Shadow Soldier by Dana Marton Page A

smoldering. That guy wouldn’t be bothering anyone again. But as much as he had wished, he couldn’t go after the rest. His first objective was Nicola. He had to be by her side to guard her. He couldn’t kill all the attackers at once, and one could get to Nicola before he got to all of them.
    She stiffened in his arms, and he watched as theman took another step forward. Then another. Alex raised his gun. One more step and he would have to take the guy out, and then the sound of gunfire was sure to bring the rest running. If it came to that, they would have to be fast.
    He got ready to shove Nicola behind him and shoot at the same time. His finger rested on the trigger.
    Sirens filled the air.
    The man looked around, then ran back in the direction he’d come from. Alex relaxed his arm as the sirens grew louder. The fire company came first, then the police a few seconds later. He stayed in place, holding Nicola with one arm to him.
    â€œIt’s me,” he finally whispered into her ear.
    â€œI know.” She turned in his arms and hugged him tight, hanging on for dear life.
    He had a Russian-made Makarov—a fine gun at that—in one hand, and a woman he had no business holding in the other. And they were not out of the woods yet. The terrorists were probably still out there, watching, while he had no car to get away.
    â€œMrs. Slocsky’s Oldsmobile is in the garage.” Nicola lifted her head.
    He nodded and held her back from going straight for the door, not wanting to set off the light hooked to a motion detector. He went in through a window instead, helped her in, then turned off the outsidelight and unscrewed the bulb in the garage that was probably set to turn on when the garage door opened.
    Hot-wiring the car took seconds. He clicked the garage door opener clipped on the back of the sun visor, then, without turning the headlights on, backed out onto the driveway. An empty police car blocked their exit. Not a problem. A few bumps and a couple of flowerbeds later, he rolled off the next-door neighbor’s driveway to the street and drove in the opposite direction from all the commotion, ignoring the small groups of neighbors gathered in their robes and pajamas. A couple of them were talking to the police, looking dazed or worried.
    A police car took off after him almost immediately.
    â€œDamn.”
    Nicola looked back. “What? Police is good, right?”
    â€œNot now. We can’t afford to stick around to explain things. We’d be sitting ducks for a sniper.” He glanced at the flashing lights in his rearview mirror as he floored the gas pedal and pulled ahead. He had to get away before the cops had a chance to call for backup.
    After ten minutes of hide-and-seek and racing down side streets, he killed the headlights and pulled into an empty carport. The cruiser came around the corner the next second and zoomed by behind them.As soon as it disappeared from sight, Alex took off the other way. “I think we’re okay.”
    Nicola leaned back in her seat. “I’m so glad you’re here. Back at the house when you fell—I thought—” Her voice sounded off, high-pitched.
    Alex kept an eye on the rearview mirror. He’d never had anyone worry about what happened to him on a mission before. He didn’t like the idea of Nicola being anxious over him, and he liked even less the possibility of him thinking about her and making a mistake, maybe not taking a chance he should have.
    And he’d been worried about her, too, blamed himself for letting her out of his sight. He had fallen with the roof, leaving her alone for nearly ten minutes, giving the terrorists a thousand chances to kill her. He didn’t like the cold pain that spread through his stomach at the thought.
    He unclipped the cell phone from his belt and handed it to Nicola.
    â€œSee if you can get this to work. I think I fell on it. Couldn’t reach you