Copy That (18 page)

Jeremy tried to keep his eyes open and his body soft but the smash vibrated through every cell and jarred his back teeth. While his head lolled to the side, metal crunched against metal again. The smell of hot car and even hotter pavement wound around them. He opened his mouth to shout for her and realized the airbags had deployed.

The next hit bounced off the bumper. Smoke curled up from under the hood and metal crumpled in around them. Jeremy tried to calculate the risk of the gas tank exploding when the SUV went into a spin.

The world raced around them in a green-and-brown blur. His head rocked in time with the car until the merry-go-round made him dizzy. Round and round until he lost count and had to concentrate on not throwing up.

Tires screeched and the smell of burned rubber seeped in through every window. Meredith’s screams continued even after the car finally bounced to a halt, tipping and rocking. Through it all, the thread of panic in her high-pitched voice rattled in his brain.

He raised his hips, shimmied the knife out of his pocket and cut through the airbag until it lay deflated on his lap. Pax coughed and Jeremy saw long black skid marks on the road through the diagonal crack down the windshield.

They’d come to a halt perpendicular to the lane. If a car came in either direction, they’d be toast. Figured they’d land on a blind curve.

“Pax.” Meredith’s shaky hand reached through the seats to pull on Pax’s arm. “Move.”

Jeremy took in her frantic eyes and disheveled clothes. “Honey?”

But she wasn’t looking at him. His gaze followed hers to the front of the car. His vision cleared just in time to see the sedan head right for them. The guy gunned it until the grills hit and one wheel of the SUV went over the cliff.

And it kept pushing. Slowly, as if to draw out every excruciating second, he inched them closer to oblivion and let them dangle there.

“Do something,” Meredith pleaded as she rattled the door handles.

The wheels crunched on the gravel beneath them as the earth below them gave way. Pax hit the gas but the SUV’s tires just spun. Jeremy didn’t wait for a miracle or for his head to clear.

He would not die this way.

His shoulder throbbed and he could feel a warm trail of blood run down his stomach from his reopened wound. Scrambling, his hands in motion and fingers fumbling, he felt below his seat, patting as his heart thudded up to his ears.

He snatched the end of the gun just as the SUV started to slide farther into the canyon. Lifting his gun, he fired a shot straight through the driver’s-side window.

The car pulled back, idling while the driver watched.

“Aim to the side. He’s ducking.”

Jeremy obeyed Pax’s command and fired again. On the third, a body slumped over the wheel and the car began to roll with its wheels angled to the right and kept going until the front end crumpled against the rock wall on the inside of the lanes.

The SUV didn’t stop either, it teetered on the edge of the cliff with its tires spinning and the engine revving with useless energy.

Pax moved the wheel and stomped on the brakes. “I can’t stop it.”

“Out.”

Meredith rattled the handles and smacked the heel of her hand against the door. “I’m trapped.”

“No. Not like this.” Using every last ounce of strength inside him, Jeremy shoved and pushed and finally got his door open.

He reached behind him for Meredith’s arm. This was going to hurt like hell. For both of them. The SUV rolled slowly at first, but it was picking up speed. In a minute or two it could flip over and they’d be dead.

Yanking her by the forearms, he pulled her through the opening between the seats. She hit the front seat and landed on his lap. He folded his body around her and leaned out the door, prepared for a diving roll.

She grabbed for the dashboard and stopped their momentum. “Wait.”

“We have to go now.” Over his anger and the raging pain in his side, he saw her reaching for Pax. “What are you—”

Seeing Pax’s head fall to the side with his eyes closed and his body unmoving stopped Jeremy’s big escape. “Give me your knife.”

She dug around her pocket and slipped it out. With an arcing slice, he cut through Pax’s seat belt. The car hit something hard and they all bounced, heads hitting against the ceiling right before the door popped opened.

Then Jeremy and Meredith went airborne. He fell backward, taking her with him. They tumbled for a few feet, half in the air, rocks cutting into their skin. Jeremy’s head knocked against the hard ground as his back crashed into a set of bushes.

