More Than Strangers (9 page)

She tried to twist around, but he was pushing her hard enough that she would trip if she didn’t walk forward.

His next words sent a chill down her spine. “They’re watching you. See the black SUV parked out front? That’s where we’re headed. Slow and steady, sweetheart, we don’t want them to make a move before we get there.”

Survival instincts kicked in. Her steps quickened to a march. The distance between her and the car felt like a vast desert expanse. “What’s going on?” Her voice was more high-pitched than she would have liked, but these were extenuating circumstances.

“I’ve got no fucking clue.” He positioned his body in front of her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two men on a motorcycle whip around the corner. A moment later, they hopped the curb. The one in the back was holding what looked like an automatic weapon. He lifted his arms and aimed in their direction.

Jason cursed and shoved her to the ground. “Stay down.”

Her gaze remained fixed on her savior. She didn’t know how a pistol came to be in his hand, but he was firing a moment later. Screeching wheels and the sound of metal crunching against concrete followed. She caught the scent of gasoline and blood.

“Let’s go.” Jason’s voice set her in motion. With her eyes focused on the car, Nulli left her bags on the ground and launched up. As soon as she was on her feet, she ran as fast as she could. Luckily, her purse was a backpack.

By the time she reached the door, he was already in the driver’s seat. He must have left the engine running. She managed to scramble into the backseat a moment before Jason floored the accelerator. It wasn’t a moment too soon. A white pickup truck with four armed men in the back barreled toward them from behind.

“Fasten your seat belt.” The latch clicked just as he spun the car to the right and into the main street. They rocketed forward—straight into an intersection. At the red light, there was an old sedan in one lane and a donkey cart in the other.

“Don’t hit the donkey!” Probably not their biggest concern at the moment, but it was all she could focus on.

Jason aimed into the space between the car and the cart. He clipped the sedan and pushed it out of the way. She breathed a sigh of relief. Leaning back in her seat, she opened her mouth to ask some questions. But loud popping noises interrupted her thoughts. She looked back. There were now two trucks in pursuit. The men in them were shooting.

Her savior seemed unaffected. His gaze stayed forward and both his hands were steady on the wheel. The rapid-fire cracks continued. She could feel the vibration from high-velocity impacts. Bullets hit the car. It was broad daylight, and they were on a main thoroughfare. What the hell was going on?

Her lips moved but no sound came out. It was probably for the best since this was a really bad time to ask for an explanation.

Jason spoke, but it didn’t seem like he was addressing her. “We need to shake these guys.”

A man’s voice broke over the car speakers a moment later. “I’m a hundred meters behind your tail. I’m trying to close in. You’ve got two cars following you, and I see two more headed your way from the opposite direction. Make a sharp turn up ahead. It’ll force them into one pack.”

Wheels screeched and the car’s momentum launched her toward the door. Thank God she was wearing a seat belt. Jason’s voice remained calm. “Don’t engage. There’s too many of them.”

“Roger. I’ll try to stay as close as possible.” She glanced at the rearview mirror. There were four cars behind them now but farther away. They were traveling down a narrow street.

“Can we make it to the airport from here?” Jason asked.

The speaker crackled. “You’re going in the wrong direction. It’s too far away, and you’ll never get there in one piece.”

“What about the consulate?” Good idea. There were lots of friendly Americans there, not to mention a few marines.

“A political rally just started and all roads to the consulate are blocked.” The person on the other end sounded as if he was talking about the weather. Shouldn’t he and Jason be more concerned about the fact that men with guns were chasing after them?

“The hotel’s the safest place for now,” Jason concluded. “As soon as I get there, set our evac plan in motion.”

“Roger.”

The car made a sharp left. They were back on the main thoroughfare heading toward a dilapidated bridge. Train tracks ran underneath it. The rails on both sides of the structure were worn stubs of concrete, which said something about the number of vehicles that had fallen off. Turning around to look back, she could see one of the pickup trucks gaining on them.

