Harlequin Intrigue, Box Set 1 of 2 (17 page)

Using it to kidnap her.

She stumbled, on purpose, and when the thug on the right reached for her, she brought up her foot and kicked him. He growled in pain, latched on to her hair and kept moving.

When the smoke cleared, Laurel saw where they were taking her. To a black car parked beside a Dumpster. If they got her inside, they'd be able to speed away, so she knew she had to keep fighting. Because this wasn't just a kidnapping. Laurel had no doubts that she'd soon be dead if she didn't do something right away.

She twisted her body. Tried to fall again. But the man still had hold of her hair, and he used that to control her. The pain watered her eyes. The fear had her by the throat. But she kept fighting. Kept trying to get away.

“Laurel?” Jericho shouted again.

He was alive. For now. But the gunman turned again and fired a shot in the direction of Jericho's voice.

She prayed he hadn't been hit. Prayed that Jericho would get to her in time.

But he didn't.

The moment the men reached the car, the door flew open. And the men began to drag Laurel inside.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Jericho couldn't believe what was happening. One second Laurel had been in his office. Now she wasn't.

He had to get to her. Had to stop whatever was happening to her because he knew whatever it was—it would only get worse.

“What happened?” Reese Jenkins, the reserve deputy, came rushing to the doorway.

“They got Laurel.”

Jericho scrambled through what was left of the window. And immediately had to duck right back down to dodge the bullet that blasted through the air. However, he did get a glimpse of Laurel.

And the two armed thugs that were on either side of her. He also got a glimpse of the car that'd been hidden by the Dumpster. Since it was out of line of sight of any part of the sheriff's building, Jericho had no idea how long it'd been there, but there was a road just behind it. The men were heading in that direction, and heading fast, so it was clear that's how they planned to escape with Laurel.

Jericho called out to her. Only to have another bullet come his way.

Still, he could see that she was fighting to get free. Could also see that one of the men had her in a fierce grip—literally dragging her by her hair and trying to put her in the car.

“Cover me,” Jericho shouted to Reese. “And don't you dare hit Laurel with friendly fire.”

He doubted that it was possible for Reese to actually cover him since the gunmen at the front of the building were still shooting. But Jericho couldn't just stay put. He had to try to get to Laurel and stop those hired guns.

Reese gave a shaky nod and hurried to the side of the window. He leaned out, took aim while Jericho climbed through and dropped to the ground. The bitter cold hit him right off. So did the smoke lingering from the explosion. Jericho ignored both and started running.

He didn't get far.

The thug on Laurel's left turned, fired. Jericho had to drop down behind a cruiser. It wasn't just one shot, either. At least six bullets came his way, pinning him down.

Reese didn't fire. Probably because he didn't have a clean shot. But Jericho heard a sound he damn sure didn't want to hear.

The roar of the car's engine.

He peered around the cruiser and his heart missed a couple of beats. Because the driver hit the accelerator. They were getting away.

Cursing, Jericho fished through his pocket, found the master key for the cruiser and managed to get the door open. Not easily. Because the gunmen out front started shooting at him. He practically jumped inside once he had it open, and the moment he had the engine started, he hit the accelerator, heading after the black car.

The road behind the sheriff's office was narrow, coiling through a neighborhood with walls of houses on each side. Plenty of trees, too. Lots of places for hired guns to wait so they could attack. He only hoped that bullets didn't start flying here or plenty of innocent people could be hurt.

Finally, they reached the edge of the neighborhood, and the black car took a turn into the town's park. Onto an even more narrow road. Sometime during the past hour or so, a light mist had started to fall, and it had created some ice scabs on the road. Jericho hit one, went into a skid but fought to regain control of the cruiser.

Ahead of him, the driver of the black car wasn't so lucky.

Jericho could only watch as the car veered hard to the right. The wheels clipped the sidewalk, ricocheting the vehicle to the left.

And it slammed into a streetlight.

Oh, man. It was as if a Roman candle went off in his head. Laurel could have been hurt or worse. The front end of the car was a tangled mess, and there was steam spewing out of what was left of the engine.

Jericho brought the cruiser to a quick stop just a few feet behind the wrecked car, and he hurried out, leaving the door open in case he had to grab Laurel and jump right back in. That's when he spotted the swirling blue lights from a cruiser coming up the road behind him. Reese, no doubt. Maybe even Levi.

