Safe by His Side

by Debra Webb

  “They were in your purse, so I would assume they belong to you.” He plucked the bottle from her hand and jammed it into his coat pocket. “There was a duffel bag in the trunk, I’ve already put it in my Jeep. Are you ready?”

  “I’m ready,” she told him, somehow as anxious to be away from him as he appeared to want to relieve himself of her. Though she didn’t quite feel threatened, something about him made her uneasy.

  Katherine followed the man out into the cold sunshine. It looked to be late afternoon. The sun hovered just above the tops of the evergreen trees surrounding the cabin and the small clearing. A gravel driveway veered down the slope and off into the woods. Did she know this place? Had she been here before? With him? Her gaze darted to the handsome stranger who appeared to be her reluctant savior.

  He reached to open the door of his Jeep, but hesitated. He cocked his head and listened, his gaze narrowed. “Damn,” he muttered and quickly shoved her against the closed door.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, frowning at the throb in her head generated by his sudden move. Then she heard it too. The distinct sound of gravel crunching beneath tires.

  He spouted another curse and then turned to her, his gaze fierce. “Listen to me, Kate,” he said harshly. “If that’s who I think it is, we’re in deep sh—”

  “I don’t understand,” she broke in, fear snaking around her chest and squeezing like a boa constrictor.

  “Listen,” he growled, giving her a little shake. “They won’t hesitate to kill both of us, do you understand that?”

  Kate nodded, ignoring the intense ache it caused. She couldn’t breathe…she couldn’t think. Kill them both? What was he talking about? Why would anyone want to kill her?

  Call in…

  The phrase flitted through her mind. What did it mean? Oh, God. What was happening? Her panic was complete now, fueled by her inability to comprehend the situation. She shuddered against it. Closed her eyes to make it go away.

  His hands were under her sweatshirt, probing the waistband of her jeans. Kate snapped her eyes open. “What are you doing?” she cried, tears burning behind her lids.

  “Kate, you’re our only chance at surviving this little party.” He captured her gaze with his, and the sheer determination there forced her to pay attention. “This—” he shoved something hard and cold that she somehow recognized immediately as a gun into her waistband. She instinctively recoiled, but he caught her by the waist and held her still “—is our only chance.” His cold blue gaze pierced hers. The feel of his roughened palm against her bare skin felt strangely soothing. “Just listen to me, and when the time comes, do what I tell you—don’t hesitate—just do it no matter what it is. Can you do that?”

  Before Kate could respond, a car skidded to a halt right beside them. Two men jumped out of the black sedan, big, ugly guns in hand.

  Oh, God. They were going to die. And Kate didn’t even know why. How had she gotten in the middle of all this? She lifted her gaze to the man standing beside her. What had this man done to deserve to be hunted down like this? Wary and uncertain as to how to react, she aimed her attention at the two men stalking purposely toward them.

  “Well, well, Danny, looks as if we’ve found our man,” the larger of the two men said with a sneer. He waved his gun and added tauntingly, “And it looks as if he’s got the little woman with him, too.”

  The man beside her shifted his body closer to hers. “She’s just a lay I picked up in town last night.”

  Instinctively, Kate started to refute his words, but before she could speak, the goon with the gun moved closer.

  Vinny grabbed her purse from beneath her jacket and looked inside, fishing out her license. “She looks a little worse for wear.” He winked at Kate and shoved license and purse back at her. “What’d you do, Rick, ride her all night?”

  Rick… His name was Rick. Kate looked at the man standing next to her and tested the name. She frowned. He didn’t really look like a Rick. But what did she know?

  “Maybe she’s still got a little fun left in her.” The goon moved closer, snagging Kate’s chin in his beefy hand.

  Kate gasped. Rick pushed between them. “Don’t touch her,” he warned in a voice so deadly it sent shivers skipping down her spine.

  “You ain’t in no position to be giving orders, Ricky boy. Pat him down, Danny,” he directed the other goon.