With great difficulty, she suppressed the urge to screech at Jason. Shouldn’t someone be calling the cops? She was pretty sure they had passed at least two police checkpoints during the short drive. On the other hand, there were men with automatic weapons shooting at them, and the police hadn’t done anything besides jump out of their way.

“Let’s hope they haven’t figured out where you’re headed,” the unidentified male voice remarked.

And if they did, then what? Shouldn’t someone be asking that question? Of course not. She was the only sane person in the vicinity and for some reason her vocal cords weren’t functioning.

“I’d be surprised if they don’t have surveillance on the hotel. My arrival was the trigger. They didn’t want to deal with security measures.” Jason’s face was impassive; he wasn’t breaking a sweat, and he ignored her existence. The urge to shake him was overwhelming, but it would distract him from the road.

Jason glanced at the side mirror, drawing her attention to the reflective surface. She froze. One of the pickup trucks was coming up on their side. A man on the back was holding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. It felt like she was in a
Die Hard
movie, but in the worst way possible.

Jason’s voice commanded her attention. “Hold onto something.”

She wasn’t an idiot—at least her instincts weren’t. She looked down to find her hands already clenched over the leather seat. As they ascended the overpass, he tapped the brakes. The car pursuing them was now directly to their side. He spun the wheel and floored the accelerator. The crash was deafening as he rammed the pickup over the broken rails down to the railroad below. He straightened the car just before their wheels met air.

At the crest of the bridge, the car came to a complete stop. Her gaze was on Jason. He shifted into reverse and turned his body to face her.

The car careened back. Jason’s gaze was intent. He had one hand on the wheel and the other braced on the back of his seat. They angled slightly to the left before he accelerated. She turned just in time to see the pickup behind them swerve. The back of her car hit the truck’s front axle, whipping the vehicle completely to the side so it blocked the road. Without warning, she found herself launched forward as they broke away.

She found her voice. “I’m going to die, aren’t I?”

Jason didn’t take his eyes off the road. “Not yet. I’m still deciding if I’m going to strangle you.”

Nulli almost jumped out of her skin when the door clicked shut. She continued forward into the wood-paneled hotel suite. Her legs shook. There was a slight ringing in her ears, and the room was spinning. Large hands closed around her upper arms and held her up. She leaned back into a solid warm chest—Jason’s solid warm chest. Surreal didn’t begin to describe what had just transpired.

His lips brushed her ear. “Breathe. You’re safe. I’ve got eyes on the hotel. If they make a move, I’ll know.”

The last time he spoke to her was before he sent the pickup truck spinning. They’d turned at breakneck speed into the hotel entrance not long after. To her relief, their pursuers were far behind by the time they traversed the winding concrete barriers and fortified gate. She now had a newfound respect for the turn radius of American-made cars. He was right. She was safe with him.

Or perhaps not, she thought as he spun her around. She was wearing flats, so she had to tilt her face up to meet his gaze. It was something she hadn’t done in a while. She was taller than almost everyone she’d met in this country.

His icy stare made her mouth go dry. Her mind went blank. There was no blueprint for their predicament. They were in limbo—neither strangers, friends, nor lovers. She didn’t know where she stood. After six months of messaging back and forth, she knew they couldn’t put off discussing the future for much longer. Of all the problems to occupy her mind, their relationship status was the least appropriate. Since it was the single issue she could focus on, it was clear her brain wasn’t functional.

“What are you doing here?” It was a somewhat inane question at this point.

He clenched his jaw. It wasn’t a good sign. “I could ask you the same question.”

She frowned. “I work here.” From the ticking vein on his temple, she gathered her answer wasn’t to his liking.

“It’s a detail you’ve omitted for over six months.” His voice felt like a whip. He had never used this tone with her. The disapproval shouldn’t sting, but it did. Because her brain was sluggish, she couldn’t come up with a snappy retort. It was infuriating.

“You never asked where I was.” Even as she uttered the defense, she remembered steering the conversation away from this topic several times. It hadn’t been a conscious decision, but part of her knew he wouldn’t approve. Her instincts had served her well.

