Still Brazen

by M. Malone

  The real hell came when another furtive look told me exactly who it was. An unholy blast from my past.

  Fucking Mr. X. I’d thought I was rid of that guy once and for all. For years, I’d been walking around free and clear. I hadn’t had to pay for any of my past sins. I’d been able to leave the organization unscathed. Mr. X had gone to prison, and I was a free man. All thanks to Noah.

  I would have even been allowed to go back to my old life if I’d wanted. But Noah and the rest of the guys had given me more reason to stay. A home. A real family. A purpose. No way was I letting this happen.

  I did the one thing I knew Noah would kill me for. I made a decision I might not be able to walk away from, but one I could be proud of.

  I stepped out from the shadows and called out my past. “Mr. X, buddy, come on man, now you’re just being extra as fuck. If you wanted to talk, all you had to do was call.”

  The voice that responded was loud, booming, and all too familiar. “Mueller. You’re back. I was wondering where you’d run to. Our men had their eyes on you, but then you split with the team. I thought, that’s my boy, always looking out for himself. But looks like even you are capable of surprises. You want to come out? Play with your friends?”

  I wasn’t dumb. I stayed behind the pillar. That’s what training told me to do. But I had no intention of staying there for long. I’d happily sacrifice myself for the men who’d saved my ass dozens of times. But I’d take some bodies with me first.

  One more look and I could see Mathias trying to work his hands in the zip ties. The problem was he had no leverage to break them. If he did, it would be a real fucking problem for Mr. X.

  Noah was the same. As was Rafe. Jonas at least had a shot. He was closest to the wall, and there was some kind of… something sticking out of the wall. If it was at all rough, he might be able to get one of the zip ties off.

  “Mr. X, let’s talk about this man. Like I said, I’m open to anything. This seems a little extreme just to have a conversation.”

  “Well, because you declined to work for me, I lost a lot of money. I don’t like losing money.”

  “I hear you. You lost a little cheddar. But that’s hardly my fault. I know you think I should have just taken the job with you. And you know what, there’s a part of me that maybe thinks I should have just taken the job too. But, as you lost two of your previous accountants to ‘unfortunate circumstances,’ you can see how it wasn’t really in my best interest to come work for you. Once I saw my way out, I had to decline your generous offer of employment.”

  Yeah, motherfucker, because working for a psycho wasn’t high in my list of priorities. And, yes, I might have gotten half his team killed. “Let me come in. You and I can talk. You can string me up from my toes, it will be great. But you gotta let my boys go.”

  Mr. X laughed then. “Because of you not showing up for that client meeting in Vegas, I lost three good men. Because of you not agreeing to watch my money, I used substandard help. So really, my men dying on that day in Vegas… that was your fault. I lost my brother.”

  Wow, the guy was a true narcissist. It wasn’t my fault that the Feds had been called on Mr. X. Actually, it kind of was since I’d been the one to call them. But that was beside the point, and I wasn’t telling him that. “Listen, I get it. You had some kind of shootout with the Feds. Blame me. Fine. Blame me. These guys, especially the kid, he had nothing to do with that. The British one, he’s just an errand boy.”

  * * *

  “Oh yeah? Something tells me I shouldn’t believe you.”

  “Ah, well, it’s up to you. The other one, the clean cut one, he’s just a kid himself. Let one of them go to show some good faith, and I’ll come in and we can talk about this like adults.”

  “You mean Lieutenant First Class Ryan Delaney? Former SEAL?”

  Fuck, why the fuck did he know who the hell we were? Delaney had come from a clean background, so he’d gotten to keep his real last name. Dylan too. I’d taken my mother’s maiden name. I’d never been arrested for anything, but my real last name could have been problematic. Everyone else who he would have looked up, he wouldn’t have found military records on. And he shouldn’t have found Delaney either. Unless he talked to someone that Delaney knew, which meant he’d been watching me for a while. A long while.

  “Okay, fine. Maybe he was a Lieutenant, but mostly people push them around, honestly. Look at the kid. He’s scrawny.”

