Safe by His Side

“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 it 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.

A tiny sound, almost a sob broke loose from Kate, jerking Raine from his reverie. “There are a lot more guys like Vinny after me—a helluva lot more—if any of them get their hands on you, medical attention won’t do you any good.” He shot her a fierce glare. “That’s just the way it is, so shut up and let me think.”

Raine focused his full attention on the road before him. The next town with transportation possibilities was his destination. He had to get somewhere—anywhere—as fast he could without taking a chance on speeding and drawing attention to himself. He couldn’t allow any distractions, not Kate’s whining or his own uneasiness. He had to concentrate on driving. He didn’t have time to waste. This sedan would soon be a heavy liability.

KATE’S MIND RACED like an out-of-control roller coaster. She had to do something. This man, Rick, wasn’t going to drop her off at the hospital as he’d promised. She should have known better than to trust him. Of course, her options had been limited. He certainly seemed considerably less threatening than the other two goons she’d met today. He was definitely the lesser of the evils.

But would he drag her along with him and get her killed? Kate might not remember her life, but she instinctively knew she wouldn’t have a death wish if she did. She shot the man driving an assessing glance. And this guy certainly had himself some unsavory enemies. Kate had to think of something…something that would provide her with an avenue of escape.

If she could get away from this man, she could call the police and tell them everything. The police would get her to a doctor who could help her to regain her memory.

The harshness of that reality slammed into her with such force that it sucked the air right out of Kate’s lungs. She didn’t just not know her name—she didn’t know anything. Where she was from, what she did for a living, whether she had any family. Nothing…she knew nothing.