Hi Grandma, I don’t know if I’ll make it to dinner tonight. Some friends wanted to get together at The Steel Bar. Don’t worry. My friend, Tom the bartender, is looking after me and making sure no one steals my stuff.
Obviously, this was sent to the wrong person, so I quickly sent a message back that it was the wrong number. I sat back in my seat and tried not to think about all the trouble I was going to be in when Sebastian finally caught up with me and how angry he would be. Those thoughts led to images of him pushing me up against the wall in a fit of rage and then ravishing my body. I shook off those thoughts and closed my eyes for the rest of the ride, trying my best to blank my mind.
CHAPTER FIVE
Sebastian
THAT WOMAN WAS infuriating. She wanted to traipse back into the city just hours after someone tried to kill her. She had no regard for her own life or the fact that she was putting others in danger. It wasn’t just me that she almost got killed. Any number of people on the road today could have been severely injured if we had caused a car accident.
I found myself pacing around the office, trying desperately to get myself under control. I couldn’t figure out if I wanted to slap the shit out of her or kiss her until she saw things my way. Not that I condone violence against women, but I could really wring her neck right now.
“Boss, alarms are going off downstairs!” Irish was still here finishing up with the day’s paperwork since he’d taken over office duty for the day.
I ran over to the door and followed him down the hall to the war room where Becky already had the video footage pulled up on the screens.
“What do we have?”
She was typing furiously on the computer and shifting different footage around. What I saw made my blood boil.
“Looks like your girl pulled a Houdini.”
“Goddamn it!” I punched the wall, putting a decent hole in the drywall before turning back to Becky. “Pull up all the footage. I need to know how she got out of here.”
“Already on it, Cap.” She pulled up a few more feeds before pressing play. We watched as Sinner took her downstairs in the elevator and then walked over to the SUV where she smashed the door into his head. I ignored the fact that they had some kind of moment in the elevator and the fact that Sinner had allowed her to pull a fast one on him.
“Becky, get the taxi information and see if the company will give us the tracking information.”
“Cap, she got away,” Sinner said, staggering into the room holding his head. “She said that she forgot her bag in the SUV. I took her down there because I didn’t believe her, but-“
“Yeah, we saw the rest.”
My voice was sharp and cutting. I didn’t allow for my guys to get away with this kind of shit. We were the best because we were always aware of potential threats and paid attention to our surroundings. Even a client couldn’t be trusted to be honest and follow the rules. She had already proven to us that she wouldn’t listen when told, so Sinner should have damn well known that she would try to pull some shit on us.
“Cap, I swear, I was trying to find out what she was up to. I didn’t think she would attack me. I just thought she was hiding something from us.”
“She is. She wanted to meet with a source tonight and I told her no because we don’t know enough about what the hell is going on. That’s where she’s headed, only we don’t know where that is at the moment. You’d better pray that we get to her before she gets herself killed or you won’t have a job anymore.”
Sinner didn’t argue or even try to defend himself further. He knew he had fucked up, so he just nodded his head. Since the mess with Cal, I had to have a tighter reign on my employees. I wouldn’t tolerate people going rogue and doing their own shit. We had protocols for a reason. Of course, that was a little hypocritical considering Cal was still here with us.
“Is Pappy still here?”
“Yeah,” Sinner replied. He pulled his hand away from his head and looked at his hand that was now covered in blood.
“Go get checked out and then come check in with me.”
He nodded and then staggered out the door and down the hall. “Becky, I want you to call in Rob. The two of you need to go over all Maggie’s stuff. Go through her computer and get anything related to this case and find out what else she’s hiding from us. Also, look over the offshore accounts. I’m sure she got stuck when she couldn’t access the bank records. See if you can follow the money.”
“She’s gonna be pissed.”
“Yes, she will be, but we operate as a team here and if we don’t know what she’s after, she’s gonna get one of us killed. I won’t allow that to happen, so we’ll work around her.”
Becky nodded and then picked up the phone, calling Rob in. When she was hanging up, a ping came over the computer and Becky opened the document. It was the tracking data sent over by the taxi company. She had been gone for about ten minutes now and had quite a head start on us.
“Alright, I’m going after her. Send me updates as I get closer.”
“I’ll send you a link to the data so you can see her movements from your phone.”
“Thanks, Becky.”
On my way down to the SUV, I realized that I had told Sinner to stay behind. I placed a call to Pappy to check in on him.
“Yo, Cap.”
“What’s the status on Sinner?”
“Concussion. Pretty nasty one, too.”
“Alright, get him taken care of. I’m going after our escapee.”
“Sinner’s gonna have to stay here tonight. I need to keep an eye on him.”
I remembered how just a year ago Pappy had been in a much worse situation. When Alex’s attacker went after her, our teams had been there to protect her, but Cal had betrayed us, causing several team members to be injured in the process. Pappy was one of them. He had been outside keeping watch when he was attacked from behind and hit with a large rock. He had just recently come back to work after much time off from being in a coma. There had been a lot of swelling and the doctors weren’t sure if he would recover. Luckily, he had recovered and took some time off to rest and get his head on straight. When I insisted that he take more time, he told me that if he had to sit on his ass for one more day, he was going to find a job somewhere else. I didn’t believe him, but he had since proven that he was ready to be back.
