The Big Guns Read online

  While Sela lobbied her position, Zach did what he could to stop the bleeding on Johnnie’s shoulder and chest. He added a gag, just in case Johnnie woke up yelling. As a final protection, Zach dragged the injured man across the floor and locked him in the tiny bathroom. No need to see him if he wasn’t conscious to answer questions.

  “He could die in there,” she pointed out when Zach returned to stand in front of her at the couch.

  “I’m rarely that lucky.”

  “Zach.”

  Hearing her say his name, with her big brown eyes all soft and hopeful, made him feel something. He couldn’t put a name to the feeling but an unsettling sense of lightness poured over him. Rather than deal with that unknown, he focused on his other problem. Getting them out of there alive.

  She had other ideas. “You’re still not listening to me.”

  “I’m trying very hard not to, but you sure are not making it easy.”

  Her chin raised and a deep red stained her cheeks. He’d seen that look many times since he’d started watching her. There was something else, too. Her eyes, glazed with distress and fear, told a different story.

  He felt like a piece of crap for not seeing it sooner. She had to be in pain. A bruise marked her soft skin. A torn blouse. Swollen knee. Seeing her hurt made him sick.

  He didn’t dwell on the sympathy but there it was, pulsing in the dark spot in the back of his mind. “Let me see your leg and check that cut.”

  She braced her hands against the sofa cushions. “I’m fine.”

  And ticked off. The beautiful woman with the model face and stripper body definitely was not happy.

  Leaning down on one knee, he met her face-to-face. “Don’t be a hero, Sela. You’re injured.”

  “So are you. Johnnie landed a punch or two.”

  Zach pretended to be offended. “Is that a comment on my manhood?”

  “Take it however you want.”

  “Men are sensitive about stuff like that, you know.”

  “Johnnie needs medical attention.”

  She knew how to kill a decent try at chitchat. “Like I care.”

  “You’ll care if he’s dead and you’re on trial for his murder.”

  “You’re the one who wanted to know why I didn’t shoot him earlier.”

  “That was adrenaline talking.”

  “Well, Johnnie is lucky I didn’t kill him.” Zach sent a disgusted look in the direction of the locked bathroom. “I might yet.”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  He scoffed. “Why would you think that?”

  “You’re not a killer.”

  The matter-of-fact way she said it stunned him. “Sounds as if you’ve had a change of heart about me.”

  When he leaned forward, she pulled back, forcing her bruised body deeper into the couch cushions and away from him. “Not that much.”

  “I’m trying to help.”

  “If you want to help, drive me home. Call Trevor. Do whatever you need to do so I can talk to the police.” Her voice dropped. “Or just leave me alone.”

  Hearing her talk about Trevor—her boss and suspected lover—made Zach’s jaw clench tight. “Not going to happen.”

  “Which part?”

  “Any part.” Especially the part where he left her alone.

  He slipped his hands under the hem of her skirt. Ignoring her slapping hands and yelp of surprise, he skimmed what was left of her tattered stockings down her legs and ripped them from around her injured knee.

  “What are you doing?” she asked in a voice more breathy than firm.

  Yeah, what was he doing? More bad timing. This time his.

  Concentrating on her bruise instead of the silky feel of her skin proved impossible. It hit him out of nowhere and without warning. He wanted her.

  He knew she was messed up with Trevor, a man Zach despised. She was likely sleeping with the guy, caught up in whatever garbage Trevor had going. But no matter how hard Zach tried to make that matter, it didn’t. After all those days of watching her, studying her, Sela’s image played in his mind, and he could not figure out a way to shake her loose.

  He swore under his breath, berating his lack of control. She’d been hurt and mistreated. She’d probably just experienced the worst three hours of her life. All he could think about was bunching that businesslike skirt around her waist.

  He had become an animal.

  “Well?” she asked.

  He swallowed down a lump of unwanted attraction. “It’s not broken, just badly bruised and a bit cut up.”

  “Tell me why,” she said.

  “I’m not a medical expert, but a bruise has something to do with blood pooling under the skin.”

  “Not that.” Her face didn’t show any emotion. “Why did you save me from Johnnie only to drag me back here and continue to keep me against my will?”

  Because reinforcements were on the way. Zach knew if he had any hope of finding out the person behind Sela’s kidnapping, he needed to stay put. Knowing Adam was heading there right now made holding the position a bit easier, but Zach still hated being out in the open in a situation he couldn’t control.

  “It’s not over,” Zach said.

  “Did anyone ever tell you that you tend to talk in half sentences?”

  “Once or twice.” With as gentle a touch as possible, he probed the area around her knee. Sela winced and squirmed but stayed quiet. He knew she feared letting him see her weakness. He admired that.

  “Call the police.”

  “Your knee will feel better in a minute.” He unbuttoned his shirt and yanked it off his shoulders. His sore ribs protested, but it was more important to keep Sela’s knee immobilized and stable than to worry about his battered insides.

  He stripped down to his white undershirt and folded his dark shirt into a long, slim bandage. “I know it’s not clean but it should work okay.”

  Sela’s body turned to marble. The sudden change caught his attention. His gaze shot up to meet hers. Her seething anger evaporated and in its place came surprise.

