“I’m wondering why you’re whispering?”
“Just in case.”
When she tried to look up, he gave her a small squeeze she assumed meant not to move. “That seems to be your justification for a lot of things.”
He pointed at the chained door. “The rust is fake and the fence could stop a truck. There are motion sensors and all the images go to monitors at Garrett’s office and directly to our phones.”
“Very stealthy.” And a bit scary.
The over-the-top security both stopped the nerves jumping around in her throat and set her back teeth chattering. Being here went against every minute of training she’d invested in. She never left public places when meeting with a man she didn’t know. For Jeremy, she made an exception. The question was, why? And she really couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer.
Even injured, with a slight limp from protecting his wounded side, he struck her as being twice as tough as any guy she’d ever met, including Garrett. The dark scowl gave him a sexy in-control look, but his smile... Oh, yeah. The way the corner of his mouth kicked up lit up his whole face, even as it sucked the air right out of her lungs.
Over the past few hours she’d glanced over only to find him staring back at her. He didn’t turn away or pretend he hadn’t seen her gaze. He met her eyes with a heated look of his own.
Garrett had walked in and out of her life and filled the role of helpful neighbor during those times when he wasn’t absent. Even though the siblings shared identical looks, Jeremy’s impact on her senses surpassed routine and sped straight toward explosive. There was nothing sisterly about the little dance in her stomach every time she looked at his face.
“I knew Garrett had many secrets, but a twin brother and all this covert equipment is a surprise.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Jeremy took the keycard out of his pocket.
“Where did you get that?”
“I always carry it. Slipped it out of my wallet back at the motel. Here, take this back. I should have just let you keep it at the motel.” He turned her hand over and laid his cell in her palm. “And now for the impressive part.”
She’d spent almost every minute with him being impressed. It took only a short time for her to figure out the truth. He stayed calm. He remained focused. He hunted the bad guys and wanted to save Sara because that’s who he was. He never questioned what should be done. He just did it.
He slipped his fingers underneath a brick and pulled out the row of grout. “Embedded reader.”
“Caterpillar. See? I can say random words, too.”
“You’re hysterical.” Before she could blink, he slid the card through the crack.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting access.”
“To what?”
“The entry log.”
He could have said anything, even used his shoe to call for a flying car and had it land in front of him, and she wouldn’t have been more surprised. Instead, he hit a button on the phone and lines of black print filled the small screen.
She squinted, hoping the gibberish would make sense if the words blurred together then broke apart again. “I have no idea what that says.”
“It’s code. The important piece of information is that someone has been here. Is still here.”
“Sara?”
“I hope. Or Garrett. Someone with access swiped a card, which is a good sign.”
“How exactly?”
“No one tried to break in. The log shows one entry.”
“Unless two people went in together.”
He froze. “What?”
“Just stating the obvious.”
For the shortest of blips, his guard wavered. From the slight slump of his shoulders to the hitch in his voice, she knew his mind wandered to that awful place of uncertainty where he didn’t know if his brother lived or not.
She’d survived a similar darkness. In her bleakest moments, when the man she’d thought she loved switched from insults to threats, she’d feared not the end but the moment before the end, when she’d know which one of her breaths would be her last. Then she’d made a decision not to face the unknown horror for one more day. She’d bought a gun, learned to shoot, moved out...and rolled through the waves of panic that came every time the phone rang or footsteps sounded in the hallway.
She’d been nineteen and naive and so sure she’d found what people searched a lifetime to find. She never saw how disconnected from reality she’d become. But this, right here, with Jeremy, tasted and felt real. Terrifying and completely incomprehensible in her black-and-white mind, but real. She’d long ago lost her ability to read men and no longer trusted her judgment, but Jeremy made her want to believe.
With his arm bent and tucked against his side, he threaded the fingers of his other hand through hers. “You okay?”
Shaking her head, she snapped out of the past and fell back to the present. Those deep blue eyes held her until her stomach bounced.
“Fine.” She turned her attention to the boarded-up front door. Anything not to get lost in his gaze. “Do you own this building, too?”
