Someone Safe. Lori Harris L.

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СКАЧАТЬ he unloaded yet another clip. Explosion after explosion went off until she lost track of which protected her—the ones from Nick’s gun—and which came from the weapons of their pursuers.

      A bullet slammed within inches of her hand, then closer still until she felt the heat of its impact as it chewed a hole in the soil. Her chest ached as if she’d been pummeled. She couldn’t seem to breath. Or think. Or move. Instead of seconds and minutes, time was measured in never-ending explosions.

      Then deafening silence.

      Nick remained kneeling over her, his left hand keeping her down, his face barely discernable in the shadows as he waited. Instead of its usual saltiness, the night air tasted of spent powder. And of fear.

      He wrapped his fingers around her upper arm and bent down until his mouth was close to her ear. “When I give the signal, run. I’ll be right behind you.”

      She looked around her for the first time. They were closer to the hotel’s maintenance alley than she had realized.

      “Now!”

      Kelly scrabbled to her feet, headed for the cover of a Dumpster as more rounds attempted to force them back to the ground. Nick followed.

      They worked their way around the back of the hotel by way of the service courtyard and alley. The beach was an easy sprint just beyond and offered the cover of trees and dunes.

      Ten minutes later, they ducked into a narrow lane created by tall, vine-covered fences. Nick rested behind a group of trash cans, while Kelly slumped against the side of the building, her lungs on fire. Her leg muscles, after running close to a mile in the soft sand, cramped. In fact, at that moment, there wasn’t much of her body that didn’t hurt, ache or burn.

      “I don’t like it,” Nick said. “That was too easy.”

      “Easy?” she managed between heaving breaths. “I’d like to see your idea of hard.” She closed her eyes. “I take that back.” She exhaled harshly. “I’d rather not.”

      Nick’s expression remained grim. “Even if the one I hit wasn’t just wounded, one of the other two should have continued to chase us.”

      “Maybe they were afraid of the police.”

      “Men like that aren’t worried about the law.”

      “You were well prepared,” she commented. “As if you were expecting them.”

      “I was warned.” He placed the gun next to him on the pavement while he removed his shirt.

      “You said those men might have been looking for you?”

      “Yeah.” He didn’t elaborate.

      Earlier, she’d noticed changes in him. But since she’d knocked on his door those differences had become even more apparent. There had been no hesitation, no change in his voice when he talked of killing a man.

      Seven years ago, there had been a softness in Nick. It had been so deeply imbedded at his core it had been nearly impossible to reach, but in those last few weeks before her father’s suicide, before everything had changed, she’d seen glimpses. She suspected it no longer existed. He was now as ruthless and determined as the men following them. The bare, well-muscled chest and shoulders and the leather holster weighted with a very serious piece of steel did nothing to lessen her impression of him. Nor did the closed expression on his rugged face.

      With her forearm, Kelly swiped away some of the sweat continuing to bead her forehead. What had happened in the intervening years to harden him. The job, no doubt.

      “How many bullets do you have left?”

      He stood to wrap the shirt around his thigh. “Enough to keep us alive a bit longer.”

      The wound didn’t look so bad from where she was sitting, though she suspected, listening to his harsh intake of breath as he pulled the material tight, it was causing him quite a bit of pain.

      Kelly followed suit and got to her feet. The last thing she wanted to be was left behind. “Are you going to be all right?”

      “Yeah.” He started to take her arm, then seemed to decide against it. “It’ll need to be cleaned out when we get wherever we’re going. Perhaps now would be a good time for you to let me in on our destination.”

      Kelly picked her way along the alley. “My aunt’s house. She’s out of town until tomorrow.”

      Nick caught up and pulled her to a stop. “I don’t recall any aunt.” He tightened his fingers around her arm.

      She sensed his distrust. “I’ll tell you what, Cavanaugh. You can believe whatever you want. You can put your ass right back on the ground and stay here with your leg the way it is, but, right now, I want more cover than this alley is providing and maybe some kind of bed.”

      With that, she jerked free of his hold and turned and walked away. Nick caught up, fell in step beside her.

      They were a strange pair, he decided. Neither trusting the other, yet linked together again by a second twist of fate. He glanced over at her, studied her profile. The hair, red-gold when caught in sunlight or in lamplight, turned a paler, more muted shade in the moonlight. The tail end of a breeze played with it now.

      He recalled the feel of it earlier. Silky and cool. Just like her skin… Nick kicked that door shut. Kelly was no less desirable now than she had been back in Jersey, but he was a hell of a lot smarter now.

      They passed no one as they traveled the narrow streets.

      Brightly colored cottages and shacks jumbled along the waterfront like cereal boxes on a shelf. The muggy night air offered odors. Age and uncollected trash. Hibiscus and frangipani blooms. The stench of oyster beds at low tide.

      Though Elbow Cay was a decent-sized island, the settlement was compact, small enough they’d be easy to spot.

      “I’d liked to get off these streets. How much farther?

      “We’re close.”

      He followed without comment when she ducked down a narrow alley between a pair of two-story clapboard structures. Though she didn’t knock before entering the unlocked door of one of them, caution made him pause to check the area.

      A cat, curled in sleep, was braced against the front door of the other building as if waiting for it to open. A flag barely fluttered overhead. Otherwise, there was no sign of life, no lights on inside either home.

      The door through which Kelly disappeared groaned softly with the breeze. Tension tightened in him as he considered the possibility he’d walked into a trap. Not of Binelli’s making, but of Kelly’s. There was no aunt. He’d done the background check on her seven years ago and knew as much.

      Nick removed the magazine clip from his weapon, switched it with the full one in his pocket. Safety off, he edged inside, halting next to her.

      Except for the subtle scent of a recently cooked meal, the dark room smelled much as the outdoors had. The French doors along the opposite wall were open, moonlight angling into an enclosed courtyard beyond.

      Something moved in СКАЧАТЬ