Burns So Bad (Smoke Jumpers) (28 page)

Which
might have been the point.

A
bullet cracked and she flinched instinctively.

Rio
roared orders over the cell phone Joey had tossed on the dashboard. Bossy as
hell, but the man knew what he was doing and she felt better just knowing he
was there watching her six. The windshield spiderwebbed with the next shot,
sporting a round hole in the center.

“Thoughts?”
She rammed the accelerator, seeking every bit of speed she could get as the SUV
inched closer. If that beast hit her rear bumper, she’d fishtail, go right over
the side. She kept her eyes on the asphalt, her senses attuned to the truck and
the way the tires rode the road.
Fly for
me, baby.

“I’m
out,” Joey said. “Just drive like hell and do some praying. Get some distance
between us and them so the boys can do their thing.”

Base
camp was still almost four miles away, which at their current speed put them
there in roughly three minutes. There was no time or way to turn around before
then, not without slowing down and then she and Joey would be sitting ducks. She
wasn’t sure what she could do when she hit the parking area and the hangar, but
hopefully there’d be some kind of cosmic sign. A neon sign touting
escape route this way
or even another
barked command from Rio. She’d take whatever she could get.

Behind
them, the SUV swerved before straightening out. She wasn’t sure she was a nice
person because part of her—a big part—was disappointed the assholes
hadn’t gone over the side.

“Mack’s
shooting,” Joey said, savage satisfaction filling his voice.“They’re gonna be running on rims.”

Not
fast enough, she thought, as another shot finished their windshield and, holy
shit, glass flew everywhere. The truck swung wide and she fought the wheel for
control, Joey’s hands clamping down on hers as they wrestled the wheel
together. The guardrail sprang into her field of vision too close, the
beautiful, lethal mountainside not far enough.
God
. That was a long way down with no way back up.

Metal
shrieked against metal and then they were shooting straight down the middle
again.

“We
hit.” She tightened her hand on the wheel. Two miles. And then what?

Joey
grinned as he shifted back into his seat. “And we’re still here, so go you.”

The
truck shot onto the final straightaway, base camp visible ahead of them as the
SUV surged closer in her rearview mirror.

“Brace,”
Joey snapped, his eyes glued on their tail. “You got airbags?”

“You
bet,” she said and then the SUV caught up, driving hard into their bumper. The
world swung crazily, everything off-kilter, and then everything, everyone and
everything went tumbling like she’d cleared the plane bay and only then discovered
she hadn’t packed a parachute after all.

Free
fall.

Rio
.

###

Jesus. Christ
.

The
SUV slammed into Gia’s truck and Rio didn’t know if he was praying or cursing.
Begging, maybe, because the woman in that truck was his everything and there
was nothing—nothing—he could do to help right now. She had to hold
on all by herself and all he could do was race to pick up the pieces.

“Come
on, baby,” he growled, eyes glued to the road and foot to the pedal.

She
almost controlled the spin. Almost. The truck shot off the road, narrowly
missing the trees, bumping violently into the empty field the Donovans used to
park their trucks.

Adrenaline
shot through Rio, followed by a protective surge.
I’m coming for you, Gia.
The SUV roared up alongside Gia’s truck
and Rio knew the next move in this script.

Open
fire.

Rake
the disabled vehicle with gunfire, making sure whoever
survived the crash ate a lethal dose of lead.

Mack’s
gun cracked beside him again, but Rio was done sitting by. It was time to go
all in. To get out of the truck and into the action.

“I’m
going in,” he barked and Mack dropped back down into his seat and punching the
window up. In the rearview mirror, he spotted another vehicle coming up fast
behind them. That would be their DEA support, but those guys would never make
it in time.

Gunning
the motor, he picked his target. One final burst of speed and he drove the
truck into the SUV’s side. The impact rocketed through the truck, but Rio
clamped down on the wheel, fighting the buck and spin. He didn’t want to force
the SUV into Gia’s truck.

Nope.

He
just wanted to make sure that the SUV’s load of big, bad and dangerous couldn’t
pop the doors and finish the job.

