Irish: A Reed Security Romance (Reed Security Series Book 5)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  Derek grabbed me by the arms and gave me a firm shake. “Snap out of it, Claire. You can do this. I’ll be with you the whole time. This is our way out. There are a whole handful of men down there very eager to get what you have.”

  “But I don’t have anything,” I said on the verge of hysterics. “I’m a librarian. They wanted a book that I don’t have!”

  “You must have found something or they wouldn’t be here. Now, think. Did you contact someone that could help you? Is there anyone that had access to that book?”

  “Y-yes, but I never told them I wanted it. I only inquired after it.”

  “Shit. That means that they’ve been monitoring your emails. They know you can get them the book. That’s why they want you.” He chewed his lip for a second and then looked back up at me. “We have to get out of here where I can get to a phone or get you back to Reed Security. We’ll deal with it from there.”

  “So, we’re really doing this? We’re jumping to our deaths to outrun men over a book?”

  “I’m kind of surprised,” he said with a smirk. “I would think a book would be worth dying for to someone like you.”

  “Wait! You’re going to catch me right?”

  He looked at me quizzically and shook his head. “I’m up here with you, Claire. How the hell am I going to catch you?”

  “Superman caught me in my dream,” I grumbled. I caught him rolling his eyes at me. He took a step back, gripping my hand and nodded once, leaping from the building and taking me down with him.

  “Oh, crap!” I yelled as we plummeted toward the water. When we splashed down below, I tried to hold my breath, but the force of the fall pushed all the air from my lungs and I found myself gasping for air, but only coming up with water. A yank on my shirt had me moving toward the surface and when I broke into the open air, I coughed until all the water was free of my throat. Derek was looking at me in concern, his hands framing my face.

  “Are you alright,” Derek asked.

  I sputtered out another cough and nodded my head. “How long do you think we have?”

  “Not long. We have to get out of here. We have to get to my truck without them seeing.”

  “Wait. Can you do something for me?”

  “What? Are you hurt?”

  “No. I need you to say, ‘I told you I’d catch you. I always will.’”

  “But I didn’t catch you.”

  “For the love of baseball, just say it for me!”

  He pulled me into his arms and looked at me adoringly. “Claire, I told you that I’d catch you in your dreams. I’ll always do it, in or out of your dreams. You’re mine forever, Claire, and nothing can stand between us.”

  He kissed me hard, his tongue slipping inside my mouth. This was so much better than what happened in my dreams. He definitely was the only man for me, cape or no cape.

  When he pulled back, his eyes flicked over my shoulder and widened slightly. “We have to go. Now. We’re going to have to swim, Claire. Are you a good swimmer?”

  “Uh…”

  “Hold onto my belt. Don’t fucking let go, and for God’s sakes, make sure you breathe.”

  I took a deep breath, seconds before he dove under the water and started propelling us away from the shore. He stopped every once in a while to make sure I came up for air and then dove back under, taking us further and further from the library. When we finally reached the shore on the other side, I was exhausted.

  Derek tapped me and I didn’t understand why, but then I looked at the shore and saw three men staring at us like they would rip us apart. I released Derek’s belt and watched as he ran out of the water, taking on the first man.

  The man had a knife, but Derek quickly disarmed him and put him in some kind of headlock as he flung the knife over into another man’s chest. A third man came at him and I waited with baited breath as Derek just stood there with the other man in a headlock. I wanted to yell at him to do something, but I was just so mesmerized. When the man got within striking distance, Derek kicked sand up in the man’s face and then spun around, still holding the other man around the neck, and wrapped his knee around the man’s neck, taking him to the ground and then jerked his knee. The man went limp in the crook of Derek’s knee. The man that was currently in his arms was also limp and I didn’t know how to respond. Was it appropriate to cheer when one’s boyfriend just killed three people?

