Her Cowboy Defender - Kerry Connor

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       “Don’t worry about me. She’s all that matters.”

       His frown deepened. “Who are these people? Why did they kidnap your sister?”

       “That’s not important.”

       “The hell it’s not. If you want me to stick around these people, I need to know what I’m up against.”

       “They kidnapped her to force…me to provide them…with some information they want.”

       “Even if they let your sister go before you give it to them, what do you think they’re going to do to you after you give it to them?”

       “I told you, don’t worry about me.”

       “It sounds like somebody needs to. What’s going to happen to you after you give them what they want?”

       “Her name is Tara,” she said as if he hadn’t spoken. “She’s only twenty years old. She has her whole life ahead of her.”

       “And you don’t? You can’t be much older than thirty, if that. What about your life?”

       “Please. I know I don’t have the right to ask you for anything, but I’m doing it anyway. Please save my sister. If you want me to beg, if that’s what it will take to get you to agree, then I will do it. It should be clear by now that I am willing to do anything to save her. So I’m asking you, begging you, please save my sister.”

       Something in his face softened slightly, and hope burst in her chest at the indication that she might have swayed him.

       He never had a chance to answer.

       The rear window suddenly shattered. Glass sprayed into the interior of the truck. Piper cringed, instinctively turning away from the blast. Almost immediately, she whipped her head back to see what had happened.

       A car had pulled up behind them without her noticing. She hadn’t been paying close enough attention while she’d been speaking to him, hadn’t even considered that she would need to.

       Then she saw the arm reaching out of the driver’s side window, the glint of a gun clutched in a hand, just before a dull thud struck the metal of the truck.

       Realization struck as hard as the impact of a bullet. Someone was shooting at them, trying to force them off the road before she could even get to the rendezvous point.

       Oh, God.

       She should have known they wouldn’t play fair.

      Chapter Three

      The sound of another bullet hitting metal knocked Piper out of the shock holding her in place.

       The driver of the other car wasn’t the only one with a gun.

       Gritting her teeth, she turned all the way around in her seat, just as the cowboy shouted, “Friends of yours?”

       “Just keep driving!” she yelled, pushing her arms out the shattered back window and taking aim. As soon as she had her target, she pulled the trigger.

       She didn’t hear anything, but the shot must have hit, because the car wavered slightly, sliding across the road. Satisfaction surged inside her, but she never let the vehicle out of her sights, matching her movements to it.

       Confident she had another shot, she took it.

       The windshield cracked.

       She shot twice more in quick succession.

       The glass cracked farther, the webbing spreading across the windshield. If she wasn’t mistaken, there was no way the driver should be able to see through it.

       As if to confirm it, the car suddenly skidded across the road. Seconds later, it went right over the edge of the shoulder, disappearing from view.

       A triumphant grin briefly flashed across her lips, the feeling unfamiliar, before she sobered, pulling her arms back into the truck and turning to the cowboy.

       “I guess you really do know how to use that,” he said drily.

       “And don’t forget it.”

       He didn’t reply, frowning slightly. She watched his eyes lower to the panel in front of him. It was only then she realized they were gradually losing speed.

       “Why are you slowing down?”

       “Something’s wrong.”

       She cocked the gun. “Knock it off. We don’t have time for this.”

       “I’m not doing anything,” he snapped. “I think he got one of the tires.”

       “He couldn’t have. The tire would have blown.”

       “Then something must have ricocheted into it or we hit something.”

       Dread shot through her. “Ignore it. Keep going.”

       “I can’t ignore it. The truck isn’t going to let me.”

       “How much farther do we have to go?”

       “Too far. We’ll never make it.”

       Before she could argue further, he was already easing off the accelerator and pulling over onto the shoulder.

       She opened her mouth to tell him once more to keep going, but even as she did, she could feel the truck was starting to list on its left rear tire.

       The cowboy shifted the truck into Park and shut off the engine, then opened his door and stepped out without even acknowledging her. Piper quickly scrambled across the seat and followed.

       To her horror, the tire was already half-deflated. It must have been a graze or a nick or something, since the tire hadn’t exploded, though it might as well have for what the damage meant.

       They didn’t have time for this. “Change the tire,” she ordered.

       “I’m going to,” he grumbled. “It’s the only way I can get out of here.”

       “How long is it going to take?”

       “Long enough.”

       “I only have fifteen minutes!”

       He finally glanced back at her. This time there was a trace of sympathy in his eyes that shook her more than anything he could say. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I don’t think you’re going to make it.”

       She raised the gun at him. “Not good enough.”

       He simply shook his head and turned away. “You can shoot me, but it won’t change anything.”

       She didn’t want to believe him. She wanted to scream, call him a liar.

       But as she watched him work, she realized with a sinking heart that he was right. Changing a tire on a pickup truck was a bigger task than on a passenger car. He didn’t seem to be taking his time, but it was still taking far too long. And even if he managed to get the tire changed quickly, they still had to travel to their destination.

       She peered down the road, raising a hand to her face to shade her eyes. There was nothing but the strip of highway and endless stretches of desert as far as the eye could see. No indication that they were anywhere near where she needed to be.

       Finding it suddenly hard to breathe, she pulled the cell phone out of her bag with one hand, even though there wasn’t much of a point. She couldn’t even call the kidnapper to beg for more time. The two times she’d spoken with him, he’d called her from an unlisted number. All the contact came from his end. She had no way of reaching him.

       All she could do was stand there, feeling time—and Tara’s life—slipping away from her with each passing moment.

       She watched in horror as her watch counted down to the appointed meeting time all too quickly, then reached it.

      

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