The Gamble (Colorado Mountain #1)(214)

His hand at my wrist squeezed tight but then it loosened and he moved my hand a couple of inches down my back so the pain weakened and, although it didn’t go away, it was something.

Well done, now wait for it, Neenee Bean, Charlie whispered.

I pulled in breath.

We’re close, sweetheart, Charlie told me.

I let out my breath and pulled in another.

Now! Charlie shouted.

I whirled at the same time pulling my head back. When I was facing Harry, I slammed it forward, my forehead connecting with Harry’s chin and pain exploded in my forehead but I ignored it, lifted my knee, fast and vicious, connecting with his crotch. Harry let out a startled, pained grunt, he let my wrist go and I reached for the gun, twisting it out of his hand and taking two running steps back.

Shoot him, Nina! Charlie yelled.

I lifted the gun and aimed it at Harry, shouting out loud to Charlie, “I can’t!”

Do it! Charlie urged.

Harry, one hand at his crotch, his upper body bent almost double but his head back and eyes on me started stumbling toward me.

“Charlie,” I whispered, my hand holding the gun and trembling, “I can’t.”

Then don’t shoot… run!

“Bitsy,” I breathed.

Now! Now, Nina! Run!

I turned and ran.

My high-heeled booted feet crunched through the snow and I heard Harry crunching after me. Pine needles whipped my face, snow flying off their limbs stinging me with pinpoints of freeze as I kept going.

Left here, veer left. Max is coming, Charlie told me.

Relief swept through me.

Oh thank God.

Keep running. Faster, sweetheart.

I veered left and tried to run faster but slipped and slid when my high-heeled boots hit rocks, finding purchase when they hit snow-covered turf, sliding and wavering again when they hit stone. Every step I took I heard Harry’s pained grunting and his feet pounding behind me.

I looked back, just like all the stupid heroines in the horror movies do.

Keep going, don’t look, Charlie instructed me, just keep running.

I looked forward just when the toe of my boot caught on something solid and then I was flying. Yes, like all the stupid heroines in horror movies do, I fell, landing with a body-rocking jolt on my hands and knees at the same time stupid, stupid, stupidly losing the gun.

“Dammit!” I screamed.

Keep shouting! Max will hear you! He’s close! Charlie yelled.

But I didn’t get to shout. Instead I let out an “oof” as I tried to push to my feet and was tackled from behind by Harry. We rolled through the snow down the mountain, a tangle of arms and legs.

Fight, scratch, kick, bite, scream, sweetheart, scream! Charlie ordered.

I screamed, loud and shrill and I kept doing it as I fought, punching, shifting, flailing, scratching and kicking. We’d come to rest on an outcrop of rock that felt hard, cold and abrasive even through my clothes as we wrestled on top of it and I kept screaming as I kept fighting. I gave it all I had but Harry got me to my back and straddled me. I continued to pound on his chest, scratch at his neck and kick out with my legs, bucking my h*ps and shrieking in terror as both his big mountain man hands cupped either side of my head, yanking it up so my chin was in my throat and I knew he was going to pound it into the rock. My fingers wrapped around his wrists and I pulled out hard but didn’t succeed in moving his hands.

SCREAM! Charlie shouted.

I screamed.

Then Harry was gone because Max was there, tackling him from the side, they both went flying. I sucked in breath, relief so extreme it felt like it ripped through me, shredding my insides. I scrambled back on all fours and ran into something then hands were in my armpits and I was being dragged back.

I screamed again but over my scream I heard Jeff shout, “Maxwell!”

My body stilled and my eyes searched through the darkness to see Max and Harry at the edge of the outcrop, Harry on his knees, Max on his feet, one of his fists holding Harry up at the collar, both of Harry’s hands scratching at Max’s forearm as his legs scrambled desperately in an attempt to get his feet underneath him and Max’s other fist repeatedly, with sickening thud after sickening thud, connected with Harry’s face.

“Max!” Another shout, this one from Mick as he ran and skidded through the snow toward Max but Max didn’t stop.

“You okay?” Jeff asked, I nodded my lie, my eyes never leaving Max as I watched Harry’s legs quit scrambling and his hands weakening in their struggles against Max’s forearm.

Jeff took off just as Mick made it to Max, wrapping both arms around him he yanked him back but Max wasn’t to be stopped. Jeff made it to the trio and then I saw Cotton materialize out of nowhere, then Brody was there and Steve, Darren, George, some guys I’d never seen before and finally Pete and it took all of them to pull Harry one way and Max the other.

Once they disconnected, Max jerked his body away and shrugged off the hands on him, standing still as a statue, only his chest moving, his breaths coming heavy, the cold tufts of them gusting fast and hard from his mouth, lighting in the moonlight and his head was tipped down, his eyes glued to Harry. Harry had collapsed to his front but up on an elbow with his head bent as if he couldn’t hold it up.

I pushed up to my feet, completely oblivious to the snow that covered me, matted wet and cold in my hair, embedded in my clothes and I stumbled to Max. I was two feet away before he turned to me. I felt his eyes hit me through the darkness and my knees gave way before I made it those last two feet.