“And your bear and the coward. Four of the five of you. Little old me. A woman.” She poured a taunt into her voice. Contempt. Amusement. Kyle was the type of man she’d run across so many times. He believed men were far superior to women. He couldn’t conceive of Leila wiping out his entire team.
She studied her target carefully. He had an idea of where she was and was careful to turn sideways, presenting the least amount of targets to her. She took aim. Gave a slow exhale. She pulled the trigger. One shot. One. The bullet flew true, just as she’d known it would. She’d practiced enough. When she aimed at something, she hit it.
Leila jumped from the branch to the ground, inhaling sharply as her insides jarred her. For a moment, darkness swirled around her, but she fought it off and made her way to where Kyle lay on the ground, writhing, desperate for air. The sucking sound was audible.
She kicked his rifle away and squatted beside him. “I killed thebear with this shot. You saw it for yourself and yet were so certain you didn’t have to be afraid of a woman. You should have been. You had the evidence right in front of your eyes, but you refused to believe.”
She didn’t end him mercifully. She walked away, leaving him fighting for every breath, knowing he wouldn’t last long, but he’d have time to think about sacrificing his friend and colleague just to die himself.
She put as much distance between them as possible, heading in the direction of the cabin. She knew she wasn’t going to make it back to the safety of Diego’s home, but she tried.
11
“Don’t you die on me,” Diego whispered. “Use that stubborn nature of yours to stay alive.” His heart pounded and he tasted fear. Real fear. He hadn’t known fear since he was a child. When a man didn’t care if he lived or not, he didn’t fear death. But now…now there was Leila.
He examined her quickly, right there on the trail with night falling and the fog thickening. She had torn loose three of the repairs and was bleeding internally. He had to make a quick choice—treat her there and stop the bleeding or take her back to the cabin and hope she didn’t lose too much blood before he could work on her.
Diego was a decisive man. He always had been. Performing surgery psychically would take a huge toll on him. He wouldn’t be able to get them back to the cabin. And she needed blood, a transfusion. He couldn’t give that to her without setting everything up for him to crash afterward. They needed the safety of a shelter.
“Damn it, woman.” He lifted her and began to run up the trailtoward his cabin. Each step jarred her. He knew he could be hurting her worse, but he had to sacrifice smoothness for speed.
She made no sound. He wasn’t even certain if she was fully aware of everything around her. The evening was wet and gloomy after a beautiful day. That boded ill, an ominous warning that everything could go wrong in a single heartbeat. Diego knew all about wrong. All about having anything worthwhile ripped away from him.
Not you, sweetheart. Fuckin’ universe doesn’t get to take you away from me.He picked up his pace.Don’t leave me, woman. You’re strong. Fight for us.
Diego figured he should have told her to fight for her baby. Her daughter. Little Grace. That was more likely a bigger incentive. But he wanted to be the reason she chose to stay.
There was a faint stirring in his mind. She poured in, but slowly, filling his mind with her. It was an astonishing feat when she wasn’t naturally telepathic.
Not going anywhere. Just super tired.
She sounded tired. She felt tired to him. The strength of how worn she was terrified him. She was bleeding internally, and that so easily could be the death of her. He increased his speed, staying to the wider trail he rarely used when he traveled up the mountain. He had always preferred the game trails to the rough road where he might encounter others. There were times when hikers or neighbors were on the road, forcing him to interact with them. He always did so in a cultivated, easy manner when he didn’t feel any of those things.
You have a right to be tired after hunting the enemy the way you did.He wanted to keep her alert. Tied to him. The more they spoke intimately, mind to mind, the closer they became. It was impossible to be in someone’s mind and not see the heart of them. Not know what they were truly like as a human being. Or what enhancement did to them.
Reading Leila simply caused him to want to be with her more than ever. He doubted if that closeness would have the same effect on her once she could see into him.
Amusement burst through his mind. He found himself, despite the circumstances, reacting to her sense of humor.The Leila effect, he told her.Lightening the load.
Well, you are rather silly sometimes, Diego. You always want to think the worst of yourself. You crack me up. You’re running up the mountain, carrying me on your shoulder, intending to save my life for the second time, and you want me to think the worst of you.
Put like that, it did sound a little whacked.Selfish reasons, woman. I want you for myself. Think of it as the big bad mountain man claiming the sweet little innocent woman and carrying her off to his lair.
Just as he knew it would, her soft laughter poured into his mind again. He loved the way she viewed life. She could have been bitter and resentful, but instead, she looked for good. She found humor in things others wouldn’t. She made him see the humor in situations he would never have found amusing.
Sweet? Innocent? I just hunted and dispatched five strangers. In anyone else’s book, I wouldn’t be referred to as sweet and innocent.
Let’s remember they were assholes.
The cabin came into sight, and relief flooded him instantly. He had the door to his house open and took her straight through to the bedroom to put her on the bed in record time. Shrugging out of the various packs and weapons he carried, he hurried through the cabin, gathering everything they would need once he crashed. And he was going to crash big-time.
“Okay, babe, I’m going to set us up for the transfusion. Don’t expend any energy until I’ve had a chance to assess the situation with you and then repair any damage. Once I do that, I’ll transfuse you, but again, remember, I’m going to go down hard.”
Her long lashes fluttered and then lifted. He found himselflooking into her vivid green eyes. There was censure there. Apprehension. There was also a nameless emotion he wasn’t used to seeing when anyone looked at him.
“I don’t like you doing this, Diego.” Her voice was a low murmur.
He peeled off his jacket and began to insert needles into the arm that would be closest to him. “Babe, really? You’re bleeding internally.”
