Grace knew she had only one shot at escape. When the guy holding her shifted his weapon away from her temple, she took her chance. Ignoring the pain in the arm he had jacked up between her shoulder blades, Grace cocked her free arm and slammed her elbow into the man’s gut.
He jerked his hand up, firing another round that pierced the front fender of Grace’s SUV.
She twisted around, broke free of his grip and dove for the ground, rolling beneath the carriage of her SUV.
Gunfire sounded in the container yard, with the ping of bullets bouncing off metal storage boxes.
Grace lay low with her hands over the back of her neck. She couldn’t tell if the gunfire was all from the men who’d held her captive, or if there were more men in the yard. Based on the number of shots fired, she suspected there were more people firing than just the men responsible for her abduction. She prayed the others were Declan and his team of defenders.
The sound of bullets hitting her car made her afraid for Riley. Her roommate needed to be down lower, out of the line of fire.
Grace inched her way beneath the chassis of the SUV to the driver’s side and she poked her head out into the open. The driver’s door was open. Riley lay over the seat.
For a moment, Grace was afraid Riley had been hit. “Riley! Sweetie, are you all right?”
“Grace?” Riley started to raise her head.
“Keep low, Riley. Can you get out and onto the ground beneath the SUV? It’s probably safer down here.”
“I don’t know.”
More gunfire sounded, making it feel like a war zone.
Grace wasn’t giving up. She’d finally found her roommate. She sure as hell wasn’t going to let her die from a gunshot wound.
Shouts sounded and footsteps pounded across the pavement.
Grace rolled over and glanced toward the front of the vehicle. The man who’d most recently pointed a gun to her temple lay on the ground in front of the vehicle, a pool of blood forming beside his head.
Usually very forgiving of transgressions, Grace couldn’t find it in her heart to forgive any of the men who’d held her hostage that day, or who had broken into her apartment. She hoped they burned in hell.
Again, she turned her attention to Riley. “Come on, Riley, we need to get to somewhere safe. You have to come down here.”
Staying as low as possible, Riley turned in her seat behind the steering wheel and glanced down at Grace. “You don’t know how glad I am to see you.”
Grace smiled. “I could say the same, but we can’t waste time. Come down here and slide under the SUV.”
Riley grabbed the keys from the ignition and tossed them to Grace.
Grace caught them and tucked them into her pocket. Then she eased Riley’s feet onto the running boards as she slid out of the SUV and to the ground. Once there, Riley dropped all the way down until she lay flat against the pavement. She tucked her arms beneath her and rolled under the chassis.
Grace rolled in beside her roommate and waited for the opportunity to run for the shelter of one of the containers. She low-crawled to the rear of the vehicle and gauged the distance between the SUV and the nearest metal storage box. It might as well have been the span from one wall of the Grand Canyon to the other. To cross it would put them out in the open long enough for a bullet to catch at least one of them.
She turned back to Riley and gasped.
Her roommate slid backward out from beneath the SUV, her fingernails digging into the pavement but finding no purchase.
The man Grace had thought was lying dead in his own pool of blood had a hold of Riley’s ankle and he was pulling her out from beneath the SUV.
Grace tucked and rolled toward Riley, determined to get to her before the gunman had a chance to pull her all the way out from beneath the vehicle.
By the time she spiraled out from beneath the car, Grace was too late.
Her captor had Riley in a choke hold around her throat. “Make a move, and I’ll kill her.”
Grace didn’t hesitate; she swept her leg to the side as hard as she could, catching the man in the shin. His legs buckled and he flailed his arms, releasing his hold on Riley.
Riley dove forward, out of the man’s reach.
The dark-haired, dark-eyed man hit the ground hard.
Grace scooted back to where Riley sat against the side of the SUV. She gathered her friend in her arms and held her close as the battle raged around her. “I was wrong. Get back into the SUV.”
“I can’t.” Riley shook so hard, her teeth rattled.
“Climb into the vehicle,” Grace ordered. “I’m getting you out of here.”
Riley rallied, pulled herself up into the SUV and over the console to the passenger side.
Grace had to wait for her to get all the way across before she could climb up. She’d placed her foot on the running board when she heard a shout in the distance and another voice sounded behind her.
“I should have killed you from the start.”
Tired to her bones, Grace turned to face the barrel of a handgun.
The man she’d just kicked in the shins held the weapon, standing a little too far away for her to knock it out of his hands or slam the door on his arm. This was it. Her number was up.
What she needed now was a miracle.
DECLAN WAS TOO far away from the action to help Grace when she made her move. As soon as she dove for the ground, Declan fired on the man who’d been holding her. Declan had to trust Grace had gotten out of the line of fire, because as soon as he took the shot, all hell broke loose.
“Get the sniper,” he called out to Mustang.
Gunfire rang out.
A man dropped from the corner of a stack that was three containers high. With the sniper out of the game, they were on a more level playing field. But there were plenty of places to take cover with the heavy metal container boxes to hide behind. The trouble with the boxes was that they didn’t absorb all bullets. Some of the rounds ricocheted off the metal sides and continued on to strike other things.
Declan hoped those other things weren’t his teammates or the women.
He aimed his weapon at the men near the small office building. They took up covered positions behind other cars in the parking lot and it became an all-out war. Instead of hiding in trenches, they took cover behind vehicles and slung bullets back and forth.
These men weren’t regular Joes off the street. They were highly skilled killers with weapons as impressive as Mr. Halverson’s collection. “Take your time,” he cautioned his team. “Conserve your ammunition. You’ll get the chance to take them out when they start making mistakes.”