“Take care of him and check in with me in four hours.”
“Will do, Cap.”
We hung up and I took off from Reed Security to find the woman who had recently become the biggest pain in the ass I had ever known.
✯✯✯✯✯
“Fuck. This has to be a joke.”
I pulled up to Panther Hollow Bridge on Panther Hollow Road and killed the engine. I had been driving without my lights on for the last mile so I didn’t draw attention to myself out here. I was in the middle of Schenley Park, a four hundred fifty acre park, in Pittsburgh. There was absolutely no one around to hear Maggie if she got into trouble. What the hell was she thinking coming here?
Ahead of me was the bridge that Maggie was meeting her source at. Becky had called Maggie many times, finally getting her final location so that I could meet her. Becky had convinced Maggie that if someone was following her source, then chances were she would also be expendable. Furthermore, she reassured her that her source would be safest if I was there to get them to safety.
Climbing out of the SUV, I quietly closed the door and headed for the lake side of the bridge. The embankment was quite steep and it took me a few minutes to get to the bottom safely. I swore again, thinking about Maggie doing this without regard for her own safety. When I reached the bottom, I pulled out my gun and scanned the area for anyone that might be lurking, but didn’t see anyone. I walked steadily towards the sandy beach under the bridge looking for Maggie.
I rolled my eyes when I spotted her. Her hair was a dead giveaway even in the dark. The light from the moon was enough to highlight her red locks, making her stand out when she thought
she was hidden. She hadn’t spotted me yet, so I thought I would set a little example for her. I crept as close to the trees as possible, keeping watch for any branches that may give away my location. When I got behind her, I placed my hand over her mouth and pulled her back against my body. She stiffened immediately, but then relaxed into me as if she knew it was me.
“You ever pull that shit again, I’ll kill you myself.”
She spun out of my grip and glared at me. “You already told me I couldn’t come, so what was the point in listening to you? I needed to meet my source.”
“And when are you supposed to meet her?”
She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “She was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago, but I was a few minutes late. Still, I don’t think she would have left just because I was a few minutes late. I told her I was an hour away, and it took me longer to escape your goons than I thought it would.”
I took a menacing step towards her, towering over her smaller frame. “One of those goons has a pretty good concussion because he was trying to look out for you. You’re lucky I don’t just hand you over to the Mayor myself.”
“Why don’t you? You obviously don’t like me, so what’s holding you back?”
“Freckles, I’m getting paid to do a job. I intend to finish that job. I don’t get paid if you end up dead.”
“Well, it’s good to know that you genuinely care about keeping your clients safe,” she said sarcastically.
“My job isn’t to hold your hand and make sure you feel cared for. My job is to make sure that at the end of your story, you’re still in one piece.”
“And I never asked for that. In fact, I don’t recall asking for your help at all, so why don’t you just leave me alone so I can do my job,” she sneered at me.
This woman was such a pain in the ass. I rolled my eyes as I looked towards heaven and prayed that this assignment would be over quickly. I didn’t know how much more of her attitude I could take. On the one hand, her inability to follow instructions infuriated me, but on the other hand, her spitfire personality got me hard and left me unfulfilled. I had barely known her eighteen hours and already I wanted to bend her over my desk and fuck her.
“Can we just meet your source and get out of here? We can debate what my responsibilities are later.”
We both shut our mouths and waited for about five more minutes in complete silence. I was just about to tell her that we should head out when I heard movement coming from down the shoreline. I pushed Maggie back slightly with my arm and raised my gun in the direction of the snapping twigs. At first I didn’t see anything, but then a figure that was most definitely not a woman emerged from the trees carrying a rifle. I couldn’t make out what kind in the dark, but a rifle was still a weapon that could kill, no matter what kind it was.
“Shit. That is not a woman.”
“It could be her. How can you even see in the dark?”
“Unless your source carries a rifle around with her, she was most likely followed here to get to you. Since we haven’t seen her yet, I’m assuming that she’s already dead.”
“We can’t just leave and assume she’s dead. We need to be sure before we leave.”
Maggie was leaning in by my ear so that I could hear without anyone else hearing. Her hot breath on my neck was sending all my blood rushing south, leaving me very uncomfortable considering what I was supposed to be doing. Shaking my head, I brought myself back to the mission and the current unfortunate events that were currently taking place.
“We don’t have time to sit around and wait. We need to get out now while we can. If we wait any longer, that guy will be too close and we won’t have a chance at getting away. Follow me and step where I step.”
I started making my way up the embankment with Maggie close on my heels. We were about half way up when Maggie stumbled and made so much noise, there was no way it went unnoticed.
“Jesus, Freckles. I said be quiet.”
“No, you didn’t, asshole. You said to step where you step and I did, but your gigantic feet took too big of steps and I couldn’t follow in your steps anymore without breaking my neck!”
