Page 1 of Deception and New Direction

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RUTHIE

According to my grandfather,Iwas the “most stubborn person on the entire planet”—Idisagreed.Thattitle belonged to a man namedJackHutchinson.Jackwas my coworker, possibly my superior, my best friend’s brother and, currently, the biggest pain in my ass.

Granted, we didn’t exactly start off on the right foot, and that may or may not have been my fault.Partially.

In my defense, hot guys flustered me, andJackwas hands down the hottest manIhad ever met.Oh, and my best friend had just been kidnapped.

* * *

FiveMonthsEarlier

I was wrapping up for the day atRangerShieldSecurity, whereIworked as a receptionist and administrative assistant.Iloved my job.Ihad been here just over six months now and had met so many great people.

Archer,Wade, andVince, who owned and ran the company, were all upstairs finishing up a meeting.Wehad just hired two new guys since the security and investigations business was taking off.DaneEndersonandAxelSkarsgårdhad just finished all their onboarding paperwork, andIwas showing them around the building.Ourfront lobby and reception area were downstairs on the street level, along with two small conference rooms where we could meet with prospective clients.

All the good stuff was upstairs though, including our security room, which housed all the cameras we had in and around the business.Plussome cameras for a few other small businesses that paid us to monitor them.Wehad a weapons room where we kept various guns, knives,Kevlarvests, and a few other items the guys might need.Therewas also a small fitness room for the guys to use if they wanted to.

Finally, there were individual small offices forArcher,Vince,Wade, as well asJack—the fourth founding member who had just finished up his last tour overseas with theArmy.Hewas back onUSsoil but finishing up his discharge paperwork.Hewas supposedly flying home tonight and would be meeting the rest of us over at the pub after work.Hissister,Ellie—the only friendIhad made since moving here— was very excited to see him.

After showingAxelandDanetheir new offices, which were right next toDiego’s—our other recent hire—Ibrought them back down to the main lobby to show them whereIkept any paperwork they might need while working on certain cases.Ihad just finished and was about to close up whenIheardWadeyell from the hallway.

“Ruthie!Getupstairs and helpArcherandVince.Now!”Therewas urgency but also fear in his voice, soIknew something was wrong.

Likely sensing the same urgency,DaneandAxelfollowed me asIsprinted up the private stairwell we had that led upstairs.

Despite running what felt like the fastest ever in my life, both men dashed past me, meaningIwas the last to arrive atArcher’soffice.Theyhad the building cameras pulled up on the largeTVmonitor adjacent fromArcher’sdesk.

“What’s going on?”Iasked, very much out of breath.

Before anyone could answer me,Diegoyelled out and pointed to the screen.

“There!Hegrabbed her from the back door.”

I looked up to see someone hitting a woman over the head as she exited the back door of our building.Asshe fell to the ground,someone scooped her up and put her in a nearby car.Ittook a few moments, but recognition finally dawned on me.

“Is thatEllie?”Iasked the room.

“Yeah,”Vinceresponded.

Moments later,ArchersentAxelandDaneoff to follow up on the woman who assisted inputtingElliein the car.ThenArcherandVincetook off with the tablet to go helpWaderescueEllie, andDiegocame with me downstairs to the main lobby to wait for the police to arrive.

It was chaos.DiegoandIfielded questions from the police, showed them our security cameras, and walked them through everything that had happened.

In the middle of all this, a man off the street decided to enter the pandemonium.

“Excuse me—can someone tell me what’s going on?”

I turned to see a manIhad never seen before at the entrance to our lobby.

He was good-looking, and he clearly worked out.Dark, close-cropped hair with an equally dark five o’clock shadow all along his jawline.Histanned skin was covered with an olive-greenT-shirt and khaki cargo pants.Hewas wearing a backpack and had a large duffel bag on the floor next to him.Histall frame demanded attention, but not today.

This had happened before.Guyswho left the military came in looking to see if we were hiring.Onany other dayIwould have asked him some questions and made notes forArcher, maybe even added a few of my own just to stare at him a little longer, but again, today was not that day.

“Listen here, shitwhistle.Idon’t know who you are, but you can’t be here right now,”Isaid to this man.

“Ruthie,Ithink this guy…”Diegointerrupted, andIcould just sense he was trying to get me to help this man, butIhad other priorities.

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