He
slammed on the brakes.

Mack
jumped out, gun up as Rio launched himself from the driver’s side door,
covering the SUV.
Good man.
Sprinting
to the SUV, he drew his weapon and leveled the gun on the first face he saw.
There was the guy from the trail. Imagine that. The bastard had gone through
the windshield headfirst because seatbelts apparently weren’t part of his
repertoire. Rio tried to feel bad about that, but the man had been gunning for
Gia. Now he was twenty feet from the vehicle, doing a face plant in the dirt.
Not a threat. No visible weapons.

Hell.
No visible breathing.

He
looked up and spotted the runners coming in hot from base camp. Jack was in the
lead, gun out and running like he means business. His brother would take care
of this guy. Would render first aid until the cops arrived if there was a need.

“I’m
on point,” he growled and headed for the SUV, Mack guarding his six. This op
would turn out okay. Not because he’d performed countless raids and rescues,
but because he wasn’t letting Gia go. In just a few, he’d have her out of her
truck. He’d have her home free.

The approach should have been a walk in
the park, a familiar job, but the gut-churning nausea ripping through his
stomach was a surprise guest at the party. He sucked in air, forcing himself to
breathe evenly. Emotions like
fear
and
worry
got a soldier killed. He
wanted to spring for the truck, but first he had to disarm the immediate
threat.

He
leaned into the SUV.

“Game
over. Drop the weapons and hands up.”

###

Gia’s
hands wouldn’t budge. Her fingers had a death grip on the wheel, hanging on for
a ride that was over. The truck’s motor pinged, starting the cool-down, but her
brain wouldn’t get with the plan and send the unlock message to her fingers.

“We’re
not dead,” she said, because she wasn’t sure she believed it.

“Christ,”
Joey announced from the passenger seat. She’d never been so glad to hear his
voice. “I’m having a come-to-Jesus moment here, Jackson. That was too close.
I’m never calling shotgun again.”

The
rearview mirror had acquired a crazy tilt—she vaguely recalled slamming
her head into it as they rock-and-rolled their way to a stop—but Rio was
out there, booted feet spread and radiating aggression as he hollered commands
into the SUV.
Safe.

She
flipped off the ignition and rested her forehead against the wheel. Holy. Shit.
Her truck was definitely headed for the shop, the front crumpled and banged up.
Hell, the state of the windshield alone demanded repairs because there was
nothing left between her cab and the great outdoors. She considered turning the
engine on and moving out because staying put probably wasn’t her best option. Nope.
Her hands were shaking too badly.

“Gia?”
That was Joey’s hand carefully coming in to land on her shoulder with a medic’s
precision. “Talk to me some more. Let me know how you’re feeling, okay? I need
to hear your voice right now.”

“Clear,” Mack barked somewhere behind
her. She cracked an eye and decided the man showed every inch of his military
training as he finished his sweep of the area. “One knocked out, two injured.
Our boys here weren’t big believers in seatbelts.”

The
Rio came into view, one big, angry badass man. Coming for
her
.

Thank God.

“Gia?”
Joey shifted, undoing his seatbelt and moving in.

God.

How
close had she come to dying?

Get
out.

She
needed to move. Needed to find a safer position. What if Rio had miscalculated?
What if the SUV pulling off the road to join the party wasn’t full of the good
guys but was instead packing reinforcements for the bad guys? Her body didn’t
care, giving in to a tsunami-sized series of shakes. Yep. She was in full
shut-down-and-reboot mode.

“Hey.”
Joey’s hand touched her arm again. His seatbelt clicked as he unbuckled and
leaned toward her. “Jackson? You okay?”

She
opened her mouth. No. Not really.

“I
think I’m pregnant,” she said instead.

There
was a moment of silence followed by a particularly vile curse.

“You
kiss your mother with your mouth?” she asked.

He
ignored her, running his hands gently over her arms and legs as he went all EMT
on her. Right. Their Joey often doubled as the team medic. How convenient he’d
been the one riding shotgun with her. Couldn’t have planned that better.

She
fought the urge to giggle hysterically.

