Locked and Loaded. HelenKay Dimon

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СКАЧАТЬ handle of the door to pull her body up to a kneeling position. Spinning the dials, she put in the combinations and undid the series of locks. Silence filled the small area, but the tension pulsed hard enough to knock her over.

      “Got it?” He reached around her and helped shove away the panel.

      The tight space turned claustrophobic. His chest pressed against her back. His arms wrapped around her from each side, trapping her tight to his body. From his breath against her hair, to his knees wedging her feet against the outside walls of the space, she was surrounded. Imprisoned and unable to launch her desperate plan.

      Fingers fumbling, she helped Adam unseal the last of the opening. The black night and cool reviving air greeted them. A ceiling of stars peeked through the thick walls of trees. She heard chirping and the rustle of branches in the wind.

      “Looks clear.” The words were almost soundless by her ear. “Climb out nice and slow until we’re sure.”

      Her brain started a countdown. It ended when Adam grabbed a fistful of her shirt and held her in place.

      “Don’t even think about running.” He guided her out and jumped to his feet before she could gain her balance. “I’m your best shot at staying alive.”

      If he was trying to make her feel better, he missed the mark by a good two miles. “They have the guns.”

      “They’re not alone.” He slipped one hand under her elbow and kept the other on the weapon that appeared in his hand as if by some demented magic trick.

      “I thought you were one of the good guys.”

      “Why do you think I’m not?”

      “The gun.”

      “You want a rescuer with a weapon. Trust me.”

      She didn’t want a rescuer at all. “I’d prefer to get out of here.”

      “That’s next.” Adam pressed her back against the shed and slid his body against hers.

      Pinned to a wall with his hard chest at her front, she couldn’t move. His stance wasn’t sexual or even over-bearing. It was more protective than anything.

      For the first time since he walked into the diner, he struck her as a man accustomed to giving orders and having them followed. The type of guy who rushed in to help when others ran away to safety. The exact opposite of a shy computer nerd.

      The gun passed in front of her face for a second then was gone. He had one of her hands in his and her other was trapped against his broad chest. He wasn’t looking at her, but she couldn’t help looking at him. She wondered how she’d ever viewed him as harmless. Seeing him in action now, gun up and attitude firmly in place, she could smell the power on him. It mixed with the cool mint scent of his breath.

      She swallowed, trying to block out everything but the slamming of her heart and the plan forming in her head. “Well?”

      He shook his head. “I don’t see them.”

      “What does that mean?”

      “They could have breached the inside.” He stepped back and brought her with him. They walked around the side of the shed until her cabin sat to their left and his stood at a fifty-yard dead run in front of them. “We’re not going to wait to find out. We have to circle around my cabin and get to my car.”

      “Why not use mine?”

      “They’d probably recognize it. Might have tampered with it.”

      His points made sense. Very logical, just a bit too informed for the man he was supposed to be.

      But standing there was the wrong call, in her view. “Let’s run while we can.”

      She had shifted only enough to get an unobstructed view of her house, when the snapping of a twig registered in her brain. A green light sliced across her yard to land on her stomach. Shock stopped her steps.

      “Get down!”

      Adam’s voice barely registered. She saw his eyes widen and his mouth open on a shout. Everything else moved in slow motion. A figured appeared in front of her, clad all in black and aiming a weapon right at her head. She tried to see his face, but a helmet and mask covered him.

      Her brain clicked to life just as a huge weight knocked into her from behind. Her knees buckled and the ground inched closer. Arms wrapped around her chest, banding and confining her, half cushioning her fall and half pushing her deeper into the dirt.

      The thud and bounce against the hard earth pushed a grunt up her throat as her bones rattled. Every muscle screamed in agony from the force of the fall.

      Her legs wrapped around something and kept her locked in a deadman’s position. The shove could have taken five seconds or five days. She couldn’t tell. Time slowed until the whoosh of the air around her became a moaning call.

      That fast the weight lifted. One minute she saw the attacker stalking toward her, the next her face pressed into Adam’s back. Flat on her stomach with leaves scratching her cheek, she found her body shielded by Adam as soft pings echoed around her. His body kicked back against her as he fired his weapon.

      She lifted her head in time to see the commando at her back door drop to his knees then fall face-first down the short steps. He hit the bush she’d always hated and meant to remove. Another man lay off to her right, facedown. She hadn’t even seen that one coming.

      Then the world stopped tilting. She dared to hope they were safe. “Is it over?”

      “Not for you.” The stranger’s voice came from behind her.

      Before she could turn around, a beefy hand grabbed her arm and yanked her hard to her feet. Her muscles seemed to tear as if she were made of paper. Blinding pain shot up to her shoulder and pounded there.

      The pressure of the attacker’s hand on her elbow made her vision blur. Nausea rolled over her, but she bit it back. She wanted to reach up and slap the man’s gun away. It hovered right in front of her face, pointed at the dead center of Adam’s chest.

      Adam stood now, facing down the remaining gunman with his own weapon drawn. It was a standoff and suddenly it hurt just to stay on her feet.

      “Let her go.” Adam’s voice dipped to a gravelly octave she’d never heard before.

      A dark covering hid the gunman’s face, but she could see the white teeth in his feral smile. “You messed up. You only counted two.”

      Adam’s gaze never wavered. He stared the attacker down, looking every bit as terrifying as the man in battle gear. “I’m guessing there were three of you.”

      “Lower your weapon or I’ll kill her.”

      “No.”

      The pain took her breath away as the dizziness assaulted her brain. “Adam—”

      The attacker chuckled in a deep grumble that promised an unending nightmare of anguish. “Listen to her panic. Now imagine what I’ll do to her before she dies.”

      “You СКАЧАТЬ