“Fortunately, a buddy saw I was in trouble and managed to get to me in time. It was a rough landing, but at least we lived.”
“Did you ever find out why they didn’t open?”
“Yeah. One of the guys saw me talking to his girlfriend and assumed I was hitting on her.”
“So he decided to murder you?”
He shook his head. “The guy and I had had our issues in the past. Stupid competitions that I looked at as fun, but he didn’t feel the same way about.”
“Because you beat him?”
He grimaced. “Sometimes.”
“More times than not?”
“Something like that.”
“What happened to him?”
Gavin’s jaw worked and his eyes narrowed. “When the Military Police went to arrest him for the parachute incident, he grabbed a gun. There was a shootout. In the end, he was killed and two officers wounded.”
“That’s terrible—and terrifying. How did I not know this?” But there was an inkling somewhere in the back of her mind that she’d heard the story and just hadn’t connected it to him. “Is that why you left the Army?”
He chuckled—a forced, raw sound that sent goose bumps pebbling her skin. “It probably played a part in it, yeah. But there wasn’t really one specific reason. It was just time. I’d done my tours and I was ready to do something diff—” He stiffened and his eyes locked on the rearview mirror.
“What is it?” she asked.
“That sedan. I saw it in the hospital parking lot and it’s closing in pretty fast.”
“Maybe it’s a different car.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe they’re just in a hurry and will go around us.”
“Maybe.”
He took his foot off the gas.
Now Sarah had her eye on the mirrors. The car drew closer. And closer. “Gavin—”
“Or maybe not.” He jammed the pedal, and with a roar, the truck leaped forward.
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
“Hold on!” Gavin spun the wheel and slammed on the brakes. Tires squealed, the truck slid sideways into the right lane, and the sedan zipped past. The driver hit his brakes. A gun popped out of the back driver’s side window and a hail of bullets split the air, pounding down the driver’s side of the truck as the sedan spun out off the road onto the shoulder.
“Get down!” Gavin let the truck rotate a full one-eighty while he grabbed Sarah’s arm and pulled her head to his right thigh.
Sarah covered her head while Gavin floored it, flying past the other car still trying to get back on the road.
He spared a quick glance at her while the needle climbed to eighty, then eighty-five. Sarah sat up. “You okay?” he asked.
She held her side with one hand, lips clamped, face pinched. Her right hand gripped her seat belt. “Yes.”
“You sure?”
She grimaced. “As well as I can be after being shot at and almost run off the road.” Her irritation eased. “That was some really good maneuvering back there, Black.”
“Just a little defensive driving. Fortunately, it was clear enough to do that, otherwise . . .”
“Yeah.” She grabbed her phone. “I’m calling 911.”
“Good, give them the description while I figure out where to go from here.” Gavin glanced in the rearview mirror while his heart pumped. His brain was already in combat mode, that zone where everything he did was geared for survival—and in protection of the woman sitting beside him.
“They’re coming back,” she said, breathless, her gaze on the mirror, phone in her right hand.
“I see them.”
“Give me a weapon. I know you have a gun in here somewhere.”
“Glove box, but it’s a peashooter compared to what these guys are using. Leave it and just stay down.”
An eighteen-wheeler barreled toward them in the other lane. Gavin passed an exit and a car pulled onto the road behind him, causing the sedan to fall back. “This could work out nicely,” he muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just thinking.” And praying. He heard her talking to the dispatcher.
“The tunnels are just ahead,” she said, breaking off her conversation midsentence. “If they catch up and decide to start shooting in there, it won’t be pretty.”
“Yeah. And now I’ve got to worry about the person behind me.”
Gavin sped closer to the mouth of the tunnel while the sedan fell behind, trapped by the slower-moving Honda between them and the eighteen-wheeler at his side. Gavin pressed the gas pedal harder.
Sarah glanced at him. “She said they’re on the way, but three minutes out.”