Act of Valor by Dana Mentink

Author:Dana Mentink
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-02-01T16:32:36+00:00

* * *

The shots deafened her. Senses on overload, she could not process what was happening. Her arms and legs felt numb, her brain fuzzy. Someone, Zach, she realized, had pushed her down to the ground, shielding her with his torso as bullets peppered the asphalt around them. Sharp bits cut into her chin and the breath was squeezed out of her. Had she been shot? Had he? She could not be sure.

Then Zach pulled her to her feet, yanking her around the other side of the car, tugging her back inside the café, shouting into his radio. We’re still alive, she told herself in disbelief. Thank You, God. Dimly, she heard Zach talking urgently into his radio.

“I’ve gotta get her out of here. I’ll contact you when I can.”

They sprinted out the back entrance and into an alley fetid with the smell of garbage and exhaust while cops surged all over the scene of the second shooting. She stumbled, but he helped her along. “We have to hurry, Violet. Beck made it past our guys. He’s going to start tracking us if he can.”

Terror made her blood run cold. Beck was coming. He’d killed Bill Oscar, her longtime friend, murdered him right on a public bench not three feet away. Now he was coming for her just like he’d promised in the airport. He wouldn’t let her escape again. Icy prickles erupted along her spine. Suddenly, she could not pull any air into her lungs. She staggered to a stop, struggling against a growing dizziness.

He stopped, taking her by the arms, bending so he could look in her face. “We have to keep going.”

But she couldn’t. As much as she wanted to be strong, she simply could not force herself to move past the fear. It was as if her muscles and joints were paralyzed by a strange sort of inertia born of terror and helplessness.

Zach stroked her upper arms as if to warm her. “Vi, listen to me. I’m going to get you out of this. I’m going to keep you safe.” He smiled. “Just like when we were kids and you got stuck in that elm I told you not to climb in the Baisley Pond Park. You wouldn’t let anyone else help you down but me. Noah and Carter tried, and you screamed nonstop until I climbed up and got you. Remember that?”

She remembered. Staring into his eyes, blue as robins’ eggs, she recalled that moment when he’d commanded her to release the branch and hold on to him. Let go, Violet. I won’t let you fall.

Now she tried to catch her breath and calm her terror. He would take care of her if she let him. She knew it with every cell in her being, just like she had as a child, perched on a limb, waiting for Zach and no one else. It felt to her then as though she’d been waiting for him her whole life, waiting to step out on that fragile branch that spanned the distance between the two of them.

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