“Alive,” Kurt said. “For now.”
The man he had knocked out moaned and his eyes blinked open.
The sound of men shouting outside filtered through the dwindling rain. “Lambert’s guards,” she said. “We need to go. They’ll shootfirst, especially since—” Her gaze snagged on Glenn’s bleached-out face as she raced down the stairs.
He was a vile man who had been gunning for his dad’s life, but the guards would only see Lambert’s son in a pool of his own blood, and her and Kurt covered in it.
Time to run.
Well, shit. So much for a rescue.
Footsteps stomped on the front porch, and bodies made shadows through the louveredglass windows in the next room.
Kurt gripped the Sig he’d commandeered and reached for Caitlyn’s hand as she hit the bottom of the stairs, her face drained of color. “Let’s go,” he said. “Out the back.”
Her gaze swept over Glenn’s unconscious body and skittered away.
Kurt gave her gentle tug and she looked up. “I’m okay,” she said. She clutched his hand and followed him through the utilitariankitchen.
Outside the window, nothing moved except the moonlit shadows of windblown trees. “Stand to the side. I’m going to open the door. When I go out, stay on me and stay low.”
“Copy.”
Bending low at the waist, he unlocked the deadbolt and let the door swing open.
He peered around the doorjamb, weapon at the ready. No visible threats. Behind them, the front door slammed open. No more timefor a cautious retreat. “Now.”
He awkwardly descended the short flight of steps, Caitlyn on his heels, and raced for the cover of the thick vegetation just yards away, cool rain pelting his face.
A man appeared around the corner to their left. Kurt registered the AK in the guard’s hands and fired. The man went down—probably stunned rather than injured, given that he was wearing a tactical vest—andthey kept running.
Once they were hidden behind a screen of low palms and other bushes, Kurt slowed and waited for Caitlyn. Her fancy heels were more of a hindrance than his prosthetics.Score one for technology.Then again, she was probably less likely to catch a toe on a root or in a crevice without realizing it.
“I’d take them off,” she said, gesturing to her feet, “but I think this willbe even more treacherous without shoes.”
He was pretty sure Dan’s wife Alyssa would agree. After escaping into the jungles of St. Iz, her feet had been battered. “Any chance we can make it to your plane before they do?” Kurt asked.
“If they don’t know it’s us yet, maybe. If I skip the preflight check—” she wrinkled her nose “—we could be in the air within minutes.”
“And if they suspect, we’llbe walking into an ambush.”
“Even if they don’t suspect, they’ll be closing all avenues of escape. And there’s no cover once you enter the airfield. We’d be easy targets until we get to the plane.”
“And even then…” They couldn’t be in the air immediately. The propellers would take a minute to get up to speed, and they were far from quiet.
Low voices and thrashing sounds came from somewherebehind them.Shit. What were the chances the guards hadn’t used their radios to provide Kurt and Caitlyn’s description to the rest of their team already? Probably nil.
It wouldn’t take long for one of them to realize who she was. Many of them had seen her around their boss for the last year.
“Does Lambert have a boat?” Kurt asked.
“Several.” She waved toward the water. “But the dock is usuallyguarded too. We’d have to take a dinghy out to one of the bigger boats, so we couldn’t exactly be stealthy. And I have no idea where the keys are.”
“If we can find cover, maybe they’ll pass us by. Then we can work our way around to the north side and get to the rescue car.”
“Good idea. If we can’t get to the van, there are bound to be limos with drivers at the ready. And you have a gun if theyneed convincing.” She appeared to have recovered from shooting Glenn. At least for now. Being chased was a first-rate distraction.
“No need to be so bloodthirsty. I brought cash.”
