Page 8 of No Escape

He swore, losing patience, knowing the key was taking the choice out of her hands and seizing control. Before Sarah got too far out of reach, he made a grab for her, hauling her easily toward the window against her will. At least she had the common sense not to scream.

“I’ll go first and talk you through it.” He forced her onto the wide ledge. There was no mistaking the reluctance in her tense body, and Clint knew they were going to lose valuable time because of it. He followed her gaze when she glanced down.

Directly beneath their window was nothing but a thick, green carpet of grass. Nothing to break a fall. The only thing going for them was there wasn’t a window beneath them, nothing but a long stretch of solid, brick wall.

“Once we reach the ground, if we’re still alive, do we head for that clump of trees off in the distance?”

They were bordering the edge of the estate. From there, it was nothing but dense jungle. Sarah began chewing on her bottom lip, leaning against his hand, which was pushing her. It didn’t take Clint long to lose patience. “You might not care what happens to you, but frankly, I don’t relish the idea of getting my,” He finished his crude comment in a low, gritty voice against her ear, "fucking balls cut off."

The graphic description of what they’d most likely lop off his body seemed to snap Sarah out of her frightened stupor. She was suddenly bristling like an angry cat with its back up and jerked around to face him with anger alive in her eyes. “I have a hard time believing you and Susan are friends. She’s too gentle and mothering to be associated with someone like you.”

Clint released a gruff sound at Sarah’s comment. Susan and he were cousins, but right now, he didn’t feel like going into any explanations. “Whatever it takes to get the fucking job done, angel. Do you want to get out of here bad enough to risk your neck, or do you want to hang around and see what Rodriguez has in store for you?” To get his meaning across, his eyes moved over her insultingly, stripping her, leaving little doubt what he thought Rodriguez had in store for her.

“I’ll be right on top of you!” she said without thinking, pressing her mouth when Clint’s mouth twitched with humor she obviously didn’t appreciate.

He sat on the sill next to her, taking up the slack of the rope. “Just remember I’ll be beneath you if you run into any trouble.”

He swung over the side, fully expecting her to follow him. When she didn’t, he glanced up to see Sarah peering over the side, her expression one of worry. Not saying a word, Clint just focused his eyes on her, narrowing them in warning. Imitating his actions, she took the rope in her hands and slowly swung her body over the ledge, making sure her foot was secure on the first knot before releasing the ledge.

“If I fall, maybe I’ll be lucky enough to land on him,” he heard her grumble.

Clint started down, and almost immediately felt Sarah’s sneakers scrape across his knuckles instead of the strategically placed knots. “Damn it! Watch what you’re doing!” He was careful to keep his voice low.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it!” she whispered back, but he caught the smile she flashed him. “It serves you right for making me shimmy down a rope in the first place.”

“I’ll bet,” Clint muttered. About the fourth time she scraped his knuckles, he let go of the rope and jumped the rest of the way to the ground.

He landed on his feet, and Sarah landed on top of him. A grunt left him on impact, and a loud woof of air escaped his lungs as her body bore him to the ground. She was no lightweight, but maybe that was because she had an abundance of curves. Clint hit the ground with a bone-jarring force. The thick, rich carpet of grass wasn’t as cushiony as it had appeared from the two-story window.

“Thank you for stopping my fall,” the little witch had the nerve to say. There was no denying the humor in her tone.

Eyes closed, Clint remained silent. Under normal circumstances he might have found her remark funny. But he was the one who’d landed hard on the ground and had the wind knocked out of him. He couldn’t spare the breath to make a nasty comment. She wouldn’t like the words he’d choose anyway.

“Are you dead?” She questioned in a whisper that was very close to his mouth. “No, I can’t be that lucky!”

Shit! It was surprising how crushing the weight of a woman could be when she was lying on top of you and you didn’t have a single drop of air left in your body. He parted his legs, unconsciously looking for a more comfortable position. The movement only made him aware of the intimacy of their aligned bodies, but he was hardly in the mood to appreciate that his dick was sung against her pussy.

Sarah’s indignant huff sounded as loud as a crack of thunder. With a huff of disgust, she put her hands against his chest and gave herself a push up.

A harsh growl rumbled through Clint’s heaving chest as he glared up at her. “What in the hell are you trying to do…kill me? Why the fuck did you let go of the rope in the first place?”

“When you let go, I thought it was all right to do the same,” she admitted, brushing off the back of her pants as though there was dirt on them. She avoided looking him in the eye. “Why did you let go?”

“To get the fuck from you and those damn sneakers,” he shot back, getting to his feet and glancing down at his scraped knuckles. His gaze returned to her. It satisfied him to see her take an unwilling step back. Good, she should be afraid of him. He was mad enough to spit.

“Well, how was I supposed to know? I thought you jumped because we were close enough to the ground.”

With a snort, he gave the dangling rope a sharp outward snap, which released it from the windowpane before dropping down to them. “I was close enough.” His look was lethal. “You weren’t.”

He quickly stuffed the rope in his bag, his eyes scanning the area. He expected to hear an alarm sound at any second. “Come on, let’s go.”

Grabbing his duffel bag, Clint sprinted in the direction of the trees, leaving Sarah to follow. She’d learn soon enough that he wasn’t going to wait for her. They’d almost reached the safety of the trees when the first shot rang out. It whizzed past them ricocheting off a nearby tree, splintering the bark over their heads. He glanced back, swearing. Just as he’d expected, Sarah had come to a halt and was looking around as though wondering what had just happened.

“Keep moving!” he commanded, grabbing her arm. He gave her a violent shove in front of him where he could keep his eyes on her, and ducked when another bullet whizzed past. Soon after, a volley of gunfire erupted, forcing Clint to push her to the ground before they shot her head off.

She screamed when he careened into her and, in seconds, they were slipping on the muddy earth. Keeping his hands on her hips, he forced her to crawl behind a large tree. As they came to rest against it, flying bark sprayed the area around them.

“We have to keep moving!” Sarah cried above the sound of gunfire. “They’re coming!” She tried to struggle to her feet, but Clint easily held her down.

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