She was sure of it.
Without waiting to find out, she left her secure cubby—the one that was way too reminiscent of that other icy hiding place she’d rather never think of again—and took off the way Ford had gone.
“I’ve got him!” someone yelled.
Limping as fast as she could, weight on her ski pole, she hopped ahead. There was Ford, standing maybe four feet from a man with a gun aimed at his head.
“Hey!” she yelled, watching in absolute shock as the man turned and Ford exploded into action. He lowered his body, slid to the side, and somehow, while a shot cracked open the sky, kicked the man’s feet out from under him. He went down hard and Ford pounced, graceful and brutal as a northern wolf.
The beautiful warm body she’d spent the last two days wrapped around was more weapon than human now, and the bit of his face she could see was so furious she stumbled back a step.
Quickly, efficiently, and more violently than anything she’d ever witnessed, Ford parried one blow after another, his movements both sharp and fluid, before ending the man with a businesslike snap of the neck. She gasped. Holy shit.
Two down.
A white-clad figure landed behind Ford, arm raised, tensing as if to deliver a shot.
“Behind you!” she screamed.
He snatched the downed man’s gun, turned, and fired—Angel’s hand flew to her mouth to keep a scream in. Ford’s shot split the man’s goggles down the middle, and painted the ice crimson before he crumpled to the ground.
Three.
Above them was the sound of someone running, and then, getting closer before they leapt down, somewhere to her left.
She went right, toward where Ford waited on his own little battlefield, surrounded by carnage.
She’d just taken a step out from under the overhang when a loud noise made her jerk back, just in time to get showered in glittering confetti.Shit!She’d been shot at.
Instinct made her press into the ice wall, but if the man arrived from the left and this one guarded her right, she’d be trapped here.
She turned to follow Ford, screaming when an arm slid around her neck from behind.
“Got her!” The man—it sounded like Ben Wong—yanked her out from under the ice roof, into the open. “Drop it, Cooper.”
Ford hesitated just a second, but it was long enough for Ben to press his weapon to her temple, the metal cold through the layers.
“Don’t do it, Ford, it’s not—!”
Ben shook her so hard her teeth clattered.
Ignoring her, Ford dropped the gun and took a few steps closer before Ben jostled her again and yelled for him to stop right there.
“Got ’em, Sampson!” he yelled.
“On my way.” Just his voice made her insides feel like jelly.
At the crunch of approaching footsteps, Angel lost it. She would not let them end her the way they’d ended her friends in the arch. She tightened her fingers around the ski pole, ready to thrust it back the second she dropped. One…two…
She let go, making her body a dead weight, which shocked Ben into releasing her, and in the seconds before he gathered himself again, she listed to the side and thrust her pole up and toward his crotch, using every bit of anger and fear and protectiveness she could muster.
She didn’t wait to see how effective she’d been before taking off, slipping and stumbling. A hand to the ice wall broke her fall, but the knee wouldn’t hold up.
There! A side alley. She ducked in just as a shot was fired, spewing ice shards in all directions. Another turn, left this time, through a tiny crevasse. No choice. She had to move. Was it leading higher? Was she getting closer to the surface?
Somewhere, not too far, another shot. Another and another. A volley of them, from two different directions. Someone groaned—Ford?
As she rounded the next corner, she saw him, tight against the ice.Thank God.Relief washed over her like a warm sunrise. She smiled, moved toward him. He looked her way. Above, someone appeared on the ledge, throwing a long, cool shadow into the maze.
