Fatal Courage: Shadow Force International, Book 3 (Shadow Force International Romantic Suspense Series) (34 page)

Which meant the bastard would be checking in with his men, realizing they were out of commission. What would he do to Ruby?

As if Beatrice read his mind, she said, “Ruby will be fine. He won’t harm her and she knows it.”

Because Izala wanted her. The thought made Jax’s stomach cramp.

They flew through traffic, minutes ticking by with every sweep of the wipers. The limo wasn’t a race car, but the young driver seemed to know how to handle it well. Jax realized it was outfitted with special tires, probably bulletproof glass and panels. It was a souped-up, all-terrain vehicle in sheep’s clothing.

Colt swore as he sped around a BMW and the tires hydroplaned slightly. “There’s no way this kid is outmaneuvering me.”

They ate up more miles, horns honking at them as they did their own version of an Indy race. At one point, the limo became squeezed behind two semis riding side by side, and the third lane blocked by a string of cars all trying to pass them. It swung a hard right and used the shoulder to go around.

As soon as Colton could, he did the same. They were under a viaduct, the rain letting up for a split second, a sudden quiet filling the car. Jax’s teeth ground so hard, his temples set up a steady pounding that radiated into the back of his head and down his shoulders.

Get to Ruby
.

Ahead of them, the limo jerked back into the stream of traffic. Shooting out from under the viaduct, a deluge of rain hit their windshield again, blanking out Jax’s view for a heartbeat before the wipers caught up.

Suddenly, Colton slammed on the brakes. “Fuckin’ A.”

The back end fishtailed, Jax grabbing the dash as his seatbelt locked up. The car’s back end started to swing around, and he gaped at the scene in front of him.

Upon reentering the flow of traffic, the limo had clipped a car’s front bumper, knocking the car into the traffic to its left.
Bam, bam, bam,
car after car lost control as they rammed into each other at high speeds. Some smashed into others. Some spun in 360s. Drivers in all lanes trying to avoid the pileup even as they were sucked into it.

The semis didn’t help things.

Colt did his damnedest to control the vehicle and keep them from ending up in the pileup of cars. Once, twice, three times they spun in a circle, hitting the shoulder, their back tires dropping off the edge and sending them backward down an incline. They stopped with a jarring thud, and before Jax could let go of a string of curses, Colton was spinning the wheel.

“Hold on, brother.” He hit the gas.

One of the back wheels whirled, flipping mud up and over the truck. More cursing from both of them, then Jax released his seatbelt. “I got it.”

Jumping out, his feet landed in mud. Rain soaked through his shirt and pants, coated his face.

Get to Ruby.

Ignoring the rain and the mud, he grabbed the right back bumper and whistled for Colt to floor it. The rental Jeep was 4-wheel drive, but it was old and the tires were bare.

The wheel spun anew. Mud flew.

He would not let her down. Would not let that bastard Al-Safari get her on that plane.

Every muscle in his back straining, Jax dug his feet into the incline, his boots sinking up to his ankles. Colton hit the gas again and Jax heaved with all his might.

The backend of the car rocked, bounced, the other tire starting to dig a groove as well. If both tires ended up stuck, there was no way Jax would be able to get them out of this ditch.

And maybe it wouldn’t matter anyway. He couldn’t see the final results of the pileup on the road, but he had the feeling the entire three lanes of traffic were completely blocked.

One problem at a time
. He took a huge breath in, all the anger he’d built over a lifetime rising to the surface. His best friend coming back without his legs, his parents’ rejection, the SEAL brothers he’d lost in the field.

Ruby.

I will not lose her
.

On the exhale, he yelled at the top of his lungs, letting all of it go as he jerked and yanked on the Jeep’s bumper with every last reserve of energy he had.

Colton floored it, and finally, the tires found purchase. Jax heaved and pushed the Jeep to higher ground.

As Colt brought the car to a halt up on the shoulder, Jax sank to his knees. Covered in mud and soaked to the bone, his muscles trembled, his pulse rapped in his ears.

But his mind felt much clearer.

As if the past had been wiped clean, the future as well. While his large body was weighed down by exhaustion and overexertion, his mind was free. No worries, no fear. Not even an ounce of anger.

It was like nothing he’d ever felt before, sort of like how Hunter described meditation and connecting with his higher self.

Whatever the hell
that
was.

Jax found himself laughing—at the sensation of detachment, of emptiness, at himself. At the goddamn rain and the mud and whatever had just happened here.

Freedom, release, higher self.

Yeah right.

Fuck this shit
.
Move
.

Slogging through the mud, he hauled ass to the car and slid his not-so-higher self into it.

Chapter Twenty-three

_____________________

______________________________________________________

R
UBY
L
IPPED
O
FF
again and Abdel Al-Safari slapped her.

Her head snapped sideways and her earbud fell out.

She’d been trying to get more information out of him about where they were headed. Anything to give Jax her whereabouts as they sped through traffic.

Abdel had stripped off all her jewelry, including the bracelet Jax had put on her arm with the hidden GPS tracker in it. That had all gone out the window. She had no cell phone, no gun, and now the earbud—her last link to the outside world was lying on the seat next to her leg.

Before it fell out, she hadn’t heard anything more from Jax or the team, possibly because her comm had malfunctioned or the limo had special equipment to block listening devices.

Either way, she’d kept hoping that at least her voice was getting through.

Curling her body over to the right as if nursing her injury, she blocked the ear bud from Abdel’s view.

Acting once more, she cried into her hands as she coiled tight into a ball against the seat. Using her hair as cover, she managed to shove the tiny earbud back into her ear.