I pulled her to her stomach when bullets started flying around us. Swearing under my breath, I returned fire a few times before getting up and pulling Maggie with me. We ran up the rest of the embankment, no longer caring if we made noise or not. By the time we reached the top, Maggie was out of breath and panting hard, but she didn’t show any signs of stopping. We ran in the direction of my SUV, but bright lights headed our way, cutting off our escape.
“Come on. This way.”
I pulled her along behind me as we headed across the bridge. There was no way we could outrun the SUV barreling down on us, but between the SUV and the man that chased us up the embankment, we didn’t really have a choice. God, I hated when clients didn’t listen.
Panting hard and running harder, we made it about halfway across the bridge when another set of headlights appeared in the direction we were running. Glancing behind me, I saw that the other SUV was almost on top of us and there was a guy leaning out the window, pulling a weapon out to shoot.
“Fuck!”
I pulled Maggie to the side of the bridge and helped her over the side. “Jump with your ankles crossed!” I swung back around and shot at the SUV just as it was screeching to a stop. I heard Maggie drop into the water with a loud splash and a scream. Not allowing anymore time for them to catch me, I swung my legs over and immediately dropped to the water below, just barely crossing my legs in time.
When I came up, I saw that Maggie hadn’t surfaced yet. I dove under water to find her a few feet away, struggling to swim to the surface. I swam over to her and pulled her to the surface.
“Deep breath.” Then I pulled her back under and swam for the other side of the bridge. I didn’t want to head back in the direction of my SUV because that’s where they would expect us to go. I had to stop several times and pull us back to the surface so she could breathe. I was a very good swimmer, but it was obvious that she wasn’t and possibly didn’t know how to swim at all. Yet, she still jumped.
When we reached the shore, I pulled her up next to me and held on to her. We stayed somewhat in the water so we were hidden from view. She was shivering from the cold water and I knew that we couldn’t stay in the river too much longer if we hoped to survive. She snuggled into me as if she could gather some warmth from my freezing body.
“If I didn’t know better, I would say you were trying to get in my pants right now,” I whispered.
“As t-tempting as that s-s-sounds, I don’t think even you c-could get it up in this fr-freezing water.”
I chuckled at her humor. “I didn’t think you were interested.”
“Oh c-come on. Any w-woman would be interested..you k-know that.”
“You sure seemed interested in the meatheads on my team,” I said as I rubbed my hands over her shivering body.
“Jealous?” She looked up at me and then her eyes dropped to my lips. Her tongue darted out of her cute, little mouth and ran over her top lip. I wanted to lean down and kiss her, but I held back, not wanting to get involved with a client.
“Yes. I don’t want any of them touching you. It pisses me off that you flirted with them.”
“I don’t re-recall any of them caging me in against the t-table.”
“What can I say? You’re a pain in the ass, but my cock doesn’t know the difference. In fact, I think it excites me even more.”
She giggled before burrowing in closer to me. “Then I’ll be s-sure to cause lots of trouble f-from now on.”
I kept rubbing her arms as best I could to keep her warm, all the while listening for any sign of movement from above. They must have assumed we drowned because after a while, the SUV’s started up and drove off.
I half dragged Maggie out of the water and then back up the embankment. She was losing energy fast and I had to get us out of there. When we reached the top, I set Maggie down on t
he ground and squatted in front of her.
“I’m going to get the SUV. You stay here and I’ll be back in a flash.”
“Uh-uh. No way. You’ll leave me here to fr-freeze.”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
“R-Right. Like I’m gonna believe y-you.”
Sighing, I helped her up and wrapped my arm around her back to help her across the bridge. Realistically, I could have gotten to the truck and back to her by the time we were halfway across the bridge, but then it occurred to me that maybe she was scared to be left alone at the other end of the bridge. We made it back to the SUV and climbed inside, cranking up the heat.
“We need to get to a safe house. There’s no way I’m driving back to Reed Security in wet clothes.”
Maggie didn’t bother to answer. She sighed and leaned her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes. I headed to the nearest safe house, which was located just outside of Pittsburgh. This had been the original safe house where Alex and Cole had stayed and was way too big for what Maggie and I needed, but it was close by and would keep us safe until we could figure things out.
I pulled into the driveway ten minutes later and entered all the necessary codes and scans. When I stopped the SUV, Maggie leaned forward to get a better look at our dwellings.
“Are we staying in a mansion?”
“This is a safe house. We’ll have access to the team back at Reed Security and we’re close to Pittsburgh. It should help give us a chance to figure things out.”
She started to open the door, but I stopped her. “For once, will you just wait for me to secure things?”
“I thought this was your safe house. Why would you need to secure it?”
“You can never be too sure.”
“With the level of security I saw back at your office, I’m sure your safe houses are secure also.”
I wasn’t about to get into how a member of my own team had betrayed me. It wouldn’t instill trust in me and it would probably give her all the more reason to resist my instructions. As much as I wanted to just call the team and have them check all the sensors on the safe house and the video feed, I found myself second guessing that decision. At some point, I was going to have to put complete faith in my team again. In the year since Cal had betrayed us, I found myself micromanaging the team more often than not and I could see on their faces how much that distrust affected them.
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