Page 53 of Shane
“I don’t know. A helicopter touched down as soon as we stopped rolling. You and I were both still upside down in the SUV, but I watched what happened through the broken window. Some guys dragged her away.”
That didn’t make sense. Shane had been sure the shooters were after Smart, not Everlee. He glanced over her shoulder at what was left of the Toyota. Its fancy plastic trim and all of its windows were missing. Most of its shine. Some of its paint. Not one part of it wasn’t dented.
“A car pulled alongside us, Agent Hayes. Two men with guns got out. I think they were the same ones who shot at us. Agent Yeager must’ve been thrown clear of the vehicle when it rolled because she wasn’t inside when I came to. They walked straight over to where she was and they took her with them in the helicopter. That’s been about ten, fifteen minutes ago.” Smart lifted a hand and shoved her thick, dust-laden hair out of her eyes and over her shoulder.
A helicopter? Some guys? Everlee? Abducted? That made no sense. Could this have anything to do with her ex, Butch? Or was Smart behind this? Was anything she said true? But why would she lie? If she wasn’t, then everything she’d been saying all along was true. Shit.
Shaking his head to clear the residual fog in it, Shane lifted slowly to his feet, straight-arming Tuesday Smart the moment she moved in closer to keep him from falling, not needing her help. At least, not wanting to admit he needed it. But definitely not wanting her up close and personal now that he was wounded. This easy op was making him look weak, when, until he’d joined The TEAM, he’d been one of the toughest men in his squad.
Gripping his pounding head between both hands, he shook off the burgeoning migraine creeping up on him. For now, no aura threatened to take over his vision. Those suckers were the harbingers of certain pain that would all but render him blind for a few hours, another complication he didn’t need. Cussing his failure to prevent Everlee’s abduction, he pushed the very real expectation of a killer migraine aside and planned on getting Smart out of sight and Everlee back. “How many men?”
“Two in the vehicle that stopped” —Ms. Smart nodded at the sporty, silver car butted up against the left corner of the Toyota’s damaged rear bumper— “one guy in the chopper. But it stirred up a lot of dust when it landed, so I’m not really sure. I was still hanging upside down like you and—”
“It took three big tough guys to kidnap one little lady? What kind of helo?”
“Umm, a white one?”
Shane nodded. Shouldn’t have asked. Smart was a civilian, had no experience with choppers, and it was a stupid question at best. “Which way’d they go?”
“That way.” She pointed eastward, “but I stopped watching where they went once I got out of my seatbelt and got to you. You were so pale, and I… I thought you were dead.”
Staring off into the direction where she pointed, he grunted at the tenderness in her tone, needing to shut that sympathetic connection down. She was just a prisoner, not his friend. “Not yet, sorry to disappoint.”
Her breath caught in her throat, but not in one of those breath-hitching moments women made during all those cheesy, made-for-TV, Hallmark moments, either. The gasp was more as if she’d been slapped. Made Shane feel like an ass. All she’d done since the rollover was help. She hadn’t run, and she could have.
Swallowing hard, he finally noticed the fresh blood on the side of her neck and darker red trailing into her shirt collar. She was still wearing those fashionably torn jeans and the red shoes Smoke gave her. But dirt and grass stains smudged her knees, and the scuffed, dirty toes of those shoes proved she’d crawled out of the SUV like she’d said. Dust and debris had settled everywhere. In the air. In his eyes. In her hair. Tuesday Smart was injured, yet she hadn’t deserted him. She was still there. Her flex cuffs were gone, though. He should’ve noticed that a helluva lot sooner.
“Where are your cuffs?”
“There was lots of glass all around me, Agent Hayes. And a knife. I don’t know where it came from, but I used it to get out of those cuffs and then, out of my seatbelt. It was hurting me.”
Shane let his gaze scroll over her, then to the SUV. What Smart described was the truth. There was a knife in the dirt by the driver’s door. Not in her hand. But right where she’d obviously used it to free him from his restraints. Again, she could’ve used it against him, saved herself and run.
“Where’s that old guy on the tractor?” Who I made damn sure I didn’t hit. “Where are the other drivers who were on the freeway? Why the fuck hasn’t anyone stopped to render aid?”
“Shhhhh,” Smart whispered. “It’s okay, Shane. The guys who took Everlee scared them off. They had guns and fired at everyone. I think they’d already shot some of those cars before we crashed.”
“Well, damn.” That made sense. Shane stuck his chin at the SUV and told her, “Thanks for everything you’ve done for me. I hate to ask, but would you mind reaching inside that wreck and turning the engine thing off?”
“You bet,” she replied easily. Lifting to her feet, she backtracked to the Toyota, climbed in through the driver’s door window and onto the ceiling of the vehicle, leaned forward, and…
Thank God for silence.
Shane couldn’t help but watch her backside as she completed the task he’d asked of her. Smart was still as compliant as ever, and those rear pockets were taut and, yeah. He noticed how they barely jiggled when she backed out of the missing driver’s side window on her knees. It was getting harder to dislike her. Getting a big guy like him out through that shattered driver’s side window had to have been damned hard. She was a woman, for God’s sake, and he was a much bigger, wider load. Yet she’d dragged his dead weight all the way over here.
Pushing to her feet, she dusted her hands on her thighs and returned to his side. There went another chance for her to take off. Why hadn’t she? As banged-up and slow-witted as he was, she could be long gone by now. Only she kept coming back.
When she knelt alongside his legs, he noticed her once sleek, blonde hair was thoroughly decorated with bits of weeds, dried grass, and tiny sticks. She needed a comb and a brush, an hour or two of rest wouldn’t hurt. Damned if Shane’s dumbass hero complex didn’t jump up and want to provide all that crap to this woman. Right here. Right now. Not because he liked her that much, but because she deserved someone in her corner. Like it or not, she still looked every bit as innocent as she’d made herself out to be at the start of this nightmare. If that was all pretense, she was one helluva actress. Which was precisely what a black widow was, right? An actress? A liar? Shane had yet to see that side of her, but he’d sure as hell seen her compassionate side.
He shook those questions out of his head. He honestly didn’t know who or what Smart was anymore. Photographer or killer? Innocent caught up in some other person’s demented scheme? Practiced scam artist? Like an idiot, he brushed the strands of some dead weed out of the silky tangles hanging in her eyes. “You’re hurt, too.”
Brushing that same frazzled hank of hair over her shoulder, she leaned her cheek into his palm. “Not as bad as you. It was a helluva ride though, huh? But I was never completely unconscious. Just dazed and dizzy and mad when I couldn’t get my seatbelt off.”
He winced at her direct assessment of his failure as TEAM agent. Helluva ride, nothing. He’d nearly gotten them both killed. Possibly Everlee, too. Where could she be? For that matter…
“There was a first-aid kit in the rear of the Toyota, next to Smoke’s cooler. See if it survived, then we need to grab it, some food, water, our gear bags, and get moving. We can’t be here when the police arrive. We’ll bandage whatever wounds we have once we get out of sight.”
Like a female in distress, Smart looked up at him, her soft green eyes wide and so damned misty. “Why not, Shane? The police will help us. They’ll believe you, I know they will.”