Locked and Loaded Read online

  As fast as her anger rose, her face went blank. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Yeah, that was the party line. Denial. Adam got it, even understood the reason for the web of secrecy, but it worked against them right now. Pretending ignorance could get them killed.

  “We don’t have time for this.” He lifted her off her feet and dragged her through the house toward the front door, which wasn’t easy since she’d turned to dead weight in his arms.

  “You can’t—”

  “Stop talking.” At her openmouthed stare, he softened his tone. “If they didn’t hear all that screaming, we might still have a chance to get away.” Something in his words kicked up a second round of attack. As they walked, she put her feet out, balancing them on either side of the doorway and bringing them to a shuddering stop.

  “Maddie, you have to—”

  “Let me go.” This time her voice stayed at the level of a harsh whisper.

  He watched the green lights streak through the woods. “The men are here. We’re out of time.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  Holding both her hands in one of his, he pointed into the darkness and didn’t let up until her gaze followed his direction. “See those lights? They’re coming for you.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  He ignored her denials. “Right now, in the middle of the woods. They found you and will not stop until they get you.”

  She shook her head, sending her deep auburn hair over her shoulders. “It can’t be.”

  “This isn’t a friendly visit. They are here to kill you.” Adam didn’t bother prettying up the details. He needed her to understand before they both ended up dead in shallow graves. “I’ll explain it all, but later.”

  A tremor shook through her. “You did this.”

  “No.” He regained his double-fisted hold before she wrenched an arm loose and started hitting him again. “I’m here to save you.”

  She stopped fidgeting. “How?”

  “We run.”

  Chapter Two

  He knew she was in witness protection. No one should know. No one could know, not if she wanted to live.

  Maddie inhaled, trying to slow her frantic heartbeat and come up with a plan. She focused on her training, on all the drills she’d run since she’d landed in the tiny town and slipped under the chilly blanket of anonymity.

  Every brain cell screamed at her to take Adam down and run as fast as she could and not stop until she cleared the West Virginia line. She could handle the racing part. The question was how to win a battle against a man who outweighed her by a good seventy pounds.

  At five-eight with long legs and a runner’s form, she rarely viewed her body as petite, but Adam loomed over her. Feeling small filled her with a twinge of vulnerability. She hated the sensation. It made her jumpy. Amazing how just when she thought she’d knocked all those useless emotions out of her brain, one came roaring back to crush her.

  But she beat the insecurities back. Right now she needed all her control and concentration. “I know the way.”

  He didn’t ease his grip on her arms. “Yeah, it’s called a back door.”

  “Too obvious.”

  “I’m listening.”

  She ignored the tickle of his hot breath against her neck. “There’s a secret exit.”

  “Show me.”

  When he didn’t ask why she would have such a thing, or even flinch at the idea, she knew Adam Wallace—or whoever he really was—was not a simple computer programmer. His wrestling moves said mercenary. His knowledge of the most private part of her life made him downright dangerous.

  So did being trapped in a small cabin with him. Attackers or not, she had to get outside. She’d get around them and then the next wave and anyone else who was tracking her down. That’s what her life had become—one long run to nowhere.

  Open space was her only chance. That meant giving away the location of her escape hatch. Not that she’d need it now. With her cover blown, she’d be shuffled to a new state with a new identity. From there on she’d pull her life in tighter around her so as not to risk a night like tonight.

  But she had to live through this mess first.

  She tried to swivel around but couldn’t move. “You have to let go of me.”

  “Not going to happen.”

  “If we’re just going to stand here, you better figure out how close our visitors are. I’d hate to die because you’re busy making a plan and not moving from the middle of a room.”

  “Fine.” He let go of her but kept his hands right by her shoulders, as if ready to grab her again if needed. “Talk.”

  Matching his caution, she turned, barely letting her feet leave the floor. His hands found her forearms and only a foot of air separated them. At this distance she saw the sweet guy who tipped big after dessert had changed into someone lethal and commanding.

  “It’s in the hallway,” she said.

  “What is?”

  “My escape route.”

  “Let’s see it.” He walked her back toward the bedroom. His gaze bounced from her face to the windows beyond.

  Even if she wanted to bolt, and she sure thought about it, she couldn’t. The timing was wrong and the man was too big. He also seemed prepared for action and that gave her an odd sense of comfort in the surreal moment.

  She pointed at the narrow closet. “There’s an opening behind the ironing board. Though to look at you, I have no idea how you’ll squeeze in there.”

  “I’ve never had a problem getting in before, no matter how tight the fit.”

  His sudden grin made her think they were talking about different things. “I bet.”

  “Where does it come out?”

  “About twenty feet away, behind the small shed before the tree line.”

  “Open it.” He glanced over her head. “And fast. We only have minutes before the doors and windows come blowing in.”

  She didn’t bother lecturing him on chivalry or issuing orders. She didn’t look behind her, either. A narrow green searchlight twice cut through the dark cabin while they stood there. She knew the men outside were getting close, had probably surrounded the house and cut off the obvious exits. Good thing she had a surprise one.

