Option to Kill (Nathan McBride 3) Read Online Free PDF

blue-and-red flashing light bar stood out among the cars pulling to the curb. It raced below their position on its way to the crash site.
    Nathan found a narrow trail weaving its way through the sagebrush. It wasn’t difficult going, but Lauren lost her footing in several places. He kept her from falling. “You’re doing fine. We’re almost there.”
    “How do you know about this?”
    “I’ve seen it from the road. I think people use it as a shortcut.”
    The bottom of the path dumped them into a small parking lot serving a three-story office building. Nathan stopped and put a finger to his lips. He inhaled through his nose and held still. As far as he could tell, no one was around. The fading siren and rush of cars along Friars Road were the only sounds.
    “We’re going to head out to the street and cross at the signal.”
    They walked down a steep driveway leading to Friars Road and turned west along the sidewalk. Nathan pushed the pedestrian button on the signal’s standard and looked to his left.
    A familiar-looking sedan barreled toward them.
    What the hell?
    How could this be the same black sedan from Ulric Street?
    Its passenger-side window was already down.
    Nathan made eye contact with the driver. The same driver who’d kidnapped Lauren.
    Behind a rising MP5, a smile formed on the kidnapper’s bloody face.
    Nathan had to protect Lauren and draw his gun, but there wasn’t time for both.
    He made the decision.
    Rather than reach for the SIG, he picked Lauren up and literally hurled her over a chest-high retaining wall beside the sidewalk. As best he could tell, she had about two feet of protective cover on the other side.
    Nathan yelled for her stay down and made a move for his gun, but too late.
    Its antilock brakes thumping, the sedan arrived like a harbinger of death.
     

Chapter 5
    After all he’d been through in the Marines and the CIA, his life would end like this?
    Right here? Right now? It seemed so random and pointless.
    Then things happened fast.
    Just as the kidnapper pulled the trigger, the sedan jumped forward from being rear-ended by a pickup truck. The sedan’s airbags deployed in simultaneous claps. The distinctive crunch of metal on metal was followed by the thunderous percussion of the machine gun.
    The shooter’s arm jerked. The slugs shattered the rear passenger window and careened off the retaining wall.
    Nathan crouched and shielded his eyes against the explosion of tempered glass. He looked up and saw fresh blood spatter on the rear window. The two men he shot on Ulric must’ve been in the backseat, and the collision forced the driver’s arm in their direction.
    Time to move.
    “Come on!”
    Lauren didn’t respond, she was clearly frozen from shock and disbelief.
    “Lauren!” he yelled. “Let’s go.”
    She sat up and reached for him. Two seconds later, they sprinted into the slowing traffic on Friars Road, heading for the mall. Nathan glanced over his shoulder and saw the kidnapper fighting the airbag. Well, he’s two for two, Nathan thought. There’s nothing like a second airbag to the chops to ruin a guy’s evening.
    Two more sirens rang out, probably fire and medical.
    Nathan and Lauren kept running as the smashed sedan sped away from the scene, its plastic rear bumper dragging along the asphalt.
    “He tried to kill us!”
    “Come on, we have to clear the area.” They hurried down the street leading into the Fashion Valley Mall. The parking garage on their left was fairly quiet, only a few shoppers looking for spaces. Nathan looked over his shoulder, relieved to see no one had focused on them. Several people were out of their vehicles, approaching the wrecked pickup.
    Nathan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He needed to quash the adrenaline coursing through his body. Those nine-millimeter slugs hadn’t missed by more than a few feet. Luck favors the well prepared, although he knew more than luck had been involved. Nathan didn’t consider himself a