Page 57 of Deadly Threat
What have I done? He wanted to die. He’d let Horvat get Mia again.
The sirens drew closer, a tiny flicker of hope lighted in his heart. Dodging off into the scrub brush and trees, adrenaline fueled him. He pumped harder, flying across the landscape, his memory from the previous night laying out a map for him. He would cut them off.
But he had to run faster.
Branches slapped his face, cacti jabbed his legs through his pants. He jumped over one of the fallen trees, scaring another snake.
Faster, goddammit. Don’t let her down.
He burst through the brush near the abandoned building off the main road. Heart thumping so hard, he thought it might explode, he jetted past it and onto the road.
And got hit.
At his unexpected appearance, the driver had jerked the wheel. The limo swerved, the back end fishtailing. He jumped up but didn’t clear the rear end, the bumper clipping him as it swung by.
He sailed through the air, trees and sky a blur. When he came down hard on his side, his body screamed in pain.
The limo went off the dirt road, the front end colliding with a tree. The crash echoed, his heart nearly stopping at the thought of Mia being thrown around inside. Dragging himself with his arms, his legs useless, he tried to get to her.
The passenger door flew open and she jumped out, face as white as a sheet as she ran toward him yards away on the other side. “Malachi!”
He heard tires behind him, the screech of breaks and sirens. Then his heart froze.
Horvat emerged, bleeding from his nose and a cut over his eye. He raised a gun and pointed at Mia’s back.
Malachi had his weapon out in a flash. “Get down!”
Mia ducked.Good girl. At the same instant, a woman appeared next to him and a projectile flew through the air.
“Hey, asshole! You leave my friend alone!” Sue yelled.
The distraction caused Horvat to glance at the object flying toward him. Malachi squeezed the trigger.
The stun gun didn’t even come close, but Horvat’s head snapped back from the bullet.
Mia rose from her crouch and scrambled to Malachi. She hugged him, as Sue bent down to pat his shoulder. “You’re starting to grow on me,” she told him.
“Oh my god,” Mia wheezed. “Are you okay?”
He assured her he was, even though the pain in his right leg was so bad, he was seeing stars.
Police rolled in, sirens blazing. The driver and Newt stumbled from the car, both falling to the ground. The driver was hurt bad; Newt not as much.
Mia rocked back and forth with him in her arms. “Malachi, what were you thinking? You could have been killed.”
“I think my leg is busted.” A fresh wave of fire shot through his groin and hip at her movements. “And I was saving you.”
Thomas barreled up and grabbed Newt as the guy gained his feet.
Sue eyed Malachi’s leg. “Nice shot.”
He grinned through the pain. “You, too.”
She held out a fist and he bumped it with his. “I need an ambulance,” Mia screamed at the officers moving in to apprehend Newt. One seemed familiar—the detective from the other night.
“I want to cut a deal,” the Marcher cub yelled over and over. “I know where the mayor is!”
Harris showed up at the same time the ambulance did. “You just couldn’t let us handle this, could you, Cahill?”
