by J M LOWE
Sarah felt her stomach drop, knees starting to buckle, her muscles losing strength.
They had seen her, it must have been them.
She hadn’t known anyone else to be booked on her floor, not until the other competitors arrived anyway. And why else would they have guns?
One of those had to be the man he heard through the wall, the one she knew as ‘The American’. Her blood ran cold.
This whole situation felt like it was snow balling, getting further and further out of control, and from the look of the four men who had just seen her, it confirmed that she hadn’t been over reacting after all. So she wasn’t paranoid, relief and fear swept over her at the same time, glad to know she wasn’t crazy, scared to know she had heard something that put her in danger, especially now she had been seen.
“When we reach the bottom, you’re with me ok, Harry will be on our six, don’t make eye contact with anyone as we leave, just stick with me and follow my lead. And if I tell you to ditch the case, you ditch it understand?” Connors instructions, delivered calm and clear, she wished she could say the same for her head right now, thoughts swirling at the rate of a thousand miles per hour as she tried to think.
“Keep walking, no eye contact, got it…” deep breath, she could do this, piece of cake.
Connor was impressed.
So far, Sarah had done everything he had asked of her, no hesitation and that made things a lot easier.
The last thing he needed was some woman going on an equality trip because she’d been given orders by a man.
If she had a problem, they could thrash it out in the Ops room back at the ‘Warehouse’ once they had her home. He would be more than happy to sit back and watch as she burned her bra in protest, hell, he might even stretch to making s'mores over the fire.
She was playing along perfectly, and if they could get her out of this shitty fucking hotel and to the waiting plane without any more complications, they could be wheels up and headed home in time for dinner.
This he could work with.
Connor and Harry both pulled their weapons from where they had been concealed behind their backs and checked the clip.
Their synchronization was impressive.
He saw her eyes widen as she stared.
What did she expect?
Now wasn’t the time for her to panic.
“We good Sarah?” he looked down at her, his heart rate increasing, and it wasn’t from the potential fuck storm that they were about to walk into, no, this was something else entirely, it came in the form of the blonde beauty that was inadvertently rubbing against him in the confined space. Shit…
Waiting for the doors to open felt like an eternity, he knew the four men would have started to make their way back down the stairwell, and he knew there was a good chance they could be waiting for them in the hotel lobby, that or they wouldn’t be far behind them.
The doors opened, Connor and Sarah stepped out first, they didn’t look any different to any other couple that were staying at the hotel, except she was stunning and more of a distraction to him than he wanted to admit, and he looked like a Roman god, all muscles and man, so maybe not quite like any other couple.
He could see she was close to panicking as they approached the hotel doors, and needed to get her out of there.
Connor was aware of the position of every person in the lobby, had made a mental note, they were the same people that had been there when he had arrived, two receptionists, both in their mid to late forties, a cleaner who didn’t look a day under seventy and a bar man who didn’t look old enough to even order a drink, let alone sell them.
Three guests? Two females, late thirties, both dressed in pants, fur lined boots and matching parkers, sat reading newspapers, if he was honest, they looked more like they were possibly touting for business than checking in, maybe he was wrong, but he usually wasn’t.
The only addition was the one male stood waiting at the Check In desk, early to mid-forties, dark grey suit pants, black leather shoes, well made, and a shin length black Crombie.
The door to the stairs pushed open and the four men from Sarah’s floor came through.
If they were meant to be some sort of tactical team, then he would have nothing to worry about.
Rookie training 101, never storm a room in a fucking cluster.
If that was their attempt at discretion, they had failed. Fucking amateurs. They were more like a damn goon squad than a trained security team.
While he and Harry could probably take them out without breaking a sweat, if those guys were as sloppy as they appeared, chances were, they wouldn’t care about making a scene in public and the last thing he needed was to draw any unnecessary attention to Sarah.
Jenson had pressed home the need for discretion, and he wasn’t in the mood to deal with the ass kicking they would get if this was plastered all over the breaking news ribbon on CNN.
“Miss Williams…Miss Williams…”
Connor could only assume the screechy female voice belonged to one of the receptionists.
He wasn’t prepared to wait and find out.
Talk about lousy fucking timing.
“Keep moving Sarah…don’t turn” he glanced down and he could see her breathing had changed, this was one time he was justified as he clocked the rapid rise and fall of her breast.
Dead giveaway that she really was on the verge of panic, he needed her to keep it together a little while longer, that was all.
Once they were on that plane, she could lose her shit as much as she liked, but until then…
He grabbed her free hand, started to pull her along.
She was still dragging the large case behind her.
It didn’t contain anything important, he should know, nothing that couldn’t easily be replaced, and he knew that they would probably be ditching it before long.
They wouldn’t need it as a prop in their now rapidly untangling cover story. She could just add it to the growing list of things she would probably be freaking out over.
