by Sharon Dunn
There were at least five men in all. The three who had been in the office and two who had tied them up. He had to assume that at least one of those men would remain in the glass office watching the snowplow area. This plan was fraught with risk, but it was the best they had. The stairs opened up on the floor where the plows were. Jason pressed against a wall by the door so shadows covered him.
Sure enough, the man who must be the boss or owner, and was probably the mastermind behind all the smuggling, stared down from his office. Even if they stayed close to the wall, there was a ten-foot stretch where they’d be spotted before they could hide behind one of the plows.
Isabel remained at the base of the stairs, door slightly ajar, waiting for the signal from him. He could just make out her face in the little slit where the door was open.
Jason tilted his head and watched the man above them, waiting for a second of distraction when he and Isabel could traverse the area where they’d be visible.
The seconds ticked by. The man continued to survey the area below. Jason became aware of the hardness of the wall against his back, of his own breathing and of Isabel perched behind the partly open door, her gaze fixed on him.
Finally the short muscular man, Mr. Gun, came into the office and the owner turned his back to Jason.
Jason bolted toward the first snowplow. The soft padding of Isabel’s footsteps behind him pressed on his ears. He crouched in front of the machine in between the plow blade and the garage door. Easing around to the side, he glanced up. The owner was staring out the office window again. Jason shrank back into the shadows as his heart pounded out an erratic beat. No way could he climb into the cab and not be spotted. That meant they would have only seconds to get out of the warehouse before someone would be on their tail.
He slipped back around to the front of the plow by the blade where Isabel still hid.
She leaned close and whispered in his ear. “The plow on the end doesn’t have any lights shining on it.”
He peered down the line of plow blades before nodding that her idea was the most viable one. They scurried from one plow to the next. He eased open the cab door of the last plow. Isabel got in after him on the other side.
He stared down at the control panel, trying to get his bearings, grateful to see that the key was in the ignition.
“The garage door. There’s a switch.” Before he could say anything, she had jumped out of the cab and headed toward the wall.
He started the vehicle as the door eased open and Isabel raced to get back in the cab. Now for sure they’d be noticed. He eased the plow forward even before the door was all the way open.
Isabel grabbed hold of the door and tried to climb into the cab as the tracks of the plow rolled forward. He reached out a hand and pulled her in.
Two men were behind them. One jumped onto the cab of the plow.
Jason hit the accelerator as the plow eased forward onto the flat area outside the garage doors. Another garage door opened, and the lights of a second plow glared out at them.
Jason gained speed, climbing the hill toward the road. He chose the steeper terrain, hoping that would get rid of the unwanted guest clinging to the outside of the cab.
The man jumped off. Jason caught a glimpse of movement as the man raised a gun.
“Get down.” He threw a protective hand over Isabel. Gunfire shattered the glass of the cab and rained down on them. His skin stung where the glass cut him. A chilly breeze blew in around them.
The plow lumbered up to the road that led back into town. Top speed looked to be about thirty miles an hour.
The other plow slipped in behind them.
Isabel sat back up, craning her neck. “Nick is in the other plow.”
Jason pressed the gas pedal to the floor, wishing they could go faster. He turned out onto the main road. One of the cars from the warehouse passed him and then slowed to a crawl. Nick was still bearing down on them in the plow.
“They’re trying to box us in.” Jason stared at the road ahead, where a car was coming toward them. He couldn’t risk the life of an innocent person.
He eased off the gas.
The car going in the opposite direction whizzed by.
Metal scraped against metal as Nick rammed into the back of them. Both of them jostled around in their seats.
Jason pressed the gas, turned the wheel and prepared to ease around the slow car in front of him. The car edged onto the wrong side of the road.
“Fine—that’s how you’re gonna play it?” Jason jerked the wheel in the other direction. The blade collided with the car as Jason pushed him toward a ditch.
The car was no match for the power of the plow. With one final push, the car slid into a snowbank. But Nick still rolled toward them.
Nick rammed against the side of them with the blade raised.
Jason pressed the accelerator and cranked the wheel as the other plow pushed them down the road sideways. He disentangled his plow from Nick’s.
Jason rolled forward off the road to get away from Nick. The tracks of the plow bit through the snow as they lumbered up a hill and down the other side. Nick was right behind them.
The hill grew steeper. The plow listed to one side.
“We’re going to tip over.” Isabel’s fear-filled words seemed to come from far away as he struggled to get the machine onto stable ground.
The plow rolled over on its side, and Isabel fell on top of him.
