Page 3 of Croatia Collateral

The woman in red leaned back, her pretty dark brows forming a V over the bridge of her nose. “Do we know you?”

Dax spun on his barstool to face two men in baggy jackets.

“You do not need to know us,” the bigger guy said.

To Dax, the accent sounded Russian.

Each man had a hand in his right pocket, pointing something at them.

By the size and shape, Dax would venture to guess they were pistols. “What do you want?” he asked.

“You two will come with us,” Big Guy said.

Dax had no desire to be herded out the door at gunpoint. Neither did he want to start a fight in the confines of the bar.

“We should do as they say, darling,” the woman murmured. “I told you we shouldn’t have come without our bodyguards.”

He frowned at the woman. Was she working with the two armed men? It was too coincidental for her to show up and then have the two men move in and demand they go with them.

Either way, Dax couldn’t do anything sitting down. He eased off the barstool, setting the woman in red at arm’s length, freeing his hands and giving him room.

The bigger man stepped up behind him and poked him in the back with the hard barrel of a pistol in his pocket.

“Okay,” Dax raised his hands slightly. “No need to get trigger-happy. I’ll come. Just don’t hurt the lady.”

He moved slowly through the bar, searching for his best options and reviewing various scenarios. If the two gunmen got them outside, would more of their friends be waiting to assist? He’d be better off taking down these two and escaping through the rear exit than risking even greater odds should they have friends outside.

The woman in red stumbled.

Dax gripped her elbow to steady her.

She leaned close to him and murmured, “Follow my lead.”

The gunman behind her jabbed his jacket pocket into her back. “Let her go.”

The woman stepped away from Dax, backing into a chair behind her. She teetered, her hands flying into the air.

The man holding his gun on her reached out with his other hand.

In a flash of movement, the woman grabbed that hand and spun him around, shoving him into the other man.

As the two men staggered unsteadily, Dax kicked out, sweeping the big guy’s legs from under him.

The two men crashed to the ground.

The woman tipped a table over on top of them, grabbed Dax’s hand and yelled, “Run!”

While the two men struggled to untangle themselves, Dax and the woman ran out the rear exit into an alley behind the bar.

A long, black car stood to the right in the shadows of the building.

The woman opened the back door and dove into the vehicle.

Dax hesitated.

The red-dress woman called out, “Get in!”

Still, Dax hesitated. He didn’t know this woman. She could be equally as dangerous as the two armed men.

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