  Compared to me, Noah, and Rafe, he was scrawny. He was leaner, like Matthias. But I happen to personally know he’s a crack shot.

  Finally, the lock gave way, and I started to turn the door knob. “Listen, I’m coming in. I just want to talk. I’m tossing you my weapon.”

  Mr. X wasn’t fucking around. Just because I could see him didn’t mean he didn’t have backup.

  When I stepped in, I saw his backup. He had four guards. And then I noticed there were little packs under the chairs. Ah, explosives, fucking fabulous. “Okay, I’m here. You got me. Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” Today was not a good day to die, so I really fucking hoped Gemma, Diana, and Tyse were on their way. I just prayed I could stall this asshole until then.

  Hailey

  "Okay, how does this work?" I’d never in my life had to be a badass. Were there classes for that or something?

  As everyone piled out of the car, armed and strapped like they were going to war, I watched in awe. Somehow, I didn't feel entirely useful with just my baby gun.

  Gemma checked her phone again. "I am so glad that man keeps his GPS tracker on just for me."

  I frowned.

  "Is that wise? What if people are trying to find us?"

  She smiled.

  "It's not just any GPS tracker. This is behind a million firewalls in a completely unfindable place. But it gives me the ultimate homing beacon on my man."

  JJ snorted. "God help that man if he ever fucks up because we're all going to hunt him down and kill him."

  "Why does every conversation that we have with you end up in someone getting maimed?" Diana asked with a chuckle.

  JJ shrugged. "That's just me. Love me or hate me."

  I laughed. "I think we'll all choose to love you."

  She grinned. "Yup, that's the safest bet."

  Gemma pointed at the roof. "I'm going up there. Hopefully I can get a clean shot."

  Diana nodded. "Good, I'm going to have a quick look inside and see what we're working with.” She turned to me. “Hailey, you come with me, okay?"

  I slid a glance over at JJ. "What are you going to do?"

  She grinned and gave me a wink. "I'm going to do what I do best. Distraction."

  When JJ and Gemma headed off to their posts, I followed behind Diana, not sure of how this was going to work. I worried about her for starters. She was barely showing, but she was pregnant. Could she do this?

  Pregnant women had been doing hard things for millennia.

  If she said she was fine, then I was fine. And truth be told, she was a big time badass. After all, she’d carried off a whole undercover thing on Rafe. I needed to respect that hustle.

  We headed around the building, and then she held up her hand. I didn't know exactly what the signal meant, but she stopped, so I stopped.

  She tsked as she shook her head. "Oh my God, they've all been caught. Every last one of them. You wouldn’t know that they were a den of badasses and thieves."

  "What do you see?" I asked.

  "Well, they've got all the guys tied up to chairs. Let me work this scope. One sec. The scope will allow us to get a better look.”

  Through the visor she got a good lay of the land. “Okay we have five assholes. And more bad news… the boys are sitting on explosives.”

  "That sounds like a recipe for disaster. No way we can go in guns blazing."

  Diana shook her head. "Uh, no. We are not going to do that. We are going to wait."

  I frowned. "For what?" Then I heard it, the commotion. Inside. Men shouting, f
ast talking. "Is that—"

  Diana turned to me and grinned. "Yup. That's JJ. That is our distraction."

  I strained to listen.

  "Oh my God, I need to speak to someone in charge. I brought my leather jacket in for cleaning, and you messed it up."

  One of the guards was trying to get her out of there. "Ma'am—"

  That seemed to set JJ off. "Ma'am? I'm in my mid-20s. What the hell? Does this look like the body of a ma'am to you?" She kept going on and on. Yammering and muttering. Finally, another one of the guys went out front to help deal with her.

  Diana held up two fingers. That meant we only had three guys left to deal with.

  "Okay, so what do we do?"

  “We wait for one more to go out and see what the hell the commotion is, and then we go in." She ducked down behind the back door, pulled out a black folded thing. It looked like some kind of tool kit.

  "What is that?"

  She grinned. "Lock pick set. We'll get you one of these, don't worry."

  I blinked. "Am I sure I want one?"

  "It's a girl's best friend."

