“Don’t go anywhere, would you?” Bear growled at her. Then he laughed.
His joke had not been funny.
He maneuvered to the back of the van, and he threw the doors open. Cold air whipped inside the van, and she twisted and rolled so that she could look back. She saw a motorcycle rider. One who was aiming a gun at the van, at Bear.
“He’s not a Striker.” Fury coated Bear’s words. “Who the hell is this guy?”
Bam.
He was a man who’d just shot at Bear. Missed him by inches.
“Do something about him!” Raz screeched.
Bear fired back. He’d yanked a gun from his waistband, and he fired once, twice. The man on the motorcycle swerved and darted, and she was pretty sure both shots from Bear had missed the rider. About seventy-percent sure, anyway.
In the next instant, one of Bear’s giant hands grabbed for her, he yanked her up and hauled her in front of him.
Fantastic. Now she was a human shield.
“You shoot at me, you’ll hit her!” Bear roared. “Cass will kill you for hitting his woman!”
“Yeah,” she snapped as she twisted her hands in the stupid tape. She could barely feel her fingertips. “What do you think Cass is going to do to you, Bear?”
But the man on the motorcycle had fallen back, and he’d lowered his gun. He was clearly afraid of hitting her. And too much distance was now getting between the van and the rider. She could hear other motorcycles growling, but they were too far away for her to see them clearly. Raz was flooring the van. It was bumping and shaking, and she was only upright because of Bear’s grip on her. One wrong move, and she’d be falling out of the van.
Or he will be.
“Cass won’t do anything to me. He’ll be too out of his mind when he finds your body.” Bear fired his gun again. The blast was sent from right near her ear, and she screamed because Agnes was pretty sure the sonofabitch had just busted her ear drum.
And then…he laughed.
She could barely hear him over the loud ringing in her head and that just infuriated her all the more. “Enough,” she snapped. She couldn’t maneuver her feet behind him to trip him. Her ankles were bound and she was basically just dangling in front of him. But she wasn’t just going to be a good little kidnap victim and let him haul her away to some brutal kill scene. “You don’t go to secondary sites.” That was like, FBI 101. “Victims taken to secondary sites have over a ninety percent chance of getting murdered.”
“You have a one hundred percent chance of getting murdered!”
At least, that was what she thought he said. And since the bastard was planning to kill her anyway… “I’ll choose my own exit, thanks.” Hers, and his. And maybe his massive bulk would cushion her, and she’d somehow make it out of this mess.
The motorcycle driver suddenly revved forward. He flipped up his visor. “Agnes!”
Her heart froze in her chest. She could see his face. A face she knew and loved. Of course, her brother Nash would not be far away from Ryan. Her brothers were always close. Had been the best of friends from the day that Nash had walked into their house as a scared and far too thin thirteen-year-old. And was she really surprised that Nash had found her? Her brothers were always looking out for her. It was what good, big brothers would do.
“I’m shooting that sonofabitch,” Bear vowed.
No, he wasn’t. No one hurt her brother. She launched her body forward, out of the van, heaving with all of her strength. And because he was holding onto her with one arm, he had one ham fist tight around her even as he gripped the gun in his right hand, Bear was whipped forward, too.
Her bound hands flew toward the side, toward the open van door with its handle that she could see. She was leaping for that door, hoping that, somehow, she could grab the handle and hold on, and even if she didn’t, then maybe Bear would cushion her fall.
Or, worst case, he’d die…and her brother would be safe.
Bear will die…and I might just die, too.
She grabbed for the handle, a desperate lunge. She actually managed to catch the handle, and her sweaty fingers tightened around it desperately, but Bear…he would not let her go. His grip tightened. That powerful grip yanked her away from the handle. They were both falling, tumbling down, slamming out of the van, and flying toward the pavement.
Agnes didn’t have a chance to brace for impact.
He hit the ground first.
She dropped on top of him.
