Page 34 of Fatal Thrill
She waited for her stomach to explode, bending at the waist, ready to barf once more, and this time with sleet running down her back and Colton and Shelby inattendance.
“Jaya?” Shelby asked, coming around the end of the car. “Are you allright?”
What exploded from Jaya’s mouth was thankfully not her stomach contents. “No, I am not fucking all right!” She straightened, realizing she wasn’t going to vomit after all. “We were just shot at! We nearly went off the edge of this godforsaken cliff in the middle of nowhere! The other car did! And I’m losing my ever-lovingmind!”
Jon tried to draw her close, pulling her into his strong arms and rubbing her back. “We’re safe. Whoever that was will never bother youagain.”
She shoved at him but he didn’t let go. “I…this…what…”
Colton climbed out of the car, brushing glass out of his lap. The driver’s window had been shot out too. Over Jon’s shoulder, Jaya saw the car was peppered withholes.
Ohgod.
“There were two of them,” Colton said, looking around at the icy night. The car was still running, but sounded a little off. The headlights bounced off the cliff at odd angles as if the front of the car had been damaged. “One driving and the othershooting.”
Jon had been shooting, hadn’t he? Where was his gun? She knew he carried one most of the time, but she rarely saw it. “Why?” she demanded. “Who were they? Why would they try to killus?”
Kill. Her voice was too loud and the word echoed off the road, the car, the cliff, bouncing back at her. The man had grinned at her; his face would haunt her dreams, sure as heck. And now, he was lying at the bottom of the cliff. “Oh, God. What did we justdo?”
Her legs went weak and it was only Jon’s arms that kept her upright. Tiny snippets of their future together flashed across the screen in hermind.
I almost lost himandthebaby.
Sleet stung her face, the storm picking upintensity.
No. She wasn’t going to lose another person she loved. Not now when she was literally on the verge of having everything. “I can’t… I justcan’t.”
Jon held her tight, cradling her against him. Over her head, he spoke to the others. “We need to get Jaya to a safe house.Now.”
“The B&B is out,” Colton said, moving toward the passenger side. “We’ve obviously been compromised. I’ll call Beatrice. She can find a new place. Shelby, youdrive.”
“I’m not getting back in that car,” Jaya said. It was a deathtrap.
“We can’t stand out here.” Shelby stepped forward, feet slipping slightly on the ice. She rubbed Jaya’s arm. “We have to get off this road andregroup.”
All she wanted was to take Jon and go back to the US, gohome.
Safety.
But Finn needed her. She had to get her shittogether.
“It’s just… You don’t understand, Shel.” The car, beat and battered, rumbled ominously. The thought of getting back inside it and going anywhere on this ridiculously dangerous road made her queasy all overagain.
“I do understand,” Shelby said. “You’re scared and you have every right tobe.”
Colton stared at her over the top of the car. Jon stared too, his face a mix of crazy worry andexpectation.
“I’m not scared forme.” Her hand instinctively went to her belly and she met Jon’s gaze straight on through the raining ice. “It’s the baby I’m worriedabout.”
“Baby?” Shelby and Colton asked at the sametime.
Jaya held Jon’s hand, bringing it to her belly as she kept her gaze pinned on him. “Yes, a baby. Jon and I arepregnant.”
“An abandoned castle?”Jon tried to keep his voice lowered, but he was losing patience. The safe house had turned out to be less than his expectations, which hadn’t been all that high to begin with. “That’s the best you coulddo?”
On the other end of the secure line, Beatrice didn’t seem to think much of his tone. “ItisIreland, Nickleback, and, while I have been known to make miracles happen, I’m afraid in that remote area of the country, at 0400 hours your time, and short notice mind you, my options arelimited.”
Which meant his were as well. “Who leaked our travelplans?”
