Author: Jane Blythe

Their cockiness was their undoing.

Adam waited until the door closed behind Zara’s father and the one man who had remained behind with him before he cautiously got up.

They had been so sure that they’d eliminated him as a threat that nobody had bothered to check to see if he was bleeding out or already dead. If he hadn’t been wearing the Kevlar he’d be dead, as it was he’d have a horrible bruise and he was sure several broken ribs.

But he had what he needed. Proof that Zara’s father was involved in drug trafficking, and that he intended to set up his daughter’s death to look like it had been committed by Adam’s hand.

Well that wasn’t happening.

Staying low in case they were still out there, he crawled to Zara. A large puddle of blood ringed her body, but when he touched his fingertips to her throat he felt a pulse.

“Don’t give up on me, Zara,” he begged as he ripped off his shirt and held it to the wound in her chest.

“Adam?” She blinked groggily up at him. “Thought you were dead.”

“I’m not that easy to kill,” he said, forcing a smile.

She smiled back briefly before it faded. “You have to go. He’s going to set you up.”

“Heard everything,” he told her.

“But you were shot.”

“Kevlar, remember?”

From the looks of things Zara fought to stay awake, but she nodded. “Forgot about that.”

“Too bad you weren’t wearing one,” he murmured. “We have to get out of here.”

“Too late for me, you go,” Zara murmured, pushing weakly at him.

“Uh uh,” he shook his head adamantly. “We’re both getting out of here.”

Adam retrieved his weapon and then unpacked his backpack, grabbing his first aid kit. He had to try to stop the bleeding before they both got out of here.

By the time he was done Zara had passed out, but she was still breathing, so he had to hope there was a chance he wasn’t about to lose her. Putting his backpack back on he scooped up an unconscious Zara and headed for the back window.

He’d just climbed through it when the cabin exploded.

There’s no way out.

That was the first thought Zara had as Adam crumpled to the floor.

How was she going to get both of them out of here alive?

Her father wasn’t going to give her any special treatment just because she was his daughter, she was in just as much danger as Adam was. While it was true she had found evidence to suggest that her father was involved in something illegal, probably trafficking drugs, she had no idea of the connection to Adam.

A coincidence that was going to get them both killed.

A man she hadn’t seen before stepped out into view and eyed Adam’s body. “What do you want to do with him?”

“Leave him. We’ll set the scene to look like he shot her at the house, she ran here, he followed, she got a shot off at him before the cabin exploded,” her father said like she was nothing. “We intended to set up the murder suicide at the house but here will work just as well. Since he blew up the cars we’ll have to get remove ours, bring his in. Then we set the cabin to explode so it makes sense when they find pieces of car blown about.”

Her father’s words were said without any emotion and it really hit Zara just how little she meant to him. She’d always known it but she hadn’t realised he could be this vicious and ruthless.

“What are you going to do with her?” the man asked with a nod at her.

“This.” With that one word her father plunged the knife into her chest and tossed her body aside like trash.

Then he and the other man turned and walked out the door, leaving her to bleed out alongside Adam’s already dead body.

He’d taken out the cabin’s generator, which meant the lights were now out, and he’d blown up both cars. As men came spilling out of the cabin he picked them off one by one.

Four men, now all dead.

Was Zara’s father amongst them?

As he cautiously approached the now dark cabin he got the answer to his question.

“What’s going on and why do you think I’m a traitor Daddy?” Zara’s loud voice said. There was fear in her tone but strength as well, she was trying to warn him.

Despite the graveness of their situation, Adam felt his lips curve into a small smile as he slipped up the steps of the porch. Since losing his family he had closed himself off, vowed that he would never allow another person into his life, and yet here Zara was, forcing her way in regardless of what he wanted.

And shockingly he liked it. He wanted her to fight for him, maybe even needed it, and right now it felt good to have someone he could trust watching his back.

Zara’s father had to be expecting him, so there didn’t seem like there was any point in trying to sneak in.

Weapon raised he walked through the front door and tried not to lose it when he saw the knife at Zara’s neck.

The sight made rage pulse through him.

Knowing he had the advantage of his night vision goggles he moved through the cabin knowing he was just a shadow to Zara’s father.

“She’s your daughter, don’t do something you’ll regret,” Adam said, knowing the man would feel none for ending his own child’s life.

“She betrayed her family,” the man growled. “She found proof that I was involved in smuggling drugs and the slaughter of your team. When she took this job I knew it was just a front that she was really here to compare notes so the two of you could take us down. I couldn’t let that happen.”

The man was certainly a blabbermouth, admitting to running drugs, and participating in the killing of a Navy SEAL team. It made it clear that Zara’s father intended to be the only one to walk out of here alive.

Continuing to circle the room, making Zara’s father have to constantly keep moving in an attempt to keep him in sight, Adam prepared to take a shot. He didn’t want to kill the man, and he had to be careful that Zara didn’t get caught in the crossfire, but he had spent his entire life doing this.

