She set her jaw, shook her head.“I’m with you.”
“Goddammit, do what Itellyou!”Frustration made the words sharp; he glanced aside, scanning the blackjack tables again.“Found you once, I can do it again.Get out.”
Her gaze flicked past him.She lunged, intending to run for the aisle and the blackjack tables.If she went, he’d have to follow, and there would be no more of thisget out of here and leave mebehindnonsense.
He grabbed, yanked her back and pushed her toward the door with its blinking greenExitsign.She felt a sudden sharp flare of bloodlust and threw herself instinctively down, feet tangling.He also fell, just as more bullets whizzed overhead.Well, wasn’t that lucky.Instinct saves the day again.
Rowan’s knee hit hard; he dragged her behind the imperfect shelter at the end of the aisle—left arm around her, his right hand with the gun pointed carefully away.His heartbeat thudded against her ear, once; she was absurdly comforted.
Options were rapidly closing down on them, and she could feel his mind clicking through alternatives, working percentages, calculating how to get her out of here alive.
Justin, please, goddammit, I’m not leaving you!Desperation, flavored acrid yellow.
“Come on,” he said in her ear.His arm tightened, electricity tingling on her skin.“Keep up, move with me, and for God’s sake do what I tell you.”
She nodded.Her own sidearm, useless for the moment, pointing away for safety as well—at least training was still holding up.The adrenaline freeze began, details standing out sharp and clear—he hadn’t shaved that morning.The roughness of charcoal stubble on his cheeks, a crack in the shoulder of his leather coat, and a fading bruise spreading over his left eye.Someone had tapped him but good awhile ago.
Then, wonder of wonders, he pressed a rough kiss onto her damp temple.Stray strands of her hair had come loose, sticking to her sweating forehead.Rowan’s speeding heart almost cracked in half.More gunfire chattered and popped.Why are they shooting?She didn’t mean for him to hear the thought, but he did.
“Drive us out, make us break cover.”He got his legs under him, pulled her into a crouch.“We’re going to have to move fast, angel.You ready?”
She nodded, biting her lower lip.Gained a shaky equilibrium, staying as low as she could.
“They’re going to shoot to kill.They can’t afford to let me get away.”His flat, dark gaze searched her face.“You understand?”
Shooting at him, they may hit me.He thinks I care about that?
“I understand,” she managed.“Let’s get the hell out of here.”
CHAPTER14
If Delgado didn’t now remembertraining her, he would have now doubted that he had.It was a stupid move, letting herself be caught in the trap with him.He’d given her a clear shot at escape.Why hadn’t she taken it?
She was even more beautiful than he remembered.How had he forgotten the aristocratic nose, graceful cheekbones, flawless mouth now pulled down with worry, pearly teeth sinking into her lower lip?Dark circles under her eyes only served to underscore how green they were, again.She looked like she hadn’t been sleeping well.Her hair was still the same pale, fine ash-blonde, pulled back and braided.He couldn’t wait to get it free of the braid and wrap his fingers in its dense silkiness.Not only that, but shesmelledflat-out wonderful—shampoo and soap and the clean scent of female under a thin veneer of sweat from healthy effort.Her forehead was damp, a few random strands of hair sticking to skin.
She smelled likehome.There was no way he should have let her get involved with this.
It wouldn’t do to get all hurried and blow their chances of escape with something stupid.How was he going to get both of them out of this?
He knew, of course.There was only one way, one thing they wouldn’t expect.
“All right.”He gained his feet, and she rose with him.“Come on.Stay close.”
She nodded.A slender woman, the top of her head only rising to his collarbone.She wore a man’s linen suit jacket over a T-shirt, jeans, and her rig.He wanted to keep his hand around her arm, feel that crackling electric honeyglaze that was her talent, but he needed both guns out.He shot a glance down the long corridor of slot machines, into the pit.
Screams, staccato bursts of gunfire—casino security, maybe, battling it out with Sigma.That was enough to bring a hard delighted smile, the grin of a fox hearing the hunter tangle with his own dogs.He simply ignored the noise from the fire alarm he’d pulled, one more thing that didn’t matter.
He moved down the long corridor, his back roughing with gooseflesh.Sweat collected along his lumbar and under his arms—the body’s response to combat.With the heat around here, a glistening forehead was no big deal; no need to waste energy controlling an autonomic function.
When they reached the end of the corridor, a single sweeping glance told him everything he needed to know.Three Sigs were down in heaps of tan trenchcoat, and the rest were moving into the far end of the pit.They had a group of casino security guards pinned behind a makeshift barricade.
In other words, utter chaos, especially with the fire alarms and a tide of screaming tourists to deal with as well.
He’d spared half a momentpushingone of the security guards to open fire on the Sigs, saving a whole lot of time and trouble even if it was putting a civilian in the line of fire.He’d feel bad about that later.
Much later, when he had Rowan out of here and safe.
He led her across the pit’s corner, moving from cover to cover—there was even an overturned blackjack table, how the hell did that happen?Bullets chattered.The security guards wouldn’t hold out much longer; Sigs were far better armed and better trained.Delgado smelled spilled blood, hot lead, gunfire, and the leathery peppermint-pepper of deadly exertion.
