Page 101 of Bulletproof Jack: Hunting Lee Child's Jack Reacher

Kim was pinned to her seat by the seatbelt. The alligator clamp she’d installed at the retractor when she got into the vehicle had functioned exactly as expected. When the seatbelt engaged, the clamp flew off and the belt tightened to hold her securely away from the windshield.

“You’re bleeding,” Russell said, handing her a napkin from one of the side pockets in his door.

The sharp edges of the belt’s webbing had cut the skin of her neck. She wiped away the blood trickling along her skin toward her collar.

She hadn’t been beheaded.

Kim unlatched her seatbelt and turned to stare at the sedan. The driver and passenger were no longer inside. Where did they go?

“The only way out of here is to reverse all the way until we reach the road again,” Russell said. “This field’s muddy and the grapevines are thick, with posts close together. We’ve got all-wheel drive in this SUV, so we can get out. But the paint’s gonna be ruined and the SUV will look like hell when we get there.”

Kim shrugged. “You’re thinking we might get plucked out of here by the hand of God or something? When there’s only one choice…”

She let her voice drift off.

Rain began to fall again. Which would keep the dust down. But soon the irrigated grape field would be too muddy for any sort of traction.

“Right.” Russell slid the SUV into all-wheel drive and the transmission into reverse. He applied slow, steady pressure to the accelerator until the wheels grabbed. The SUV began to move.

Russell accelerated and braked, jerked, and stopped, used all of the mirrors and engaged the backup camera until he’d maneuvered across the field. When the SUV reached the gravel road, Russell straightened the wheels. The sedan was straight ahead, still across the road, blocking the only way forward.

“Okay,” Russell said, relaxing his white knuckled grip. “Now what?”

Before she had a chance to say anything, the first bullet hit the windshield. Glass shards were pushed into the seat near Russell’s head.

A second gunshot hit high and closer to Kim.

The SUV’s engine block was the only hope they had to escape gunshots fired directly into the cabin.

“Get down!” Kim yelled, punching the release button on her seatbelt and sliding into the wheel well.

Russell was much larger than Kim. He tilted the steering wheel up and crouched as low as he could get. But at least half his body was still visible and in the line of fire.

“Why is Reacher trying to kill us?” Russell demanded.

“He’s not.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because if Reacher wanted to kill us, we’d be dead. These two lack Reachers skill set.”

“Not to mention his cold-blooded nature. He’d have marched right out into the field and killed us with his bare hands,” Russell said flatly.

A long shiver convulsed Kim’s body, confirming Russell’s assessment. “So who are these guys and why are they trying to kill us?”

Another bullet penetrated the windshield near the driver’s seat. If Russell had still been sitting there, he’d no longer be talking.

“We have to get out of here,” Russell said, weapon already in hand. “The shooters have taken cover behind the sedan. We’re sitting ducks. If they fire through the SUV’s side doors, we’ll be done.”

“They may have night vision, too. We don’t,” Kim replied.

Another bullet slammed the windshield, hit the middle of Kim’s seat, and embedded into the backseat.

“We have to go,” Russell said again.

Kim nodded. “Open the front doors simultaneously and roll out onto the road. Head into the vineyard. We’ll draw their fire in two places. Have a chance to hold them off.”

“Okay. Ready?” Russell asked.

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