“Move the Bronco to the left side of the road,” she said.

  “Hell, Stacey! If they hit us, I could lose you.” He couldn’t believe how vulnerable she was making herself. Not that they weren’t in a lot of trouble, and he could use her help, but not by risking her life this way.

  Stacey began firing rounds at the truck behind them.

  Nettleton woke up, saying, “What the hell’s going on?”

  Both of them ignoring Nettleton, Andrew was trying to speed up to prevent the aggressor truck from ramming his vehicle while Stacey was so exposed. She kept firing at the truck behind them. Glass shattered in its windshield, one of the headlights was knocked out, and the truck suddenly took a swan dive off the road, into the ditch, and hit the trees.

  Andrew was glad Stacey’s plan had worked, but they were still faced with the truck barreling down the road, coming at them head-on.

  Nettleton dropped to the floor of the back seat and cowered down there.

  It looked like the black pickup truck was playing chicken as he headed straight for them.

  Stacey said, “Move over to the right of the road.”

  Andrew knew she couldn’t shoot at the truck when he pulled over into the right lane. “Put on your seat belt.”

  But she didn’t. She put a new clip in her gun. “Okay, he’s moved over to our side of the road, and he’s still planning a head-on collision or daring us to swerve off the road to avoid it. Pull over to the left side of the road.”

  Wondering what in the world she was up to, Andrew did as he was told. Before the truck could switch lanes and move back into position to ram him head-on, she began firing at the truck’s windshield. She hit their tires and fired at the windshield again. The truck suddenly veered off into the ditch on the opposite side of the road and slammed into the trees.

  Hell, he wanted her on his team permanently! Andrew pulled the Bronco to a stop.

  “We have to go back and patch them up, if they need patching up, and arrest them,” she said. “You can arrest these men. Unless they have been involved with illegal wildlife trade, they’re all yours. And Garcia’s.”

  He was amused she would tell him he could apprehend these men. “They could be ready to gun us down.” He called the local police and told them what had happened.

  “What the hell’s going on?” Nettleton asked.

  “Looks like someone sent some hit men after you. Don’t worry. We saved your ass, this time,” Andrew said.

  Garcia managed to reach them, and they looked back in the direction of the two trucks, their headlights illuminating the area around them, the snow, trees, and road. There was no sign of movement in the vehicles. Garcia’s front bumper was crumpled, but he seemed to be able to drive the vehicle without any trouble.

  “Let’s go,” Andrew said, backing up his Bronco toward the first of the disabled trucks. When they were close enough to it, they watched again for any sign of movement. The driver was at the wheel, another man in the passenger seat, groaning.

  Garcia was driving his truck toward them, and when Andrew parked his vehicle, Garcia got out to help him arrest the men. “Sorry I didn’t take the other truck out and you had to deal with both of them.”

  “No problem. As long as we’re all fine and we stopped them, it doesn’t matter who did it,” Andrew said.

  Stacey frowned at them. “Sure, it matters.”

  Both men smiled at her. Andrew could see Stacey had a real competitive edge. He didn’t blame her though.

  “The driver’s been shot in the shoulder,” Garcia said, yanking the truck door open and pulling the driver out of the truck. A gun slid onto the floor of the vehicle.

  The other man had bashed his head against the windshield. Andrew helped him out of the truck, then they laid both men on the road. Garcia holstered his gun and went back to his truck.

  “Watch them, will you?” Andrew asked Stacey. “I’ll get my first aid kit and patch these guys up before the police get here.”

  “Okay. We need to go back and get the other men too,” Stacey said.

  “We will, once we stabilize these men and make sure they’re not going anywhere.” Andrew hurried back to his truck and checked on Nettleton.

  He was peering out the back window, visibly shaken, his eyes wide, and he was shivering.

  “Are you okay?” Andrew asked, grabbing his first aid kit from under the driver’s seat.

  “Yeah, better than those two.” Nettleton motioned with his head toward the injured men.

  “Lucky for you. Stay put.” Then Andrew hurried back to where Stacey and the wounded men were.

  “Hey,” she asked the man she’d shot. “Is that all of you? This guy and you?”

  He nodded and groaned with the effort. She began looking over their driver’s licenses and calling the news in to her boss as Andrew returned with his first aid kit.

  Garcia headed back to the injured men with a first aid kit in hand too and was on his cell phone, updating the police with what had happened. “We’ll need paramedics and a couple of ambulances.”

  Once Stacey and Andrew had bandaged up the one man’s head and Garcia had taken care of the other man’s shoulder, they cuffed them, just in case, and left them on the road for now, covered up in a couple of emergency blankets.

  Garcia joined Stacey and Andrew in Andrew’s Bronco, and he backed it up all the way to where the other truck had crashed. Andrew parked the car, and then they all had their guns out, ready for anyone who might be aiming to shoot them.

  One of the men was on the ground, his neck broken, but there were no bullet holes in his body. He’d been ejected from the truck, the passenger door thrown open on impact. He was very much dead. The other man had a head injury and was moaning about his wife and kids. He shouldn’t have been in the line of work he was in if he had a family to worry about.

