Hot Pursuit (7 page)

Geez, way to be strong, Evie.

“It doesn’t matter. Besides, you’re leaving
in a few days. What would be the point in spending any time
together?”

“I think you know the point.” His voice was a
deep, sexy growl, and she felt an answering throb in her belly and
her sex.

Impulsively, she stepped forward and squeezed
his hand while she gave him a peck on the cheek. He turned his head
and their lips met, but the contact was too brief as she backed
away again, her heart hammering in her throat and ears.

“Goodbye, Matt.”

Evie turned to go just as the lights in the
pavilion snapped out. She stumbled to a halt as the crowd gasped.
Scattered headlights illuminated the area, but not enough to see
more than a few inches.

A car backfired, and Evie nearly leapt out of
her skin. Someone screamed, and then a chorus of screams erupted
when the car backfired again. The crowd surged, knocking her off
balance. A hand wrapped around her arm and tugged her up against a
hard chest.

“We have to get out of here.” It was Matt’s
voice in her ear and she turned her head, prepared to ask him
why—until the car backfired again and she realized what was really
happening.

That wasn’t a car. It was a gun.

MATT STOOD IN THE DARKNESS with Evie pressed
against his body and listened. She was soft and warm, but he had no
time to enjoy the feel of her in his arms. Something was wrong. The
power could go out, sure enough, but those had been gunshots in the
aftermath.

Probably just some drunken rednecks, but Matt
never assumed. He didn’t even want to be thinking about work now,
but his instincts had jolted into high gear the instant the lights
went out. Too many years in HOT had made him into a military
machine that kicked into action at the slightest hint of
trouble.

Someone might be playing, but they were
playing dangerously, shooting a weapon in a crowded area. It was
utterly dark—and then a couple of cars popped on their headlights,
shining straight at the crowd. Matt swore. The lights weren’t
helpful so much as blinding.

The gun sounded again, and someone screamed.
The crowd started to surge forward.

“Come on.” He started to pull Evie toward the
woods.

“Where are we going?”

“Away from the crowd.”

“Shouldn’t we get to a car?”

“We will. But right now, we need to go this
way.”

Out of habit, he’d assessed the area when
he’d first arrived, and he’d kept a mental calculation of landmarks
and cover the entire time he’d been here tonight. It was as natural
to him as breathing, and just as necessary to his survival. Though
his eyes hadn’t quite adjusted, he knew the parking lot was a
couple hundred yards away even without the headlights for
reference.

Too far across open ground to make a run for
it, especially when the person on his six was a woman in
high-heeled shoes.

Matt reached instinctively for his
military-issue nine mil before he remembered it wasn’t there. Damn
thing was in a locker with all his other gear, far away at Fort
Bragg.

Hell, he didn’t even have a knife. He should
have—every Southern man carried at least a pocketknife—but he
didn’t. Colonel Mendez had told him to keep out of trouble, so he
was keeping out. Besides, this was Rochambeau, not some third world
shithole where the latest terrorist scumbag was hiding away.

Yeah, sometimes a crazy Cajun got a little
out of hand, which is what he suspected now. Didn’t mean it wasn’t
dangerous though.

Matt started moving again, getting farther
from the pavilion. This time when he stopped, he drew Evie up close
behind him.

He could feel her trembling but he knew she’d
never admit to being afraid. That had never been Evie’s style.

“It’ll be okay.” He spoke over his shoulder.
“Trust me.”

He scanned the darkness, wishing he had his
night-vision goggles. With NVGs, he’d be able to distinguish
terrain, see movement. Find this jerk and take him down before
anyone got hurt.

But first he needed to get Evie somewhere
safe, away from the shots. And then he
would
find this guy
and kick the fucker’s ass for being so damn stupid. If the cops
didn’t get here first.

Behind them, the pavilion was in pandemonium.
People yelled and screamed, surging toward their cars. Tables
scraped against concrete. Bottles shattered. A woman wailed.

A car turned then, the headlights sweeping
across the grass. Straight toward their position.

Matt tried to duck out of the path of the
beam, but too late.

The gun exploded again, closer and louder
this time, and Matt jerked Evie to the ground.

