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Yelping and choking, he dropped to his knees, clawing at his streaming nose and eyes while blindly squeezing off a round from his huge gun.
Rising, Sierra whirled around, hoping to spray the bearded man’s face, too. But she saw that Ace was grappling with him, the two of them fighting to control the gun still in the thug’s right hand.
Get out of here, her instincts screamed. Get to the car before the other creep manages to shoot you!
But there was no way she could leave Ace, not when she was responsible for dragging him into this mess. So instead she looked around desperately until she found a fallen tree limb. Snatching up the thick branch, she whacked the bearded man so hard across the back that the breath exploded from his lungs.
The force of the blow sent him lurching into Ace. Yet another shot, a deafening crack, echoed through the darkness.
For a moment she held her breath, listening for something, anything, beyond the coughing and the cursing of the pepper-sprayed bald thug, to let her know what had happened.
Then she heard the unmistakable crash of a man’s body thudding to the ground.
Chapter 3
Ace’s breath roared in his ears as the two of them pounded downhill, Sierra hauling him by the hand. One of the loan shark’s goons roared threats as the moans of the bearded man, who’d been shot in the struggle, faded behind them.
“Hurry. Car’s this way.” Panting out the words, she spoke urgently into Ace’s ear, “And whatever you do, keep your head low. The big guy’s still got his gun!”
Ace wasn’t sure how ducking was supposed to stop a bullet, but he instinctively heeded her advice as he scrambled after her. Practically blinded by the darkness and the blood streaming into his right eye, he was repeatedly whipped and scraped by branches.
r /> But regardless of the outcome, he’d cast his lot with this woman. And now he had no choice except to trust her to get them both out of this situation.
Even so, when she drew up short and peered around a few minutes later, doubt flooded in. With his injured face throbbing in time with the pounding of his heartbeat, he asked, “You’ve lost the car, haven’t you? Maybe if we crouch down and hide, they’ll pass us by.”
“There! It’s over there.” Her sigh was audible as she let go of him and led him to a small depression partly shrouded by thick undergrowth. “The door’s unlocked, so—”
Needing no more invitation, he clambered over and climbed into a dark-colored sedan. Seconds later she was in the driver’s seat and snapping on a seat belt before cranking up the engine.
The car lurched backward and swung clear of the brush before she dropped it into Drive.
From outside there was a pop, followed by a splintering sound as, just behind Ace’s head, the rear passenger window shattered. “Go, go, go!” he shouted.
The tail end of the car careening, the tires suddenly gained purchase. As the headlights came on to illuminate the path ahead, Ace shouted an unnecessary warning. Sierra was already swerving around tree trunks thicker than his legs.
Belting himself in in an effort to remain upright, Ace said, “Dirt road’s to your left. There! We’re clear now, or I think we are—unless he’s got wheels nearby, too.”
She darted a glance into the rearview mirror, her eyes wide and her face frozen in a grimace. His admiration rose another notch as she visibly pulled herself together, slowing her gasping breaths and mastering her body’s shaking.
“Half blind as he’s gotta be and with his partner shot, we’re sure to lose him.” Sierra flicked a look in his direction as she pulled onto an old logging road and mashed down on the accelerator. “Are you—your face?”
Wiping away blood, he said, “I’ll be okay, I think. What about you? Are you hurt?”
She gave a hoot of laughter. “Ask me once the adrenaline wears off, why don’t you?”
Ace suspected the same might be true in his case, with the thundering in his chest, the crazed buzz of adrenaline drowning out everything except the immediate need to get clear of the two men who would surely kill them, given half a chance.
It didn’t sink it for another mile or two down the dark and tree-lined road that the wound he had inflicted on the bearded man during their struggle might very well prove fatal.
“I’ve never shot a man before,” he said, sounding as numb as he felt. Let alone maybe killed one, despite what half of Mustang Valley and the police seemed to think.
Sierra slid another look his way. In the faint glow of the dashboard lights, he saw her narrow-eyed skepticism give way to a nod. “If it makes you feel any better,” she said, “he wouldn’t have any qualms about putting a bullet in you before he plugged me.”
“I know there wasn’t any choice. It’s just... I’m not—I don’t know how to deal with any of this.”
“I get that, Ace, and I appreciate it,” she said. “Just the same way I appreciate that you didn’t turn your back on me when they gave you the chance to walk away.”
This time it was Ace’s turn to laugh, a humorless sound like the scraping of dry tree limbs in the wind. “I’ve been on the wrong end of enough business dealings to know when I’m flat-out being lied to. Those guys never meant to let me go. They would have sooner shot me in the back the moment I turned around than trust me to leave and keep my mouth shut.”
