A Pair of Jacks (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (10 page)

“Come on, boy. Let’s get you some food and water. Don’t be difficult.”

Turning back to grasp Ranger’s halter, Marie realized she was too late. He reared up, yanking the reins out of her hand before she had a good grasp on the bridle. As he bolted for the hills, Marie felt the cold steel of a gun barrel placed against her temple.

“Do not move, Marie. Do not scream. Do not breathe.” Yuri’s gravelly voice sent a bolt of fear into the pit of her stomach. She still held tightly onto Myst, who pranced nervously at the tension she sensed between the two humans and the panicky dash of the high-strung stallion.

With the gun still pressed against her head, Yuri moved back only far enough so she could pass by him and into the soft shadows of the barn. Out of the doorway, he stepped back keeping the pistol trained on her head. “Tie the horse. Slowly. Slowly.” He cocked the trigger of the gun to let her know he was serious. “Do not go into the stall. Stay where I can see your hands.”

Marie looped Myst’s reins through the slatted wood of her stall door, reaching up to pat her apologetically when the horse looked askance at not being put into the stall with fresh food, water, and her normal brushing.

“Very touching,” Yuri said with his thick accent. “Now step over to the wall and we will chat. I hear that you wanted to talk to me. Is that true? Do you have information that would make me spare your life?”

“Yes, I do, but I want your assurance you’ll leave me alone after we talk. I’ve had a change of heart about my ideology. What you do internationally makes little difference to me any longer” Marie faced Yuri directly, keeping her gaze locked on his in an effort to show her sincerity. She knew it was important that she get him out of the barn and into the open where Jack and Reno would have a chance to capture him, or failing that, pick him off from a distance with the rifles. “We can’t talk here. As soon as they notice the horse is running loose, someone will come out to investigate.”

On cue, a high-powered rifle shot echoed across the meadow. Yuri gave a soft chuckle, raising his eyebrows arrogantly. “I don’t think we will be interrupted. You didn’t expect me to come unprepared, did you?”

Marie couldn’t hide the trembling of her body. She jerked involuntarily when another blast shattered the silence. Yuri turned his head as if he were listening to the resulting silence. Even the birds had stopped singing. With a wolfish smile, he turned back to Marie, marginally relaxing the grip on his gun. “And now I know we won’t be interrupted. My men are good. Two shots, two kills. Which of your cowboys will you miss the most,
little one
?”

Tears streamed down Marie’s face. She couldn’t stop them. She didn’t try to. She knew the tears made her look vulnerable, when in fact her anger was boiling up to the point she had no fear. She would attack Yuri at the first opportunity and to hell with the consequences. She wanted to hurt the bastard. She wanted to make him pay. “You didn’t have to kill them, you son of a bitch.”

Yuri looked impatient. “Don’t be an idiot. Of course I had to kill them. And I am on a tight schedule here. You have something to tell me? Something this change in your ideology has prompted you to share with me?”

“What if I’ve changed my mind?” Marie asked defiantly. “I was willing to bargain with you, so I could have a life. Now you’ve taken too much from me, Yuri.” His pale face reddened and his arctic cold eyes took on a glacial shade of blue. He reminded her of a cobra, full of death and ready to strike at any second.

“You know who I am, Marie. You know what I am capable of. You will talk to me. We can do it easy. Or difficult. I think you will much prefer easy.”

“I prefer you to drop dead.”

Yuri backhanded Marie so hard, her head bounced off the rough boards of the wall behind her. For a few moments, she saw stars and tasted blood inside her mouth. Good. His violence kept her anger elevated higher than her fear of him. She needed to stay focused and watch for an opportunity to attack him. Fear was an emotion that froze action. Anger released the need to react. Marie needed that fury to build until she had no fear of death. It would be the only way to fight the Russian.

“Last chance, Marie. What are you going to tell me about Mufid Elashi?”

Marie glanced around the barn. Damn Jack’s obsessive compulsion to keep everything in its place. There wasn’t anything she could use as a weapon. Yuri watched her with hooded eyes, obviously enjoying her realization that this was the end. She would die right here.

He chuckled. “Come now, Marie. Don’t make this painful for yourself. You tell me what I want to know, and I will make sure your death is easy. I will protect you from Sergey and Viktor. A good bargain, don’t you think?”

