Brody's Vow (Colebrook Siblings Trilogy Book 1) (14 page)

Definitely Wyatt.

Trinity edged past him, his deliciously clean scent not helping her keep her libido under control. She headed for the front door, but stopped dead when something metallic scraped against the lock.

Without looking back, she motioned at Brody, who immediately fell silent, phone still to his ear. In one second he was at her side, his attention riveted to the door, phone at his side.

The scraping came again and the doorknob slowly began to turn.

Brody drew his weapon but she grabbed his arm and ran for the window. She shoved it open and jumped onto the metal fire escape just as the apartment door opened.

Brody hopped down next to her and released the steel ladder with a clang. Looking back into the apartment, she caught a glimpse of a man with a weapon in his hand an instant before she whirled away.

“Go,” Brody ordered her, one big hand pushing between her shoulder blades.

There wasn’t time to argue about who went first. She mounted the rails, hooking her legs around the sides, and slid down them rather than wasting precious seconds taking the steps. She ran for the corner of the building as Brody followed suit behind her, giving a muffled grunt of pain as he hit the ground.

His leg.

Even as the worried thought formed she half-turned, and saw in horror that he’d stumbled. Above him, the silhouette of the man approached the window. Brody fell to his hands and knees just as the man appeared in the window above.

Trinity drew her weapon, her heart lodging in her throat as the man took aim at Brody.

In every op she’d ever been on, she’d worked solo and only had to worry about herself. Now fear for Brody took over completely and she reacted without thinking.

She raised her pistol but the angle was wrong. She fired anyway, to alert the gunman to her presence and keep him away from Brody. “Look out!” she cried, hoping to at least warn Brody or draw the gunman’s attention away from him.

The man whirled toward her and fired just as she ducked around the corner of the building. A split second later the round punched into the brick, mere inches from where her head had just been.

Brody.

She shot an anxious glance toward him, saw the back of him as he darted around the opposite corner of the building, away from the shooter. The sheer relief flooding her made her dizzy.

He angled his head around the corner so he could see her, his weapon up and ready. With one hand he signaled for her to stay there, then disappeared from view.

Where the hell was he go—

A clattering noise announced that the shooter was descending the fire escape.

Crouched on one knee around the corner, Trinity waited a few seconds then swung around and took aim. The man had his weapon pointed at her.

They fired at the same time. Trinity hit him in the arm as his bullet slammed into the brick in front of her. Shards of brick and mortar stung her cheek as she jerked back.

The roar of an engine to the right shattered the tense silence. A swath of light cut across the building on the other side of the alley.

She glanced up in time to see Brody’s truck hurtling toward her, high beams on. She squinted and raised a hand to shield her eyes from the glare. The gunman did the same and staggered back a step before he whirled to take aim at the truck.

Trinity swung around to fire again but the man leaped out of the way as Brody barreled past him, missing him by inches. The tires squealed as he took the corner sharply and plunged to a rocking stop a few feet from her.

He leaned across the front seat to push the passenger door open. “Get in!”

She raced over and jumped in, staying low as Brody peeled away and shot down the alley. In the side mirror she glimpsed the gunman shoving to his feet and taking aim.

A sharp
pop
rang out as he fired behind them, but Brody was already turning again, swerving out onto the main street. The few people standing on the corner shouted and scattered out of the way but she didn’t see the shooter and there was no vehicle coming after them.

“Are you okay?” Brody demanded as he sped away from the building.

“Yeah, I’m good. You?” Willing her heart rate to slow down, she scanned him, noted the way his jaw was clamped tight.

He glanced at the rearview mirror, everything about him alert. “Fine.”

He wasn’t, she could tell from his pinched expression. “You hurt your leg?”

“I said I’m fine.” His voice was strained.

She let it go, kept checking the mirrors with him.

“Any idea who that was?” He got on the highway, heading away from the city.

