“It’s in the vase at the end of the mantle,” he said.
Ally’s mouth dropped open.
“H-how could you possibly know that?”
“Easy. You flinched when I walked over to the fireplace,” he said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Then you tried to deflect my attention when I got to the vase.”
Damn. So much for keeping secrets.
Ally crossed her arms in front of her chest. The worst thing was she was more impressed by his trick than she was annoyed by it.
“What, did you used to be in a carnival act before getting into the security business?” she asked.
“Not exactly,” he said, his lips quirking up in a devilish smile. “Army Special Forces.”
“That actually explains a lot,” she said.
But at least his little stunt meant she didn’t have to wait anymore. Ally uncrossed her arms, strode over to the mantle and stuck her hand down the rustic pottery vase. Her fingers wrapped around the metal flash drive.
She turned around to find Carter staring at her. His expression had changed. There wasn’t a trace of humor in him now. His body was stiff, on alert.
“Hit the ground, Ally.” He said the words so low that at first she wasn’t certain that she’d heard him right.
But then she glanced down and saw the bright red dot in the center of her chest.
A laser dot.
Ally didn’t have to think any more after that. Her knees knew what to do.
They gave way underneath her, and she crumpled to the floor. Just in time. There was a loud crack and the pottery vase broke above her.
Dear God. Someone had followed them to her parent’s house and was shooting at her.
This couldn’t be happening. There was no way she was going to die in front of her mother’s tchotchke shrine.
***
Carter dove across the room the moment that first shot sounded. He landed next to Ally, wrapped his arms around her and started to roll out of the room.
He’d never felt so bad about being right in his life. Fuller was just a few steps behind Ally. He’d underestimated just how few.
Five more shots sprayed into the Weaver’s house in quick succession before Carter managed to get Ally to the relative safety of the hallway.
He lifted his head and glanced up at the shattered window by the dining room table, but he didn’t see any sign of the shooter. There was no way of telling if the man was still in the backyard, or if he was alone. There could be someone at the front door right now, just waiting to come in.
Well, if they were stupid enough to make that move, Carter would be ready for them.
Carter tucked Ally up against the wall, and then sprung to his feet. He un-holstered his pistol and held it at the ready.
He waited, but there wasn’t a sound. Not inside the house or out. Carter still didn’t move.
“Are they gone?” Ally asked, after another minute had passed.
“I can’t be sure,” he said. He also couldn’t risk staying holed up. Even if the shooter had fled after his mistake, there was no sense staying in a place where Fuller knew to find them. He had to get Ally out of here, and fast.
Carter inched toward the door. Leading with his weapon, he cracked it open and peered outside.
And saw nothing. Just a regular suburban street. No suspicious looking cars. No glints of sniper scopes in the bushes. No scouts on rooftops.
Carter craned his head back toward Ally. “Do you still have Price’s drive?”
She nodded. She held out her hand in front of her, her fingers clenched tight.
“You’d better put it somewhere safe.” Carter watched as she dropped it inside her purse, and then held his hand out toward her. “Good. Now, let’s get the hell out of here.”
Ally wrapped her fingers around his palm and lifted herself up on shaky legs. Then she turned and froze.
“What is it?” Carter asked, looking her over, wondering if he’d missed some injury she’d sustained.
“They shot my parent’s house,” she said.
“It’s going to be okay.” Carter put his hand on her shoulder, and tried pulling her toward the door. She dug in her heels.
“No, it’s not.” Her voice was louder now, stronger. “They shot my parent’s house. What the hell am I going to tell my mother?”
“The truth probably,” Carter admitted. “You don’t seem to have any problems telling it to anyone else.”
“But, they—”
“Shot your parent’s house,” he repeated. “Got it. Now we have to go before they come back and shoot us.”
That broke her out of her trance. “Y-yeah. Of course.”
Carter glanced around the neighborhood as he hauled Ally out the door. There were more faces in windows now. More doors starting to open and gawkers coming out into the street. Most of them with their phones held up to their ears.
So much for a clean getaway.
Fuller may not have succeeded in silencing Ally for good, but he certainly had dropped Carter in the middle of one very sticky situation.
He opened the passenger door for her and made sure she was safely inside. There was no point in hiding his face as he walked over to the driver’s side. Not anymore. Half the residents of Granite Hills Court would already be able to describe him perfectly when the police arrived.