  “Is that all of you?” Stacey asked the injured man as Garcia and Andrew hauled him to the road and Stacey began bandaging his head.

  “Yeah,” the guy slurred.

  The truck suddenly burst into flames, and Andrew was glad they’d moved the injured driver to safety first, even though moving people with significant injuries could cause more issues. Andrew found the ID on the dead man, and Garcia was looking at this man’s ID. They heard sirens in the distance and saw lights way up ahead on the road.

  Andrew was glad the police were on their way and could get these men to the hospital, the morgue for the one. Then he and the others could get back to the hotel to turn Nettleton over to more FWS agents. He was ready to call it a night and glad they had at least kept the men from killing their perp or the agents working to protect him.

  Once the men were loaded in the ambulances and the agents had told the police all that had happened, the ambulances and police cars took off in the direction Andrew and his partner had to drive. They figured this worked out well in case anyone else tried to take Nettleton out before they could hand him off to other agents.

  “I was afraid that the men might have called whoever sent them to tell them they had been thwarted, and he’d send replacements. But these men could be on their boss’s hit list themselves now for fouling up the mission and getting caught.” At least Andrew hoped they would be, four more menaces taken off the street that way.

  “I agree and I’m impressed that your instinct told you the other truck was in collusion with the first one. You were right about the truck behind us and the one in front of us both aiming for us,” Stacey said. “It was a good thing that Garcia showed up when he did to help us deal with the fallout.”

  “He’s a good partner. When I need him to watch my back, he’s there.”

  Nettleton grunted. “You could have warned me that we were in imminent danger.”

  “What would you have done if you’d known?” Andrew asked.

  “Braced myself for impact.”

  “You were better off sleeping through it,” Stacey said.

  “As if I could have slept through all that shooting!”

  “At least she wasn’t shooting at you,” Andrew said.

  Stacey smiled at Andrew.

  He was beginning to think Stacey made a damn good partner too. He was just glad the other truck hadn’t hit him and killed her. He wanted to talk to her about taking dangerous risks like that, but he figured she had her way of doing things, just as he had his way, and he suspected she wouldn’t be open to criticism or suggestion.

  “Good work back there,” Andrew finally told Stacey.

  “Uh, right. We had to do something or we were all toast.”

  “If the truck coming at us had hit me—”

  “If we had ended up smashing into the trees, what do you think would have happened? We would have been injured, possibly as bad as they were, and they would have finished the job, not patched us up and called the paramedics.”

  Stacey could have been dead if she’d flown out of the car upon impact. But he had to agree that if the others had taken advantage of the situation, the men wouldn’t have hesitated to kill them all, Nettleton included.

  Chapter 7

  They were all quiet on the way back to the hotel, exhausted, and Stacey couldn’t wait to take a shower and hit the sack. Nettleton had fallen asleep in the back seat again.

  She was certain Andrew hadn’t approved of the way she had handled the drivers in the two trucks, but she’d had to do something drastic. She couldn’t leave it to fate that she and Andrew and their charge would make it back to the hotel in one piece. Not as determined as the men had been to stop Andrew and Stacey from turning Nettleton over to the other special agents.

  She wasn’t going to ask Andrew what he would have done in her place. Probably nothing as wild as she’d done.

  When they arrived at their destination, he parked as close to the hotel as he could get. She saw three Arctic wolves getting into a vehicle. What the hell? The woman and man who appeared to be a couple waved at them in greeting. Then Stacey recalled what Andrew had told her about the group of Arctic wolves staying at the hotel. They were all newly turned. She really felt for them and wondered how it could have happened. They needed someone who had control over their shifting to aid them.

  If she hadn’t had a case to work, she would have done it.

  “Hell,” Andrew said, seeing the wolves sitting in the two back seats of the SUV. “I told you they were newly turned. All of them.”

  “Yeah. I wish we could help them, like they wanted to aid us earlier.”

  “I wish so too. But we’ve got this mission to complete. My boss wouldn’t understand if I suddenly had to ‘escort’ a group of people to Seattle.”

  “Mine either. And neither would our partners understand what was up.”

  That was the thing about being wolves. In a way, they belonged to a secret society, and everything they did as wolves had to be done in secret.

  Garcia had parked nearby, and Kim was waiting in the lobby for them with the other FWS agents.

  “Those sure looked like Arctic wolves climbing into that SUV,” Garcia said as they entered the lobby with Nettleton in hand.

  “Yeah. White German shepherds. Beautiful dogs,” Andrew said, “but they do look similar to Arctic wolves. None around here though, you know. And trained to just climb into an SUV, no leashes or anything?”

  Garcia was still frowning. “I didn’t think they allowed pets at the hotel.”

  “Not sure about that,” Andrew said.

  Stacey was glad Andrew came up with a quick story as she dragged a half-asleep Nettleton into the hotel. “Come on, Nettleton. You already got some sleep.”

  “Your shooting messed up my REM sleep.”

  They quickly turned Nettleton over to the other FWS special agents, who took custody of him, telling Stacey and Kim they did a great job and praising the FBI agents for helping out. Then they hauled Nettleton off.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” Kim asked Stacey. “You’ve got an ugly gash and bruises on your forehead. Do you need stitches from where Rizzo hit you?”

