“Hardy’s brought in a bunch of heavy cartel muscle from outside the country. They started arriving earlier today. And everyone who knows anyone has it on good authority that they’re here to kill me.” He slanted her a glance. “And my girlfriend.”
He sped down the road, checking every mirror in quick rotation as he waited for her to say something.
“Girlfriend, huh?”
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Mackenzie had always struck him as a pretty cool character, but of all the things he’d expected her to say, that wasn’t one of them. “That’s the word on the street, according to Mike.”
“I wonder how Hardy found out about us so quickly.”
Gage shook his head. “You did hear the part about them planning to kill us, right?”
“Yeah, but I could have told you that. In fact, I’m pretty sure I did,” she said. “He must have had someone watching you for the past few days and they saw us together. I wonder why he’s making such an aggressive move now, though. I thought someone like Hardy would have taken a more calculated approach.”
Gage took the opportunity to check his mirrors again. He knew exactly why Hardy had hired those hit men—because Gage had miscalculated and poked the man with a stick.
“I know there was a bomb in that meth lab the other day.” When Gage did a double take at that, she added, “I overheard Cooper tell Mike at the hospital.”
He swore under his breath.
“Hardy was behind it, wasn’t he?”
Gage nodded, his gaze going to the mirrors.
Mackenzie looked over her shoulder, out the back window. “You think those hit men are going to come at us while we’re driving, don’t you?”
He forced himself to stop looking in the mirror every five seconds. “Not really. I doubt anyone could have followed us all the way out here along these back roads without me noticing them. And no one could have guessed this is where we’d go. I don’t think many people in Dallas even know that place is out here.”
She sat back in the seat, looking surprisingly relaxed. Well, as relaxed as a person could look knowing that a rich, powerful man wanted you dead.
“So, what’s the plan?” she asked. “Are they going to put us in protective custody?”
Gage couldn’t believe how well she was taking this. Most women—hell most people—would have been freaking out by now.
“I’m sure Mason is talking to the chief of police right now about putting together a protective detail, but I trust my own people a whole lot more,” Gage told her. “We’re heading straight to the compound.”
“Okay. But then what?”
Gage was trying to figure out how to answer that question when the glare of headlights reflecting sharply off the rearview mirror caught his attention. He had just enough time to punch the accelerator to the floor and tighten his grip on the wheel when the car coming up behind them smashed into his bumper.
If the Charger had been any lighter—or if he hadn’t lucked out and seen the asshole coming—the collision would have knocked his car completely out of control. As it was, he and Mackenzie nearly slid sideways into a ditch. Tires squealed as the sports car threatened to roll on him. He fought for control of the wheel as he tried to figure out where the psycho behind them had gone.
“Watch out!” Mackenzie screamed.
Gage snapped his head around just in time to see two cars pull across the road in a classic roadblock position. There was no way he could bull his way through, and he sure as hell didn’t want to stop. He slammed on the brake, trying to steer toward the side of the road. He had to get around them.
His werewolf reflexes were good enough to pull it off, but whoever was in the cars blocking the road started peppering the Charger with rounds from what sounded like an automatic weapon. Bullets smashed into the front of the car and Mackenzie screamed as the windshield shattered. Gage threw as much of his body in front of hers as he could, considering he was wearing his seat belt and needed to keep one hand on the wheel.
He was still moving fast when he clipped the rear of one of the blocking cars, smashing it to pieces and sending him and Mackenzie hurtling off the road and into the ditch. He gripped the wheel tightly as they bottomed out in the ravine, then bounced up the far side. Mackenzie screamed again as they ran into a line of small trees at the top of the embankment.
There were so many bullets hitting the car that Gage couldn’t believe neither of them had been hit yet. That wouldn’t last long.
He needed to get them out of here, and fast. With all the trees, he had no choice but to put the Charger into a sideways slide and bring the car to a halt the hard way—by smashing it broadside into a thick hardwood.
He grabbed Mackenzie and tried to protect her from the impact as best he could, but she still slammed against the inside of the door pretty hard. He reached over to unbuckle her seat belt. They had to get out of the car now.
He dragged her off her seat and across the center console, slipping one hand down to his ankle holster to pull out his gun. Mackenzie was so woozy she could barely stand on her own, and he held on to her with one hand while he scanned the area. He could hear the sound of feet pounding on the dirt, could smell the sweat coming off the men as they ran.
Gage put a bullet through the head of the first man to crest the embankment, sending him tumbling backward. That would sure as hell slow them down some. Nobody was going to feel like poking their head up for a few seconds at least.