Good. Because Jericho would probably need plenty of backup.

Maybe an ambulance, too.

With his gun ready, Jericho approached the car. However, before he got there, the back door opened and someone got out. Not easily. The person was groaning as if in pain.

Laurel.

She looked up, and when she spotted him, she started to run toward him. Jericho ran, too, and quickly ate up the distance between them. She was alive, but there was blood on her head. Maybe other injuries that he couldn't see.

Nor could Jericho take the time to find out.

Because a second person came out of the car. It was the same thug that'd dragged Laurel by the hair. The guy was still armed, and even though he staggered a little, he still managed to point the gun at Laurel.

He fired.

Jericho hooked his arm around Laurel's waist and yanked her behind the door of his cruiser. Not a moment too soon, because another shot came right at them. Apparently, the gunman hadn't been injured in the wreck. And neither had his shooting buddy, Jericho quickly learned, when the second gunman got out, too. He didn't waste any time joining in on the shooting fest.

This was exactly what Jericho had hoped to avoid. Here, Laurel was under attack again, and all those stray bullets could be going into the nearby neighborhood.

“Get in,” Jericho told her.

She was still wobbly, so Jericho gave her a shove. He also sent a couple of rounds in the direction of the gunmen, but was careful to keep the shots low, so if they missed the men completely, they'd go into the ground.

Behind him, the other cruiser braked to a stop. Levi stepped out, using his own door for cover. A good thing, too, because the idiots started sending some of their shots his way.

“We need to get out of here,” Jericho called out to his brother. Levi darn sure didn't argue with that.

Laurel crawled to the passenger's seat so that Jericho could get behind the wheel. He threw the car into gear, ready to hit the gas, but an SUV came flying out from a side road to their right. Jericho couldn't see who was inside. But it didn't take him long to figure out what they wanted.

Whoever was inside the SUV opened fire.

* * *

T
HEY
WERE
CAUGHT
in a crossfire.

The blood rushed to Laurel's head, and the punch of fear robbed her of what little breath she had left. She was thankful to be out of the car with the men who'd taken her, but now Jericho was right back in the middle of a deadly situation.

His brother and the deputy, too.

And there was nothing she could do but stay down and pray that they would all get out of this alive.

The gunmen in the SUV didn't waste any time shooting at the tires of the cruiser, and Laurel felt the exact moment they managed to do just that. Jericho still threw the cruiser into gear, no doubt ready to try to get them out of there.

But then Laurel heard the plinging sound.

Someone in the SUV had tossed something onto the road just in front of them.

“Get down!” Jericho shouted. “It's a grenade.” He threw himself over her, pushing her down on the seat.

Just as the blast tore through the air.

The impact was so hard that it lifted the front of the cruiser and sent it flying back several feet before they crashed to the ground. Because of the way Jericho and she were hunkered down, their heads hit the dashboard, hard. Hard enough for her to see stars.

Laurel immediately looked back to check on Jericho and gasped when she saw the blood trickling down his forehead.

“It's just a cut,” he explained. “Same with you.”

She touched her fingers to her own forehead, felt the warm blood, but she was too shaken to feel the pain. Too shaken to move.

But Jericho didn't seem to have that problem.

He'd managed to keep hold of his gun, and he took another one from the glove compartment. “Stay down,” he insisted.

However, he didn't do that. He sat up, his gaze darting around and pausing for a moment on the rearview mirror.

“Levi and the deputy,” she said, trying to get up. “Are they okay?”

“They appear to be.” Jericho pushed her back on the seat and tried to start the cruiser engine.

Nothing.

It'd obviously been damaged too much in the explosion. No doubt what their attackers had planned. Now they were sitting ducks in the crossfire. But maybe they could somehow get to Levi's vehicle. Or better yet, maybe they could take out these gunmen.

“The men in the SUV aren't shooting at us,” Jericho mumbled.

Because her ears were still ringing, it took Laurel a moment to understand what he'd said. And to realize it was true. The men in the SUV were shooting at the thugs in the black car. And vice versa. The bullets were no longer coming at Jericho and her.

What the heck was going on?

