Stranger Mine: a Base Branch novel Read Online Free Page B

her long legs and churned them out of the guest cottage. Until this blew over, she needed a hiding spot. Desperate to quiet the rattle, to conceal her location, Piper spread her fingers as wide as they could stretch and hugged the mound of chain to her chest. No way in hell would she chance a bullet hole running away with that lunatic. No way would she run into the arms of the Sinaloa grunts. Only Gabrone could make this right.
    When she bound onto the gravel walkway, surprise peaked her brows. The expectation of gunshots or quick arms and groping hands fell away. Jagged rocks bruised her feet, but not a soul blocked her escape. Her heart cradled in the arms of hope, Piper drove her burning legs hard toward the garage. Breath sailed in her nose and w hooshed out her mouth. Half way to the garage the grass skid beneath her feet and her tight jaw gaped.
    At the bottom steps, a distorted figure lay prone in the shadow. No, surely they weren’t all dead. There had to be a different explanation for the silence.
    In an instant her direction changed. She shot for the main house like an arrow. The chain disagreed with her sudden turn. It spilled out between her twisted torso and elbow. Her greedy hands clambered to contain the wayward links without slowing. Wind gusted and shoved her off balance more than the fifteen pounds of awkward metal. Her arms flailed in an effort to catch her balance. The chain plummeted to the ground. With several quick steps Piper righted herself and rushed on, leaving the bond dragging behind her.
    Two yards away, the lump defined into a murdered heap of man. Blood imbrued the collar of his cream short-sleeve and pooled around the muzzle of the AK still strapped to his back. He hadn’t heard the wraith coming. Dread overcame hope, blotting out the warmth and light inside her chest.
    Piper slowed enough to hedge the body and spool the chain into two long loops. She hurried up the stairs and prayed—despite her mother’s words and the real possibility that they would kill her—they weren’t all dead. She’d come so close. Risked so much. This couldn’t be the end.
    She swallowed the lump in her throat. Silence, dead silence, deafened. The quiet she’d grown accustomed to, but only in her space. Anytime they opened the cottage door their noise accosted her. TV. Music. Cursing. Hollering. Fucking. But now…nothing.
    Piper heard the whisper of stirring rocks. Her heart nearly leaped out of her body and dragged her along. Away from the warrior. Away from danger. Regardless of his reassuring words and calm manner, awareness of him had rocked her core as soon as he stepped into her cell. The efficiency with which he placed the explosives, tracked the door, and scrutinized her with his fire-blue gaze, all while rattling off multiple languages, said elite, government agency, big agenda, avoid at all costs.
    Piper hoisted the chain over her shoulder and sprinted for the second floor. Her captors had grown comfortable around her. Talked too much when they brought her food and clothing. She had no idea which room housed the office, but she knew where to start the search. Bodies littered the place like leftover take-out containers in a bachelor pad or her old apartment. She gave each grizzly scene a wide berth, but couldn’t skirt the rotund stiff at the top of the staircase. She gripped the railing for leverage and kicked a leg over the sprawled man’s torso. As she straddled Juan Paulo’s corpse, the commando’s voice reverberated through her.
    “Stop where you are.”
    The authority of his gritty tone froze and heated her at the same time. Her fingers bit into the wooden balustrades, and she stilled as much as her heaving chest would allow. She dismissed the warmth and need that screamed inside her as exhaustion and desperation for human contact. Slowly she turned. Their gazes collided. Even across the cavernous room, her fever bloomed into an all-out forest fire, scorching a line up her spread legs,