Secret Soldier Read Online Free PDF Page B

then he heard the answering shots from the back. Dr. DiMatteo was returning fire. He grinned. Excellent. She hadn’t forgotten how to shoot.
    He watched in his side mirror as one of the trucks stopped following, then another. She must have taken out their tires. Smart woman.
    There was a gap in the shooting from the back. Did she get hit? He swore and glanced back, but couldn’t see anything. Then the sound of repeat fire filled the cab. She’d managed to find the semiautomatic in the darkness.
    The last truck fell back slowly. Then he could see nothing in the side mirror but darkness behind them. Still, he drove for a solid half hour before he stopped.
    “Are you okay?” He jumped from his seat and ran to the back.
    She was sitting on the floor among the dead bodies, her face as pale as the moon, her hands trembling. He had to climb up to help her down; he didn’t think she could manage by herself.
    He dumped the body from the passenger seat, helped her up, then went back to dispose of the rest of the dead. Even though he hated to waste the time, he wasn’t sure she could handle a load of bodies in the back. She’d had enough of a shock for the day. He could do this one thing for her. He didn’t bother to search the men, but made sure he got back his phone and watch. He also kept the guns.
    She was doubled over in her seat when he came back, her face buried in her hands.
    “Were you hit?”
    She straightened to look at him, her face tearstreaked, and shook her head.
    He let out his breath. “You did good.”
    He turned the truck in the general direction of Tukatar, figuring they’d find the road sooner or later. “We’ll be home in another hour or so.”
    They weren’t more than fifty-sixty miles northwest of the village.
    Unfortunately, they ran out of gas in ten.
     
    ABIGAIL LOOKED AT Gerald and found him watching her. He had lost some of that polished look; his face was dirty, his shirt smudged with dried blood. She blinked. What had happened back there? How had he turned from cameraman playboy into superhero?
    Obviously she knew even less about her temporary husband than she’d thought.
    “You okay?” His intense blue gaze searched her face.
    “Still alive.” Thanks to him. But for how long? “Now what?”
    “The extra cans of gas are on another truck. We walk as far as we can, then we rest.”
    “Will your cell phone work out here?”
    “Probably not,” he said, but then tried anyway. He looked at the display and shook his head. “Let’s go.”
    She took a deep breath and looked around, shivering. She had planned on being back in her hut by now and hadn’t brought anything warm. Gerald’s footsteps sounded soft on the sand. She forced herself to follow him.
    They walked in silence for a while, and she wondered whether the scorpions or exposure would get them first, or if the bandits would catch up with them. “Do you think we’re going to make it?
    Gerald looked at her and held her gaze. “I know so.”
    She thought of the carnage in the back of the truck and wanted more than anything to ask him how he’d done that, but she couldn’t yet bring herself to speak of it. Maybe, in addition to being a cameraman, he was also a self-defense expert. Or maybe he was a spy. No, that was stupid. Why on earth would he be interested in Tukatar? People there barely had enough resources to survive, let alone conspire against anyone.
    And yet something about him didn’t add up. He was a cameraman from New York. Well-built, definitely a jock, probably a health club addict. But that didn’t explain how he knew how to disarm and annihilate a truckful of armed men. She didn’t think stuff like that could happen outside of Steven Seagal movies. There was more to Gerald Thornton than met the eye. For one, there had been no mention of a documentary in any of the grant information. Of course, they could have come up with it later. Or not.
    But on the off chance that he was some kind of a spy, confronting