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Grace grabbed a water bottle from under the seat and poured it over her face to clear the grit and grime from her eyes before passing it to Gabe so he could do the same. He put his gun in his lap and had just taken hold of the bottle when the wheel jerked under his hands and the right side of the Jeep seemed to explode beneath them.
ChapterEleven
Grace grabbed on to the seat with one hand and her rifle with the other as her teeth knocked together. The back tire exploded in a puff of smoke and rubber, and Grace was afraid for a moment that the Jeep was going to flip over.
“Be my eyes. What do you see?” Gabe yelled over the noise. She tried not to notice how hard he was having to fight the wheel to keep them right side up.
She looked through the night-vision and infrared scope on her rifle and pinpointed the targets. “A white van. I can’t tell how many passengers, but at least three, probably more. The guy in the passenger seat has a machine gun. I can’t see any other weapons. They’re too busy scrambling to catch up with us. The second vehicle is an old military jeep, and it’s flanking the van’s left side with two more men. Looks like both are carrying subs.”
“We won’t be able to make it to the mountain pass with this much damage to the car. Can you take them?”
“Yeah, I can take them. Just try to keep it steady.”
“Make sure you leave one of the cars drivable.”
Grace pressed her back against the dashboard and her feet against the back of her seat to brace herself. The Jeep rolled unevenly, and she made allowances in the give of her body to counteract the missing tire. She put everything out of her mind but the job and sighted through her scope. God, she loved the feel of a rifle in her hands.
The targets glowed red and would be slightly blurry to the average eye, but she saw each man clearly. She pulled the trigger gently and felt the familiar kick of her weapon as the bullet left the barrel. The windshield of the white van crumpled as the glass fell like a waterfall, and the driver slumped over the wheel. It swerved back and forth uncontrollably until the driver’s side door opened and a body rolled out. A new driver took his place, and Grace put the scope back to her face.
Bursts of machine-gun fire came from her right, and she saw the other jeep gaining momentum on them out of her peripheral. Her shots stayed steady as she kept firing into the white van, and she trusted Gabe to take care of the other vehicle. She fired five more shots, and the van slowed down, finally rolling to a stop, all its occupants dead.
She turned her attention toward the jeep. Time moved in slow motion as she set her sights on the man in the passenger side just as he did the same to her. They stared at each other through their scopes. Cold fear rushed through her, but she knew the risks. All that mattered was the shot, and that hers hit the target first. She pulled the trigger just as Gabe swerved hard to the left, jerking her across the seat and into his lap. Their windshield exploded, and the sharp sting of glass cut her face and neck.
“Stay down!” Gabe yelled.
She couldn’t see what he was doing, so she turned her head and looked up. He steered the wheel with his knee while he grappled with one of the tiny cylinders he had stashed away. It was a plastic tube filled with clear liquid, but when he snapped the cylinder in the middle, the chemicals mixed and began glowing an eerie yellow. Gabe tossed it over his shoulder, and it landed just in front of the other jeep before it exploded. The front of the jeep flipped end over end before landing in a fiery heap.
Grace sat up quickly and looked through her scope at the wreckage as Gabe circled around.
“We’re clear,” she said. “They’re both dead.”
Gabe stopped their badly damaged vehicle, and they both jumped out, grabbing everything they’d need. They worked in tandem, pulling the bodies out of the van so they fell to the sand. If no one came for the bodies soon, the desert would claim them. The wind had picked up, and it was impossible to avoid the invasion of grit as it burned eyes and buried itself inside clothing.
Grace felt a smile on her face, and she looked over at Gabe. His black hair hung down in his eyes, and there was a slice on his cheekbone dripping blood. But he had the same exhilarated grin on his own face.
They were alive.
* * *
The lights of Kuwait were a welcome sight to see. Gabe spoke briefly to his pilot once they were safely boarded, and then the doors closed behind them, and he and Grace were left alone—energy running like an electrical current over their bodies and their adrenaline pumping hot.
Gabe knew the look in her eyes. If he didn’t do something to make her mad in the next two seconds, they were both going to be naked and writhing on the floor. And as much as he wanted her naked, he wanted more to know what had happened to her back at Tussad’s house. And more importantly, he wanted to know if it happened often.
“Grace, I…” He didn’t get the chance to finish. She plastered herself to the front of his body and grabbed his head and brought her mouth to his, hitching her legs around his waist so he had no choice but to catch her or topple both of them to the ground.
“I need you,” Grace said.
The desperation in her voice pulled him back from the haze, and he choked on a curse as her nimble fingers found their way below his belt.
“Wait, Grace.”
“No. I can’t. I need you now.”
Despite the storm raging inside of him and the whispers that told him to take and conquer what was rightfully his, he gentled his hold on her. He stroked his fingers tenderly across her cheek and nuzzled against her neck. And then he did the hardest thing he’d ever done before. He unwrapped her legs from around his waist and took a step back. And then another.
“We need to talk,” he finally said.
Irritation and hurt briefly flitted across her face before she hid it behind a coy smile. “There’s plenty of time to talk later.” She pulled the ragged T-shirt she wore up so just a hint of her stomach showed. The shirt rose higher and higher, exposing flesh with torturous slowness, until she finally pulled it over her head, leaving her in nothing but the black bra she wore.
