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Rachel screamed at the top of her lungs.
It wasn’t a fire or a rock from a slingshot, but it was plenty effective. Both the captors spun back toward her. And she did as Jericho had told her.
She dropped to the ground.
Just as all hell broke loose.
She lifted her head enough to see Jericho come sprinting out of the woods. He moved fast. So fast that he was a blur. It seemed only a blink before he tackled Daxton, and in the same motion, Jericho knocked the gun from Daxton’s hand.
Daxton was fast though, too, and despite being disarmed, he fought back. He threw a punch, aiming for Jericho’s throat. Jericho dodged that, but the blow still hit him in the shoulder.
Right where his stitches were.
She saw Jericho react to the pain. An involuntary flinch. But he stood his ground and delivered a punch of his own.
Daxton’s partner stood, dragging up the hostage, still using the person as a shield, but he or she turned. Ready to take aim at Jericho.
That’s when there was another blur of motion. And she saw Marco.
She had the flash of a thought of when Jericho had said Marco’s skill set was a combination of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Jack Reacher. Rachel saw the Reacher part now. Marco could fight, and he did a sidekick that put the balaclava-wearing person on the ground.
Without the chokehold to pin him or her in place, the hostage took off running, heading straight for the van. She could tell now that it was a man. Maybe Jason. Rachel got up to open the door for him. And to shout for the second hostage to run as well.
That didn’t happen.
Because the moment the hostage reached her, he threw off the zip ties from his wrists, grabbed Rachel, and hooked his arm around her throat.
“Time to die, bitch,” the man snarled right in her ear as he whipped out a gun and pressed it to her head.
Chapter Twenty-one
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Jericho’s eyes watered as the searing pain knifed through his shoulder. Hell, through his entire body since Daxton had managed to punch him right on his stitches.
If he’d been a hundred percent, Jericho felt certain he could have quickly dispatched with this soldier wannabe, but he had to admit that Daxton could fight. Too bad since Jericho needed to end this fast and get the hostages and Rachel to safety.
From the corner of his eye, Jericho saw one of the hostages running toward Rachel. And he immediately got a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. That feeling got a whole hell of a lot worse when he saw the man grab Rachel.
Fuck.
This was the set up.
And he would have bolted toward her had Daxton not used the distraction to deliver another hard blow, this time to Jericho’s gut. It knocked most of the air right out of him and again, landed on some bruises that already hurt like the devil.
Across from him, Marco was kick-punching the other captor, causing the person to make a muffled sound of pain. Marco must have noticed that wasn’t a normal sound. Must have noticed, too, what was happening with Rachel. Marco reached out and tore the balaclava off.
And both Marco and Jericho cursed.
Because it was Jason, and he had a strip of wide duct tape across his mouth. He was frantically shaking his head, and he threw down the gun he’d been holding and ripped off the tape.
“The gun’s not loaded,” Jason blurted. “He said he’d kill me if I didn’t play along and pretend to be the killer.”
Marco seemed to have a split-second assessment as to what to do. And he took the smart, safe route. He knocked Jason onto the ground, putting his foot on his back to keep him in place. That way, if Jason was actually the killer or the killer’s accomplice, then he wouldn’t be able to immediately fight back.
Daxton turned, glancing at Jason, but Jericho had already started moving. He kicked the fake soldier hard in the solar plexus. The air swooshed out of him, and as Daxton was falling, Jericho gave him another kick to make sure he wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon. He also knocked Daxton’s gun out of the way, though he figured Daxton had some backups on him.
Then, Jericho turned to Rachel.
