Aidan rose and shot scumbag number two in the head while Tyler had another drop to the floor. His heart stopped when he saw the open bathroom door but no Cassie. Before he could search for her, he crouched and rounded an aisle as more bullets flew at his head.
When he rose again, he swiftly shot two more men before scanning the area.
Then he saw her—outside, being thrown over a guy’s shoulder.
Another bullet narrowly missed him. Rage tried to consume him, but he shoved it down like he’d been trained to do. He needed to end this and go after her.
There were three more men with weapons in the shop. They’d all die.
Quiet footsteps sounded in the next aisle. Some asshole was trying to sneak up on him. He saw the guy’s foot before his body cleared the end of the aisle.
Aidan shot twice. The man cried out and fell to the floor. With a burst of speed, Aidan grabbed the man and held him against his body. The next bullet, a round aimed at Aidan, hit the guy in the chest.
He lifted his Glock and fired back, dropping the shooter easily, while Tyler took out the last man standing. He hadn’t even hit the floor before Aidan dropped the asshole he was holding and ran.
The van was gone.
He squashed the sickening panic churning inside him and noticed an elderly man hiding behind his car. “Which way did they go?”
The man’s eyes widened, and he pointed.
Aidan threw himself into his car and sped back the way he’d come. Tyler appeared in his rearview mirror, driving just as fast. He pressed a button on the wheel and a second later, Callum answered his phone.
“Hey, man. Everything okay?”
“They took her.”
Callum’s voice turned deadly. “Where are you?”
“We’re following the van, but they left about two minutes before us.” He gave Callum the location of the gas station. How the fuck Elijah’s guys had found them, he had no idea, not when neither he nor Tyler identified a tail. But he’d sure as hell be finding out.
“I’m only twenty minutes away. If they’re on the highway, they’ll have to pass me,” Callum said quickly. A car engine roared through the line. “I’ll cut them off from the other direction.”
“I’ll let you know if I catch them first. White van with tinted windows.”
“Got it.”
“Thank you, brother.”
They were coming at Cassie from both directions. This was going to work. It had to. He just had to hope like hell she wasn’t harmed by her captors or the van didn’t crash.
Cassie tugged at the bindings. The asshole had tied rope around her wrists, which were now bound together in front of her. To be fair, she had lunged at the guy.
She shot a death glare his way. “So you don’t care that you’re taking an innocent woman to her death?”
He hadn’t admitted he was taking her to Elijah, but she knew he was. She had no idea what Elijah’s plans were. It could be her death. Hell, she could be locked away in a dungeon for a decade or two. Who the hell knew how a crazy man’s mind worked?
The guy remained quiet. He didn’t even look at her. He’d been annoyingly silent through each and every question she’d asked.
She tilted her head. “Do you get a bonus for delivering me?”
“Stop talking.”
At least he managed words this time. She probably shouldn’t antagonize him, but she was angry, dammit. And scared. So scared for Aidan and Tyler that she had to distract herself. There had been so many men shooting at them. They were good, but were they good enough to survive a fight like that?
Her belly cramped.
“You know you’re working for a cult leader, right?” she asked. “A man who has no problem ordering hits, and plenty of men on his team to execute his orders. You’ll probably be a loose end after this.”
A vein stood out on his neck.
“Is the risk to your life worth the money?”
“Lady, every job’s a risk to my life. Now shut your mouth before I tape it shut.”
Not a chance. “What’s the going rate for performing a kidnapping and attempting to murder innocent men? Hope it’s a lot.”
Finally, a quirk of his lips. “Attempt? Your boyfriends are dead. I guarantee it. There was no surviving that.”
Terror shot through her, but she was careful to mask her emotions. He didn’t deserve the satisfaction. “Trust me. They’re not.”
Something flashed in the guy’s eyes. Anger. And pure evil. “It’s hard, isn’t it? To accept how quickly and easily we can lose the ones we love. How every fucking thing we’ve ever done can be rendered pointless thanks to a single bullet.”
She ground her teeth. “He’s. Not. Dead.”
He looked toward the back doors. “Don’t worry. You’ll probably be joining him soon. The people I’m hired to obtain are rarely seen again.”
She barely had time to process that statement before the van violently swerved.
Cassie cried out as she flew into the side panel. Before she could recover, the van came to a crashing halt, and she was thrown to the floor. Pain ricocheted through her back, side and knees. With bound hands, she hadn’t been able to cushion her fall.
She was pushing herself up when gunshots sounded. Oh, God. Someone was shooting at them! She sucked in a breath and looked around the back of the vehicle. Her captor groaned from the floor.
More bullets, this time accompanied by angry voices.
Cassie didn’t hesitate. She lifted her bound hands and lunged for the door. She’d just gotten it open when fingers bunched in her hair and yanked her head back.