Just as he was lining up the shot, pain slammed into him from behind, stealing his breath and sending him crumpling to the floor.

This was the last thing Zara wanted to be doing but she trusted Adam and they had to do something otherwise neither one of them were ever going to be safe.

She resisted the urge to look back at him after he sent her up to the door, and instead focused on her part of the plan. Well she wasn’t exactly sure what Adam had planned, all he’d told her was to pretend like she was running away from him and get inside, then when he provided a distraction she had to find somewhere to hide.

Determined not to let Adam down, Zara drew on every acting skill she possessed, granted she wasn’t much of an actor, but it wasn’t hard to fake the fear she was feeling or the pain in her leg.

“Help, please help,” she screamed as she hobbled as fast as she could up the porch steps. She tried to make it sound like she was exhausted from running through the woods.

The door to the cabin was opened just as she managed to get up the final step and her father stood there.
“Zara?” He sounded surprised to see her, was it because he expected her to be dead already.

Pretending she didn’t know her father was mixed up in something bad, Zara launched at him and sobbed. “He’s coming after me.”

“Who is?”

“The man, Adam,” she wept, clinging to her father. “How did you know he was dangerous? How did you find me here? When Uncle Warrick came for me Adam shot him, he shot me too, but I got away.” She and Adam had decided it would be better for her to pretend that her father was trying to save her, if he didn’t think Zara was onto him then he would have no reason to hurt her before Adam could take him out. She wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to do but she knew he wanted answers about what had happened to his team, and then she hoped he would turn them into the cops.

“I knew what he did to his wife and daughter, I didn’t want anything to happen to happen to my sweet, but naive daughter,” her father said. The words were completely false, she knew that, Warrick had been aiming directly at her, she was supposed to die along with Adam, maybe they planned to set it up like a murder suicide, but her father was too smart to admit that. He would play her, try to figure out what she knew, before deciding what to do with her.

“Thank you, daddy. I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you,” she cried. Of course she wasn’t, she was more convinced than ever ending things with her fiancé and leaving the family business were the best decisions she had ever made.

“Come in, sit down, let me check out your leg.” Her father helped her hop inside and guided her to a chair. The cabin was small, just the one room, and she spotted four of her father’s men standing inside. They were all armed but at least for now no one was pointing any weapons at her.

There weren’t a lot of hiding places, but there was a small cupboard beneath the sink, if she could squeeze in there it might work.

No sooner had she dropped down into a chair when suddenly the lights in the cabin went out, almost immediately followed by a loud explosion.

The men shouted, Zara dropped to the floor and began to drag herself towards her hiding space.

She was halfway there when her father got hold of her and yanked her roughly to her feet. “I don’t think so, little girl,” her father sneered as he grabbed her and yanked her up against his chest, holding a knife to her neck. “I knew you were a traitor, you always did think you were better than your family.”

Her father’s men had all run out of the cabin and she had no doubt Adam would eliminate each one of them, but that still left her father and her as his human shield.

Looked like Adam would be walking into a trap after all.

It had been slow going through the woods, Adam carried the pack with their belongings on his back, and Zara concentrated on walking as much as she could. When her leg gave out on her he would pick her up and carry for her a while, but she always insisted on being put back down after a while to walk on her own.

She was something else this woman. He no longer believed she had anything to do with them both nearly being shot and he was worried she was in as much trouble as he was.

Maybe more.

Adam found he didn’t like the idea of Zara in danger.

It made sense that Warrick might be smuggling drugs, but if Zara thought it she must have seen something, heard something, that tipped her off. And Warrick and Zara’s father knew it.

They walked in silence, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable one. He found he actually felt a measure of peace when he was around Zara. It was crazy but she seemed to possess the ability to still the raging storm of grief and guilt inside him.

When she stumbled, he reached out, grabbing her before she hit the ground, then scooped her up. Holding her in his arms felt natural.

Almost too natural.

“I’ll carry you for a bit,” he said.

“Sorry, I’m slowing you down.”

He smiled inspire of their situation. “You’ve said that every time I’ve carried you. I’m glad you’re here.”

“You are?” She sounded surprised by his admission, he was just as surprised. Not because it wasn’t true but because he’d told her.

“I am. Its always nice to have someone at your back.”

Zara smiled then rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m glad to have your back.”

They lapsed back into silence and an hour later they came upon the cabin in the woods.

Only it wasn’t empty.

Smoke was coming from the chimney and he saw badly hidden cars nearby.

Amateurs.

“Adam, that’s my dad’s car,” Zara said anxiously. “And that’s Warrick’s. Why would they both be out here?”

Because this was supposed to be a trap. One they’d obviously thought he would walk unknowingly into.

But he was too smart for that.

He was going to set a trap of his own.

“Still trust me?” he asked Zara.