Free Her Baby's Bodyguard by Ingrid Weaver Page B

Whatever happens to me, promise you won’t let Burian take my baby.”
    Jack didn’t like to make promises. In fact, he’d been careful never to promise a woman anything. Yet there was no way in hell he was going to let Burian Ryazan get his hands on either Eva or her child.
    But that’s because protecting her was his mission. His duty. That was all.
    He nodded once, then he peeled her fingers off his arms and sat back on his heels. “I have an idea. The way I see it—” His words were drowned out by a renewed burst of crying from Katya. He put his palm over her back and jiggled her a few times before he could speak again. “Ryazan’s men are going to keep following this truck until we stop or run out of gas, right guys?”
    “Or until they get ground reinforcements,” Duncan said.
    “Okay. Let them.”
    Eva grabbed his shoulder. “What do you mean? Surely you don’t plan to abandon us.”
    He clasped her hand and tugged her toward the tailgate. “It’s the other way around, Eva. We’re going to be the ones doing the leaving.”

Chapter 5
    E va crouched behind a boulder and fought to catch her breath. She could see nothing through the cloud of smoke and dirt that hung over the road, but she could hear the growl of the truck’s engine as it accelerated away from her and the whining throb of the helicopter. There were three more explosions in quick succession. She slapped her hands over her ears, pressing closer to the boulder while more debris blew past.
    Sergeant Norton had told her the grenades that Matheson was throwing would provide both a diversion and a smoke screen. So far, it was working as the men had planned. No one appeared to have noticed her leap from the truck. Cautiously, she uncovered her ears. It sounded as if the helicopter was farther away. She knew she shouldn’t move until there was no risk of Burian’s men seeing her.
    But dear God, she couldn’t hear Katya.
    The sergeant should have been right behind her. Had she misjudged him? It had been his idea to use the truck as a decoy. He’d sounded so sure this would work. The other men had approved of the strategy, too, even though it had seemed remarkably simple. Without her and Katya to worry about, they were confident they would be able to neutralize the helicopter, as they put it. In the meantime, while Burian’s men chased the truck in one direction, Sergeant Norton would escape with Eva and her daughter in the other.
    What if he hadn’t jumped in time? What if he’d injured himself when he’d landed? What if he’d fallen on Katya?
    No! Oh, God! No! She couldn’t bear the thought of either of them hurt. She loved her child more than her life. And the sergeant…She swallowed against a lump in her throat. No, she wouldn’t want any harm to come to him, either. It wasn’t just because he was now her only hope for reaching safety.
    Eva could still hear the helicopter, but she didn’t care. She shoved herself away from the boulder and peered at the road. “Sergeant Norton?”
    The breeze was beginning to blow the smoke away, revealing scorch marks and gouges between the ruts on the road surface. The truck was already out of sight around a bend. The road was empty except for an oblong, mud-streaked object that lay on a thin layer of snow beside a puddle….
    She wasn’t conscious of racing forward. She couldn’t even think until she reached the puddle and saw that the object was only the sergeant’s pack. She picked it up and looked around. “Sergeant Norton?” she called.
    The helicopter glinted in the distance, a flash of royal blue against the streaks of gold in the dawn sky. It banked to the right and vanished behind a ridge of black rock. The beat of its propeller faded, only to be replaced by the sound of running footsteps.
    The sergeant was jogging down the road toward her, the sides of his coat flying open. He didn’t appear to have been hurt. He moved with ease in spite of the fact he held his rifle with one hand