by CJ Snyder
Kat mumbled something about her pocket as he sat with her, pulling her into his arms, keeping her head elevated on his shoulder. She was right. The bleeding hadn’t slowed, not even from the cut on her lip where Crater had smacked her. “Kat, baby, keep your eyes open. Look at me.”
Her eyes opened obediently, but he knew it was an effort. “My pocket,” she whispered and her right hand twitched and then was still.
Max extricated a small vial from her side seam pocket. “Heparin.”
Kat grew even paler. “Go to Lizzie, Max. They’re still looking.”
She was right, of course. He should go to Lizzie, make sure she was safe and call for help. Only Kat might not make it that long. He looked away from that awful awareness in her eyes and shook his head. “No.”
“You have to go, Max.”
“I’m not leaving you, dammit!” He clamped his hand firmly around the back of her head, trying to ignore how red the blanket at her neck was. Pressure. Direct pressure and elevation.
“Where is she?”
“She’s safe.” He wanted to tell her to be quiet, to save her strength, but it wouldn’t do any good. She’d always said whatever the hell she felt like saying, whenever she felt like saying it. Now wouldn’t be any different. “What will stop it?”
“Clotting factor infusion. Vitamin K would help, too. Have any handy?” She smiled up at him and it took everything he had not to yank her close, hold her tight and force her to stop. . .dying.
Instead, using his teeth, he stripped away the velcro strips of his splint and applied it to her arm, snugging it tight over the deepest cuts Viper’d inflicted. “How long does Heparin last?”
Her head moved in a slight shake, her message clear. Too long. “Go, Max. She needs you.”
“I’m not leaving you, Kat.” He laid his hand over her shoulder, covering four of the small puncture wounds.
She wrapped her fingers around his wrist. “Go.”
“We’ll go together.” The fingers at his wrist tightened. He forced his gaze to meet hers. Her eyes were clouded, but the love reflected there stole his breath and had hot tears stinging his. “Don’t go, baby. I don’t want to live without you.”
She let out a soft sobbing sound and her eyes filled too. “Ask me,” she whispered.
He ignored the request. The agony in his heart turned cold and his hands tightened around her. “I’m not going to live without you, Kat. He’s not going to win.”
She smiled through her tears. “I got him, didn’t I?”
“Yeah.” Only Viper still had her.
“Max, ask me, please? I promise I’ll say yes, this time.”
“No.” He met the pleading in her eyes straight on. “Not now. Not like this. Let’s go.”
The radio at her waist squawked. “Ice. What the hell went on here?”
Ghost. Finally. But whose side would he be on? He lifted his hand from her chest, trying not to notice how the cuts continued to trickle. “He set me up.”
“Yeah, well, looks like you got even.”
Max glanced at Kat. She smiled. Then her eyes flickered shut. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“Maybe not, but you gotta come in for debrief, Ice. I’ll tell you right now it ain’t gonna be pretty.”
He didn’t have time for Ghost to gather evidence to support his claim. If he was going to save Kat he had to do it now. “Deal?”
“I love to deal, Ice.”
“Is the med kit there?”
“Somewhere, yeah.” In the background, Max heard, “Tron, med kit?”
“I need an antidote.”
A smile whispered over Kat’s lips, but she shook her head. “Clotting factor infusion,” she whispered, eyes still closed. “What are you going to deal?”
“Clotting factor infusion,” Max grated out. “He gave her heparin. She’s bleeding.”
“Checking.”
The silence went on forever. Max levered Kat’s head a little higher and kissed her forehead. “Stay with me, sweetheart.”
“What’s the deal?” she whispered again.
“Clotting factor.” Ghost’s positive response made Max want to shout. “Looks like somebody wanted someone weak but not dead.”
“That’s your deal. Come and get me.” He pressed Kat’s face into his chest, muffling her outraged cry.
Chapter Nineteen
Kat didn’t know how very weak she was until Max was able to hold her still with only slight pressure. Too late, she realized the ramifications of his deal–of any deal at all with these men who supposedly served the government but actually followed a mad man–but especially the deal Max had made. Trading her life for his made no sense at all. He needed to go, leave her here, get his daughter and hide where these men could never find them.
Max eased her head up against a tree and knelt in front of her. “I know, baby, I know. But I’m not letting you go. To make sure, I’m gonna disappear for a little bit. If it goes right, you’ll hear me.” Kat saw more than felt as he lifted her hand to his lips and dropped a kiss. “If it doesn’t, then it doesn’t. But Ghost is one of the good guys, okay?”
She’d never been more angry. More frustrated. Weak, depleted, there was nothing she could do but let him go. He kissed her, long and sweet. Kat fought back sobs she couldn’t help, sobs that sucked up even more of her strength. She kept her eyes focused on Max until he literally disappeared. One minute he was backing away from her, into the trees, the next he was just. . .gone.
