Page 95 of Fire and Ice

"Yes," Maia sighed. "We better head back before Jack rips your head off."

Lee's eyes narrowed. "Jack?"

"You know him as Craig."

"Ah," Lee said in recollection. "So what is he to you?"

"It's complicated."

Just then, a dark SUV sped up behind them and screeched to a halt, blocking their way.

Armed men spilled out.

"Run!" Maia screamed at Lee as she pulled him to try to get around the SUV. She drew her side arm and pointed it at the big guy blocking her way.

A cold voice arrested her attention as a blonde man stepped out of the vehicle. "You've been—what do you call it—a pain in the ass, Maia Pierce. I should just kill you right here."

"Let him go and I will go with you peacefully," Maia nodded to Lee.

"Maia, no fucking way!" Lee growled.

"Lower your weapon," Reznikov instructed her.

Maia did as she was told; almost all the guns were pointed at Lee, she had no choice.

"Let. Him. Go," Maia repeated.

Reznikov stared at her malevolently and ice chilled her veins.

"Kill him."

"No!" Maia screamed as she lunged at the man who was going to shoot Lee. The gun fired just as she had barely nudged it. She saw Lee jerk back as the bullet hit him.

"Nooooo! Lee!" she screamed again in anguish.

"Maiaaaa!"

A blow to her head had her buckling to the ground. Even as she fought for consciousness, she felt herself being lifted. Before realizing that it was Jack who was calling her name, she blacked out.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"They took her! God damn it to hell! They fucking took her!" Jack roared at Derek Lockwood when his friend showed up at the scene of the abduction.

A paramedic was loading Lee Isaac into the ambulance. He had taken a bullet to the shoulder and had lost a lot of blood. They had refused to let Jack question him which contributed to his outburst.

Derek got into Jack's face. "Man, I need you to get control of yourself or I'm going to have to lock you down."

He glared at his friend. "If that motherfuckin' Isaac hadn't played the lovesick fool, Maia wouldn't be in this situation."

"That's hardly sympathetic, Jack. The man got shot."

"Fuck that!"

A Baltimore police officer approached them and said tentatively, "Gentlemen, I need a statement."

"This is a Federal matter," Derek told the cop. "You'll need to talk to the DEA representative in Baltimore."

"Do you have a license to carry that, sir?" The police officer asked as he eyed the 9mm tucked behind the waistband of Jack's jeans. He had thrown on a long-sleeved henley over his jeans after he got the call from the surveillance team that Maia had left the hotel with Lee Isaac. He had not bothered to wear a jacket to conceal his firearm.

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