Page 22 of Handcuffed By the Bounty Hunters

Accepting my phone, Penny frowns. “I don’t want to leave you guys.”

“I’m losing patience,” Clive says.

“We’ll be okay,” I say to Penny. She has to run now, before Clive’s people can surround us. “We’ll fight better if we know you’re getting to safety.”

“Okay.” Her voice is uncertain, but she nods and straightens her shoulders and says it with more force. “Okay. I’ll go.”

I give her a swift kiss and stare briefly into her fathomless brown eyes.

“The ridge,” Roark says.

“When you get there,” I say, “stay down. Don’t come looking. We’ll let you know when it’s clear.”

Roark clasps his hands briefly over Penny’s. “Run.”

No sooner does she take her first step, than Roark and I dive from opposite ends of our cover, distracting our attackers. Bullets whiz past us. I swear I feel one speed just over my head. Fuck, it’s all too close.

We find new cover. Hidden for the time being, Roark signals at me to stay put and he moves, pulling more of their fire. I use the opportunity to sneak back and around. My footsteps are silent over the wet pine needles covering the forest floor. If I could just get behind someone…

Not far from me, a man points his gun at Roark.

My buddy’s in danger, and I don’t think he sees this threat.

Silent. I have to be silent. When I’m a few feet away, my foot slips on the wet needles. The guy hears me, turns, and raises his gun. The barrel shines dully in the filtered light coming through the pine branches. There’s nowhere to go, left or right, that would offer cover—so I jump toward him.

Probably not my smartest move, but it surprises him and he doesn’t squeeze off a shot. Maybe he wasn’t expecting or planning to actually shoot someone point-blank today.

I tackle him to the ground, wrench the gun from his grasp. A sharp blow to the head knocks him out cold. Sweet dreams, motherfucker.

One down.

Adrenaline pumps through my veins, the headiest of cocktails. I’ll take every one of these assholes down to keep Penny safe. And now I have a weapon.

“What’s going on—team, report,” Clive calls. Fuckin’ douche-bucket.

“Your team is indisposed,” Roark says as someone else hits the ground with a thud.

More gunshots ring out, but nothing hits me so I retrace my silent steps to keep coming at the enemy, approaching from behind. We got this.

Roark might be boring and inflexible on the job, but right now? I fucking respect that, and there’s no one I’d rather have at my back.

Penny

A voice crackles through the phone’s speaker. “He—o? Cameron—are you?”

Sweat drips down the back of my neck. I ran up this hill, and now I can barely breathe.

“Hello?” I say into the phone. The bark of a fallen pine tree presses into my shoulders through Roark’s coat. “Please help. I’m with Roark and Cameron and people are shooting at us.”

“We’re pulling—coordinates—coming.”

Bullets sound in the forest below. I want to look. My guys have to be okay. I need them to be okay.

I grip Cameron’s phone tightly in my fist, waiting further instruction, but the line goes dead.

Roark

It’s killing me not knowing if Penny is safe. Sending her up the ridge was the right call, and I know she’s tough. But tough is not the same as invincible.

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