Authors: Lisa Eugene
You ain’t got no plan? You crazy? You don’t know what’s
going
on in there!
She palmed the hand gun and began to load it, her fingers shaking in the process.
Twice she dropped the magazine and swore in frustration. She’d seen him do it a thousand times. He’d even talked her through the process once when she’d expressed some vague curiosity. Loathing guns, she hadn’t paid much attention. Now she wished she’d been more studious. But, satisfied now that she’d remembered all the steps, she inhaled deeply and exited the car, hunkering down to remain undetected. She pushed away the thoughts that tried to melt her resolve and germinate fear. She’d been on the run for weeks, surely she’d learned something! She scooted around another car, moving closer to the building. There must be a back door around somewhere!
Cane stepped in front of Gabe and faced him squarely. “No need to thank me for the favor. I was growing tired of his incessant whining. Consider it a trade.” A smile pulled the corners of his lips but failed to reach his eyes. They were deadly blue crystals.
Gabe locked his eyes on Cane’s face, his features eerily equitable. He numbed his body to emotion. One thing he’d learned as a SEAL was that emotion could be dangerous. Hard cold logic was what was required to overcome the worse adversity. Of course, a lead bullet didn’t give a whit about hard cold logic. If he expected to get out of there alive he had to forget about his dead brother on the floor, stay focused until he had an opportunity to strike, and there was nothing wrong with hoping for some small miracle.
“Now, my flash drives please,” Cane asked politely, nodding to one of the lackeys holding him. “Thomas assured me they haven’t been copied or adulterated.”
A meaty hand skimmed over his body, and finding the drive in his breast pocket, dropped it into Cane’s awaiting palm. Cane’s smug blue eyes grew hard when the man resumed his position.
“There should be
two
drives,” he stated gruffly to the guard who answered with a timid shake of his head.
He turned to Gabe and his blue eyes deepened in shade. He leveled the gun at him. “Where is the other flash drive?”
Still panting nervously, Maggie finished checking the first few rooms she encountered. She’d been lucky to find the back door unlocked and was pleased that so far she’d gone undetected. But she was starting to despair about not finding Gabe. All that she could see now was a long narrow hall, and quickly she took light steps along the carpet. She halted abruptly when she heard a man’s voice raised, and her stomach hollowed with apprehension. She tried to listen but the voice was muffled through the wall. The sound was a dull wave in her ears like she was deep under water. Her entire body felt like it was submerged, lethargic from the terror that seeped into her body to drown her. She tried to pump out the fear that filled her mind and blurred her thoughts. She was one woman with one gun. Who knew how many men were beyond that door. If she just burst in she’d probably end up dead, or worse, get Gabe killed. She almost dissolved at the thought. She needed to think. She needed a plan. Fast.
I told you so! This is just all kinds of crazy!
Gabe dragged a slow tight smile across his face, his silence ringing loud in the room. Had Thomas promised Cane both drives? That had been ambitious, even for him. Perhaps his brother hadn’t been as naive as he’d thought. Perhaps he hadn’t entirely trusted Cane. Maybe this was something he could use to his advantage.
“Looks like another thing my brother did half right.”
“I know you have it. Thomas assured me you would bring both.”
Gabe tried to let nonchalance soak his words. “Don’t tell me you were stupid enough to believe him. You of all people know how inept Thomas is…was.” He swallowed, damning the tint of emotion in his last words.
The hand that struck his jaw seemed to materialize out of the air. Gabe’s head swung sideways with the force of the angry blow. His face throbbed, but he issued a bored sigh and slowly rolled his gaze to fix on Cane’s strained face.
“You’ve tried enough of my patience. You’re lucky to be still standing here considering our last meeting. I’m going to give you five seconds, and then I will start putting holes in your body.” He started to count mechanically.
On the fifth count Gabe filled his lungs with a steady breath. “Thomas had it,” he lied, jerking his head to his brother’s body, hoping to at least buy some time.
Cane tapped his foot for a long moment then walked around his desk. He placed his gun next to the computer. Gabe ran some quick mental scenarios, calculating his odds of usurping it. Considering the two men still holding him and the gun pressed to his head, his chances were dubious at best.
