by S. M. Butler
As they stepped out into the hallway, Jordan knocked something out of Alcott’s hand. Alcott lunged for him as Jordan slammed his big body right into his middle. The two of them went down as Jordan screamed at her to run.
~*~*~
The door opening flooded the room with light. The two of them blinked in the sudden light as Sam stood over them. “Get up. Let’s go.”
Jordan slid out from under her and stood.
Sam eyed her. “Both of you.”
Jordan’s features were unreadable. “She’s not involved in this.”
Sam smiled at Jordan. “She is, now.”
Jordan tensed, every muscle going hard. This was it, wasn’t it? The moment when they both would die. Wasn’t this how the movies went? They were taken into another dark room with a plastic-covered floor and then their brains would splatter everywhere as they each received a bullet to the head.
She took Jordan’s hand, instantly soothed by the warmth and confidence in his fingers as he pulled her to her feet. He kept her close as his gaze tracked Sam, as they walked out into the hall. And as they walked down the opposite way of the warehouse she’d found, she squeezed his hand, needing his strength. He kept a tight hold on her hand, as if he were afraid they’d be separated.
With every step she took, deeper into this place, the more fear that she wasn’t getting out of this crept into her every being. Though Jordan had promised to get her out, she was fairly sure that wasn’t going to happen.
~*~*~
Jordan slammed his fist into Alcott’s bandage. As Alcott went down, he took off running after Penny, who’d just turned to run. He caught her hand and took the lead. A gunshot rang out over their head, ping-ponging across the hall around them.
He hadn’t been in this part of the gallery before now. This was the section the inner vault upstairs had kept secret. Not even Scott could get that door open. Hell, they hadn’t even realized that it was there. Was this what Bridget had been looking for when she’d sent him on this mission?
He ducked into a room with Penny in tow and slammed the door shut. It was the work of a moment to use a long metal pipe to slide it across the door to keep it shut.
As he turned, he let out a long breath. The computer room. He’d managed to find it. He’d had a feeling it was back here rather than close to the gallery entrance. But they only had a few minutes for him to do this thing before Reilly’s stooges would break open that door. Would it be enough time for Scott to do his thing and get Bea into the building?
Penny’s hand slid back into his, surprising him. But her face was pale, her eyes wide, as she heaved long breaths. “What is this place?”
“I think this is where they house the network they use,” Jordan said. He regretfully let her hand go and walked to the main console. As the banging on the other side echoed through the room, Penny jumped and ran to his side. This was so the wrong time, but it warmed him from the inside. “I need to get the security system down. Then it’s just a few minutes, love.”
“I’m scared,” she whispered.
“I know,” he whispered back. “Give me a minute, love. Let me get you out of here.” He pulled the data stick from his shoe and looked at the connection. He wasn’t the best at computer stuff, but he just had to find the correct port, right?
On the screen above him, there was something looking like a DNA sequence on the screen. He frowned. Around them, screens lit up the entire room in a sharp blue glow, flickering, almost like fire around them. A setup like this rivaled anything Nathan had in his arsenal. He glanced down at the console. There were dozens of different connections and buttons and all of them made zero sense to him.
“What is it?” Penny asked.
“I need to find a connection like this,” he said, showing Penny the data stick.
She looked at him like he was an idiot. Then she pointed to a port on the side of the monitor they were standing before. “That one. What are you doing?”
“We aren’t going anywhere with the security system still up,” he said, pushing the data stick into the slot she’d indicated. “This will fix that.” He stepped back from the console and pulled her into his arms. She stiffened then relaxed into his embrace. “Three minutes for it to load.”
Another bang on the door echoed in the silent room. Something whirred on the other side. Penny shuddered. “They’ll be in here before that.” Her voice trembled as her gaze went to the door.
Jordan glanced around. No other exits. Maybe they should have kept running, but he had to stick to the plan. But had he failed her yet again? Had he condemned her?
The door exploded. Jordan threw himself over Penny, flattening her against the wall beneath his body. But the blast was confined to the hinges. The door fell to the floor and the room filled with Reilly’s men.