She yelped in pain. Her back hit the floor of the van, and the guy leaned over her. “You’re staying with me.”
The hell she was.
She kneed him between the legs, throwing as much force as she could into the hit. Then she fisted her hands together and propelled them into his jaw.
He grunted and fell to the side. She rolled over and crawled around him. One leg was out of the van when a hard body hit her from behind.
She grunted and fell to the road, the air knocked from her chest, concrete scraping her side and her cheek. To her left, Callum ducked behind a car as bullets flew his way from the front of the van.
Her captor once again fisted her hair, and he yanked her to her feet. He used her body as a shield as he backed behind the van. She was tugging and twisting in his hold when she spotted the knife strapped to his thigh.
She didn’t give herself time to think about what she was doing. She yanked it out, twisted and plunged it into his side.
He howled in pain and released her, dropping to the road. Bile rose in her throat at the blood spurting from the wound. She took a stumbling step back. Then another. He pressed his hands to the ground to stand—and when he glanced up, he looked ready to kill.
Cassie spun on her heels and ran down the small decline beside the road. The faint sound of water grew louder as she ran. It was the river she’d been admiring from the car on their drive. Jesus, that felt like a lifetime ago.
She was almost at the bottom when her foot slipped. With bound hands, she couldn’t catch herself. She tumbled the rest of the way down the hill and landed on the bank of the river.
With a groan, she pushed to her feet. Then she heard sliding rocks from above. Her heart flew into her throat.
The guy was halfway down.
Shit, shit, shit!
Water pooled around her ankles, and the wind whipped across her face, but she ignored it, running down the bank. Aidan would be here soon, she had to believe that. And until he got here, she had to put as much distance between herself and this kidnapping asshole as possible.
When a bullet caused a small explosion of dirt close to her feet, she screamed and stumbled to her hands and knees.
“Stop, or the next bullet will be in the leg.”
Her breath stuttered. Slowly, she rose to her feet and turned. She raised her hands as the man advanced on her, gun trained on her chest. “I’m sure your boss said he wants me alive.”
“Exactly why the bullet would be in your leg.”
She shook her head. “You should leave me and run. The guys driving the van are probably already dead. You’ll be next.”
He grabbed her roughly and shoved her forward, heading back the way they came. “My guys are good with a gun. I don’t think I need to worry.”
“Do you even know who you’re dealing with?” she asked. “All those guys are former Special Forces—and they were all part of Project Arma. Each one is equivalent to ten of you.”
“Yet none of them are bulletproof.” He tugged her toward the hill.
They’d made it halfway up the incline when Cassie saw him. Aidan.
The tightness in her chest released. He was alive.
Their gazes met, his darkening before running down her body. Then he focused on the guy holding her.
Cassie knew the second her captor saw him, because the asshole swung her in front of him. He wrapped an arm tightly around her throat while he pointed the gun at Aidan.
“Try anything funny and you die,” he whispered into her ear.
His words had anger exploding in her chest. Did he expect her to be a pathetic victim who allowed the man she loved to be shot in front of her?
Aidan lifted his gun and aimed at the guy. “Let her go, and I might hand you over to the police instead of shooting you in the fucking head.”
The arm around her throat tightened. “Walk away, and I might not shoot you in front of her.”
Yeah right. The second Aidan turned his back, he was dead.
“She’s coming with me, dead or alive,” the guy said quietly. His arm tightened further.
Screw him.
She stomped on the guy’s foot and threw her elbow up into his gun arm. The second his grip on her neck loosened, she spun. Aidan shouted but she ignored him, kneeing the guy in the dick and giving him a big shove. The grade of the hill instantly had him falling backward.
He grabbed her arm at the last second, and the two of them rolled back down the hill.
When they reached the bottom, he dove on top of her. The gun fired—
No.
Two guns went off.
Her breath seized. A second later, Aidan was frantically pulling a dead guy off her body.
“What the hell did you do?” His hand tugged up her shirt, and cold blasted her skin. A sharp sting at her waist drew her gaze down. God, she’d been shot!
Holy heck, the bullet had nicked her. It was small, barely abrading her side, but still, a bullet. She hadn’t even realized.
Aidan’s head dipped to his chest, and he heaved a loud breath. “It’s just a graze.” He tugged her to a sitting position and cradled her face. “Don’t ever do that again!”
“He was going to shoot you,” she rasped.
“Let him. I would have either gotten out of his way or shot him first. You don’t ever try to save me. It’s my job to save you.”
She would. If she thought he was at risk, and she could save him, she damn well would. But something on Aidan’s face told her to keep that information to herself.
As if he heard her thoughts anyway, he growled and crushed her to his chest. His warmth filtered into her limbs.
“You scared me so damn bad, Cass.”
She sank against him, needing his strength. “I was scared for you.”
No. She was terrified. But he was breathing, and that meant she could breathe too.
