LITMIR.BIZ

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for anything,” Nick said between gritted teeth, but didn’t look in Kelly’s direction.

      The chair under the knob exploded across the room.

      The second man followed the first in.

      Nick ripped the front door open, grabbed Kelly and shoved her outside ahead of him.

      Chapter Four

      “No matter what, keep moving!”

      Nick dragged her along with him. Moonlight splashed down on the wide expanse of yard, forcing them to hug the shadows of the cement block building.

      At the sound of footsteps behind, he glanced back. “We’ve been made.” His fingers tightened around her upper arm. With the automatic held easily in his right hand, he looked more like a warrior than anything civilized. She took comfort in that. Nick was a tenacious fighter, a survivor. If anyone could keep them alive, he could.

      He crowded her closer still to the building, until her shoulder scraped the block’s roughness. She gritted her teeth against the pain.

      When she looked up at him, she noticed his attention focused on the walkway ahead. In another dozen yards, they’d run out of cover; they’d have to sprint across open lawn. “Is there another way to the dock?”

      “Not without going back.”

      “Where are the keys to the boat?” he asked sharply.

      “In the ignition.”

      Glancing back, he swore and roughly shoved her ahead of him, his body blocking hers as he lifted the gun. He squeezed off three quick rounds.

      The vibration of sound slammed through her, sharp staccato punches to her chest. At any moment, she expected to feel the impact of bullets. She lost her hold on her bag and grabbed for it as Nick pulled her forward.

      “Leave it!”

      “No.” She jerked free.

      With a grim expression, he retrieved it, passed it to her.

      Thirty feet out, motion-sensitive outdoor flood lamps captured them in a searchlight glare. A shot, muffled by a silencer, popped. A second and third followed. The ground at their feet exploded.

      Nick turned, fired quick rounds at the wall where their pursuers sought cover, then two more at the spotlights. Glass exploded and rained down as they continued to run.

      Kelly shifted the weight of the satchel to the opposite shoulder. She pushed herself, yet still slowed Nick. If she hadn’t been such a damned coward, she’d tell him to leave her, but when it came to men with guns…

      Another shot snapped. Her knees buckled. Nick grabbed her hand, and she half stumbled in his wake toward the stairs and the cover of trees ahead.

      More shots. A barrage that chewed the air, the ground. Yet she could barely hear them over the roar of blood in her ears. They weren’t going to make it. It was all going to end here. She was never going to know why. Never going to know who.

      Nick faltered beside her, then, with a sharp intake of breath, went down.

      In horror, she watched as his face twisted with pain. He’d been shot. In the leg.

      Cursing, he rolled and unloaded the remaining bullets from his position on the ground as the two men vaulted the wall. One fell, remained doubled over. Not dead, but wounded.

      Nick ejected the spent clip. He slammed in another and immediately tapped out additional rounds, forcing the remaining man to seek shelter again.

      Climbing to his feet, Nick pushed her ahead of him. “When we get to the top of the steps, I’ll drop back and slow him. If I’m not there by the time you have the motor started, get the hell out of here.” His fingers tightened. “Don’t wait on me.”

      Her lips thinned. “You didn’t leave me back there.”

      “I don’t have time to argue.”

      “Just make sure you’re there.”

      Kelly focused intently on the trees ahead, the shade beneath them. The possibility of some cover. But it would also make the steep stairs difficult to handle.

      Her foot was already on the top step when she saw the man on her boat and dove to the ground. She barely heard the rustle of land crabs around her or felt their hard bodies brushing against her. The man now ripped open the compartments where bait and freshly caught fish were usually kept. Fiberglass covers slammed against the boat deck.

      With the next burst of gunfire, he glanced up, appeared to gaze directly at her, though she knew he couldn’t really see her.

      In the next instant, he vaulted over the side of the boat and onto the dock.

      “More company,” she said when Nick dropped next to her.

      For a brief second, breathing hard, he watched the man sprinting the length of the dock, then glanced over his shoulder, possibly gauging how much longer they had before they were squeezed. “I’ve always liked a challenge.”

      “Well, I don’t.” She wiped the sweat from her forehead. “What now?” Her lungs still burning, she looked toward the hotel, but couldn’t locate the man closing in from behind. “I can’t run much farther. With your leg, neither can you. I know a place,” she said and fought to breathe. “Not too far. A house. We should be able…” She saw his hesitation. “If you have a better solution…”

      The man was at the bottom of the steps now. In seconds, he could be right on top of them.

      “Nick?”

      He pulled her up. “Which way?”

      As soon as they stood, they were spotted. The man below held fire, perhaps briefly afraid the shadows belonged to his friends, but the man behind didn’t hesitate. Bullets ripped savagely at leaves and twigs and hunks of bark.

      After half a dozen steps. Nick pushed her to the ground. Dropping to one knee beside her, he unloaded yet another clip. Explosion after explosion went off until she lost track of which protected her—the ones from Nick’s gun—and which came from the weapons of their pursuers.

      A bullet slammed within inches of her hand, then closer still until she felt the heat of its impact as it chewed a hole in the soil. Her chest ached as if she’d been pummeled. She couldn’t seem to breath. Or think. Or move. Instead of seconds and minutes, time was measured in never-ending explosions.

      Then deafening silence.

      Nick remained kneeling over her, his left hand keeping her down, his face barely discernable in the shadows as he waited. Instead of its usual saltiness, the night air tasted of spent powder. And of fear.

      He wrapped his fingers around her upper arm and bent down until his mouth was close to her ear. “When I give the signal, run. I’ll be right behind you.”

      She looked around her for the first time. They were closer to the hotel’s maintenance alley than she had realized.

      “Now!”

      Kelly scrabbled to her feet, headed for the cover of a Dumpster as more rounds attempted to force them back to the ground. Nick followed.

      They worked their way around the back of the hotel by way of the service courtyard and alley. The beach was an easy sprint just beyond and offered the cover of trees and dunes.

      Ten minutes later, they ducked into a narrow lane created by tall, vine-covered fences. Nick rested behind a group of trash cans, while Kelly slumped against the side of the building, her lungs on fire. Her leg muscles, after running close to a mile in the soft sand, cramped. In fact, at that moment, there wasn’t much of her body that didn’t hurt, ache or burn.

      “I don’t like it,” Nick said. “That was too easy.”

      “Easy?” she managed between heaving breaths. “I’d like to see your idea of hard.” She closed

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