Then that’ll have…to be good enough for me,” she said. “I can walk. You’re still…bleeding.”

  Pressure should’ve released from behind his sternum as they crossed the tree line. They weren’t out of the woods yet, metaphorically speaking, but they at least had a chance to disappear, to find cover. He should’ve been there for her after the arrest. He should’ve known better than to believe she’d taken that money, especially after showing him that first sonogram of the life they’d created together. He’d promised to always be there for her, no matter the circumstances, because that was what she’d needed. Someone she could trust, rely on, someone who cared about her after she’d been discarded by so many others, but he’d run at the first sign of trouble. “You might be out to prove to the world how strong and resilient you are, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need someone to take care of you every now and then.”

  Beckett adjusted his grip at the back of her knees. He wouldn’t run again.

  “Not to the world.” Her voice softened, somehow distant yet reverberating down his spine at the same time. “Just…you.”

  “You don’t have to prove anything to me.” He was the one who’d betrayed her, but he’d spend the rest of his life making it up to her if that was what it took. Beckett pushed deeper into the woods, that knot of uncertainty growing bigger in his gut. It wouldn’t take much for the shooter to catch up with them, considering the amount of blood he was leaving behind on his own and the fact Emily wasn’t carrying another person on her back, but he wasn’t going to stop following the shooter’s prints in the mud. Not until Raleigh was safe.

  Up ahead, sunlight glinted off tinted glass, and Beckett slowed. A dark SUV had been parked in the thickest part of the woods to cover Emily’s approach to the ranch, and he’d never been more thankful at the sight of a standard black vehicle in all his life. “Almost there. Just hang on. I’ll get you out of here.”

  Silence descended around them. Moss-covered pines towered overhead, blocking sunlight from reaching the forest floor in some spots, and the hairs on the back of his neck rose on end. Damp wood and earth tickled his senses. Something was wrong. Well, other than they were fifty miles from the nearest hospital. Hell, from the nearest town.

  Cold metal pressed to the back of his neck, and Beckett froze, air stuck in his lungs.

  “I’m not leaving without her, Marshal.” Emily’s voice shook, but the barrel of a gun pressed to the base of his skull remained steady. She must’ve had a backup neither him nor Raleigh had noticed. One wrong move, and she’d pull the trigger.

  Raleigh didn’t have that kind of time. Neither of them did.

  “You’re already looking at the entire US Marshals Service coming down as hard as they can for attempted murder of a federal agent, Emily.” His head throbbed, his pulse loud behind his ears. He didn’t have a weapon and happened to be holding the one thing she wanted that he wasn’t willing to give up—Raleigh. “You can end this now. All you have to do is let me get her to a hospital, and I can put in a good word with the district attorney after you turn yourself in and admit your part in all of this.”

  “You’re right.” Emily cocked the gun. “I can end this now.”

  Beckett tightened his hold on the woman in his arms and launched himself off to the right. The gun went off next to his ear. High-pitched ringing threw him off-balance, but he caught himself before letting Raleigh hit the ground. Rolling, he released his grip on her and shot to his feet before Emily could target him again. He wrapped one hand around her wrist and shoved to get the shooter as far from Raleigh as he could. One strike to her midsection. Two. He positioned her arm over his shoulder, hauled her over his back and slammed her onto the ground.

  The rush of her lungs emptying didn’t slow her for long. Swinging the gun toward him, Emily shot to her feet with a rolling growl escaping her chest. “You’re only making this harder on yourself, Marshal. On both of you.”

  “Go to hell.” Beckett reached out, wrapped one hand around the gun barrel and crushed his knee against her wrist. The gun disappeared into the underlying brush. He dodged the left hook aimed at his face and blocked the second attempt as he backed low out of her reach, but his leg slowed him down. Her knee landed hard against his jaw, and he stumbled back.

  “Been there. Only this time you and your fugitive are coming with me.” Emily spread her stance, ready to charge.

  Three distinct gunshots exploded from a few feet away.

  Emily pulled up short, brown gaze wide. Dropping her chin to her chest, she let her mouth fall open as blood spread across her front before collapsing face-first into the dirt. Dead.

  Beckett located the second shooter, and his gut twisted. “Raleigh.”

