“Me, too,” T-Rex added.
“Then let’s get going before the woman bleeds out.”
That was when T-Rex noticed the pool of blood on the floor beneath Sierra. His heart pinched hard in his chest. He stepped forward, wanting to go to her and apply pressure to the wound.
But the man with the grenade was calling the shots. One wrong move and the wound wouldn’t matter anymore.
“Let’s go!” Sierra’s captor yelled. He shoved Sierra forward, holding her close, the hand with the grenade held high for all to see and fear.
T-Rex feared all right. He didn’t see any way out of this scenario.
Sierra stared across at him, a crooked smile on her face. “I tried to escape. I guess I didn’t do so good.”
“We’ll figure this out. Don’t worry,” T-Rex said.
“Shut up and keep moving,” said the man with the grenade.
“Wait!” a shout went up. The vice president emerged from the theater, escorted by Ghost. “Leave the woman. Take me.”
The captor snorted. “A little late for heroics. I want in that helicopter in the next two minutes, or I’ll let go of this grenade. And I don’t care if it kills every last one of you.”
“Please, don’t. We’ll get you to the helicopter,” Garner assured the man. “Step this way. No one will hurt you.”
“Damn right, they won’t. Not if they want her to live.”
T-Rex moved to stand on the other side of Sierra and the man holding her hostage. Between him and Garner, they walked the pair to the exit, striding slowly to avoid any misinterpretation of their movements.
Garner was first through the door, holding up his hands as he went. “Don’t shoot!”
The parking lot in front of them had been completely cleared of all personnel. Many of the vehicles had been moved to allow the helicopter to land on the pavement. There was a line of cars in the handicapped spots between the visitors center and the helicopter.
Once T-Rex stepped through and moved to the side, the man with the grenade and Sierra emerged from the building. “Stay back at least ten yards,” he said as he moved toward the parking lot and the helicopter.
T-Rex tried to think of a way to save Sierra. Perhaps if T-Rex threw himself at her captor and landed on the hand with the grenade, Sierra would be spared. He tried to calculate the amount of time it would take for him to close the distance between them and the number of seconds it would take before the grenade exploded. He couldn’t risk it. If he didn’t make it in time, the terrorist would drop the grenade and it would be the end of the terrorist, Sierra, T-Rex and Garner.
He’d never been faced with a scenario this important in his entire life. When Gunny had been hit, they hadn’t known it was coming. They didn’t have time to prepare.
Knowing what could happen was far worse. If that grenade dropped and he lived through the explosion, he’d forever wonder if Sierra would have survived if he’d chosen a different option.
He appeared to be faced with a no-win situation.
If the terrorist made it to the helicopter with Sierra, there was no telling what he’d do with her next.
T-Rex didn’t want to think of the possibilities. He just wanted her safely away. Back in her room at the bed-and-breakfast, making love with him.
He wanted more time to get to know the brave woman and see if, as he suspected, they could be perfect for each other. He’d even consider giving up his military career to be with her. Anything. Just let her live.
* * *
SIERRA’S LEG HURT like hell, but she couldn’t stand by and let this man get away with a government helicopter and possibly killing the pilot and copilot. As they neared the parked cars, she formed a plan in her head. It wasn’t a good plan, but it was all she could think of. If she didn’t do something quickly, T-Rex would try to save her, and then all hell would break loose.
T-Rex wouldn’t let the terrorist leave the ground with Sierra. He’d do something horribly heroic like throw himself on the grenade. He was a good man with a lot of life ahead of him. He deserved to live it, not die taking one for the team or her.
Sierra couldn’t let that happen.
In the time she had left, her mind flashed through what they had experienced together. It wasn’t much, but their meeting and lovemaking had been intense and insanely satisfying. If only she had more time with him. If only she could have told him how she really felt about him.
If only she had another day to spend with T-Rex, she’d make the very most of it and savor it to the moment she died. All of this flashed through her mind and filled her heart, swelling her chest. Mrs. McCall had been right. In the couple of days she’d known T-Rex, she’d fallen for the big marine.
