Rules In Blackmail. Nichole Severn

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СКАЧАТЬ The seat belt held her in the passenger seat, upside down. Couldn’t search her for injuries here. They needed to get clear of the wreck. “Captain Reise, can you hear me?”

      She didn’t respond, unconscious.

      Bracing himself, Sullivan released her belt and caught her just before she hit the SUV’s roof. He pressed his palm against the glistening gash across the right side of her head to stop the bleeding, then checked her slender neck for a pulse. Thready, but there.

      Burning rubber and exhaust worked down into his lungs. Crouching low to see through the passenger-side window, he kept pressure on her wound. But couldn’t hold it for long. The yellow tow truck’s tires screeched again as it made another lunge straight for them.

      “You’ve got to be kidding me.” His fight-or-flight instinct kicked into high gear. Heaving Jane across the cab, he pulled her through his shattered driver’s-side window with everything he had. They cleared the SUV, but his momentum catapulted them down the steep embankment surrounding the shallow water of Knik Arm.

      The world spun as snow and mud worked under his clothes and clung tight to his skin and hair. His arms closed around Jane, the movement as natural as breathing as they rolled. They slammed into a nearby tree, mere feet from the ice-cold water of the river. Positioned on top of her, he scanned her once more, panting. His vision split into two and he shook his head.

      He leveraged his weight into the palms of his hands to give her more breathing room, his heart pumping hard. “Captain Reise, wake up. We need to—”

      The second crash forced Sullivan’s gaze up the snow-covered hill. The SUV’s headlights flickered a split second before the entire vehicle started to slide down the slope, heading right for them. There was no time to think. He dug his fingertips into Jane’s arm and spun them through the snow and weeds to the right as fast as he could. The SUV sped past, breaking through the six inches of solid ice at the edge of the river.

      Hell. This wasn’t some freak accident. Someone wasn’t just stalking Jane. They’d now decided they wanted her dead. He studied the cut across her head, then her sharp features. She’d been telling the truth. Sullivan exhaled hard. Puffs of breath crystallized in front of his mouth. “Come on, Jane. We have to get out of here.”

      Jane? When had he started calling her by her first name?

      Screeching tires above echoed in his ears as the tow truck hauled fast away from the scene. Damn it. He hadn’t seen the driver at all. He could still catch up. He could—

      Jane moaned as she stirred in his arms. Her lips parted. Such soft, pink lips. Pulse now beating steady at the base of her throat, she fought to focus on him. She lifted one hand toward her face, but he wrapped his fingers around her small wrist. “What...happened? My head—” She locked her fuzzy gaze on him. “Did you just call me Jane instead of Captain Reise?”

      He swallowed. She’d heard that? “You hit your head pretty hard against the window when the truck slammed into us. Must’ve heard me wrong.”

      Sullivan shoved a strand of her hair out of her face to see her wound better. Her features softened as she closed her eyes. She was okay as far as he could tell, but the spike of adrenaline had yet to drain from his system. Whoever had been driving that truck had made a very dangerous enemy. Not only had he gone after an unarmed woman, he’d tried killing the CEO of the government’s most resourced private security contractor. No way Sullivan was going to turn Jane’s case over to Anchorage PD now. That bastard was his.

      “What happened?” Those brilliant hazel eyes swept over the embankment, and he noted exactly when Jane caught sight of the totaled SUV. Every muscle down her spine tightened as she dug her heels into the snow to sit up. “Somebody tried to kill us.”

      No point in denying the facts. Her stalker had gone from hunting Jane in her own home to outright attempted murder. “Looks that way. Can you stand?”

      She nodded, rolling her upper body off the ground, but grabbed for his arm. Stinging heat splintered through his muscles where she touched him, his bare skin exposed to the dropping temperatures.

      “It’ll be light soon.” Sullivan tugged his arm from her grasp as he scanned their surroundings. They hadn’t made it too far from downtown, but he couldn’t take the chance of taking her back to the office. Her stalker had known exactly where to find them, as if he’d been waiting. Might’ve been on her tail when Jane had broken into Blackhawk Security. Whoever it was, the guy was willing to kill bystanders to get to her, which meant they couldn’t go to her town house either. “We don’t want to be caught out here overnight.”

      “There’s nowhere we can hide.” Her teeth chattered together as she wrapped her arms around her midsection. She stared at the half-sunken SUV, shaking her head. “I was careful. I made sure no one was following me when I went to your office. I made sure...” Her words left her mouth quick and breathless as she finally looked at him. “He wants me dead.”

      His insides flipped, and Sullivan reached for her without thinking. He pulled her into his chest. At about five foot three, Jane barely came to his sternum, but she fitted. Fragile, vulnerable, but strong. His back molars clamped together, jaw straining. She’d ripped apart his family. She was even blackmailing him into protecting her, but the fear darkening those eyes had urged him to lock her body against his automatically. Her job might’ve made her a few enemies, but not even the army’s most revered prosecutor deserved to be hunted like an animal. No one did.

      Tremors racked through her—most likely shock—but he dropped his hold. Wisps of her sweet scent replaced the smell of exhaust and burned rubber seared into his memory, and he inhaled deeply to clear his system. They had to get moving. “Whoever this guy is, we’ll find him.”

      The shivers simmered. Sliding her hands between their bodies, she placed them above his heart and tilted her head back to look up at him. “Thank you.”

      Heat worked through his chest, a combination of dropping temperatures and the rage he held for her fighting for his attention. Her nearly dying at the hands of a crazed psychopath wouldn’t change the past between them. Nothing could.

      “For getting me out of the SUV, I mean.” Cuts, scrapes and dried blood marred her otherwise flawless skin, a small bruise forming on the right side of her face. A strand of short black hair slid along the curve of her cheek, but he wouldn’t brush it away. “You could’ve left me there to take care of your blackmail problem, but you didn’t. I appreciate that.”

      He kept his expression tight. Right. Jane Reise had the power to bring down his entire company with one phone call and had made it perfectly clear she was willing to use it. How could he have forgotten?

      “Yeah, well, whoever you pissed off tried to kill me, and you’re the only lead I have to hunt him down.” Sullivan put some much-needed space between them. She’d most certainly lived up to her reputation in the last hour they’d been forced together. He curled his fingers into his palms to douse the urge to comfort her. The woman who’d destroyed his family—the woman blackmailing him for his help—didn’t deserve comfort. And she wouldn’t get it from him. He had control. Time to use it.

      “Right.” Jane’s throat constricted on a hard swallow. She shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and surveyed their surroundings. “I’d say call a tow truck, but I think your SUV is beyond saving.”

      Cracking ice pulled his attention toward the river. The SUV was sinking. In less than five minutes, the entire vehicle would be submerged in the icy Gulf of Alaska. Treading through СКАЧАТЬ