by Paige Tyler
“I wonder how Hardy found out about us so quickly.”
Gage shook his head. “You did hear the part about them planning to kill us, right?”
“Yeah, but I could have told you that. In fact, I’m pretty sure I did,” she said. “He must have had someone watching you for the past few days and they saw us together. I wonder why he’s making such an aggressive move now, though. I thought someone like Hardy would have taken a more calculated approach.”
Gage took the opportunity to check his mirrors again. He knew exactly why Hardy had hired those hit men—because Gage had miscalculated and poked the man with a stick.
“I know there was a bomb in that meth lab the other day.” When Gage did a double take at that, she added, “I overheard Cooper tell Mike at the hospital.”
He swore under his breath.
“Hardy was behind it, wasn’t he?”
Gage nodded, his gaze going to the mirrors.
Mackenzie looked over her shoulder, out the back window. “You think those hit men are going to come at us while we’re driving, don’t you?”
He forced himself to stop looking in the mirror every five seconds. “Not really. I doubt anyone could have followed us all the way out here along these back roads without me noticing them. And no one could have guessed this is where we’d go. I don’t think many people in Dallas even know that place is out here.”
She sat back in the seat, looking surprisingly relaxed. Well, as relaxed as a person could look knowing that a rich, powerful man wanted you dead.
“So, what’s the plan?” she asked. “Are they going to put us in protective custody?”
Gage couldn’t believe how well she was taking this. Most women—hell most people—would have been freaking out by now.
“I’m sure Mason is talking to the chief of police right now about putting together a protective detail, but I trust my own people a whole lot more,” Gage told her. “We’re heading straight to the compound.”
“Okay. But then what?”
Gage was trying to figure out how to answer that question when the glare of headlights reflecting sharply off the rearview mirror caught his attention. He had just enough time to punch the accelerator to the floor and tighten his grip on the wheel when the car coming up behind them smashed into his bumper.
If the Charger had been any lighter—or if he hadn’t lucked out and seen the asshole coming—the collision would have knocked his car completely out of control. As it was, he and Mackenzie nearly slid sideways into a ditch. Tires squealed as the sports car threatened to roll on him. He fought for control of the wheel as he tried to figure out where the psycho behind them had gone.
“Watch out!” Mackenzie screamed.
Gage snapped his head around just in time to see two cars pull across the road in a classic roadblock position. There was no way he could bull his way through, and he sure as hell didn’t want to stop. He slammed on the brake, trying to steer toward the side of the road. He had to get around them.
His werewolf reflexes were good enough to pull it off, but whoever was in the cars blocking the road started peppering the Charger with rounds from what sounded like an automatic weapon. Bullets smashed into the front of the car and Mackenzie screamed as the windshield shattered. Gage threw as much of his body in front of hers as he could, considering he was wearing his seat belt and needed to keep one hand on the wheel.
He was still moving fast when he clipped the rear of one of the blocking cars, smashing it to pieces and sending him and Mackenzie hurtling off the road and into the ditch. He gripped the wheel tightly as they bottomed out in the ravine, then bounced up the far side. Mackenzie screamed again as they ran into a line of small trees at the top of the embankment.
There were so many bullets hitting the car that Gage couldn’t believe neither of them had been hit yet. That wouldn’t last long.
He needed to get them out of here, and fast. With all the trees, he had no choice but to put the Charger into a sideways slide and bring the car to a halt the hard way—by smashing it broadside into a thick hardwood.
He grabbed Mackenzie and tried to protect her from the impact as best he could, but she still slammed against the inside of the door pretty hard. He reached over to unbuckle her seat belt. They had to get out of the car now.
He dragged her off her seat and across the center console, slipping one hand down to his ankle holster to pull out his gun. Mackenzie was so woozy she could barely stand on her own, and he held on to her with one hand while he scanned the area. He could hear the sound of feet pounding on the dirt, could smell the sweat coming off the men as they ran.
Gage put a bullet through the head of the first man to crest the embankment, sending him tumbling backward. That would sure as hell slow them down some. Nobody was going to feel like poking their head up for a few seconds at least.
Not waiting to see if he was right, he turned and scooped Mackenzie off her feet, then ran into the forest as fast as he could—and he could run pretty damn fast.
They’d gotten maybe two hundred feet into the woods before bullets started tearing up the sparse forest around them. Apparently the bad guys hadn’t waited as long as he’d hoped.
Shit.
There were at least six of them crashing through the woods after him, spread out in a ragged line in an effort to make sure he didn’t slip past them in the gathering dark. If he’d been by himself, he would have shifted into his half-werewolf form so he could go on the offensive. The assholes would have never even seen him coming.
But he had Mackenzie to worry about. There was no way to keep her safe and go after the men at the same time.
So he kept running. Bullets buzzed past them like angry bees, and Gage was forced to zig and zag erratically. That only allowed the men behind them to gain on them.
“They’re catching up,” Mackenzie said.
Gage glanced down at her. “You okay?”
