Page 10 of Locked and Loaded

Finally, they came through a storage area to a door. Fassi paused and faced him. “This will take you to the street. Please let me know if you require any additional assistance.”

Dragan offered his hand, and they shook while Lennox struggled to pull her arm away. Fassi nodded and then headed back through the large storage room.

Lennox glared at Dragan. “Let me go, you son of a bitch,” she growled. “If you don’t let me go, I’m going to scream my head off. I’ll say you’re attacking me. You’re kidnapping me.”

Dragan smirked at her. “Go for it. This is Morocco. Who do you think they will believe? That’s even if anyone stops. So, have at it. Scream your lungs out.”

Lennox cursed, but reality seemed to punch the air straight out of her lungs. Her shoulders sagged, the fight drained from her expression just enough to sell the performance. Dragan had no doubt it was an act, but he gave her points for trying. He found himself liking this woman more and more.

He shoved open the door and moved through the narrow space onto the sidewalk. The Moroccan sun hit him like a flashbang, blinding him for half a second.

The crack of a gunshot split the air.

The bullet slammed into the wall beside them, exploding sand and chunks of clay across the sidewalk.

Lennox froze, staring at the impact point.

“Get down!” Dragan roared.

This time he really did grab her, yanking her arm hard enough to drag her low to the ground as he hauled her behind a parked SUV. More shots tore into the wall above their heads. Clay dust rained down over them.

Lennox screamed.

Then the entire street erupted. People shouted in Arabic and French with a smattering in English for good measure. Someone down the sidewalk overturned a cart of oranges. Horns blared as drivers slammed on their brakes. A loud metallic crunch told him at least two cars clipped each other, and pedestrians scattered in every direction. Panic rolled through the street like a shock wave.

A bullet smacked into the curb inches from Dragan’s hand.

“Fuck,” he snarled.

He shoved Lennox toward the back tire, forcing her into the narrow space beside it, then crouched behind the front one, keeping the engine block between him and the shooters.

“Stay there,” he yelled over the chaos. “Don’t move.”

Lennox stared at him, breathing hard, eyes sharp despite the panic. Then she turned and looked toward the corner. Forty feet. A line of parked cars all the way down the curb. Cover. Escape.

Dragan saw the calculation happen in real time. “Don’t do it,” he warned.

She shot him a look that was equal parts fury and defiance. Then she ran.

“Goddammit.”

He lunged after her, but the curb exploded at his feet, spraying concrete chips into his legs. Dragan threw himself back behind the tire as another round punched into the pavement.

Staying low, Lennox sprinted along the row of cars, weaving through the chaos while bullets hammered the wall above her head. Fast. Smart.

Desperate.

Dragan took off after her the second the gunfire paused, but by the time he hit the corner, both Lennox and the shooter were gone.

“Fuck,” he ground out, scanning the packed street beyond. Finding her had just become twice as difficult. Assuming she survived long enough to be found, and that was the part that worried him the most. It was his job to find her, but now people were trying to kill her. He had to keep her alive at least long enough to get his questions answered. She’d been brave, but it had been instinct, not understanding, that had guided her. She didn’t behave logically; she went with her emotions, which made her far more dangerous.

Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder by the second. Dragan pivoted immediately and headed down the street. He crossed in front of two wrecked cars while their drivers screamed at each other through open windows. Smoke curled from one crumpled hood. A woman cried somewhere behind him.

Keeping his head down, Dragan slipped onto the opposite sidewalk and disappeared into the swelling crowd before the police arrived.

CHAPTER FOUR

“What do you mean you missed?” the mastermind demanded, her voice ice cold.