Page 46 of Lethal Pursuit

“The guy who knocked out the kid and told me how to escape.” Her eyes stayed locked on whatever was going on outside. “We can’t talk from here out, so you have to trust me. You ready?”

He trusted her with his life and was about to prove it. “Ready.”

With that, she took off at a stumbling run, though it had to hurt like hell on her swollen feet. Jackson followed, expecting to heareither shouts or gunshots when someone saw them. For the moment, their luck held. No alarm sounded.

Haversham was draped lengthwise across his shoulders, gripping Jackson’s shirt in his fists, trying to hold back his grunts of pain. The added weight taxed the cramped muscles in Jackson’s legs and back, but the burst of adrenaline counteracted everything but the focus on getting as far away from here as possible.

He kept pace with Maya as she flat-out ran past the crumbling remains of houses and across the rockstrewn terrain. It looked like the captors had been hiding in some sort of a ramshackle village in the foothills that had been abandoned long ago. From the position of the sun low on the horizon and the red tint it threw on the landscape, he knew it was close to sundown. But the sun wasn’t setting in the position he’d gotten so used to during his deployment. Rather, it was settingbehindthe mountains looming above the foothills. Since they were obviously traveling west, that could only mean one thing.

They were in Pakistan. Or fucking close to it.

He’d barely thought it when those dreaded shouts finally rose up behind them. Shots cracked through the air, some close enough to ping off the ruins and rocks around them.

“This way,” Maya yelled back to him, her long, dark hair trailing behind her as she ran, taking a sharp right at the last building.

Up ahead in the wash of bloodred light, Jackson saw it. A thin trail that looked like it might once have been used by the goatherds who’d lived in the village long ago. From the wear patterns in the dry soil, it had been traveled recently but not often. The trail led straight up the hillside, disappearing from view at the crest. Was there an ambush waiting on the other side?

The shouts were closer now. More shots whizzed past, some close enough they sprayed him with dust when they impacted around his feet. The fine hairs on his nape rose in subconscious warning. A moment later, he heard the thud of running footsteps. Men giving chase. And from the sounds of it, they were gaining on them.

Maya heard it too. She risked a glance over her shoulder and must have decided whoever was back there was too close for comfort, because she ducked out of the way and went to one knee with her pistol ready in her one good hand. “Go, I’ll catch up,” sheyelled at him without taking her eyes off her targets, face pale and drawn in lines of pain.

What? Like hell he was leaving her.

Jackson skidded to a stop just behind her, looking back in time to see Khalid and three other men armed with pistols bearing down on them. Whirling around, Jackson aimed his own, keeping his free hand on Haversham’s shoulder as he writhed in place.

Khalid held that stupid fucking Russian revolver in his hand. He squeezed the trigger, even though he was too far away to possibly hit any of them, and Jackson heard the dull click that signaled he’d fired on another empty chamber. If he hadn’t loaded or fired it since leaving the interrogation room, that left four chambers remaining, three of them empty.

Hesitating, Jackson started to slide Haversham off his shoulders. “Maya, get back.”

Her gaze stayed locked on her quarry. “No. He’s mine.”

Khalid fired on another empty chamber. Then again. Only two left now, and one was loaded. Taking aim, Jackson pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Cursing, he pulled back the slide and tried again. Nothing.

Useless piece of shit.Tossing it on the ground, Jackson reached for the weapon in his waistband and raised it. He fired, tagging one of Khalid’s men in the thigh. The guy grabbed his leg and fell in a heap, screaming. Another man ran into range, and Jackson winged him in the upper arm. Next to him, Maya fired. He didn’t watch to see if she’d hit one of the attackers. He fired again, but the chamber clicked empty. Fuck, he was out of ammo, and Khalid and another man were still closing in on them. Haversham muttered something in a pained wheeze.

“Go,now,” Maya urged him, face grim and determined.

So she could stay and sacrifice herself? That wasnothow this was gonna go. “I’m not leavin’ you,” he snapped, furious that she’d even suggest he take off and leave her to fend off two armed men. “Give me your weapon and run,” he urged. “I’ll be right behind you.”

“No.” Her voice was so cold and resolute it sent a chill down his spine. It was plain she wasn’t leaving until she cleared Khalid off their tail. “If I don’t kill him, he’ll just keep hunting us.”

Without a weapon to help even the odds, Jackson held his breath and waited a few precious seconds, praying Maya was faster than the maniacal insurgent coming at them. All his muscles corded, a shout of denial rising up in his throat at the thought of her risking her life this way when he wanted to be the one holding the gun and protecting her.

The man beside Khalid suddenly broke away from him with a burst of speed. Maya shifted to the right, waiting two seconds before firing, hitting him through the lung. A pink mist puffed into the air. He fell and curled on to his side, his weapon lying forgotten in the dust.

Khalid pulled the trigger again. Maya ducked, but the bullet never fired.

A maniacal gleam entered his eyes, knowing the next chamber was loaded, intending the round for Maya. She had her pistol up and aimed, waiting for him to come into killing range. He didn’t slow. If anything, he ran faster. Lit up by whatever unholy conviction drove him, he charged straight at her while everything in Jackson screamed at him to fling himself on top of her to shield her from the shot they all knew was coming.

Maya squeezed the trigger. Her shot went wide.

“Maya, give it to me and getoutof here,” Jackson demanded, wishing she’d just run and save herself.

Then everything went into agonizing slow motion.

With a triumphant smile flashing white in the midst of his dark beard, Khalid squeezed the trigger one last time. Jackson held his breath, praying the bullet would miss Maya.

An empty, metallic click filled the still mountain air.

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