  She threw open the door and with practiced efficiency removed the ironing board and fake panel behind it. The flashlight came next. She ripped it from the wall and tested it. “You ready?”

  “I see you are.”

  “Always.” She dropped to her knees and started crawling.

  The dank air smacked her in the face as soon as she crossed the threshold. The heavy staleness stole her breath as fear raced through her mind. She couldn’t think about what lived in her makeshift safety route or what would happen if they were caught before they could get out.

  Her first handler, Rod Lehman, had insisted on her having an emergency exit no matter where she lived. The workmen who thought they were laying reinforcement pipe for the sewer helped, but she did all the work in the final connection to the cabin. Building and reinforcing the tube in the dead silence of night had been quite an undertaking.

  Once completed, she had set up an escape strategy and practiced shortening her time to the shed. One oversight was in conducting the drill in jeans. Now in her pajama shorts, the hard flooring hurt her knees and the coolness of the metal sent a chill through the rest of her.

  And then there was the issue of creeping around with an unwanted partner. One who held her ankle and crowded against her the entire time.

  “Could you move back and give me some room to move?” She shook her leg, trying to break his hold, but he didn’t let go.

  “Keep moving.”

  She did as he ordered. She sped up, trying to increase the space between their bodies and her chances of getting away. “Why should I trust you?”

  “Because you don’t have a choice.”

  Wrong. She’d let that be the excuse for the dead end her life had become.
Well, no more.

  She was done paying for her poor choices. Getting shipped from Chicago to Sweet Home, losing touch with everything and everyone she’d ever known, constituted a pretty big punishment in her mind. Her bad-boy, thrill-ride addiction was over. Likely so was her time in West Virginia.

  She reached the end of the tube and grabbed for the handle of the door to pull her body up to a kneeling position. Spinning the dials, she put in the combinations and undid the series of locks. Silence filled the small area, but the tension pulsed hard enough to knock her over.

  “Got it?” He reached around her and helped shove away the panel.

  The tight space turned claustrophobic. His chest pressed against her back. His arms wrapped around her from each side, trapping her tight to his body. From his breath against her hair, to his knees wedging her feet against the outside walls of the space, she was surrounded. Imprisoned and unable to launch her desperate plan.

  Fingers fumbling, she helped Adam unseal the last of the opening. The black night and cool reviving air greeted them. A ceiling of stars peeked through the thick walls of trees. She heard chirping and the rustle of branches in the wind.

  “Looks clear.” The words were almost soundless by her ear. “Climb out nice and slow until we’re sure.”

  Her brain started a countdown. It ended when Adam grabbed a fistful of her shirt and held her in place.

  “Don’t even think about running.” He guided her out and jumped to his feet before she could gain her balance. “I’m your best shot at staying alive.”

  If he was trying to make her feel better, he missed the mark by a good two miles. “They have the guns.”

  “They’re not alone.” He slipped one hand under her elbow and kept the other on the weapon that appeared in his hand as if by some demented magic trick.

  “I thought you were one of the good guys.”

  “Why do you think I’m not?”

  “The gun.”

  “You want a rescuer with a weapon. Trust me.”

  She didn’t want a rescuer at all. “I’d prefer to get out of here.”

  “That’s next.” Adam pressed her back against the shed and slid his body against hers.

  Pinned to a wall with his hard chest at her front, she couldn’t move. His stance wasn’t sexual or even over-bearing. It was more protective than anything.

  For the first time since he walked into the diner, he struck her as a man accustomed to giving orders and having them followed. The type of guy who rushed in to help when others ran away to safety. The exact opposite of a shy computer nerd.

  The gun passed in front of her face for a second then was gone. He had one of her hands in his and her other was trapped against his broad chest. He wasn’t looking at her, but she couldn’t help looking at him. She wondered how she’d ever viewed him as harmless. Seeing him in action now, gun up and attitude firmly in place, she could smell the power on him. It mixed with the cool mint scent of his breath.

  She swallowed, trying to block out everything but the slamming of her heart and the plan forming in her head. “Well?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t see them.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “They could have breached the inside.” He stepped back and brought her with him. They walked around the side of the shed until her cabin sat to their left and his stood at a fifty-yard dead run in front of them. “We’re not going to wait to find out. We have to circle around my cabin and get to my car.”

  “Why not use mine?”

  “They’d probably recognize it. Might have tampered with it.”

  His points made sense. Very logical, just a bit too informed for the man he was supposed to be.

  But standing there was the wrong call, in her view. “Let’s run while we can.”

  She had shifted only enough to get an unobstructed view of her house, when the snapping of a twig registered in her brain. A green light sliced across her yard to land on her stomach. Shock stopped her steps.

  “Get down!”

  Adam’s voice barely registered. She saw his eyes widen and his mouth open on a shout. Everything else moved in slow motion. A figured appeared in front of her, clad all in black and aiming a weapon right at her head. She tried to see his face, but a helmet and mask covered him.

