Jo lunged forward to slam the apartment door closed. She managed to lock it just nanoseconds before he crashed against the other side with a roar of fury. The way the door shuddered under his weight was rather alarming, and Jo didn't think it would hold long.
She turned back to Charlie, swallowing hard when she saw the German shepherd trying to get to his feet, only to collapse back to the floor, landing half on the rag mat in the hall. Jo set her teeth and moved to kneel beside him again.
"It's all right, fella. I've got you. You just rest for now," she murmured, catching the edge of the mat and dragging it down the hall as Bad-Breath Boy hit the door again. She had gotten Charlie into the living room and was dragging him toward the door leading to the balcony over the garage when the third crash came. This time it was accompanied by a cracking sound that put her heart in her throat. They were running out of time. Where the hell was Bricker? Gina half naked and shrieking should have brought help at once.
Jo had nearly reached the door to the balcony when it suddenly opened behind her. She released the mat and whirled around, her eyes widening incredulously when she saw Nicholas standing there. Before she could say anything, Bad-Breath Boy hit the door again, and this time it gave way, crashing open with a thud. For one second everyone froze and
simply stared at one another. It was a shout from the hallway that Jo recognized as Bricker's voice that started them all moving again. Bad-Breath Boy growled and started into the apartment.
Nicholas grabbed her hand to drag her toward the door, and Jo grabbed for the mat Charlie lay on and pulled him along.
"Nicholas, wait, Charlie's hurt," she cried as he pulled her over the threshold.
He stopped at once, his eyes shooting to
Bad-Breath Boy and then the German shepherd. Before she could even blink he was past her, scooping up Charlie and turning back.
"Move!" he roared, and Jo moved, rushing out onto the balcony that serviced all three upper apartments. She heard the door slam behind them and glanced back to see that Nicholas had shifted Charlie under one arm like a football and was using the now-free hand to jam one of the wooden deck chairs under the door to slow the man chasing them. Once done, he whirled and pointed toward the backyard. "That way. The van!"
Jo turned in that direction, spotting the van parked on the grass in the backyard directly behind the garage. She led the way across the garage's flat roof at a run. The tarmac was tacky from the late summer sun heating it, which was why she and her neighbors rarely used it during daytime. The van's position was a lifesaver. There were no stairs off the balcony, but they could climb over the rail, drop to the van and then the ground, minimizing the chances of twisting an ankle, being slowed and caught.
Jo decided that was a very good thing when the door to the balcony suddenly burst open behind them as she reached the rail. The deck chair made a terrible scraping sound as it shot across the balcony under the impact.
"Go," Nicholas urged when she stopped at the rail. "I'm right behind you."
Jo didn't hesitate but practically threw herself over the rickety rail surrounding the balcony. She landed on the van with a thump and a gasp as her feet slid out from beneath her. She crashed hard onto her bottom facing the building. Nicholas immediately leaped the rail like an Olympic jumper and thumped onto the van roof beside her with Charlie cradled in his arms.
"Down," he barked, shifting Charlie again under his arm so he could push Jo toward the front edge of the van with his
other hand. Unprepared, she slid down the front window on her bottom, and right off the front hood. Nicholas was there beside her, steadying her with his free hand so that she landed on her feet.
Before she had even quite found her balance,
he was hustling her around the van to the passenger door, half carrying her weight as well as her dog.
"The door."
Jo opened the door and climbed in without having to be told. The moment her butt hit the seat, she had a lapful of furry dog and the door was slamming shut. She instinctively reached for the seat belt, but her head shot around when the driver's door was opened before Nicholas could possibly have gotten around the van to it. Her jaw dropped in surprise when she saw that it was indeed he launching himself into the driver's seat.
"Seat belt," he barked, starting the engine.
Jo tugged the belt out, but that was as far as she got before the van shuddered as something heavy hit it. Nicholas shifted into reverse and hit the gas, sending the van racing backward. Jo clutched desperately at Charlie with one hand, the other had a death grip on the undone seat belt and was the only thing that kept them both from flying to the floor.