  Rick stood stone-still while the man named Danny frisked him. The whole scene took on a surreal quality. It suddenly occurred to Kate that this was just like in the movies. Two big guys in black suits arrived in a black sedan carrying scary black guns and…she was going to die.

  The urge to vomit burned at the back of her throat. Kate fought the impulse. She felt certain that such a move would not endear her to these men. If they thought she was sick they might just shoot her on the spot.

  “That’s it, Vinny,” Danny announced as he handed the other man a gun that looked very much like the one they both carried.

  Rick had been carrying that gun. Kate suddenly recalled that she, too, carried a gun. Did it look like that? She tried not to breathe too deeply now, remembering the cold steel object tucked into her jeans. Her head throbbed insistently.

  “How the mighty hath fallen,” Vinny sneered, the words filled with sheer hatred. He stepped closer, until he was toe to toe with Rick. Vinny stood there for a long moment and stared before he spat in Rick’s face.

  “You don’t deserve to live another minute. If I didn’t have strict orders to take you to Dillon, I’d kill you myself, right now.” Vinny’s mouth twisted in anger. “But the old man, he wants you to look him in the eye and tell him what you did. Otherwise I would do you right here.”

  Rick rubbed his hand over his face to rid himself of the man’s spittle, then cocked his blond head. “What’s stopping you, Vinny? I won’t tell if you don’t,” he said in a patronizing tone.

  “Shut up, you piece of crap,” Vinny bellowed as he shoved the tip of his gun barrel under Rick’s chin. “I might forget orders for once.”

  Kate’s heart almost shuddered to a stop then, but Rick only laughed derisively. “Don’t kid yourself, Vinny, you’re a made guy all the way down to your Gucci loafers. You don’t take a piss without orders.”

  “Get in the frigging car.” Vinny shoved Rick in the direction of the sedan.

  Rick pulled Kate close to his side. She didn’t have time to decide if being near him was a relief or not. Gun barrels stuck in their backs, Kate and Rick were ushered forward.

  “You, up front,” Vinny said, and propelled Kate toward Danny.

  Danny half dragged her to the passenger side of the car and pushed her inside. Kate glanced at Rick in the back seat. She wondered if he had a plan. She hoped he had a plan. Was the gun in her waistband part of that plan?

  Once Danny slid behind the wheel, they headed down the sloping driveway. Kate took one last look around her in hopes of remembering something, anything, but nothing came.

  She studied the driver. He appeared young and almost innocent upon first inspection, early twenties maybe, but he looked as mean as a junkyard dog on closer examination. She listened to the heated conversation between the two men in back. Rick—the name still felt strange—goaded the other man unnecessarily, in Kate’s opinion. It looked as if he intended to get them both killed long before they reached a destination.

  “How does it feel to know you slept with a killer?”

  Kate jerked her head up and stared at the driver, Danny, who’d directed the question at her. “What?”

  “Didn’t he tell you?” he quizzed with a widening grin. “Rick’s a cold-blooded killer. There’s no telling how many men he’s killed. Hundreds, I’d guess.”

  Kate moved her head slowly from side to side in denial of his words. Why was he telling her this? She didn’t want to hear it.

  “Well, it’s true.” He shot her a sidelong smirk. “But he’s going to pay now.”

  Could she possibly believe anything
this man told her? Who were these people? She closed her eyes. Maybe he was only taunting her, trying to scare her. He didn’t need to do that, she was already scared to death. God, her head hurt.

  Call in…

  The words skittered across her mind again. What did they mean? Call who?

  “Too bad you had to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, baby,” Vinny said as he kicked the back of Kate’s seat.

  “Kate’s a lifesaver,” Rick remarked wryly. “She gave me a second chance.”

  “A second chance at coming, maybe,” Vinny scoffed.

  “Kate?”

  Kate tensed at the sound of Rick’s voice when he said her name. The tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Something was about to happen.

  “Remember what I told you, Kate. You’re my only chance,” Rick said slowly. “Our only chance.”

  “Shut your frigging mouth,” Vinny commanded. Kate heard the grunt that followed a hollow thud, knowing that Rick had just been whacked across the abdomen by the goon in the back seat.

