by Vanessa Kier
Do it, and you’ll be little better than the rebels, breaking laws for no other reason than because you can.
Sighing, she stuck her hand in her pocket, edged away from the table, and trailed the two men onto the street.
Her shoulders suddenly tensed as instincts that had saved her from arrest more than once warned her of an imminent threat. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, she saw a black Land Rover glide into sight at the end of the street. The driver’s door displayed the same insignia as the rebels who’d captured her.
Pass on by. There’s nothing to see here.
The vehicle turned down the street.
It was possible the rebels intended to cause trouble for all the foreigners present, but Kirra couldn’t take that chance. She squeezed into the narrow space between two shops and hurried toward the back of the buildings where a wide strip of dirt ran along an uncovered drainage ditch. Spurred on by the sound of men’s shouts and the squeal of rubber, as if a vehicle had just taken off at great speed, she sprinted past a woman shaking out a rug and raced across the concrete slab serving as a footbridge.
Kirra ducked into the trees on the other side.
“There she is!”
She risked a glance over her shoulder. Two rebels were running across the dirt behind the nearest building. The one in the lead raised his rifle and fired.
A bullet tore into the tree to her right. Kirra zig-zagged through the grove until the trees ended and she spilled onto a concrete lane barely wide enough for a car. Her professional calmness settled into place, allowing her to assess the situation without being hampered by fear.
She had to stay among the relative protection of the houses until she reached the street where Seth had parked the car.
Bullets hit the concrete around her as she dashed across the lane. Shards hit her legs, but not hard enough to penetrate her trousers. Barely slowing, she squeezed between two large houses set apart by tall security walls. Once she reached the other end of the narrow alley, she ran full tilt across the lawn, urged on by the pounding feet of the rebels behind her. She didn’t dare look back to see how close they were. It might cost her precious time. And she needed every second.
She burst onto the street. Tires squealed. She glanced right and saw the rebels’ Land Rover screech around the corner of the street and barrel toward her.
Kirra swerved left and bolted up a driveway of a house surrounded by an adobe wall with a barred gate. On this side of the wall there were only a few decorative trees that offered no place to hide. Wishing she was back on the beach with its numerous hiding places, she skidded around the corner of the wall and pelted along a dirt footpath that led to the back.
Only a few more streets to go.
And if Seth’s already driven away?
No. She refused to believe that. He’d promised to watch until she’d reached safety. He must have seen the rebels. He wouldn’t leave her.
She heard the Land Rover slam to a halt back on the street. Doors opened. Men shouted.
Kirra sprinted along the footpath as it turned right across another drainage ditch, then wound through another thin grove of trees. The trees ended at an access lane between a row of modest houses on her left and an overgrown canal on her right. Without breaking stride, she ran down the lane, then turned between two houses sharing a shade tree that would hide her momentarily from her pursuers.
Her peripheral vision caught movement to her left a moment before someone grabbed her. A strong male hand covered her mouth while an arm snaked around her torso, trapping her arms against her sides. She was lifted off her feet, turned, and hustled into a dark place.
She shook her head and fought frantically.
Darkness…Pain…Being dragged over a rough surface then dumped onto cold, hard concrete.
“Die, bitch,” Franz whispered to her, his voice so laden with hatred that she almost didn’t recognize it. “Die!”
She couldn’t breathe. Panic froze her limbs as the familiar pain burrowed into her skull.
“Shh,” a male voice whispered in her ear. “Don’t scream, Kirra. It’s Seth.”
Recognizing only that her captor was male, she lashed out with elbows and fists.
Her captor wrapped his second arm around her torso and trapped her legs with his. Blood pounded furiously in her head. Her vision tunneled. She struggled to breathe.
Finally the softly murmured words of encouragement and safety, combined with the absence of pain, broke through her panic.
“S-Seth?”
“Yeah.”
She sagged against his hold. As panic receded, dots danced across her vision and her legs turned to jelly.