  Derek dropped the two of them, walked over to the third man and ripped the knife from his chest, and ran back over to me. “Come on. There’ll be more coming.” He held out his hand for me and I eagerly took it. He ran with me through the trees, further from the water and my beloved library that was now in shambles. Branches scraped at me and bugs bit at my skin, but I continued to follow Derek deeper into the forest. He stopped in front of a thick, tall tree and gazed upward.

  “This is perfect. You’re going to go up there and hide. You don’t say a word. You don’t try to help. You don’t do anything until I come back to get you. Do you understand?”

  “But what about you?”

  “There are more of them on the way. I have to figure out who’s behind this and finish this before we both end up dead.”

  I snorted because I saw what he just did. That was just crazy to think that we would end up dead with him defending us.

  “Claire, this is fucking serious. These men are trying to kill us over a fucking book. That must be pretty damn special for them to come at us so hard. I have to get this figured out or we’re both dead.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to laugh, but…you did see what you just did, right? I think you lied to me about the whole Superman bit,” I said with a grin.

  Against his will, a small smirk touched his lips and he pulled me in for a deep kiss. “Now, get your ass up there and stay safe. I can’t do what I need to if I’m worried about you.”

  I climbed the tree, glancing down occasionally to see him staring at my ass. I found a perch and waited, trying to see where he went, but he had vanished into the trees and I was now left to wait it out on my own.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Derek

  I SHOOK MY head as Claire made it up high enough into the trees to be unseen. I couldn’t stop staring at that gorgeous ass the whole time. My cock was getting hard and now wasn’t the time to be thinking about where I’d like to shove my dick. Now that these men were coming after her full force, I wished that I had taken the number she had gotten from them and ended this before it could go further. I had assumed that if she ignored them, they would move on. Stupid move on my part.

  I slipped into the darkness of the tree cover and waited for them to come. It didn’t take long. They barely made a sound as they passed, obviously trained professionals. I waited for them all to slip past me and then watched as the last man passed. He wiped the snot from his nose on his sleeve, leaving behind a green trail I could see from where I stood. Disgusting. Sneaking up behind him, I wrapped one hand around his mouth, cutting off any noise he would make and quickly slit his throat. I lowered him gently to the ground up against a tree so it looked like he was sleeping. He had a handgun that I quickly put in the back of my pants and moved on to the next guy.

  The next two were whispering in Russian, a language I had picked up from some guys when I had been overseas in the military. I didn’t remember a lot because it had been so long since I spoke the language. Grabbing the man on the right from behind, I quickly broke his neck and pulled out the knife that he had sheathed on his side and flung it into the second man’s neck. He went down before he even realized he needed to pull his gun.

  Yanking the knife from his throat, I wiped it on his clothes and tucked it into my belt. One of the men glanced over his shoulder and whistled, a signal for everyone to stop. I straightened myself against a thick tree just as he fully turned around and scanned where his men had just been. When he didn’t see anyone, he started back toward me, signaling positions to the other men. As he passed the tree I was hiding behind, I pulled h
im into me and slit his throat, sliding him to the ground and wiping the knife again.

  I could hear the others moving more quickly now, but I didn’t have time to move into a better position. They were closing in fast now that their men were missing. Pulling the handgun from my belt, I held it firmly in my hand, keeping the knife in my left hand. I needed to wait until most of them were close to me or it would be too easy for them to get a shot off. When the first man stumbled past, completely missing the man lying on the ground, I let him keeping wandering on. The second man saw his fallen comrade and let out a low whistle to the others. As he ran up, I turned and shot him in the head and the man behind him. I whipped my knife into the man that had already passed me and watched as he slowly dropped to his knees and fell on his face. That left three that I needed to take down. I hadn’t seen the asshole from the library yet and if he wasn’t out here looking, that meant that he would be waiting for us in case we returned.

