Defensive Action. Jenna Kernan

important thing was that he do the best he could for her because she’d stopped for him. She’d saved him. And that made it hard to follow the directive to recover at all costs the flash drive containing the stolen intelligence on Siming’s Army. His supervisors would tell him to leave her behind. She was a liability and her death meant nothing compared to the deaths of thousands.

      But it meant something to him. He knew what Hornet and Needle would do to her. They’d never believe she wasn’t involved. So they’d torture her and learn nothing. Collateral damage. The part of his heart that did not follow orders decided to bring her along. At least until he knew about Takashi. If Takashi had not succeeded in making the drop, Ryan needed to find him before their pursuers did.

      “Hey!” she yelled.

      He jerked his head up. Had he dozed off or passed out? Didn’t matter. His vision was blurry and shaking his head did no good.

      “Hold the wheel,” he said.

      The tension vibrated in her voice. “Why?”

      “Because I’m going to pass out.”

      * * *

      HALEY’S ABDUCTOR PROCEEDED to do just that, slumping backward and against the open window.

      She lunged for the wheel but his foot remained on the gas, the dead weight of his leg propelling them along too fast for this winding road.

      Now what?

      She didn’t know but the upcoming turn in the road told her that she needed his foot off the gas or they were going off the road.

      Again.

      Haley imagined the federal agents following on foot and finding them wrapped around a tree. She used her opposite hand to shove for all she was worth, pushing until his foot slid from the gas pedal.

      They glided easily around the turn, which required two hands on the wheel. Then they coasted to a stop on the dark road.

      The heater blew and the engine rumbled. Through the vacant place where the rear window had been and broken windshield came the sound of the wind in the pine trees.

      Why wasn’t there anyone else on this blasted road?

      She’d wanted to please her dad and so she’d done what he asked her, hoping she wouldn’t disappoint him, wishing she could find the courage to step back into the stream of life, but knowing that was where the danger lay. Didn’t this just prove her point?

      Human wolves preyed on the weak and old, on drunk coeds. Police investigations revealed that her older sister spent as much time in bars as in the classroom. But her mother would not hear this. It went counter to her picture of her eldest daughter. In four days, Haley went from younger to only daughter. Of course she hadn’t known that for five months. Five long, terrible months of worry over the missing.

      She glanced over at the unconscious man beside her, illuminated only by the dashboard light. Blood oozed from the abrasions on his chest and shoulders, glistening in the blue glow from the dash. His head slumped down. She’d only seen this kind of musculature in action-adventure movies, when the hero somehow managed to lose his shirt or remove it for the female audience’s sake. But this was real. He was real. She released her seat belt and placed a hand on his chest. His ribs rose and fell beneath her palm. His skin was too warm and damp with sweat.

      Shock? The condition rose from her memory along with a list of symptoms and the emergency treatment for it.

      Why she had ever thought premed was her life’s passion was beyond her. She didn’t even recognize that girl, the one who’d wanted the excitement of being a physician’s assistant in a busy NYC emergency room. Being called to identify her sister’s body had made it impossible to ever voluntarily visit a hospital again. Haley shuddered as sweat beaded cold on her forehead. No. Life-and-death situations were definitely not in her wheelhouse. At least not the death part.

      Her heart beat painfully against her ribs and her throat burned.

      “Oh, no you don’t, Haley. You are not going to cry.”

      * * *

      RYAN FELT THE pressure of someone’s touch on his chest, the contact light and tentative. His eyes snapped open and he clamped his hand around the woman’s wrist. She jumped and tugged in a vain effort to retrieve her captured appendage.

      She could have shot him.

      She could have left the car and made a run for it.

      But she’d decided to check his condition instead. It wasn’t wise. But it was kind. How long since he’d seen this sort of compassion?

      “Haley,” he whispered.

      He released her. She rubbed her wrist with her opposite hand, not using either to hold the gun, which he knew she still had.

      “What happened?”

      “You fainted, I think.”

      “Passed out,” he said and stretched backwards until his neck pressed to the headrest. “Marines don’t faint.”

      “Is that what you are now? A Marine? Not a detective?”

      He blew out a breath. “Once a Marine...”

      She lifted her chin and gave him an appraising stare with those bright, intelligent eyes.

      “Look, if I tell you the truth, chances are good you won’t believe me. But if you are captured, you’ll know that you died protecting your country.”

      “Um, I can’t die. It will kill my mother.”

      “Then we have to get off the road.”

      She said nothing, but slipped her hand into her purse, leaving it there on what he suspected was the handle of the gun. He’d need to take that from her soon. But for now it seemed to make her feel safe. Chances were good that she’d make her escape attempt just as soon as she got out of the car.

      “I have a cabin reserved close to here.”

      “They have your car.”

      “So?”

      “So they’ll find you there.”

      “That’s impossible.”

      “By now they have your social media posts for the last decade. You didn’t mention your plans there, did you?”

      She said nothing. Of course she had.

      “They know your home address because it is on the car rental agreement.”

      “How do you know it’s a rental?”

      “Bar code. Rear window.”

      “Who are they?”

      “Mercenaries.”

      “Not mobsters or DEA. Now they are mercenaries?”

      “Hired by a terrorist cell working within the US. Chinese, we think.”

      “They didn’t look Chinese.”

      “Did they look like DEA agents?”

      She dragged her white upper teeth over her lower lip and something inside him stirred with interest. He pushed it down.

      “They shot at us. They didn’t identify themselves. And they sure as hell didn’t try to apprehend us.”

      She pressed her fist to her mouth and glanced out the ruined front window.

      “They didn’t do those things because they planned to kill you and take me.” He rubbed his tired eyes with a thumb and index finger. “Tell me where you are staying.”

      She explained about an adventure camp that her father had planned for her to try to get her to do something new and have a technology-free, screen-free adventure in nature.

      “Mission accomplished. You’ve had an adventure. What did you think?”