Still, Marie defied him. She would never tell him what he wanted to know. Not now.

With the speed of a cat, Yuri lashed out, throwing a punch to Marie’s stomach. She stumbled against the wall, sliding down the unfinished boards. Painful splinters imbedded themselves in her skin through the soft material of her shirt as she sunk to the floor, trying to draw air into her lungs. She wasn’t a wuss, but Yuri was unbelievably strong. Another punch like that, and he’d rupture something. She needed to come up with a plan to take him out now.

Yuri shook his head at her stubbornness. “Have it your way.” He lowered the gun to point at Marie’s stomach. “This is a painful way to die. You know that, of course. But since you will not talk to me…”

He got no further with his threat. The sound of pounding hooves distracted both Yuri and Marie as Ranger came galloping through the backside of the barn with his usual enthusiasm. She’d forgotten that Jack locked the outer corral. When the horse bolted, he ran through the small holding corral and into the large fenced in area, giving him access to the back of the barn. It was Ranger’s usual shenanigan to make several loops around the outer corral, blowing off energy before allowing himself to be settled for the night.

Startled that the horse was nearly upon him, Yuri threw his hands up to ward off the oncoming collision. He barked a sharp order in Russian, flailing his hands in a flapping manner as if shooing off a bird.

Marie watched as Ranger nearly skidded to a stop, rearing up in alarm when he saw the quick movement in front of him and the loud voiced stranger blocking his path. Panicked now, his hooves came down on the top of Yuri’s head. The sound was like a ripe watermelon being thumped hard. Yuri’s fingers clenched reflexively, discharging the pistol into the wall somewhere above Marie’s head.

The loud report of the gun inside the building spooked Ranger even further. He attacked the source of his fear, continuing to bring his hooves down on the offending object in front of him. Yuri lay still, even while the horse’s hooves cut his skin to shreds. He was incapable of movement. His neck had been broken with the first strike of Ranger’s hooves.

Marie glanced around her. She needed to calm the stallion enough so she could get him out of the barn before Yuri’s two thugs showed up. She wouldn’t have a chance with them once they found her, but if she could ride Ranger into the hills, it was a safe bet she could escape. No other horse on the farm could keep up with him when he wanted to run.

Marie’s training kept her from giving in, but it didn’t stop her heart from breaking. How could she live without Jack and Reno now that she felt like she truly belonged somewhere? How was it possible to love two men equally? She didn’t know. She only knew that she did, and now they had been taken from her, leaving a hole where her heart should be. A fresh set of tears tracked down her cheeks. She would make Viktor and Sergey pay with their lives.

A sharp whistle halted Ranger’s fury. The stallion backed up, quivering, listening for the distant sound again. When he heard it the second time, he pounded out of the barn, running over the top of Yuri’s broken body in his haste to exit through the front doors.

Marie recognized the whistle, too. It was Jack. She scrambled to mount Myst, ignoring the pain in her stomach from Yuri’s unexpected punch. Kicking her heels gently against the horse, she let Myst follow Ranger. At the gate, she leaned down from the horse’s back to unhook the single strand of rope Jack had tossed over the post to lock the entry. Before the gate swung fully open, Ranger galloped through the opening, heading into a grove of pine on the south side of the ranch.

Could it be possible the guys survived?

She prayed they had.

Racing along after Ranger, she practically fell off the horse when she saw Jack standing in the cover of a circle of pines with a rifle in his hands. Sprawled on the ground at his feet lay one of the Russians. The man had a gunshot wound to his leg. He’d live, but he wasn’t going to be walking for a while. Someone had tied a tourniquet around the wound to slow the bleeding. Still, Jack wasn’t taking any chances from the looks of it.

Dropping out of the saddle, Marie hit the ground running, throwing herself at Jack. She wrapped her arms around his waist, holding on tight for a minute, fighting the urge to laugh and weep at the same time. “I’m so glad you’re safe, Jack. Where’s Reno?”

“He’s okay.” Jack held her tight with one arm while keeping the gun trained on the man at his feet. “What about Yuri?” He risked looking at her, his eyes flaring with anger when he saw the bruise on her face and blood at the corner of her mouth.

“He’s dead.”

Jack’s arm tightened, drawing her closer. “I heard the shot.” His voice sounded huskier than normal. “Oh, God, I thought I was too late to help you.” He dropped his face to her head planting a kiss on her hair, holding his mouth against her for a moment. Marie felt him tremble and she held him a little tighter.

