Josh.
Maybe he’d brought a family full of backup with him.
She kept up the moaning and arched her back so that her elbows jabbed into the men on each side of her. They didn’t seem to notice, and the one in the backseat swiveled around and took aim. Not at her but at the person trying to rescue her. There was a small slide window that was open so the idiot goons would likely have a good shot.
Jaycee needed to do something about that.
She upped the volume on her moaning and levered herself up even higher when she pretended to have a contraction. In the same motion, Jaycee threw back her hand, knocking into the arm of the man in the rear seat. Now he cursed her and raised his left hand as if he might slap her.
“Keep your eyes on the SUV behind us,” the driver snarled.
Even in the dim light, she saw the anger flash in the guard’s eyes, but he turned back around and pointed his gun again.
Now Jaycee cursed.
She’d failed.
And worse, the guy fired a shot at the SUV. Not one shot but two. She couldn’t tell if he’d hit anything, but she prayed Josh and anyone else inside were all right.
The truck bobbled over a rough patch of road, and the driver had to give the wheel a sharp turn to the left to stop them from going into the ditch. Behind him, the other vehicle gained some ground. Probably because the driver was familiar with every inch of this road and the guard wasn’t. Her captor practically had to slam on his brakes when they reached a sharp turn.
Jaycee saw another of those sharp curves ahead, and she held her breath, waiting for the driver to slow down so he could safely take the turn. Anything she did at this point was a huge risk, but so was just sitting there while the idiot behind her continued to pop off shots at the SUV.
Shots that could hit Josh.
When the driver slowed as much as she figured he’d slow for the curve, Jaycee drew back her elbow and rammed it as hard as she could into his ribs.
He howled in pain.
The other one in the passenger’s seat reached for her, but she grabbed a gas mask and bashed first him, then the other. More howling. And the truck did more than just bobble. It went into a skid.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the guy in the back turn his gun on her, and her heart went into overdrive. He was going to shoot her.
But he didn’t get a chance to fire.
The truck skidded right off the road, hurling them over some rocks and shrubs. Jaycee’s head hit the ceiling, and the guards and she bobbled around like rag dolls.
Ahead she saw the tree, but there was nothing she could do except shelter her stomach with her hands.
They plowed right into a sprawling oak.
* * *
JOSH’S BREATH VANISHED when he saw the truck leave the road. He figured the driver had lost control, but then he could see some kind of struggle going on in the cab.
Hell.
If Jaycee was hurt, every one of those men would pay for it.
Josh pulled his SUV to a stop and barreled out. Grayson and a ranch hand weren’t too far behind him, but he didn’t want to wait for them. He had to make sure Jaycee was all right.
His head was still pounding. So was the pain in his chest where the kidnapper had kicked him. But Josh fought through the pain, jumped the ditch and ran full speed toward the collision.
The truck was wrecked, no doubt about that, and there was steam spewing from the hood, which was now smashed against the tree.
The driver’s door flew open, and the man practically spilled out. He was armed, but he didn’t take the time to turn around and aim at Josh. He just raced behind a big clump of rocks and dropped to the ground.
Not good.
Josh ducked, darted behind a tree. The passenger’s side door opened, too, and he braced himself to see scumbags number two and three.
However, it was Jaycee who crawled out.
Not easily. She climbed over one of the men, who appeared to be only partly conscious. He was moaning and cursing at the same time, but Jaycee managed to get by him. The moment her feet touched the ground, she ran toward him.
Josh caught her in his arms and pulled her behind the tree with him. He didn’t kiss her. Didn’t want to take his attention off that truck and the kidnappers, but he was beyond thankful that she hadn’t been hurt.
“You’re okay,” he managed to say at the same time that Jaycee said it to him.
“I was wearing a seat belt,” she added. “They weren’t.”
Thank heaven for that, and Josh added a wish that the trio was hurt too badly to put up much of a fight.
His wish didn’t come true.
A bullet smashed right into the tree, just inches from where Jaycee and he were standing. Josh pushed her against the rough bark, protecting her as best he could with his body, and he glanced out to see what was going on.
Scumbag number one had been the person to fire the shot. Scumbags two and three were climbing out on the driver’s side. Away from Jaycee and him.
Which meant Josh didn’t have a good shot at any of them.
Three guns to one weren’t good odds. Especially when all three of them opened fire. The shots blasted into the tree.
“Give me your backup weapon from your boot holster,” Jaycee insisted.
But Josh had to shake his head. “I don’t have it.” Because he’d literally had to throw on his clothes after the power had been cut.
“How about a knife, anything?” she pressed.
There was no knife or anything else he could give to Jaycee. Only himself. And that had to be enough, because he wasn’t willing to deal with the alternative of her being taken captive again.
Josh looked behind him and saw truck lights slash through the darkness. His backup was on the way, but it was dangerous for Grayson to drive straight into a hail of bullets. He handed Jaycee his phone.
