“Annja?”

It was Garin; she knew it as surely as she knew how to draw her sword.

“Are you all right?”

“Fine. I’ve survived far worse in my day.”

Given the length of “his day,” she thought it was probably the understatement of the year. She was about to answer him, only to hear the menacing voice of Michaels come back on the line.

“As I said, Miss Creed, your Mr. Braden is just fine.”

“Good. See that he stays that way. Meet me in the parking lot of the Tallulah Gorge State Park in Tallulah Falls, Georgia, in two hours. Have Garin with you.”

“I hardly think you’re in a position to dictate terms to me,” Michaels said.

“Who asked you to think?” Annja replied, and then broke the connection.

Michaels wanted the treasure; Annja had no doubt that he would follow her orders.

39

Annja found herself standing beside the Cadillac in the all-but-empty parking lot at the Tallulah Gorge State Park just over an hour and a half later. After speaking to Michaels, she had passed the rest of the journey in contemplative silence until her driver had indicated that they had reached the outskirts of Clayton, which was just north of Tallulah Falls. He drove to the local Greyhound station, where he got out, turned the car over to Annja and then purchased a bus ticket back to Richmond.

Annja made the rest of the journey on her own.

When she came up with her plan earlier that morning, she’d expected the parking lot at the Gorge to be full of eager tourists. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas. The blue skies had given way to stone gray and a light drizzle had begun to fall in the early afternoon. By the time Annja arrived, the park was mostly deserted.

So much for making the exchange in public.

Nothing in the past day had changed her view that Michaels would kill both her and Garin once he had the coordinates. Her only chance to pull this off was to get Garin out in the open where they had a possibility of getting away from Michaels and his men before she was forced to give up the location of the treasure.

How she was going to do that, she still wasn’t certain.

Great time not to have a plan, the nagging little voice in the back of her mind told her as she saw Michaels and his entourage approach.

Three black SUVs drove into the parking lot and parked a short distance away from her car. Four men got out of each of the two lead vehicles and took up positions around the third, though what they thought they were guarding against, Annja had no idea. Once the team leader was apparently satisfied with the situation, he knocked on the glass of the final vehicle with the knuckles of one hand.

The doors opened. Blaine Michaels emerged from the front passenger seat, while Garin and two more thugs got out of the rear.

Eleven against two. Not the best odds, but she’d deal with it.

Leaving the vast majority of his men behind him with the vehicles, Michaels strode toward her. Garin came along, as well, escorted on either side by two guards. She could see from the way he held himself that Garin’s arms were secured behind his back. She knew the guards, and perhaps even Michaels, would be armed, but none of their firearms were in evidence at the moment, which was a point in her favor.

It wasn’t much but at least it was something.

Now if she could just get Garin into the proper position.

She’d chosen her current location with care. The car was parked lengthwise across several parking spaces at the back of the lot. Just beyond it, hidden by the bulk of the vehicle, at least at a distance, was a trailhead leading into the dense Georgia forest at her back. If she and Garin could get into the thick of the trees, they stood a chance of getting away from their pursuers before any serious damage could be done.

Michaels stopped within arm’s reach, facing her, his long trench coat hiding any weapons he might be carrying.

“I believe you have something for me,” he said.

Annja ignored him, looking over his shoulder at Garin instead. “Are you all right?”

“Peachy,” he replied, and then, ever so slightly, nodded his head.

It was a signal and one that didn’t take a lot of brain-power to understand.

Garin was ready for whatever she had planned for getting them out of this mess.

His faith in her was reassuring.

Her lack of a specific plan was not.

Michaels was tired of waiting. “The treasure, Miss Creed.”

She shook her head. “Not until you release him.”

Expecting him to argue, she was surprised when he turned, studied Garin for a moment and then nodded at the guard standing beside his captive.

The guard drew a clasp knife out of his pocket, opened it and stepped up behind Garin.

“Don’t even think about it…” Annja warned, the tone of her voice dark and deadly. Her concern was misplaced, however. The guard simply used the knife to slash Garin’s bonds.

Garin brought his arms up in front of his chest, using his hands to rub each of his wrists in turn where the zip tie had dug into the skin. While the movement looked perfectly natural, Annja knew better. Garin was preparing for action.

“I won’t ask again,” Michaels said in an icy tone, one hand reaching inside his coat.

Annja held up her hands in front of her in a gesture of surrender. “No need for anger. I have what you need,” she told him, smiling at the same time to help reinforce the idea that she wasn’t a threat.

When she saw Michaels relax slightly as a result, she made her move.

She lashed out with a savage front kick, catching Michaels square between the legs with one booted foot. As the pain slammed into him a half second after the strike he dropped to his knees and toppled to the ground, groaning in agony.

Annja wasn’t waiting around to see the results, however. She was already in motion, driving forward toward the guard on Garin’s left. The man was just reaching inside his coat for his weapon when Annja called her sword to hand and ran him through. He looked down at the length of steel sticking out of his gut, tried to say something through the blood that was suddenly filling his throat and then collapsed.

Garin moved in the same instant as Annja. He smashed his elbow into the face of the guard on the other side of him and followed it up with several short, sharp punches that sent the man reeling to the ground.

“Follow me!” Annja shouted as she slid over the hood of the Cadillac, glancing back at the rest of Michaels’s men as she did so.

It was not a pretty sight. The guards were charging toward them, guns in hand, and even as Garin bent over to grab the pistol out of the hand of the guard he’d knocked over, the bullets started flying.

“Come on, Garin! Move!” she roared.

She felt useless standing there with her sword in hand, but there wasn’t anything she could do. They had to get under cover of the trees before the rest of the guards caught up with them or they would be killed.

Garin threw himself over the hood of the car, rolled to his feet and spun back around. He snapped off three quick shots, sending the gunmen diving for cover, then grinned at her.

“What are you waiting for?” he asked.

She turned and ran for the trailhead, Garin at her heels.

They were almost within the trees when the gunfire started again. She could hear bullets striking the Cadillac behind them and was grateful for her foresight in setting it up as a barrier. She was just about convinced they could make a clean getaway when she heard a grunt of pain and felt Garin stumble into her.

She caught him before he could fall and helped him stumble forward into the dense protection of the trees. His right hand was clasped to his left shoulder, blood seeping through his fingers, and the gun he’d risked himself to retrieve was nowhere to be seen.