Her Mountain Protector by Jenna Ryan

Author:Jenna Ryan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-08-22T23:15:55+00:00

* * *

Rush took several blind shots over his shoulder as he ran. Nick ignored them and continued his pursuit.

Rush wasn’t going to escape. The moon and stars were out. The man might be a shadow careening across the snow, but he was a highly visible one.

Accustomed to the terrain, and better outfitted for a chase tonight, Nick dogged him to the edge of the lake. Rush didn’t hesitate. He skidded down the bank and onto the ice.

“Think again, pal.” Planting his feet, Nick took aim and fired.

Rush stumbled, clamped a hand over his right arm where Nick’s shot had clipped him. He switched the gun to his left hand, shot twice, then continued toward the trees.

Nick landed two-footed on the ice. “Stop now, Rush, or you’re a dead man.”

Rush swore at him but kept moving.

Nick fired again. Rush’s left leg buckled, but he refused to stop.

“Next one’s in your spine,” Nick warned.

Another glance, another wild shot from Rush. But he lost steam as he lost blood, and went down on one knee.

Nick heard the ice crack. Keeping one eye on the surface and the other on his quarry, he approached the winded man.

“Gun down,” he ordered, and waited until Rush complied. “Hands where I can see them.”

“I’ll bleed to death,” Rush growled.

“Yeah, well that would be a shame.”

Nick cast a wary look over the frozen lake. Why did this feel off to him? Ice cracked again, but it was a distant sound, all but drowned out by the wail of the wind and Rush’s labored breathing.

Nick had been a cop too long not to anticipate some kind of resistance. Rush didn’t disappoint. He folded over as if catching his breath, then spun on his heel and lunged at Nick’s knees. Unfortunately, the ice under Nick’s feet chose that moment to snap.

If Rush heard the sound, he gave no indication. He merely bared his teeth and tried to head butt Nick below the waist.

Nick leaped aside, slipped, but didn’t go down. Rush twisted around, with his arms outstretched and saliva coating his chin.

It was like fending off a hungry wolf, except that this wolf had a long reach and really nothing to lose by throwing himself at his captor.

Nick saw the ice zigzag around Rush’s feet. Crouched near the bank, he aimed his gun between the other man’s eyes. “If I don’t get you, the lake will. Look down, Anthony.”

Rush’s gaze dropped. He froze, fingers kinked, breath hitching as lightning-bolt cracks split the ice.

“You have to help me,” he spat. “You’re a cop. You can’t let me fall through.”

It was the indignation that did it, caused the mental camera in Nick’s mind to click. He saw a shadowy image. It hovered on the edge of his memory, so close he could make out the shape of a face.

The ice cracked again. Nick gestured with his gun. “Step left,” he said. “A big step. And another.” When Rush hit solid ground, Nick warned, “Run and I’ll shoot your other leg.”

Blood lay in a black pool where he’d stood.

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