“Text Grayson.” He had to yell over the noise from the shots so she could hear him. “Let him know where we are and that he needs to stay back until they stop shooting.”
Josh wanted backup now, but it’d be suicide for Grayson to come driving into this.
Jaycee sent the text and shoved his phone back into his pocket. Josh fired off a single shot at the gunmen just so they’d know he was armed and so they wouldn’t try to come closer.
Just up the narrow dirt road, Grayson stopped his truck, but he kept the headlights on. It was a like a beacon for the kidnappers because they sent some of the shots in that direction. Josh hoped his cousin and the ranch hand stayed down. Sooner or later these idiots were going to run out of ammunition.
He hoped.
Then Josh could make his move. He wasn’t sure exactly what his move would be, but he needed to get Jaycee far away from these men who’d kidnapped her.
It’d been a brazen attack. The kind that only dangerous criminals would attempt, and he had to do everything humanly possible to make sure they didn’t get their hands back on her.
His phone dinged, indicating he had a text message, and Josh motioned for Jaycee to read it. “Grayson says he’s going to create a diversion. His brothers are closing off the other end of the road.”
So the kidnappers would be trapped. That was good. He wanted them trapped and caught, but Josh wasn’t so sure about this diversion.
“What diversion?” he asked Jaycee. But she didn’t have time to answer.
“Put down your weapons!” Grayson shouted.
Of course, the men didn’t listen. That only caused them to fire more shots in Grayson’s direction. Josh wondered if this was a ploy to make them use up the ammunition even faster, but then he saw Grayson’s truck.
It was creeping along, headed not toward Jaycee and him but right toward the clump of rocks that the men were using fo
r cover.
Not a bad diversion.
Josh put his mouth against Jaycee’s ear. “When the truck gets between us and the men, we move.”
She gave a shaky nod. Actually, everything about her was shaky, and he hoped she hadn’t lied about being okay. It seemed to take an eternity for the truck to reach them, and the gunmen cursed it and kept shooting. When it gave Jaycee and him the best possible cover, he caught on to her hand and got her moving.
They’d only made it a few steps before the shots came right at them.
Chapter Eighteen
Jaycee kept as low as she could and kept running.
Thanks to Josh.
He had hold of her arm, and he didn’t let go despite the bullets kicking up dirt and rocks all around them. He pulled her onto the other side of a dirt embankment, and they dropped to the ground.
There were more shots.
But not all were coming from the kidnappers.
Some were coming from the direction of the dirt road where she’d last seen Grayson and another man. A ranch hand, most likely. Jaycee had caught only a glimpse of them before their truck had started moving their way. Now that truck had run into the clump of rocks where the kidnappers had taken cover.
At least one of the men was hurt. She’d gotten a glimpse of the blood on his face before she had crawled over him and escaped. Jaycee hoped his wounds were bad enough that he couldn’t return fire and also so that his comrades would want to get him out of there fast and to a hospital. They would have to stop shooting to do that, and then maybe Grayson and Josh could move in to arrest them.
The shots kept coming, but they weren’t aimed directly at her. Most of the shots were going to the left, the bullets tearing through the dirt and scattering the debris everywhere, including her eyes. She was still feeling the effects of the tear gas, and the debris and the darkness didn’t help.
That thought froze in her head.
Not the debris. But the tear gas.
Oh, mercy. Could that have harmed the baby?
She slid her hand over her stomach and prayed that it hadn’t, but it made the situation even more urgent. She, too, needed to get to a hospital. Of course, these men would try to stop that from happening. Clearly, this was still a kidnapping attempt.
And she still didn’t know why.
Was it because she was an FBI agent and they wanted to find out what she’d learned? Or did they only want the baby? Jaycee hoped she found out soon because that answer might give her some clues as to who was behind this.
Josh was already practically on top of her. Sheltering and protecting her. And as before, he put his mouth right against her ear.
“The ranch road curves and continues over there,” he said, tipping his head to a heavily treed area on the right. “If we can get there, someone can pick us up and get us out of here.”
Jaycee was all for that, though moving would mean leaving cover. For a few seconds anyway.
“Send Grayson another text,” Josh added. “See if he can create another diversion and tell him we’re going to move to the road away from the shooters. Have him get someone out there if he can.”
Her hands were shaking like crazy, but Jaycee managed to write the text. And the waiting began. The kidnappers kept shooting, but from what she could tell, they weren’t moving in for the kill.
Why not?
She shook her head, glad that it wasn’t happening but wondering what the heck they were waiting for.
Or who.
Maybe their boss hadn’t given them an out—they weren’t to come back unless they had her.
Josh’s phone dinged, and she saw the response text from Grayson. Will do.
Grayson didn’t give details, but a moment later, she saw the plan in action. A hot pink flare shot into the night sky like fireworks. But not just into the sky. Several of the flares came shooting like rockets right at the kidnappers.
