“If they take off, you back off. No chances, Tex!”
Cubby ran as fast as he could, jumping debris, smacking aside branches. Behind him Newman cursed but kept up. He was running on adrenaline; it was surging through his blood, giving him strength.
“Gunshots!” Cubby roared, sprinting through the trees.Not Katie, he prayed,please let her be all right. They reached the bottom and the last line of trees. Stopping, he dragged in air and dropped to the ground. Beside him, Newman did the same, wheezing. Moving slowly forward he looked out and saw her. Katie had her hands tied behind her back and was being led to a small rowboat by three men. One was Kurt Sinclair, and his finger itched to shoot the bastard. He couldn’t see the faces of the other two, but his hunch was the Alessi brothers.
He found a body, and realized it was Brady; obviously he was expendable, and Cubby couldn’t rake up the sympathy to give a shit that his life had ended so abruptly. The man had ceased to mean anything to him when he’d endangered Katie’s life.
“What now?”
“I’m going out there.”
Katie’s eyeswent from Tex’s helicopter to the tree line.
“That helicopter is trouble; we need to shoot it down,” Antonio Alessi said.
“It is a tourist helicopter and nothing more; if it gives us trouble once we are airborne, we will shoot it down,” Lucca Alessi said. “Say good-bye to your precious home, Miss McBride, you will never see it again. Just like you did to our brother, we will be ensuring your death is slow and painful.”
“Your brother was a criminal just like you, his loss is not a great one,” Katie said.
Antonio backhanded her and Katie swallowed the moan as her head jarred. Brady had hit her hard and it ached.
“We have no time for that, Antonio. Later you will have your fun.”
“Right now those trees are full of people searching for me.”
“I think not, because everyone in your quaint little town is celebrating this race you call the silly name.”
Katie saw Cubby then. He erupted out of the trees and ran toward them.
“Your pilot is not in there,” she said quickly, drawing the brothers’ eyes away from land.
“Most amusing, Miss McBride, but you will not be laughing when we are finished with you. You will pay for murdering our brother.”
“The brother who was a murderer, do you mean?”
“It’s the Sheriff, shoot him!”
Katie watched in horror as Kurt saw Cubby and raised his gun. She threw herself at him, but he got off a shot, and then she was toppling overboard and into the lake. Panic gripped her as she struggled to free her hands. Kicking, she propelled herself upward. Breaking the surface, she looked for Cubby but saw no sign. Bullets peppered the water beside her, so she took a breath and dived under once more, going down as deep as she could. She saw the shadows above, one from the floating landing pad and the other from the boat. Where was Cubby? She tried to find him. He couldn’t be dead? Not now, when they’d just found each other. Her lungs started to burn. She needed to go up for air, and this time Katie was certain one of the Alessis would put a bullet through her.
Something tugged at her ankle. Looking down, she saw Cubby. Relief made her weak. He pulled her toward the shadow, then urged her up so they came out beneath the landing pad. She pressed her face into his neck as she drew in air.
“Are you all right?” he whispered the words and Katie nodded.
Above them they heard the sound of people boarding the helicopter.
“I need to prove to them I’m dead, Cubby.”
He was shaking his head. “Not going to happen. If they see you floating in the water, they’d put more bullets in you,” he said, understanding what she was saying instantly.
“Not if I wait until they’re in the air.”
“No. They won’t believe it anyway, unless they see a death notice or your body. There is nothing to stop them from coming back here to check on you.”
“Then we fake a death notice, and if I have my colleagues put it about I’m dead, that should help. Now, I need some blood, so pull out your knife and cut my hand.”
“No, Jesus, don’t ask that of me.”
“This is the only way to be free of them, Cubby. They won’t bother with me if they see my body. Kurt could be a problem,” Katie added, “but once I tell E.J., he’ll be put away for a long time.”