The motor was still running. Tiny gasps escaped Isabel’s lips as she struggled to right herself. She climbed out the back of the cab’s broken window.
Jason pushed himself up. His hands were bleeding from the broken glass. He pulled himself through the same opening Isabel had used. Isabel jumped down into the snow.
Nick was maybe twenty feet from them, still behind the wheel of the other plow. The headlights glared at them.
Isabel took off running before Jason had jumped down off the plow. Drops of blood in the snow revealed that she was cut up, as well. He raced after her as the plow drew closer, the engine noise surrounding them.
* * *
Isabel felt the warm seep of blood on her forehead as she struggled to navigate through the deep snow.
The clanging of the plow’s motor stopped. She looked over her shoulder. Not wanting to risk the same outcome as their plow, Nick had turned the motor off and was crawling out of the cab. He held a gun in his hand.
Jason was at least twenty yards behind her and struggling even more than she was. She lifted her feet one after the other as she slogged up the snowy hillside. When this was over—if they survived—she never wanted to trudge through snow again.
A gunshot echoed across the terrain. She winced but kept moving, trusting that Jason would catch up with her.
She was nearly to the tree line when she looked over her shoulder. Jason was lying facedown on the ground.
Her heart stopped. She was out of pistol range, but if she ran back to help him, she would be a target too.
She turned and hurried back down the hill toward Jason. If they both died out here today, fine. She wasn’t about to abandon a good man to the forces of evil. Before she could get to him, Jason rose to his feet. His hands were bloody and he’d left stains in the snow.
He signaled for her to keep running. Nick was having as much trouble navigating the deep snow as they were. The only way he could aim a shot was to stop moving.
She heard another bullet whiz through the air just as she reached the tree line. She slowed, looking behind her for Jason.
Finding a large tree with long branches, she hid underneath it, peering out and hoping to see Jason’s boots. She caught her breath as the minutes ticked by. She heard a rustling off to the side and a moment later saw Nick’s dark boots moving past.
What was going on here? Where was Jason?
She rolled
out from underneath the tree and headed back toward the tree line. Down below, Jason had crawled into the cab of the working plow. He must have doubled back once Nick entered the trees and had no view of the plow. He signaled for her to come back down.
Her feet sank three feet down as she struggled to get to Jason. A pistol shot zinged past, close enough to send shock waves through her. She heard groaning behind her. Nick had fallen in the deep snow.
Jason got out of the cab and waved his arm, indicating she should get down the hill. The pistol rested on the surface of the snow.
Once and for all, she would see to it that Nick Solomon wouldn’t escape justice ever again. She hurried toward the gun and picked it up.
“Get on your feet.” Her voice held unexpected strength.
Nick pushed himself up. He was covered in snow. “Oh, come on. You’re not going to shoot, Blondie.”
“Try me.” She aimed the pistol close to Nick’s feet and squeezed the trigger.
“Whoa.” Shock spread across Nick’s face as he did a jig with his feet and held his hands up in surrender.
She could never shoot anyone. Nick just needed to know who was in control now. “My name is not Blondie. It’s Isabel.”
Jason came up behind her. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back.” Jason held a scarf that he must have found in the cab of the plow.
Nick sneered. Isabel raised the pistol and pointed it at him. Nick glared but turned his back to them and put his hands together behind him.
They led Nick down the hill with his hands bound. Isabel held the gun while Jason drove. Once they were out on the road, he checked the rearview mirror several times.
Both of them knew there was a good possibility that the others from the warehouse were after them.
Isabel felt a sense of satisfaction as Nick hung his head and closed his eyes. “I’m telling you, baby, you and me would have made a great team.”
“I don’t want to be on that kind of team.” She glanced at Jason, feeling warmth spread over her as he gazed at her before focusing on the road.
She cared deeply for him. They had been through so much together. He had shown over and over that he would give up his life for her. What was going to happen now that all of this was close to being over?
TWENTY
Jason and Isabel sat in the FBI field office waiting to be debriefed after a trip to the emergency room to deal with their cuts. The head of the smuggling ring had opted not to chase them. Knowing that he’d been found out, he had booked a ticket to Argentina along with his girlfriend, the maid. Agents had caught him at the airport.
Michael came out of his office. “We’ll need to interview each of you separately.”
Isabel’s hand grasped his. “I’ll go first.” She squeezed his fingers.
He saw an affection in her eyes that made his heart race. Still, was the attraction just because they had needed each other so desperately to stay alive or was there something deeper there that could survive their return to ordinary life?