“Garrett uses it for business.” Jeremy felt behind the hinges. “Motion sensors.” Another swipe of the card and the door opened, opposite to the way it would normally swing.
“If you’re trying to impress me...”
His eyebrow rose. “Is it working?”
“Totally. Yes.”
She followed, slipping in behind him as he entered the building. The door opened into a small metal-walled room. It looked like an entryway but there was no obvious way out except the door they’d just used. “I don’t get it.”
“Nothing is ever what it seems in Garrett’s world. Or in mine, for that matter.”
A lesson she knew all too well after her house had blown up. “You probably shouldn’t say that to a woman you barely know. Doesn’t exactly build trust.”
Jeremy motioned to the wall in front of her. With a scrape, it started to rise. Darkness filled the edges of the dark cavern on the other side. Water dripped in the distance, mixing with the screech of the wall against its tracks. When it hit the halfway point, the backlit image in the middle of the room came into focus.
“Sara.” Jeremy whispered the name as his hand dropped from around her and his gun appeared in a flash.
“Do not move, Mr. Hill.” The menacing voice ripped through the empty room and slapped her in the face.
A man dressed all in black stood with his arm wrapped around the neck of a petite blonde. More menacing was the gun aimed at her head. Fear radiated off her as her chest rose and fell on hard thumping breaths. Her fingers clawed at her attacker’s forearm and tears flooded her eyes.
Meredith could feel the other woman’s every breath and every drip of panic. This had to be Sara, which meant they’d arrived too late.
“Garrett.” Tension held the woman’s jaw tight as she spoke.
Meredith could tell the difference between the brothers. It was more than an issue of hairstyle. The distinctions ranged from the cadence of their steps to the subtle shades in their facial expressions. If Meredith knew, Sara knew. You couldn’t love a man and not know. She was using Garrett’s name for a reason, whatever it was.
“What do you want?” Jeremy took a step away from Meredith, but his gun didn’t leave his side.
“Put your weapons on the floor. All of them.” The man pointed his gun at Meredith. “And just who are you?”
When she tried to move forward, Jeremy put out his arm and signaled for her to stay still. “She stays with me. She’s not involved in this.”
“Then you shouldn’t have brought her with you. Your mistake.” The man braced his legs apart and shifted the gun until it aimed at Meredith’s heart. “What’s your name, and no games. Tell me what I want to know or Sara Paulson dies.”
The shock of hearing Sara’s full name for the first time broke Meredith out of her stunned silence. Fear rumbled through every part of her body. Her legs shook hard enough to knock her over. It took all her concentration to hold still. “Meredith.”
“Hill, if you care about Meredith or Sara here, you’ll dump those weapons now. I won’t tell you again. Not when I have all these bullets with your name on them.”
“Screw you.”
“Since you know how to follow orders, I have to assume you don’t think I’m serious.” The attacker took an exaggerated sniff of Sara’s hair. “Should I hurt one of these lovely ladies as proof? Maybe you’re the type who prefers that sort of thing.”
Jeremy stood there for another few seconds before his hand moved to the band on his arm. Bending his knees, he dropped two guns on the floor. “Now we can talk.”
“Slide them over here.”
“No.”
“Maybe you need to learn the hard way.” The man smiled as he tightened his arm and tipped Sara’s head back. His mouth hovered right over her ear and their cheeks touched.
“Stop.” One gun, then the other skidded across the cement toward the attacker but out of grabbing range.
“Nice try, but I’ll take the one at your ankle and everything else you have on you.”
“Garrett.” The plea for help was clear from the wobble in Sara’s voice.
Her hands shook and her eyes mirrored the fear clogging Meredith’s throat, threatening to choke her. She had no idea how Sara kept on her feet.
“Satisfied?” Jeremy asked as he dumped a small gun and two knives to the floor.
“Now the shirt. Untuck. Let me see your skin.”
“I’m not into that.”
“You would be just the type to tape a weapon to your bare chest. I’m not taking any chances.”
Jeremy braced his legs apart. He unbuttoned his shirt and let it hang loose at his sides. On anyone else the obedience and bare chest might signal weakness. Not Jeremy. His chest puffed, growing more formidable and impressive the longer he stood.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Someone with a message for you. But first you have to do something for me.” The man motioned for Jeremy to raise his hands. “Good. Now pick.”
