Blind Fury (32 page)

Maybe it was hopeless. They were sitting ducks in the SUV. They couldn’t move Mick without possibly killing him, and the bad guys—who had the tactical advantage—were closing in on them. She and Tara were just as trapped as they’d been in that bedroom.

The back driver’s-side window cracked and Tara’s surprised yelp was drowned out by the deafening sound of gunfire from the back of the Land Rover.

“I got him!” Tara yelled.

“Make sure he stays down, and stay alert. There are still four more out there,” Dan said.

Would the neighbors call the police or were the nearest homes too far away for anyone to realize that the racket was actually gunfire? And maybe people were allowed to hunt on their land around here anyway. Jenna had no idea. “Dan, do you have a cell phone?”

“Yes. I tried to call for backup, but I can’t get any service.” He twisted up and looked through the window, before quickly ducking down again. “See if you can find Mick’s phone.”

Jenna searched his clothes with one hand and found the cell and battery in the front pocket of his khakis. The angle was awkward, but she pulled them out.

She snapped the battery back in and powered on the phone. Why was it taking so damn long to start up? Two eternal minutes later, the cell phone chimed that it was ready. Jenna held it out and checked the signal strength.

All she needed was one bar. One tiny freaking bar. Was that too much to ask?

She got nothing.

Mick awoke groggy and disoriented. The bitter smell of gun smoke tickled his throat, and his chest hurt like hell. He opened his eyes a crack. Jenna was lying on top of him, wearing only her cotton bra, her red, puffy eyes focused on something to his right.

“Hey, babe.”

Her head snapped back to him. “Oh my God. Mick, you’re awake.”

She showered his face with kisses, and he caught her mouth, using his working left arm to pull her closer. Like always, his pain faded into the background when she kissed him.

Much too soon, she broke away and looked at him, almost smiling. “Slow down there, cowboy. You’ve been shot and I need to keep pressure on the wound. Not to mention the fact that people are still shooting at us.”

Shot? No wonder he hurt like hell. He took in the blown-out windshield and the invading tree branch as his memories slammed home. He couldn’t have been out long. “Dan, I don’t think your neighbor’s going to be too happy about her car.”

“That’s okay. I was looking for a way to break up with her,” he shot back, his muscles tense as he crouched behind the center beam, his gun at the ready. “We’re in a bit of a standoff here. We have four guys pinned in the trees, but we can’t hold out here forever. It’s Rizzo, Beavis, Dolph, and whoever was in the SUV. I couldn’t make him out behind the tinted windows.”

“Me either,” Mick said. He tightened his grip on Jenna. “Why are you still in here anyway? This is a death trap.”

She shook her head. “I’m not leaving you.”

Foolish woman. He wasn’t worth her life. “If you care about me at all, you’ll save yourself.”

“I love you. And I’m not going to lose you too,” she said, her chin set at an obstinate angle.

“Damn it, Dan, tell her I’m right.”

“He’s right,” Dan said, the reluctance clear in his voice. “We have a better chance on our feet, and if we’re lucky, we can find help down the road. There might even be a phone in the house.”

“Then you and Tara go,” Jenna said. “I’m staying here with Mick.”

“Jenna, please, do it for me,” he said. He couldn’t even sit up, let alone walk, but she appeared to be unharmed. For now. He wanted her to stay that way. Skimming his knuckles along her chin, he locked his gaze with hers. Why did he have to hurt her to save her life? “Even if I make it out of this, I can’t be with you.”

Her face flushed red and her eyes narrowed. “You said you loved me.”

“Good timing, lover boy,” Dan muttered.

“Shut your trap, Molina.” He’d prefer to do this without an audience, for Jenna’s sake, but he didn’t have much of a choice right now. He needed to get her the hell out of the car so she’d have a chance. “I do love you. I probably have since we first met. But I’d be hell to live with. You know that. I can’t do happily ever after with two-point-four kids and a nine-to-five job. I can’t be that guy for you. It’s never going to happen.”

Jenna frowned and searched his face, the seconds ticking away with agonizing slowness. “I don’t believe you,” she said, breaking the thick silence as she looked over his shoulder. “Tara, give me your gun and go with Dan.”

“
No
,” Mick protested.

She ignored him, taking the weapon from Tara while keeping pressure on his chest. “Be careful.”

