He hefted his assault rifle. “Guns like this one?”
“Much bigger than the toy you’re holding.”
“A toy that can end your life in seconds.”
There was suddenly rustling in the tall grass behind the gunmen! The two men confronting Jessie and Kendra turned warily to see that one of the members of their team was gone.
The team leader shouted. “Yuri? Yuri! Where the hell are you?” He turned toward his other man standing beside him. “Where is he? Did you see him?”
The other man shook his head.
Both men whirled around with their guns extended in front of them. “Yuri!” The team leader was now shouting, sounding panicked.
He motioned for his teammate to be still. “Hush!” They listened for a long moment, but there was only silence. He turned to the women. “You had to see what happened. Who else was with you?”
Kendra shrugged. “If you can’t keep track of your own men, how can you expect us to?”
He glared at her. “Bitch!”
More rustling in the tall grass. The two gunmen turned again, but the rustling stopped as soon as it had begun.
Kendra was trying to grasp the situation. The truth was that she hadn’t seen what happened to Yuri. She’d been too focused on the tense exchange between Jessie and the leader. She could see that Jessie was just as mystified. But these thugs were now definitely on edge and ready to attack. She’d better make certain she was prepared if that happened. Her hand closed on her pistol.
A shot rang out from the tall grass!
All hell broke loose! The two men ducked and started shooting, emptying their magazines in the direction of the gunshot.
Silence.
More rustling, then the third gunman—who must have been this Yuri—staggered toward them from the grass, covered in blood and bullet wounds. He collapsed at their feet. Dead.
BLAM! A single gunshot rang out from the opposite direction and killed the leader. Before the final gunman beside him could react, a bullet ripped through the back of his head. He fell next to his teammate.
Jessie instantly hit the ground and came up with Lynch’s handgun that she’d had to surrender to the head gunman. She yelled to Kendra, “Get back in the building. I’ll cover you!”
“The hell you will.” Kendra took off running for the woods. “We don’t know how many more of those guys are out there. If it’s a bunch of snipers Cambry brought here, there’s no telling how outnumbered we’ll be. The last thing we need is a gunfight. Our best chance is for you to take your cycle back to camp and get Dunne and anyone else there to give us a little help. You’re a wizard on that bike. You’ll make it. I’ll try to either hide or distract them.”
“Kendra! No!”
“Don’t just stand there,” Kendra said over her shoulder. “Do what I said! Or you’ll get us both killed. I have my gun and I can take care of myself.” She dashed deeper into the woods. A minute later she heard the roar of the motorcycle.
Good. She couldn’t hear any more gunshots from the area where the motorcycle had been hidden. Now all she had to worry about was getting through the woods to the road.
And staying away from the tall grass and the snipers who had been hiding and picking off the killers one by one.
They’d probably think she was an easy target.
“Get down, dammit! Cambry isn’t playing games. He has too much at stake.” Kendra was jerked to the ground with a man’s crushing weight on top of her!
Shit!She instinctively reached up and plowed into the man’s nose with her knotted fist. Then she went for the gun in her pocket. She was vaguely aware of him cursing as he tried to keep her from struggling.
“Kendra, be still or I’ll have to knock you out.”
The hell he would. She had her gun out now and she—
She suddenly froze. Because she had recognized that voice.
And, dear God, she knew with the greatest intimacy every muscle and response of that body on top of her own. “Lynch?”
