She was already across the side road and almost half a block east of him. She whirled and glared at him, but, even from here, he could see the tears rolling down her silken cheeks. He was going to wipe away those tears and make sure she didn’t cry any others.
Jogging across the road he thought of all the declarations he was going to make. Flint was still on the loose, so she needed to stay with Seth for safety. But, more importantly, he wanted her with him, he’d fallen for her, she was amazing, impressive, beautiful, his dream woman—
A loud motor roared from behind him. Seth was wearing dark clothes, but the street was decently lit, the truck should see him. He looked over his shoulder and saw the truck was bearing down on him.
Seth sprinted toward the side of the road and leapt onto the curb as the truck barely missed him.
“Seth!” Breeze screamed.
“Seth!” Caleb hollered, racing toward him.
Seth turned to glare at the truck, which had now stopped in the middle of the road. His jaw dropped as he saw men leaning out of the truck bed, grabbing Breeze. They each had her by one arm, but she was fighting to get free.
Seth pushed off and sprinted at the truck. He could see Caleb running beside him and Ridge not far behind. Squinting at the men Breeze was fighting, anger surged through him. Flint! The man was insane. Flint should be fleeing the other direction, but he disregarded all authority, so why would the police in this small town scare him?
Breeze was struggling valiantly. She got one of her arms free and started hitting Flint, but the other man bent down and wrapped his hands under her armpits. Flint got a good grip on her hand and together the two men ripped her over the side of the truck and into the bed. She screamed out.
Seth was almost there when the truck started forward. “No!” he yelled.
Sprinting as hard as he ever had, he leapt and hit the tailgate with his chest and knees. The impact stung but he wrapped his arms and hands around the inside of the tailgate, scrambling for footing on the rear bumper.
Flint shoved Breeze into the other man’s arms and sprung at Seth. Flint tried to pry Seth off the tailgate. Seth clung harder, trying to determine if he could flip over and nail Flint with a kick to the head and he could land safely inside the truck. Breeze was fighting to get free of the other guy’s arms as the driver sped through the quiet streets of Preston, heading toward the fields east of town.
Seth heard a grunt beside him and registered Caleb grasping the tailgate and flipping himself into the truck, landing on the bed with a grunt. Flint released Seth to kick Caleb in the ribs. Anger burned in Seth’s chest. He launched himself into the back of the truck, landed in a crouch, and started hitting Flint with jabs as hard as he had ever hit anyone.
Seth drove Flint against the side of the truck bed, which only came to his knees. Caleb jumped up, seemingly unaffected by Flint’s kick.
“Yes, bro?” Caleb asked mockingly.
“Yes,” Seth agreed.
They both rushed at Flint, each grabbed an arm, and shoved him out of the moving truck. Flint screamed as he flew in the air and slammed into the dirt on the side of the road. Seth didn’t think it would kill him, but it would hurt him enough it would be hard for the loser to get away now.
“You deal with that garbage,” Caleb said, pointing to the man Breeze was still fighting to free herself from. Caleb pulled out his phone and hit a number. “My buddy the police chief,” he said to the other criminal in the truck.
The guy’s eyes widened. He released Breeze and held up his hands. “It was all Flint.”
Seth opened his arms and Breeze hurried to him. He spread his legs to maintain his balance as the truck went down a dip in the road. Seth savored having Breeze in his arms. He sank down to the floor of the truck and pulled her with him, cradling her close and hoping this was almost over. He liked action, like riding fast bikes and snowmobiles. He didn’t like this beautiful woman being in danger.
Caleb was speaking rapidly into the phone, telling the police where they’d thrown Flint out.
He ended the call and pointed to the other man who was cowering against the rear of the cab. “The gig’s up. The police will be here any minute. You tell your buddies to pull over and it’ll go much better for them.”
The guy looked at them and said, “The money’s not worth this, you tell them yourselves.” He leapt out of the truck bed, hit the soft dirt on the side of the road and rolled. They watched as he stood shakily and ran off into the dark.
Caleb rolled his eyes and grunted in disgust. He messed with his phone, probably dropping a GPS pin to the police, and focused on Breeze and Seth. “Let’s see if they’ll stop.”
Crouching low, he worked his way to the front of the bed and pounded on the window. “Pull over! The police are on their way!”
The truck only moved faster. He worked his way back to Seth and Breeze. “What do you think? Do we jump?”
Seth would jump, but he didn’t want Breeze getting hurt. Breeze looked up, determination in her dark eyes. “This road has a few sharp turns but then it goes south for a while and meets up with the highway. Once they hit the highway we could be in trouble if we don’t jump before.”
“We’ll jump when they slow down to turn,” Seth decided. “Jump for the dirt and try to tuck and roll.”
“Sounds good,” Caleb agreed.
“Okay.” Breeze didn’t sound quite as excited.