“No, but I can almost bet he was one of Tino’s.” Traffic was steady but she didn’t pick out the signs of an erratic driver trying to keep up with them. No one was veering in and out of traffic or trying dangerous passing. “I wounded him in the arm, but not sure how bad.” Maybe bad enough that he wouldn’t follow them.

She’d never risked her life on a maybe, however, and she wasn’t going to start now.

“I don’t see anyone following us,” she said a moment later. Hard to be certain of that though, given all the cars behind them. “I’ve got no idea how anyone found us at the apartment. Maybe Tino is paying a neighbor to spy on the place or something.” She also didn’t know how many others were out there hunting for her.

“Think anyone called the cops back there?”

Given the seedy neighborhood, there was a possibility that no one had. “Not sure.” She hesitated before adding, “Pick an exit and drop me off somewhere.”

He made a sound of disbelief and shook his head, the muscles in his jaw jumping. “Not happening. Deal with it.”

“He’s probably got your plate number. You’re not safe.” Worry for him made her pulse thud hard in her throat.

He shot her a hard look. “Neither are you.”

She bit back an impatient retort, checked the mirrors again. God, he’d almost been shot because of her. She didn’t want anything to happen to him but he refused to listen to reason.

He aimed a sideways look at her. “We could go to the cops.”

“No. No way.” The cops might be on the lookout for them right now but there was no way she was going to them for help. She was supposed to be invisible right now. Nobody at the CIA was going to vouch for her or clear her name. And she didn’t plan on going to jail for a hit she’d committed at the request of the U.S. government.

He gave a hard sigh then pulled out his phone and dialed someone with the press of a button. “Hey, we’ve got a situation,” he said as he took the next exit and drove down a quiet road that was bordered by rural land on one side and well-spaced houses on the other. He detailed what had just happened. “I need you to switch vehicles with me, then hide my truck somewhere until I tell you it’s safe to move it.” He named a meeting place. “Meet me in ten min—”

Trinity’s gaze cut to the side mirror as a white sedan suddenly appeared behind them, gaining speed. Her nape prickled in subconscious warning.

“Shit, we’ve got company. I’ll call you back once I’m clear.” Brody set the phone in his lap and hit the gas, running through a red light.

The white car ran it too, barely avoiding being T-boned by a minivan in the intersection. Brody sped to the next road and turned left, taking them away from the residential area and out into farmland.

Headlights flashed in the side mirror. The white sedan fishtailed as it turned onto the same road and raced after them.

Not wasting any time, Trinity undid her seatbelt and scrambled into the backseat.

“What are you doing?” Brody said, his voice sharp as he sped down the darkened road.

“I’m gonna get rid of our tail,” she said, rummaging through the backpack on the floor.

“No, put your seatbelt back on. I’m gonna see if I can lose him.”

She ignored him. Two seconds later she came up with the rifle parts she’d stashed at her apartment and began assembling them.

“Trinity,” he snapped. “Put your damn seatbelt on.”

Nope.
The people after her weren’t going to give up. Even if they outran this guy, he would keep coming after her. And there would be others, including Tino. She had to end this
now
and she wasn’t going to waste time arguing.

A glance through the rear window showed the sedan still coming after them. But not for long.

Slamming the magazine into the lower receiver, she knelt on the right rear passenger seat and reached for the button that would lower the window.

“Shit!”

She didn’t even have time to brace before Brody hit the brakes, sending her flying into the back of the front seat. Scrambling into a stable position, she gripped the back of the headrest in front of her with her free hand and peered through the gap between the front seats to see what the problem was.

An SUV had turned out of a side street ahead of them and was swerving into their lane.

It straightened and raced toward them, coming at them head on.

****

He had them trapped now.

Pure elation exploded in Tino’s veins as he roared straight at the silver pickup holding Trinity and the guy she’d been with at the apartment.

Surprise, motherfuckers
. He sneered as the truck plunged to a stop in the middle of the quiet road.

They wouldn’t have expected this, for him to appear as if out of nowhere and cut them off. But he had, thanks to a running commentary on their position and movements from Dante. For that, Tino could almost forgive him for not killing the unknown man and capturing Trinity back at the apartment.

