Emily watched Ryan closely as he drove. She chatted with Blair until she knew a great deal about the blond woman’s life. But Ryan… He looked tense. He glanced at the rearview mirror and over his shoulder a few times. His hands were tight on the steering wheel.

If Blair was as nervous as Ryan, she hid it better. She did look around often, but she gave no indication to Emily that she was suspicious or thought they were being followed. She was just doing her job.

Emily would have grabbed Ryan’s hand to bring him down to earth with her touch, but he never let go of the steering wheel. And she wasn’t sitting close enough to set her palm on his thigh. That would have been awkward with Blair in the car.

He didn’t relax for several miles, and then only marginally. “How well do you remember the area?” he asked as they left Falling Rock and headed up into the mountains.

Emily looked out the window to take in the perfect day. The sun was high and bright. The mountains green. It was late summer. Warm enough still to be outside, but cooling off in the evenings. “I have to admit, I didn’t do much sightseeing before. I was married to my work. My head was always stuck in a book or poring over data.” She sighed.

She hadn’t been living the first time around. She didn’t want to make that same mistake again. She’d been given a second chance at life, and she intended to enjoy every minute of it. At that thought, she reached for Ryan’s hand on the steering wheel and gave a tug.

He released the wheel and let her thread their fingers together, his shoulders relaxing marginally. “We should all learn from you and take a play out of your new book.”

She sighed. “I don’t know. It’s a toss-up. It never occurred to me that I should lift my head and look around, take in my surroundings. I loved my work. It made me happy. I didn’t think I was missing out on anything. I was very passionate about medicine. I still am. It’s still there, under the surface, itching to get out. I just don’t know how to feed that desire again yet.”

“That makes sense.” Ryan shot her a quick glance.

“Now I’m different somehow. Not necessarily in a good or a bad way, just different. I want to relax and enjoy life more this time around.” She squeezed his hand. It felt good to talk about this stuff. It helped her work toward whatever the future looked like.

He opened his mouth to respond, but a loud screeching sound drowned out his voice.

Emily threw her hands over her ears, cringing while her mind tried to process what the noise was. As she twisted her head to find the source of the sound, she found Blair with her gun drawn, hands in the air.

Ryan slammed on the brakes, throwing Emily forward at an awkward angle. She reached out with one hand to brace herself against the dashboard, but not fast enough. She was thrown forward, her shoulder banging into the hard surface, sending a shooting pain down her arm.

“Fuck,” she heard Ryan shout as he reached under the seat and pulled out his weapon.

Emily grabbed her shoulder with her free hand, wincing, trying to shake away the piercing pain. Chaos surrounded the car as she realized the initial screeching noise had been another car jerking in front of them and then hitting its brakes. Black sedan. Tinted windows. How Ryan avoided hitting the passenger side was a miracle.

A second vehicle came to a shrieking halt next to the driver’s side of Ryan’s car. Hummer. Also black. Two seconds later a gunshot filled the air.

Ryan’s hand landed on Emily’s head, and he shoved her down low on the seat as he twisted around to look out the back window and slammed the car in reverse.

Blair was shouting over the ringing in Emily’s head. “Back up.” She lowered the window a few inches and returned fire to the Hummer. “Emily, stay down.”

Emily scrambled to pop the glove compartment, keeping her head down, while hoping Ryan kept a second firearm inside. Luckily, he did. She palmed the SIG Sauer easily. She had never been in a combat situation in her life. As a medical student and then later a doctor, she’d been sent to work on Project DEEP without ever going to the front line.

But she knew how to fire a weapon. She did all the required drills every year to keep up her skills, and like everything else, it hadn’t been ten years since she held a weapon. It had been months. No way in hell was she going to crouch in the car like a damsel in distress while Ryan and Blair fought for their lives.

Palming the gun, she lifted her head a few inches as Ryan’s rear bumper struck the guardrail hard.

“Fuck,” he screamed, shifting to drive once again and then backing up with more accuracy.

More gunfire came from the Hummer. Two men dressed in black with face masks jumped out of the vehicle, weapons drawn, rushing forward.

The horrifyingly loud sound of a tire blowing made Emily brace herself once again. Her shoulder was screaming, but she ignored it, gritting her teeth as she used that arm to grab at the dashboard.

“Fuck,” Ryan repeated. “How many of them are there?” He jerked his gaze around, .45 aimed out the window.

“I count at least four,” Blair responded. “Two on the ground and at least two drivers.”

Just then another door opened on the sedan and a third man dressed in black joined the two advancing. The newcomer fired at the remaining front tire of Ryan’s car. This time Emily braced herself for the loud pop and the ensuing shifting of the car as it settled with the front end now lower than the rear.

She noted none of the shots had hit the windshield or anywhere near her. These men weren’t aiming to kill. A shudder raced down her spine.

“Get out of the car,” someone shouted. “With your hands up. Now.” He kept advancing.

Blair fired another shot, striking one of the advancing men in the chest. The guy stumbled backward and landed on his ass, but Emily was fairly certain he hadn’t been killed. He appeared to be wearing a vest.

Another shot took out the mirror next to Ryan’s arm, the first shot that posed any real threat.

Emily screamed. She grabbed Ryan with her free hand, lined up her shot, and took aim at the closest man. Before she could fire off a round, the windshield finally shattered. The newcomer must have taken that last shot at close range. He was good. He hit no one.

“Out of the car. Right fucking now,” the man yelled.

They were trapped.