Seconds later, she heard careful footsteps behind her. She looked up to find a man about Max’s age, with eyes that looked much, much older. Tall, muscular, with hard angles in his face etched by some horrible pain. He telescoped to his knees beside her before he opened the small kit he carried. Kat wanted more than anything to run, flee after Max, wherever it was he’d gone. Was this Ghost? The man Max trusted with their daughter’s life? Had he come alone?
The stranger spared not much more than a quick glance around. “Where’d he go?”
Kat’s lips clamped into an angry line. He expected her to give Max up? “Go to hell,” she muttered.
“All right, all right, take it easy. Last thing you need right now’s an increase in your pulse rate.” He bent over her arm. “You’re a mess, lady. Ice do this?”
Ice. Ice was Max. “No!”
Her outburst brought a quick smile to the man’s lips. It faded just as fast. “Good, you can talk. Tell me what happened.”
A needle pierced her arm. Kat was amazed she still had enough sensation to know. “Vic–Viper. He kidnapped my, no, our daughter. Max—” Did he know Max? Or only Ice? Better to be clear. “Ice has to go and get her, make sure she’s safe.” That from the famous court witness? Disgusted with her inability to communicate clearly–especially now, Kat tried to gather her thoughts. Max believed in this man. But Max had believed in Viper. Could she trust this former ally? How much should she tell him?
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who did this to you?”
“Viper,” she spat. “And I killed him, not Max. Ice,” she clarified. These code names were ridiculous! “Who are you?”
“Gregory. Or Ghost.” He glanced up from her arm and she saw a glimmer of a smile in his dark eyes, almost as if he’d read her mind. “Whichever you prefer. Course now that I’ve told you, I’ll have to kill you.”
She felt his fingers, cool at her wrist, seeking her pulse. He wasn’t the only one who could read people. She hoped she wasn’t wrong. There might not be time to find out. “You’re not like the others, like Crater, are you?” Her voice shook just the slightest bit.
“Appearances can be deceiving.”
She eyed the now-familiar strap over his shoulder. “Are you a sniper, too?”
“When I need to be. I prefer to gather intelligence. Tell me about Tron and Crater. Were they present at the house while all this was going on?”
“Not inside the house. Not while he was doing this.
But they did what he said. Whatever he said.” She didn’t even try to stop the bitterness in her voice.
“As they’re supposed to.” He ripped open a square of gauze, applied it to the cut next to her eye and met her gaze purposefully. “I’ve only got saline. It’ll burn to high heaven. I don’t think you’re up for that.”
Kat wanted to object, but she wasn’t stupid. He was right, she wasn’t up for that kind of pain. Cleaning her wounds could wait. Someone had to go to Lizzie. Soon. “Did Cap come back?”
Now the look Ghost shot her was sharp and suspicious. “No. Why?”
“Because he sent him after Lizzie.”
“Viper,” he clarified. “Sent Cap. After Lizzie. Who’s Lizzie?”
“Our daughter.” Quick tears filled her eyes. She blinked them away impatiently and not without a little fear. Tears were telling. She couldn’t afford to tell too much. Had he noticed?
“I thought you said Viper kidnapped her.”
“And you said you preferred to gather intelligence.” They didn’t have time for him to be putting pressure bandages on each and every one of Vic’s puncture marks, but that was exactly what it seemed he was going to do. “Look, Greg. Ghost. Whatever. Max has to go to Lizzie. She’s alone, and if Cap didn’t come back, he’s still looking for her. Viper wants,” her voice trembled again and she fought to keep it steady. “He wanted us all dead. He killed my father, framed my mother for his murder–“ No! No! No! The past didn’t matter. Only Lizzie. She had to stay focused, stay alert. “You have to let Max go to her.”
“Why?”
“So he doesn’t win.” She touched his wrist. “Let him go, Gregory. Please.”
Gregory the Ghost lifted his radio, pressed a button and smiled at Kat. The smile was genuine, the look he gave her warm with pity. Kat felt a chill that went all the way to her bones. “He’s already gone, honey. Aren’t you, Ice?”
Kat heard Max’s chuckle from the radio. Hope flared to life out of cold embers of dread. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you?”
Ghost’s smile faded. His gaze stayed focused on Kat. She shivered. He pushed the talk button again. “Crater and Tron are waiting back at the house.”
“You keep that son of a bitch away from my woman!” Kat closed her eyes, praying for Max’s escape. She’d bested Vic. Crater didn’t scare her. Nothing could scare her as long as Max and Lizzie were safe.
Ghost caught her hand, sending her eyes back open. She jerked at the unexpected contact and tried to wrench her arm away. He held on far too easily. “She’s not bleeding.” He lifted her hand, holding it in front of her face. “Tell him.”
The radio moved to her lips. “I’m not,” she whispered. “Go, Max. Don’t come back.”
Ghost cut off the end of her plea. “I’ve got to take her back.”
Another voice broke into the transmission, angry, cursing. “What the hell are you doing, Ghost? He’s getting away and you know it!” Crater. The one who’d hit her, after the fire.
That fast, the confusing but rational man who knelt at her side disappeared. In his place was a stone. Rock hard. Stern. Impenetrable. Terrifying. “No chatter.”