  I closed my eyes and listened for the sound of rustling leaves or snapping twigs. One was off to the left, one down the center, and one down the right. These men were highly trained based on the way they were moving. They hardly made a noise as they moved closer and closer. The man on the left would reach me first and then the man down the center. The man on the right was a few seconds further behind. I would only have seconds to take all three out and if I made the wrong choice, I would end up dead and leave Claire all alone. I slowed my breathing as they closed in the last few feet.

  I heard the swoosh of the knife and ducked, thrusting my knife high into the man’s rib cage. I spun just in time to kick the other man back a few steps and fire a shot over his shoulder into the chest of the third man. The second man knocked the gun from my hands and pulled his own gun. I glanced over his shoulder, flinching slightly. He took the bait and I watched in slow motion as his eyes flicked over his shoulder. I slammed my hand into his wrist, grabbing the gun with my other and shooting him dead center in the head. As the blood trickled from his forehead, I let the adrenaline flow freely through my body. I closed my eyes and listened one last time, but I didn’t hear anything. I had taken out all ten, but that didn’t mean it was safe to go back to the truck. For all I knew, there were more men waiting there. Walking back over to the tree that Claire was hiding in, I was not at all surprised to see that she was already out of the tree. She bit her lip as she let her gaze rake over me.

  “I guess you got them all.”

  “Why didn’t you listen to me?”

  “I…uh…when they all started going back toward you, I wanted to see you in action.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. My woman was just too much sometimes. “We’re going to have to keep going through the woods. I don’t want to go back since I don’t know what’s going to be waiting for us.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “There’s a house not too far from here. The guy knows Sebastian. I’ll give him a call when we get there, but we have to get moving. The sun’s going to be setting soon.”

  I grabbed her hand and pulled her along with me through the forest. I did my best not leave a trail, but no matter how many times I told Claire to step where I stepped, she was like a herd of buffalo trampling the prairie grass. Finally, I stopped and hauled her up over my shoulder.

  “What are you doing?” she whisper hissed.

  “Trying not to leave a trail.”

  “And why do you have to carry me for that to happen?”

  “Because if anyone is trying to track us, they’ll find us within a few minutes.”

  “I’m not that bad,” she huffed.

  “Look, it’s nothing against you. It’s just the way nature is. Men are the hunters and women are the gatherers.”

  “That’s a little sexist, don’t you think?”

  “Not at all. I see the way you hunt. You’d more likely give yourself a heart attack than actually kill the other person.”

  “Hey-”

  “Quiet. We don’t need to draw any more attention to us.”

  She huffed, but was quiet the rest of the way. It was well past dark when we finally made it out of the forest and to Sebastian’s friend’s house. I may have gotten a little turned around, but I didn’t dare tell Claire. She would have teased me about stopping and asking for directions. I set her down at the tree line and stared at the massive house in front of me. We stayed where we were for a good ten minutes, but when I didn’t see any signs of danger, I grabbed Claire’s hand and led her to the log cabin in front of us. The flood lights flicked on when we entered the back yard and Ryan’s frame was standing at the back door seconds later. As I got closer, he opened the door and stepped outside.

  “Derek?”

  “Yeah. Sorry to crash your house like this, but we had a bit of trouble and I need to get ahold of Sebastian.”

  “Sure,” he waved at us. “Come on in.”

  We followed him inside and he handed me his phone, then went to the fridge for some water bottles. He also pulled out a dish and stuck it in the microwave.

  “Hi, I’m Ryan,” he said to Claire, handing over the water bottle.

  “Claire. It’s nice to meet you.” She looked down at herself, a filthy mess and turned bright red. I shook my head and went to the other room for privacy, dialing Sebastian’s number. The phone rang and rang, but no answer. I hit redial and waited again.

  “This better be fucking good, Ryan. I haven’t slept all week,” his voice rumbled through the phone.

  “Knee deep in pussy isn’t a good excuse,” I said.

  There was a pause. “Who is this?”

