Betrayed by a Kiss Read Online Free PDF

lost her balance and face-planted in the dirt as bullets pelted the surrounding trees, raining bark down on her as she lay still, pinned by incoming fire, at the mercy of whoever got to her first.
    “Man, oh, man, oh, man, oh, man,” she said under her breath. Marnie rolled onto her back, holding the Glock to her chest. She wasn’t completely helpless. If a gunman approached, she’d shoot him. But how did that help MacLain? She wasn’t doing him any good cowering in the woods.
    She wiggled herself to the side until she was up against a tree, then she peered around. She wished she knew where MacLain was, that he was safe. Had the laser-scope rifles done their job? Was he lying dead in the field, alone? She didn’t want to believe that.
    A hand covered her mouth from behind, muffling Marnie’s resultant screams. She struggled to lift her gun, aim behind her, but was easily disarmed. It was MacLain. He lifted his hand off her mouth as she shuddered with relief. A heartbeat later he lifted her off her feet and ran deeper into the woods.
    “Are you insane?” He sounded pissed.
    She was crying. She hated that she was crying. “I wanted to help.”
    “I told you to stay put.”
    “Don’t yell at me.” He’d been whispering, but she could tell he really wanted to yell.
    “Listen, I can only find six of them, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more. I can’t do what I have to do if you keep volunteering for target practice.”
    “I saved your life out there.”
    “You saved my hat.” He arched a brow, and she noticed what he meant. He wasn’t wearing his baseball hat. “I was nowhere near it at the time.”
    “Did I get any of them?” The idea of actually shooting a gunman made her queasy, but she was pragmatic enough to know it was a them-or-us situation.
    “No. But there are only four left. Now”—he propped her up behind a tree—“do me a solid and stay put?” Then he was gone, blending in with the shadows in the woods.
    Gun aimed toward the lights, Marnie now found herself perfectly happy to do as he requested. There was no way for her to tell which moving shadow was MacLain and which were the bad guys anyway.
    A shot discharged close by. Too close. Forty yards ahead, at the tree line, a body wearing assault gear fell from a tree. Another shot discharged from the same place, and a shadow separated from a tree thirty yards from her, slumping to the ground. Another shot produced a grunt from someone nearby—she couldn’t tell exactly where, and not knowing if MacLain was on the wrong end of that bullet was driving her crazy.
    Everything was happening so fast, it was making it harder to stay put, clutching a gun that should be helping to keep them alive. She aimed the gun, trying to see in the dark, but all she saw were shadows and trees.
    Then she saw him. A dark figure in the distance stepped from behind a tree and aimed a rifle at her. She didn’t think twice but stood, braced the gun with both hands, and pulled the trigger. But nothing happened. The clip was empty. A shot rang out. She waited to feel the bullet’s impact. The rifleman fell back, arms splayed. MacLain separated himself from the shadows, took the gun from her hand, and dropped the clip and refilled it with a fresh one. Marnie took a gulping breath, suddenly aware she hadn’t been breathing for a while now. He chambered a bullet and handed it back to her.
    “That’s six gunmen down, but it’s best not to stick around and be proved wrong.”
    Marnie agreed, wanting to get the hell out. “Lead the way.”
    He indicated the field. “First I’ll need to see if any of them are Alice’s killer. Empty their pockets. Look for ID.” He dropped to the ground, his intention clearly to low-crawl out of the woods and into the field, toward the first body. She crouched and grabbed his pant leg, hoping to reason with him.
    “I’m the only one that knows what he looks like. I’ll do it. You see if there are others.” He studied her