From the moment she'd seen that SUV come out from the side road, Laurel had assumed they were working with the men in the black car. But clearly they weren't if they were trying to kill each other. However, Laurel doubted that meant whoever survived would just let them walk away.

“Will backup come?” she asked.

“Eventually. I figure Levi probably called the second reserve deputy, Shane. He might respond alone, but Shane's a rookie. No experience with chasing down bad guys. He'll probably wait for the Rangers to arrive so he can bring them here.”

“Where are the Rangers?” was her next question.

“Too far away. It'll be a good half hour.”

She groaned. So they were on their own, because she doubted this attack would last that long.

Laurel tried to steady her nerves. Hard to do with the danger right on top of them. Added to that, she was past the stage of just shivering. When the men had dragged her through the office window, she hadn't been wearing a coat, and now that the engine was disabled, it was getting cold fast in the interior of the cruiser.

Jericho's phone buzzed, and he passed it to her to answer. That's when she saw Levi's name on the screen.

“Were you hurt?” Levi asked before she could say anything.

“Just minor stuff.” Laurel wiped the blood from her head, reached up and did the same to Jericho. “How about the two of you?”

“We're both fine. But we got an even bigger problem than the SUV and the black car. Another vehicle just pulled up behind us. A limo. The headlights are off, but when one of the people inside opened the door, I got a glimpse of a two guys in the front seat with guns. I'm betting we've got more gunmen joining this sick shooting party. I'll call you back if I can figure out what the heck is going on.”

God, no. Not more of them. Whoever was behind this had hired an army to kill them.

Laurel was about to relay the info to Jericho, but his attention was on the rearview mirror again. “I see the limo.” And he added some more profanity.

“Are they shooting, too?” Laurel asked. There were so many bullets being fired that it was hard to tell.

“Not yet.” But Jericho no longer had his attention on the newcomers. He was watching the exchange of gunfire between the others. “Two down,” he said. “Lots more to go.”

And then the gunfire stopped.

Laurel lifted her head just enough to see that the two men in the black car were down. Literally. They were both sprawled out on the ground and likely dead.

But why?

The men in the SUV certainly weren't shooting at whoever was in the limo. Did that mean they were working together?

Before she could even try to come up with what'd just happened, Jericho's phone buzzed again. She answered it without looking at the screen because Laurel figured the call was from Levi.

It wasn't.

“Sheriff Crockett,” the man said. Laurel didn't recognize his voice. She put the call on speaker so that Jericho could hear it. “Are you listening, Sheriff?”

She connected gazes with Jericho, silently asking if she knew the caller, but he shook his head.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Jericho snarled.

“I'm in the limo behind your brother. Let's just say I'm a friend trying to do you a favor. We don't want you. Only Laurel. Hand her over, and you, your kin and the deputy can leave.”

Laurel hadn't thought her heart could beat any faster, but she was wrong. This attack was all for her. And it didn't matter exactly that she didn't know who was doing it or why it was happening, she'd put Jericho and heaven knew who else in danger.

“That's not going to happen,” Jericho answered, still keeping watch around them. “Now, who the hell are you?”

“My name's not important.”

“Yeah, it is. Because I want to know who to arrest or kill. Your choice. Either way is fine with me, but you're not getting Laurel.”

“Then you'll have to pay a big price for that decision. There are roadblocks in every direction. Explosives. Anyone who tries to get to you now will pay. Is that what you want?”

“Text Levi,” Jericho mouthed to her. “Let him know.”

Even though her hands were shaking, Laurel managed to do what Jericho asked without hanging up on the snake who was making these threats.

“Why do you want me?” she asked the man once she was finished sending the text.

Jericho shot her a nasty look, probably because he hadn't wanted her to have any verbal contact with the goon, but Laurel wasn't going to stay quiet.

“It's nothing personal,” the man answered. “Just doing my job.”

Well, it was very personal to her. People she cared about were in danger. “And who paid you to do that job?” she pressed.

The man didn't answer, and even though she couldn't be sure, it seemed as if he was having a whispered conversation with someone. Probably someone in the limo with him.

Laurel pushed the phone against her chest so the caller wouldn't be able to hear what she was about to say, and she looked up at Jericho. “I don't want you to die, but this might—”