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The rear doors flew open. A figure in tactical gear, his features hidden under a ski mask as black as his clothes, eclipsed the doorway like the angry storm’s emissary. She didn’t blink against the wind and snow gusting in as she fired at his chest. The impact launched him backward. The thick snow swallowed him into its frigid pit.
As he crumpled to the pavement, a rapid succession of shots rocked the cab behind her. She swiveled her head to see Dean stumble back into the gurney. Before she could scream his name, he buckled to the floor.
“Incoming,” Julia yelled as she rolled from the gurney and landed in a crouch between it and the bench seat.
Rosalie raised her gun as she whipped back to the open doors. Two more black-clad attackers replaced the one consumed by the storm. The shorter one with a burly build as thick as a bear and eyes as dark as his ski mask trained his gun on her. “Drop your weapon and nobody gets hurt.”
Rosalie adjusted her position to cover Julia. She’d promised Cannon that she’d get his sister back to him. She’d give her own life to fulfill that promise, but she refused to let it come to that.Shehad to get back to Cannon too.
The taller of the two attackers climbed into the ambulance with the nimbleness of a panther. “Drop the gun and put your hands where we can see them, then step away from your friend so we can see hers.”
Rosalie met eyes that glinted with more danger than black ice on pavement. She could take him out with the squeeze of a trigger, but not the bear-like one too. Not without help.
“Fine.” She lowered her weapon and blew out a long breath, infusing a good dose of submission in her sigh. “But don’t shoot my friend. She’s unarmed and weak from dying a couple of hours ago.”
“Move. Now.”
She flinched as if scared by his harsh command and let the gun fall behind her. Praying it fell where she intended, she held up her hands. A breath later, a tap on her ankle confirmed she’d hit her mark.
Rosalie dove toward the panther as Julia reared up and fired at the bear. The thick body stumbled backward into the storm as Rosalie shoved the panther out of the ambulance. As she tumbled to the ground with him, she caught his gun skittering across the frozen ground. Pain lanced up her spine as she hit the icy blacktop and rolled to her knees.
The panther reached into his boot and whipped out a knife.
She froze.
The lethal blade gleamed in the ambulance’s taillights. Snowflakes landed on her eyelashes, but she didn’t blink. She willed adrenaline to kick back in, but the threat of the white-hot agony she knew that blade could inflict immobilized her body.
The panther smiled and lunged. Another shot boomed. He fell next to her as her fight-or-flight response thundered to life. Scrambling up from her knees, she spotted Julia at the edge of the ambulance. Her hospital gown blew around her legs as she gripped a gun in one hand and braced herself against the metal frame with the other.
Rosalie leapt into the back of the vehicle and pulled her out of the wind. “Are you hurt?”
“No. I fell after I shot the first guy and blacked out for a few seconds.” Julia lilted to the right. “I came to just in time.”
Rightwhen I panicked.“Ken and Dean.” She spun toward the cab.
A metallicthumpwhipped her back around. A round device rolled on the floor. With a hiss, thick smoke filled the ambulance cabin. Rosalie lunged for the doors. Before she reached the handle, wooziness overtook her, and she fell face-first onto hard metal.
THIRTY-THREE
Cannon slammed his palm into the dashboard. “Hurry.”
If Easton didn’t push all his weight onto that gas pedal, he’d slam the accelerator himself. “Faster, dammit.”
“The storm is getting worse. If I go any faster, we’ll wind up wrapped around a tree.”
Cannon’s phone rang. He hit the speaker button. Jimmy’s voice filled the cab. “The ambulance and Grady’s squad car are still dark, but I finally got a cell phone ping. You’re one minute out. Pull over and wait for backup.”
“Fuck no.” Those precious minutes of waiting could mean life or death for his sister and his woman. “Any luck yet with satellite imaging?”
“Cloud cover is still too dense. Pull over and wait, Ford.”
“Not happening, so you better tell backup to fucking catch up fast.” He rammed his finger into the phone to end the call.
Easton pointed to the left. “There.”
Up ahead, flashing lights bounced along a tree trunk on the road’s shoulder. The pickup truck fishtailed on the slick surface. Easton straightened the vehicle and gunned the engine. Cannongrabbed the dashboard as the truck skidded to a halt in the middle of the road.
Easton slammed the vehicle into park and ran toward the crashed police cruiser, yelling his brother’s name.