Josh didn’t wait to see what would happen. He got them moving again away from the embankment and to those trees. It took a few seconds, just enough time for them to reach cover, before the shots came their way again.
The second diversion had worked.
Well, for Josh and her anyway.
With the new position, she was able to see the shooter, and two were firing at Grayson. The other, at Josh and her.
So much for hoping that one guy was injured too badly to fire.
All three men looked fit and ready to kill. And they were sending most of their shots at Grayson. She hoped he’d taken cover before shooting off those flares.
“Let’s go,” Josh said over the deafening noise, and that was the only warning Jaycee got before he moved them to another tree. Then another.
Each step was a huge risk because the shots kept coming—not directly at her but at Josh and the others. Even when one of the men stopped to reload, his partners picked up the slack and just continued firing.
Josh and she worked their way through the trees, and she tried to position herself so the men wouldn’t be able to shoot him. But Josh would have no part in that. He just shoved her right back behind him and continued their trek to the road.
So did one of the kidnappers.
The bulky one who’d driven the truck moved out from behind the rocks and came after them.
That sent her heart crashing against her ribs, but it didn’t slow them down. Even when the guy fired into the tree they were using for cover, Josh just kept them moving toward the road.
It seemed to take an eternity before Jaycee finally saw the dirt road just ahead.
She also saw the kidnapper behind them.
Josh did, too. He leaned out, sent a bullet the man’s way, but the guy just briefly ducked out of sight. The snake used the same trees for cover that Josh and she had.
“Wait,” Josh said to her, and he stopped several yards from the road.
It was much darker in this area because the towering trees on both sides blocked most of the moonlight. Her eyes had already adjusted to the darkness, but she could hardly see anything.
Certainly no headlights from a rescue vehicle.
“We’ll follow the road until someone from the ranch gets here,” Josh explained.
Jaycee had no idea how long it would take for a vehicle to circle back around to this point, but she prayed it wouldn’t take long.
Josh got them moving again. Not on the road itself but along the side of it. Probably so they could still use the trees for cover if things got worse.
Without the gunshots blasting nearby, she could hear the kidnapper clomping his way through the woods. She couldn’t tell how far away he was, but he was close.
Too close.
Once the rescue car arrived, he might be able to kill Josh and anyone else who got in his way.
The road made another of those sharp curves, and Josh slowed when they made it around the curve and came out onto a straight stretch.
“Hell,” she heard him mumble, and he pulled her to the ground.
It took Jaycee a moment to figure out why he’d done that.
And then she saw it.
The car.
No headlights, and it was black, blending right into the murky darkness.
The driver’s-side door opened, and she held her breath. Hoping it was someone from the ranch there to rescue them. But her heart went to her knees when she saw the camouflage clothes.
Identical to those the other kidnappers were wearing.
Josh fired at the man.
Just as the man fired at them.
* * *
JOSH PULLED JAYCEE back down again. Not a second too soon. Because his shot missed the guy, and the bullet that came their way slammed into the tree just above their heads.
Or rather his head.
The scumbags didn’t seem to be aiming for Jaycee. That was the good news. The bad news was the bullets were still coming damn close, and she could be hit.
Three more shots came his way. Plus one from the guy following them from behind.
Jaycee and he were trapped in the middle.
The flashbacks came, of course. And Josh cursed them. He didn’t have time for this, but they came anyway. Images of another shooting.
Of his partner lying dead in a pool of blood.
Of the shots slamming into Josh’s chest.
He pushed them aside and hoped he could keep them at bay. Jaycee’s life might depend on that.
“This is over,” the one by the car said. He’d taken cover behind the door, and it was too dark for Josh to tell if he was alone or if anyone was inside.
He was betting someone was in there.
Maybe the scumbags’ boss.
But Josh figured Jaycee and he wouldn’t get that lucky. So far, he’d sucked in the luck department.
“If you want to live,” the guy added, “you’ll put down your gun now.”
Josh was pretty sure that wasn’t the way to stay alive. Without his gun, the men would just have an easier time killing him and kidnapping Jaycee.
He looked around, trying to find someplace that Jaycee and he could use for cover. Preferably something to his right so he could keep an eye on the two armed men and anyone who might be in that car.
Josh finally spotted something.
A fallen tree that’d just missed hitting the road. It was huge, the trunk at least two feet thick, and it was only about four yards away. If they could get to that, it would give him a better position to take out at least one of the gunmen.
But they could just gun him down before he got a chance to do that.
He considered another plan. One that he hated because it would test his theory that they didn’t want Jaycee dead. Only him.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, following his gaze to that tree trunk.
He could no longer see her face as well as he had by the embankment, but he could hear the terror in her voice. Yes, she was a trained agent, but she didn’t have a gun, and she was no doubt worried about the baby. And also worried about what would happen if those men got their hands on her.
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