  In my ear com, Gemma laughed. "That and explosives.

  I shook my head. "You guys are just as badass as the guys."

  Diana grinned. "More so. And you can tell them that too."

  Inside, JJ was yelling and cussing. One of them threatened to carry her out.

  "If you put a hand on me, I swear to God I will take my shoe off and beat you with it."

  I peered around the window again briefly. I could see Oskar. He looked furious, tense, tight. Like he was waiting for something.

  "How are going to do this?" I asked.

  "The last guy in there will be the one with the detonator. He won't chance going in the other room with it in case JJ's a trap. So that's the guy we need to take out before he blows our guys sky high."

  I blinked at how she said it… like it was a real possibility.

  “Okay wait for it. You're going to get the signal. Then we're going to go in.”

  "What's the signal?" I asked.

  Suddenly I heard JJ screech at the top of her lungs. "I've already called the police. I’ll have you all arrested for leathertricide. Leather death."

  One of the guys shouted. "What the hell? Did she say cops?"

  Diana chuckled. “That’s our go-sign.”

  Next thing I knew, we had our guns out and were moving quickly. Diana had the door open, and then shots were fired. She bolted forward, launching herself at the idiot with the detonator. It went flying and we all held our breath. When it didn’t go off, the fight was on.

  He was big, but she hung on valiantly. I ran up behind him and did the one thing I could think of… I kicked him in the nuts. He fell to his knees, and Diana elbowed him in the face. He sagged and passed out.

  Diana cursed as she gingerly picked the detonator up off the ground.

  The other men came running in. Suddenly, there was a crack of gunfire and glass breaking, and the first guy fell to his knees, a bright red hole in his forehead. The next one came in, and Diana rolled over, aimed her gun, and shot him too.

  There was another man in a suit with his knife to Oskar’s throat, and I didn't even think about it. I raised my gun. Aimed it. Fired. It was a wonder I didn't hit Oskar. The guy with the knife clutched his shoulder, and then there was another crack just before a hole appeared in his temple. I heard a clicking sound, then JJ walked through the door with the last guy in front of her, and it looked like she had a gun to his back.

  "If I were you, I'd stay perfectly still. We have snipers on the roof across the street. You want a hole in your head too?"

  The guy shook his head.

  Diana started to undo Rafe’s ties, muttering the whole time about foolish men and the trouble they got themselves into.

  I ran for Oskar.

  His gaze on me was intense, heated. "Hey, butterfly. How you doing?"

  I shook my head.

  My hands were shaking, the blood rushing through my head. He was safe. He was safe.

  He was okay.

  "It's okay, baby. Listen there's a knife strapped to my ankle. Grab that, you can cut the ties."

  I reached for his ankle and found the knife, shaking as I went to work. Noah was released next, and then Matthias was eased off of his chair by Diana and Rafe.

  As soon as Oskar was released, his arms wound around me, tight, holding me to him. "Oh my God. What did you do?"

  I grinned up at him. "Looks like we saved your asses."

  He smoothed back my hair and blinked away tears. "That you did. I love you so much."

  "Me too. But maybe you try not to get killed for at least another couple of years?"

  "Yeah. I think we can manage that."

  21

  Oskar

  I was beyond pissed.

  Relieved, yes. All my mates were bloody alive and kicking, as Matthias would say, but that had been a close call.

  As mad as I was though, Noah was on a different level.

  We all walked through the doors of the Penthouse weary and exhausted, nerves frayed. Everyone filed into the living room and dropped their tuxedos across the couches. Lucia came out. The first thing she did was hand Izzy off to Rafe, and then she leapt into Noah’s arms. “I swear to God, if you ever scare me like that again, I will kill you myself.”

  He held her tight, kissed her forehead and then set her down. When Tyse and Dylan came back in to join the rest of us, he glared at them. “Do you want to explain to me what the fuck happened and how the women ended up in the field?”

