In Need of Protection
Page 18
For months, Trey Blackburn had been sitting on “go,” battling a surge of adrenaline every time a new text message chimed. Today the command to move had finally come. Whatever intel his team had received from others in the network, it was serious enough to break his cover and demanded he move quickly.
If he wasn’t already too late.
In his infantry days, he’d been on call for missions that hadn’t revved his adrenaline this high. The engine of his pickup fought to race under his foot, but he couldn’t risk flying through the small neighborhood of houses built on large wooded lots. Still, the tires barely hugged the road when he whipped past his cul-de-sac and spotted a white construction van in Macey Price’s driveway.
The sight made his heart pound even harder. His fingers itched to call for backup, but there was none. With his team based in the mountains of North Carolina, he was the sole member undercover several hours away at Fort Bragg. The police would be a big help, but mission security dictated he maintain anonymity. So against his better judgment, he resisted the urge to dial 9-1-1. It was up to him to take Macey Price into custody if she was about to flee. And it looked like she might have accomplices.
Maintaining speed to keep from scaring his suspects into doing something stupid, Trey pulled into the driveway of a house for sale on the neighborhood’s main street. He shut off the engine, shoved the flashlight from his glove box into his back pocket and walked around the side of the house as though nothing was wrong. It took everything in him not to run for Macey’s house, but doing so without recon could be deadly. Still, time was short and he had to move quickly.
Whatever Macey Price was into, whomever the bad guys were that she was dealing with, something had apparently snapped and they’d decided to make a move. She’d given no indication the day before that anything was wrong. She’d treated his undercover persona just like she always had as they’d watched hockey while snacking on pizza. If she was truly guilty, she was very good at deception.
Once he gained the rear of the vacant house, he doubled back, crossed the road and slipped through side yards to his own backyard. The cover of soft darkness in the damp evening brought a short breath of gratitude. In the same thought, he was glad for the pistol at his hip, even though he desperately hoped he wouldn’t have to use it.
He crept closer, watching that van, but there was no motion around it. If Macey was packing up to bolt, she was taking her time. Or it could be something worse. If she was already in the vehicle, he’d failed in his mission because she would vanish, likely forever.
There was no counting the ways he’d pay for that kind of mistake. If Macey was truly guilty and she escaped, the case the government had been building for nearly a year against shadowy figures stealing military intelligence would crumble between his fingers.
But if she was innocent, the way he was beginning to suspect, then the danger was even more grave.
At the corner of his house, Trey’s feet sank into the grass. He waited for any sound from next door before he peeked around the corner. Voices, low and angry, drifted through the early evening darkness from near the driveway.
Trey slipped around the corner and stayed close to brick still warm from the sun, edging closer to Macey’s house as he plotted a strategy. From the sound of it, there were only two men helping Macey, unless more were hiding somewhere. It was a risk Trey had to take.
Illuminated in the porch light, two men were moving toward Macey’s driveway, one carrying a body slung across his shoulder.
Macey. She wasn’t trying to run. She was being kidnapped.
He shouldn’t feel an emotional drop in his stomach at the thought she might be hurt. Not now. Not under any circumstances, actually. But he did.
He’d unpack that later. At the moment, he had one chance to salvage this mission, but only if he acted now. The way he figured it, the clock offered him two seconds to assess the situation and do everything right the first time.
If he got even one thing wrong, then Macey could vanish or die while some seriously bad dudes would get away with murder. Multiple murders.
The element of surprise would—
A crash and a series of galloping thuds from the side yard of Macey’s house stopped Trey in his thoughts and movements.
It froze Macey’s assailants, too.
What in the world?
The scene spun into motion all at once. Kito bounded around the corner and didn’t hesitate to join in what any playful husky would see as fun and games. He leaped on the man closest to Trey’s position, staggering him backward.
In the same moment, Macey grabbed the belt of the man carrying her and pulled upward. As he lurched forward from the sudden movement, she leveraged her body weight. Kicking her legs to free them, she slid headfirst down the man’s back to the ground, where she rolled to a standing position. She whirled and rushed her off-balance attacker, shoving him to his knees.
Trey didn’t dwell on how impressed he was by the move. He hustled into the fray with an unintelligible shout, heading for the other terrified man who seemed to believe the friendly, jumping husky was trying to kill him.
Before he got there, both men scrambled to their feet and ran for the idling van.
Macey jumped to go after them, but Trey reached her first and grabbed the back of her shirt, hauling her backward against his chest. “If you get near that van, you’ll put yourself in worse danger.”
She moved to attack him but stopped at his words, likely recognizing his voice. Her muscles visibly tensed as the van screeched out of her driveway and roared out of the cul-de-sac. When it disappeared, she whirled on him, wrenching the back of her running shirt from his grasp. “What just happened?” Her shoulders heaved up and down with her breaths. “And where did you come from?”
The way she faced him and the questions she asked told Trey everything he needed to know. Clearly, Macey Price hadn’t been running and his cover hadn’t been blown.
But the fight she’d waged against those men and the innocence of her asks left Trey with questions of his own. Questions he had to answer if he was going to prove her innocence...or put her in prison.
Copyright © 2021 by Jodie Bailey
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ISBN-13: 9781488072178
In Need of Protection
Copyright © 2021 by Jill Elizabeth Nelson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Need of Protection