Page 4 of Montana Manhunt

“Cover your ears,” Violet instructed Taylor. “Your job is to stay relaxed and gather your strength for the journey home. We’ve got this, Taylor.”

Taylor pressed her hands over her ears.

Violet got up on her knees and hovered over Taylor, resting her arm along the injured woman’s body to hold her in place. “We need a smooth ride, Seth.”

“I’ll try, but no guarantees. Hold on. I’m moving to the far side of the road.”

“Here they come,” Noah said. He raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired off multiple rounds at one vehicle pursuing them.

Teagan eased out the passenger-side window and braced herself on the frame. Seconds later, her sniper rifle joined the cacophony of noise. “One down,” she called out.

“Beautiful. Get back inside,” Seth snapped. “I don’t want to lose my wife to a pothole.”

She laughed and slid back into the passenger seat. “I knew you loved me, Mr. Dixon.”

“Madly, Mrs. Dixon. Noah, take that vehicle out. I’ll run out of passable road in two hundred yards.”

After Noah fired off another few rounds, he said, “Two down.”

“Took you long enough,” Teagan teased.

“Hey, some of us don’t have the magic touch with rifles.”

“Yeah, yeah. Some excuse.”

“In all fairness, the roads are terrible,” Violet said. “You should cut Noah some slack.”

Seth glanced in the mirror again. “Noah, any more bogeys on our tail?”

“No, sir. Knight took care of the remaining two.”

“Teagan, call Iona. See if they have things in hand or if they need an assist.”

A moment later, Iona’s voice came through the phone’s speaker. “Clear sailing for now.”

“Same back here. Floor it, Iona. We need to get Taylor to the jet as soon as possible.”

“Copy that.” She ended the call.

As the convoy of SUVs raced over the rough roads toward the private airstrip where the Fortress jet waited, Violet sat on thefloorboard. She checked Taylor’s bandages and was pleased to see that despite the jostling, the pressure bandages and QuikClot had done their jobs.

Noah glanced over the seat at Violet. “You okay?”

She nodded. Of course he would ask. Noah Mann noticed everything about her. Leftover from the first mission they’d worked together a few weeks ago? Violet hoped that wasn’t the case, but when had such an amazing man paid this much attention to her? Never. Her sister Camilla had been the one to always attract men’s attention.

She needed to call Cami soon. She’d been putting off the phone conversation for a couple of days. The last thing she wanted to do was worry her gentle sister if she learned Violet had called her while deployed on a mission.

“Get ready to bail,” Seth said. “Two minutes to the airstrip.”

Violet and her teammates packed their gear while keeping an eye out for trouble.

“Sharp turn,” Seth warned.

Taylor gave a soft moan. “How much farther, Violet?”

She braced her patient as the SUV slid into a turn, tires squalling. “Thirty seconds, then we’ll make a run for the jet. All you have to do is hold on to Noah.”

A slight smile curved the other woman’s lips. “I can do that. I’d like to call my husband.”

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