The sight of his blood shot the entire scene into focus. Those men were trying to kill them. Noni shook her head.
Denver coughed. “Good. One truck is picking him up, so they’ve slowed down.”
Was the guy dead? She hadn’t been able to tell. Cold air blasted inside and forced her away from the numbness shock provided. She turned to look out the back. Both trucks were now speeding toward them.
Denver swung the SUV in an arc. “Duck,” he yelled.
She yelped and pressed her head to her knees. Gunshots echoed above her head, and she shut her eyes, trying not to scream again.
Bullets plowed into the SUV, and the back window shattered. Something hissed.
The vehicle rocked back into motion.
Sucking in air, she slowly lifted her head and looked around. Pain filled her neck. Denver had shot out the front windshields of both trucks. Blood covered the front hood of one truck. A man leaped from the other truck, already firing with what looked like a fully automatic weapon. She’d seen one on television.
Denver pushed her down again and took a sharp turn around a brick building.
Noni struggled to breathe and her body started to shake. “A guy jumped on the roof,” she said, almost in a daze. “The people after you are crazy. Are these genetically altered soldiers?”
“Maybe.” Denver sped through town way too fast for the conditions. “Genetically altered or not, these guys are trained, and they have to be from Cobb and Madison. They’re on me, not you.” He swung the SUV in another circle and spun into the empty parking lot of a sewing shop. The car had barely stopped when he shoved open his door and stepped outside. “Stay here.”
She shook her head, trying to grasp reality. Her fingers fumbled with the belt, and she finally removed it. So now not only was the gang after them but Denver’s past had finally caught up? It was all too much at once. Way too much.
Denver strode forward in complete control, his gun pointed at the quiet road.
One of the trucks turned the corner wide and lifted onto two tires, coming down with a hard thump. Denver aimed his gun and fired. Low-pitched pings filled the air, a front tire blew, and the truck flew almost in slow motion through the air, flipping onto its roof and sliding several yards down the icy road.
Noni gasped and pushed herself over to the driver’s side to see better. Almost as an afterthought, she yanked her gun out of her pack and pointed it toward the hissing truck.
The second truck careened around the corner, this one closer.
Denver dropped to one knee, aimed, and fired rapidly. His bullets sprayed across the grille toward the gaping hole where the windshield had been. The driver’s body recoiled as if he was shot, and he turned the wheel, bashing the truck into a telephone pole on the other side of the street. Denver calmly shot out both front tires while the driver’s body hung out the front. The passenger fired back, and ice spit up all around Denver. He returned fire, and the other guy went down.
Without missing a beat, Denver turned and strode toward her.
Noni gasped and scrambled back into her seat, her ears ringing. Denver closed his door and set the SUV into motion. “Hold on, Noni.” Without another word, he drove into the darkened night, the snow and freezing air pouring through the broken windows and bullet holes.
CHAPTER
13
“Goddamn motherfucking soldiers.” Sheriff Elton Cobb kicked a chair out of his way as he stomped into his love’s office.
She looked up from behind her glass-topped desk, her blue eyes clear, her black hair pulled back into an intricate braid. “Really, Elton.”
He slammed the door and moved the brocade chair back into place, taking several deep breaths to keep from losing his mind. “Really? How can you be so calm? Your damn soldiers missed Denver. Again. We had the motherfucker. We had two trucks, four men, and we lost him.” To have finally been so close, to have had a visual on the target. Cobb’s hands clenched into beefy fists.
“I find emotion unnecessary.” Isobel Madison was the epitome of class and sophistication in her blue silk blouse and gray pencil skirt. Her ever-present white lab coat hung on an antique coat hanger over in the corner. Stunning oil paintings of the Old West covered the walls, and delicate trinkets lined glass shelves behind her. Her numerous framed diplomas and awards took up the wall to the west. “The good news is that we’ve found Denver as well as the woman who put that picture on the Internet.”
Cobb dropped heavily into the chair. “Why didn’t we also post that woman’s picture when I had the press conference?”
Isobel sighed, her red lips pursing. “Because we didn’t want Denver to know we’d found her. However, I told you keeping an eye on Detective Malloy would be useful.” Her fine eyebrows angled down. “Ialsotold you the press conference was a bad idea, but you wouldn’t listen.”
Bad idea? Bullshit. Finally the entire law enforcement community was looking for Denver, Heath, and Ryker. Oh, he’d get to them first, or he’d end up with them, but either way, he was going to strip the skin from their bodies. After he destroyed everything and anything they loved. “Tell me about the girl.”
Isobel nudged a manila file across the desk. “Her name is Noni Yuka. Inuit for ‘bright star.’”
Cobb flipped the file open. The woman had dark eyes, even darker hair, and pretty pink lips. “She’s stunning.”