Instead,
she put a hand out, bracing herself against the steering wheel, like she could
hold herself together if she pushed hard enough or got enough distance.
Don’t cry
.

She
never cried.

“Does
it hurt anywhere?” Joey crouched on the seat beside her, assessing.

“I’m
fine.”

“We’re
gonna get you a real doctor. See what he says.”

Rio
opened the door slowly. That made her want to laugh again—God, she wasn’t
herself, was she?—because he was more of a rip-the-door-off-the-hinges
kind of guy than the slow and cautious type. Maybe he thought things were
falling apart in here.

Maybe
he was right.

“Can
I move her?” he asked over her head, going straight to the source.

“No
visible injuries.” That from Joey. “Get her out of here. Rio—” Joey
paused. “She says she’s pregnant?”

“Not
a newsflash,” Rio growled and Joey nodded.

“That’s
what I thought.”

Rio
didn’t answer, just pulled her carefully into his arms, lifted her out of
truck, and started walking. She didn’t care where he was going. Her eyelids
were too heavy and the world was closing in, narrowing to the worried face
watching hers.

“Stay
with me,” he ordered fiercely.

“Bossy,”
she whispered. Just this once, she wanted to do what he demanded, but it wasn’t
going to be possible. She needed a minute. Maybe two. Her eyelids were
steel-plated right now, the weight dragging them down and giving her a few
blissful seconds of dark and relaxed.

“Gia—”

All
hell broke loose behind them as the DEA guys sprang into action. Who knew? The
third vehicle had been carrying salvation after all. When she finally managed to crack an
eye, she spotted Mack, face down, his gun two feet from his head. Getting shot
by accident probably wasn’t high on his to do list.

Under
control.

Everything
was under control.

She
broke into sobs.

###

The EMTs had been on the scene
fast, although not quickly enough for him. He’d been arguing for a chopper lift,
although Evan had pointed out that it would take more time to get the bird in
the air than it would to wait out the ambulance’s arrival. Setting Gia down on
the gurney and letting go so the trained professionals could do their thing had
been almost impossible.

He’d done it though. All the field
training in the world wasn’t enough. He wasn’t the best man for this job.

And he wasn’t taking the chance.

Not with Gia. Not with their
family.

So what if when he’d held her in
his arms, walking them away from the crashed truck, he’d wanted to keep right
on going? Away from the cops. Away from the whole world, if he had his way.

“She’s pregnant,” he said and Gia
nodded.

Shit
.
Did she know for certain?

“We have to work on your delivery,”
he whispered roughly, leaning in to press a kiss against her temple. “If that’s
a
Hey Rio, I just took a positive
pregnancy test
, you’re supposed to make me dinner and light candles or
something.”

Her eyes closed and her face was
still pale. But the shakes were stopping. That was something.

“You volunteered to wait outside
the door,” she said, not winning any prizes for coherence. Good thing he was
sticking by her side in case she needed anything he could provide.

He could have lost her.

Had come real, real close to doing
so.

So, nope, not going anywhere. He
parked his ass beside her gurney and picked up her hand, threading his fingers
through hers.

Thirty minutes later, the EMTs
finished their checkout and reluctantly let Gia sit up. She’d refused
transport, although she’d agreed that she’d go get an ultrasound. Just to make
sure. He’d make sure she did but for now her body just needed time.

She carefully swung her legs off
the gurney, grabbed the crutches Joey had produced from her truck and planted
her boots on the ground. Stood up steady as a rock. Good as new.

Not.

He sucked in a breath. Some things
had to be said and this was one of those things. Says the words to her back wasn’t
his first plan, but he’d work with what he had. Fuck the fact that they’d
acquired an audience in the last thirty minutes. Most of the jump team was
hovering nearby, waiting to hear that Gia was fine.

“I love you.”

She stopped.

“Our time is up.” Her voice was
quiet.

Right. The pregnancy test.

“I’m not asking if you know about
the baby or not. I’d like to know, but that’s not the important thing right
now.”

“Oh.” She sounded uncertain. That
had to be a first for his Gia. “You still love me.”