Evie hit the grass with an oomph. “What
the—”

Matt clamped his hand over her mouth, pressed
his lips to her ear. “Shh.”

Miraculously, she stilled. He could see her
eyes in the darkness, see how wide and frightened they were. Part
of that, he knew, was the way he was acting. But he didn’t know
what was going on, and he wasn’t taking any chances.

What he knew was this: someone was shooting a
weapon, unsafely, in a crowd of people. And that someone had to be
stopped.

“Stay here.” He breathed the words more than
said them.

She gripped his arm. “I’d rather not,” she
whispered. “I think we should go to your car, or I’ll see if I can
find Julie and Steve.”

Disbelief punched him in the gut. His team
never argued when he gave an order.
Maybe they should have.
Maybe Jim and Marco would still be alive if they had.

Matt shook off the doubt and despair that
internal voice filled him with. He had no time for self-pity. “It’s
too dangerous. Stay here while I get this guy.”

“Let the police take care of it. I’m sure
someone called them by now, but we can call again to be sure.” Her
head dipped as she fumbled with the tiny purse slung across her
body. “Just a sec—”

Matt circled her wrist, stopping her. “I need
to find him before someone gets hurt.” He left
if they haven’t
been hurt already
unspoken. “I can’t do that if you won’t
cooperate.”

Her teeth fastened onto her lower lip as she
considered it. “Wouldn’t it just be easier to call the police?”

“No.”

Her breath left her on an irritated sigh.
“Fine, I’ll stay. But not for long, Matt. I don’t like this at
all.”

“If I’m not back in ten minutes, head into
the trees. Call the cops if they aren’t here, and don’t stop until
you reach the road.”

Matt started to go, but then he stopped.
Quickly, he dug his fingers into the soft earth, then smeared dirt
across his face and down his arms, dimming the reflection his skin
would make in the headlights. It wasn’t as good as greasepaint, but
it would have to do.

Evie squeezed his arm. “Be careful.”

He would have laughed if he didn’t feel the
urgency of finding this sonofabitch. Instead, he kissed her, a
quick peck on the lips that surprised her if the way her eyes
widened was any indication.

“Please stay here,” he added. He was
unaccustomed to asking, but she nodded. Then he started up the
slope, belly-crawling inch by slow inch.

He sent up a brief prayer that he didn’t
crawl over a fire-ant mound. No Louisiana native could ever forget
the sting of a fire ant, or the knowledge of what a nest of the
nasty critters could do. Not a pleasant thought, though he reckoned
the parish was pretty good about ant control in a public park.

After he’d crawled about fifty feet, he
stopped and dropped his head to the side to make sure Evie was
where he’d left her—and his heart lodged in his throat.

Fuck
.

Her face was a beacon, her skin reflecting
the light from the parking lot even when it wasn’t pointed straight
at her. He’d taken care of himself, but he hadn’t considered
her.

Idiot
. She’d wound him up so tight he
hadn’t been thinking straight. He should have rubbed dirt on her,
whether she liked it or not. Jesus, he was losing his touch. Maybe
it was a good thing the Army was thinking hard about his future. If
he couldn’t get the most basic things right, how could he go back
into the field and be in charge of a team? How could he risk losing
anyone else because he screwed up?

He signaled to Evie to put her head down and
hoped like hell she understood what he meant. She dropped her head
to her arms, but didn’t hide her face.

Holy hell. He could go back, but that would
waste valuable time. He resumed his crawl, listening for any
movement close by. Soon, he reached a picnic table and pulled
himself to a crouching position behind it. One glance back at Evie
to make sure she was okay.

There was a good hundred feet between them
now but he had no trouble finding her. Her face shone, but she was
safe.

Then a movement to her left caught his eye.
He stared, willing the shape to take form. When it did, his heart
slammed into his chest. He’d never get there in time.

* * *

“You think Girard is so cool now?”

Evie watched the hand holding the knife. It
wasn’t pointed at her, but still. The gun, at least, was tucked
away in his belt.

“Jimmy, this isn’t funny. You need to stop it
right now.”

“I ain’t hurt nobody. I just want to talk to
you.”

“You were firing a gun,” she pointed out. “In
the dark. How do you know you didn’t hurt anyone?”

