He was still moving fast when he clipped the rear of one of the blocking cars, smashing it to pieces and sending him and Mackenzie hurtling off the road and into the ditch. He gripped the wheel tightly as they bottomed out in the ravine, then bounced up the far side. Mackenzie screamed again as they ran into a line of small trees at the top of the embankment.
There were so many bullets hitting the car that Gage couldn’t believe neither of them had been hit yet. That wouldn’t last long.
He needed to get them out of here, and fast. With all the trees, he had no choice but to put the Charger into a sideways slide and bring the car to a halt the hard way—by smashing it broadside into a thick hardwood.
He grabbed Mackenzie and tried to protect her from the impact as best he could, but she still slammed against the inside of the door pretty hard. He reached over to unbuckle her seat belt. They had to get out of the car now.
He dragged her off her seat and across the center console, slipping one hand down to his ankle holster to pull out his gun. Mackenzie was so woozy she could barely stand on her own, and he held on to her with one hand while he scanned the area. He could hear the sound of feet pounding on the dirt, could smell the sweat coming off the men as they ran.
Gage put a bullet through the head of the first man to crest the embankment, sending him tumbling backward. That would sure as hell slow them down some. Nobody was going to feel like poking their head up for a few seconds at least.
Not waiting to see if he was right, he turned and scooped Mackenzie off her feet, then ran into the forest as fast as he could—and he could run pretty damn fast.
They’d gotten maybe two hundred feet into the woods before bullets started tearing up the sparse forest around them. Apparently the bad guys hadn’t waited as long as he’d hoped.
Shit.
There were at least six of them crashing through the woods after him, spread out in a ragged line in an effort to make sure he didn’t slip past them in the gathering dark. If he’d been by himself, he would have shifted into his half-werewolf form so he could go on the offensive. The assholes would have never even seen him coming.
But he had Mackenzie to worry about. There was no way to keep her safe and go after the men at the same time.
So he kept running. Bullets buzzed past them like angry bees, and Gage was forced to zig and zag erratically. That only allowed the men behind them to gain on them.
“They’re catching up,” Mackenzie said.
Gage glanced down at her. “You okay?”
He ran faster. He needed a better plan. He wasn’t going to be able to stay ahead of these guys forever while carrying Mackenzie. All it would take was one lucky shot.
“Yeah, I bounced my head against the window, but I’m okay,” she said. “Put me down. We’ll be able to run faster.”
Gage wasn’t so sure of that. But what he was doing sure as hell wasn’t working.
He caught sight of a barbwire fence up ahead. He sprinted to it and set her down on the other side, then vaulted over it while she was facing away from him. Their pursuers were only about sixty feet behind them and closing fast. Gage aimed at the man closest to them, but held his fire. He only had one magazine in the Sig, which only carried eight rounds. He might be good with a gun, but he didn’t have ammo to waste on a low-percentage shot.
Unfortunately, the bad guys didn’t have that issue. Every one of them was carrying an MP5 submachine gun and had lots of spare ammo. The moment they realized he and Mackenzie had stopped, they painted the area with 9mm ball rounds.
Gage turned to grab Mackenzie’s hand and was shocked to see her holding that damn camera of hers. She was videotaping the freaking gunmen as they shot at them!
“What the hell are you doing?” he shouted.
“I’m a journalist. If someone is shooting at me, I’m going to film it,” she explained, trying to hold the camera steady as he pulled her away.
Then Mackenzie frantically motioned to the left, her camera dangling from her wrist. “I saw a building over there.”
The “building” was a barn. Unfortunately, it didn’t have any doors. But right now, they didn’t have a better option.
He headed for the back of the barn, then tugged Mackenzie down to the hay-strewn dirt floor with him.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “Did you get hit?” The thought alone was enough to almost make his head stop working.
“No, I’m fine.” She searched his face. “What about you?”
“I’m fine.”
Gage took out his cell phone and swore. No service. So much for more bars in more places.
Mackenzie held up her camera, pointing it at the entrance. He knew she was scared because he could hear her heart thundering, and yet she kept filming. Damn, she was amazing—or insane.
“What are we going to do?” Mackenzie asked.
Gage shoved his phone back in his front pocket, hoping for inspiration to tell him how to answer that question when gunfire sounded from the front of the barn.
He pushed Mackenzie to the floor, covering her body with his as bullets zipped over their heads. Ragged chunks of wood went flying every which way thanks to the six men and their automatic weapons.
No, not six—four. Where the hell were the other two?
He lifted his head as he caught their scent. They were in the barn, just inside the door. All at once, the gunfire stopped. It had only been a diversion to make him duck so he wouldn’t see the