  “No, I’m fine. You know bruises don’t last long on me. The cut will heal up quickly. And you’re finally okay?” She was hoping Kim wouldn’t have any further stomach trouble on the plane later that night.

  “Yeah. Garcia was nice enough to pick up a roasted chicken for me to nibble on from the grocery store since the restaurant was closed. The boss said you strong-armed him into consenting to send us to Grand Cayman Island after Rizzo.”

  Stacey smiled. “Yep, but we’re going with Garcia and Andrew.”

  “I can’t believe you talked him into it. You are my favorite partner for all time. Garcia also told me you went in with gun blazing, shooting at the guys who would have killed all of you if they’d had half a chance.”

  “Yeah, you know me. I don’t like to give up my suspects to unknown assailants.” Stacey sighed. “Let’s get some sleep.”

  “Do you want to have brunch with us tomorrow?” Andrew asked, as if he was worried she was mad at him over her putting her life at risk.

  “Yeah, sure,” both Stacey and Kim said.

  Before they went to their rooms and to bed, they settled in the lobby, pulled out their phones, and each made their plane reservations for Grand Cayman Island, their heads together as they considered the seating arrangement on the plane, trying to get seats as close together as they could. There were only two seats right next to each other at this late date.

  Kim immediately said, “Why don’t you and Andrew sit with each other, Stacey, so you can strategize about how we’re going to take Rizzo into custody, since we’re working on this case as a joint operation. Garcia and I can take the other seats that are close by.” She glanced at Garcia, who was smiling, and nodded.

  Stacey so appreciated Kim for making the offer and Garcia for going along with the plan. She wouldn’t have suggested it herself, but she suspected her friend and Garcia recognized she and Andrew were enjoying spending the time together in more of a dating way.

  “Okay, we’re all set,” Kim said, finalizing her plane reservation as everyone else did the same. “Let’s get some sleep.”

  This time, they went together up in the elevator to the second floor since they were all staying on the same floor. But Andrew walked Stacey to her room as if he was taking her home from a date, and Kim smiled and said good night and continued on the way to her room.

  Garcia had already headed for his and Andrew’s room in the opposite direction.

  “Listen,” Andrew said, taking a deep breath and letting it out. He ran his hands over Stacey’s arms in a comforting caress. “I… Thanks… You saved our bacon.”

  She knew that he really felt something for her and that she’d scared the shit out of him when she’d leaned out the window and begun shooting at the pickup truck in pursuit of them. It wasn’t just that he didn’t approve of how she’d handled the situation, and she appreciated that he was coming around enough to thank her for her actions.

  She pulled him into her arms and kissed him, having wanted to do that since she’d swum with him in the pool earlier, but not with an audience. He wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug, indicating he wanted the intimacy as much as she did.

  “You’re one hell of a special agent,” he said, “and I know it would be difficult for us to…see each other further after we apprehend Rizzo, but I’d sure like to explore options.”

  “Even after I blasted away at the other drivers and put myself at risk?”

  He smiled. “Yeah, I will have nightmares about it tonight though. Between you clinging to balconies and then hanging out the vehicle window and shooting at the bad guys, I’m sure I’ll have trouble sleeping.”

  “Do you need me to scare away the nightmares?” She didn’t wait for an answer and pulled him into the room and shut the door.

  “You sure you want to do this?”

  She raised a brow and folded her arms. “Don’t make me beg.”

  He chuckled. “Good. I’m just calling Garcia so he doesn’t worry something bad has happened to me.”

  “After what we’ve been through, that’s an excellent idea. We don’t need any more work-related excitement tonight.” She ditched her coat on the chair, and he pulled his off too.

  “No, just this.” He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her cheeks and then her mouth, tenderly, passionately, deepening the kiss, his tongue and hers stroking each other, tantalizing.

  She pressed her lips against his, rubbing them gently, then sucked on his lower lip. Her blood heated with desire at the contact. She loved the feel of his lips pressed against hers, his hands caressing her arms.

  “Uh, hold on just for a second, before we get too carried away and Garcia starts calling me.” Andrew called Garcia and said, “Hey, I’m staying at Stacey’s room. Yeah, see you in the morning.”

  * * *

  Andrew was glad Garcia hadn’t made a wiseass comment about him staying the night with Stacey. Maybe he was afraid she might end up being Andrew’s wife, so he put a lid on it.

  Andrew pulled off her sweater, and she sat down on the bed to remove her boots.

  “I can’t believe a mission to take down bad guys has a silver lining,” she said.

  He removed his boots and socks, then pulled off her socks. He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “I still can’t believe that you were the she-wolf I chased at the park, the bikini-clad woman in the pool, and a hotshot special agent all in one.”

  She was still wearing jeans and a pink lace bra, looking sweet and sexy, not like she was the kind of woman who would climb across balconies to get into her room and her friend’s or hang out a car window, trying to stop the bad guys from slamming their trucks into his Bronco, bullets blazing the whole time. He had expected her to wear something more like black lace, cat burglar Rambo-style, after seeing her in action.