  Her brain clicked to life just as a huge weight knocked into her from behind. Her knees buckled and the ground inched closer. Arms wrapped around her chest, banding and confining her, half cushioning her fall and half pushing her deeper into the dirt.

  The thud and bounce against the hard earth pushed a grunt up her throat as her bones rattled. Every muscle screamed in agony from the force of the fall.

  Her legs wrapped around something and kept her locked in a deadman’s position. The shove could have taken five seconds or five days. She couldn’t tell. Time slowed until the whoosh of the air around her became a moaning call.

  That fast the weight lifted. One minute she saw the attacker stalking toward her, the next her face pressed into Adam’s back. Flat on her stomach with leaves scratching her cheek, she found her body shielded by Adam as soft pings echoed around her. His body kicked back against her as he fired his weapon.

  She lifted her head in time to see the commando at her back door drop to his knees then fall face-first down the short steps. He hit the bush she’d always hated and meant to remove. Another man lay off to her right, facedown. She hadn’t even seen that one coming.

  Then the world stopped tilting. She dared to hope they were safe. “Is it over?”

  “Not for you.” The stranger’s voice came from behind her.

  Before she could turn around, a beefy hand grabbed her arm and yanked her hard to her feet. Her muscles seemed to tear as if she were made of paper. Blinding pain shot up to her shoulder and pounded there.

  The pressure of the attacker’s hand on her elbow made her vision blur. Nausea rolled over her, but she bit it back. She wanted to reach up and slap the man’s gun away. It hovered right in front of her face, pointed at the dead center of Adam’s chest.

  Adam stood now, facing down the remaining gunman with his own weapon drawn. It was a standoff and suddenly it hurt just to stay on her feet.

  “Let her go.” Adam’s voice dipped to a gravelly octave she’d never heard before.

  A dark covering hid the gunman’s face, but she could see the white teeth in his feral smile. “You messed up. You only counted two.”

  Adam’s gaze never wavered. He stared the attacker down, looking every bit as terrifying as the man in battle gear. “I’m guessing there were three of you.”

  “Lower your weapon or I’ll kill her.”

  “No.”

  The pain took her breath away as the dizziness assaulted her brain. “Adam—”

  The attacker chuckled in a deep grumble that promised an unending nightmare of anguish. “Listen to her panic. Now imagine what I’ll do to her before she dies.”

  “You need her alive.”

  “We’re not negotiating.”

  She tried to focus on Adam, to send him a silent message that she was about to drop. But every time she blinked he shifted. It was subtle and the move so slight, but he now stood off to the left instead of directly in front of her.

  And he kept talking. “That’s the plan, right? You need to take her back to your boss.”

  “You don’t have to worry about it since you’ll be dead.”

  Adam shook his head, then shot the attacker a patronizing grin. “No.”

  She felt the gunman jerk. “What?”

  Adam’s smile grew wider. “Your turn.”

  “What are you—” With the gun blast the question turned to a gurgle. Blood spurted out of the man’s neck as his hands dropped and his body fell right after.

  Shock and disgust knocked her speechless. Not that this was her first body or even her first bloodbath. No, she’d earned her ticket into witness protection the hard way, through the deaths of others. Still, she stood there hel
d together by nothing more than a bit of adrenaline and watched the red puddle inch closer to her once white sneakers.

  Adam reached out but didn’t touch her. “Maddie?”

  “You could have killed me by accident.”

  “I’ve got good aim.” Adam glanced around. “I think we’re clear here.”

  Anger flooded through her and exploded, spewing with enough strength to break her. She clenched her jaw to keep from screaming him deaf. “You are supposed to be a computer guy.”

  “Sometimes I am.”

  His shrug just made her more furious. “What are you the rest of the time?”

  “An agent with the Recovery Project.”

  “What the heck is that?”

  “I work for Rod Lehman.”

  Just like that her anger evaporated. Melted right out of her. “Rod?”

  “There are three things you need to know right now. Ready?” He didn’t wait for a reply. “Rod’s missing. You’re in trouble. We have to go.”

  The pieces floated around in her mind, but she couldn’t put them together. “I don’t—”

  “But first I have to fix your shoulder.” Adam tucked his gun in his waistband. “This is going to hurt.”

  “What is?”

  Before she could pull back or process what he planned to do, he bent her elbow at a ninety-degree angle then rotated her arm to the left then right. Each movement shot red-hot pain through her body. She cried out for him to stop as tears filled her eyes. When she couldn’t take one more turn, something popped in her shoulder and the ruthless agony stopped.

  She tried to catch her breath, but she could only pant and glare as she rubbed the spreading soreness. “What was that?”

  “I fixed your dislocated shoulder.”

  She thought about strangling him with her good arm. “You killed two men—”

  “Three.”

  She shifted to her right and glanced around him. The third body lay just feet away from the spot where Adam had curled up around her on the ground.

  She stared at him again. “Were you shot?”

  He looked offended by the question. “Of course not.”

  Massaging her injured shoulder made it throb even harder, so she stopped. “Right. How silly of me.”