It was ninety damn degrees on a steamy
Louisiana summer night and her teeth were chattering like she was
standing in downtown Chicago, sans clothing, in the middle of
January. It infuriated her to be so helpless, but she couldn’t stop
the chattering no matter how hard she tried.

She didn’t really think Jimmy wanted to hurt
anyone. But he was just stupid enough and mean enough to do it
anyway. He’d been one of the bullies back in high school, one of
the guys who picked on those littler or stranger than he was.

Her eyes had grown accustomed to the dark
now, and she could see Jimmy blink as he considered her question.
“I fired in the air,” he said after a minute. “Not
at
anyone.”

Evie gritted her teeth. “Bullets come down
again.” It happened all the time in those countries where people
fired weapons in celebration. They aimed automatic rifles high in
the air, and the bullets came down in the crowd. Sometimes, people
got hurt.

“I fired toward the lake.” He said it as if
he were proud of that fact.

“Why did you do it at all?”

His jaw thrust out. “Did you know that
Girard’s daddy bought him into the Rangers?” Jimmy spit on the
ground. “I coulda been a soldier, but my knee blew out. Can’t pass
the physical so they won’t let me in.”

Evie wanted to choke him at that moment. This
was about some pissing contest with Matt? “I’m sorry to hear it.
I’m sure you’d have made a fine soldier.”

“Damn straight.” He waved the knife. “I got
the jump on him, didn’t I?”

Anger was a slow boil in her belly. “You sure
did. Now can I please go?”

“No.” His voice was hard and it sent another
shiver down her spine.

“You don’t want to hurt anyone, Jimmy. You
don’t want to get in trouble with the law.”

He snorted. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Then put the knife down.”

He lifted the hunting knife in his hand. It
was serrated and ugly, the kind of thing a guy used to stab deer or
something. Hunting, thank heavens, was something she’d never had a
taste for.

Sure, she deboned chickens and cleaned fish
and it didn’t make her queasy—not a good thing for a chef to be,
after all—but hunting and cleaning big game was not her kind of
thing.

He slid the knife into the sheath at his
side. He hadn’t been wearing that earlier, or she would have
noticed it for sure. That meant he’d left the party, went to his
truck, and got his weapons. And all for the purpose of… what?
Getting one over on Matt? Getting even with her?

“There. Satisfied?”

Evie shifted on her feet. She wasn’t used to
standing in heels and they were starting to hurt. It didn’t help
that the ground was soft nearer the lake and the spikes kept
sticking in the dirt.

“Better, yes.”

“You weren’t nice to me, Evie.” He spoke as
if he were lecturing her on manners. “I got you a drink and
everything, and you weren’t nice.”

“I’m sorry.” It made her furious to say it,
as if he hadn’t tried to feel her up, but she didn’t suppose now
was a good time to point out his boorish behavior.

“You can be nice to me now.” His voice was
low, suggestive.

Her stomach turned. “How’s that?”

“You could kiss me.”

Evie’s heart knocked against her ribs. Bile
rose in her throat. She hadn’t been attracted to Jimmy before. The
thought of kissing him now was absolutely abhorrent.

“I don’t kiss on the first date.” She said it
primly, aware of how ridiculous she sounded. “You’ll have to ask me
out proper and keep your hands to yourself, and we’ll go from
there.”

Not that she’d go out with Jimmy Thibodeaux
if hell froze over, but she’d sure like to get away from him now.
She didn’t like being alone with him. She had no idea where Matt
was, but she kept hoping he’d show up with a few other guys and
kick Jimmy’s ass into next week.

Jimmy snorted. “Hell, Evie, why you gotta
play hard to get? Everybody in Rochambeau knows you aren’t.”

For half a second, she wanted to launch
herself at him and slap his stupid face. But that wasn’t a good
idea, so she stood her ground and let fury wash over her. “Do they,
Jimmy? Do they really? First of all, we graduated nine years ago.
Second, how many of the guys do you know who actually had sex with
me?”

The second she asked, she knew it was the
wrong question. It didn’t matter that Matt had been the only guy
she’d slept with in high school. The others would say she had, even
when she hadn’t. And Jimmy would have believed it. Hell, he’d
probably told them she’d slept with him too.