“Are you okay?” Seth spoke so quietly she barely heard him over the rapid pounding of her heart. She nodded and he released her. When she wobbled, he took her hand and placed her palm flat against the wall. “We’re in the garage. I’m going to move over to the window to stand guard. Keep quiet and stay here.”
Not trusting her voice, Kirra nodded again. She let her backpack slide gently to the floor, then crossed her arms against the wall and pressed her forehead to the back of her hands while she struggled to catch her breath. She didn’t know how long it took for her heartbeat to slow and her ears to register anything beside the rush of her blood through her veins. Finally, she turned around. Sunlight shone through a small window in the opposite wall, illuminating a patch of the concrete floor while leaving Seth in shadow. He stood beside the window, pistol in hand, watching the rebels run past.
Kirra squeezed her eyes shut. She knew they weren’t safe yet, but the sharp transition from panic to relief had left her weak. She focused on her breathing and getting her equilibrium back so that she’d be ready to run if they were found. Yet she couldn’t stop shaking. She was so cold.
She tried to warm herself up by rubbing her arms with her hands, but that didn’t help. Afraid of giving their position away, she clenched her teeth so they wouldn’t chatter.
All she had to do was hold on and this reaction would pass.
“I am safe. I am in control,” she murmured. But she wasn’t safe yet. The rebels were too close. Repeating the mantra didn’t help.
Eyes still closed, she tried to find happy memories to warm her. But part of her mind remained trapped in that darkness where Franz and his friends had left her to die. The only sound had been her own labored breathing. The only sensations had been pain and the slow chill of death taking her over.
Her headache intensified. She shuddered and sank to the floor.
“Hey,” Seth murmured.
Kirra opened her eyes and saw him crouched in front of her, worry on his face.
“It’s okay,” he said. He stood and pulled her into his arms. Then he ran his hands up and down her back.
She snuggled against his warmth. Here was safety. Here was strength.
“Are you ready to move out?” he whispered against her ear once her tremors had stopped.
She nodded.
“Give me your backpack.”
Knowing she was still too shaky to carry the extra weight, she handed it over.
Seth shrugged into the shoulder straps and adjusted the backpack for his larger frame. Then he nodded toward the door he’d pulled her through. “We’re going out that way. Follow my lead and we’ll be back at the Land Cruiser in five minutes.” He nodded to his left. “I moved it, trying to get close enough to find you before the rebels did.”
She’d been heading in the wrong direction. She swallowed back a surge of fear at how close she’d come to missing him. Don’t think about maybes and what-ifs.
Taking a deep breath, she followed him outside. The sunlight assaulted her eyes after the darkness of the garage. Seth bent down. When he straightened, he held out the sunglasses she’d been wearing. She must have lost them when he grabbed her. “Thank you,” she murmured.
He led her behind the house, through a thicker stand of trees, and into knee-high grass. A few times they flattened themselves on t
he ground or in the narrow space between buildings while rebels walked past. Where had all these men come from? They wouldn’t all have fit in that Land Rover.
She followed Seth across yet another drainage ditch and alongside a smaller house. At the corner of the garage he put his arm out to signal for her to stop, then pointed. His Land Cruiser was parked in the driveway. He turned to her. “I’m going to remotely unlock the vehicle.” Seth slid her backpack off his shoulders and held it in his left hand. “Get in as fast as you can. The vehicle isn’t armored, but once we’re behind the tinted glass, the rebels won’t know who we are.”
“Okay.”
Seth moved behind Kirra. The lights on the Land Cruiser flashed.
“Go!”
Kirra ran toward the vehicle, yanked open the door, and leapt in.
A man yelled. Kirra turned her head to peer out Seth’s door. Four rebels burst into view four houses down.
Seth swore, jumped behind the wheel, and jerked the door shut. He jammed the key into the ignition, shoved the vehicle into reverse, and sped down the driveway as the rebels opened fire. The side window behind his seat shattered under a hail of bullets. Kirra screamed and ducked, hugging her knees.