Sierra could imagine spending the rest of her life with such a man. Yeah, he’d be away a lot, and she’d be worried when he was gone, but she’d love him harder when he was with her. If only she’d had the chance to convince him he deserved to be loved and that he should give his lady love the choice of being there when he came home from war.
The walk toward the helicopter was slow due to her injured leg. She didn’t have a chance of outrunning her captor. Whatever she did would require her to sacrifice herself to make it happen. Because, as the closest person to the man with the grenade, it was up to her to do whatever it took to keep T-Rex, Garner and the helicopter crew from bearing the brunt of a terrorist’s plan. Thankfully, her captor had Garner and T-Rex back off to ten yards away from where they were. It would help with her plan if they had distance and cars between them.
As soon the terrorist marched her between two cars on their way to the helicopter, Sierra turned to T-Rex and dipped her head. Hoping he had caught her meaning, Sierra made her move and pretended to faint, letting her body go limp.
Her captor was thrown off balance and dipped with her weight. In order to balance himself and catch her, he bent and lowered the arm carrying the grenade as her body sank toward the pavement.
Then when she thought the bulk of the explosion would be sandwiched between the cars, she bunched her legs and shot up fast and hard, hitting her head beneath the man’s chin.
He loosened his hold on her and the grenade.
Sierra dropped to the ground and rolled beneath a car. The world around her exploded, rocking the vehicle above her so violently she knocked her head into the undercarriage.
Blackness claimed her.
* * *
T-REX HAD BEEN watching Sierra’s face, worried she would bleed out before she even made it to the helicopter. Forced to maintain their distance, he was at a point with two vehicles between him and Sierra. He couldn’t get to her fast enough to help her. He’d have to wait until they cleared the parked cars. But when her gaze darted to his and held, then she’d dipped her head, he knew she was going to try something.
He opened his mouth to shout Don’t do it. But it was too late.
Sierra dropped toward the ground, as if she’d fainted.
“Get down!” T-Rex shouted as he ducked behind a vehicle. An explosion knocked him off his feet. A back flash filled his head of the Afghan village and the explosion that had crippled Gunny.
After the earth stopped shaking and the debris stopped falling, T-Rex rose from his position.
“Sierra?” he called out. “Oh, God, Sierra!” T-Rex ran around the front of the vehicle he’d ducked behind and nearly tripped over the hood of the next vehicle. It had been blown completely off the car. The top of the vehicle was mangled metal, and somewhere gasoline was leaking.
“Sierra!” T-Rex’s stomach clenched as he looked between two horribly distorted vehicles to what was left of the terrorist. He held his breath, afraid of what he would find of Sierra.
She wasn’t there.
T-Rex straightened and turned around. Had she been thrown clear of the vehicles? He didn’t see her body lying anywhere close. “Sierra!”
A low moan sounded from beneath one of the cars.
T-Rex dropped down to his knees among the jagged metal and broken glass and peered beneath the chassis of what might once have been a sedan. A torn sleeve lay within inches of fingers. He reached for the fabric and nearly fell backward when it moved. A slim, feminine hand, marred with scratches and abrasions, reached toward him.
“Sierra?” He wrapped his fingers around hers and held on. “Oh, baby, we’ll get you out of there. Hold on.”
Garner arrived first, then Caveman, Ghost and Hawkeye. With the help of the other law enforcement teams, they lifted what was left of the mangled car off Sierra.
The emergency medical team that had been on standby moved in and pulled her out.
By then, she wasn’t moving. Her hand had gone limp in his as they lifted the heavy vehicle.
T-Rex followed the EMTs as they loaded her onto a backboard. “Is she...”
“Alive?” One medical technician glanced up. “Yes. But we need to get her to the hospital ASAP and check her for internal bleeding. We don’t know what damage she might have sustained due to the explosion or being crushed by the car.”
T-Rex bent to kiss her forehead and whispered, “I’ll be there when you wake.”
Then she was loaded into a medical helicopter and transported to the hospital in Bozeman, Montana.
T-Rex watched until the helicopter disappeared, his heart leaving with it. “I have to get to the hospital.”