Guns pointed at him as he shielded Penny from their view. Then they parted to allow Sam the Fucker in the room. He narrowed his gaze. “That was stupid.”
“That remains to be seen,” Jordan mumbled as men wrenched him away from Penny.
Alcott pointed to the other side of the room. “Put her over there.”
Jordan gripped Penny’s hand and pulled her back to him. “She stays with me.”
He pulled out a gun and aimed it at her head. “I said, she goes over there. You’re really the only one I need right now, Levi. Would you like her to be collateral damage? One more thing that you’ll be responsible for.”
A low growl left Jordan’s throat before he could stop it, but Penny put her hand on his arm, her other squeezing his hand. “It’s okay. I’ll be okay. Do what you need to do.”
How could she say that? How could she let them pull her away from him? As she released his hand, he felt the loss as keenly as if he’d been stabbed in the gut.
“There’s a good girl,” the man said as he gripped her arm and yanked her from Jordan’s reach.
“Remember what I said,” Jordan ground out. “Not even a paper cut.”
The fucker only smiled. Then he turned to Penny and gestured to a stool across the room. Her face paled, her eyes wide. She swallowed and then went to where he directed. As she crossed the room, he got a view of her back and wondered how he’d missed it before. Her clothes were scuffed and dirty, torn across her back like she’d been dragged.
He narrowed his eyes. She’d lied to him. No scratches, his ass. Not only were her clothes speckled with blood she said wasn’t hers, but her arms had scrapes and bruises. Her bare feet had so many nicks and cuts all over them.
How had he missed it?
Shame filled him. Because he’d taken her at her word, and he hadn’t really looked at her.
What had happened? She’d said that she’d tried to escape on her own. Had that fucker hurt her? He glanced at Sam Alcott, noting the bandage on his head. He’d been hit with something and the resulting injury had been a real bleeder.
Slowly, he knit the pieces of evidence together in his head and pride supplanted the shame. She’d fought Alcott. Though it was clear she’d lost if she was still here, she hadn’t cowered in the corner. A healthy amount of terror also rooted itself into his chest, because he should have been here. She shouldn’t have ever had to fight for her life like that.
He glanced at the time on the computer screen. Five minutes. Scott had said three minutes to load the activation sequence to deactivate the security. Six minutes to infiltrate after that. He had to stall this for another four minutes.
Sam ordered over another guard to watch over her as he came back to where Jordan waited. He tapped a few buttons and then a familiar logo appeared on the screen.
Sierra.
They had access to Sierra’s network? No that was the surveillance network. They had eyes on them… their own eyes. They were using Sierra’s security network to do their own surveillance. Shit. This was bad. Really fucking bad. Those cameras were all over the town. They’d have seen everything.
Alcott glanced at him. “The serum was Reilly’s request. My request is different.”
He nodded toward the screen where Sierra’s logo rotated around the screen. “You’re going to give me access to Company networks.”
“Let me guess. Or you’ll kill everyone I know?” Jordan rolled his eyes. “I’ve seen this movie.”
“Oh, no, killing is too fast,” he said. “I’ll take them apart piece by piece. And I’ll start with her.” He motioned to Penny with the barrel of the gun. Jordan’s vision turned red.
“That’s the second time you’ve pointed a gun at her,” Jordan ground out.
“Do what I told you and there won’t be a third time.” He smiled as Penny’s face turned white and pale. “Miss Lawson remembers what happens when I go to work, don’t you, sweetheart? She got a front row seat.” As she inhaled sharply, Jordan’s anger rang sharply in his ears. If that was true, if she’d seen such a thing, no wonder she’d clung so tightly to him.
Unlocking Sierra would cause any number of problems. Not to mention, Nathan would cut his access if he thought he was compromised. If that happened and Alcott didn’t get what he wanted, Penny would pay the price for it.
His father wouldn’t have even hesitated. He’d stick to his guns and let Penny take the fall for him. He gritted his teeth. He wasn’t his father. He’d never be.
