Bear Claw Bodyguard. Jessica Andersen

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СКАЧАТЬ hell.” He stopped dead at the sight of the SUV. It was still sitting where he’d parked it, but the hood was popped. “Stay put,” he ordered grimly, “and get ready with that pistol.”

      “Shouldn’t we stick together?”

      “Not if … Not right now.” If the damn thing was wired to blow, he didn’t want her anywhere near it—and the militia had done worse. Without taking his eyes off their surroundings, he dug into his jacket for a canteen and his pocketknife. “Hold on to these for me, will you? If we get separated, I want you to head back down. Stay off the road but keep it in sight.”

      “You …” She trailed off, then caught his hand for a moment, squeezed it. “Don’t do that to me, okay?”

      “I’ll do my best.” They shared a look that lasted a beat too long to be for simple luck, and then he pulled away. “Cover me. If something that’s not me moves, shoot it. I’d rather lose a deer than our lives.”

      Without another word, he slipped out into the open and headed for the SUV. To his surprise, Tori melted almost immediately into the trees; he couldn’t see her even though he knew exactly where to look. Damn. His respect notched up another bit, and along with it his determination not to let her down.

      Steady, he told himself as he got to within a few feet of the SUV. Don’t rush it. But he was also very aware of the first blush of pink on the horizon, heralding the too-quick autumn dusk. He had the equipment for them to camp out, sure, but not in the face of a potential armed standoff, or worse.

      Forcing himself to focus, he scanned the vehicle. He didn’t see a tripwire or evidence of explosives, although with today’s miniaturization, that was no guarantee. But he was losing light and his gut said they had to get moving. So, holding his breath, he opened the hood.

      “Son of a—” He bit off the curse, then ran the hood the rest of the way open, staring dismayed at the mess of wires and hoses that had taken the sharp end of a knife. Which made sense, he realized after the fact: assuming that the gunman had stumbled over them, he wouldn’t have been carrying explosives or tripwires. But he’d obviously had a knife with him, and he’d probably be coming back with the other stuff.

      Lifting his hand, he beckoned Tori in from the tree line. She looked at him hopefully as she approached, but must have seen something in his eyes, because her face was grim by the time she joined him at the SUV.

      “I think I can cobble things back together with the supplies I’ve got on hand,” he said. Hopefully his patches would last long enough to get them back down to the station, or at least into radio range of help. “I need you to keep watch from the trees while I work on this.”

      “Not from here?”

      He thought about sugar coating it, but went with the bald truth instead. “Matt and Gigi were nearly killed when the militia nailed their Jeep with a rocket-propelled grenade.”

      Her eyes whipped back to him. “In other words, we’re sitting ducks.”

      “Which is why I need you in the trees.”

      She opened her mouth to protest, then snapped it shut once more. Nodded. “Of course.” Then she surprised him by catching his hand and tugging him down, to brush a kiss across his cheek. “Thank you.”

      “It’s my job,” he said automatically, as he had done pretty much since his first days as a rook when someone wanted to thank him. This time, though, his skin heated and he found himself wanting to say something more even though he didn’t have a clue what that might be. Then she pulled away and headed for the trees, walking almost silently and keeping her eyes moving.

      Damn, she impressed him.

      No distractions, he reminded himself, and rummaged in the SUV for the wire stripper and a fat roll of electrical tape before he turned back to the slashed hoses and wires. This time, though, he focused wholly on the job, trusting that his partner—or, rather, his protectee—had his back. And given the list of rooks he’d been working with over the past couple of years thanks to Mayor Skinflint, it had been a long time since he’d had anyone watching his six for real. It should’ve rubbed wrong that it was a scientist he could practically blow over … but it didn’t.

      He’d think about that later, though. Like after they were the hell out of there and she was on a plane headed home.

      “This one goes to this one …” He talked himself through the patches, working too quickly to really be methodical, but not letting himself make any mistakes because there wasn’t any time for a do-over. He was barely two-thirds of the way through when he realized he was squinting to see, and had to click on a small flashlight and hold it between his teeth.

      All the while, the back of his neck was strung tight waiting for the sound of a footstep or the crack of a gunshot. He was sweating by the time he taped the last connection into place. Then, sending up a wordless prayer, he leaned across the driver’s seat and tried the key.

      The engine turned over and started to come to life, but then coughed and died. “Come on, come on,” he muttered, slinging himself into the seat and risking a glance over to the tree line. Tori was just barely visible within the branches. She flashed him a thumbs up and mouthed You can do it, then faded back into the branches, leaving him to think she had stepped into view just for him.

      Shaking his head, he tried the key again, goosing the gas a little. The SUV started, and this time it stayed running. “Nice!”

      He waved to Tori as he lunged out of the vehicle to slam the hood, heart suddenly pounding where he’d been mostly calm up to this point. So close. They were so damn close to getting out of there! She burst from the trees, moving fast but still quiet, gripping his pistol two-handed and somehow managing to look simultaneously terrified and utterly capable as she piled into the SUV from the other side and banged the door shut with a slam that was gunshot-loud after all the quiet.

      Pulse racing, he met her eyes. “Here goes nothing.” Only it was really everything as he shifted into gear, the transmission synched up and he hit the gas … and everything worked the way it was supposed to. He didn’t realize he was holding his breath until it came out in a big whoosh. “Come on,” he muttered under his breath. “Hang in there.”

      Tori didn’t say a word, just kept the pistol in her lap and her eyes moving, scanning the passing scrub. But she reached over with her free hand and briefly gripped his wrist in thanks.

      For Jack, the next few hours passed in a blur of death-gripping the steering wheel, squinting to tell the faint tread-marked trail from the surrounding unstable shale, and hoping to hell his patches would hold. He and Tori exchanged a few words now and then on the practicalities, and once they were out of the Forgotten, she set aside the pistol, turned up the heat and sagged against her door, her eyes still moving, watching for trouble even in the moonlit darkness.

      They both knew that if there was going to be a problem at this point, they likely wouldn’t see it coming. The SUV’s headlights lit the night with an “aim the RPG here” sign in neon, but it wasn’t like he could turn them off. He was having a devil of a time staying on the trail as it was. So he drove, wincing with every bounce and bang, imagining his patches loosening up and the hoses teetering on the brink of separation.

      He was strung out, his eyes burning, his body caught in a surreal state of exhausted terror that had him hallucinating as he tried his damnedest to see the track. That had to be a hallucination, СКАЧАТЬ