Cane instructed one of the men holding him to search Thomas’ body as he slipped the drive into the port on his computer, confirming that he had some of the information he sought.
Gabe now had only one man holding him. At least his odds were getting better. He watched the other one closely, his heart thumping in tune to his soft controlled breaths. He knew this would be his only window of opportunity. When the search of Thomas’ body commenced, he made his move, praying the man didn’t have a finger on the gun trigger. He twisted out of the strangling hold on his arms, turned and struck the man that held him in the face with an iron elbow, satisfied when he heard the loud crunch of bone.
His captor was knocked unconscious from the force of his blow and Gabe reached quickly for the gun in his hand. Before he could grab it, a shot exploded over his head. He ducked and lost his grip on the falling man and the gun, his window of opportunity slamming shut.
Damn!
“Enough!” Cane barked angrily and Gabe’s body froze, expecting a blast into oblivion. He looked up.
Cane had his gun clutched, leveling it at him. He stalked close to Gabe then nodded for the other man to continue his search. When the man straightened and shook his head, Cane turned to Gabe, the ferocious heat of his blue gaze landing on him like a blowtorch. Gabe stood rigid as Cane pointed the gun directly at his heart and sneered wickedly.
Maggie huffed and cleared her head, staring at the gun in her hand and testing the weight in her tremulous fingers. This was not the time to second guess herself. As a nurse there were times she had to make decisions quickly, decisions that could mean life or death. She could do this. The gurgles from the room suddenly stopped and she froze, terrified of what could have happened. Her lethargic brain jerked to life as though it’d been shocked by the paddles of a defibrillator and she looked down at her shirt.
Don’t even think about it!
Quickly, she pointed the gun barrel up, slid it up her sweaty abdomen and tucked it snugly between her breasts, wincing as she felt the cold metal snuggle against her skin. She needed to conceal her weapon, and right now that was the best solution her agitated brain could offer. The elastic of her bra held the handle tightly in place against her rib cage and she was satisfied it wouldn’t fall out. Hopefully, she would not need to use it, but at least it was there if she needed it.
You crazy! What the hell are you thinking? This is your plan? All you’ll succeed at doing is blowing the girls off!
She ignored the annoying inner voice of dissent once more, but prayed that the gun didn’t indeed discharge accidentally. Her boob-loving man would not be happy. She made sure her tee shirt hung loose even though she now appeared to be at least a cup size bigger. She blew away the threatening hysteria, praying that Gabe and Thomas were simply in the room talking to Director Miller. They could all joke and laugh later about how she almost suffered a stroke and a breast reduction for nothing
.
Gabe thought the bullet had ended his life when the door to the room opened and Maggie stepped inside. Her big blue eyes were wide and purposeful, but glassy with emotion. She had an arm in the air, waiving something in her hand. He blinked, the nanosecond enough time for him to realize horribly that he wasn’t dreaming, that the most important person in his life was courting certain death. Red hot rage as he’d never felt before drilled through him, leaving gaping holes that quickly filled with fear.
“Maggie, no!”
he shouted, desperate for her to turn and flee.
What the fuck was she doing here?
She bravely faced him and Cane, and he wanted to throttle her. The other man was behind her, out of her line of sight. Gabe heard her gulp and watched her throat work nervously. Her eyes quickly landed on him with the gun pointed to his chest, and acute panic filled her eyes with tears. Each stroke of his heart squeezed pain through his body as he looked at her face. His lips parted to yell again, but her words flew across the room.
“No! No! Cane, stop! I have it. I have the drive with the research. Let him go!”
“Maggie, no!” Gabe implored, rage scratching his words as they went unheeded.
What did she think she was doing?
Sweat was starting to bead and run down his temple and his muscles popped viciously, strained by his impotence. He went to make a move towards her, but saw the challenge in Cane’s eyes. He could tell by the man’s arrogant expression that that was exactly what he wanted. He’d pull the trigger. Gabe would be no help to her dead. He watched helplessly as the man behind her grabbed her arm out of the air and plucked the drive from her grasp. The man briefly padded down her waist, hips and thighs, and Gabe seethed angrily that his hands were on her. Her anemic struggle surprised him. His Maggie had more pluck than that and would definitely have put up a bigger fight. And what the hell was with her breasts? Gabe growled deep in his throat, an animal sound of untainted anger. He skewered Cane with his gaze.