  She held a hand to her bleeding side, dark hair wild around her face. Exhaustion etched deep lines around compelling green eyes staring down at the woman she’d shot. She lowered the gun, expression smooth and distant. “She can’t hurt us anymore.”

  * * *

  HE FELL TO his hands and knees, one hand over the stab wound in his thigh.

  “Beckett!” Raleigh rushed forward. She’d neutralized the threat by shooting Emily, but he was still in danger of going into shock. Soon he’d lose enough blood to cause his organs to start shutting down one by one. She had to get him out of here. Emily’s SUV. It was the only chance they had. Sliding her free hand across his muscled back, she forced him to sit up, fire igniting along her side. “We need to get to the car. Come on.”

  Her head pounded, fatigue overwhelming, but she wasn’t going to give up on him. Because he hadn’t given up on her. He’d had the chance. He could’ve brought her in after he’d discovered her hiding at the cabin, but he hadn’t. He’d chosen to help clear her name, even if it’d been for the sake of their baby. He’d made the choice to break that legendary code of his and given his word to a fugitive. Now it was her turn to help him.

  Raleigh dragged him in to her side, letting out the scream of pain that’d been building since she’d escaped the fireball set to kill her, and found a small rush of release. Something real and raw she hadn’t felt in years. One step toward the shooter’s vehicle. Two.

  “Raleigh, stop,” he said.

  “No.” She stumbled, unable to keep hiding the pain, unable to ignore the hurt she’d shouldered all these years. It crashed down around her as she battled to get Beckett to the SUV. Tears burned as mountains of uncertainty, doubt and effort slipped from the dark crevices she’d held on to protect herself. She’d convinced herself everything she’d been through—all the trauma, the betrayal, the shame—had carved her into a strong, emotionally impenetrable woman who never faltered, never failed, never relented. Who’d learned to rely on no one but herself, but she was so tired of holding it all together, tired of being numb. Day by day, she’d systematically become a black hole of nothingness to everyone around her after the incident on that beach, most recently Beckett. Invisible, unknown, void of anything to the naked eye, but over the past eighteen hours the man at her side had forced her to face the light, to feel, and she couldn’t hide anymore. “I’m not letting you die out here. She doesn’t get to win. She doesn’t get to have this control over us.”

  “Find…” he said. “Reed.”

  “Reed?” Emily’s gun still in hand, she hefted Beckett against the hood of the passenger side and fumbled for the door. The truth of the matter was she wouldn’t have survived the past few hours without Beckett. She owed him her life—hers an
d the baby’s—and she’d never be able to pay that back, but she was going to try. She wrenched the door open and maneuvered him to sit against the front seat before hoisting his legs inside. “Stay awake, damn it.”

  Rounding the front of the SUV, she clutched on to the hood as a rush of pain gutted her from the inside. The bleeding in her side hadn’t slowed, but she couldn’t stop now. Not after everything they’d survived. She closed her eyes, nails digging into the vehicle’s paint. “You can do this. You have to do this.”

  Because she couldn’t lose him. Not again.

  The pressure in her gut released after a few seconds, and she pushed one foot in front of the other until she reached the driver’s-side door. After hauling herself into the seat, she set the gun between her and Beckett and pressed the ignition button.

  The engine growled to life for a few moments, then cut out.

  Raleigh hit the ignition a second time, one hand tight around the steering wheel. Her heart thudded hard in her chest. Seconds slipped away. She punched the start button again. “Come on.”

  Nothing.

  She slammed the palm of her hand against the steering wheel. Emily had to have a safety feature in place that prevented anyone else from taking off with her vehicle. Every minute she wasted here was another minute Beckett didn’t have. Her hands trembled as she pulled the release for the door and slid from the car. Using the SUV for balance, she slipped her hand along the cool metal until she reached the front of the vehicle a second time and hesitated as her fingers traced the edge of the hood. The metal didn’t line up, as though the hood had been popped. Hope flooded through her as she inserted her hand between the hood and the SUV’s main frame and lifted slightly. The hood released, and she dropped it back into place. She slid back behind the steering wheel and pushed the ignition button. “We’re going to make it. Stay with me.”

 

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