He pulled her out of the way just as the SUV raced by them. The wheels bounced against the packed dirt as the metal crunched and rumbled. When it hit an outcropping of rocks, the SUV tipped over.

They lay there not moving for a second. He touched a hand to her head. “You okay?”

“Yes.” The voice sounded breathless and in more than a little awe.

“We have to—”

She raised her head. “Pax?”

The burst of energy had Jeremy sitting up. He patted his ankle for his spare gun and said a prayer of thanks when he found it still there. “Meredith, wait.”

She moaned as she struggled to her feet. Her sneakers slipping, she hiked up with her left arm tucked against her stomach.

It took longer for Jeremy’s head to clear. He’d made sure to take the brunt of the fall, but he could see streaks of blood on the back of her arm. He’d just finished his visual inventory of her injuries when he saw the lump on the ground in front of her.

She reached Pax’s body where he lay on his stomach in the dirt. Dropping to her knees, she touched his head and looked back down at Jeremy. “He’s breathing but unconscious.”

Jeremy shifted his weight, trying to balance on his left side because every step on his right sent a new jab of pain shooting up to his stomach. He looked down to see the new patch of blood soaking his shirt.

When he looked up again, a man stood at the top of the canyon, just outside the sedan, with his gun aimed right at Pax’s prone form.

Jeremy shook his head in disbelief. So much for the idea he got the guy the first time.

Meredith didn’t see the attacker and the guy didn’t seem to notice Jeremy, which meant he retained the advantage. Forcing his hand to stop shaking, he aimed and pulled the trigger.

The shot thundered through the canyon as the man went down in a heap and Meredith threw her body over Pax.

When the air stilled again, her head shot up. She looked at the body a few feet from where she lay on Pax. Slowly her head turned and she faced Jeremy.

He forced his mouth to move. He smiled at her. “Got him.”

Then he fell to his knees as everything around him went black. The last sound he heard was Meredith calling his name.

Chapter Sixteen

Sara slipped out of the bathroom as soon as Meredith left. If Meredith could face whatever was happening without curling into a ball in the bathroom, Sara figured she could, too.

With her head held high, she crossed the big room to where the men were gathered around a chair. At the squeak of her sneaker against the floor, Garrett’s head shot up. He treated her to a small shake of the head. She answered by ignoring him.

“Ms. Paulson.” The older man in the suit, the guy who fit in the one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other category, noticed and acknowledged her. “It is nice to finally meet you.”

She clearly was missing something because she’d never seen the guy before. Not ever. The younger version behind him was a stranger, too.

“Okay,” she said, because she had no idea what else to say.

He approached her with his hand out. His cologne hit her the second before he touched her. She decided right then she preferred Garrett’s earthy scent. It came from soap not a bottle, and that said something to her about the type of guy he was—all substance, no useless flash.

“I’m Ellis Martin.”

She knew the name. Garrett didn’t talk much about work, but he mentioned people. When he talked about Ellis, Garrett spoke with a begrudging respect. He also tended to swear a lot. Seemed Garrett and this guy were bound up in some kind of power struggle.

Sara decided that could only mean one thing. “You’re Garrett’s boss.”

“And you’re his fiancée.”

She waited for Garrett to correct him. From the way Joel and Davis held their collective breaths, she guessed they were waiting for a denial, as well.

When none came, she decided to go with it. If Garrett wanted to keep their messed-up private life secret, she would oblige. The current state, whatever it was, didn’t exactly reflect well on her anyway.

“Yes, I am.”

Ellis bowed over her hand. For a second she thought he was going to kiss the back of it and thought about yanking it away. Instead, she gave his hand a tug and Ellis let go, but not before winking at her.

Garrett appeared at her side and his hand fell to her lower back, pulling her in tight to his side. The heat of his body engulfed her, and she sagged into him.

The whole show felt a bit heavy-handed. Not at all Garrett’s usual style. While the whole “man’s property” thing sure didn’t appeal to her, something flip-flopped in her belly at the idea of him staking a claim.

A little emotion was all she ever wanted. A sign he viewed her as more than a box to check off as he ran through the list of things he should do with his life. She wanted to blame him for setting her bar so low, but she knew she had to take some responsibility. She’d accepted it. Well, she used to.