The vehicle lurched onto the street and kept going in reverse. What was Seth doing? Didn’t he know that—
The vehicle spun so sharply, the tires squealed and the momentum flung Kirra against her door.
Seth shifted out of reverse and stomped on the accelerator. The back window splintered.
He cursed. The Land Cruiser shot forward. Seth spun the wheel and they rocketed onto an intersecting street.
More bullets hit the back windscreen. Pieces of glass turned into shrapnel, peppering the passenger area.
The Land Cruiser leapt forward with a powerful growl. Kirra lifted her head. “Exactly how much horsepower does this thing have?”
Seth gave her a pirate’s grin. “She’s a getaway vehicle.” He patted the dash. “In the U.S. she wouldn’t be street legal.” He flicked a glance at the only intact sideview mirror, the one on Kirra’s side. “We’re losing them.”
“Good.”
Four turns later, they careened onto the main road. Since no one was shooting at them, Kirra sat up.
She glanced behind them and groaned. Two black rebel four-by-fours and a motorcycle were on their tail.
Seth looked over his shoulder. “Shit.”
Barely slowing, he turned onto the grassy divider, cut across the two lanes of oncoming traffic, and blasted down a side road.
“Are you insane?!” Kirra yelled, grinning in delight. Behind them, cars honked and brakes squealed, followed by the crunch of metal. Kirra checked the mirror again. “Seth. The motorcycle is coming up fast.”
“I see it.” He swapped lanes to avoid a bicyclist, then skidded around a corner on two wheels.
Directly into the path of an oncoming tro-tro.
“Eish!" Kirra clutched at the door handle.
Seth swerved, missed the tro-tro by inches, then sped down the street. A minute later, he cursed and slammed on the brakes. The street ended at a crowded roundabout surrounding a memorial park. People strolled among decorative fountains or sat on benches, enjoying the afternoon sun. Vehicle traffic was at a crawl. Seth joined the vehicles moving counterclockwise around the park.
Kirra checked their tail.
A motorcycle sped into the roundabout. The driver hit the brakes, spun in a half circle until he sighted the Land Cruiser, then pulled a rifle out of a sling on the side of the bike.
She caught a glimpse of the man’s white-skinned face before Seth’s hand pushed her head between her knees.
A bullet ripped through the seat where Kirra’s head had been a moment ago. The next bullet lodged in the windscreen between Kirra and Seth.
People in the park were screaming. Kirra heard more shots, but nothing else hit their vehicle. She peeked out her window. The driver of the moto-taxi next to them jerked, then fell to the ground. His passenger dove off the back of the motorcycle. He was also shot.
“What the hell is he doing?” Seth snarled. “It’s me he wants.” He put the vehicle in reverse and sped toward the shooter.
The shooter fired at them, but Seth kept driving. The shooter slammed his rifle back into its carrier and the motorcycle spun away.
Not fast enough. The fender of their Land Cruiser clipped the motorcycle’s rear wheel, sending the bike spinning into the path of a bus. The bus tried to avoid the motorcycle, but it was top-heavy with goats and chickens. It toppled sideways onto the motorcycle.
Seth turned down another street. When they reached the main road, he touched the brakes and quickly scanned for threats before merging into traffic.
“I don’t see any rebels,” Kirra said.
“Me either.” He eased into the flow of vehicles, heading back the way they’d come.
Traffic was heavy enough that there was little room to maneuver. Five minutes later, they approached a cluster of rebel vehicles standing sentinel on the median. Kirra kept her head down and Seth averted his face, but the rebels spotted them and muscled their vehicles into traffic a few cars back.
“To hell with this,” Seth snarled. When the brightly colored minivan ahead of them moved forward, he turned right.
Kirra’s heart kicked on another surge of adrenaline. “What are you doing? We’re too wide!” There was only a narrow strip of earth between the crowded road to their left and a deep drainage ditch to their right.
“Have a little faith, sweetheart.” Seth grinned at her.