The man at the other end wasn’t listening. At least not well enough. “But, sir, he’s–“
”Tron.”
Another voice. Just as stern as Ghost’s. “Yes, sir.”
“Eliminate all radio contact. Begin clean. You outside, Crater inside.”
Kat heard what sounded like a vehemently muttered four-letter word. “Yes, sir.”
“Any questions about your orders?”
“No, sir.”
“Good.” Ghost turned his attention to her.
Kat tried to swallow but her mouth was too dry. Whoever he was, Ghost was scary as hell. Then, suddenly, he wasn’t. He rested the radio on one bent knee, raked his fingers through his hair and muttered a curse word of his own.
The radio squawked again. Max’s voice, still sounding much too close. “Hell of a mess to clean, buddy.”
“You got that right.” Again, Ghost’s world-weary stare pinned her. “She worth it?”
Max didn’t hesitate. “All that and more. They both are.”
Embarrassment heated her cheeks as Ghost’s stare became a little more personal. “Hope you’re right.”
“Still your call.”
He lifted a corner of the gauze next to her eye and sighed before answering. “A deal’s a deal, Ice.”
Kat’s heart sank. The truth was so obvious, how could he not see it?
“Never welched yet, my friend.”
Ghost set the radio down, not bothering to transmit his reply. “No, you haven’t.” He tipped her head forward, examining the gash behind her head. “Any idea how far away she is?”
“Lizzie? But he just said–“
”He just said he’ll be back.”
“Where is he? Do you know?” He seemed to know everything else. Was it true? Was he letting Max go?
“Now? Halfway to wherever your daughter is, I’d imagine.”
“And you’re letting him go?”
“Not much else I can do at this point. Ice doesn’t ever get found until he wants to be found.”
##
Max stole a pair of shorts from a clothesline. They were too tight, and with the seams busted open, they made him feel like the Incredible Hulk. Don’t make me angry. Too late for that. Would Lizzie be amused? Probably not without some green paint. Not a bad idea, actually. In a corner of the deserted yard, he grabbed handfuls of grass and added green to the brown, sticky camouflage he’d already applied to his chest and arms.
“Max. Go.” Kat’s words, barely more than a whisper, accompanied each inch he gained as he crawled through the adjoining field. Contrary to Ghost’s assumption, he hadn’t let his former friend out of his sight until Ghost had set down the radio. Max was still close enough to read his lips and understand the decision Ghost had made.
The rookie’s interruption on the radio had proved an enormous boon. Viper was out of the picture–dead this time, not running things from his cramped office in Virginia. But just like in the field, when Viper wasn’t there, Ghost was in charge. Max smiled and slithered into a ditch. Irritating as hell, that radio silence order had to be, especially for Tron, who’d no doubt agreed with Crater’s dissension. But Tron was a soldier, first, foremost and always. If Crater happened to enjoy his job a little too much, well, that was Viper’s problem. Was being the operative word. Max’s smile broadened to a grin and he darted across the road, barely more than a shadow in the overhead sun.
He gained the slight hill overlooking the subdivision twenty minutes later. Not as fast as an all-out run, but not bad. The car was still there. He squinted. Where was Lizzie? Max lifted his head cautiously.
There. He spotted her profile in the rear corner of the car. Good girl!
“Don’t even blink.”
Max heard the snick of a revolver loading. It had to be Cap. Had he led him right to her? He ignored the soldier’s order, but only to close his eyes, the rest of his body frozen in place. Lizzie. . .run, baby.
##
Lizzie spotted the man about half an hour after Uncle Max left. Her heart pounded in her throat and her fingers were slick as they tightened around the phone. The stranger was in the field, the same field she’d crossed and the one Max had disappeared into, but when he only stayed there, up on the small ridge under the radio towers, her heart calmed down a little. He was too far away for her to see him clearly and as long as he stayed far away, well, she wouldn’t worry. Too much.
She’d lost her wrist watch somewhere during her long trek, but Uncle Max’s cell told the time. Max had until noon. High Noon–wasn’t that the name of one of the old westerns he liked so much? It seemed a long, long time to wait, but Kat was counting on her. Partners. A good partner would wait, no matter how long it took. The man on the hill was still there, sitting in the weeds.
She watched him for an hour, but he didn’t move–at all.
The threat of his presence slowly faded. A birdwatcher? Maybe someone who just wanted to be alone. She got that way sometimes herself, when Mom was pestering her about her room and Max was being a pain about homework or something. Sometimes being alone was good. At least it used to be. Right now, well, right now she wanted people. Her people.
Lizzie yawned and stretched her sore foot out across the seat. The sun played warm across her face and shoulder, soothing the chill inside. That chill had been around longer than she cared to remember. Ever since she’d realized Max wasn’t waiting for her outside the hospital like the man had claimed. She’d never learned his name, but Crater was the other one, who’d helped him. The one she’d kicked. Lizzie grinned, hearing his curse again. She had to remember to tell Max about that.