“You too,” Tara said. “We’ll get help.”

The rear passenger door opened and Dan slid under the tree branch and into the back seat. “Hang in there, man. We’ll be back for you.”

Mick didn’t even have the energy to fight anymore. He was fading fast, losing his ability to focus on Jenna’s pretty face as she watched Dan and Tara over the edge of the window frame.

“Rob taught me how to shoot,” she said without looking at him.

He reached up and slid his hand under the hair at the nape of her neck. “I love you, stubborn woman,” he whispered.

She rested her forehead against his. “I love you too.”

A loud crack split the air and something thudded into the car. Jenna did a quick recon out the window and ducked. “Crap. Dan and Tara are under fire.” Resting the gun barrel on the top of the window ledge, she aimed and pulled the trigger.

The kickback jolted her against the console and she released the pressure on his wound as pieces of safety glass rained down on him. Holy hell, his chest hurt. He fought a rising rush of nausea and blinked away the dots that swam in front of his eyes.

“Sorry,” Jenna cried, scrambling to push the bandage back into place.

“Did you get him?”

“No,” she frowned. “I don’t know what happened.”

Outside the car, gun shots popped loudly. “What’s going on?”

“Dan and Tara are pinned down,” she took aim and fired again, bracing herself this time. “Got him!” she shouted with a triumphant smile. “In the arm, but his gun went flying and he’s down for now.”

Jenna’s hair drifted in the cool breeze as she watched the scene through the broken window, still holding his makeshift bandage in place. He’d give anything to get her out of this alive.

Motion from the far side of the car caught his eye and he turned his head.

Troy Griffin—CEO of Claymore, known to his guys as Ghost—stood at the window, his rifle aimed at the back of Jenna’s head.

J
ENNA
WATCHED
IN
SHOCK
as Colin took out the man shooting at Tara with a quick twist to the neck. The shooter—Dolph—dropped like a stone at his feet.

She squeezed her eyes shut to block out the image, but it was already imprinted on her retinas. Tara’s yell made her look again. Rizzo, the man Jenna had shot earlier, was back on his feet, his right arm hanging limply at his side, the gun in his other hand pointed at Colin now.

Dan was on the other side of the clearing, grappling with Beavis, so Jenna was the only one who could save him.

Sighting along the barrel, she let out a breath and pressed on the trigger. Her shot went wild as Mick yanked her down to his chest. What was he doing? She was about to ask him when something zinged so close to her head that she could feel the disturbance in the air. The percussive boom echoed through the Land Rover, obliterating all sound but the high-pitched ringing in her ears.

She felt herself screaming, but couldn’t hear it.

Before she realized what he was doing, Mick had wrapped his hand around hers, rolled her to the right, and pressed her finger on the trigger. Only then did she see the man standing in the window with an enormous rifle. In a flash she remembered the revulsion that had rolled through her when his rough, dry hands gripped hers at Rob’s funeral. Troy Griffin, CEO of Claymore. She barely registered who he was before the bullet pierced his thick neck.

 
He dropped his weapon and clutched his throat as blood gushed through his fingers. After a couple of stumbles, he fell to the ground.

Mick’s hand fell away from hers and he started to gasp for air.

Trembling, Jenna flipped back over, careful not to put her weight on his chest. His wound had started bleeding in earnest again, and his eyes were clenched shut.

“No, no, no! Do not die on me, damn it. You owe me, Mick.” She leaned hard on his chest, fighting back the insidious, sticky fluid that cared nothing for love. “Please, I love you so much. We’re so close to the end of this.”

“Are you okay?” Dan appeared at her window, his voice tight. “I think we got them all.”

“Hurry, please. He’s fading on me.” She pleaded with her eyes. “Don’t let him die, Dan. I need him.”

“Shit. I’m going.” He raced away from the car.

Outside, she could see Tara running around Rizzo—had Griffin’s shot hit him, or had Dan taken him out?—to kneel over Colin. He lay motionless on the ground, blood spreading into the dirt around him in a pool. Jenna had probably failed to save him too. So much blood, so many deaths. And for what?

She wanted to rave and scream and pound her fists. Instead, she held both hands over Mick’s wound and put all of her weight into it, watching his chest rise and fall with each shaky breath.