  Kate’s head swam. What was she supposed to do? How could she save them? She could feel the cold steel jabbing into her pelvis. What did he want her to do?

  And suddenly she knew.

  Slowly, while keeping a close watch on the driver, she eased her right hand across her thigh and under her sweatshirt. With a swiftness that shocked even her, she drew the gun and expertly pointed it at the driver’s head. She even held it with both hands just as she’d seen in the movies.

  “Stop the car,” she commanded in a voice she hardly recognized.

  “What the hell?” Danny shouted, almost losing control of the speeding car.

  “Give me that gun, bitch, or I’ll blow your man’s head off!” Vinny barked.

  “Squeeze the trigger, Kate,” Rick ordered coolly.

  Kate looked from Rick to the man driving the car. Was he insane? She couldn’t do that? How could she do that?

  “Gimme the gun!” Vinny roared, pressing the barrel of his own gun hard into Rick’s temple.

  Kate’s eyes darted back and forth between the men. What was she supposed to do? Everyone was yelling at once. Danny shot her quick, nervous glances, his knuckles white as he clutched the wheel. Vinny screamed vulgarities alternately at her and Rick. The car careened faster and faster down the winding mountain road, yet the events inside the vehicle seemed to lapse into slow motion.

  “Squeeze the damn trigger, Kate! Now!”

  The car suddenly swerved, Kate squeezed, the gun fired and all hell broke loose. She could hear the muffled curses and grunts of pain as Rick and Vinny wrestled for control of the gun. Danny struggled with the steering wheel, trying to pull the car out of its tailspin. A slim shaft of sunlight poured in through the small hole the bullet had made in the car’s roof. Kate peered at the perfect circle in total amazement and then at the man fighting the inertia pulling the car round and round.

  As if she had done this sort of thing all her life, Kate pressed the barrel of the gun to the driver’s perspiring temple and said, “Stop the damn car or I’ll blow your head off.”

  When the car skidded to a sideways stop in the middle of the road, Danny immediately stuck his hands up in the air. Just like in the movies, Kate thought again, a faint smile tugging at her trembling lips.

  “Put your weapon on the floor and kick it under the seat, then get out of the car.”

  It was Rick’s voice. He had Vinny’s gun now.

  “You heard him,” Kate told Danny, her aim still level with his forehead. God, this was amazing. Had she done this before?

  The two goons got out. Rick marched them to the edge of the blacktop. Kate followed behind him, her gun hanging at her side from a hand that had long since gone limp with aftereffects.

  Rick cocked his head to one side, lifted his weapon and took aim. “Now run!”

  “Hey, man, we can work this out—” Vinny began nervously.

  “Run!” Rick roared.

  “You’re not going to kill them?” Kate shrieked.

  Gunfire erupted and Kate gasped. She squeezed her eyes shut and dropped to her knees on the cold, hard pavement. Oh, God. She clamped her hand over her mouth to prevent the scream that twisted her throat. She didn’t want to see this. Didn’t want to be a part of it. Had no idea how she had gotten involved in it.

  “Let’s go.”

  Kate forced her eyes open, expecting to see two dead bodies lying in the ditch.

  No one…no bodies.

  She looked up at Rick. “I thought you shot them,” she croaked.

  He grinned, a dangerous yet ridiculously sexy widening of his lips. Kate shivered at the insane turn her thoughts had suddenly taken.

  “Who says I didn’t?” He grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet.

  Kate stood on shaky legs and stole another glance at the thick woods beyond the ditch. She still saw no bodies. She settled her gaze back on the face of the man guiding her back to the car. Savior or crucifier, she wondered.

  “What do we do now?” she asked, her voice thin.

  He opened the car door. One eyebrow quirked when he swung that intense blue gaze back on hers. He lifted the weapon from her loose grip and said, “We get the hell out of Dodge.”

