Kiss and Tell (33 page)

From the shrubbery came a violent rustle of branches and leaves. Then silence.

Run like hell
, Jake thought.

Lurch jerked his head toward the trees, and one of the goons lumbered off to investigate.

Jake stared at the man he'd thought he knew so well. His gaze flickered to the muscle standing well back, weapon trained on him.

He calculated the odds of taking Lurch down before he was shot himself. Lurch was still pacing. Jake waited for him to close the distance. Move a little farther away from his—

A high-pitched scream. A gunshot. Another long screech.

God
. For a moment he thought... Jake immediately reined in his leap of imagination but couldn't still the surge of blood that pumped through his heart and increased his rate of breathing.
No, of course it wasn't. Couldn't be.

Men had been known to scream like a woman when terrified.

Another strangled shriek. The rustle of shrubbery being pushed aside. Lurch's lieutenant staggered into the clearing, his arms in a stranglehold about a struggling woman. He had her around the waist like a sack of corn. Even with her back toward him, he wasn't having an easy time containing her. She screamed and flailed, fighting him for all she was worth, arms and legs thrashing wildly, and wielding a grubby white athletic sock.

Marnie.

She had a black eye. Her pale face was filthy, her hair spiked with pine needles and mud, her jacket ripped.

He'd never seen a more beautiful sight in his life.

Jake closed his eyes as a multitude of raw emotions swept through him. Blood rushed from his head, and he felt a leap of joy so intense, so profound, he almost forgot where the hell they were.

Lurch roared with laughter and clapped his hands as he strolled toward Marnie. "Well done, Price, well done."

He grabbed Marnie by her hair, pulling her head up. With his other hand he snatched her weapon out of her hand and tossed it aside. Still enraged, she couldn't cry out because of the unnatural arch of her throat. Her legs and arms struck out uselessly.

"Hello, darling," Lurch purred, then bent his head and kissed her hard on the mouth.

Jake locked his knees, gritted his teeth, and stayed exactly where he was. He ruthlessly kept his hands behind his back, even though all he wanted to do was rip out Lurch's heart. It was one of the hardest things he'd ever done. Rage rose in a blinding wave. He pushed it aside to center himself, focusing on the cold core deep inside.

Marnie jerked her head away, glared at Lurch, who still held her hair caveman style, and said in icy tones, "Your technique leaves a lot to be desired. Tell your goon to let me go, he's cutting off my circulation."

Grinning, Lurch asked the man behind her drolly, "Any weapons? Beside the sock?"

"No, sir. She had a gun. The little bitch tried to shoot me. I took it from her."

"Good. Let her go. Don't move, Miss Wright, or my men will shoot your boyfriend."

Marnie staggered as she was released. She rubbed her wrist and looked at each man with cool blue eyes. The hauteur of her expression was not diminished by either her black eye or the condition of her sodden, mud-stained clothing. Her gaze skimmed briefly over Jake and the other men, then back to Lurch.

"Which one of these Neanderthals is supposed to be my boyfriend?"

Lurch flung an arm about her shoulders and walked her toward Jake. "Here he is, darling, your sweetheart, Jake the Magnificent."

Jake's jaw ached from gritting his teeth. While Lurch was holding her casually, his fingers gripped her shoulder so tightly the fabric bunched beneath his hand. Despite the situation, she was as cool as a cucumber. His estimation of her climbed another dozen notches.

Good girl. Hang in there.

Jake watched them dispassionately as they came closer. He fixed his attention solely on Lurch, knowing that if he saw terror in Marnie's eyes, he'd lose it.

She didn't sound scared at all as she laughed a fake, brittle little laugh. "You must be joking.
This
guy? Oh,
please
. We don't even
know
each other. He let me spend the night in his cabin when a tree crushed mine to bits." She shot Jake a disdainful glance. "I don't associate with uncouth mountain men, even if they
are
the only game in town, thank you very much."

She stuffed her hand in her pocket and turned her head to look up at Lurch. "Look, I don't want to get involved in whatever you're doing. I don't even want to
know
what you guys are doing here. Just let me go."

"I'd never let a lady wander around alone in the dark," Lurch told her gallantly, giving her shoulder another squeeze. Then he grabbed her by her hair again and tilted her head back. "Let's see how my old pal the Tin Man likes it when
I
get the girl."

