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shuddered out. “Are you all right?”
    She nodded. But she was trembling. So badly that she nearly dropped her gun when she lowered it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was you.”
    He didn’t care that she’d pointed the gun at him. “Were you hit?” he asked.
    Her curly hair was usually messy, but it nearly stood on end now—almost as if someone had pulled it. There was a red mark on her cheek that would undoubtedly become a bruise, and her sleeve had nearly been torn free of her jacket. She’d been in a hell of a fight.
    Concern and anger both gripped him. He wanted to make sure she was okay even while he wanted to rip someone apart—whoever had hurt her.
    â€œWe need to get you to the ER.” He holstered his weapon now and reached for her. He would carry her there—like he’d carried other soldiers from combat. Nikki looked like she’d been to war.
    She stepped back and shook her head. “I’m okay,” she said. But her voice cracked on the claim, and her brown eyes glistened as tears pooled. “Thanks to Nick.”
    Cooper tensed. That might have been the first time she’d referred to their half brother by his first name.
    â€œWhere’s Nick?” he asked, and his voice cracked now as he remembered all the blood he’d found. Had that been Nick’s blood?
    Nikki shook her head. “I don’t know...but I think he got hit.”
    The blood had been Nick’s—at least some of it.
    A tear slipped between her furiously blinking lashes and trailed down the red mark on her cheek. “We need to find him.”
    Depending on where he had been hit, they might not have much time to find him and get him help before it was too late.
    Before Nick couldn’t be saved...

Chapter 4
    H e was a dead man .
    Nick had learned long ago that there was no honor among thieves. His own mother had turned on her former boss and lover and testified against him—to save herself from a prison sentence.
    Nick had just witnessed that lack of honor again as one of the gunmen, with no regard for his injured partner, had jumped into his vehicle. Or was it the one they had stolen from Annalise earlier that day? The little SUV wasn’t the older model sedan she’d had six months ago. But the Honda had an Illinois license plate. Maybe the men were from Illinois, too. Maybe they had followed her to Michigan.
    But why? Why would anyone want to harm sweet Annalise?
    Nick intended to find out. But the man sped off in the little SUV, leaving his partner behind. His concern was only for himself. Nick had pursued the vehicle first, running after it as it careened around the corners of the parking structure. He’d fired shots into the rear window, taking out the glass like the gunman had taken the glass out of his SUV, when they’d fired at him through it.
    And Nikki...
    Rage gripped him as he remembered what he’d stumbled upon when he had headed toward his vehicle. The fight. Those men had hurt Nikki. They had pulled her hair, punched her face. She’d fought. His sister was a hell of a fighter. She had punched back. She had kicked. She had pulled moves he hadn’t known she knew. But she’d been outnumbered...
    The rage kept him from reacting to his gunshot wound—from one of the bullets fired through the broken window of his SUV. He’d felt the sting of it and could feel the blood oozing from his torn flesh to soak his shirt. But he ignored the pain to pursue the vehicle—until it was clear he wouldn’t catch it. The engine revved as it pulled out of the parking garage and onto the street. Horns honked as other vehicles nearly crashed into it. The Honda sped off. One of the gunmen had gotten away.
    The other man couldn’t.
    He had been hit. Nick wasn’t sure which one of them had fired the shot, him or Nikki. As well as a good fighter, she was a good shot. If she wasn’t, the men might