All Jacked Up (35 page)

His head bounced on the wood and he groaned. Jackass looked around at her. “He’s dead weight and I’m doing the best I can,” Alex said. “I’m not Wonder Woman, you know.”

“Who are you?”

She looked down into those amazing, fallen-angel blue eyes and experienced a minor, and completely internal, earthquake. He could probably stop most women in their tracks with one look from those eyes.

Alex wasn’t most women. It took a whole lot more than a set of gorgeous eyes and a to-die-for face to get her attention. It even took more than a spontaneous orgasm.

It took character. Not being in possible mortal danger would be a plus, too.

The whine of the plane engine closing in on their position reminded her that this man probably had a bad character. He looked like the kind of guy who’d charm old women out of their annuities and young women out of their trust funds—and their panties. He looked like the kind of guy who’d be dumped out of a plane by shady acquaintances.

And speaking of planes, the one she was currently hearing had just appeared over the crest of the hill. Alex peered through the still-falling snow; the angle was different, but she was pretty sure it was the same plane, and now that she got a good look at it, she got a bad feeling about it. The not-a-coincidence feeling.

The plane was an airvan, the kind of boxy, flying school bus used for skydivers. The kind of plane with a door on the side that slid open really easily, with handy loops for the occupants to hold on to while they contemplated the chance they were wearing a working parachute versus the possibility of ending their life as a grease stain on the landscape. The loops also worked out well for guys with guns to hold on to while they sprayed the ground below with bullets.

Great, Alex thought, suddenly sure the man on the sled had a bad character since his shady acquaintances had come back to finish the job. And she didn’t think they’d care if she and Jackass got in the way. In fact, she had a sneaking suspicion they’d prefer it.

She grabbed her shotgun, pointed it skyward in the right general direction, and squeezed off a couple of shots. She didn’t have any real hope of hitting the plane, but she wanted whoever was shooting at them to know she was armed. The plane veered away and up above the trees, but apparently she didn’t pose that much of a threat because it went a ways off and started to loop back around. Which gave Alex all of ten seconds to make a decision.

She could cut the sled loose, hop on Jackass, and make it under cover of the trees while the guys in the plane took out their primary target. But she was already tugging at the horse’s bridle. It went against the grain to leave someone helpless out in the open like a shooting gallery duck. Even after he’d stuck a gun in her face.

She was a good fifty yards from the trees, and snowshoes were made to walk in, not run. If she took them off she wouldn’t be going much faster, not in a couple feet of wet snow. All she could do was slog along at a shuffling trot, hoping like hell it took the homicidal plane a while to get back and that the guys inside would aim at the sled first. Okay, so she couldn’t leave him out there like a big spread-eagled “shoot me” sign, but that didn’t mean she was prepared to give up her life for him. Or her horse’s life. And since Jackass was the bigger target and more likely to get hit than either of the people around him, Alex stepped up the pace to a point where she was in danger of falling on her face at any second.

She managed to make it under cover of the trees just as the first bullet kicked up snow behind the sled. The plane veered off again, and Alex threaded their way into the thickest part of the forest she could find, belatedly checking to make sure her cargo hadn’t rolled off somewhere along the way. He was still there, and if
she
was cold and wet, he wasn’t going to survive very long.

She would have preferred to stay out of sight a little longer, just in case, but again her only choice was to risk a run for the cabin. Thankfully it appeared the plane was heading off permanently again, judging from the faintness of the engine.

She covered the half mile to the house as fast as she could, unhooked the sled by the front door, and took Jackass around to his nice, warm stable, wishing, for the first time, the horse was a man. Even her ex-fiancé, bastard that he was, would be welcome—Nope. There was never a good reason to think about Bennet Harper. If she was dying of kidney failure and he was the only living donor, she wouldn’t want him back in her life. She’d have to find a way, all by herself, to get this guy inside before he turned into an icicle.

For once that day, something went right. He was awake—at least halfway, moaning and shivering and trying to get up. “C’mon,” Alex yelled at him. “You can do it.”

He made an effort, she had to give him that, but he just couldn’t manage on his own. Sighing, she picked up an arm and tugged until he got his wobbly knees under him. Then she half dragged him inside, stopping just over the threshold and wondering what the heck she was going to do with him.

And if the plane was going to come back and make the decision unnecessary.