  Tyse narrowed his gaze. I couldn’t wait for this explanation. “With all due respect Noah, I think these women saved your asses. Gemma and Diana, as they’ve already shown, are more than capable. JJ, well, she’s just terrifying. I have yet to see Hailey in the field, but if she’s back alive…”

  Tyse didn’t flinch. I was going to kill the kid myself. I took a step toward him, and Matthias put a hand on my chest. I glared down at it until I saw who was on the other end of the appendage.

  Matthias shook his head. “Nah, mate. You don’t want any of that. And he’s right. There’s no one else I’d rather have come and get me. Gemma knows what she’s doing. And, no offense, but she’s prettier than you lot.”

  Gemma just laughed and shoved her way past him. “Ah, prettier and I’ve kicked your ass before.”

  He scowled. “I wouldn’t say ‘kicked my ass’ exactly.”

  “Yeah, I hurt you. Everyone here knows it. You might as well admit it to yourself.”

  I scowled, but I pulled Hailey to me, and she snuggled right in. If Noah was going to yell, I didn’t want him yelling at her.

  Noah sighed. “Tyse, the job was to keep the women here. Not let them in the field.”

  Tyse crossed his arms. He seemed to have no problem standing up to us. “No, there was no job. Yes, basic security of the penthouse. If anything comes in, kill it. We would have managed that. And not for nothing, Lucia looks pretty insane with those knives strapped to her, so I’m sure she would have liked to help out. You’re doing them a disservice by saying the women can’t do anything. You were supposed to go and get your tuxedos and some flowers, but instead you got yourselves nicked, so decisions had to be made. Gemma answered the call, and you know full well she’s just as capable as I am. Would you have rather Gemma and I wasted time fighting each other over who got the privilege to come bail your asses out? Isabella is the only person here who can’t actually fight. She is the only one who needed protection, which is what I was doing with Dylan and Lucia.”

  Noah couldn’t really argue. His mouth fell open. Diana stepped to the living room as well. She picked up Izzy and gave her niece a little kiss and then handed the baby to Noah. “There’s a good girl. Your daddy is a moron, but you’re a good girl.”

  Lucia snorted a laugh.

  Diana continued. “I’ll have you know that I’m the one who dug out the detonator so that JJ and Gemma and Hailey could rescue your s
orry behinds. P.S. I’m also pregnant, so that makes me extra badass. And if you ever suggest that I am a little woman who needs to be rescued again, I will gut you and put your hearts on top of ice-cream, which right about now sounds really appetizing. Go ahead, you can say it now. You’re grateful we were there.”

  Noah’s mouth worked a few seconds, but somehow he finally managed to form the words. “Yes, we were grateful you were there, because we would have been in a mess if you weren’t. Without you guys, we’d have been stuck.”

  JJ sauntered in. “Without my stellar acting skills, you’d still be stuck is what you mean.”

  Jonas just rolled his eyes. “Yes, baby, I think they heard you all over Manhattan.”

  “I should hope so. Someone needs to give me an Oscar. But I’m disappointed. I didn’t even get to use my gun on more than one person.”

  Jonas turned to glare at Matthias. “See, this is what happens when I let you teach her how to shoot.”

  Matthias grinned. “She’s a great shot, isn’t she?”

  “Yeah. But now she has a thirst for it, thanks to you,” muttered Jonas.

  Matthias only shrugged.

  We heard a low-toned ring signaling someone was coming up. Rafe nodded at Noah and took off toward the foyer. I looked at Noah askance.

  Noah confirmed what I suspected. “That’s ORUS come to collect Mr. X’s crew. They have a whole bunch of questions they want to ask them.”

  Something told me those assholes weren’t headed to central lock up. Nope, they were headed somewhere dark, dingy, and scary as fuck. But they’d tried to kill my brothers, so I didn’t give a shit about where they’d end up.

  Hailey snuggled in closer and I held her tighter, kissing the top of her head. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded against my chest. “To be honest, I’m not really sure.”

  “Well, the good news is I don’t think you killed him. We’ve got three live ones. Ryan’s bringing them up now.”

  “He’s still alive?”

  “Yeah, he’s still alive. They were all wearing vests. But you were fucking amazing. When you shot him, you hit him straight in the chest. He passed out. The shot you got off, that’s what downed him.”