Vince leaned down to set the jack in place. “Get your ass over here, Max, and help me. We need to get this fixed and get the hell out of here before Bridger has the law breathing down our necks. Get me that lug wrench.”
Sam waited, his gaze fixed on Libby, willing her to know he was there. As if she had heard him, her gaze swung in his direction. Mitchell took a step, Libby kicked back hard, slamming her foot into his knee, then turned to flee.
Sam took the shot, the sound echoing across the road. Mitchell’s gun went flying. He went down and didn’t get up. Libby started running, but Vince grabbed her arm and hauled her back against him, his forearm locked around her neck. Pistol drawn, Max fired toward Sam’s position at the same time another shot rang out. Kade. A scarlet stain appeared on Max’s chest. He swayed and sagged to the ground.
Sam was up and running, taking big leaping strides down the mountain, pistol gripped in his hand.
Vince tightened his hold on Libby. “Stop right where you are!”
Sam came to a sliding halt, his gun leveled at Vince’s head. He itched to pull the trigger, but there was too much risk of hitting Libby. A few feet away, Max lay groaning, wounded but not dead, his pistol well out of reach.
“I can break her neck as easy as snapping a twig,” Vince said. “Take one more step and I’ll do it.”
Sam’s fingers tightened around the trigger. “You hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
“You can shoot, but she’ll be dead. I don’t think you’ll take the chance. Where’s your truck?”
Sam looked at Libby. Her face was bone white, her fingers digging into the muscular arm pressing into her windpipe.
“It’s parked around the curve,” Sam said.
“Toss your keys over here.”
Sam fished the keys out of his pocket and tossed them in front of Vince, who dragged Libby with him as he reached down to scoop them up. “Now the gun.”
Sam’s jaw clenched. He didn’t want to give up his weapon. If Vince got the gun, he could kill them both. His gaze went to Libby. The trust in her eyes made his chest ache. Sam crouched and set the pistol on the pavement, took a steadying breath and backed away. Kade and Big John were still out there. He was trusting his life and Libby’s to his friends.
On the hill, sunlight flashed on the barrel of Kade’s rifle, but he still didn’t have a shot. Sam’s gun lay a few feet in front of Vince, tempting him to pick it up, but reaching for it would make him a target.
Vince hesitated. “Use your boot to ease the pistol closer,” he commanded.
From the corner of his eye, Sam caught movement in the shadows and spotted Big John moving silently up behind Vince. Sam’s shoulders tightened. He took a slow step toward the pistol and eased it toward Vince with the toe of his boot. It was still too far away.
“Closer!” Vince demanded, squeezing until Libby fought for a breath of air. The wind blew Vince’s stringy blond hair against the side of his thick neck.
Hold on, baby, Sam silently pleaded, his gaze fixed on Libby.
Vince screamed as John’s big fist slammed into the back of his neck, breaking several vertebrae and sending the bank robber crashing to the ground. Libby twisted free as Vince hit the pavement, dead before he reached it.
“Sam!” Libby raced toward him. “Sam!” Sam swept her into his arms.
“I’ve got you,” he said, a tremor running through him. “You’re okay. You’re safe, honey. They can’t hurt you anymore.”
Libby’s arms tightened around his neck. “I love you, Sam.” She was shaking. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too, sweetheart.”
“I don’t want to go back, Sam. I want to stay here with you.”
Love for her washed through him, and emotion clogged his throat. “If you stay, I’m never letting you go.”
“Oh, Sam.” Libby went up on her toes and kissed him, and Sam kissed her back. From a few feet away, Big John stood watching. The look in his onyx eyes said what the big man had known all along.
Libby had found her way home.
About the Author
Kat Martin is the New York Times bestselling author of over 70 books across multiple genres. Seventeen million copies are in print and she has been published in 21 foreign countries, including Japan, France, Argentina, Greece, China, and Spain. Her books have been nominated for the prestigious RITA award and won both the Lifetime Achievement and Reviewer’s Choice Awards from RT Book Reviews.
Please read on for an excerpt from the next full-length novel in the Blood Ties series, available for pre-order now!
New York Times Bestselling Author
KAT MARTIN
THE LAST GOODNIGHT
CAN SHE FIND A KILLER . . . BEFORE HE FINDS HER?
When Kade Logan said goodbye to his estranged wife eight years ago, he never thought it would be the last time he saw her alive. Now her car has been hauled out of a nearby lake and Kade is determined to track down the man who murdered her. Enter Eleanor Bowman, a talented private investigator who’s about to stir up a hornet’s nest on his Colorado ranch.
With old scandals still buzzing about his late wife’s many affairs and new violence erupting, Kade is faced with the discovery of another beautiful woman’s body. Are the two killings linked? Who is the man who seduced, then murdered both victims? Ellie believes they are dangerously close to the truth.
From corporate Denver high-rises to posh Vail mansions, Kade and Ellie sense the killer is closing in again, and this time Ellie is the target. Kade must risk everything to save the woman he’s coming to love—before she becomes the next to die . . .
Chapter One
Kade Logan stood on the bank watching the sheriff and his deputies haul the mud-covered vehicle out of the lake. The crane groaned as the auto tilted upward, the rear end lifting into the air, the front wheels dragging across the spongy earth. Brackish lake water poured out through the open windows, along with weeds and silt. Even a few silver fish had made the car their home.
For eight long years Kade had been haunted by the mystery of what had happened to the dark green Subaru Forester that belonged to his dead wife.
Oh, he knew where Heather was. In a grave in the old hillside cemetery in Coffee Springs, the small town closest to the ranch. Her body had been found in a shallow depression up in the hills at the base of the mountains outside Denver.
Heather had been beaten and strangled. Any signs of rape had faded as her body decayed, but as beautiful as she was, Kade was sure sex had been involved.
Her killer had never been caught.