Free The Impossible Alliance by Candace Irvin

he’d thought.
    He could feel the blood trickling down his left hamstring, soaking his jeans down to his calf, causing the fabric to cling and ride up on his entire leg. The cloth pulled across his wound steadily, tearing the gash wider with each step. Another few minutes and the hounds would be following the ripe, steady scent of fresh blood.
    He slowed their pace, then brought them to a halt as he shoved his free hand into his first-aid kit, air ripping in and out of their lungs as he rooted around for another cravat.
    â€œWh-what is it? What’s wr—”
    â€œI need a tourniquet.”
    He felt her gaze drop to his arm, but before she could swallow her exhaustion long enough to tell him his biceps didn’t look that bad, he smelled it.
    â€œWater.”
    He jerked his gaze to hers, startled because she’d said itfor him. She was staring directly over his shoulder. What the hell? “You hear ducks, too?”
    She glared back. “Don’t you?”
    No, he smelled them. But now wasn’t the time to get into that. He spun about until his back faced her. “Reach inside the outer pouch, at the bottom. You’ll feel a vial. Grab it.”
    He felt her release the strap. “What’s in it?”
    â€œDeer urine.”
    â€œThank God.” The rucksack shifted as she rooted through the pouch. “Got it.”
    He waited until she tugged the strap home before he spun around to sprinkle a liquid more precious than gold between their boots and the closing hounds. If he’d doused their trail properly, one whiff and those dogs would lock on to a new target—an imaginary female deer—with a vengeance. There wasn’t a damned thing the hounds’ handlers would be able to do about it.
    Alex grinned as she grabbed the empty vial from his hands when he finished and stuffed it into her pocket. “It’s almost worth it to stick around to see their faces.”
    He grinned back. “Yeah.”
    Almost. It was time to take care of the handlers. He tore through his medic’s pouch, retrieving the cravat he’d originally stopped for. He wasted precious seconds wrapping it around his thigh and knotting it before they took off again, this time ninety degrees out from their original route.
    Two minutes later they were there.
    Relief burned into his lungs, supplanting air, as he caught sight of the lake. The water stretched a good mile. He skimmed the map he’d memorized the night before, verifying the global positioning unit’s earlier results as he pinpointed their location in his head. His leg gave way slightly as he stepped forward.
    This time she caught him.
    â€œThanks.” He glanced down at his leg and cursed. Thetourniquet had loosened during their sprint. He was losing blood and a lot of it.
    The snarling hounds grew louder, closer.
    Alex waded into the water and leaned down to study the thatch of plants floating at the surface. “The water’s healthy.” They both knew it wouldn’t have mattered. They didn’t have a choice but to cross. She turned back, her hand outstretched as she reached the rocky bank. “Give me your flashlight.”
    He reversed his earlier assessment. The coma had to have affected the woman’s reasoning, after all. Why else did she intend to offer those bellowing men a visual?
    â€œDammit, Jared, I’m not nuts. Give me the Mag.”
    He dug the flashlight out of his pocket and passed it over. What the hell. If he had to go, might as well be on the job. But by the time she’d unscrewed the base of the Maglite and started in on the flared head, he knew she wasn’t nuts. He also knew why Samuel Hatch had been dragged far enough out of his grief to notice the woman. Not only was Alex stunning, she was truly brilliant. Most people he’d met who were that sharp didn’t have more than two common-sense brain cells to rub together. She had billons. And she’d just used