Read Matt—The Callahan Brothers (Brazos Bend Book 2) for Free Online

the helicopter. If somebody shoots at you, shoot back. Otherwise, keep down and send up some prayers.”
    “Prayers.” Her full lip trembled. “I can do prayers.”
    She still had that wild look to her eyes, so Matt took a moment to calm her down. Smiling, he placed his hand on her cheek. “We’ll get through this, Helen, and once we do, remember, we have a date.”
    He gave her another quick kiss, then turned, preparing to run.
    “Torie,” she said.
    Concentrating on the mission at hand, he almost didn’t hear her. “What?”
    “My name is Torie. I thought you should know just in case you make it and I don’t.”
    Matt forgot all about the mission. “What did you say? You’re not Helen Bradshaw? Dr. Helen Bradshaw?”
    “No. I’m Torie.”
    “But you look—”
    “Just like her. I know. We’re sisters. Helen and I are sisters. I’m—”
    “Victoria Bradshaw,” he breathed. “Holy crap. You’re the Evil Twin!”
    ***
    Torie was too busy feeling afraid to let the old resentment linger for long, but she definitely felt a flash of it. Her father had tagged her with that nickname when she and Helen were in grade school. Her mother used to scold the general for it, but after she died, when the twins were twelve, he used it all the time. Torie admitted she was the more adventuresome of the girls and as such, she got into trouble more often. But evil? She’d never done a truly evil thing in her life!
    “Where’s your sister?” Callahan demanded. “She’s in just as much danger as you are. We can’t leave the island without her.”
    That sparked Torie’s temper. “You think I’d go off and abandon my twin to killers? Well, screw you, buster. Helen isn’t on the island. She’s gone shopping.”
    He blinked. “And you just forgot to mention that little detail?”
    She gave him a bitter smile. “Yeah. That’s right. Look, aren’t we in a hurry here? Or are you going to leave me to save myself now that you know I’m not the Bradshaw you came looking for? The general wouldn’t care, so it’s up to you. You have the memory card, so I’m expendable.”
    She couldn’t quite read the emotion in his glare. Disgust? Fury? Insult? A little of all three, most likely. Shoot, it probably matched the look in her own eyes.
    He snapped out instructions in a cold, hard tone. “When I say go, run for the bird. Try not to make noise, but if it’s a choice between loud and fast, pick fast.”
    Torie’s pulse pounded as she bounced on the balls of her feet getting ready to run. She briefly considered removing her flip flops in favor of bare feet, but knowing her luck, she’d step on something that would cripple her with pain and she’d stumble and fall and miss her ride.
    “Now!” Matt said. “Go. Go. Go.”
    Torie sucked in a deep breath and took off.
    Three years ago at age twenty-nine, Torie had completed a marathon, 26.2 miles, in just under five hours. Nevertheless, this thirty-yard run was the longest of her life.
    She ran as hard and fast as she could manage, holding the automatic in a death grip, aware all the while that with his long-legged gait, Callahan could leave her in the dust. Instead, he stayed with her stride for stride. Every second, she expected to hear a shot or to see the spit of dirt where a round hit the ground, or, even worse, to feel one bite into her body. Instinct made her want to close her eyes, but she kept her focus on the goal—the open doorway of the red and white private helicopter.
    Then, she was there. Alive and unharmed. Panting hard. She dived through the door and scrambled into the passenger seat while Matt started flipping switches before he’d even settled in the driver’s seat. The rumble of the turbine engines as they engaged sounded like rockets to Torie’s ears. Really loud, really slow rockets.
    “They’ll be on us now,” he shouted. “Look sharp. We need at least thirty seconds.”
    “Will bullets bounce off the helicopter?”
    “Not the kind being