He had opened his heart to her but old fears returned. He didn’t want to end up like his father, a broken man. Women left, they betrayed—that was what they did. He picked up a magazine and flipped through it. Maybe Isabel was different...maybe.
Ten minutes later, Isabel emerged from the office. Her round doe eyes rested on him. “Your turn. I’ve got to get over to the office and explain things to Mary.” She reached out and squeezed his hand. “I guess this is it.”
He took in a breath. Should he say something about how he felt but how the doubts plagued him? “Yes, maybe I’ll see you around.”
A shadow seemed to fall across her face. “Sure. That would be nice.” Was that disappointment that tainted her words?
Michael came out of his office and stood in the doorway watching them.
Jason stepped toward Michael’s office as the door to the outside opened and closed—Isabel was gone.
“You two have been through quite an ordeal together,” said Michael, turning to position himself behind his desk.
“Yes. Yes, we have.” Jason nodded.
He stepped inside Michael’s office and closed the door.
Michael clicked the keyboard of his laptop. “It seems our rogue agent has decided to run too, but I suspect it will just be a matter of hours before we have him in custody.”
“And the other men we saw at the warehouse?”
“Isabel was able to identify them. Petty criminals. The locals can pick them up and bring them in.”
Jason turned sideways and stared at the door, thinking about Isabel stepping outside. “So they’re not in custody yet. What if they come after her for revenge?”
“They don’t have the economic resources to flee. It’s just a matter of hours before we pick them up. You can stay with her for a little longer, can’t you?”
“Give me a minute.” Jason jumped up from his chair and bolted for the door. He took the stairs two at a time and raced out to the street.
Isabel was already two blocks away, walking into a headwind with her head down and her arms crossed. He ran to catch up with her, calling out her name when he was a block away.
She turned to face him.
“Jason, what is it?”
“You know the two men that came after you at the Wilsons’ are still at large and the redheaded guy.”
“Michael mentioned it. They don’t want to get caught. I’m sure they’re hiding,” she said.
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Why take a chance? What’s another day or two together, watching each other’s backs?”
“Jason, is that really why you ran all the way up the street?”
“Yes. I’m worried about your safety.”
Her expression drooped. Her brown eyes glazed. “Oh, is that all?”
He reached his hand out to her. “Isabel, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“When I saw you coming up the street I thought that maybe... I don’t know... That it wasn’t about this whole smuggling thing. That you were coming after me to be with me, just to be with me.”
The vulnerability in her voice floored him. He let out a breath and shook his head.
“What?” A faint smile graced her face as she leaned closer to him.
“Guess I was telling myself a lie. I was looking for an excuse to be with you. Isabel?” He knew he loved her. Why was it so hard for him to admit that?
“Yes?” she said.
He pulled his gloves off and tossed them on the ground. Then he inched her gloves off, as well, so he could hold her hands in his. “Isabel Connor. I do want to be with you. Not just for another day until those men are picked up but for the rest of my life.”
She bounced from toe to heel. Her face brightening. “Yes. I want that too. I want to be your wife.”
“Well then, there you have it. I love you, Isabel.”
“I love you, Jason.”
He leaned in and kissed her with the snow swirling around them and the early-morning sun shining on them.
* * * * *
If you loved this story, don’t miss these other exciting books from Sharon Dunn:
Cold Case Justice
Mistaken Target
Fatal Vendetta
Big Sky Showdown
Find more great reads at www.LoveInspired.com.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Fatal Recall by Carol J. Post
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Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed the dangerous and romantic adventure that Jason and Isabel went on to see to it that justice was served. Isabel is probably one of my favorite characters so
far. She comes from a difficult childhood and made some destructive choices as a teenager. Yet her faith shines like the morning sun. I love the way Isabel clings to God and His unconditional love no matter what. All of us have done and said things that we deeply regret. Like Isabel, it is easy for me to feel shame over past choices. I have to be so careful that I do not fixate on those past choices because they will consume me. To me the remedy is to keep my eyes in the right place, on God and His faithfulness. This is a moment-by-moment choice sometimes. When Isabel starts to beat herself up in her head, she prays, hums a hymn or says a Bible verse. All of these things help me too. May your faith shine like the morning sun and may you rest your gaze on what matters most.
Sharon Dunn
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense story.
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Fatal Recall
by Carol J. Post
ONE
The sharp crack of gunfire split the silence.
Tanner Brody froze, his paddle hovering a few inches above the water. A second crack came right after the first.