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guards that Nate
and Deringer had “neutralized.” The stairs opened onto an alley
behind the hotel where she saw that the men had stashed an escape
vehicle, a sleek four-door sedan. In the dim light it looked black,
but could’ve been dark green or blue. Nate took point with Deringer
covering their exit. Suddenly, just as they reached the vehicle,
strange men rushed toward them from around the corner. Tonya
gasped, as she saw nothing but black nothingness where the men’s
faces should’ve been. It took her a moment to realize they wore
ninja-style masks. It didn’t take nearly as long to see that they
were armed to the teeth. Nate grabbed her arm and dragged her along
with him toward the car. Deringer pulled what looked like an Uzi
from...somewhere and started firing repeatedly at the pursuing men
while she and Nate ran as quickly as possible toward the car. Nate
snatched the rear door open and threw her inside and her soft-sided
suitcase after her.
    “Get down,” he said unnecessarily. Tonya was
so terrified that she almost immediately curled into a fetal
position the minute her backside hit the floorboard. Her ears were
ringing so loudly from the gunfire she could barely hear anything.
The sound reverberated between the two buildings on either side of
the narrow alley and intensified in volume. She’d have to remember
that in her next book -- gunfire is incredibly loud. Nate pulled a
large automatic handgun out of his backpack and immediately began
firing at the men chasing them. Tonya assumed that he was providing
cover, because before long Deringer climbed into the driver’s seat
while Nate joined her in the rear of the car. They crouched there
even though there was no more gunfire as Deringer burned rubber
speeding out of the alley.
    Tonya struggled to regain her composure
without succumbing to an overwhelming need to sob. What on earth
was going on? Deringer had slowed the car to an inconspicuous rate
of speed, and Nate rose up from the floor of the car. She watched
as he looked repeatedly out the back window.
    “I think we shook them, little brother,” he
said to Deringer. “I thought you said you’d cleared the
building?”
    “I did clear the building, those guys had
just arrived. I saw their car when we pulled out of the alley.
They’d parked on the street,” Deringer said.
    Nate shook his head. “Damn, hadn’t thought
about that.” He looked down to meet Tonya’s eyes. “You can come up
now Onion, the coast is clear.”
    Tonya hesitated. Seriously, she felt a lot
safer exactly where she was, but pride stiffened her spine and she
got off the floor to sit down on the vehicle’s plush leather seat.
She took a moment to fasten her seatbelt. It would be a damned
shame to survive a gun battle only to die in a car accident. Given
the way Deringer had been driving anything was possible. She
struggled to regain her equilibrium, as anger was quickly overtook
the terror she’d felt when those men first appeared. Nothing pissed
her off like being afraid. She gave Nate a baleful glare. “Okay,
start talking. What was all that about?”
    “It’s a long story,” he sighed. Even as he
talked his eyes were in constant motion, scanning the windows like
a sniper as Deringer drove with quiet efficiency.
    “Shorten it,” Tonya said.
    “More guys coming here to kill you. If you
don’t go into hiding with us you’re going to wind up dead.”
    Tonya took a deep breath as her stomach
clenched on a wave of fear. He was telling the truth. There was no
way to mistake the sincerity in his voice. “Okay you can make it
longer than that.”
    Nate nodded. “I assume you know by now that I
didn’t join the Peace Corps.”
    Tonya barely nodded her head to indicate
affirmation. Much as it shamed her to admit it, when he’d left her
she’d put forth considerable effort to find him. No way in hell
would she tell him that, though. She listened as he continued his
explanation.
    “I became an...I guess you would call