Deadly Games - Cate Noble [86]
Just go!
She ran for the closest section of fence and tossed her shoes over, then began to climb it, barefoot. The chain link sagged near the top, causing her to lose her balance. She wrapped her fingers around the wire as the fence started to sway.
She heard the bark of a dog and glanced over her shoulder. A large black and tan Doberman raced toward her, teeth bared.
Terrified of what the beast would do if it caught her, Maddy pushed up and threw a leg over the top. The sharp tips of the fence tore through her clothes and ripped her flesh.
The Doberman had reached the fence now and leaped straight up, snapping his jaws. She kicked as hard as she could, catching the dog’s ribs. The dog sailed backward and hit the ground with a yelp but immediately bounced up and launched into a more vigorous attack.
The dog jumped again. And this time, he latched on to Maddy’s foot.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Luc Skihawtra hadn’t expected a second uproar at Minh Tran’s compound. At least not yet.
Just before sunrise, while the guards ate breakfast in the kitchen, Luc had diverted the power to the section of fence at the back of Tran’s compound. Then he’d made a vertical cut in the chain links behind the gardener’s shed and slipped inside.
The crowded shed held yard tools and reeked of oil, gas, and chemicals. Keeping the grounds from reverting to jungle was a full-time job.
At nine A.M., the place went wild. Three helicopters swooped in and landed on the compound’s neatly manicured lawn. Luc had a perfect view from one of the shed’s dirty windows.
Travis Franks had promised to create a diversion and indeed it appeared he had.
Luc counted twenty-nine guards climbing into the choppers. Most of Tran’s contingent had left with him. As soon as the helicopters lifted away, Luc called Travis and reported the same. Plus a bonus.
“The woman is still here. I just saw her look out an upstairs window.”
Relief deepened Travis’s voice. “Stay put. My team will be there in twenty minutes. I’ll contact you when we’re in place.”
Minh Tran had been gone only a few minutes when Luc heard the bark of a guard dog. He grimaced, hoping the dog hadn’t picked up his scent. Luc had been told the dogs roamed free only at night, which allowed Tran’s kitchen staff to harvest vegetables from the gardens and hang laundry.
But it made sense that if Tran had taken most of his guards with him, he might have ordered the dogs left out as an extra precaution.
Except now the dog was growling and snapping, clearly on to something. Had Travis arrived early? Luc shifted to the back of the shed and peered out another window.
“No!”
Maddy, the woman they were here to rescue, straddled the top of the fence about fifteen feet away. The huge dog had grabbed her foot. Off balance, she nearly fell toward the dog. Then she overcorrected and fell in the opposite direction. That couldn’t be good for a pregnant woman.
Immediately she jumped up and ran into the jungle.
A second dog raced toward the other, both howling. Sounding an alarm. Guards would come out any second.
Luc grabbed a can of gasoline and emptied it, then fished out a lighter and struck it. He darted out of the shed, along the side away from the dogs, and slipped out the fence. He paused long enough to shove the fence back in place and weave a stick into the wire so the dogs couldn’t follow.
Already smoke poured from the shed. Luc hoped the guards would think the dogs had been stirred up by the fire, buying him and the woman time.
Staying low, Luc tore out after the woman, checking his watch as he ran. Travis wouldn’t be there for another ten minutes. Luc needed to call him!
He now paralleled Maddy, could hear her labored breathing. But before he could call her name, she fell.
Luc leaped over a downed tree to get to her. He covered her mouth to keep her from screaming as he helped her up.
Maddy turned toward him, feinting left while delivering a solid roundhouse kick. She’d obviously had some training but still