  “What’s wrong with you?” he asked.

  She blinked several times. “Nothing.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Tell me.”

  When she continued to stare over his shoulder with her mouth clamped shut, he gave up and wrapped her knee. “Better?”

  “You keep ignoring my questions. What are we going to do now?” she asked, this time her voice a bit less shaky.

  “We’re not going to do anything.”

  She leaned against the cushions. “We’re just going to sit here?” If her bulging eyes were any indication, she didn’t like the idea.

  “For a second.” He glanced at his watch.

  “Care to tell me why?”

  “I need to keep Johnnie covered so he doesn’t call in more guys to pick up where he failed. I also want him dragged in and questioned.”

  “What does that have to do with us sitting here?”

  “I can’t do it alone. We’re waiting for reinforcements.”

  “You mean more Recovery agents.” Her mouth twisted as if she’d just smelled spoiled milk.

  “You don’t sound too happy about that.”

  “No.”

  “What did we ever do to you?”

  “Adam Wright threatened to kill me.”

  The news surprised Zach…and it didn’t. When Adam had thought Trevor kidnapped Maddie, Adam’s woman, he’d stormed into Orion with guns loaded. Sela had tried to get in the way, which was one of the things Zach both admired and upset him about her. Loyalty was an impressive commodity. Too bad sleeping with Trevor blew every positive attribute apart.

  Zach cleared his throat as he blinked the disturbing idea from his mind. “I’m thinking you’re exaggerating.”

  “He held a gun on me.”

  “Well, yeah, that sounds like him.” Zach could imagine that happening. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll force him to apologize the second he gets here.”

  “When will tha
t be?”

  Zach stared at his watch one more time. “Good question.”

  “Could you narrow it down?”

  “My guess is about five minutes from now.”

  Chapter Five

  Luke glanced up as the warehouse security door slid open. He didn’t reach for his gun because he knew the visitor’s identity. Watched him enter the security codes and drive into the garage. Holden Price belonged there. He was part of the team.

  “It’s not even dawn yet.” Holden yawned as he talked.

  “Blame Zach and Adam.”

  “I intend to.” Holden flipped the chair next to Luke backward and sank down into it with his elbows resting on the back.

  “Where’s Mia?” Luke thought about Holden’s fiancée and her refusal to get married until they had a final answer on the WitSec matter, and he couldn’t help but smile. That woman had guts. And her mandate drove poor Holden insane.

  “She’s with Caleb. Dropped her off a few minutes ago at your house. She whined the entire drive.”

  “Sounds like she’s not a morning person, either.”

  “True, but I still think Caleb got the worst end of this. He’s got your five-months-pregnant wife and two other women to watch over, none of whom are happy about being dumped on him and all of whom insist they don’t need a bodyguard. And, between us, they could be right. I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of any of them.”

  “Why do you think I got out of there so fast?”

  “You’re not alone.” Luke and Holden shared a laugh before Holden glanced at the monitor in front of him. “So, where are we?”

  “There’s a disaster brewing in Maryland.”

  “I can assume my dear Adam is behind it.” Both men turned around at the sound of Maddie’s voice. She wore sweats and a frown that made it clear what she thought about the Sunday-morning job.

  “Good morning,” Luke said.

  Her frown deepened. “Not so far.”

  Holden stood long enough to kiss Maddie on the cheek. “How are you doing?”

  “Enjoying not being chased after but still not happy about waking up alone.” She hitched her chin at the screens. “Where is he?”

  “Helping Zach,” Holden said.

  She shook her head. “I knew they were cooking up something.”

  Luke respected a great many things about Maddie. She had given up everything to testify against a brutal ex-boyfriend with a drug-dealing business. The move landed her in witness protection, which should have meant security for her but didn’t. A cash-for-information scam hatched by WitSec officials had put her and other participants in danger. A scam involving Trevor’s brother and a host of government officials, including the guy from the Justice Department whose division decided who got into the program and who didn’t.

  Maddie Timmons was one of those people in danger. The very professionals she’d entrusted with her safety had sold her whereabouts and new identity to someone who wanted her dead. She was only alive now because she’d refused to give up and had trusted Adam with her safety.

  In the end, when given the choice of reentering the program or throwing in with Recovery, she had picked them. That meant living in the warehouse temporarily until Adam could find them the right place to live and the prosecution could finalize the new charges against her ex-boyfriend, this time for attempted murder, but Maddie rarely complained. Only Adam’s secrecy could set her off, and Luke knew the feeling.

  “How’d you know they were working on something?” Luke asked.

  “Lots of changing the subject when I walked into the room. The sort of thing they think is secretive but is really just annoying.” She waved her hand in dismissal. “Are they safe?”

  “Should be.”

  The corner of her mouth kicked up in a smile. “That’s what I like about you, Luke. You don’t sugarcoat.”

  “Sorry.”

  Holden clapped, drawing their attention back to the problem at hand. “What do you need me to do?”

  Luke no longer had a choice. One of their own could be involved in this mess. Not any of the members of the team, but a tangential factor—Vince Ritter, Rod’s original partner back in the U.S. Marshals Service.

