To Take Up the Sword Read Free Page B

how dangerous that is?” A slug burrowed into the table above them.
    “She was a little old lady with pictures of her grandkids taped to the dashboard. I figured she was safe. She dropped me off at Wendy’s in Jasper, then I rented a car and drove the rest of the way.” Another shot whizzed over her head.
    “I bet I can guess. You paid with plastic. You may as well have left a trail of bread crumbs. Crawl now.”
    Lea jerked when Gabriel bellowed the command at her, shoved the diamonds in his pocket and snatched his keys off the overturned chair.
    “I’m sorry. Are you going to help me?” she mumbled as she crawled across broken glass and hardwood floors, reached the door, and opened it a crack. Gabriel’s gilt hair eased into her peripheral vision.
    “I don’t see them.”
    “Me either. Run like hell and keep your head down. Maybe you won’t get killed.”
    Out the door like a shot, Lea ran for the bright yellow target, and heard the sound of heavy footsteps in the grass running behind them. She climbed in through the driver’s side and Gabriel shoved her over. She tried to peer out the window at her attackers.
    * * * *
    “Get down. Are you trying to get your head blown off?” He put the Jeep in reverse and peeled out of the drive, spitting dirt and gravel in every direction. A wave of heat, light and noise exploded into chaos behind them. The cabin had burst apart in a massive fireball. “Must have hit the gas line in the kitchen,” he noted.
    “What do you mean? You say that like you were reporting the weather!” Lea growled from beside him, her bobbing red head an easy target. He put his hand on top of her head and shoved her back in the floorboard, not too gently either.
    “Down, O’Neil.” Gabriel hit the main road going ninety, and then alternated by checking the rearview for locals and glaring at Lea. He took a hard right onto Highway 253 from 241 in Bear Creek and headed toward Phil Campbell the back way. She’d brought trouble to his doorstep. He’d wanted a vacation where he could wallow and grieve in peace, then make a new plan. What he didn’t want was to be tossed back into a cyclone of greed, danger and death. Okay, so it was dramatic and selfish, but he was burned-out. He’d been an agent for eight years, and in that time he’d lost four partners. Maybe he’d had enough of the whole game. Little Miss Quiet Mouse had already proven she’d be hard to ignore. Every time he looked at her, Gabe saw Serena and what might have been if circumstances had been different.
    “I was having a nice quiet life, Leannan, before you came barreling into it. Care to give me a reason why I shouldn’t dump you on the locals and take off with the diamonds?”
    “Serena trusted you with her life, and whatever you two had going got her killed.”
    Gabriel’s heart clenched.
    “You cared for her, obviously. Now she’s trusting you with me. Are you going to let her down again?”
    Gabriel didn’t say anything for a minute. She’d known the right thing to say, just like her sister. “No. You have more in common with Serena than I first realized, Leannan.”
    “I don’t think you’d be surprised how many people say that. It’s Lea.”
    “I like Leannan. It’s different.”
    “I hate the name. Know what it means? It’s Gaelic for sweetheart or beloved. Would you want the cashier at the grocery calling you ‘beloved’? I mean, really. ‘Two dollars is your change, beloved sweetheart .’”
    “I guess not.” Gabriel swerved to miss a deer that leaped out in front of his Jeep. “Those things are everywhere. They should have special insurance policies just for deer.” He grabbed her bag out of the seat next to him and began rifling through it one-handed.
    “What about possum? Hey, get out of that. Isn’t anything sacred?”
    Gabriel groaned. The ‘possum’–as they were called down south–body count was up to seven. “Don’t get me started on those things. They give me the creeps