A thump from above brought her head up in time to see Bad-Breath Boy roll down the windshield and off the hood to crash to the ground as Nicholas backed away from him. They'd nearly reached the back of the yard, and Jo saw Bricker and Anders racing across the garage roof and Bad-Breath Boy getting to his feet. Then Nicholas suddenly spun the wheel, back ing them around across the grass. He barely brought the van to a halt before shifting to drive and hitting the gas again as he spun the wheel in the opposite direction, steering them toward the alley.
Slamming back against the seat, Jo saw first Bricker and then Anders leap the balcony railing as Nicholas had done, with no more effort than she would have exerted to leap a curb. As they landed behind Bad-Breath Boy, she also saw him charging forward, pulling a gun from his waistband. Apparently Nicholas saw it too.
"Down," he shouted. Nicholas grabbed her shoulder and forced her forward off her seat so that her bottom landed on the
van floor with a bruising bump as the back window of the van shattered under a bullet's impact.
Jo merely gritted her teeth and did her best to keep from crushing Charlie as they were bounced and bumped around and gunshots continued to ring out. She was pretty sure it wasn't just Bad-Breath Boy shooting. The gunshots were coming too close together and then they suddenly stopped. Another minute passed, however, before Nicholas said, "You can get up now."
Jo hesitated, her gaze dropping to Charlie. The poor dog lay still in her arms, eyes open, but otherwise unmoving, and that was rather worrisome. He hated being on his back, probably an instinctive reaction from a dog. Their bellies were vulnerable to predators when they were on their backs and so they avoided being there.
"It's okay, baby," Jo whispered, but rather than try to get both herself and Charlie up into the seat, she lifted the dog and set him on it so she could take a look at him. Jo quickly ran her hands over the animal, but couldn't find any injuries. He didn't whimper or indicate her touch caused pain in any way except when she gently felt his head, and then he whined and tried to avoid her touch. Frowning, she peered into his eyes, noting that the pupils were slightly dilated.
"Nicholas," Jo said worriedly. "I think we need a vet."
Nicholas tore his gaze away from the road to glance to the German shepherd lying silent and still on the passenger seat.
The dog's eyes were open, but he looked rather dazed. "What happened to him?"
"Bad-Breath Boy threw him a good ten or fifteen feet into a wall. At least I think he hit the wall, I'm not sure. All I know is he landed on a table with enough impact to smash it." Jo frowned and reached out to pat the dog reassuringly. "Charlie seemed unconscious when I first got to him, but then he opened his eyes. He couldn't stand up when he tried though."
"By Bad-Breath Boy I presume you mean Ernie?" Nicholas asked. "The blond who was shooting at us and whom Bricker and Anders were shooting at?"
"Is that his name?" she asked with disgust. "He has the name of a geek but is an utter jerk. I guess Shakespeare was
right, a jerk by any name is still a jerk."
Nicholas smiled faintly at her mangling of Shakespeare, but then said,
"Charlie could have a concussion."
Jo appeared surprised. "You think? I didn't know dogs could get concussions too?"
Nicholas shrugged. "They have brains, don't they?"
"Right," she muttered, and Nicholas glanced over again to see her peering worriedly at the dog. The German shepherd's eyes were closed and he appeared to be sleeping now. He wasn't surprised when she asked, "Should I let him sleep? It seems to me I remember hearing somewhere you aren't supposed to sleep with a head wound."
Nicholas hesitated, his eyes on the road ahead. He wasn't sure if that was true or not. Jo began to shift out of the cubbyhole in front of the seat, and Nicholas glanced over to see her scooping the dog into her arms and resettling herself in the passenger seat with him on her lap. He suspected she'd done it as an excuse to rouse the dog rather than for her own comfort. She was peering down at the beast like he was a baby who was deathly ill. She obviously loved the mutt.
Sighing, Nicholas cleared his throat and asked, "Where can we find a vet?"
Jo took a moment to glance at their surroundings. They weren't really far from her apartment, and relief filled her face as she took in that fact and said, "Charlie's vet is two blocks up and one block right."
Nicholas merely nodded. He'd take her and the dog to the vet, but this was a perfect example of why he couldn't claim her. Stops like this were dangerous, especially so close to the apartment.
