Damian (The Caine Brothers #3) by Margaret Madigan Page B

smile.
    The hall opened out into some sort of sunroom greenhouse conservatory thing with a glass dome and a forest of houseplants. The sky above them had turned predawn gray.
    “What the hell is the point of this room?” Damian asked.
    A hail of bullets shattered the glass and the two of them dove for the ground.
    “I’m getting really tired of these guys,” Elena said.
    “Yeah. Me too.”
    From her belly on the floor, she army-crawled across the room and into the adjoining passage. Given the sounds of shuffling and clinking of broken glass, she assumed he followed her. “I see a door out here,” she said.
    Once away from the window, she stood and gripped the door handle, readying her weapon. Damian joined her, bringing his up ready to shoot whatever greeted them on the other side. At least he was playing along, despite her exasperatingly independent behavior.
    But when she opened it, the only thing inside was a small warehouse full of cars.
    “Thank God,” she said.
    A pegboard on the wall inside the door held all the keys. Damian swiped one for a Range Rover.
    “Let’s go.”
    Elena scooped up all the rest of the keys and when she got to the Rover, she dumped them in the back seat. When he gave her a questioning look, she said, “They can’t drive any of the rest of the cars without the keys.”
    “Good thinking.”
    The car started up with a roar, and he pulled it out of the line while pushing the garage door opener, as if they were just headed out for a casual drive. Except, her heart thundered in her chest and her mouth felt like the Sahara. She strapped on her seat belt and scooched down to avoid being shot in the head.
    “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
    “I have a plan,” he said.
    “Oh good.” She didn’t say finally even though she thought it. No need to piss him off more.
    He revved the engine and when the door had opened enough, he gunned it and they shot out of the garage into the dawn. Gunshots immediately rang out and pinged the car, breaking windows.
    “Stay down,” Damian yelled, trying to follow his own advice.
    Suddenly, a bullet pierced one of the tires and it blew, and steering became squirrely. Damian veered down a steep, dirt side road, heading toward the river, fighting to keep control. At the bottom of the hill a boathouse loomed, crouched at the edge of the river like it would dive in at any moment.
    At the rate they were going, they’d be the ones diving in—car and all.
    “Uh, Damian? Brakes would be good.”
    He shook his head. “Plan, remember?”
    “Oh, great,” she said, and latched onto the handhold above the window.
    Damian muscled the Rover through the muddy tracks on the dirt road, pointing the vehicle toward the river to the left of the boathouse. “You see anybody behind us?” he asked.
    Elena twisted in her seat. The road was eerily empty behind them. “Nope.”
    Ramos’s men must have seen them turn down the road, but not having vehicles themselves, they’d have to follow on foot, which meant there would be a lag before they caught up.
    In the meantime, Damian barreled toward the river. Elena gripped the handle and screamed as he plowed the front end of the Rover into the raging river.
    “Are you crazy?” she squealed.
    He grinned like an idiot. “Maybe a little. Come on.”
    She tumbled out of the vehicle and hurried around to meet him on the driver’s side. She gave his shoulder a shove-punch. “You could have killed us.”
    Clearly high on adrenaline and unwarranted self-confidence, he gave her a condescending snort. “I’m an expert, Elena. I know exactly what I’m doing.”
    “Okay, Mr. Expert. What’s next in this crazy-ass escape?”
    “Rescue.”
    “Oh, right. I forgot. It feels so much like an escape.”
    He glowered at her and grabbed her hand, dragging her to the bank of the river. “Okay, so the plan is to make footprints heading upriver, then veer off uphill into the jungle where it’s more difficult to