Dangerous Ground 3: Blood Heat by Josh Lanyon Page B

that,” Kelila panted.
    “Gretchen wants to kill me anyway.” Taylor was reloading quickly, throwing hasty looks out the side window.
    Will jammed on the accelerator, and the SUV shot forward. The tires spun on gravel, and they bumped onto the highway. The vehicle seemed to be responding okay. Will spared a quick look at the gauges. No red lights. The left rear was dragging a little.
    He gave her a little more gas, and they sped round the first bend only to see the black sedan parked squarely across the narrow road.
    “ Shit .” Will braked hard, steering into the skid, a tight hand-over-hand maneuver so that the SUV rocked to a halt lined up parallel a few inches from the bullet-riddled sedan blocking their way.
    There was a long wooded drop on the left and a steep rocky climb on the right.
    No way around the sedan and no way through.
    “We"ve got to go back.” Taylor gave voice to Will"s thoughts.
    Will nodded tightly. “Get on the floor,” he ordered Kelila.
    She obeyed, moving with what seemed to him clumsy, shaking slowness.
    Taylor rolled down his window and scrambled to sit on the ledge, bracing himself. He thumped the roof of the SUV. “Go.”
    “Hang on, for Christ"s sake.” Will reversed, yanked the wheel, and they spun out, hurtling back down the narrow road.
    As they swung around the curve, he saw Gretchen and Victor waiting for them. At the same moment, Taylor opened fire.
    Will floored it. He felt the thunk of bullets hitting the side of the SUV, heard Kelila screaming, felt the burn of glass on his neck as the side window behind him shattered.
    Taylor was still firing in quick succession.

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    And then they were around the next bend and flying down the road back to Carrizozo.
    The sound of shots faded. Gretchen was a tiny, dark figure in Will"s rearview, running out to the blacktop to fire final, wild shots after them.
    Taylor slithered agilely back through the window and dropped heavily into the seat beside Will.
    Will threw him a quick look. “Okay?”
    Taylor assented. He wiped his forehead. His eyes met Will"s “You?”
    Will nodded. He looked in the rearview. “Everyone okay?”
    No response from the backseat.
    Taylor half turned, reaching down to Kelila. “You all right?”
    She groaned. “I think the baby"s coming.”
    “You always say that.”
    “My water broke.”
    Taylor returned to facing forward in his seat. “Did you hear that?”
    “Roger.”
    “Do we try to make it back to Carrizozo or try to find a ranger station?”
    “What"s a ranger supposed to do?”
    “What are we supposed to do?”
    “How long before the baby comes?” Will called back to Kelila.
    She was carefully picking herself up from the floor and lying on the seat. “I"m not flying anywhere till this baby comes.”
    “That"s not what I asked you. How long till he comes?”
    “It could be anytime. It could be twelve hours. It could be twelve minutes.”
    Taylor said suddenly, like a student recalling the answer to a tough exam question, “Are you having contractions?”
    “Yes.”

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    “How often?”
    “Often enough.”
    Far down the road, Will spied another vehicle. The first they"d seen other than the Hart"s sedan. “Let"s head for Carrizozo.” He threw another glance at Taylor, who looked about as tired and disheveled as Will had ever seen him. “How did you get out of that cave?”
    “I walked. It turned out not to be Carlsbad Caverns, after all.”
    “It could have been.”
    “Yeah, but it wasn"t.” Taylor sighed wearily. He ejected the magazine, removed the clip, squinted at it. “Two rounds left.”
    “Did you nail Victor?”
    “It looked like it.”
    “Gretchen will kill you,” Kelila offered by way of comfort.
    “Been there, done that.”
    Will reached out to pat Taylor"s thigh. The approaching car was black. An SUV. Taking the winding road very fast.
    Too fast.
    “What I want to know is how they found her.”
    “Who?” Will