Page 28 of Defenseless
Pausing, he mentally switched gears from thinking about the skeletons in her closet to her question. Two was an odd number.
Unless…
His heart seized and adrenaline shot through his system like a cannon as the answer came to him in a blinding flash.
And as it did, a red dot from a sniper rifle began dancing on her forehead.
CHAPTERTWELVE
A bullet grazedChad’s upper arm, but he was so focused on getting Sabina down and out of the line of fire, he barely registered it. The back window shattered above them, and he positioned his elbows to take the impact of their fall. His arms were wrapped around Sabina, and he didn’t want to turn and take the brunt of their landing on his back as that would expose her to the shooter.
As planned, his elbows were the first to collide with the road, and the gravelly asphalt dug into his skin through his hoodie. Immediately after that, his knees made contact. His cargo pants were sturdier, but he’d bet a pitcher of his favorite beer that he’d be black and blue tomorrow.
Beneath him, Sabina grunted in pain and burrowed against his chest as her hands gripped the material of his shirt. At least he’d managed to get his hand behind her head so that she hadn’t slammed it against the hard surface.
They might not be in the best shape in a few hours, but right now, they were alive. Still, he wasn’t going to take any time to linger on that small triumph. One shot had been fired, and his training had him assuming that it wouldn’t be the last. Dropping a hand to Sabina’s waist, he urged her to flip over.
“Go!” he ordered. “Crawl to the other side and don’t stop until you get to the shelter of the tire.” The shooter was across the road and up the hill. Taking cover on the side of the car by the shoulder would give them a few moments to collect themselves.
She responded to his order without hesitation, and a few seconds later, she was army-crawling away from him. He followed behind, half his body shielding hers, doing his best to give her cover.
Another shot pierced the night, and his left thigh caught fire with the sting of the contact. As bullet wounds went, it was minor, but it still stung like a mofo, and he couldn’t stop the sharp inhale or muttered curse.
“Chad!” Sabina cried out, obviously having heard him.
“Don’t stop, just keep moving,” he ground out, grateful that whoever the shooter was, he wasn’t very good. He seemed to sight a target pretty well, but he didn’t appear to have the skills needed to anticipate and account for movement. And Chad was just fine with that.
When they finally rounded the car and reached the back tire, Chad didn’t think. He just set his back against the car and pulled Sabina to sit between his legs with her back to his front. There was very little chance the shooter would be able to spot them from his current position. Even so, Chad wanted his body between whoever was out there and Sabina.
“Chad?”
He wanted to reassure her, but he didn’t have that luxury. Instead of answering, he pulled out his phone and hit Ethan’s number. He should be calling Colton, but Ethan’s number was easier to reach since it was the last call he’d made. He figured Colton would have called Ethan—and Ryan—anyway. He was good, but he didn’t know these mountains and these trails the way Ethan and Ryan did.
“You got her?” Ethan said by way of answering.
“There’s a shooter on the hill behind us. Her tires were slashed. It was an ambush. Two shots fired.”
The sound of Ethan scrambling for his gear filtered through the line. A sense of calm washed over Chad. His cousin, Colton, and any of the others those two decided to call in would handle the shooter. Leaving him to focus on Sabina’s safety.
“Anyone hit?” Ethan asked.
“Call Colton and Ryan. We’ll want police involvement,” he said, ignoring the question. “I think he’s on the old logging road. We can figure out how he got here later. I’m going to leave him to you and get Sabina back to HICC. We’ll head down the hill to the trail then jog home for my car.”
“Good, we’ll meet you there when we know anything.”
And with that promise, Chad ended the call and slipped the phone back into his pocket.
“We’re going down that?” Sabina asked, pointing down the side of the mountain. It wasn’t quite a cliff, but it wasn’t far off.
“I came up that way,” he reminded her. “There’s a trail about thirty yards down. We’re a little less than two miles from my house, by foot. We’ll grab my car and head into HICC.” He started to push her forward toward the edge of the road, but her hand came down, landing on the road beside his thigh, stopping his movements.
“I know this sounds crazy, but I need my bag,” she said.
He hesitated. Itdidseem crazy to take that chance. The minute they opened the door to the Jeep the light would go on, giving the shooter their location. On the other hand…
“Is your computer in it?” he asked. He trusted that the device was as encrypted as it could possibly be. But still, the thought of it getting into the hands of someone they didn’t know—someone who was currently trying to kill them—didn’t sit well. Ethan and the others would arrive soon. But if the shooter was after something on the device, he’d have plenty of time to grab it and run before they showed up.
She gave a jerky nod.
