Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 107096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
I pulled back, wiped my wet and very unglamorous face, and said, in a voice that didn’t sound like mine, “It isn’t a stupid story.”
Colton nodded.
“And I think I’d q—quite like to be rescued—”—I hiccoughed and sniffed. “Please.”
He hugged me close and I pressed myself tight against the warmth of him, the way a child hugs a teddy bear. Then I suddenly pushed back because I needed to tell him, “You aren’t stupid. You’re smart, smarter than you give yourself credit for. You can remember faces and you’re great at tracking people down and you’re brave and I really really like you.”
He wiped my tears away with his thumb. “I really really like you, too,” he rumbled.
He leaned forward and we touched foreheads, and I gave a little laugh that wasn’t like me at all. Then I used my sleeve to wipe my eyes and said, “We need to go.”
He gently released me and I put the car into gear and pulled away. I accelerated down the dirt road, shaking my head at the strange wonderfulness of it all, but with a new, secret thrill inside. As we rounded the next corner, I glanced across at him and smiled, and he smiled back.
There was a sharp crack I recognized as a rifle shot and then a bang as a tire blew out. The steering wheel jerked under my hands and suddenly we were spinning off the road.
44
COLTON
I was grinning like an idiot and, inside, I was air-guitaring and fist pumping while the words I really really like you lit up in a stadium rock light show complete with sprays of sparks. Then suddenly the car was slewing around, turning a full three-sixty as we skidded off the road and into the dirt. Someone stepped out of the bushes and I registered his face as we flashed past.
JD.
I waited for the car to hit something and flip but Tanya wrestled the skid under control and brought us to a stop about ten feet off the road and side-on to it. We sat there panting as the car rocked on its suspension. Then I was hitting the release on Tanya’s seatbelt and pushing her out of the car. “Go! Go!” I told her. “It’s them!”
She didn’t have to ask who. She scrambled out and I grabbed her hand, trying to figure out which way to run.
“Stop,” said JD. “Just stop.”
I looked round, still a little disoriented. There was open country on both sides of us, softly-swaying grass turning gold as the sun started to sink below the horizon. JD was walking towards me from a patch of scrubby bushes where I guess he’d been hiding. Gabriel, Danny and Bradan emerged from the fields further back. I guessed Cal was up high somewhere…there, stretched out on the roof of that barn. He must have shot out our tire.
There was nowhere to run: in fact, no cover at all. The only thing around was a rail crossing about fifty feet up ahead. There were no people, either. Probably why they’d picked this place for their ambush. Clever.
“Colton?” JD didn’t have his gun out, but he had one hand on it. “Take it easy, buddy.”
I became aware of a noise in the background, a metal-on-metal scrape and rattle that shook the ground.
“How’d you find us?” I asked.
“Traffic camera, back on the interstate,” JD told us. “Facial recognition.” He stared in shock. “You shaved off your beard?”
I touched my bare cheek and grunted: I’d forgotten. “Listen,” I said. “I know she’s Russian but we’re on the same side. Steward’s playing you guys.”
“Put your gun down and come in,” JD told me, “And we can talk about all this stuff.” His eyes were pleading with me, big and blue and soulful, and I felt a tug deep in my chest, strong as an ocean current. All I wanted was to be back with him and the team. I knew he was just trying to look out for me. But he was wrong, this time.
The sound was getting louder, now. It came from somewhere behind me, vibrating up my body and shaking my teeth as something approached.
“JD,” I said, my voice fracturing. “The CIA get their hands on her, she’s dead. Steward’s working with the Bainbridges, they’re going to blow some shit up, crash the economy—”
“Colton, we’re not asking!” JD shook his head tiredly. “If we don’t take you in, they’re coming after you with a shoot-to-kill order and the two of you will be dead by tonight. Now put your gun down! It’s over!” He glared at Tanya. “Let her go!”
I looked down at Tanya’s hand in mine. Then I looked across at her. At those frozen-sky eyes and the lips that were a fantasy all on their own. I thought of her naked by the firelight and her saving me from Maravić and helping me on the balcony and her asleep in pink pajamas.