He ran faster. He needed a better plan. He wasn’t going to be able to stay ahead of these guys forever while carrying Mackenzie. All it would take was one lucky shot.
“Yeah, I bounced my head against the window, but I’m okay,” she said. “Put me down. We’ll be able to run faster.”
Gage wasn’t so sure of that. But what he was doing sure as hell wasn’t working.
He caught sight of a barbwire fence up ahead. He sprinted to it and set her down on the other side, then vaulted over it while she was facing away from him. Their pursuers were only about sixty feet behind them and closing fast. Gage aimed at the man closest to them, but held his fire. He only had one magazine in the Sig, which only carried eight rounds. He might be good with a gun, but he didn’t have ammo to waste on a low-percentage shot.
Unfortunately, the bad guys didn’t have that issue. Every one of them was carrying an MP5 submachine gun and had lots of spare ammo. The moment they realized he and Mackenzie had stopped, they painted the area with 9mm ball rounds.
Gage turned to grab Mackenzie’s hand and was shocked to see her holding that damn camera of hers. She was videotaping the freaking gunmen as they shot at them!
“What the hell are you doing?” he shouted.
“I’m a journalist. If someone is shooting at me, I’m going to film it,” she explained, trying to hold the camera steady as he pulled her away.
Then Mackenzie frantically motioned to the left, her camera dangling from her wrist. “I saw a building over there.”
The “building” was a barn. Unfortunately, it didn’t have any doors. But right now, they didn’t have a better option.
He headed for the back of the barn, then tugged Mackenzie down to the hay-strewn dirt floor with him.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “Did you get hit?” The thought alone was enough to almost make his head stop working.
“No, I’m fine.” She searched his face. “What about you?�
��
“I’m fine.”
Gage took out his cell phone and swore. No service. So much for more bars in more places.
Mackenzie held up her camera, pointing it at the entrance. He knew she was scared because he could hear her heart thundering, and yet she kept filming. Damn, she was amazing—or insane.
“What are we going to do?” Mackenzie asked.
Gage shoved his phone back in his front pocket, hoping for inspiration to tell him how to answer that question when gunfire sounded from the front of the barn.
He pushed Mackenzie to the floor, covering her body with his as bullets zipped over their heads. Ragged chunks of wood went flying every which way thanks to the six men and their automatic weapons.
No, not six—four. Where the hell were the other two?
He lifted his head as he caught their scent. They were in the barn, just inside the door. All at once, the gunfire stopped. It had only been a diversion to make him duck so he wouldn’t see the men come in.
Shit.
In a minute, they’d start spraying the place with bullets. He and Mackenzie would never survive that much firepower in this small barn.
Gage pushed himself up to his knees and took aim around the support post he was using for cover. Both gunmen had taken up defensive positions similar to his, which didn’t leave Gage with much of a target. But he had to shoot. Every second he wasted gave the bad guys more time to shoot at them.
He leveled his Sig and squeezed the trigger. He was pretty sure he grazed the guy, but he didn’t have time to check. The moment he fired, the second shooter immediately emptied a full magazine in his direction.
Gage felt a bullet hit his right shoulder, then another clip his left leg. He ignored the white-hot flash of pain and adjusted his sights on the second gunman. He caught the guy just as he was reloading, putting two rounds in his chest. Then he turned his attention back to the first guy to find him lining Gage up for the kill shot.
Gage squeezed off a round in the man’s general direction, praying it found its target. Unfortunately, it was about half a foot above the shooter’s head. It made the man flinch and jump out from his hiding place, though. That was all the opening Gage needed. He put the gunman down with a shot dead through the center of his chest.
Gage waited for the four men outside to rush in, guns blazing. Maybe they’d figured things hadn’t gone according to plan. They probably thought Gage had killed their buddies and was waiting for the rest of them to come in so he could do the same to them.
They had no way of knowing Gage had been hit twice, but neither shot was life-threatening for a werewolf. Right now, he was more concerned with the fact that he only had two rounds left in his Sig—and four gunmen still waiting outside.
“Oh, God. Gage, you’re bleeding!” Mackenzie cried.
She caught his arm, trying to pull him down with her. He resisted, keeping his gaze trained on the door. If the bad guys came at them now, he wasn’t going to have many options. But he’d protect Mackenzie, no matter what.
“Gage,” she said. “You’ve been shot.”
If he thought her heart had been beating fast before, that didn’t compare to how it was racing now.
He glanced at her. “I’m okay. It’s just a graze wound.”
“Let me see,” she insisted.
“Not now. The rest of those assholes could come in here any second and I’m almost out of ammo.”
That got her attention. “You’re not carrying another magazine?”
He shook his head. God, what he wouldn’t give to get his hands on those two machine guns lying on the ground on the far side of the barn.
It’d be crazy to try it, though. The men outside knew those weapons were there, too. Going for them would require him to step directly into their line of sight. In his human form, he wouldn’t be fast enough to pull that off without getting hit a lot. And contrary to pop culture, you didn’t need a silver bullet to kill a werewolf. A good old-fashioned lead one would do the job just fine.
