Going Dark Read online

  With the station emptying quickly, Dean escorted her out of the building behind a couple who from their backpacks, poles, and boots he assumed must have been trekking on the islands. He wanted to stick with the crowd. He was pretty sure they hadn’t been followed, but he wasn’t about to relax his guard.

  “I’m sorry,” she said after they’d been walking for a few minutes. “I know you’re furious with me, but I didn’t mean any harm.” When he didn’t say anything, she grabbed his arm and pulled him around to face her. “Can you blame me for being curious? We are sleeping together, for God’s sake, and you’ve barely told me anything about you.” She stopped and even before he heard the emotion in her voice, he could see the tears in her eyes. “I don’t even know your name.”

  Dean felt about as big as one of those annoying biting midges. He didn’t want to hurt her, and yet that was exactly what he was doing. But what choice did he have? He couldn’t tell her what she wanted to know.

  But if she started crying, he didn’t know what the fuck he was going to do. Just seeing the glimmer of tears in her eyes was twisting him up inside something fierce. It was making his chest pound in an odd way, and making him antsy and uncomfortable—as if he were walking across hot coals. Hell, he’d rather walk across hot coals than see her cry.

  He did the only thing he could do. He pulled her into his arms. “Aw, shit, Annie, I’m sorry. I know you don’t understand, but you’ll just have to trust me that I don’t have a choice. If I could tell you, I would.”

  As he was wearing the backpack, she’d slid her arms around his waist. He still had the gun tucked in his jeans at the small of his back for safekeeping and easy access. Her cheek had been resting on his chest—which felt pretty damned amazing—but she tilted it back to look up at him. “If you told me, you’d have to kill me?”

  He smiled, and lifted his hand to stroke a finger down her cheek. “Something like that.” But he quickly sobered. “But it’s serious, Annie. I know you are curious, but it’s dangerous—and not just to me. I’m asking you to stop. To put whatever it is you think you’ve learned aside and forget it.”

  Forget me.

  She knew what he was asking. “I’ll try, but I’m not sure I can.”

  Unfortunately that made two of them.

  She looked so gorgeous staring up at him with all those emotions he didn’t want to see in her eyes, he would have kissed her.

  If he hadn’t sensed the movement behind him.

  • • •

  Without realizing it, Annie had stopped them in the perfect place for an ambush. It was a dark curve in the road where they couldn’t be seen from town or by their fellow passengers, who were now ahead of them. Were there any stragglers behind them? Dean would guess not or their attackers—he was assuming there was more than one—wouldn’t have made their move.

  They must have been watching from the station and followed, waiting for an opportunity. Were they the source of the signal failure?

  Shit.

  Sensing the movement behind him, Dean reacted. As he couldn’t both reach for his gun and get Annie out of the way, he chose the latter. He pushed her away from him and spun, instinctively using his hand to knock aside the weapon that he was pretty sure had been coming toward the back of his head.

  He connected with enough force to do some damage, but the guy was well trained. He grunted with pain but didn’t release the weapon—an HK USP Tactical with Swiss-made suppressor, from the looks of it.

  Dean was ready with his next move before the attacker could bring the gun back around. He wasn’t going to mess around, not wanting to take any chances. He didn’t know how many or how skilled they were. It was kill or be killed. He went for a blow to the throat, targeting the trachea with the side of his forearm and swinging his leg around his ankle at the same time to knock him off balance.

  There was a sickly crunch and gasp as the guy’s throat collapsed. He crumpled and started to fall back but had enough presence of mind while he was asphyxiating to swing the muzzle back around. Dean stomped on his gut and tried to knock the gun away again, but at the same time he sensed the second guy out of the corner of his eye to the right, taking aim.

  Fuck, he wasn’t going to have time to do both. He went for the gun that was in his reach. He swore he could see down the barrel as he reached for the choking man’s hands and tried to point the muzzle in the direction of his compatriot.

  He didn’t make it before the shot went off. It went wide of Dean, but not wide enough to come close to the second attacker.

  The guy was going to shoot him.

  Dean heard the muffled sound of a gun being fired, and in the split second of awareness, he steeled himself for impact.

  It didn’t come.

  Shit. The sound had come from behind him. He watched in disbelief as the second attacker who’d been standing about ten feet away fell—or dropped—backward as the bullet struck him right between the eyes.

  Holy shit.

  Dean turned slowly around, already guessing what he was going to see. Annie stood there frozen, still holding the gun in the firing position.

  • • •

  It had happened so fast. Annie didn’t know what had possessed her to grab the gun as “Dan” pushed her away. It was there tucked in the back of his jeans, and her hand just kind of clenched the grip on instinct, and as he pushed her back, the gun came with her.

  Neither did she consciously think about shooting the second attacker. Dan was locked in battle with the first guy. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the second guy approaching with a raised arm and a gun on the end of it pointed in Dan’s direction. She didn’t think. She just lifted her hands and fired.

  Instinct again. Although it was the first time she’d shot anything other than a piece of paper at a shooting range.

  Oh God, she’d just killed someone.

  Slowly awareness dawned, creeping over her in a mottled flush of shock. She couldn’t seem to move. She was still holding the gun; her finger was still pulling the trigger. She wanted to let it go, but she couldn’t release the death grip.

  Dan came toward her and wrapped his hand around her wrist, forcing her arm down at the same time as he released the gun from her hand.

  She looked at him wordlessly. What just happened?

  She didn’t think she’d spoken aloud, but she couldn’t be sure. The noise in her head was too loud. “You just saved my life. You didn’t have any other choice. He would have killed me.” He shook his head in amazement. “Shit, how the hell did you learn to shoot like that? I thought you didn’t like guns.”

  “I don’t. I hate them.”

  He laughed. “You could have fooled me. You shoot like a pro.”

  She frowned. “I haven’t touched a gun since my father died.”

  “But he trained you?”

  She nodded. He’d insisted she learn how to defend herself. He’d said she was a natural. She’d almost been able to hear the “if only you’d been a boy.”

  “He did a hell of a job,” Dan said. “That was a perfect shot.”

  She shook her head. It had been horrible. “I was aiming for his heart.”

  “Well, that was a hell of a miss.” He paused, giving her a long look. “You look a little pale. You aren’t going to throw up or anything, are you? It’s all right if you need to. Lots of guys do their first time.”

  She shook her head. She felt something. Numb, maybe? A little cold? But not ill. “I don’t think so.”

  “Good. Give me a minute. I want to get rid of them in case someone is behind us.”

  The path along the harbor that would take them back to the village had the sea on one side and a two-lane road, houses, and a hill on the other. The men had obviously been waiting in the shadows of one of the houses.

  After quickly patting them down and pocketing the guy’s wallet and