“You have a biometric scanner?”
Alcott nodded. He pressed a button and uncovered a small glass panel. He gestured to it.
Jordan swallowed as he stepped up to the console and put his hand on the panel, palm down. His eyes never left Alcott as the scanner activated, the buzz warm against his hand. Which was good… because he was cold. Frozen inside. Giving Alcott access to Sierra would probably end up in the deaths of his team. But the alternative was losing Penny. He had no good options left.
The popup window that came after he was granted access was new. Sam the Fucker slid the barrel of the gun against Jordan’s temple. “Play your tricks and I end you right here, in front of her. After that, I get to play with her body. Let me tell you, I am creative in how long I can keep a person alive while they’re sliced open and bleeding out.”
He glanced at the popup window. The statement was simple: Duck. Duck.
He frowned. It sounded like one of Scott’s stupid jokes. He let out a breath through his nose and then typed: Goose.
The screen lit up as access was granted into Sierra’s systems. Hundreds of images and files passed over the screens. Alcott the Fucker grinned. “Yes. Perfect.”
As the man watched the data scroll onto the screen, Jordan wondered if Sierra would detect the intrusion from the new computer or if she’d simply log it since he’d used the right credentials to access her. Or did Scott already have control over the system now? He glanced at the time. Two minutes left to go.
While Sam the Fucker was occupied, his attention on the screens as the programs loaded on the server, the machines around them grew louder, the whirl of fans cooling the electronics having to work harder with the amount of data incoming.
Jordan shifted his gaze around the room. All the equipment was running harder, louder, and hotter. Sierra was a big program. And if Muldoon was on the other side, he could manipulate pretty much anything.
Alcott whirled toward him and glared. “What did you do? The system is being overworked.”
Jordan smiled wider. “Not me, mate. Looks like your system is… incompatible.”
“It’ll be fixed,” Alcott said. “But I do thank you for your cooperation.” The dangerously low tone in his voice iced Jordan’s veins. “And as a special thank you, I’m going to give you both a quick death.” As the gun he held swung back toward Penny, Jordan’s heart slowed to a stop.
The only thing that registered before he moved was the wide, frightened eyes of his love as she realized the shift. Cognitive reasoning shut off. His body moved before he registered it.
He rushed Alcott, knocking the gun off its course as it fired. Jordan used the momentum to knock them both off their feet. As they struggled, the gun went off a second time before Jordan managed to wrench it out of his hand. The thing went clattering across the floor, out of reach of either of them.
28
As Jordan and Sam went down behind the large desk, the gun went off, the loud boom making Penny’s ears ring. The guard beside her dropped to the floor, his hand on his now bloody shoulder.
She ran for Jordan but stopped when the gun went off again. The bullet whizzed by her, ricocheting off the metal enclosures of the computers in the room. When she hesitated to get near again, fingers wrapped around her ankle and yanked her right off her feet.
She dropped face first to the hard floor, the wind whooshing out of her. Her entire body was pulled across the floor by that single hold on her ankle. She flipped over, much like she had when she’d fought Alcott and slammed her bare foot into his bleeding shoulder.
The guy howled, releasing her, just as a gun slid by her on the floor, settling underneath one of the desks. She crawled her way to it, reaching as far as she could to grab it. She managed to wrap her fingers around the handle when someone roughly grabbed her by her hair and yanked her up to her knees.
Alcott gripped her hair as he used his other hand to rip the gun from her hand. It was a millisecond before the cold metal barrel pressed against her temple. In front of her, Jordan knelt on one knee, holding one side of his rib cage. Blood leaked from his nose, a cut on his cheek. As he registered where she was, he stood, favoring his hurt leg. He wasn’t wearing his brace, but he limped as he shifted his weight.
“I told you not to point that thing at her,” Jordan said, his Irish accent thick as his fury.
Sam the Asshole chuckled behind her. The more he pulled on her hair, the more she winced, but she couldn’t move with him in control of her head like that. He pulled her up to her feet, the gun sliding along her cheek bone.
