The Protectors Series Bundle - By Nana Malone Page 0,78

he wouldn’t call the cops. She’d paid after all.

Popping open the truck, she avoided Garrett’s gaze and tossed in a water bottle and a bag of chips. She quickly inspected his bonds again. They’d hold for now. He wasn’t getting out of those knots for at least another little while, unless he had a knife on him she hadn’t seen. Maybe time was on her side, and she’d be at the Lair by then.

“Symone, I keep telling you, you don’t need to time me up. I’m not—”

“Trying to kill me. Yeah, you said that already. Only problem is you’re a Tracker, and you flew into my apartment all kamikaze-like and tried to kill me, so I don’t believe you.”

“Shit, I wish you’d listen—”

Symone slammed the trunk shut. Quickly, she put the pump back and closed her gas tank. Hopping back in the car, she checked her elapsed time. Less than five minutes. Get a move on. You don’t need to be a sitting duck. Revving the engine, she pealed out of the gas station and drove like she’d just broken out of jail.

But her efforts were futile. She only got another mile down the road when she noticed the large black SUV pulled over to the side. She couldn’t see any Trackers, but her senses went on alert. She could feel them. Heard their heartbeats. There were three. Hidden eyes trained on her car.

Cursing, Symone jerked the wheel and spun the car around. Maybe she could out run them if—

“You’ll never make it. We’re going to have to fight.”

She gave a squeak of alarm. Garrett had shoved through the back seat and lay crouched, holding the back of the driver’s seat for support.

“Shit. How the hell did you get out?” When she saw the lone Tracker in the middle of the road five hundred meters up, holding something that looked like a rocket launcher in his hands, she slammed on the brakes “Fuck me.”

“I tried that, remember.” He flashed her a grin, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “We’re going to have to fight our way out of here.”

She snapped a rein on her temper. She couldn’t think when she was angry. “They want you back, they can have you back. You’re not worth my trouble.”

He scoffed. “They’re not after me. They came for you. Me, they’ll just kill. You don’t want to know what they’ll do with you.”

She darted him a quick glance. She could use him to get out of this, or she could try and fight it alone. And she only had one gun. Damn it. She didn’t have much of a choice. “Fine. But I only have one gun, and if we come out with it, they’ll shoot us on the spot. It’ll have to be hand to hand.” She stripped off her gloves.

He stared at her hands. “Somehow I think the odds are on our favor.” He held up his wrists. “If you want my help, you have to cut me loose.

She sneered, but slipped her knife out, making quick work of the knots at his hands and feet. She re-sheathed the knife, then slipped the magazine out of the gun and handed it to him. “If you hold this on me, we’ll be more believable. It’ll get me close enough to do some damage. How many are there? I hear three heartbeats, but Peter might have someone who can cloak themselves.”

Garrett took the gun from her and didn’t ask any questions. “We usually go in three-man teams. So two others besides the one in the road.”

She shoved her gloves in her pockets and placed a hand on the driver’s door handle. “Just remember, you double cross me, and you’ll get more of what happened back in my apartment.”

He grinned. “I might like that.”

She shook her head but didn’t say anything. Right now she needed him to survive. She’d slap him upside the head later.

***

With a gun trained on Symone, Garrett stepped out of the car. Symone walked straight with her hands up. And he had to admire her strength. “What took you guys so long?” he shouted.

“CO said you’d gone rogue. Orders are to bring you in with the girl.”

The Tracker with the rocket launcher spoke, and a chill made Garrett’s hairs stand on end.

He nodded, putting up his gun-free hand. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to keep the gun on Little Miss Give Me The Slip. She jumped me before I could even reach the warehouses. I finally got things under control.