Page 103 of When He Fights
Emerson lunged forward.
“Don’t you dare get on that step,”Grayson snapped in her ear.“Don’t you do it.”
A woman appeared at the door.A gun was shoved beneath her chin.Emerson immediately recognized the photo Grayson had shown her of Zuri Harris just moments before.
Right height.
Right weight.
Hair.
Eyes.
Face—
Logan jerked the woman back.“Happy?She’s alive.For now.”
Another scream from inside.
Emerson’s foot pressed to the bottom step.
“What in the sweet hell are you doing?”Grayson demanded.“Hold your position.Keep him focused.Kane is at the back of the house right now.He’s going in.Insisted on being the one to lead the charge.All you have to do is keep Logan distracted.Stay where you are.Do you hear me?Stay there.”
Her breath shuddered out.
“I don’t want to see you, Dr.Marlowe,” Logan informed her, petulant and demanding at the same time.“I want Anastasia.If she’s not here in the next five seconds, her friend Zuri dies.Be a dear and relay that message for me, will you?Either Anastasia comes in or Zuri goes out in a body bag.”
“Is there a bomb here?”A stark question that burst from Emerson.“Are you just going to blow up Anastasia if she rushes inside?”
He laughed.“To do that, I’d have to kill myself.I’m not planning to die today.”
If she’s not herein the next five seconds, her friend Zuri dies.
She’d heard her friend scream.And thanks to the tiny earpiece that Grayson had given Emerson, Ana had been able to hear every word that Logan and Emerson exchanged.Grayson had been broadcasting the conversation on a speaker inside of Mrs.Shirley’s house.
And as soon as she heard thefive secondspart…
Ana ran for the door.
“No, Ana!”Grayson bellowed.
She didn’t stop.
One of the Feds tried to grab her arm, but she ducked, then elbowed him.She ripped open that front door, and she ran toward her house.Jumping over the azalea bushes, rushing beneath the long, twisting branches of the oak trees.Branches weighed down by swaying Spanish moss.
Her breath heaved in her lungs and then, “I’m here!”Ana yelled.“Don’t hurt Zuri!”
Emerson whirled around.The Feds near the street—those hunkered down with the cops—sprang up, and she knew Grayson had given them a command to stop her.
Ana ran faster.The bulletproof vest she wore bumped against her chest and back.
Kane was at the rear of her house.No, no, Kane should beinsidethe house by now.Kane who was so big but could move so quietly.He’d insisted on going inside to take out Logan.
And she was going to make certain that she held Logan’s attention so that Kane could get close enough to subdue the other man.
“Ana!”Emerson’s eyes were wide.“You shouldn’t be here!Go back!”
Gunfire erupted.It came from the house, and Emerson jerked, her body shoving forward, right before she screamed.Emerson fell to the ground, but she rolled, twisted, and gasped.