Declan’s team knew how to tease them into expending ammunition. They fired enough to keep the enemy firing until the numbers of bullets dwindled.
A shadow moved by the office building.
Declan lined it up in his scope and discovered a man hiding behind a pillar. He kept his sights on the target and waited.
The man held up a rifle and aimed at Declan.
Declan pulled the trigger first. The man fell and lay still against the ground.
That’s when he saw Riley being held by the man he thought he’d already killed.
His heart seized in his chest and he shifted his aim. But he couldn’t shoot without taking out Riley. Then the man toppled sideways, and Riley dove beneath Grace’s SUV.
Declan shifted his attention to the ground where Grace lay on her side, with her leg outstretched.
He chuckled.
She’d taken the man down with a sweep of her leg.
Grace and Riley huddled together for a moment on the ground and then Riley climbed into the vehicle.
Good. They could get in and drive away, out of range of any gunmen.
Then he noticed the man Grace had knocked down reach for the handgun he’d dropped.
“Grace, watch out!” he cried. He raised his rifle to his shoulder and stared through the scope, praying his aim would be true and swift.
The man stood with his handgun pointed at Grace.
Declan held his breath and squeezed the trigger.
The sound of his rifle firing seemed to be echoed by the blast of another weapon.
For a long moment, the man holding the gun and Grace remained exactly as they’d been before Declan pulled the trigger.
Then the gunman crumpled to the pavement. A half second later, Grace slipped to the ground, as well.
Declan’s heart stopped beating.
“That was the last one down. All bogeys have been accounted for,” Mack said into Declan’s Bluetooth earbud.
Declan couldn’t understand the words over the buzzing in his ears. He staggered to his feet and ran toward the SUV.
“Grace!” he called out, his eyes burning, his heart breaking into a million pieces. He couldn’t see her face, couldn’t tell if her eyes were open. Had she been injured? Or killed?
He ran as fast as his feet would carry him, sliding down on his knees when he came to a halt in front of Grace.
Her eyes were open. By all that was good in the world, her eyes were open.
Tears stung the backs of his eyelids when he realized she wasn’t dead.
“Grace,” he said and pulled her into his arms. “Are you hurt? Were you shot? Tell me you’re all right. I think I died a thousand deaths in the past thirty seconds.” He pushed her to arm’s length, his gaze raking over her. “Talk to me.”
She laughed and shook her head. “I would, but you wouldn’t shut up long enough.” Grace smiled up at him. “I’m okay. But after all we’d been through today, and then nearly being shot in the chest, I just couldn’t stand anymore.” She cupped his cheek. “I’m sorry I scared you, but I was a little scared myself for a while there.”
He bracketed her face between his palms and stared into her eyes. “You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever known. I want to hold you, kiss you and shake you for scaring years off my life.” He laughed and pulled her close again. “Promise me something, will ya?” he said against her ear.
She shivered at the way his breath on her neck made her all hot and aware of him as a perfect male specimen. “Promise you what?” she said, her voice ragged, breathy with desire.
“Promise me you won’t get cornered by a gunman ever again. I don’t think I can handle it.”
She smiled and pressed her lips to his. “I’ll do my best to keep that kind of promise. Trust me, I don’t ever want to be at the business end of a handgun anytime in the rest of my life.”
“And promise me, now that we found your friend, you aren’t going to disappear out of my life. I think I could fall for a girl who can defend herself and her friend. You’re my hero.” He kissed the tip of her nose and then brushed her lips with his.
“Are you kidding? I’d be dead right now if you hadn’t taken out that guy. At that precise moment, I was in the market for a miracle, and you came through with it.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a toe-curling, heart-stopping kiss that rocked him to his very core.
When the kiss ended, Declan laughed. “Yes, I think I could very easily fall in love with you.”
“Good,” she said against his mouth, “because I’m well on my way there myself.”
He leaned back, a frown tugging his brow downward. “You’d want to be with a guy who has a dishonorable discharge on his record?”
“Only if it was you. What I’ve learned about you so far is that you’re a straight shooter and you believe in fighting for what’s right. Whatever you did to get kicked out had to have been for all the right reasons. I know that in my heart.”
“For the record, I didn’t follow orders. It meant taking a shot through a bride and a groom on their wedding day and through babies strapped to Taliban cowards.” He shook his head. “I refused to shoot through the innocents. A particularly bad terrorist got away because my teammates and I refused a direct order to take out the target no matter what. That refusal, plus a politician’s agenda, got us released from military service.”
“I’m sure if you had appealed the decision, they would have overturned it,” she said.
He shook his head. “It’s a done deal. Besides, the guys and I have jobs we can stand behind. We’re going to help Charlie fight for truth and what’s right.”
“And maybe find time to see me?” Grace added. “I’d really like to see you again, even if your assignment is over.”
“You can count on that. I might even take you out to dinner and dancing.”
“You really know how to sweep a woman off her feet.”
Declan pulled her into his arms. “I think you’ve proven you can sweep a man off his feet. You’ve blown me away in the short amount of time we’ve known each other. I look forward to more time with you.”
“Do you think you two could break it up long enough to explain to the local police why there are dead men lying around a container yard?” Mack stood over them, shaking his head.
Declan pushed to his feet and reached down to take Grace’s hand. “Time to call Charlie. Let’s wrap this up. I have a date with a beautiful woman.”
He pulled Grace up and into his arms. “I’m glad I found you on that sidewalk in the middle of an attack.”
“Me, too,” Grace said. “I can’t even imagine what might have happened had you not been there that day. If I didn’t believe in fate before, I do so now.”