Captive Heart by Mina Carter, J.William Mitchell Read Free Book Online Page A

She was scared, and he recognized the signs of shock setting in. He was reasonably sure they were being followed, silently stalked. As soon as someone got a bead on them, they were toast. He wasn’t naïve enough to believe his contract with his employers would protect him.
    There had been no way they were getting to her in the labs, so they’d needed an extraction specialist. Him. No doubt, they’d hired him to get her out of the labs, and they’d planned this all along. He hissed in annoyance with himself for not spotting it as he carried on down the path, his hand holding hers firmly. Games within games. There was nothing he hated more than games.
    He paused for an instant as the conditions underfoot deteriorated. Last night’s rain had turned the path to mud. Without a word, he turned and swung her into his arms. She stifled a gasp as he clomped through the muck at a speed that defied the fact he was carrying a full-grown woman in his arms with little effort.
    She looked down at the mud, then back at his face. “I’m making you sink,” she whispered as she kept glancing behind them.
    He grimaced as the water seeped over the top of his boots. “Don’t argue, or I might decide it’s a bad idea and drop you in the middle of all this,” he warned, although he wouldn’t do it. Just like he wasn’t going to leave her here and run, even though it would save his own ass. They wanted her, not him.
    But he wasn’t going to let that happen. The job had been to kidnap her and return her to civilization after the conference, not cold-blooded murder. Besides, even if he did cut and run, he knew too much. They wouldn’t stop looking for him, and he didn’t much fancy hiding out somewhere in the back end of beyond for the rest of his life to avoid them.
    “I’ll survive. Been in worse conditions.” He dropped her lightly onto her feet as the path cleared up, urging her into a run ahead of him. The dilapidated outbuilding was in sight just up ahead. “Just a little farther, and we’re out of here.”
    She ran as soon as she saw the building. The next stop was the truck and then back to civilization. But running toward the door, she didn’t see the burly goon hiding in the shadows behind a tree until he moved. In slow motion, he watched the butt of the rifle headed right for her face. She instinctively moved her arms up to protect herself, but it was too late, and the rifle struck her temple with a muffled thud.
    Day swore viciously as she dropped like a rag doll. They must have cased the area and found his equipment stashes. He’d set the area up in case he needed to leave quickly. In addition to this one, there were four other locations with everything from a simple rucksack of equipment right up to one with a dirt bike. Obviously, they’d decided to hedge their bets and put a goon here in case he and Rollie managed to evade the main group.
    Clever, but not clever enough. Day moved like lightening, getting inside the guy’s reach in an instant. He twisted, his fist contacting the goon’s jaw in a vicious uppercut that had him staggering. Day didn’t give him time to recover, throwing a heavy right hook. It connected with a meaty crunch, then the hard blade of Day’s elbow smashed into the same spot. The goon dropped, groaning incoherently.
    Day picked up Rollie’s SIG, which was loose in her hand, and pointed it at the semi-conscious man. He should shoot. Never leave an enemy behind you. Something stopped him, though.
    “Gah.” Disgusted with himself, he tucked the pistol into the back of his jeans and bent down to pick her up.
    It took only minutes to bundle the unconscious woman into the passenger seat of the truck hidden in the dilapidated shed, and then Day was gunning the engine, crashing through the rotten main doors, and throwing the truck down the dirt trail as fast as he could.
    Shots rang out behind them, but he kept going, watching the gauges on his dashboard. Last thing he needed was for a