“The shot you heard was from Yuri’s gun.” Marie looked up into Jack’s eyes, trying to reassure him she was fine. “He spooked Ranger. The horse reared up bringing his hooves down on the top of Yuri’s head. I think he must have died at the first hit, but he was holding a gun on me. When Ranger’s hooves came down, he fell and the gun went off. That sent Ranger into a fury, he kept stomping him over and over.”

“Shhh.” Jack comforted her, and then stiffened when he heard a sound in the underbrush. He shoved Marie behind him, leveling the gun in the direction of the noise.

Reno burst into the clearing with sweat pouring from his long run. “Where’s Marie? I stopped in the barn and Yuri’s dead. He’s shredded. Honest to God, I almost lost it. There’s blood everywhere and no sign…”

Marie rushed to him, wrapping her arms around him as he crushed her against his chest. She could feel his heart still racing. “Oh, girl,” he groaned, pulling her face up, so he could look at her. “You okay?”

Marie nodded, laying her head back against his chest, clinging to him like she might never let him go again.

“Where’s the other one?” Jack threw a hard look at his brother as if to make sure he was truly okay.

“Didn’t make it.” Reno glanced down at the Russian on the ground. “Looks like you’re the lone survivor, comrade.”

The wounded man shot Reno an insolent smile. “I’m not your comrade, cowboy.”

“Still, you’re going to talk to us like we’re old friends, Viktor.”

The Russian’s eyes widened at the mention of his name. “I know nothing. You are American cops. You have to give me my rights. I want a lawyer.”

Reno chuckled. “Oh, yes, Sergey lived long enough to tell me his name. And yours.”

With a gentle push, Reno moved Marie back from his embrace so that he could squat down to look at the tourniquet on the Russian’s leg. “Looks like you’ve lost a lot of blood. You need to be taken to a hospital. Probably need to be flown out pretty quickly if you want to have a chance of making it.”

“I know nothing,” Viktor insisted, squirming around on the ground to get distance from Reno.

Reno leaned over to put his hands on the knot of the tourniquet. “Of course, if I loosen this just a little…”

“No!” Viktor yelled, slapping his hands over the wound and pushing himself even further away. “I will tell you what I know. What does it matter, anyway? Yuri can’t kill me from hell.”

Jack moved closer, cradling the rifle in his arms as he leaned over to hear Viktor’s words. Reno sat back on his heels, giving the man some space. Marie held her breath, waiting for what she would hear.

The Russian wearily dropped his head back against the pine needles. “It was your handler, Marie Maxwell. He sold you out.”

Marie stepped over to the man, steadying herself by putting a hand on Reno’s shoulder. “I don’t believe you. Xavier would never sell out. He wanted a higher political position. He worked hard to have a perfect track record.”

“He had no choice,” the Russian explained, looking at her through half closed eyes. “Yuri found out about his wife. She was Russian. Born here in America, but her parents were KGB. They were part of a deep cover operation to put agents in foreign countries as sleepers until they were needed. I doubt she knew about them herself.”

“That would have showed up when he was vetted for his job at GSA. He would have never been allowed to run the organization with that sort of liability,” Marie protested.

Viktor shook his head back and forth against the ground. “That’s what Yuri did for him. He wiped the records clean in Russia and America. He was much more powerful than anyone knew. Xavier didn’t ask for this favor. Yuri did it to have control over him. Once the files had been altered, Xavier had to keep quiet. Yuri made sure that Xavier would look guilty no matter how it went down. He would have been prosecuted along with his wife and her family. Do you see what I’m saying?”

“But why would Xavier set me up in Paris to try and capture Yuri? That makes no sense.”

The Russian’s eyes snapped open and he glared at Marie. “Do you still not understand? Your uncle wanted Yuri prosecuted and he set Xavier up at the GSA to take care of it. Xavier needed someone he could control. Someone that would be loyal and report back only to him, stretching the law if necessary. But someone who was above reproach with the President of the United States.”

“So he used me.”

“If your President had known everything Yuri had on his cabinet members, I doubt he would have been so eager to capture him. But now it is over, da? I can tell you nothing more. Xavier Jenson was a pawn to Yuri. All of us were pawns to be used in his global game of chess.”