  “Derek, asshole. I ran into some trouble and had to stop at Ryan’s house. I’m gonna need a lift back to Reed Security. We have shit to figure out.”

  “Goddamnit. Why can’t this shit happen during the day? I was just about to go to sleep.”

  “It did happen during the day. I’ve been dragging my ass through the woods and fighting off trained killers.”

  “Seriously? Can’t any of you keep your hands to yourselves for one fucking night? I just wanted some fucking sleep.” He sighed into the phone, “I’ll give Hunter a call. He’ll take you back to Reed Security and I’ll meet you there. How many people do we need?”

  “Shit, I don’t know.”

  “What is this about?”

  “Nathan Kent.”

  “Fucking great,” he growled. “I’ll call in anyone that’s available.”

  I hung up with Cap and went back to the kitchen, smelling some of the best food I had in ages. Or maybe it was just the fact that we hadn’t eaten in hours and I was starving.

  “You two look like you just went toe to toe with a grizzly bear.”

  “Something like that,” I replied as he put a plate of food in front of me. I dug in without answering any further. Ryan raised an eyebrow in question, but didn’t say anything else. His kid walked into the room a few minutes later with wide eyes. He had to be almost fourteen now. It had been a good three years since his mom had died.

  “Whoa! Who’d you get in a fight with?” James asked as he sat down at the table, completely mesmerized by the blood splatter on my shirt.

  Ryan shot me a look to keep my mouth shut. “It’s not blood, kid. We were out paintballing. My team lost.”

  “I’ve been paintballing enough to know that’s not paint.”

  “Had a run-in with a grizzly bear.”

  “There are no grizzly bears around here. Try again.”

  Damn, the kid was sharp.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. This kid wouldn’t let it go, so I decided to go with the truth. “Claire and I were being chased by men that wanted a library book. When they didn’t get it, they tried to kill us. We had to jump off the top of the library and landed in the lake behind it. Then we swam across the lake and waited them out. I had to kill thirteen men with my bare hands before we hoofed it over here. Now I’m waiting on a ride back to Reed Security.”

  James stared at me in disbelief. “Fine. Don’t
tell me.” He stood and walked toward the other room. “Killing over a library book, pfft,” he muttered under his breath. I looked at Ryan and shrugged, going back to my food.

  “That wasn’t a lie, was it?”

  I shook my head and he scrubbed a hand across his jaw. “Thank fuck his imagination isn’t that crazy.”

  We finished eating and Pappy showed up a few minutes later, laughing his ass off when he saw us. “You two really know how to step in shit, don’t you?”

  I flipped him off and turned to Ryan. “Thank you for the food and phone. I appreciate the help.”

  “Any time, man. Just…clean up before you come over next time,” he said with a grin. I shook his hand and headed out the door with Claire and Pappy.

  “Cap said you ran into some trouble in the woods. Do we have bodies to clean up?”

  “Thirteen.”

  “Thirteen? Jesus Christ, Irish. You’re turning into Knight.”

  “Real funny, asshole. They would have kept coming after us. I had to stop them. Now we have to figure out who exactly is after Claire before they try again.”

  We drove to the other side of town and pulled into Reed Security. I was happy to see everyone waiting for us, ready to get to work.

  “Alright, I contacted Sean and he got me the names of the men that tried to rob the bank.” We walked over to the monitors on the walls in the conference room. “We’re running known associates now, but I don’t-”

  “Hold it,” I said, pointing at the screen. “This asshole was at the library. We need to look into him.”

  Becky typed in a few things on the computer and his picture, along with all the information she could get on him popped up on the screen. “Brian Mathers. He’s a very popular fence, dealing mostly in ancient artifacts. He’s been busted for some small time crimes, but never for fencing. He’s suspected by the FBI in a number of robberies around the United States as well as a few international jobs.”

  “Alright, Becky. Let’s set up something too good for him to resist. I want you to find something we can use to draw him out. We’ll set up a meet and find out who’s behind this job.”