But what choice did he have? If he could have shifted, it would have drastically improved his odds, but with Mackenzie here, he couldn’t do that.
Gage tensed, ready to sprint across the barn, when he smelled smoke. “What the hell?”
The men had set fire to the barn. If they couldn’t come in, they were going to burn him and Mackenzie out.
Shit.
He jerked around to see flames creeping along the walls behind them.
“Gage, the barn’s on fire.”
Mackenzie’s voice was much calmer than it should have been in a situation like this. She was even filming again. No doubt about it—she was crazy.
Or maybe she didn’t realize how screwed they really were. The men had started the fire to drive their prey out of the barn. They were standing out there with every weapon pointed at the entryway and the weapons lying on the floor in the opening. When Gage made a move for them, they’d take him out before he even had a chance to pick them up.
And then they’d come for Mackenzie.
But if they stayed where they were, they’d roast. And Mackenzie would still be dead.
His mind raced at a thousand miles an hour as Mackenzie began to cough. There was a third option. A way to take out the men, or at least distract them long enough for Mackenzie to escape.
He was going to have to shift. He might still not survive the hit he was going to take from their automatic weapons, but Mackenzie would be safe. And that was what mattered.
But if he did this, everything would change—no matter how it turned out.
Gage took the camera out of Mackenzie’s grasp to let it hang by its cord from her wrist, then he gently pushed his pistol into her hand. “I have to get rid of those guys before this whole place goes up in flames, and there’s only one way to do it. And it’s going to the scare the hell out of you.”
She tried to push the gun back into his hand. “Gage, what are you talking about? How can you get those men without a weapon? It’s…”
He didn’t know if she had been about to say it was crazy, or stupid, or impossible because she started to cough from the thick smoke rolling off the back wall.
He wrapped her fingers around the pistol grip and curled her index finger in the trigger guard. “This is going to be hard on you, but you have to do it, no matter how scared you are. I need you to count to five, then follow me outside. You only have two rounds. If there’s anyone left out there when I’m done, you need to make those two rounds count. Do you understand?”
She coughed again, tears running down her face. He told himself it was the smoke making her cry, but he knew that was bull.
He slid his hands in her hair and kissed her hard. He wanted to tell her what she meant to him, tell her how he felt about her, tell her what he really was, but one kiss was all he had time for.
When he lifted his head, she was gazing up at him with tear-filled eyes, and the sight of them tore at his heart. “Remember—count to five, okay?”
“Why? Gage, what are you going to do?”
“Whatever I have to do to protect you.”
The whole back of the barn was engulfed in flames now. He rose to his feet, ignoring the pain of his wounds.
“I’m sorry,” he said raggedly, then turned and ran toward the door, shifting as he ran.
It was almost a relief to finally allow his teeth to elongate and his claws to come out. He wouldn’t need the MP5s on the floor now. With his speed, strength, claws, and fangs, he was a killing machine.
Mackenzie didn’t know that, of course. And as he ran out of the barn, she screamed his name.
* * *
Mac knew Gage was going to do something reckless and dangerous when he’d shoved his pistol into her hand—she just hadn’t known what.
When he’d said he was going to get rid of the men, she
thought he was going to grab one of the machine guns the thugs had dropped, but he hadn’t. Why would he do something so insane?
She wiped away a tear with her free hand. She had to get it together. Gage was depending on her to go out there in five seconds.
How long had it been?
Longer than five seconds she was sure.
Outside, the sounds of gunfire filled the night, followed by shouting. Mac’s blood turned to ice in her veins. There was no way Gage could survive that many bullets.
She jumped to her feet and ran across the barn. The fire and smoke had sucked the oxygen out of the place and it was hard to breathe. Pieces of hay and wood floated through the air like dandelion fluff, burning her skin, but she ignored them.
Fresh air hit her like a slap to the face when she got outside, but it was nothing compared to what she saw that completely took her breath away again.
Two of the gunmen were already dead, their bodies torn and bloody. A third lay on the ground trying to reach a machine gun a dozen feet away, his leg twisted at an odd angle and badly bleeding. Dear God, the men looked as if they’d been mauled by a wild animal.
She searched around wildly for Gage and saw him locked in a struggle with the fourth man. They each had a hand around the other’s throat, trying to squeeze the life out of their opponent. The man twisted the machine gun in his free hand and pointed it at Gage.
Suddenly remembering the pistol in her hand, Mac aimed it at the man and squeezed the trigger, praying she shot him and not Gage. The bullet hit the man in the leg, and he made a strangled sound, relaxing his grip on his weapon.
Gage let out a growl, then lifted the man off the ground and flung him into the air. Mac cringed as he smashed into the burning barn to be consumed by the flames. She didn’t realize she’d made a sound until Gage spun around to face her.
Mac gasped. At first she thought the smoke from the fire was still affecting her, or that shock was making her too dizzy to see straight. Because what she saw couldn’t be real.