He pulled her close enough she could feel his chest rise and fall. “Very few people make me angry. You’ve just redefined furious.”

Her hands clenched into fists. “Back off. You don’t have any right to be upset with me.”

“I just saved your life. It gives me all kinds of rights.” His point was valid, but she wasn’t in the mood to be reasonable.

“What did I do that was so terrible?” She knew she sounded like a petulant child, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself.

From his expression, she had just asked a very dumb question. “You moved to one of the most dangerous cities in the world, and you didn’t tell me about it.”

“What are you mad about—the moving or the not telling?” Whatever part of her brain regulated the words coming out of her mouth, it wasn’t functioning at optimum levels.

He glared at her. “Of all the idiotic career moves you could have made, working in the slums of Karachi takes the cake. What the hell were you thinking?”

Frustrated tears stung Nulli’s eyes. The problem was, after all that had just happened, she couldn’t articulate a solid argument. It had made sense when she got the offer. The proliferation of antibiotic-resistant strains of TB in South Asia was a global public health concern. The conditions in these slums made the entire city a living petri dish. Small improvements in sanitation and consistent screening could make an exponential difference.

Zahra was her friend, and the program Nulli pioneered for the Public Health Partnership was one the most ambitious initiatives in the region. She believed in the organization she worked for, and she was determined to see this project succeed.

When the security environment deteriorated, she stayed out of sheer stubbornness. She didn’t want to be a quitter, so she kept at it as one colleague after another packed their bags and left. But all the noble reasons why she needed to be here paled in comparison to the memory of armed men chasing her through the streets.

If Jason hadn’t come, she would be dead.

Her throat closed up. A fat tear rolled down her cheek. She gulped air.

“If you cry now,” he ground out, “I swear I will strangle you.”

She heaved a shaky breath. She didn’t want to fall to pieces at this particular moment. If he wasn’t imprisoning her with an iron grip, she would have fled to the bathroom. Her nose and cheeks felt hot.

She didn’t want to bawl. She really didn’t.

“Nulli, don’t you dare…fuck me.”

A stream of hot liquid leaked from her eyes. To her relief, he let go of her arms. She wiped the tears away with the back of her hand before stomping her foot on the floor. “This is all your fault. You wouldn’t stop yelling at me.”

“I wasn’t yelling at you.” If he hadn’t been before, he definitely was now. But he sounded panicked, and for once he didn’t look quite so sure of himself.

“Don’t you think I feel bad enough?” she managed to gasp out through failed attempts at breathing. To her horror, her voice became high-pitched and nasally. “Don’t you think I know I was an idiot for not leaving weeks ago?”

“Please stop crying.” He sounded pained. From his tone, she didn’t know if his words were a command or a plea.

“Why should I?”

His expression grew pensive. It was as if he were actually trying to come up with a logical argument. “Your face is all red and blotchy. It’s not pretty.”

It was the worst thing he could have said. A sound very much resembling an angry shriek erupted from her throat. Embarrassed by her lack of composure, she covered her mouth and tried to stop the torrent of tears. She took deep breaths, counted backwards from twenty, and thought of rainbows and cute kittens. None of it worked.

Mumbling a string of expletives, Jason dragged her over to the sofa and pushed down on her shoulders. She sat. She didn’t have the energy to be indignant. She was too busy failing to compose herself.

“If you think I’m going to apologize just because you’ve started the waterworks, you’re in for disappointment.” He shoved tissues through her wet fingers. When she didn’t do anything but twist them back and forth, he took his handkerchief out and clumsily dabbed at her cheeks.

She would have said something smart but his expression made her pause. His brows were furrowed, and she saw concern in his usually inscrutable gaze. He was annoyed and uncomfortable, that much was clear. But underlying his ire was something entirely different.

Without warning, Jason pulled her into his arms. He squeezed her tight before pressing a kiss onto her hair. When she breathed, her lungs filled with his familiar scent. Anger and fear dissolved. Relief took over. The heaving sobs subsided, but her tears continued to flow. She didn’t know why she was crying, but she couldn’t seem to stop.