Jeremy frowned. “What?”
But Meredith understood. She’d been on the wrong end of a man determined to take down a woman before. Had seen the swirling sickness grow and pulse as he invented new ways to show his power.
All the helplessness came rushing back to her until dizziness shook her brain. The man planned to kill one of them. Either her or Sara.
“We have two women. You’re one man, but you can’t be greedy.” The attacker pointed his gun at Meredith then at Sara. “Choose.”
The muscles in Jeremy’s face clenched. “You want me. Take me and let the women go.”
“Thanks but I’ll keep my leverage.” The man pulled Sara in tighter against his side.
Jeremy’s jaw tightened to the point of snapping. “Won’t mean much when I kill you.”
No empty boast here. Meredith heard the vow in the soft darkness of his voice. It should have shaken her, knocked her back and sent her into an emotional spasm that stopped her brain. Should have, but it didn’t.
Security wrapped around her, filling her with a wellspring of strength. The kind that made her believe she could survive anything.
The attacker shook his head. “With what? I’ve left you defenseless.”
“I’ll only need my hands. Probably only one.”
For the first time, the attacker’s smug assurance fell. The smile disappeared. “Maybe I’ll kill both women, then take you out.”
The gun tucked into Meredith’s belt rubbed against her back. The heat burned into her skin and the weight almost doubled her over.
She itched to stop this madness but had to get Sara out of striking range first. “Let Sara go and take me.”
Sara whimpered.
Jeremy sent a heart-stopping look of pure fury over his shoulder. “Do not move from that spot.”
Doubt crashed through Meredith’s adrenaline rush. “I have to.”
The attacker wiped his mouth over Sara’s cheek. “What a brave lady you are, Meredith. I’m sure Sara would agree if she could talk without crying.”
“I think I’ll have a better chance of survival than she will,” Meredith said, not wanting to give any part of her plan away.
The attacker barked out a harsh laugh. “Against a bullet?”
“I’m bigger, so likely stronger.” Except for her knees, which turned to mush and refused to move.
“You’ll bleed the same. Everyone does.” The attacker stared at Jeremy. Whatever he saw there had him nodding in agreement. “Fine. I accept your terms, pretty Meredith. You get to die, though it would have been entertaining to see Garrett sweat and squirm as he weighed the value of one woman over the other.”
The attacker loosened his vise grip around Sara’s neck. Red marks marred her skin and her body shook as she struggled out of his grasp. He wasn’t ready to let go. He held her elbow, shifting her body in front of his like a shield.
The weasel.
Meredith inhaled, forcing every last drop of energy in her body to her feet to get them to move. One sliding step, then another.
“No!” Jeremy blocked her body with his.
Always protecting. Always sacrificing.
She put her hand on his forearm and shifted until she stood beside him. If she could get in front of him, he’d see the gun. She’d duck and he could shoot over her head. Playing musical positions would give them a chance to save Sara and possibly get out of there alive.
Rather than read her mind, Jeremy went with plan B. As soon as Sara moved, so did he. A dark blur passed in front of her as he dived for the attacker. Sara jumped to the side as the attacker let go and changed targets. With a mouth twisted in a feral snarl, he aimed his weapon at Jeremy in midlunge.
Before her brain could signal a message to her fingers, Meredith reached behind her back and whipped out the gun. Remembering all of her shooting lessons, keeping her focus on the one man she wanted dead and off the other she hoped to save, she squeezed the trigger, eyes open and hands steady. The booms thundered over the men’s shouts.
Bang. Bang.
The cartridges pinged against the hard floor. The kick vibrated through her arm, but she ignored the unexpected twinge of muscle pain.
The attacker switched his gaze to her a bit too late. The red-faced haze morphed into openmouthed surprise. Then he dropped to the floor with his eyes open and a blossom of red spreading over his chest.
Jeremy slammed to a halt. He grabbed empty air as the man hit the ground at his feet. His body deflated as his speed went from sixty to zero.