The second he touched her soft skin, Connor felt a jolt, he hadn’t been expecting it and it took him of guard. What the fuck…? ‘put it down to adrenaline’ he was trying to tell himself, but he was under no illusions.
It had been there.
“Sarah, when we get outside, I need you to lose the case ok. It’s gonna slow us down” he hasn’t even looked at her as he spoke, but he knew she wouldn’t like it.
This would be a test to see how cooperative she was going to be, and he needed her to be on the same page.
“Not a problem…”
Well shit, if she wasn’t just full of surprises.
The deafening scream from one of the two women sat on the couches, filled the hotel lobby. Connor instinctively looked round, just in time to see one of the goon squad with his weapon, a small handgun not unlike his own, pointed in their direction.
A single shot had missed Sarah by mere inches, shattering the large glass window at the front of the hotel.
Mother fuckers, whoever they were, they clearly didn’t give a fuck who saw them and they didn’t care about taking her down in broad daylight, what the actual fuck!
Connor ducked, his body covering hers, Sarah following his lead as he pulled her out through the hotel door.
As soon as they reached the outside, Sarah was hit by a cold blast of air, the sudden change in temperature from the warmth of the hotel caused her to gasp for breath, shit, she hadn’t expected that.
The thin jacket she wore providing little protection against the biting cold.
She leaned the cumbersome case against the wall never looking back as they broke into a run, never skipping a beat.
Well, he has said ‘ditch it’.
She was trying not to think about how it had made her feel when Connor had taken her hand, the callused skin of his, large and rough against her soft delicate one.
He hadn’t said anything about doing that, if he had, she would have been prepared for
the electricity that had penetrated through to her core.
She shivered, not sure it was entirely to do with the cold. She was trying not to think about how someone had just taken a shot at her, the realization that someone wanted her dead hitting her hard.
Connor had pulled her into a forceful run, the low temperature making it hard as her muscles felt tight against the cold, but she didn’t look back, not even when she heard the over lapping sounds of men grunting behind her.
Harry… oh god, had they got Harry? Why wasn’t Connor helping his friend? Why where they still running when Harry needed help? But they didn’t slow down, didn’t stop, didn’t look back.
“We good?” Connor asked, but he wasn’t addressing her, his words were for his team mate who had somehow managed to catch them up.
“Yeah…” man of few words Harry. That much she had worked out.
Harry grabbed her other hand as they ran, but this time she felt nothing, no jolt of electricity from him, just the feeling of rough skin against her own as she allowed them to pull her along.
That was interesting.
Sarah didn’t think she had ever run so fast in her life. Distance she could do, but that was always a steady pace, not a full flat out sprint.
She was struggling for breath, but wasn’t about to play the weaker sex card.
She just let them half drag her along the pavement as they ran. It was the only way she was gonna be able to keep up with them anyway, and she was secretly grateful that they helped her, not that she was about to admit that.
The two men seemed to work as one unit, almost as though they both knew what the other was thinking, or did they work together so well that they didn’t need to question the others decision?
Whatever it was, it was working to save her life right now, so she really didn’t care.
“Ally way, left…” Sarah followed their lead, or rather, they bungled her in the direction they needed her to go.
The narrow passage between two buildings hidden almost from view.
Sarah gasped as Connor pushed her back flat against the wall, his massive frame shielding her view of the street, had they lost them?
She was under no illusions, Connor was sending sparks through her, to places they had no right to be, and right now, she was having a hard time keeping her head around the man.
“You still with me sweetheart?” god, that voice.
“Fucking peachy…” Sarah bent, her hands resting on her knees as she tried to catch her breath.
The two men with her hadn’t even broken a sweat, and here she was feeling like she’d had a ten-ton weight dropped onto her chest.
How the fuck was that fair?
“Hey baby girl…” Sarah stayed silent as Harry made a call. ‘Baby girl’? was this really the time for calling his fucking girl friend? “We are gonna need a route to the air strip, and green lights would be good. Do your computer skills stretch to that yet?”
Sarah hadn’t heard the response, but whatever ‘Baby girl’ had said, it sure had made the big man blush.
Connor instantly regretted the moment he laid his hands on her, even if it was too literally throw her against the wall down a side ally.
He had been fighting an unexplainable urge to touch her from the moment she had opened her door, still dressed in her god damn PJs. Fighting an urge, looking for an excuse, he wasn’t actually sure which was a more accurate description right now.
He had grabbed her hand, probably hadn’t needed to, she was an athlete after all, she could more than likely out pace any of the guys on his team when it came to running distance.
Had he really needed to press his body against hers as he leaned her against the brick wall? Again, probably not, but he had, and right at this moment he couldn’t give a plausible explanation as to why.
He needed to keep his head, but it was proving a hell of a lot more difficult than it should have been, something he wasn’t used to and he didn’t like it.
He didn’t like it one fucking bit!
