Trusting Danger (Danger, #2)(74)

Cooley, who’d stopped to look behind him, was thrown off balance. His gun flew out of his hand. As he lunged forward to retrieve it, Grayson took off running.

He made it about thirty yards before a gunshot sounded and a bullet whizzed past, way too close for comfort. Who knew a desk jockey could shoot so well? Grayson ran faster, startled to hear more shots coming from a different direction.

Who was King exchanging gunfire with? Eli and the team? It had to be.

He darted into the cover of some pine trees, doing the best he could to widen his lead despite his bound wrists. A few minutes later, he looked behind him. Cooley was nowhere in sight. It was time to free himself.

Taking cover behind a boulder, he used the crag of the rock to saw at the ropes binding his wrists. He’d been working frantically for nearly a minute when a low-pitched female voice hissed, “Grayson!”

He jerked his head up. Ice-cold fear gripped him as he spotted Claire, but there was no time to ask what she was doing there. “Untie me!”

Claire fell to her knees and began working at the ropes.

“Who’s with you?”

“Eli.” Whispering, she quickly recounted how they’d come down with Alex and then split up to look for the tent. “Alex is on his way over with the deputy.”

She freed Grayson several seconds later, yanking the ropes off.

Grayson flexed his numb wrists and fingers as he rubbed them, trying to decide what to do now that he had Claire to worry about. The fire was affecting more than just the sky now. Even the air in front of them was hazy.

He turned his head and his adrenaline spiked when he spotted Cooley standing fifty feet away. Cooley’s gun was raised, pointed at them.

Grayson grabbed Claire’s hand. “Run!”

Shots ricocheted off the rocks near them as they took off.

They raced through trees and reached a clearing a moment later. Grayson scanned their surroundings. Although the clearing offered no cover, it was the best way forward. The terrain on both sides was too rough to traverse safely, especially with any speed.

“Ahead of me!”

He pulled on Claire’s arm, moving her in front of him and covering her as they ran. Another gunshot went off. Then another.

Pain sliced through Grayson’s thigh, but he kept moving. No matter what happened, Claire was coming out of this alive.

Claire looked over her shoulder and terror spread across her face. “You’re hit!”

“Keep running!”

She obeyed, turning back around and continuing her sprint until the toe of her boot caught on a root. Grayson’s pulse rate soared as her ankle twisted and she fell to the ground, her arms flailing.

Yet another shot rang out and Grayson cursed, knowing Cooley was almost upon them. Wincing in pain, Grayson dove onto Claire to shield her with his body.

After seconds had ticked by in silence, Grayson lifted his head in confusion. Why had Cooley stopped shooting?

He sucked in a surprised breath as he spotted Cooley lying on the ground. Alex ran up to Cooley with his gun trained on him.

“Cooley’s down,” Grayson told Claire. “Alex shot him.”

The words didn’t seem to appease Claire, who began squirming beneath him. “You’re dripping blood!”

“I’m fine,” he said as he climbed to his feet and tugged Claire up with him.

Clutching her arm, Grayson looked down at her worried face. There was so much he wanted to say, but first he needed to make sure the danger was truly over.

He turned his gaze back to Alex. “Is he dead?”

Claire stiffened in his grip, and Grayson shifted to block her view.

Alex reached down to pull the gun from Cooley’s limp hand. “Yeah. He is.”

“We need to get you help,” Claire said as she frowned at Grayson’s jeans, one pants leg ripped and bloody.

Grayson cupped her cheek, drawing her gaze to his. “The wound’s superficial. What about your ankle?”

“It’s fine,” she said softly, tilting her head into his palm. “I didn’t sprain it.”

Relief filled him as he drew her into his arms. “Everything’s okay now.”

“Eli just radioed,” Alex said. “He and the deputy have Roy King in custody.”

Grayson pulled Claire closer, a riot of emotions overwhelming him. It had been his job to protect her, but in the end, she’d saved him. And despite everything he’d done to mess things up between them, she seemed to still have feelings for him.

Tension drained from his body as gratitude filled him. He wouldn’t waste a moment of the second chance he’d been given.





Chapter Sixty-Four





Claire’s energy waned as hours crawled by at the crime scene. The coroner came to pick up Peter Cooley’s body, the deputy arrested Roy King and took him into custody, and everyone involved repeated their statements to both local law enforcement and the Phoenix team that Eli had called in. In the midst of all the chaos, Claire had fussed over Grayson, insisting on binding up his thigh temporarily with gauze she’d found in a first aid kit in Eli’s Explorer.

It was after midnight by the time everyone was released to go home. Eli took the Explorer, and Alex drove Claire and Grayson back to DC in Grayson’s Suburban. On the entire ninety-minute drive, Grayson had fought Claire’s demand that he be treated for the gunshot wound, insisting that he’d just been grazed.