Page 105 of The Reluctant Siren
She took a deep breath and let the adrenaline flow over her.In a good way. She’d been trained to stay calm in dangerous times.
Your mind is the most important weapon you have, Harlow.Staying calm means you can make decisions other people can’t in the samecircumstances. You wait and bide your time, and then you make your move and noone will see it coming.
Damn it. She was trained by her dad. Oh, her papa had beenthere, too, but it had been Chase Dawson who sparred with her, who questionedher until all of this was habit. Staying calm. Breathing. Waiting for the righttime.
“Where is Jensen?” She let a tremble hit her voice. Like shewas scared and ready to cry. She needed to get as much information as shecould. “Please, I want to see my boyfriend.”
“Your boyfriend is in serious trouble,” the man said. “Myboss wants a word with him, and I think maybe he’ll talk faster if I take youup there. Maybe if he sees how we’re going to treat you, he’ll tell us what wewant to know.”
Niall’s face went a florid red, but she watched as heclenched and unclenched his fists, his eyes on her. She gave him a wink. He wastrying. He wasn’t following his caveman instinct to protect his woman andscrewing everything up. He was doing what she asked him to. Staying calm andletting her take the lead.
“I don’t…please don’t hurt me. I can’t…you’re going to…”Thank the universe he couldn’t see her face because she was really better withmaking her voice sound all subby and sad. Everyone told her she could soundscared but still look like she was going to cut a bitch. “How many of you aregoing to…hurt me?”
She didn’t say what she meant. How many of you motherfuckersplan on gang raping a girl? She wanted a number.
He chuckled as though all of this was funny. He thought hehad them right where he wanted them. Did this asshole even know there were twomore of them or had he simply waited in the bushes and done no recon? “Well,darlin’, there are only three of us right now, but maybe we’ll take you withus. There’s always a place for another whore. My boss is going to think you’rereal pretty.”
His boss might think she looked real familiar if he paid anyattention. After all, she’d been arrested at one of his company’s houses.
“I think you should take me,” Niall offered. He wasobviously trying not to panic.
Her Master was having a shitty, shitty day.
“What the hell do I want with a fed?” the asshole asked.
So he thought Niall was Jack. Nice.
“Hey, Harlow, are you going to play with him some more orcan we get this train moving?” Jack asked as he walked in behind Niall. Landonfollowed, his gun trained on her attacker.
The man behind her stiffened, but she was already moving.She stabbed him in the arm, the one that was holding the gun, and heimmediately dropped it. She then brought her other arm up and back, hitting thefucker in his solar plexus like her dad taught her. Her attacker let out a lowmoan and stumbled back. But not so far back that Harlow couldn’t do the otherthing her father taught her.
You’ve heard the phrase never kick a man while he’sdown, baby girl? Well, you kick him while he’s up or down, and you get himright in the nads.
The man whimpered and fell to the ground.
Harlow picked up her gun and stood over the asshole. Shepointed it right at his head. “How many men are up there?”
She believed him, but it was good to verify.
He held his hands up. “Three. It’s me and the boss and Phil.The boss didn’t want a big group because he had to move real quick, and theperson he has at the FBI didn’t want a mess made. We’re supposed to get thedata he stole and get out. If he showed up we were supposed to disappear theasshole, but we couldn’t find the drive.”
She was confused about a couple of things. There was ascream going on inside her to get upstairs, but she had to find out as much asshe could before she went in. Jensen wouldn’t give it up, and they knew Jackwas out here. They would need to take him out, too, and that was a problem.“You were willing to kill an FBI agent? That’s heat you don’t want.”
“Someone in the bureau doesn’t like that kid. We’ve knownwho he was for weeks. We have shit on him that will make his disappearance besomething the FBI will want to hide. They’ve been planning this for a while,”the man said.
She looked back at Jack, whose expression had shuttered.This part was his mission. She had to go finish hers. “Take care of him. I’mgoing to get Jensen. I’m not playing, Jack. Am I going to have a problem?”
She’d known the minute she realized Hamilton was here thatshe would likely be causing local law enforcement a shit ton of paperworkbecause they wouldn’t go down easy, and if they got the cops involved theywould defer to the FBI, and she couldn’t trust any of them except Jack. Sotaking them all out was the likeliest scenario. If she tried to bring Hamiltonin for questioning, he could get the upper hand and take Jensen hostage.
Jack shook his head. “I’m keeping this one alive, and if heever wants to see the light of day again, he’ll tell everyone the truth. I’dlike a couple of moments alone with him. Landon, go with them. Make sure Nialldoesn’t hurt himself, and stay out of Harlow’s way.”
Harlow took off, jogging up the stairs. Halfway down thewalkway she clung to the side and slowed down, not wanting to make a sound ormake the place shake since this was a flimsy building. She put a hand out, andNiall paced his steps to meet hers.
She looked back and took him in. He was grim but determinedto watch her back and to get Jensen out of this.
She heard the sound of a taser being flipped on. It was anunmistakable sound. This particular wisdom hadn’t come from her dad. It hadbeen Big Tag who taught her how to use and evade and recover from a taser.
She would bet Jensen hadn’t gotten hit by one before.
