Target on the Mountain by Elizabeth Goddard (the chimp paradox .txt) 📕

in, but it was too late for regrets now. Tori accepted the fact that Ryan wasn’t coming. He wasn’t following her.

She was on her own.

“It’s just you and me now, big man. Drop the weapons and let’s do this mano a mano.” Hand to hand. “Or are you afraid to fight without your gun?”

His big arms still crossed, he grinned as if to say, “Challenge accepted.”

This fight would test Tori in ways for which she hadn’t prepared.

Her one advantage—this was a fight for her life and the lives of her parents.

Tori’s kicks and punches didn’t have the impact she’d hoped for. At least she was dodging the big man’s attempts to harm her. Or was he simply toying with her?

With her efforts to hurt him, she slowly lured him away from her parents, hoping to give them a chance. A way out if they were able to take it.

She found herself situated between shelves filled with boxes of who knew what. Using her good shoulder, she rammed herself into the shelf. It toppled onto the beast.

A paint scraper slid across the floor. She grabbed it. She could cut her parents free.

Hurry. They had to hurry.

Catching her breath, Tori grabbed the scraper and started toward them.

A beefy hand closed around her ankle and squeezed. She cried out in pain as she fell to the floor. Twisting around, she tried to slice at him with the scraper, but she wasn’t getting anywhere.

“Here!” She slid the scraper across the floor to her parents.

It stopped just short of her father’s reach. Gripping her ankle, the mercenary pulled her closer while he slid from under the shelf.

In his eyes, she saw that he was done with the games.

Now he would kill her.

Ryan stepped into the fray as the big man was taking entirely too much pleasure in choking Tori, strangling her to death in front of her parents. With distance between them, he pointed the weapon at the man’s head.

“Police! Release her now or I’ll shoot!”

The man just held on tighter. Did he consider himself invincible? Ryan had called for backup, but he couldn’t wait for them. Nor did he think he could wrestle this guy to the ground alone.

He fired his weapon, the sound exploding in his ears. The sight puncturing his heart as the man fell off Tori. Ryan removed his limp body completely and crouched next to her. Her hands around her throat, she sucked in air, then coughed. He gently assisted her into his lap and held her.

“Are you okay?” He was tired of asking that question and hoped this would be the last time for a good long while.

She nodded but couldn’t speak.

Deputies and police officers streamed into the room and freed her parents. Ryan would have gotten to them, but concern for Tori filled all his thoughts.

She rested her hand against his shoulder. Relief surged inside. Relief and something he repeatedly tried to bury.

“How... How did you find me?” she croaked out. “Another tracker?”

“No. Please, don’t talk. An ambulance should be here soon.”

Her parents would have to be checked out, too. Right now they were giving their statements about their abduction, which gave him a few needed moments with Tori.

“Katelyn discovered that Suzanne Sanchez Tate, the owner of GenDynamics, where Sarah worked, was Agent Sanchez’s sister. She married the man who started the company decades before and ran it with him until his death.”

“That must be why Sarah sent the information to me instead of Agent Sanchez,” Tori once again croaked out the words. “She was afraid she couldn’t trust him with information on his sister. I wonder if he’s guilty of playing a role in his sister’s crimes or in covering up the real motive for the murders. But that still doesn’t explain how you found me. Is there another tracker that I don’t know about?”

“I think that your cell phone has been hacked and then tracked and that’s how Mrs. Tate was able to follow you. She hired Eddie to kill you, but he failed. As for how I found you, I went to Mrs. Tate’s home to question her. When I got there, she was driving away and I followed her instead—all the way here—and waited. Anyone who goes to an abandoned building in the middle of the night is up to no good.”

Tori peered up at him, the admiration in her eyes overwhelming him.

“Thank you,” she said. Her eyes widened. “But what about—”

“When I saw her forcing you down the hallway into this room, I called for backup quietly. I didn’t want this to turn into a hostage situation—more than it already was. When she was on her way out, I cuffed her to a post in the building to hold her until I could check on you.

“Then I made my way to the room where she’d taken you. I missed the assassin going into the room. I’m just glad I got here in time.” Ryan looked at Tori.

She appeared frazzled, with smudges on her face. Wild hair. Bright eyes.

He loved her so much.

God, will I ever get a chance with her?

He knew the answer to that. No. No, he wouldn’t.

Finally the paramedics arrived and took Tori from Ryan, not for the first time. He didn’t want to let her go, but she’d sustained more injuries. Once again she was taken to the hospital. At least she was safe and had survived—her parents, too.

At least this was over.

And that would mean his time with her was over, too.

Ryan turned his focus to policing matters. Deputies placed Suzanne Tate in the back of a vehicle to cart off to a holding cell on murder charges, as well as kidnapping. There could be more charges as they dug deeper into the activities she’d killed to hide.

Three days later, Ryan sat at his desk filling out reports and completing paperwork. He’d killed a man to save Tori, and that required an investigation into the incident regardless of the circumstances. Given the nature of additional financial and