Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense April 2019, Box Set 2 of 2 by Maggie K. Black

Author:Maggie K. Black
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Kristen choked on the scream she tried to swallow. The men had caught up with them too quickly, too easily. She and Nick weren’t anywhere near far enough from the shore. They weren’t anywhere near enough to the other side of the lake.

“What do we do?” she cried.

No sense in being quiet. The men knew where they were.

“Paddle faster,” Nick said.

He dipped his paddle deeply into the water.

Kristen tried to imitate the movement. Her shoulders felt like they were wrenching from their sockets with the effort. She thought she was strong. Paddling a canoe through a lake with men and guns behind them on the shore made her feel as weak as an infant.

To emphasize their power, those men fired their guns again. Across the water, the sound magnified, echoing around the open space. Surely someone would hear. Surely someone would investigate.

Or maybe not in the Wisconsin woods. Maybe firing guns in the middle of the night was normal. Kristen didn’t know. The closest she got to woods was walking beneath the trees in parks. No one shot guns in parks.

She glanced over her shoulder to see how much progress the canoe had made. Not much. To her, they seemed to be sitting still in the water.

The men weren’t sitting still. They had climbed to the deck of the empty cottage. Two flashlights gleamed like staring eyes trying to pierce the darkness beyond the range of their beams.

Kristen and Nick were outside the flashlights’ range, but the silver aluminum of the canoe glowed in the moonlight. Her hair must be glowing too. The part of her she considered her best feature, her prettiest feature, was now her downfall. First the strand on the branch had alerted the man on the trail where to look for them. Now she shined in the dark like her own beacon.

Another gun fired. Not a pistol. Pistol bounds weren’t all that great. But this was a rifle. Kristen might not know about firearms usage in the woods, but she knew the firearms themselves. Her boss had taken her to a firing range so she could understand the power of the weapons that too often harmed her clients.

They would have to paddle much faster to outrun a bullet from a rifle.

One round splashed into the lake mere inches from the canoe.

“Duck,” Nick called.

“I can’t paddle if I duck.”

“Never mind. Just duck.”

Never mind because her paddling was useless.

But Kristen didn’t argue. She curled up on the bottom of the boat and clenched her teeth so they wouldn’t chatter. Each breath was an effort.

A ping echoed off the seat where she’d been sitting. If she’d still been there—

A whimper like a lonely puppy’s burst from her before she could stop it.

Another bullet hit the canoe without Kristen having any power to stop it. The round fell short of the seat and cut through the hull half a foot from Kristen’s toes.

This time, she couldn’t hold back the scream.

“Are you hit?” Nick’s voice was taut.

“No, but there’s water gushing in.

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