Ernie and the others would be looking for them
now, cruising the neighborhood and watching for the van. He hoped there was somewhere to park that would make it less noticeable.
"Thank you," Jo murmured the minute he took the turn onto the street the clinic was on.
"For what?" he asked with surprise.
"Everything," she said dryly. "You got us out of there and now you're taking us to the vet's. Thank you."
Nicholas didn't say anything, but suspected Jo wouldn't have needed saving if it weren't for him. He should never have
kissed her with a rogue lying nearby. He should have at least made sure the man was down for the count first... and admitting that he couldn't read her had been a stupid slip that Ernie had no doubt heard. It was probably the only reason the rogue was now after Jo.
Aside from that, Nicholas had been foolish enough to count on Bricker and Anders to keep her safe when he'd first seen Ernie leave his vehicle and creep up on the house. It wasn't until the rogue had climbed through the building's ground floor window and disappeared while the two enforcers had stayed in their SUV talking that he'd realized they hadn't noticed the man.
Nicholas had wanted to race his van right up to the front door and charge in after the rogue, but had feared it might bring the two enforcers running... after him. He'd worried that by the time he'd convinced them that Jo was in peril, it would be too late. So he'd wasted time driving around to the back of the building and climbing up onto the flat garage roof that doubled as a balcony to get inside. Then he'd had to be sure they saw him in case he wasn't enough to keep Jo out of Ernie's clutches and had run to the front of the garage balcony to be sure he was spotted. That was how he'd ended up going to the right apartment, he'd heard the banging coming from inside her apartment as he'd run across the garage roof.
"You shouldn't have come," Jo said suddenly, drawing his startled gaze.
"Why?"
"Because Bricker and Anders were sitting outside," she said quietly. "Lucian said you wouldn't be able to stay away and they were sent to watch for you."
"I figured," he admitted on a sigh. "But I was following Ernie and he followed you guys from the house."
"So much for you not being able to stay away from me," Jo muttered, and then added, "I don't know what took them so long. I expected them to come running the minute Gina ran outside screaming."
Nicholas glanced at her uncertainly. "Gina?"
Her eyebrows rose at his confusion, and she prompted, "Blond... half naked... no doubt screaming her head off?"
Nicholas shook his head. "There was nothing like that. I knew Ernie was in there because I saw him go in, and the only reason Bricker and Anders came running was because I made sure they saw me climb up onto the garage roof to get to your door."
Jo frowned. "I wonder where the hell Gina went then."
"If she was half naked, she probably went to one of the other apartments rather than outside," he suggested quietly.
"Her first instinct would be to get somewhere safe and probably call the police."
"Probably," Jo agreed with a sigh. "It should have been my first suggestion to her too."
Nicholas merely grunted. The mortal police wouldn't have been of much use against Ernie. He would have been long gone, taking Jo with him before they could even get there. Still, he asked curiously, "Why didn't you call the police?"
Jo was silent for a minute and then rather than answer, said, "It was pretty impressive the way you jumped over the balcony rail to the truck like you did."
"I used to be a high-jump champ in high school," Nicholas lied blandly.
"And I suppose Ernie, Bricker, and Anders were as well?"
Nicholas grimaced but merely said, "I wouldn't know."
"Right," she drawled dryly. "And Ernie managed to get through both of my apartment doors with little enough effort. No one I know could have done that."
"It's an old building," Nicholas said with a shrug.
"Yes it is," she agreed, but then added, "However, those weren't old or flimsy doors. I made sure they were solid oak doors and had the locks put on myself when I moved in. Ernie shouldn't have been able to break through as he did, and he certainly shouldn't have been able to send the deck chair flying either. It was heavy as hell and you jammed it in good, yet it hardly slowed him down."
Nicholas's mouth tightened, but he didn't comment. He'd pulled into the veterinary clinic parking lot and now sandwiched the van in a spot marked "reserved" between two clinic vans, hoping it would be enough to hide their vehicle. Turning off the engine, he opened his door, saying, "Sit tight. I'll come around and get Charlie."