He’d never wanted to kiss her more. Instead he bent under a tree branch and crouched low, running past the burning cabin to the body on the ground.
No shots were fired.
He didn’t relax. The downed figure was dressed in all black, from head to toe. Angus scouted the area and then ripped off the balaclava covering the man’s face. Buzz-cut blond hair, wide features, a couple of scars on his neck. The man had to be in his midthirties and was solidly built.
Angus felt for a pulse. Nothing. He’d aimed for center mass and his bullet had found its target.
Roscoe barked. Once. Sharp.
Bullets pinged the ground next to Angus, and he leapt toward the burning car.
Nari instantly returned fire, shooting toward the blue truck. This close, Angus could make out the color. Navy blue without a front license plate. It was the same truck that had chased him down before. Bullets winged out of the brush near the truck, and Angus crouched behind the burning vehicle. Fire singed him, and he angled himself as far away from the sizzling metal as he could, returning fire.
Another figure dressed in all black leapt toward the navy-blue truck and jumped in the passenger side.
Angus stood. Another explosion rocked the car, blowing him back toward the cabin. He landed on a burning piece of wood and bellowed as pain pierced his rib cage.
The driver of the truck backed up so quickly the vehicle hit a tree.
Angus gasped and rolled over, scrambling to his knees. He aimed at the truck, firing as it turned and sped down the dirt road, while Nari did the same.
It disappeared from view.
She ran the distance between them, skirting burning metal and wood. “Are you okay?” She grasped his bare shoulder.
He looked down at his rib cage. “Yeah. Just a slight burn.” It hurt like a mother. He stood, taking in the ruins. “I don’t suppose you grabbed your phone before we ran out the back door?” he gasped, leaning over and trying to find some oxygen.
She slowly shook her head, water sluicing down her front. “No. You?”
“No.” He stood and motioned for Roscoe to leave the body alone. “It’s gonna be a long walk.” He adjusted his boxers and switched his gun to his other hand. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Nineteen
Dawn arrived, its soft light washing over the wet forest outside with a golden hue. The rain had stopped, started again, and now was taking a well-deserved break. Nari’s feet hurt, her head ached, and she kept sneezing as she waited in the back room of a mom-and-pop convenience store they’d stumbled upon nearly an hour before.
The matronly owner handed her hot chocolate, and Nari let the blanket around her shoulders drop just enough to accept the fragrant brew. Then the woman left to go watch the counter.
Nari looked up as Angus entered the room, a blanket secured around his waist and covering his wet boxers. New bruises mottled his ripped abs. “I got through to the HDD, hoping they’ll take jurisdiction immediately so we don’t have to mess around with locals.” As he sat on the other plastic orange chair, she could see that the burn marks down his side were turning an ugly red. “I also updated Brigid and Raider with this new development because they’re pursuing whoever shot at me the other day. I’m pretty sure it was the same truck.”
Nari sipped the cocoa, humming as the sugary sweetness slid down her throat and warmed her stomach. Even so, she couldn’t stop shivering. They could’ve been killed if Roscoe hadn’t barked the warning in time, although she felt like it was the two of them against the world right now, and that thought warmed her even more than the drink. “I’m sorry they blew up your cabin.” No way had anything survived that fire, even if the rain had managed to finally douse it.
“It’s okay.” He rubbed a bruise on his shoulder. “I have copies of all the case files and my clothes are easily replaced.”
She rocked back and forth, trying to warm up. “You didn’t recognize the guy on the ground?”
Angus shook his head. “No, and the other guy was moving too fast to ID him through the smoke. I just have a hazy picture in my mind. You?”
She took a deeper drink. “The blue truck was between us, so I couldn’t tell.” Her hands tingled with the need to brush his wet hair from his face and check out the burns on his side, but she forced herself to stay in place. If they hadn’t been interrupted, they would’ve spent another night having multiple orgasms together. Enough was enough. They’d said one night, and she had to keep a clear head, not let her heart get all mushy. “Now doesn’t seem like the right time for a romance,” she murmured.
His dark eyebrows rose. “I’m not lookin’ for romance.”
She rolled her eyes. “Shut up. We would’ve had sex and you know it.” The more she was around him, the more she liked him. Or wanted him anyway. Right now, he wasn’t exactly likable. Yet the way he’d barreled into the storm to hunt a killer, barely dressed, trying to protect her? Yeah, that was sexy. Worse yet, the image wouldn’t leave her mind. She shivered.
“You okay?” His eyes glowed with concern.
“Yeah. Just cold,” she lied, cupping the mug with both hands and blowing on the hot liquid.
His gaze dipped to her exposed collarbone. “I’d like to have sex again, don’t get me wrong. But I’m all in or all out, and with a killer on us, I have to concentrate and be sane.”