Jake choked back a snarl of fury, and Marnie's eyes narrowed as Lurch lowered his head to kiss her again.

Oh, shit
, Jake thought, a second before she punched Lurch in the stomach with the full force of her weight behind it. Lurch staggered, looking stunned.

Her face was set, her eyes glittering. "Don't manhandle me. I don't like it." She forcibly pushed away from Lurch, and in doing so, bumped hard into Jake.

He almost put his hands out to catch her, then remembered he was supposed to be secured. Her clothing and hair were wet; she smelled like mud and wet dog. He wanted to wrap his arms about her and bury his face against her soft, sweet skin. He had to get her the hell away from these lunatics and—

"Fall
down
, damnit," she snarled under her breath, her body pressing hard against his.

Jake allowed her slight weight to tip him over. They fell to the ground. He heard the air rush from her lungs as she landed on top of him with a thud. She winced – and pushed a gun under his shoulder.

"The woman is nuts. Get her off me," he demanded when Lurch stood there laughing at the two of them.

Marnie rolled off him and glared at Lurch. "Well? Don't just stand there. Help me up." She stuck out her hand, expecting to be assisted.

While she made a production of getting up on her own, brushing at the clumps of mud and debris on her jacket and complaining bitterly, Jake rose, the weapon now in his hand behind his back.

"I don't know what you people are doing," Marnie said furiously. "But I want no part of it."

She walked toward the cabin and the men who stood there, still talking to Lurch over her shoulder, trying to get Lurch's attention away from Jake and on herself instead.

"If you persist in detaining me, I'm afraid I'll have to – to contact my congressman and complain. This is an outrage."

*

Oh, for goodness sake
, Marnie thought desperately. Dancer would shoot her for being a blithering idiot. Beyond him she glimpsed Jake, utterly still, his attention focused on Lurch, ignoring her completely. He appeared deceptively calm, like a panther contemplating when to move in for the kill. Not a good sign for the bad guys, she thought with a frightened hitch in her breath. Unfortunately, there were three men just waiting for Jake to twitch.

She had to keep talking, distracting Lurch and his men until Jake made his move.
Come on big guy, do something. I'm running out of steam here.

"My father is Geoffrey Wright. Of Wright Computers. You do know who he is, don't you?" She started finger-combing her wet hair, primping and fluffing as she talked. Out of the corner of her eye, she observed the soldiers avidly watching her every move. She fixed her gaze on Lurch. "Daddy's a millionaire. I know he'll pay a handsome reward for returning me home safely. The bridges are flooded. I presume you've figured how to get off this stupid mountain in this ridiculous weather?"

Lurch strode up to her and grabbed her by the collar. "Where is the lair?" he demanded furiously, not the least bit distracted by her nonsensical chatter.

She looked at him blankly for a second. "Oh, my God! You mean there are wild
animals
up here?"

She should have expected it, she really should, but the backhanded slap took her completely unaware. Her head snapped sharply, and the entire left side of her face went numb from the blow as she staggered several feet to keep her balance.

That's it!
Fury, raw and powerful, surged through her like molten lava. With a shriek, she launched herself at Lurch with nails and teeth bared.

Chapter Sixteen

J
ake brought his weapon up. In his peripheral vision he confirmed that Marnie was straddling Lurch as she attempted to pummel his head into the ground.

He got off a shot before the soldiers even knew what hit them. One fell where he stood. The second spun away from ogling the spectacle and fumbled his weapon in Jake's general direction.

No contest. Jake squeezed off another shot and dropped him before he could fire.

Where the hell was the third guy?

He spun around in time to see Lurch grab Marnie by the hair, roll, and come up in one fluid motion to haul her to her feet. She yelped, then bit her lower lip, her gaze flying to meet Jake's as Lurch wrapped an arm about her throat.

Judas Priest
. Lurch had her in a headlock, his sharp, deadly knife at her pale throat. "I'll cut her if you come any closer." He laid the sharp edge against the frantic pounding at the base of her throat. "Drop your weapon. I'll slice her into ribbons so thin she'll look like a maypole. Back off."

Jake locked eyes with Lurch. He took a step and stopped. "Touch her with that, and you'll never be dead enough."

