Ah, hell.
It was a spotty trail of his own blood, leading directly to him. If the gunmen hadn’t spotted it yet, they soon would. He took off his shirt and wrapped it tightly around his upper arm and the minor wound across his back. That would stop the blood trail, at least for the moment.
Wait a minute . . . Maybe this could work in his favor.
As he watched, two large pairs of feet in matching combat boots stopped at the trail of blood.That’s it, guys, put it together . . .
Lynch loosened his shirt and backed away, drizzling more of his blood over the cracked pavement. He rewrapped his makeshift bandage and took a new position behind a stack of tractor tires, faded and worn from their age and exposure to the elements.
The men were trying to be quiet as they crept toward the van, but Lynch could hear them splitting up and moving to either side.
The first man appeared from the rear, his assault rifle extended before him. The second man appeared from the front a heartbeat later. They studied the pool of blood where Lynch had been standing only a minute before.
BLAM! BLAM! Lynch dropped them both with two quick shots. The men practically fell on top of each other, dead.
Lynch ran toward the road that had led him to this desolate spot. From there it would only be a mile and a half to the spot where he’d stashed his car, and from there he could—
Oh, shit.
A group of eight men were waiting for him on the road, dressed in the same boots and fatigues as the men he had just killed.
Lynch dropped his automatic and raised his hands. No way could he take on this squad and hope to come out alive. He was good, but he wasn’t that good.
“Still not ready to make a deal?” It was again the man with the Eastern European accent, who had stepped onto the road from behind him. “I wasn’t pleased you managed to take down that many of our men. Unfortunate for you. You’ll wish you’d died much sooner once we start questioning you . . .”
Lynch’s vision blurred, and it was suddenly impossible for him to form words. He had lost too much blood . . .
He staggered backward as the world spun around him.
The pavement raced toward him.
Darkness.
CHAPTER
1
Wait just a minute. Kendra. What the hell is wrong with your computer?” Olivia stopped just inside the door of Kendra’s condo and fended off her own endearing huge mutt of a dog, who was trying to lick her ear in an ecstatic greeting because her friend and neighbor Kendra Michaels had just brought him back from a long walk. It was a lost cause; in spite of all the attempts to train Harley, he still had lapses when he was certain that Olivia would be gone forever when she walked out the door. That was why she usually asked someone he knew and loved, like Kendra, to walk him when she couldn’t arrange to do it. But today Kendra had decided to take him to her studio, where she counseled early-morning clients in her music therapy practice. Most were young children, and Harley helped them relax with his playfulness and sweet nature. Harley loved his time there, but today he had evidently gotten too excited.
“Down!” Olivia told Harley sternly. He just panted happilyand rubbed against her. She pushed him down and frowned at Kendra, whom she could hear chuckling. “It’s not funny. He loves kids. I knew he’d be hyper when he got back, and I was trying to save you. I was going to tell you to just leave him at my condo and I’d soothe him myself. But that turned out to be a disaster, since you didn’t answer your phone—and what the hell is wrong with your email?”
“Strange,” Kendra said. “It was working fine when I accessed it last night. Are you sure you typed in—” She stopped. “Don’t give me that expression. I can feel the venom across the room. I know it was probably my fault. My personal email inbox is probably full again. I wasn’t blaming you. The entire world knows that you’re one of the sharpest businesswomen in this hemisphere and practically never make mistakes.”
“Quite true,” Olivia said as she finally got Harley calmed down. “Though you might have enlarged the compliment a bit. Only this hemisphere, Kendra? I might be blind, but I don’t make mistakes when it comes to computers. Do you ever clean out your email inbox?”
“I said I was sorry,” Kendra said. “But we’ll have to check into it. Let’s change the subject. Yes, Harley did have a great time playing with the children, and they loved him. They couldn’t get over the fact that he has one blue eye and one brown. And he was very gentle with them.”
“Of course he was,” Olivia said. “His instincts are great, he just gets excitable with people he knows and cares about. We both realize he should be better behaved.” She added ruefully, “And the only one who’s ever been able to train him even marginally is Lynch, who’s never around long enough to give himany in-depth lessons. Where is he this time? Any chance of getting him here to do it anytime soon?”
Kendra shook her head. “I doubt it. The last time I talked to him was four days ago. He was on an assignment somewhere in Denmark and planning on leaving there and doing a little prep work somewhere else before he flies back here. I don’t think he’d be eager to drop everything to give Harley a refresher course.” She grimaced. “And I know that the Justice Department wouldn’t think it was worth his time. The last time I checked there weren’t any rogue nations for him to investigate around here, and no wicked international criminals for him to go manipulate.”
“You can never tell,” Olivia murmured. “Maybe he needs to check it out. He may be their superagent, but I bet he’d come here in a second if you needed him.”
“To train Harley?” Kendra chuckled. “You’ve got to be joking. You know I’d never take him away from his work. We have an arrangement.”
“It doesn’t stop him from whisking you away to the nearest exotic place for fun and games whenever he gets the chance. You’re the one who usually puts on the brakes.”
“Because my job working with my music therapy clients may not be earthshaking, but it’s just as important to me as Lynch’s is to him and you know it. Back off, Olivia.”
