Operation: Midnight Escape. Linda Castillo

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СКАЧАТЬ jerked her head once. She just knew he had to be one of Rasmussen’s thugs.

      Setting his forearm against her throat, the man glanced both ways. “You alone?”

      She nodded, wondering where Jake was. “What do you want?”

      “There’s a hefty pricetag on that pretty head of yours. Nothing personal, but I’m going to cash in.”

      She cringed as he ran his hands swiftly and impersonally over her body. She prayed he wouldn’t find the knife in her boot.

      Relief surged through her when he stepped back without patting down her calves. “We’re going to take the elevator down. Nice and easy and quiet. You got it?”

      He stepped into the dim light of a wall sconce, and she got her first good look at him. He was the size of a woolly mammoth with eyes so pale they looked white. His face was pocked and angular. He wore an expensive trench coat. And he held a deadly looking semiautomatic pistol aimed at her heart.

      “Where are you taking me?”

      “You’ll find out soon enough.” He jabbed her ribs with the gun. “Start walking.”

      Leigh glanced down the hall, but the door to her room remained shut. Jake was nowhere in sight. It suddenly occurred to her he might not have heard the commotion. That he could have been on the phone with his superiors. Or maybe he was going to let this man take her and lead him to Rasmussen….

      She knew it was stupid considering this man could kill her at any moment, but the thought hurt the same way it had hurt her six years ago. Damn Jake to hell. She didn’t need him or his protection. She still had the knife, after all. All she had to do was wait….

      The man motioned toward the elevator at the other end of the hall. “He wants you healthy, so don’t try anything stupid.”

      Leigh’s legs were shaking so violently she could barely put one foot in front of the other. Dizzy with fear, she started toward the elevator.

      Rot in hell, Vanderpol, she thought as she passed by the door to her room.

      But as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she’d been secretly hoping Jake would burst from the room and save her. That hope dwindled as they neared the elevator. Leigh could take care of herself, but she was smart enough to know when she was out of her depth. The men who worked for Ian Rasmussen were in an entirely different league altogether. One that was vicious and deadly.

      She was ten feet from the elevator when the sound of steel against steel stopped her. Jake, she thought, and spun. Her legs went weak when she saw him standing just twenty feet away, his weapon trained on the thug.

      Snarling a profanity, the thug jerked her close and jammed the muzzle against her temple. “Make a move and I’ll splatter her brains all over you.”

      “Drop the weapon and let her go,” Jake said with icy calm.

      The thug backed toward the elevator, dragging Leigh with him. “I don’t think you’re in any position to make demands.”

      Jake stepped toward him. “You hurt your precious cargo and Rasmussen will make you wish you’d never been born. I’ve seen what he does to people who cross him and it’s not pretty.”

      “Who the hell are you?”

      “Your worst nightmare.”

      The thug laughed. Leigh’s heart leapt into a wild staccato. The man had his left arm locked around her waist. His right held the gun against her temple. She could hear the rush of his ragged breath in her ear. She could smell the fear coming off him to mingle with her own.

      “Let her go and I’ll let you walk away,” Jake said. “I have no quarrel with you.”

      “Walk away from a big payoff?” The thug traced the gun down the side of her face. “I don’t think you want to mess up this pretty face any more than I do.”

      “Or maybe this is a losing proposition for both of us,” Jake said, edging closer.

      They reached the elevator. The thug loosened his grip on her to press the down button. The gun wavered. Knowing this could be her only chance, that she had only an instant to act, Leigh grasped his gun wrist with both hands. Simultaneously, she brought her boot down on his instep.

      The weapon exploded inches from her ear. The thug jerked the gun in Jake’s direction. In her peripheral vision she saw Jake charge, his weapon leveled on the thug.

      “No!” she screamed.

      Jake took down the thug in a flying tackle. They hit the floor and rolled in a tangle of arms and legs. Hands grappled for guns.

      A second gunshot blew a hole in the wall. Jake’s hand circled the thug’s wrist, but the other man’s finger was on the trigger.

      Run.

      The word echoed inside her head, a primal instinct born of six years of living on the edge. But Leigh didn’t run. Even though she knew Jake was more than capable of taking care of himself, there was no way she could leave him struggling with an armed killer twice his size.

      Not giving herself time to debate, she bent and slid the knife from her boot. Gripping the dull side of the blade in a five-finger grip, she waited for a clean shot. She drew back and let the weapon fly in a short range, half spin throw, exactly the way they’d taught her at the knife-throwing classes she’d taken two years ago.

      The knife spun as if in slow motion, the blade glinting in a perfect downward arc. An instant later the razor sharp point found its mark at the back of the man’s left calf and went in deep.

      The thug’s body went rigid. An animalistic bellow tore from this throat. He turned murderous eyes on her. “You bitch!”

      Jake grabbed the man’s wrist, and the gun flew from his grip and skittered away. “That’s no way to speak to a lady.”

      But the thug was more focused on the knife sticking out of his calf than he was on fighting. His features were contorted in pain. “I’m bleeding! She stabbed me!”

      “You had it coming.” Jake pulled a set of cuffs from his belt and secured the man’s hands behind his back.

      Leigh saw blood coming through his trousers, and for the first time it struck her what she’d done. She’d never hurt another human being in her life. Even though she hadn’t had a choice, the realization made her feel a little sick. The room dipped and began to spin.

      “Leigh.”

      She looked up to see Jake striding toward her, his expression taut. “Easy,” he said. “Don’t look at it.”

      She barely heard him over the rapid-fire beat of her heart. She could hear her breaths coming short and fast, her arms and legs trembling violently. Shock, she thought dully and was surprised, because she’d always thought she was tougher than that.

      “I’m okay,” she heard herself say.

      “You’re going to be real sorry you cut me,” the thug snarled, his face twisted in rage СКАЧАТЬ