“Don’t do it,” Blair responded. “Don’t move.”

Another shot came through the shattered windshield. Blair cried out.

Emily twisted to see Blair had been hit in the left arm. For a moment, Blair winced, but then shook it off and lifted her gun again.

When Emily jerked her gaze back around, one of the unknown men had approached, kicked Ryan’s weapon out of his hand, and grabbed him around the neck, half hauling him out of the window. He held a gun to his head.

Emily dropped the SIG Sauer and threw her hands in the air. “Stop. Don’t shoot him. He’s not the one you want. I am.”

Ryan had a hold of the guy’s forearms, scrambling to free himself, his eyes wide. “Emily, no.”

Blair grabbed Emily’s shoulder over the seat with her good hand. “Stay in this car.”

Emily shifted her gaze from Ryan to the man holding him, aware that his partner was standing next to her door. “Let him go.” She nodded toward the passenger door just as it opened. “I’ll go with you. Let him go,” she begged, repeating herself. “He has nothing to do with this.”

“No. Emily. Stop,” Blair shouted.

The look in Ryan’s eyes could have killed someone. Frantic. Pleading.

Emily slid out of the car, stumbling, her shoulder pulsing with pain. She was unable to lift her right arm as high as the left. Immediately the man next to her door grabbed her around the chest and hauled her against his front.

Blair jumped out of the back seat at the same moment, gun raised at the man holding Emily, showing no indication she’d been shot. Her adrenaline had to be pumping hard. “Drop your weapon,” Blair yelled.

The man pulled Emily up tighter and set the barrel of his gun to her temple. “Lower your gun or she’s dead.” He jerked his chin toward the car. “And that asshole too. You want to go back to your base and tell them both the people you were charged with guarding are dead?”

Emily watched Blair’s eyes flaming, her hand steady. “Let her go,” she stated, voice calmer. “She’s done nothing wrong.”

The man cackled behind the ski mask. “I don’t give a solid fuck what she’s done. I’m just doing the job I was paid to do.”

Emily shuddered. Someone paid these people to kidnap her. Why? She had a suspicion these men needed to take her alive. She didn’t think they would truly harm her. Whoever hired them to kidnap her wouldn’t have wanted her dead. Not a single shot had come close to hitting her even though she had been a sitting duck in the front seat.

Blair inched closer, gun still aimed at the man. He was several inches taller than Emily, so his chin was above her head. He was also backing up, dragging her along.

Out of the corner of her eye, Emily could see Ryan fighting against the stronghold around his neck to no avail. These guys were huge. They weren’t small-time criminals. They knew their weapons, and they had skills that surpassed Ryan, who was a medical doctor not even in the military at all, and Emily, who had never once been in a combat situation.

Blair looked fit to kill, but she was overpowered. There was nothing she could have done.

“Put the motherfucking gun down, bitch, or I’m going to shoot this one and take you out next.” Spittle sprayed the air in front of Emily’s face at his menacing words. “Now,” he screamed.

Blair finally lowered her weapon, but she kept her gaze trained on Emily. If she meant to communicate something, Emily had no idea what it was. She was currently fighting for oxygen as the man’s arm tightened.

“’Bout fucking time, bitch. Now back away several yards.” When Blair wasn’t quick enough, he screamed again. “You fucking deaf?”

Blair backed up, her gaze on Emily.

Emily’s body was stiff as she held on to her captor’s forearm. She had no doubt he was bluffing. His job had been to take her alive, and he was doing so.

“Let her go, man,” Ryan pleaded. “She’s done nothing to anyone. I don’t know what your employers have told you, but they lied.”

The man cackled.

Emily jerked her gaze to Ryan again. It was hard to see him through the car, but she knew he would be pissed as hell to have gotten into this situation. She also knew he would blame himself, and that part hurt the worst. Even though he’d made the plans for the day, she had been the one to suggest they leave the bunker. Her idea. Not his.

“Ryan,” she whispered as the man dragged her toward the sedan. She knew he couldn’t hear her, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t completely panic until the trunk of the sedan popped open and the man dragged her to the edge.

Emily screamed, incoherent sounds of fear and anguish. “No. Don’t do this. Please,” she begged. The thought of being shut inside the trunk made her heart race. It was far worse than anything that had happened so far.

She could hear Ryan pleading behind her, and Blair too. But there was nothing either of them could do.

Emily kicked out with both feet to keep from entering the trunk. All that earned her was a slap across the face that took her breath away and left her too stunned and dizzy and disoriented to prevent the inevitable.

She tried to sit up as she was unceremoniously dropped on her ass, just long enough to see a fourth man dragging the guy who had been shot toward the Hummer. And then the trunk slammed shut, leaving her in darkness and muting the voices outside.

For several moments, she kicked at the lid of the trunk before deciding to save her energy. She would need it later. There was nothing she could do now.

Nothing any of them could have done.

The first tear slid down her face as she rolled onto her side and hugged her knees to her chest. Her jaw was already swelling, red hot pain shooting down her neck to combine with the pain from her shoulder.

Thank God she had on both a sweater and a jacket. There was no telling where she was going or how cold it might be when the sun went down. If she needed to make a run for it in the mountains, at least she had on enough layers.

Ryan.

She couldn’t imagine how frantic he must have felt. She hurt more for him than for herself. If someone had taken him hostage and left her behind, she would lose her mind.

Deep breaths.

The tears still fell as the car lurched forward. She needed to think. Pull herself together. Find the strength to get out of this situation.

What did these men want with her?