Running Blind Read Free

again?”
    â€œLet’s not borrow trouble.”
    â€œI’m not talking about borrowing it. I’m talking about having it handed to us on a silver platter,” she muttered, leaning her head back against the seat.
    â€œIf they find us again, we’ll deal with it the way we did before.”
    â€œBy running?”
    â€œOr fighting. Whichever will get us out of the situation alive.”
    â€œI’m not sure I’m in great shape for fighting.”
    â€œNo worries. I’ve got enough fight in me for both of us.”
    â€œYou said my brother sent you.”
    â€œI work for your brother’s PI firm and was following a lead in San Antonio. Kane asked if I could take a trip across the border to see how you were doing.”
    â€œTypical Kane. Always keeping an eye on the people he loves.”
    â€œThat’s not such a bad thing, is it?” he asked, more to keep Jenna talking than because of any real need for conversation. Twenty minutes and they’d hit the U.S. border and the medical help Jenna obviously needed. Twenty minutes wasn’t long in the grand scheme of a life, but with head injuries, twenty minutes could be all a person had.
    â€œNo. And, right at this moment, I’m really glad he likes to keep an eye on me. I couldn’t have escaped that basement without your help.” She paused, took a deep shaky breath. “I don’t suppose you have any kind of pain relievers on you?”
    â€œThere’s a bottle of Tylenol in your purse, but I’m not sure a doctor would approve of you having any.”
    â€œYou’ve got my purse?” Her head was tilted down and her hair fell forward, covering her face and preventing him from seeing her expression.
    He reached over and brushed straight red hair from her forehead and cheek, and she turned her head, her light blueeyes eerily empty. Blind, she’d said, and looking in her blank stare, Nikolai had no doubt that she was right. “ Do you have my purse?” she repeated, and Nikolai jerked his attention back to the road and to the conversation. He’d have time to feel sorry for Jenna after they made it to safety. Until then, all his focus needed to be on the mission.
    â€œI grabbed it from your hotel room. I figured you might need your passport and ID.” And he’d also figured that if the police found the purse, they’d keep it until Jenna or a family member retrieved it. That would have made it difficult for him to follow through on his plan to find Jenna and to get her out of Mexico.
    â€œI guess your foresight paid off.”
    â€œIt will if we make it to the border.”
    â€œHow far are we from it?”
    â€œFifteen minutes.” But it only took seconds for things to change. For good to turn bad. For easy to become difficult. He’d seen it dozens of times as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan. Had nearly died when a peaceful day had exploded into violence. Expecting the unexpected was what he’d been trained to do. Returning to the United States and to life as a civilian hadn’t changed that.
    â€œFifteen minutes. That’s not so bad, and I guess if we’ve made it this far, there’s no reason to think we won’t make it the rest of the way,” she said.
    He didn’t bother to tell her that there was every reason to think they wouldn’t. There was no point in stating the obvious. “Once I get you across the border, I’ll go back and search for your friend.”
    â€œIf that’s what you’re planning, why cross the border at all? We can both go look for her.” Her voice was weak, the adrenaline that had been keeping her going, fading.
    â€œWe’ve covered that ground before, Jenna. Right now, my priority is you.”
    â€œBecause my brother is paying the tab? If that’s the case—”
    â€œNo one is paying the tab. I came down here as a favor to a friend.”
    â€œThen