“You saved me. Again,” she said between sobs. “You’ve done right by your promise to Rob.”

Minutes ticked by as she watched the life leak out of him, helpless to stop it. “When you get better, we can live anywhere you want, but I’m not letting you go without me. Alaska, Hawaii, Florida, the Mojave Desert. I don’t care as long as we’re together.”

Maybe if she kept talking, it would give him something to focus on. Maybe it would keep him from drifting away. “I’m going to take Rob’s savings and start working for myself. I’ve lived in fear for too long, but I realized I was so worried to take a risk that I wasn’t living. Not really. I’m ready to live now, Mick. And I want you there too. You think you’re a risky proposition for me, but I think you’re the safest bet I’ve ever made.

“The first time I met you, I thought you were an arrogant, reckless, playboy. You set off so many alarm bells in my head, it irked me that I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I hated watching you with those other women…” Those parties had been hell, but like a crowd drawn to an accident, she hadn’t been able to look away. “But underneath it all, you were always a man of honor.

“If you stayed away from me that whole time because you thought it was the right thing to do, then I want you to realize that now the right thing is for you to stay
with
me. After all we’ve been through, I know Rob would approve.”

Were those sirens? Her ears were still ringing, but she could swear she heard their telltale wailing coming steadily closer. Her heart rate picked up. “They’re coming, honey. Hold on just a little longer for me.” She kissed his lips. “Just hang on.”

Jenna’s efforts to ride to the hospital with Mick were thwarted by the police, who insisted she and the others stick around the scene for questioning and to be looked over by the paramedics. At least they found a spare T-shirt for her.
 

Afterward, Dan drove her and Tara to the medical center and got them situated in the waiting room, where Kurt was already pacing like one of the big cats at the zoo.
 

Once Jenna was seated, Dan leaned down to give her a hug. Numbness seeped into her limbs as the adrenaline wore off, and fear clung to her like a stink she couldn’t wash away. “Thank you,” she said. “For everything.”

“You don’t even have to say it.”

He let her go and knelt in front of Tara, who was sitting in the chair next to her. “Are you all right?”

Without looking up, she nodded, hiding behind a veil of disheveled hair. “Fine.”

“Can I get you anything?”

She shook her head, still staring at the floor, her face oddly blank.

With a sigh, Dan gave up; he took a seat across from them, watching Tara with a frown.

Kurt stopped pacing and patted Jenna’s shoulder with one hand. “He’s hanging in there. The doctor told Mick’s mom the bullet didn’t hit anything critical.”

Maybe not, but he still wasn’t in good shape. She sucked in a quick breath. “His mom!” She sat up as shame rushed through her. “I hadn’t even thought—”

“I called her.” Kurt held up his cell phone. “She’s heading to the Columbus airport for the next flight out.”

Jenna sagged with relief. “Thank you. I’m not thinking straight yet.” Mick was a lucky man to have such good friends.

His eyes filled with concern. “What about you? No injuries?”

“Nothing serious.” Just her heart. “I’m fine.”

Kurt shoved his hands in his pockets and pressed his lips together. “Look, I owe you an apology for last night. My team screwed up.” His face flushed red. Was he embarrassed or angry? Probably both, given that his reputation was on the line.

She waved aside his concern. “It’s over now. Are your guys all okay?”

“Everyone’s good. At least physically.”

“Well, it’s over.”
 

“Yeah, but—”

Jenna put her hand on his arm. “You can’t change what happened. Just learn from it and move on.”

He nodded and squared his shoulders, taking a seat beside Dan.

Jenna turned toward Tara and hugged her trembling friend. “What did the nurse say about Colin?” she asked quietly.

“They won’t tell me anything because I’m not family, but she did say they expect him to pull through.” Tara dissolved into tears, her whole body convulsing with sobs. “He saved me.” She looked up, her face a mask of misery. “He saved
us
. I didn’t trust him, even after he let us go, but he almost died to help us. He still might.” She hugged her knees to her chest. “How do I live with that?”

“He’ll make it.” Jenna rubbed her friend’s back.

“I love him, but he’s going to jail if he recovers.” Tara threw her hand out in an angry gesture. “Jail! I finally meet the man of my dreams and he’s a freaking criminal. I’m so confused. I don’t know if I could ever trust him again, or if I even want to try.”