  Chapter Two

  Raine mentally reviewed every move he had made in the last four weeks as he drove like a bat out of hell down the steep mountain road. How had Ballatore’s hired guns found him? He hadn’t made a single mistake—he never did. The two times he had been found by Lucas’s men in the last six months were intentional. Allowing only a glimpse, he had wanted Lucas to know that he was alive. The man deserved that, if nothing else. Raine couldn’t quite bring himself to believe that Lucas was the leak who had blown his cover and almost gotten him killed.

  But it was definitely someone in Lucas’s organization. Raine knew that for certain now. He had called Lucas’s private voice mail only three days ago and left the number to a downtown Gatlinburg pay phone. The information had to have filtered down to Ballatore—there was no other way the old man could have known to look here for Raine. But how many were involved in working Raine’s case? Cuddahy, Lucas’s boss, for sure, and at least three other special ops agents. Raine would have to find a way to narrow down that tight little group. But right now he had to concentrate on not getting caught.

  Raine groaned when a stab of pain knifed through his gut. Vinny hadn’t broken anything, but he had damn sure given Raine something to remember him by.

  Steering the car onto Highway 321, Raine decided his best course of action would be to get out of Gatlinburg in a hurry. He would worry about dumping the car and picking up another means of transportation farther down the road. It would take Vinny and his sidekick a while to walk down to civilization. Not much traffic found its way to where he had left them. And even if someone did come along, no way would they pick up two strange men—especially a couple of guys who looked like refugees from Alcatraz.

  He should have killed them, but he hadn’t. She had distracted him. He glanced at the woman clinging to the passenger-side door. He never allowed anyone to distract him. Raine could analyze that bit of irony later.

  He estimated he had about two hours before a new and much more intense search began. Maybe he’d get lucky and Vinny would get lost in the woods and freeze before finding help. “Scumbags,” Raine muttered.

  “You…you were going to drop me off at the emergency room.”

  Raine snapped his head in the direction of the small, hesitant voice. She trembled beneath his irritated glare. He forced his gaze back to the road and the ever-increasing traffic as they headed south on 441 and into Gatlinburg proper.

  What was he going to do with her? If he let her go, they would find her and kill her. A professional never left loose ends. If he took her with him, she could easily be caught in the crossfire and wind up dead anyway. Raine set his jaw and considered his options. He didn’t owe this woman a damn thing, but if she ended up wearing a toe tag i
t would be his fault.

  He released a frustrated breath. Kate Roberts was an innocent bystander in his world of death and mayhem and Jack Raine didn’t off innocents—directly or indirectly. She was his responsibility now whether he liked it or not, and he sure didn’t like it. If he kept Kate with him, she had a chance of surviving, slim though it might be.

  Slim? Who the hell was he kidding? Anorexic would be a more accurate description. Raine knew the odds of his being able to evade capture much longer without doing a permanent disappearing act. And they weren’t good, especially now.

  But he had to find that leak. To do that, he couldn’t afford to get caught—at least not yet.

  Raine no longer owed the government anything, but he did owe it to the other men, like himself, who put their lives on the line for that government. Contract agents were especially vulnerable since the very agencies that hired them denied them when an assignment went south. If a leak existed at a high enough level to have access to Raine’s assignments, then no one was safe.

  He snatched another glimpse of the woman in the passenger seat. Kate would just have to come along for the ride until he could tuck her away someplace safe.

  “I’m afraid there’s been a change of plans,” he told her. He might as well get this over with. No point in keeping her in the dark.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, her eyebrows knitted with concern. Her hands twisted together in her lap, her face looked pale and drawn.

  She was scared to death, Raine decided after giving her another sidelong glance. “It would be a mistake for me to leave you behind. These people don’t like loose ends and you’re definitely a loose end.”

  “I don’t understand.” The pitch of Kate’s voice rose steadily. “You said I needed medical attention…I don’t understand,” she repeated.

  Raine cursed under his breath when he saw tears slip down her cheeks. He had no tolerance for crying females. What the hell had he done to deserve this? Raine swallowed the hard, bitter answer that climbed into his throat. He knew what he’d done. He’d sold his soul a long time ago and now he was going to pay for it, in the form of a weepy female amnesiac.