Dead air was all she heard.

Her fake crying almost became real. Not because of the pain, but because of the all-consuming belief she would never see Jax again.

Mission failure
.

The driver had alerted Al-Safari that they had a tail moments ago, the terrorist becoming absorbed in the race, yelling instructions to the him as they wove in and out of traffic. He tried to raise his men on his cell phone, but couldn’t get through at first. He punched at the screen again and Ruby heard a ringing on the other end.

She couldn’t see much out the back window when she raised her head, the rain falling hard and visibility low. They’d left the accident scene far behind and Jax’s blue Jeep was no longer in sight.

Abdel’s phone connected and her stomach dropped even farther. He put it on speaker, an evil gleam in his eyes as he answered.

Beatrice was dead. Her baby too. As soon as Abdel told his men that someone was following them, they’d blow the Rock Star staff sky-high.

She lunged at him, but he kicked her away, a solid shot to her knee. Ignoring the crunching noise it made and fierce pain she felt, she started to lunge again when she heard a very familiar voice.

“Mr. Al-Safari, your friends here at the Rock Star Security Chicago division are no longer able to answer this phone. In fact, they won’t be answering any calls from you ever again.”

Beatrice!

“Who is this?” Abdel demanded.

“You don’t know me, but you will. Any man who threatens my and Callan Reese’s child is going to find out exactly who he’s dealing with, and not in a pleasant way. Regardless of that fact, let me inform you that your bomb was well done, very difficult to disarm, but it
has
been disarmed. You no longer hold any cards, Mr. Al-Safari. I suggest you stop your getaway car and turn yourself in.”

His glittering black eyes rose to Ruby’s. She grinned.

Half coming out of his seat, he shot a hand out and slapped her again.

The hit was so hard, it knocked her head sideways and she cried out.

“Did you hear that, whore of Callan Reese? That is my card and I still very much hold it.”

He hung up.

Seething, Ruby reached for the syringe to get it out of her front pocket and inject it into Abdel’s neck. The limo veered right and she lost her balance.

Everything happened so fast. Abdel was yelling at the driver and looking over his shoulder out the back window and then the next, they jerked left again.

The impact swayed the limo’s backend, keeping her off balance as it also did Abdel. He fell into her, pinning her against the door, the sound of car horns and screeching tires trailing behind them.

She drove a knee into Abdel’s stomach and brought her elbows down on his back. He grunted, but his reactions were quicker then she anticipated. Her injuries were slowing her down as well. He caught her by both knees and jerked her off the seat, sending her to her back on the floor.

He dropped his own knee into her belly, knocking the wind out of her. Wrists still bound, she swung her fists together like a sledgehammer, catching him in the nose.

A crack sounded, cartilage busting. Abdel didn’t howl in pain, however. He simply glared down at her, wiping a trickle of blood from his nose. “You have my gratitude, Agent McKellen.”

“For what?”

“I have been waiting for a reason to hurt you.”

She aimed for his groin, but in the tight quarters, his legs were too close together for her good knee to do any good. The impact, however, sent him sideways.

Using his momentum against him, she fought to get out from under his weight, kicking and hammering at him as best she could.

She gained some freedom, squirming away, but the car swerved taking an off ramp and the motion sent her down on top of the man.

The air harrumphed out of his chest and he managed to backhand her across her ear. The strike knocked her sideways and a ringing set up shop inside her head.

Heat and pain rifled through her temple, down behind her ear. She blinked away hot tears and struggled to regain some sort of balance.

Next thing she knew, Abdel had her by the back of the neck, fingernails clawing into her skin. With the car rocking and her ear ringing, equilibrium deserted her. Her body went slack and Abdel slammed her head into the window.

A cry left her lips, white-hot pinpricks dancing in front of her eyes. Her hands went out to stop her fall, but only managed to skim off the edge of the seat.

She went down to the floor again, face first. A heavy loafer came down on the back of her neck, the heel jamming into her cerebral spine.

“Stay down, bitch, unless you want more.”

The overly nasal sound of Abdel’s voice told her she’d definitely done damage to his nose. Turning her head slightly, she peered up at him and saw blood still running from it.

Small satisfaction, but she’d take what she could get.

Breathing in the stale smell of the limo’s carpeting, she tried to regulate her pulse, blink away the pain. The edges of her vision blurred, her body feeling too heavy, her head too full.

She still had the syringe. A whole box full of tiny weapons. One way or another, she would find a way to use one.

Or all of them.

Keeping Abdel alive for questioning had been a noble goal, a smart one. She wasn’t feeling particularly noble or smart at the moment. If—
when
—she got the chance, she was taking the bastard out.

Every tired, pain-filled cell in her body sent up a little cheer at the thought.

Time seemed to fold in on itself, perhaps because she kept losing consciousness, shaking herself awake more than once. The limo straightened and slowed. Eventually, they came to a stop.

As Abdel lifted her roughly from the floor and dragged her from the car, lightning cracked overhead in the darkening sky. They were at an airport, the limo inside a private hangar and a slick little jet warming its engines out on the tarmac. Across the side of the plane were the words
Avathaar Shiva
.

Sanskrit. Ruby racked her brain. She’s seen those words somewhere else. Somewhere…

Marrakech. The tiny bar where she’d first danced for Jax. There had been Sanskrit symbols painted on the walls, hanging over the bar.

Brahma, the creator. Vishnu, the preserver. Shiva, the god of destruction. The bartender had told her the place belonged to Avathaar Shiva.

Avathaar
. If her memory was correct, that term meant the incarnation of God taking a form that would do the most good during the age the incarnation occurred.