Page 23 of Risk It All
He rewarded her with one of his barely-there smiles. Despite the situation, the sight of it warmed her insides. Reminding herself that now was not the time to get mushy over Kavenski, she focused on the tablets in her hand. Her mouth was cottony enough that she knew she wouldn’t be able to take them dry, so she hurried back to the kitchen sink. There was a clank and groan after she turned on the faucet, but the water that flowed out looked clear. Putting the pills in her mouth, she cupped her hands and drank, only realizing how thirsty she was when the water hit her dry throat.
“Let’s go. I’ve got water in the car,” Kavenski urged, and she forced herself to turn off the tap and follow him through the front door. She couldn’t help glancing back at the bound kidnapper, unable to trust that he wouldn’t break his zip ties and surge up to attack them like some sort of supervillain.
With her attention on the immobile body, Cara crashed right into Kavenski’s back. Grabbing handfuls of his coat, she regained her balance, peering around his broad form to see why he’d stopped in the middle of the porch. Her hopes when she’d looked out the back window were immediately crushed. There wasn’t any sign of civilization in this direction, either. The scrubby grassland stretched in all directions, only stopping at the distant mountain peaks. A half-collapsed barn fifty feet away was the only structure besides the cabin. Cara followed Kavenski’s narrowed gaze and saw a cloud of something hovering right above the ground in the distance.
“Is that smoke?” she asked in a low voice. The tension on his face made her nervous.
“Dust.”
It took a moment for his one-word answer to register. “Oh! A car?”
“Three.”
“Oh.” She swallowed. “Coming this way?” He didn’t answer, but then he didn’t need to. She could tell that the dust cloud kicked up by the vehicles was getting closer. Dragging her gaze away from the incoming cars, she scanned the more immediate vicinity. “Where’s your car?”
“There.” He jerked his head toward the collapsing barn before taking the porch steps in one long-legged step. Pulling out the phone he’d just taken off the kidnapper, he chucked it far away from the cabin without breaking stride. “Hurry.”
Cara trotted after him as he picked up the pace to a jog. Her gaze kept drifting over to lock on the approaching vehicles, and her stocking toes kept catching on tufts of rough grass while small rocks bit into the soles of her feet. She forced her attention back to her footing and just missed stepping on a small, round cactus the size of a tennis ball.
Even though she avoided getting a foot full of spines, she gave a small yelp as she dodged.
“What’s wrong?” Twisting to look over his shoulder, Kavenski focused on her feet and seemed to take in the situation in less than a second. He turned, scooped her up so she was folded over his shoulder, and then started running for the old barn again. The shock of suddenly being flipped upside down took her breath away. It took three strides before she processed what had happened, that he’d tossed her over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes.
The hard wedge of muscle smacked into her solar plexus. Even factoring in the possibility of more cacti, Cara was pretty sure that being carried this way was more uncomfortable than continuing to run in her socks would’ve been. Mentally, she chided herself for being whiny.Just appreciate the ride. Besides, he runs faster than you could without shoes.
The worst part was that she couldn’t see anything. Pushing away from his back a little, she twisted her neck and managed to spot the dust cloud. It had transformed into three SUVs that were approaching too quickly for comfort, and Cara suddenly didn’t mind the jolting. From her angle, she couldn’t see any part of the barn, so she had no idea if they were even close.
Kavenski abruptly stopped and hauled her off his shoulder, setting her on her feet with more speed than finesse. She automatically took a step back to catch her balance, but it wasn’t needed. His firm grip on her hips didn’t ease until she was steady. As soon as she wasn’t wobbling, he turned to shove open a small door in the side of the barn—or what used to be a door, at least. The boards were worn, and several had worked free of their nails, leaning drunkenly to the side. The wood cracked as Kavenski forced it in enough to allow him to step inside.
“We’re going inside?” When Kavenski had indicated that his car was by the barn, she hadn’t expected it to actually beinside. The place looked like a stiff breeze could send the whole thing crashing down around them. “Is that safe?”
He gave her a look, and she made a face as she stepped through the narrow opening after him. The usual barn smells of hay and manure were faint, overtaken by the odor of dust and disuse. Patches of the roof were gone, allowing in a considerable amount of light, and the aging wooden siding had shrunk, creating wide cracks in the walls. The car parked inside looked out of place, too new and clean and modern to belong in this ancient building.
“Yes, I know that it’s silly to worry about being crushed to death by a collapsing barn when there’s a whole convoy of bad guys coming, but it’s still a valid concern.”
He dipped his chin slightly, as if giving her the point, before turning his back toward her. “Climb up.”
It only took a second for his command to click in her brain. He wanted her to climbhim. Swallowing an inappropriately timed giggle born of terror, she obediently put her hands on his thick shoulders and hopped onto his back. He caught her thighs as she wrapped her legs and arms around him, careful to keep her grip around his neck loose so she didn’t choke him.
He made his way quickly to the car, carefully picking through the junk that littered the floor. When she heard the soles of his boots crunching against who-knew-what, she gripped him a little tighter, grateful he hadn’t made her walk through the mess in her socks.
“Did they see us run in here?” she asked, her voice low, trying to hear over her thundering heart. She kept expecting to run out of fear, to go numb from her constant state of terror, but it hadn’t happened yet.
His shoulders lifted, pressing against her arms. “Not sure, but I’m assuming the worst.”
“What are they doing here?” She was still whispering as he set her down by the passenger seat. “It was only two guys up until now—at least when I was awake.” The correction reminded her of all the terrible things that could’ve happened when she was unconscious, but she forced away the mental images. It wasn’t the time to dwell on that, not when she needed to keep her brain functioning. She couldn’t dissolve into a terrified puddle until they were safe.
“I wasn’t where I was supposed to be,” he said, incredibly unhelpfully. “Get in.”
She pulled open the passenger side door and climbed inside. Twisting around, she watched as he started opening the oversize sliding door. After sliding only three feet, the door stopped, the warped wood not wanting to move. Cara opened the car door, intending to get out and help push. Before she could leave the car, a sharp crack rang out. A chunk of wood right next to Kavenski’s head disappeared, leaving another hole for sunshine to creep through. Cara flinched, her head jerking back against the seat. Someone had justshotat them.
Sprinting back to the vehicle, Kavenski dove into the driver’s seat, starting the car and slamming it into reverse before Cara could blink. She yanked her door closed, still stunned at the close call. If Kavenski had just been inches to the left, his head would’ve been blown off. Her heart wrenched at the thought.
“Seat belt,” he snapped, and she grabbed the strap automatically, yanking it across her body and clicking the buckle into place. She started to ask what the plan was. Before she could say anything, a small cylindrical object flew over the car, landing on the hood with a lightthunkbefore rolling toward the front. Even though she’d never seen one before, she immediately knew what it was.
A hand grenade.
“Hang on,” Kavenski said grimly, and Cara grabbed for the dash, even as her practical brain told her that clinging to a bit of plastic wasn’t going to help her—not if they were blown up by a freakinghand grenade. Cara felt a surreal sense of unreality as her gaze locked on the innocuous-looking object—one that could blow them to bits in less than a second.
