Page 49 of On the Chase
It felt wrong to leave them, to walk away from Grace and Jules and the kids. Even though Hugh knew they’d be safer there, it still was hard to have them—Grace especially—out of sight. He glanced down at Lexi, who was plunging eagerly forward, showing no sign of soreness and doing her very best to make his rope-burned hand shriek with pain. He’d considered leaving her with Grace and the others for protection, but he and Lexi were partners. The dog was used to working with Hugh, and he had a feeling she would’ve protested, loudly, if he’d left her behind. Calling attention to their hiding place would not have made them safer.
Shaking off his misgivings, Hugh increased his pace, ignoring the pain shooting through his thigh and hands—through pretty much his entire body, actually. There was no part of him that didn’t hurt after pulling Grace and Lexi off the porch the day before. The thought of it made his stomach burn. When he’d seen them on the collapsing deck, Grace clinging to the railing as she clutched Lexi’s harness, both of them only a second away from falling to their deaths, his mind had blanked with sheer terror. Thank God for his training. He’d gone on automatic pilot, grabbing the rope and tying it to a leg of his very heavy—thankfully—dining room table.
His boot slid slightly on some loose rock, and Theo gave him a warning glance. Hugh shook off the residual terror and concentrated on where he was putting his feet. If he didn’t focus, he was going to get them all killed. He gave Lexi’s leash a tug, and she quit pulling. The relief on his hand was immediate.
Otto had taken the lead, and he held up a hand as he reached a switchback in the trail. Instead of continuing down the path, he looked over the drop-off. Hugh and Theo both stopped next to him, peering down to an outcropping of rocks right below them.
There were two men, one looking through binoculars at Otto’s house. The other one was focusing through the scope of a rifle. A surge of rage flooded Hugh, against Truman and every asshole who was trying to kill him. The kids had been outside. This fucker had pointed a rifle at them. His truck had been blown up, and his deck sabotaged. They’d been stalked and attacked. Lexi had almost died, and so had Grace—three times.
Fury gave him speed and courage, sending him sprinting down the trail, Lexi running in front of him. It was rough and steep, but his feet managed to find traction. They stayed quiet, and it wasn’t until they were just six feet above the two killers-for-hire before the man with the binoculars looked up.
As soon as their gazes met, Hugh commanded, “Lexi, bite!” and let go of the leash. She leapt at the man. The one with the rifle gave a shout of surprise as he scrambled to get up, but Hugh tackled him. They connected with a mutual grunt, and the sniper fell onto his back with Hugh on top. The impulsion from his forward motion slid them across loose rock toward the edge of the ledge. Their heads and then shoulders dangled over the drop-off, and the distant and jagged rocks below them made Hugh instantly dizzy.
Hands grabbed his leg—his bad leg, of course—sending shock waves of pain through him but stopping both of them before they plunged off the cliff. Someone else grabbed his other calf, and he and the gunman were hauled back onto solid ground. As soon as they weren’t in danger of plunging to their deaths, Hugh cocked his arm back and punched the would-be assassin in the face, knocking his head against the rock under them. The sniper’s eyes rolled back, and his body went limp.
Resisting the urge to punch him again, Hugh checked for a pulse instead. It was strong and steady. Part of Hugh—a pretty good-sized part—was happy the guy would have a pounding headache when he regained consciousness. He deserved every bit of misery he would experience.
“You okay?” Otto asked, offering a hand up.
Hugh accepted it with a hand that shook with the last vestiges of rage and adrenaline. “Yeah. Felt good to hit him.”
“I’m sure.” With a small grin, Otto moved to the unconscious man, turning him onto his front and cuffing his hands behind his back.
The other guy was yelling, trying to pull away from Lexi, but she held on, her tail churning in happy circles. As usual, it was a game to her, whether training with a sleeve or on a mountainside with a grip on a guy who wanted to kill her partner. He, as well as everyone else, was just a playmate.
With Viggy barking at his side, Theo looked at Hugh. “Enough?”
Hugh waited another few seconds before releasing Lexi, who immediately ran over for her reward. He automatically pulled her tug toy from his BDU pocket. As Lexi grabbed the other end and started pulling on it, Hugh wanted to laugh. It was just so bizarre to be standing on a rocky ledge, playing tug with Lexi, as two men who wanted him dead looked on—well, at least one of them did. The other wasn’t looking at anything except the inside of his eyelids.
“Anytime you’re done having fun, Hugh,” Theo muttered, his arm muscles bulging with the effort of holding Viggy back. The man Lexi had taken down was still on the ground. Every time he shifted as if to get to his feet, Viggy launched into another round of ferocious barking, and the man subsided, eyeing the dog warily.
“Good girl, Lex,” Hugh praised, returning the toy to his pocket. When he automatically reached for his cuff case, however, there was nothing there, and he mentally cursed his required medical leave for the thousandth time. “Can I use your cuffs, Theo?”
“I’m on it,” Otto said before Theo could respond. Even though this one was conscious, the man didn’t fight much more than the sniper had. Theo hushed Viggy, and silence settled over the mountainside as the three of them eyed the two cuffed suspects.
Hugh’s head was starting to throb along with the rest of his body. “Yeah. So…what’s the easiest way to get them down?”
“Push them over the edge and let them roll to the bottom,” Theo stated. When Hugh and Otto frowned at him, he shrugged. “You said the easiest.”
With a silent sigh, Otto bent to turn over the unconscious man. Hauling him off the ground, he slung him over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. Hugh grabbed the other man by his upper arm and helped him to his feet.
“Hey,” the guy complained. “Not so rough.”
Hugh stared at him for a long moment and then turned to Theo. “I say we go with your plan A. Let’s toss ’em over.”
His eyes bulging, the man started protesting, and Theo smirked. Rolling his eyes, Otto started down the path that Hugh assumed led into the valley. They’d only gone a few feet when there was acrackfrom above them. Hugh ducked automatically, his body recognizing the sound even before his brain caught on a half second later.
It was a gunshot.
Grace. Her name echoed in Hugh’s head as a wave of blind rage flooded through him. If she’d been shot, if something had happened to her while they’d been dealing with these two, then he wasn’t going to be responsible for his actions. Anger and terror clawed at his insides, shredding his logic and common sense.
With a wordless roar, he tore back up the mountain, ready to tear apart anyone who dared to harm her. He could still hear the echoes of the gunshot, and they shook him to his core. She had to be okay. She had to.
If she wasn’t, he’d rip apart the pile of rocks they stood on until he found the man who’d hurt her…and then Hugh would make him bleed.
* * *
The sound of the gun echoed through the valley, bouncing from mountain face to mountain face. Grace braced herself for impact, for pain. At this range, there was no way she’d survive. There was no blow of the bullet hitting any part of her body, though. There was no searing agony of it tearing through fragile organs and tissue and muscle. There was only the echo, and even that was fading.
