“You fucked that cripple, when you had me.” Brad spit on the ground right next to herhead.
Sam heaved, desperately fighting forair.
“I saw you with him, and the disgusting way you threw yourself athim.”
She saw his foot coming toward her and rolled away, the toe of his boot glancing off her arm and flinging her over onto her stomach. The jarring motion seemed to give life to her lungs, and she gulped in a painful breath and stumbled to herfeet.
“You’re gonna have to kill me before I go anywhere with you.” She threw caution to the dry, packed dirt beneath her feet. “Cord will never let you takeme.”
Brad’s lip curled into a snarl. “I’ll kill that cripple with my bare hands.” He lifted the knife, the bright sun glinting off its silverblade.
“You are half the man he is. I can’t believe I ever datedyou.”
She got a brief jolt of satisfaction from finally saying the words to his face. A satisfaction that died a quickdeath.
Brad let out an inhuman roar and charged forward. Before she could move one step away, his body slammed into hers and he threw her to the ground. The force of all that weight knocked her senseless, and she lay on the ground, dazedly staring up into the sky. Brad rose over her like the monster that he was, pulling his empty hand back. His palm connected with her cheek. The slap exploded across her face, tossing her head to the side. The coppery taste of blood filled hermouth.
“You’re going to pay forthat.”
His weight lifted and then his hand buried in her hair, yanking her to her feet. He dragged her across thedirt.
“Let go!” Instead of fighting against him, she launched herself at him, throwing her shoulder into his side. He grunted and released her hair. Sam caught the flash of the blade as he brought it around. On instinct, she grabbed his wrist with both hands and locked her arms out tight, fighting with all herstrength.
She managed to hold him like that for a few seconds. And then Brad brought his other arm down hard on her wrists. Agony shot up her arms, and her hands went limp. He was on her in an instant, holding the blade to her throat, while his other hand found its favorite spot in her hair. She tried to beat at his arms but could barely lift herown.
“You’re going todie.”
Time slowed. The tip of the blade dug deeper into the soft skin at the curve of her neck. He leaned in and pressed a shaky kiss to her cheek. When he pulled back, his gaze flattened into something like boredom—except for the excitement in hisgaze.
She realized two things. The last thing she’d see before she died was this bastard, and she was going to miss out on the chance of a lifetime spent withCord.
* * *
Son of a bitch;it was Matt Graham. Where the hell had he come from? Cord stared down in shock at the lifeless man, a semi-automatic rifle laying just inches from his dead, outstretched hand. Empty, lifeless eyes aimed up at the bright bluesky.
Slowly, Cord reached down and picked up the overturned, canvas stool. It was the same kind he’d used on hunting trips as a teenager to sit on in the woods. Small, lightweight, easy to fold up and carry. But how the hell had he gotten out here in the firstplace?
Cord carefully scanned his surroundings. A group of large, angular boulders caught his eye about 20 feet away. As did the telltale, unbroken trail where Matt must have drug himself across the desert floor. Barely believing his eyes, Cord followed the skid marks in the sand to the boulder and stopped short. It wasn’t Matt’s wheelchair sitting there. It was a dune buggy, extremely low to the ground, one that he’d never seenbefore.
He grabbed the metal roll bar at the top and leaned in, snatching up a cracking, dirty, leather case from the seat. Inside, there were extra bullets and a lot of pictures shoved into a dirty envelope. Knowing what he’d find, and his stomach rolling, Cord pulled out the firstone.
It was a picture of Samantha, taken late in the evening through a closed window. It was obvious she’d just emerged from the shower. Cord crushed the photo in his grip, taut fury scorching his veins. This asshole had been stalking Sam. Quickly rustling through the rest of the snapshots, each revealed her in various states of unawareness, some of them obviously taken through a window. Some simply had her standing out in the open, smiling or laughing at someone else. Those pictures had been cut in half, leaving only Samantha’sface.
Every instinct in his body urged him to destroy the photos, rip them up to shreds, but he carefully replaced them back inside the bag, knowing he’d need them forevidence.
His leg starting to throb, he made his way back to Matt, not the least bit remorseful about having taken the scumbag’slife.
But he did regret one thing—knowing this was going to break Sam’s heart. The way she looked at her men showed she truly cared about helping them recover. He’d have to make her understand some people couldn’t be saved. No matter how hard youtried.
Prickly heat covered his skin as Cord shoved a hand through his hair, blowing out a harsh breath. The words echoing through his mind weren’t new to him. His commander had said them more than once. Cord realized now he’d been turning a deaf ear the entire time. He held onto the guilt just as hard as he had held onto his crutches when he first learned to walkagain.
In spite of talking with other soldiers who had been through the same thing, despite all those seemingly wasted counseling sessions and despite the fact he logically knew he could’ve done nothing to stop that first RPG—he’d still let that guilt consumehim.
A scream rent the air, and all Cord’s newfound self-awareness focused on a new threat. In the distance, he could make out Sam’s long, dark hair just behind the truck, and on the other side a taller, more broad-shouldered, shaggy, blond figure. A man. A man who had his hands around Samantha’sthroat.
The rage he’d felt earlier exploded, and Cord dropped to a knee, snatched up his rifle, and ran in a low crouch back in her direction. The crouched position put extra strain on his bad leg, sending sparks of agony up his thigh with each step. Cord did what he was trying to do, took a deep breath, and pushed through the pain, shoving it back into a box in his mind and stepping away so that he could focus entirely on his new mission—savingSamantha.
He was careful to stay low and undetected, but up just enough that he could keep her in his line of vision through the windshield. There was a loud bang, and he saw her head snap back as the bastard shoved her into the tailgate of the truck. His hot fury froze into lethalsteel.
