“Take a breath, man,” Chase urged him. “We’ll get her back. It’s going to be okay.”
“Uh, the vehicle just turned. There is…there’s a problem.”
“Do not tell me that!” Cole snarled. The traffic eased a bit, and he shoved the gas pedal to the floorboard as he lurched to the right.
“I’m checking traffic cams, and if you don’t stop the perps in the next five minutes, their path will open up and they will be free and—”
“Oh, shit!” Chase grabbed for the side of his door. “Are you driving on the sidewalk? That is illegal. You know that, don’t you?”
“So is fucking kidnapping.”
***
Her body rolled again. The car had stopped once more.
New York traffic. Most days, she hated it, but tonight, God, she loved it tonight. Her hands fumbled as she reached toward the back of the trunk. After the abduction two years ago, her brother had brought in several of what he called “safety experts” to train her. One of the lessons?
How to escape from the trunk of a car. As long as this vehicle had been made after 2002, there should be a trunk release lever back there with her. She just had to find it. The thing should have been glowing in the dark. That was what her safety expert had told her. Only nothing was glowing. It was supposed to be near the trunk latch, and it should have been some kind of button or handle or—
Her fingers closed around it. Or at least, Evie hoped what she was grabbing was the right handle. She jerked on it, hard, and…
The trunk popped open, just a few inches. That was all she needed. Light spilled inside, and Evie shoved the trunk open all the way. The car was still stopped. This was her chance. She jumped out of the vehicle.
And straight into traffic.
Cars were buzzing by her—to the left and the right, and horns were honking and she was barefoot in an evening dress and stumbling because her legs didn’t seem to be working quite right. Nausea rolled in her stomach as she staggered forward. “Help!” She had to flag someone down. A taxi was close by, and the driver was frowning at her. She lunged for his vehicle. “I need—”
“You are not fucking going anywhere, bitch,” a voice grated in her ear as she was grabbed from behind. “You’re coming with me, now!”
The hell she was.
He’d locked her arms against her sides and he was lifting her up, holding her tight against his body.
“Evie!”
She knew that roar. It was Cole’s roar. Her frantic gaze flew to him. He’d just jumped out of an SUV that was parked halfway on the sidewalk, and he was rushing toward her.
Cole gripped a gun in his right hand.
The man holding her yelled, “I will slice her open!” He put a knife to her throat, but kept one arm locked around her body.
Cole didn’t stop. He ran forward. “And I will put a bullet in your brain. Let her go!”
Cars were still passing by. As if this was a normal occurrence. Nothing to see here. Just keep going. The taxi driver was gone. She was in the middle of the street. Tears were on her cheeks. A knife was at her throat. She wanted to punch back at her attacker, but that knife was already pressing into her skin. Could he slice her neck open before she escaped him?
“Evie.” Cole’s voice. Flat. Calm.
How could he be calm?
Chase stood just a foot or so behind him. Like Cole, Chase’s expression was completely controlled.
“Evie, you’re going to be okay,” Cole told her in that steady, calm voice of his.
“Get the fuck back!” Her attacker yanked her against him. The blade slipped over her skin. “Get back or I will let her bleed out right here!”
Cole’s gaze didn’t leave Evie’s face, but he said, “You won’t get paid if she’s dead. I’m sure that’s part of the deal.”
“You don’t know a damn thing! Get back!”
A woman saw Cole’s gun and screamed.
Oh, sure, scream at that. What about the creep with the knife at my throat?
Evie’s attacker tried to drag her back toward his car.
“I want you to duck and run to me, Evie,” Cole ordered.
What? He wanted her to run—like, right then? There was a knife at her throat, and she couldn’t get her elbow free to drive at her attacker in order to loosen his hold.
“Duck and run,” Cole told her again, his voice harder.
“No!” Her kidnapper’s voice blasted in her ears. “We are getting in the car and getting—”
A motorcycle was hurtling toward them. She saw it from the corner of her eye, and Evie screamed. So did her attacker. He let her go.
Duck and run. Run to Cole.
She ducked, and she ran.
“No!” Her attacker’s bellow followed her as he grabbed for her arm. “You aren’t going to get—”
Bam.
One blast of a gunshot.
She kept running. Cole grabbed her and hauled her against him, twisting his body at the same time so that he was shielding her. He shuddered against her and held Evie in a death grip.
She held him just as tightly.
“Check the bastard!” Cole roared.
She could hear sirens. Their screams were growing closer and closer. Someone had called the cops. Maybe it had been that nervous-looking taxi driver. Whoever it had been…thank you!
“Baby, are you hurt?”
She lifted her head. Blinked. “Little…dizzy. They…he put something over m-my mouth and nose. Knocked me out.”
“It’s clear,” she heard Chase shout out. “Car is empty. Attacker is down.”
The motorcycle’s engine growled.
Her head whipped toward it. That fast movement made her dizziness worse. The man on the cycle swept his gaze over her.
“That’s James,” Cole told her quickly. “It’s okay. He’s with us.”
Her attention darted back to her attacker. He was still on the ground. He was…
Oh, God.
“Who shot him?” she whispered. Everything had happened so fast.
“I did.”
Her gaze jumped back to Cole.
“He was going to stab you, Evie. You didn’t see it, but he was swinging the knife down at your back. I had to stop him.”
He’d…She stumbled away from Cole. Her horrified attention went back to the man sprawled on the street. The man who wasn’t moving at all.
When Chase had said her attacker was down…
Had he meant that the man was dead?
Her knees buckled. Maybe from whatever drug her attacker had used to knock her out. Maybe because she might be staring at a dead man. Maybe because she’d just been freaking abducted. Whatever the reason, they buckled. Before she could hit the pavement, Cole grabbed her and scooped Evie into his arms.
“It’s all right,” he reassured her quickly.
It was not all right. It was a million ways from all right.
“I’ve got you.”
He’d just shot a man because of her. Killed a man…because of me.
Feeling numb, no, icy, her attention drifted around the crowd. People were gaping at her. Some were lifting their phones and filming the scene. Filming this nightmare?
A police cruiser raced toward them and braked with a jolting stop. The officers jumped out with their guns drawn. “Freeze!”