“Don’t take your eyes from your driving!” Their wheels must be running along the edge of the ditch, because she saw nothing between her side of the vehicle and the steep drop to the water below. It wasn’t a terribly deep ditch, probably no taller than her. Yet one wrong move and the vehicle would slide into the ditch and be stuck.
The steady confidence with which Seth kept them balanced on the edge was incredibly sexy. Kirra couldn’t help but return his grin.
He turned right over a concrete slab barely wide enough for their vehicle, then ordered, “Fold in your side mirror.” He lowered her window.
“What?”
“Mirror. Flat to vehicle. Now.”
Kirra pulled on the mirror to fold it in. Seth drove into a tight space between two buildings and Kirra winced as the back of the mirror scraped against the walls.
She shook her head. The man had nerves of steel and an impressively steady hand. He would have made an excellent thief.
She checked behind them. One rebel four-by-four had halted on the main road. The other had attempted to drive over the concrete slab. Its wheels must have slipped, because the vehicle hung drunkenly off the side. The idiot driver hauled himself out of his window to fire in Seth and Kirra’s direction, which caused his vehicle to slip farther over the edge. The last Kirra saw of him, he was falling backward as the four-by-four fell into the ditch.
Well.
She settled back in her seat. They reached the end of the alley and Seth turned onto a deserted industrial street, while Kirra returned her mirror to the proper position.
“Are you okay?” Seth demanded.
Kirra’s heart still pounded with excitement and fear. Once again, she felt the seductive thrill of having risked her life and come out the victor. All of her senses were acutely alive.
No. That wasn’t who she wanted to be. Shoving those emotions down deep, she checked herself for injury. “I just have a few scratches,” she said. “The long sleeves protected me.”
“Good.”
She turned her head to check him out. Blood seeped from a gash in his shirt over his right biceps. Red filled her vision. Her breathing became too fast. Too shallow. The world swam out of focus. “Seth, you’re hurt,” she choked out. She managed to point to his arm before nausea rolled over her in a hot wave. She bent double and put her head between her knees.
“Huh? Oh, that’s nothing. Just a graze.” Seth’s voice sounded far
away. “What’s wrong?”
“Saw your blood,” she gasped.
“Sorry. I forgot.”
Once the dizziness and urge to vomit receded, Kirra dared to sit up. Light-headed and drained, she leaned her head against the back of her seat. “What now?”
“I find a car to steal.”
Kirra winced. After waking up from her coma she’d realized that the damage she’d done hadn’t just been in monetary terms. She’d left her victims with the knowledge that their space had been violated and with the fear that it could happen again at any time. So she’d vowed never to steal again. To make up for what she’d done, part of the proceeds from her albums went toward an organization that supported victims’ rights. She’d also performed some volunteer work with delinquent teenagers.
Seth, of course, noticed her negative reaction to his plan. “Sorry if you disapprove, but we need inconspicuous transport. Neither one of us can walk into a rental agency without word getting back to the rebels.”
His quick, yet false, presumption of her motives raised her hackles. “Do whatever you have to.” She shrugged dismissively and turned her back to him. After brushing away the shards of glass, she slouched against the side window. Her conscience would just have to deal with the fact that in order to keep them both alive, Seth had to steal a stranger’s primary means of transport.
“That’s right,” he snapped. “I will do what’s necessary to keep you safe.”
“I don’t know what’s got you so angry,” Kirra muttered. “I said go ahead. Besides, what does it matter what I think? I’m just some stupid hippie chick with no common sense.”
The temperature on Seth’s side of the vehicle turned glacial. “I never implied that you were stupid, Kirra. Idealistic to want to obey the law when our lives are at stake, sure. But not stupid. A woman who managed to evade the rebels on her own for over twenty-four hours is far from stupid and has a hell of a lot more common sense than most people.”
She felt his eyes boring into her back and wished she’d kept her mouth shut. But she was tired and shaky and the words had just popped out.
