Hot Pursuit by Lynn Raye Harris Page A

here first.
    Behind them, the pavilion was in pandemonium.
People yelled and screamed, surging toward their cars. Tables
scraped against concrete. Bottles shattered. A woman wailed.
    A car turned then, the headlights sweeping
across the grass. Straight toward their position.
    Matt tried to duck out of the path of the
beam, but too late.
    The gun exploded again, closer and louder
this time, and Matt jerked Evie to the ground.
    Evie hit the grass with an oomph. “What
the—”
    Matt clamped his hand over her mouth, pressed
his lips to her ear. “Shh.”
    Miraculously, she stilled. He could see her
eyes in the darkness, see how wide and frightened they were. Part
of that, he knew, was the way he was acting. But he didn’t know
what was going on, and he wasn’t taking any chances.
    What he knew was this: someone was shooting a
weapon, unsafely, in a crowd of people. And that someone had to be
stopped.
    “Stay here.” He breathed the words more than
said them.
    She gripped his arm. “I’d rather not,” she
whispered. “I think we should go to your car, or I’ll see if I can
find Julie and Steve.”
    Disbelief punched him in the gut. His team
never argued when he gave an order. Maybe they should have.
Maybe Jim and Marco would still be alive if they had.
    Matt shook off the doubt and despair that
internal voice filled him with. He had no time for self-pity. “It’s
too dangerous. Stay here while I get this guy.”
    “Let the police take care of it. I’m sure
someone called them by now, but we can call again to be sure.” Her
head dipped as she fumbled with the tiny purse slung across her
body. “Just a sec—”
    Matt circled her wrist, stopping her. “I need
to find him before someone gets hurt.” He left if they haven’t
been hurt already unspoken. “I can’t do that if you won’t
cooperate.”
    Her teeth fastened onto her lower lip as she
considered it. “Wouldn’t it just be easier to call the police?”
    “No.”
    Her breath left her on an irritated sigh.
“Fine, I’ll stay. But not for long, Matt. I don’t like this at
all.”
    “If I’m not back in ten minutes, head into
the trees. Call the cops if they aren’t here, and don’t stop until
you reach the road.”
    Matt started to go, but then he stopped.
Quickly, he dug his fingers into the soft earth, then smeared dirt
across his face and down his arms, dimming the reflection his skin
would make in the headlights. It wasn’t as good as greasepaint, but
it would have to do.
    Evie squeezed his arm. “Be careful.”
    He would have laughed if he didn’t feel the
urgency of finding this sonofabitch. Instead, he kissed her, a
quick peck on the lips that surprised her if the way her eyes
widened was any indication.
    “Please stay here,” he added. He was
unaccustomed to asking, but she nodded. Then he started up the
slope, belly-crawling inch by slow inch.
    He sent up a brief prayer that he didn’t
crawl over a fire-ant mound. No Louisiana native could ever forget
the sting of a fire ant, or the knowledge of what a nest of the
nasty critters could do. Not a pleasant thought, though he reckoned
the parish was pretty good about ant control in a public park.
    After he’d crawled about fifty feet, he
stopped and dropped his head to the side to make sure Evie was
where he’d left her—and his heart lodged in his throat.
    Fuck .
    Her face was a beacon, her skin reflecting
the light from the parking lot even when it wasn’t pointed straight
at her. He’d taken care of himself, but he hadn’t considered
her.
    Idiot . She’d wound him up so tight he
hadn’t been thinking straight. He should have rubbed dirt on her,
whether she liked it or not. Jesus, he was losing his touch. Maybe
it was a good thing the Army was thinking hard about his future. If
he couldn’t get the most basic things right, how could he go back
into the field and be in charge of a team? How could he risk losing
anyone else because he screwed up?
    He signaled to Evie to put