Ian staggered back and yanked at the needle still stuck in his arm. She’d pushed the stopper to its limit and injected him with a full dose of the sedative.
She shot up but Braden grabbed her arm and tossed her back onto the bed. She scooted backward on the mattress, her eyes wild.
“Katie, what the fuck?” Ian demanded, and then he shook his head. He didn’t have time to ask questions. He had to make her understand what was about to take place. That danger was coming, and now he and Braden would be out of commission.
Braden staggered and braced himself against the bed. “What have you done?” he whispered. “Why?”
“I’m not expendable,” Katie said quietly. “My life may not be important to you, but I’m not giving it up that easily. I’ve run too hard for too long to give up now. I won’t be used as bait for Esteban. I’ll no longer be used by any man.”
Ian’s muscles twitched and seized as the predator locked within the man fought for freedom, fought against the sedative coursing through his veins. Beside him, Braden lunged for Katie. He landed on top of her but she lay there calmly, waiting for him to succumb.
Ian held his hands to his ears to dim the roaring. He shook his head, trying to shake off the sluggish lethargy stealing over his body.
“Katie,” he whispered. “You don’t understand. Esteban…coming.”
“Yeah, I know,” she said bitterly as she stared at him with hard, glittering eyes. “He’s coming for me. I just don’t plan to be here when he arrives.”
Panic surged, and for a moment he thought the adrenaline would overpower the sedative. “No,” he slurred. “You can’t go. Dangerous. He’s out there. Stay where safe.”
He felt himself falling, and then Katie was over him, shoving him until he faced the ceiling. Her face loomed close to his. And then she kissed him. Lingeringly. With regret. Soft. A goodbye. He tried to reach for her, to hold her against him but she pushed aside his hands as if they were nothing.
Darkness clouded his periphery and still he fought. She didn’t stand a chance on her own. She thought he and Braden had betrayed her.
“No,” he croaked out.
Katie hurried to the dresser to collect her bag. She pulled on Ian’s heavy sweatshirt and snagged a jacket from the floor. After she’d donned the heavier clothes, she chanced one last look back at the two unconscious men.
The knot grew tighter in her throat. For just a little while, she’d allowed herself to become ensconced in the fantasy of having these two men care about her. Worse, though, she’d allowed herself to care about them. Men and sex were her biggest weaknesses, apparently. The fact that she clearly hadn’t learned her lesson with Paulo told her she was as careless as ever when it came to jumping into a situation.
But she’d survived, and this time she was getting out on her own terms. She squared her shoulders, collected her bag and grasped one of the assault rifles. Slinging the strap over her shoulder, she walked briskly toward the cabin door.
She stepped into the cold night. The chill was a slap in the face in a good way. An awakening from her morose thoughts and regrets. Her survival was all that mattered right now. Ian and Braden would be just fine.
Unless…
She stared back, indecision wracking her cluttered mind. Had she left them completely vulnerable to Esteban? If he came here looking for her, he’d find two unconscious men.
For a woman who’d had only herself to consider for so long and no compunction about doing so, it was extremely unsettling to realize that Ian and Braden could die because of her. No matter that they’d callously used her for their own purposes.
She didn’t want them to die.
Her fingers tightened around the rifle, and then in the distance, roaring closer, the sound of snowmobiles shattered the still of the night.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Lights nearly blinded her as two snowmobiles roared up to the cabin. As soon as they stepped clear, she could make out their outline in the pale moonlight. Eli and Tits. And then Eli simply disappeared.
Tits started for her, his expression fierce. Indecision tormented her for all of two seconds. An eerie sensation wrapped around her body, her neck and her wrists, momentarily paralyzing her.
And then she remembered that Eli could shift to smoke or mist.
Her hands shook as she warred with the need to hold onto the rifle while Eli exerted steady pressure on her wrists.
“Drop it, Katie,” Tits ordered as he trained his gun on her. “Where are Ian and Braden?”
A shot cracked the night, and Tits staggered then fell to his knees. He squeezed off a series of shots into the trees before he fell face-forward into the snow.
Esteban was here.
Fear, cold like the snow, trickled down her spine. She thought of Ian and Braden inside the cabin and knew she couldn’t allow them to be killed.
“I know you can hear me,” she whispered to Eli. “Don’t shift back. Ian and Braden are unconscious in the bedroom. You have to protect them. I’ll lead Esteban away.”
“No.”
She felt more than heard the faint whisper as it trailed over her ear.
“You know I’m right,” she hissed. “Let me go. You have to cover Ian and Braden. They’re defenseless right now. At least give me a chance to live, Eli. Give us all a chance.”
The pressure lessened at her wrists, and she didn’t waste any time. She leaped off the porch and threw herself on the still-running snowmobile. She gunned the engine and spun the machine around, sending a spray of snow arcing into the air.
As she headed around a clump of trees, she saw a group of four snowmobiles headed straight for her. She had always loved a good game of chicken. And it wasn’t like she had anything to lose.
She yanked her rifle up with her right hand and gripped the wheel with her left. She gave it everything she had.
The snowmobile lurched forward and flew toward the oncoming lights. When she was impossibly close, she laid down a line of fire and aimed straight for the middle.
At the last second, the one on the far right spun out and turned end over end into the trees. The second and third split right and left to avoid her, and she skimmed past, kicking up snow in her wake.
She lowered her head, blinking against the stinging wind and the water forming in the corners of her eyes as ice pelted her face.
She hit a soft patch of snow and the snowmobile bogged for a moment. She gunned it, fishtailed and finally broke free. A glimpse behind her told her that she had at least three men on her tail.
She turned in the direction of the village and prayed she’d be able to find her way in the darkness. The headlight bounced off the snow but didn’t give her much lead time to avoid pitfalls.
Lights reflected off the snow in front of her. They were getting closer, flanking her as they closed in. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the one on her right creep up. She veered sharply in front of him. His machine clipped her back end as she cut him off.
It yanked her right but she recovered while he careened wildly into the path of one of the other snowmobiles. A loud crash splintered and then an explosion rocked the night. A ball of flame shot upward, bathing the area in an orange glow.
She jumped a rise, becoming airborne. She hit the ground with a resounding jolt and skidded sideways, bogging down in the snow. She yanked the wheel, gave it some gas and righted herself. As she chanced a look over her shoulder, her spirits sank. How many more were there?
Four sets of headlights bore down on her. Did they reproduce like bunnies? Every time she took one out, two took its place.
And then a loud rumble reverberated over her ears. The ground shook, causing the snowmobile to vibrate wildly. She looked behind her again only to see a wall of white envelope the headlights like a suffocating cloud.