“We’re good.” Harry put his phone back in his pocket and headed back up to the top of the ally way.
Harry was making his way back down the ally.
Connor didn’t like it, this wasn’t going as smoothly as they had anticipated. Rookie mistakes on his part.
He saw Harry reach back for his weapon, holding it out of sight against his thigh, not a good sign.
If shit was about to go down, this wasn’t exactly the best place for it, one ricocheting slug and they could find themselves in serious pile of fuck that even Jenson couldn’t sweet talk his way out of.
Discretion was quickly going right out the window, and there wasn’t a whole lot he could do about it.
“Stay down” his words cold, never taking his eyes from the top of the ally way. This was rapidly turning into a shit storm and one he needed to protect her from.
Connor moved forward, his own gun now held firmly in his hand, his trigger finger more than good and ready to put anyone who threatened her straight on their ass.
Four now familiar figures dressed in black rounded the top of the ally.
They made their way down, just out of the view or earshot of anyone that might be passing on the street.
The goons had some training, that was obvious, but how long since they had refreshed and how sharp they were now had Connor thinking this was a team that hadn’t worked together for some time, if at all.
So far, all their moves had been sloppy, no organization, almost as though they hadn’t even discussed what their op was, just jump in feet first, winging it, they certainly weren’t the polished unit he had the privilege of working with.
His team were ghosts, shadows, usually in and out without leaving a trace that they had even been there, except for leaving behind the odd dead bad guy, but he hadn’t and wouldn’t be losing sleep over that.
Harry took the first, they were a pretty even match in size, but that was where the similarities ended.
Connor was set upon by the second of the three, the moves were slow, almost cumbersome.
Connor relished the surge of adrenaline as his fist connected with the Goons jaw, the blow sweet as his knuckles hit hard bone.
Audible grunts came as each man’s fists made contact with the other, before Connor gained the upper hand and slammed the weaker man back against the wall, the impact of his head slamming hard against the cold brick causing him to stumble and fall to his knees.
Harry had managed to take down a second goon, both his victories laid in a heap behind a large dumpster, hidden from view.
It didn’t take long before three men were incapacitated, all be it temporarily. Connor would have been more than happy to empty three shells, but it wouldn’t serve them well to be leaving bodies lying around in broad daylight. He crouched, checking for ID’s, but came up empty handed. No matter, he wasn’t here to extract information, he was here to secure and extract his package and that’s exactly what he intended to do.
Connor turned as he heard a grunt and a muffled scream…Sarah.
Goon four had his had wrapped firmly across her mouth and Connor saw red, his blood rising to boiling point in an instant.
Goon four had just made the biggest single mistake of his god damn life.
Sarah was fighting back, well shit, she was kicking and lashing out, her elbow slamming into the Goons ribs as he tried to keep her under control, not gonna happen.
She was like a wild animal caught in a trap, fighting for her freedom. ‘Well, I’ll be’ Connor thought as he watched her damn near breaking free before he decided it was time to step in and end this once and for all.
He gained eye contact, and for an instant, she was calm, almost as though she knew exactly what he needed her to do. She gave a nod, it was faint, but it was there and then as if right on que, she stilled and turned her head to one side.
“Two choices man, let her go and walk away now, or you never walk again.” His voice unwavering as he delivered the options
.
“Back the fuck off or I snap her neck, swear to god” goon four actually thought he had a chance of walking away, Connor almost laugh aloud…almost.
“Not gonna happen my friend. Now, before I lose my patience, I suggest you make your choice, let her go or…”
The move was swift, taking goon four completely off guard.
Connor knocked the fucker clean out, one punch, never saw it coming. The skin on skin contact felt more than a little satisfactory, but it did nothing to calm the fire than was coursing through his veins.
He stood, his chest heaving as he looked at her.
An overwhelming urge to reach for her, to pull her close and tell her she was safe.
“Hey, you ok?” not much in the way of comfort, but what choice did he have? He couldn’t exactly wrap her in his arms, not that he should be thinking like that anyway.
She could clearly take care of herself, or at least give it her all anyway, he had just witnessed that. Sarah hadn’t even hesitated before trying to take down the man who looked to be at least a foot taller than her and a good hundred pounds heavier, a real David and Goliath contest which for all its good intentions, this David wouldn’t win, not without his help.
“Company” Harry’s voice was low “Looks like we have one or two more heading this way.
Harry signaled for him to stay put.
If it wasn’t safe to move her, then he wasn’t about to put her at risk, just because he was growing impatient.
If she had been right, she had become a valuable witness, a valuable target. And the pathetic excuse for a security team back at the hotel had all but confirmed just that.
“Doc, get her out of here, I’m gonna hold them off. Meet me at the air strip. Move …”
Connor didn’t like it, you didn’t leave a man behind, that was their moto, it always had been, he didn’t give a fuck if they weren’t military anymore, it still stood, always would!