The silver truck tried to turn around on the narrow road, but the maneuver cost precious time the occupants didn’t have. There was nowhere for them to go now, nowhere left to run. Dante was still behind them, blocking their rear. There were no side streets. No streetlights here, no sidewalks and no houses or potential witnesses to what would happen next. Only agricultural land stretching out toward the highway.

You’re all mine now.

His dick was rock hard as he mentally counted down the remaining seconds and he aimed straight for the pickup, anticipation exploding through him like a drug.

In just a matter of moments he’d kill the driver. Then he’d drag that conniving bitch out of the truck, shoot her first if necessary to disarm her. He’d take her to the place he’d prepared last night, a place where no one would ever find them, and enjoy making all his fantasies about her a reality.

Brody hit the brakes when he saw the car had angled itself across the road, blocking their escape. They had only seconds to make their move.

“I’ll take the car, you take the SUV,” Trinity said, and threw open her door.

“Wait—” Brody began, but she was already out and heading to the rear of the truck, rifle to her shoulder. The SUV was still barreling toward them.

Fuck this.

He threw the transmission into park and jumped out after her. He didn’t have time to get his rifle from the lock box in the bed of the pickup. Armed only with his pistol he crouched behind the engine block, using it as cover as he sighted over the hood while Trinity went after the car’s driver.

Aiming for the SUV’s driver’s side windshield, he fired three shots. The vehicle veered to the right and screeched to a stop thirty yards away, and when the thin moonlight flashed across the windshield he saw the spider web pattern where his shots had impacted but not penetrated the glass.

Dammit.

Behind him, three sharp pops rang out, then Trinity fired a double tap. “You get him?” he called back, hating this.

With his guys, he wouldn’t have been this worried. They all had military backgrounds, trained together damn near every day, could practically read each other’s minds and anticipate each other’s movements. It felt wrong on every level to leave Trinity to handle the other driver.

“Can’t tell yet, he’s hiding behind the trunk. You?”

“Windshield has bullet-resistant glass.” He didn’t like that she was exposing herself like this but had to trust she knew what she was doing because he couldn’t fend off attacks from both sides alone.

Brody cast a desperate glance around. Here they were pinned down. The only other cover he could see was a barn off to the right, maybe fifty yards away on the other side of a cornfield. Outside the beams of the headlights it was dark enough that they might be able to make a break for it.

Ahead of him, the SUV’s rear passenger door flew open. Brody took aim, ready to fire. Behind him Trinity fired another double tap. “Mine’s down,” she announced, voice steady. “Dead.”

Her rushed footsteps came toward him, and the person in the SUV fired at him. Brody instinctively ducked as the bullets thunked into the hood of his truck, but thankfully the engine stopped them.

He crouched near the front fender and leaned out to return fire. A pained grunt answered the shot, then the man took off. Brody caught a glimpse of him as he darted away from the SUV, lost him in the darkness as the man ran for the ditch.

“He ran east,” he told Trinity when she came up behind him. “Can you see him?” He couldn’t.

“No. I just checked the car and there’s no one else in it.”

They had to make sure the SUV was empty before going after him. His instinct was to order her to stay put but that would not only piss her off, and she wouldn’t listen anyway. “Let’s clear the SUV and go after this son of a bitch.”

“I’ve got you covered.”

His left leg screamed in protest as he pushed to his feet. The impact from when he’d landed after sliding down that fire escape had set his recovery back. He limped forward, weapon up as he approached the SUV at an angle, Trinity right behind him, the muzzle of her rifle pointed over his shoulder.

A quick check ensured the SUV was empty. “Must have run for the barn,” Brody said.

“No, there,” she said, turning to aim her rifle at something in the field next to the road. Brody swung around, just as shots rang out.

“Down!” Reaching back, he shoved Trinity to the ground. She landed with a gasp, then he rolled on top of her, shielding her as the bullets hit the SUV behind them.