Free The Hitman's Baby - A Bad Boy Secret Baby Romance (With extra added bonus novel for a short time only!) by Ashley Rhodes Page B

her mouth, and she had bent almost in two. “It was so good,” she sobbed. “We were happy. Why?”
    Ramon opened his mouth again but stopped. He frowned, and pointed to Nick’s chest. “What’s—”
    “Nick!” Cassandra shouted.
    He didn’t think. He didn’t need to. Nick dropped immediately, and pulled Ramon forward by his collar, Cassandra by her arm, down between the two cars just a split second before the bullet took out the rear view mirror—clean, instead of with his blood on it.
    Cassandra screamed. Ramon struggled. Nick silenced them both. “Do exactly as I say,” he said. “Keep him close. Only move when I tell you to. Ramon… be brave.”
    He didn’t look like he could be, just yet. Ramon was shaking from the adrenaline, animal fear making his eyes wide, and he clutched at Cassandra’s arms as she pulled him close and tucked herself almost under the car they were sheltered by for the moment.
    There was no time to reason out why there was another shooter and why they had targeted Nick first. No one had a reason to suspect he wouldn’t follow through. He’d figure it out later. For now, he reached under his rental, felt around above the car frame for the cannisters he’d stored there by long habit, and tugged their magnets free of the frame.
    The miss had given him a mental map of the sight lines, and he pulled pins and threw the cannisters out into the parking lot. Black smoke spewed from them and began to spread. The ghost of a sniper’s laser sight—amateur crutch—swept through it, wobbling and unsteady as the shooter got nervous from missing the first shot.
    Nick pointed to the car across from them. “Crawl under the cars, don’t come out in the open until I give the all clear.”
    “What if you don’t?” Cassandra asked desperately.
    “I will,” Nick told her. But… she needed to know what to do. “If you have to go without me you’ll know. There’ll be a flare. Don’t jump the gun until you see it, and then go inside—around people. Call the police. Alright?”
    She nodded.
    Nick looked at Ramon. “Be good. Do what your mother says. You’ll be scared and you’ll want to run. Being scared is fine. Just don’t let it control you. Don’t let it make you run. You can’t outrun a bullet. Got me?”
    Ramon nodded, eyes still wide and unblinking.
    “Go,” Nick said.
    As they scrambled under the car and began to belly crawl toward the front of it, Nick checked for the laser. It was gone, but it had been coming from the corner of the roof. Why hadn’t they taken the shot while Nick was waiting?
    Anyone who needed a laser scope to hit a target that was standing still couldn’t hit a moving target. So he bolted. There were only so many feasible ways down from a roof that high, the structure was steeply peaked. Had to be the northwest corner.
    The shooter almost got him. Nick ducked as he came around the corner, heard a silenced shot ping off the stone work at the corner of the building, and dove into a roll that took him to the assassin’s left flank.
    He caught the gun hand as he came around, crashing his forearm against a gloved wrist. A shot fired uselessly past Nick’s ear, and he snapped his torso around to throw his whole body into an elbow that landed with a wet crack against the shooter’s cheek. There was a grunt. A man. Not that it mattered. Anyone who took a shot at Nick and missed was dead regardless.
    The man recovered quickly, spinning away, and a managed to keep a hold on his gun. Most people would have dropped it when Nick blocked that arm first. He tried to get another shot off but he made the mistake of locking his elbow.
    Nick dipped, stepped in and turned. His hands came up and over the gun hand that was extended in front of him and trapped it as he shot up and broke the man’s elbow with a sickening crunch. There was a high pitched bark of pain, and then only a growl as the man’s weight shifted.
    Just as the knife came out, Nick finished a side step