“This is my assistant, Andrew.” Ellis nearly hit the guy in the head during the no-eye-contact introduction. Andrew just nodded as he sat in the chair and turned on a laptop.

“We need a table,” Ellis said.

Without another word, Davis disappeared into the bathroom and came out lugging a card table. He set it up then smacked the top. “Here you go.”

Garrett’s hand tightened on her back. “Why don’t you—”

“No, she can stay.” Ellis balanced a palm on the table and hovered over Andrew’s shoulder. At Garrett’s comment, he looked up. “You don’t mind if Sara stays and watches us work, do you?”

Sara heard the challenge in Ellis’s voice. Saw the battle play on Garrett’s face as he fought off the urge to say he did mind.

“Of course not.”

Since she was staying, she figured she might as well have a clue about what was going on. “What are we doing?”

“Facial recognition,” Davis answered over the steady tap of Andrew’s fingers against the keys.

“None of the attackers carried identification and we couldn’t name them on sight.” Garrett’s frown eased as he talked. “We took photos and are running those through known databases to see if we get a match.”

“You want to connect them to that Darren guy.”

Garrett’s eyes widened. “Yes.”

She could only assume from the reaction that he didn’t think she was smart enough to get the bottom line without a written paper on the subject. How flattering.

Ellis stared at his phone. After typing a few words, he dropped it back in his pocket. “I can’t place any of them.”

“Is that a problem?” she asked.

“Darren worked under me. Directly under Garrett, but in my section.” Ellis’s businesslike facade slipped and his hands balled into fists. “His access to hired guns should mirror mine.”

Despite the tough-guy demeanor and a smile worthy of the smarmiest politician, his true feelings lurked under there. The punch of betrayal that crossed Garrett’s face whenever he thought no one was looking also played for a few minutes on Ellis.

She reevaluated her decision not to trust him. “I assume the attackers were professionals.”

Andrew glanced up at her, then went back to typing.

“We’re guessing former military, possibly men who couldn’t cut it.” Ellis opened a file and pulled out a stack of photos. He spread them out on the table in a grid.

Garrett nodded. “There’s a never-ending supply of disenchanted men willing to do whatever they have to do to earn some money.”

“As long as they can carry a gun,” Davis added.

Andrew didn’t look up. “And get paid.”

Sara glanced at the photos then vowed not to look again. “That’s a scary thought.”

“You should try sitting in my office. You wouldn’t believe the depravity that crosses my desk.” Ellis folded his arms across his chest, his boss attitude back in place.

Garrett cleared his throat. “And now imagine what it looks like in real life when you go one-on-one with this sort of trash.”

All the sound sucked out of the room. Even Andrew stopped typing. Sara held her breath, waiting to see if the testosterone would overwhelm their good sense.

She wasn’t in the mood to separate them. She had to do that sort of thing at the bridal shop now and then when nerves frayed and otherwise rational women resorted to a form of hair pulling, sometimes literally. She’d see mothers and daughters battle over everything from the cost of shoes to the dip of necklines.

A little pampering, a lot of champagne, and she could soothe most fragile and hyper dispositions. She doubted that tactic would work here.

After a few seconds, Ellis smiled. With an exaggerated bow, he turned to Garrett. “You win this round.”

A breath hissed out between her lips. “Does the workday always go this way?”

Davis laughed. “Believe it or not, this is actually a good one.”

“Ellis and I understand each other. He runs the business end. I run the operations.” Garrett’s lighter mood matched the rest of the room’s. The change loosened the knot in her chest. For him to include her, let her see a tiny glimpse into his secret world, meant everything. Once this operation ended, she’d figure out a way to ask him to let her in. To keep the window cracked, if only a little.

“We should—” Ellis stood up with a frown full of what looked like genuine concern. “I’m sorry, Sara. Does it bother you to see these photos knowing the men are dead?”

She shook her head. “The men bothered me more when they were alive.”

“I see why you’re with Garrett.” Ellis shot Garrett an unreadable look then went back to examining the photos.

The computer beeped and Sara was grateful she didn’t have to respond.