"Thought you didn't care about her?"

"That's the difference between us, Lurch. I don't have to care about someone not to want them dead," Jake said disdainfully. "First you have to have me held down so you could beat me up, and now you hide behind a woman?" He snorted in disgust, keeping his focus on Lurch's eyes for any sign of movement.

"All the money in the world didn't help you become any less a coward, did it? What are you going to do now?" Jake sneered. "The second she drops I'll have you. There's no backup."

Marnie didn't move. Jake managed another two steps before Lurch spoke again. "I could take you if I wanted to," he spat, his fist bunched tightly in Marnie's hair, pulling her off balance. "Tell you what. In the spirit of friendship I'll trade you the woman for the lair."

"Hardly a fair trade," Jake told him coldly, taking another step. "My life's work for a woman?" He raised the Walther another notch. "Let her go. This has nothing to do with the girl." For a second he allowed his gaze to drop to Marnie's face. There wasn't a vestige of color except for the blazing blue of her eyes.

"You two are doing a lot of talking," she said with barely a quiver in her voice. "Why don't you just shoot him, Jake, and get this over with?" With that, she let her knees buckle.

For a split second she hung by her hair alone, clutched in Lurch's fist. Surprise and her body weight threw him off balance.

Jake fired two shots so fast they sounded like one. Marnie dropped and rolled; the knife went one way, Lurch the other.

Jake closed the distance in four angry strides and grabbed Lurch around the throat. He hauled him upright. He'd aimed low. Shoulder, upper thigh. Blood oozed out of both entry and exit wounds. Lurch wouldn't be doing any running.

"Couldn't do it, could you?" Lurch sneered, holding a hand over his thigh. He grimaced. "Couldn't off a friend."

Out of the corner of his eye, Jake saw Marnie stagger to her feet. He felt beneath Lurch's shoulder holster for the strip of plastic handcuff and quickly secured his wrists behind his back.

Marnie came up beside him as he pulled the cuffs tight. "Now what?" he asked as she stepped right up to Lurch.

"Now I want to hit him some more!"

She rubbed her smarting scalp, then landed a satisfying punch to Lurch's nose before he could jerk his head out of the way. Blood spurted over her hand. She didn't seem to notice. She socked the man in the stomach.

"Get her off me. The bitch is crazy."

Jake stepped back. "Have at it, tiger."

She slammed Lurch's shin with her sturdy Timberlines. Lurch cringed, but there was nowhere for him to go. She kept up a nice steady rhythm: kick, punch, kick, kick.

For a few moments Jake enjoyed the sight of her working off her fear. The adrenaline was still surging through her. She needed to vent it. Her damp hair flew wildly about her shoulders as she danced around Lurch, jabbing, chopping. A fierce look of concentration tightened the skin on her cheekbones. But she was shivering so hard, her face so pale, Jake felt compelled to end it.

To expedite matters, Jake inserted, "May I?" and punched out the man who used to be his best friend. Lurch, who was doing his best to dodge the wild woman hopping and jabbing at him, didn't see it coming. His eyes widened for a second, then he dropped to Jake's feet like a rock.

Jake put a hand on Marnie's chest to halt her tirade. "That's enough."

She dropped her fists and shook her head like a terrier, staring at him blankly for a second.

"Don't," Jake told her, "
ever
do that to me again."

"Do what?" she panted, eyebrows winged. "Untie you and save your butt?"

Jake surprised himself with the intensity of his fury. He grabbed the front of her jacket. "Scare the crap out of me!"

Her eyes were huge in her white face as she looked up at him. Her lower lip trembled. She swayed on her feet.

Jake hauled her into his arms. "You're a damn good fighter. I'm glad I have you on my side. But Judas Priest, woman, I thought I'd lost you." He buried his face against her damp hair so she wouldn't know how choked his voice was. "I saw the chopper go up in flames..."

"One of the bad guys wanted to go in my place, I think. He pushed me out of the helicopter." She wound her arms around his neck, pressing her face into his shoulder. She shook like a leaf in a high wind.

Jake held her lightweight body tightly against his, lifting her off the ground to kiss her hard and fast. She kissed him back feverishly, looking a little shell-shocked when he pulled back.