“If you hurt her, I will kill you!” he raged, uncaring about his unemotional cold logic.
Cane chuckled, seemingly unconcerned with the threat, his saccharine gaze smothering Maggie.
“Aha, the illusive Maggie Lawson. Seems you’ve got a champion. How sweet. Too bad our acquaintance will be brief. I would have relished getting to know you.” The honey in his voice was laced with poison.
Cane used his gun to motion him over to where she stood, forcing them against the wall. Gabe knew the moment Maggie spotted Thomas’ body. He heard her sharp intake of breath and the choked cry that erupted from her lungs. He wanted to hold her, to protect her, but the danger they faced was more real than ever. Now that Cane had both drives he’d quickly kill the two of them. He watched as Cane took the second flash drive and walked over to the computer, again he put his gun on the table and plugged in the drive. Gabe started to again calculate the odds. The man who had searched Thomas was a few feet away pointing his gun at them. Gabe didn’t like the way his eyes kept roving over Maggie’s figure, but he appeared meaningfully distracted by her buxom appearance.
Suddenly, Maggie doubled over, coughing and grunting, seemingly in acute pain. The guard took a step towards her, his brows crinkled in confusion. In the next moment she straightened suddenly and slapped a gun into Gabe’s palm. Gabe banked his shock, quickly adjusted the grip, aimed and fired a bullet into the surprised man’s chest. A gasp tore from Maggie’s lips, but she kicked the weakening body and scrambled for the man’s gun. Gabe pushed her hard to the floor with one hand and with the other quickly trained his gun on Cane, who was now leveling his own gun in their direction. But Gabe was faster. With practiced precision and lightning speed he fired once, plugging a bullet between Cane’s evil blue eyes.
Maggie was climbing to her feet when he turned to her. He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her roughly to him. His gaze locked onto hers. His face was mere inches away and steamy breath charged angrily through his flared nostrils. He was certain his heart had plummeted into the acid pit of his stomach and was still there, sizzling in the juices. He thought he heard the faint sound of sirens but was certain it was the angry ringing in his head.
“What the fuck did you think you were doing?” he yelled harshly. “That was the most asinine, reckless, stupid, rash, idi—”
His tirade ended when Maggie crushed her lips against his. She wrapped her arms around his sturdy shoulders and squeezed him close, seeming to use every molecule of strength in her body.
Tears were rapidly falling now, flowing down her cheeks in long lines of relief. Gabe’s fingers speared through her hair, holding her head in place as he greedily devoured her mouth. Abruptly he pulled back, hearing the sirens grow louder.
“You are in so much trouble. Don’t you ever do something so reckless ever again! I can’t lose you,” he choked.
Her lips pulled in a wry wet smile. “I can’t believe you pushed me onto the floor. Do you know what kind of microbial soup—”
Her tirade ended with the crush of his lips, his tongue stealing her quarrelsome words. His brows wrinkled and he pulled up and looked down at her.
“Where the hell did you have that gun?”
She grinned. “Between my boobs. In my…support top.”
He gazed appreciatively, a smile tugging his lips as he shook his head slowly. “That was just crazy!” He frowned. “A bra? Yet another thing I have to punish you for.” He brought his forehead to hers. “You do know you’re crazy, right…and brave…and wonderful?”
“I know.”
She watched a frown hijack his smile. “Why did you come? How did you know I was in danger?”
“On the drive with the research, Masters Communications was listed as a sponsor.”
His frown deepened as realization seemed to dawn. “That’s why they kept asking if I knew what was on the drive…strange, something compelled me to keep reading.”
“Eventually you would have found it and figured things out.”
The sirens had stopped and now intermittent shouts and orders floated up through the window. “Let’s get out of here. Cane’s men may still be in the building.” He retrieved the flash drives, stopping to look around the room at the carnage. His gaze landed on his brother’s broken body. The image of his father floated into his mind and he had to choke back the emotion that bled like a wound inside him.