Page 9 of Addiction

She wanted to ask if he saw anyone, if they’d sprinted far enough in the right direction to lose the foes, but she refused to cede to the words. Tucker would tell her; she knew that. He might be a lot of things, but he wouldn’t want to see her carted away with Alexander at gunpoint. If anything, his possessive streak implied he’d much rather keep her for himself. He’d said so, hadn’t he?

“Okay.” Relief echoed in his murmur. “I don’t see or hear anyone.”

Thank God.

“We lost them.” She felt better just saying the words aloud.

“For now.” He sighed, gripping her hand tighter. “But we should consider this a warning. Bennett’s guys are in the area. We need to keep pushing on.”

“We don’t know for certain it was Alexander.” She didn’t know why she pressed the point. She was the one who’d leapt to the obvious conclusion, and there had been no evidence to suggest the gang she’d heard were there for a more benign reason.

“It was him.” He glanced back at her. “I know these woods, little girl, and even the most experienced hikers rarely come out here. The idea that a large group would descend at the precise time I’d been threatened with Bennett’s arrival is too ridiculous to be a coincidence.”

“Right.” She couldn’t argue with his rationale. “Thank goodness he called you, sir, or…” Her sentence died as she considered it to its logical conclusion.

“I know.” His jaw tightened. “I can’t say I enjoyed the news, but yeah… it would be a lot worse if the first I knew was when his buddies had come crashing through the window in the middle of the night.”

Her stomach lurched at the alarming thought.

“Let’s keep moving.” His feet started on their previous trajectory again, but she noticed how his pace had slowed. “If we push, maybe we can get there before nightfall.” His gaze rose to the cloudy sky. “We could do without camping out here tonight.”

“Camping?” Fresh fear furled inside of her.

“Hey, Craig!”

Her heart jumped at a cry from behind them, and leaping around, she could just make out the outline of a man between the trees in the far distance.

“I see them!” the unknown male went on. “Two targets. Looks like one male and one female!”

“Get down and keep quiet!” Throwing off the pack, Tucker shoved her toward the nearest large tree and set off in the direction of the threat. She yelped as she hit the ground, looking up just in time to see him reaching for the pocket where he kept his blade.

Ella couldn’t believe how fast he was running, but as the culprit in the distance lifted what looked to be a gun into the air, her blood ran cold.

“Tucker!” she screamed his name as she glanced up from the dirt. “For fuck’s sake. Don’t die!”

Chapter Four

The Great Escape

Tucker

Adrenaline coursed through Tucker’s veins as he raced toward the bastard who’d spotted them, sharpening his laser-focused senses. His knife was already poised in his hand, but when the red-haired jerk pulled what looked like a semi-automatic weapon on him, there was no choice but to dive for cover.

Anger flared as he hit the deck, and rounds of bullets punctured the air overhead, littering the place he’d once stood. If he’d delayed by only a few seconds, he would have received his fourth, fifth, sixth, and possibly final gunshot wounds.

But what about Ella?

Instinctively, his thoughts returned to his little girl. He’d left her behind the relative sanctuary of a nearby tree, and he had to pray that, for once, she’d done as she was told and stayed out of the line of bullets. As far as he could tell, the idiot with the gun was only after him, so as long as she stayed out of the redhead’s way, she’d be safe.

For now.

He’d promised to protect her, the vow echoing around his head like a blood oath, but right now, the only way to keep that pledge was to eliminate the threat with the gun and get her out of the forest before the rest of his troop descended on them.

“Was that gunfire?” A voice he didn’t recognize burst from a radio the idiot with the gun was carrying. He forced his breathing under control as he listened. “Damn it, who’s firing?”

“Control, over.” His new, red-haired target replied, but the volume of his voice told Tucker that the guy with the gun was even closer than he realized.

Rising slowly to his feet, Tucker grasped the blade carefully as he peered around the tree that had sheltered him. Just as he’d imagined, the aggressor had momentarily lowered his weapon to answer the radio. He was less than a few feet from where Tucker stood. It was the sort of distance Tucker could cover in only a few strides, but any attempt to reach his target would run the risk of taking a bullet at point-blank range.

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