back tires finally hit dirt and he was able to brake and shift down. Limbs scraped the top of the roof. They were still moving way too fast. And to make matters worse, he couldn’t see what lay ahead. Could easily be a cliff or a ditch or a huge tree that would stop them dead.
He fought to get the rig slowed down and finally came to a halt in the heart of the thicket. They were completely closed in by the trees. They couldn’t have opened their doors on either side and the SUV was sitting at such an angle, nose down, that he was practically standing on the brake pedal.
“You aren’t hit, are you?” he was finally able to ask as he looked over at her, a tremor in his voice.
“I’m fine. Are you…?” She looked frightened at the thought.
“I’m just great,” he said sarcastically. He’d really had it with this woman and her secrets.
She was looking back up the mountainside, the gun clutched in both hands in a way that convinced him it wasn’t her first time. “I think we’re far enough down the road he won’t be able to take any potshots at us anyway.”
“Wanna keep defending Presley Wells?” he asked her. “Unless there’s someone else who wants to kill you for reasons you haven’t told me.”
“Not that I know of,” she said.
“Let’s try this again,” he said, anger filling the hole fear had just deserted. “Who are you? What the hell is going on? And wait, how did you get that gun on the plane?”
She met his gaze, cool and calm, making him want to shake her. “Which question would you like answered first? As for what’s going on, someone just tried to kill us.”
“Okay, that part was pretty clear.” He saw her glance back again. “You think he’ll come down here and try to finish us off?”
“I think we’d better see where this road comes out since it doesn’t look like turning around is an option,” she said.
He didn’t move, just glared at her, waiting. He wanted answers and he wasn’t moving another inch until he had them. She’d put him off too long. His whole body was vibrating, adrenaline spiking his pulse as though he’d taken a wild drug.
She turned in her seat, her gaze locking with his. “I’m an agent.”
He blinked. “An agent. Like—”
“Like FBI.”
He pulled back in surprise. “I thought you were a wedding planner.”
“I am. I’m both. I work undercover.”
Yeah, right.
“You wanted the truth.”
He did. But could he handle it? “You do this for a living?” An agent? The buddy at the crime lab, the wealth of information her “friends” came up with. He should have known. He shook his head. “I knew there was more to you, but I never guessed this. So you’re after Presley Wells?”
“I’m after whoever abducted one of our wedding clients and ran down your sister. I’m still not sure who that is. But…” she added before he could argue, “I’m no longer convinced that your sister’s fiancé is the man I thought he was.”
“Well, I suppose that is something.”
“Now could we get out of here?” she asked.
He studied her a moment longer. “You are definitely somethin’.”
SAMANTHA WASN’T SURE he meant it as a compliment. In fact, she was pretty sure he intended it as just the opposite as he put the SUV into drive and let his foot up off the brake.
The car bounced down the mountain through the trees, Alex expertly handling it. She watched him, so filled with pain it took everything she could muster not to cry.
He was all right. He hadn’t been hit by the gunfire. She tried to assure herself that he was safe. That after this she would make sure he stayed that way. Some agent she was. She’d almost gotten them both killed.
“Any idea which way to go?” he asked when he reached a fork in the steep road.
She had no idea but pointed to the left, her throat too dry to speak.
He reached over and cupped her cheek with his warm palm. “You didn’t get me into this, so stop looking at me like it’s your fault, okay?” He let up on the clutch and the SUV lurched downward again. “Damn this mountain is steep. But I got to hand it to you. Dropping off through here seems to have worked.”
Ahead, through the trees, she saw a shallow creek where the road flattened out and another intersected it. Alex saw it, too. He drove across the