  Together, Vince and Rod had worked on placements in witness protection before they retired and Rod started Recovery. They had been the initial contacts for all the witnesses who’d ended up dead, and for Maddie, the only one in the scam to make it out alive. It made Luke sick to think they’d called Vince in for help while he may have been the mastermind behind it all.

  But the alternative was even worse. When men came to take out Maddie a few weeks back, the team floated the idea that Rod was still alive and on the run. That he was the man behind the information-for-cash scheme in WitSec that had cost so many lives and put the program in the bull’s-eye of congressmen who worried the corruption had weakened the program’s effectiveness.

  “I want you to pay a visit to Vince,” Luke told Holden. Then he nodded toward the communication equipment. “Go in hot so we can record his comments.”

  “Interesting,” Maddie mumbled as she made her way over to the coffeemaker.

  Luke knew Maddie didn’t trust Vince. As an outsider, she questioned Vince’s role from the start and refused to share information in his presence. “If he is behind the WitSec conspiracy, then he likely has a hand in trying to kidnap Sela.”

  “Trevor’s assistant?” Maddie asked.

  “Zach stepped into the middle of the plot and now has her.”

  Holden’s low whistle split through the silent room. “Damn.”

  “Right. So, if you’re on top of Vince, you’ll be able to assess and control while everything is unfolding. We still don’t know where his loyalties lie, and I don’t want to find out the hard way.”

  “Which is?” Maddie asked.

  “Over Sela’s dead body.”

  Holden broke the sharp silence. “And what excuse do I use for stopping by his house at dawn?”

  “That’s your problem.”

  Holden snorted. “Thanks, Luke. That’s nice of you.”

  “What can I do?” Maddie asked as she poured them all a round of coffee.

  Luke knew the answer but went for it, anyway. “I suppose you wouldn’t consider letting Holden drop you off at my house so Caleb can watch over you.”

  “Not a chance.”

  “Just until the WitSec stuff is behind us.”

  “Still no.”

  “Figured.” Luke knew what Adam would want him to do but that didn’t mean Luke was going to pull rank on Maddie. Let Adam handle that thankless job. Luke had enough on his hands with Claire wanting to jump into the middle of the investigation.

  Maddie pointed at the 3-D map on the screen. “Now, show me where Adam is so I can go from being worried to furious.”

  Luke couldn’t help but smile at that one. “It’s amazing how well you fit in around here.”

  She snorted. “We’ll see if Adam feels that way when he gets back.”

  Holden barked out a laugh. “I look forward to hearing that fight.”

  SELA EYED THE CHAIR balanced under the doorknob before switching her gaze to Zach’s broad back. He stood at the dirty sink and washed his hands, acting as if she didn’t pose any threat to him, that he could turn away and not risk her running.

  He had more than fifty pounds on her. She knew from his file he was thirty-one, which made him about six years older. Stronger, bigger and faster. Yeah, getting away from him was not going to be easy. And she wasn’t even sure she wanted to.

  She should have been furious. He admitted to following her and watching the attack in the garage. He spewed all sorts of allegations about Trevor. Still, when the bullets flew and Johnnie went mad, Zach stayed and fought by her side. No one had ever done that for her before.

  In two steps he was in front of her, staring down at the makeshift bandage around her knee that he’d fashioned from his shirt. Her breathing still hadn’t returned to normal after his impr
omptu striptease. She’d see that impressive chest every time she closed her eyes for a month.

  Right now she couldn’t see anything because he was right on top of her. The man did like to crowd her. Even now one of his legs balanced against her good knee.

  “What?” she asked, almost dreading the answer.

  “You’re humming again.”

  The music in her head cut off. “I was?”

  He smiled. “Anyone ever tell you that you could sing?”

  “No.”

  “Good.”

  “Why is that good?”

  “Hate to think about someone lying to you.”

  Amazing how fast he went from attractive to annoying. “You’re hysterical.”

  His smile faded as his hand went to his gun. “Stay there.”

  “Where would I go?”

  He stalked to the door, so quiet for a man his size. With his back against it, he checked his watch. “Damn.”

  Seeing him on the edge made her stomach flop. “What is it now?”

  “Slide off the couch and to the floor. Be careful not to put too much weight on that injured knee.”

  A snide response to his order died in her throat when she saw a tic in his check and stiffness across his shoulders. He’d shifted into soldier mode. That meant trouble lurked outside somewhere. More trouble.

  She dropped down, invisible knives cutting through her knee as she went. Dragging her body on her elbows, she slipped behind the sofa. The cushions wouldn’t stop a bullet, but she didn’t exactly have a list of good options to choose from.

  “We’ve got company,” Zach whispered.

  “Someone from your team?”

  “Wouldn’t tell you to hide if that were the case.” His gaze skipped to her before returning to his watch.

  She was two seconds away from taking the thing off of him. “Is the time really that important right now?”

  “There’s a camera on my car.”

  “Well, of course there is.”

  He ignored her comeback. “Using that and this watch I can see outside.”

  No wonder Trevor respected this team. They seemed to have a contingency for everything. “Sounds reasonable. I guess.”