“She and I are going to have so much fun, Levi. Ah, don’t you move from that spot,” Sam growled as Jordan started to step forward. “You know, her skin is smooth as silk. So golden and pure. I can’t wait to cut into it.”
The gun slid along her hairline to her neck. He pushed up her chin with the barrel and laughed when Jordan growled. “Who knew Levi had caveman tendencies? Isn’t that right, sweet little Penny?” He pulled her head back until her throat was exposed, caressing the exposed skin with the barrel of the gun. She held her breath, because she didn’t know what else to do. Fear iced her veins, stopped her heart.
Images of that guard flashed through her eyes. All the blood, the smell of bile and sweat… she shuddered.
Jordan looked so helpless, and in that moment, she knew he couldn’t save her. She shifted her gaze to Sam. “Leave him alone. Please. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Both men stared at her, Jordan with devastation in his eyes and Sam with anticipation. Sam laughed. “You hear that, Levi? Such a good little woman, isn’t she?”
“Let her go.”
“Or what? You’ll kill me?” Sam barked a harsh laugh. “You don’t kill, Levi. You don’t think we did our homework on you? You don’t carry guns. You don’t kill. You’re nothing but a common thief who cons women out of their fortunes.” He pulled her back, closer to him, so he could murmur into her ear. “Did you know that, sweet Penny? He fucks women out of their money, and then he moves on to the next target. Don’t you, Levi?”
Jordan didn’t move, didn’t say a word.
“He fucked you because you were convenient, because you had something he wanted,” Sam growled into her ear. “How does that make you feel, sitting here with a gun to your head because of him? Knowing that he did what he’d intended to do? Knowing you were just a means to an end?” His voice dipped to a husky whisper so only she could hear. “Knowing he doesn’t want that kid inside you?”
Her tremble rushed all through her body.
His lips touched her ear, and she shivered. “To be fair, if I were in his position, I’d have fucked you too. I love a good dirty talker myself.”
Anger supplanted the fear inside
her as he licked her ear lobe. She relaxed her body, and then slammed her bare foot down on the top of his loafer, right into that point at the edge of the arch and before the toes. As he released her out of reflex, she slammed her elbow into his gut.
As she saw Jordan barreling toward them, she flattened herself on the floor and rolled to the side as their big bodies collided, fighting for the gun. Penny took cover behind the desk as the gun went off and ricocheted all over the room. Then the sounds of the fight stopped.
Heart pounding, Penny peeked over the desk and let out a sob of relief. Jordan was on his feet, though she barely recognized him. Fury had replaced the man she knew, the one that had held her hand to comfort her. He was bleeding, limping, but that hand on that gun was rock fucking steady.
He fired once and Sam screamed. Penny shot up to a standing position and glanced over where Jordan stood. Sam was holding a bloody hand to his chest, but the wound didn’t appear to be in his chest. No, his hand appeared to have a hole in it. Then she jumped as Jordan fired again. Sam screamed, his other hand going to a new wound on his leg.
“Just because I don’t use guns, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use them,” Jordan said.
He emptied the last round from the chamber and tossed the gun away, pocketing the bullet. Sam continued to groan and hold his hand. His leg poured out blood. Penny stared at it, remembering the guard he’d cut apart in front of her and shuddered hard.
Jordan’s gaze drifted to her and relief entered his expression. He started toward her, limping, bleeding. He stopped two feet away, not nearly close enough, like he was afraid to be near her. “Are you okay? Hurt?”
Her breath shuddered out of her. “I’m not even a little okay.”
“At least you’re honest about that.” When he reached for her hand—hesitantly—it seemed perfectly natural to take it and squeeze it tightly. He pulled her closer and searched her face. “Are you hurt anywhere?”
She shook her head. “Not even a papercut.” Actually, her whole body hurt. Her head was pounding, her backside tight and sore from where she’d been dragged across the warehouse floor. She needed a week in a hot shower to clean the dirt and the blood off her.