it because she had dropped her bracelet when she was taking it off in his truck and she saw it there. “I’m going with you.”
“No. Get in that house and stay,” he said.
“Look, I know how to shoot like a Marine because a Marine taught me, so I won’t be a liability to you, or somebody you have to watch out for. That’s my man out there,” she said. “And I’m going whether you want me to or not.”
“All right, Wonder Woman; when you shoot you shoot to kill or you don’t shoot at all. Got it?”
“Got it,” she nodded. “By the way, don’t ever call me Wonder Woman again.”
“Whatever you say, Wonder Woman.”
“Seriously? Can you be serious for two seconds?”
He snickered. “Flashlight?”
“Glove compartment of my car.” She felt her heart racing with fear. She was afraid that they might not get to him in time. “There’s no way he would just let him take him,” she heard her own voice trembling.
“Unless he thinks he has you.”
“My car wasn’t even here.”
“He had you parking in the garage, remember.” Leo was right. Shane had insisted she take the slot in the garage even though he always pulled his truck in there. It was big enough for two cars, but he had a workstation against one wall so only one car would fit. She told him not to ruin his perfect paint job by leaving his car out there in the sun. Her paint job had long ago lost some of its luster. While her parking areas in back of her store were mostly shaded in the day by tree cover, she hadn’t parked around back. He wouldn’t hear her reasoning and he had insisted she pull her car in the garage, so she did. He must have thought that’s where it was when he pulled up. She wasn’t even home yet; well, his home anyway, because they had been stuck giving statements and waiting for the cops to say they were free to go.
As they walked through the desert she thought of all the things she wanted to say to Shane; all the moments she wanted to share with him. The only thought in her mind was that she needed to find him alive. “God, please let him be okay?” She whispered, yet Leo still heard her. The man had dolphin hearing because there was no way he should have heard her whispered plea.
“He’ll be okay,” he said. “And if he’s not I’m going to kill the bastard myself.”
Chapter Thirteen
Shane knew the moment Nevin made him stop walking that he had no intention of taking him to Alyssa. Maybe he knew it before then too, but he hoped. He needed to see her; needed to know she was still alive. “Where is she,” he turned around and looked at the man ready to take his life. The man who blamed him for not getting what he wanted.
“Hell if I know. You got home first,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy killing you. Maybe a bullet in your leg, and then your arm, maybe shoot off your toes,” he laughed. Shane felt rage overtake him and he lunged for Nevin. He struggled for control of the gun and it went off, one shot up in the air and another out to the side as he managed to knock the gun out of Nevin’s hand. They fought, each man using years of combat and martial arts training; each man adequately holding his own.
Shane was starting to get the upper hand when Nevin threw a patch of dirt in his face, knocked Shane down and then went for his weapon. By the time Shane’s vision cleared what he saw was a man standing over him ready for the kill shot.
“Godspeed,” he said dryly as he eased his finger back on the trigger. Shane heard one loud pop, but instead of him being dead, he saw the bullet in Nevin’s head before he fell to the ground. He rolled to see who was behind him and what he saw surprised him. Leo was standing behind Alyssa, yet Alyssa was the one holding the gun that took the kill shot. She put the safety back on and ran to his side.
“Oh my God; baby, are you okay?” She knelt before him and frantically checked his body for injuries. He would be lying if he said having her hands roaming his body wasn’t turning him on right now. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” he said. “You just