He would just have to be ready when they came for him back at the offices of Macmillan Security.
Because they would be coming, and coming soon.
Chapter Five
Ally had no idea how long it took Carter to drive back to downtown Sacramento. Time had become fuzzy the moment that he’d pressed down on the accelerator and sped down the street where she’d grown up. She could vaguely remember him roaring past her old elementary school before getting onto the freeway. After that everything was a hazy blur.
Her mind felt numb. She stared out the window, but her eyes didn’t take in the scene whizzing by. The only images that floated through her brain were of shards of broken pottery and glass. A million pieces of ceramic littering her mother’s floor.
What had happened last night in Harvey Price’s office was jarring. It was frightening and adrenaline-filled. But this—strangers sneaking around her childhood home and riddling it with bullets—felt so much more personal. This was an attack, not just on her, but on those she held dear.
Slowly, the skyline changed, shifting from wide-open sky to soaring towers of metal and glass. Ally registered that they were back in the heart of the city, but she didn’t turn away from the window until Carter made a sharp right turn and everything went black.
Ally sat back in her seat as Carter took them down into an underground parking lot.
“You back with me?” he asked.
“Yeah. I think so,” she said, rubbing at her eyes with the heel of her palms. “Where are we?”
“My office.” He pulled into an empty spot. “But don’t worry. We won’t be here long.”
“I wasn’t worried,” Ally said as Carter stepped out of the car. She followed him as quickly as she could. “Should I be?”
He didn’t answer her, but disappeared through a door marked Stairs.
Great. That was very reassuring.
Ally didn’t even think about turning heel and running for the hills the moment he was out of sight this time. If anything, she hurried her step to catch up with him.
Oh, how things had changed.
She still wasn’t sure that she trusted him, not completely, at any rate.
She wasn’t always this suspicious. Of course, she’d never been one to buy into conspiracy theories either, but watching a politically-connected confidential informant blow up on television had her re-examining some of her beliefs. She guessed a couple of assassination attempts could do that to a girl.
Right now she couldn’t see any other option than sticking with Carter.
That didn’t mean she didn’t have questions for him. Now that her mind was recove
ring from the shock of being hunted like a wild animal, she had plenty of them.
Starting with why he had stubbornly refused to turn his back on her for even a second at her parent’s house, but was now bounding up the fire stairs three at a time and leaving her in the dust.
Unless…
Ally dug inside her purse. Her hand frantically skimmed over the bottom of the bag searching for that slim, cold piece of metal. Deep down, she knew she wouldn’t find it.
He’d taken the flash drive. Probably slipped it from her bag while she was still in shock.
See. She wasn’t paranoid. The son-of-a-bitch wasn’t trustworthy.
And now he had the drive that she had risked her life for…twice.
Ally took off up the stairs. She might not be ex-Special Forces, but she was damned motivated. She caught up to him before he hit the second floor.
“Y…you…you.” Ally sucked in a huge lungful of air. She might have been angry and indignant, but she was also terribly out of breath. Fury, it seemed, could get you up three flights of stairs in a hurry, but it didn’t do a damned thing to change how out of shape you were.
“Me,” Carter said, pushing open the door and stepping into the hallway. Directly across was a set of massive wooden double doors with the words Macmillan Security etched across in gold.
Ally rested her hands on her hips and bent over desperate to catch her breath before chasing after him again.
He, of course, strode on without her.
It looked like breathing would have to wait. She wasn’t about to lose sight of him or Harvey’s flash drive.
“You took the drive out of my purse,” she accused loudly as he entered the office.
The receptionist behind the desk shot her a strange look before looking to Carter. He nodded in greeting, but kept going. The woman went back to work without giving Ally a second glance.
Apparently, this kind of thing was just another day in the office around here.
“I did,” he said, striding down the hall.
They passed a few partitioned office spaces. More than a couple heads turned as they walked by. Ally recognized one of them from the night before--the blonde guy with the ice blue eyes. The look he gave her now wasn’t any warmer.
Ally turned her attention back to Carter and sped up.
“So you admit that you stole it?”
He glanced back at her. “I never said I stole it. We agreed to bring it here.”
“No,” she shook her head vigorously, refusing to let him off of the hook. “We agreed that I would bring it here and let your people work their strange magic on it. I never agreed to you rummaging through my purse, and cutting me out.”
Carter stopped suddenly, and Ally had to act quickly not to run straight into him. She managed, but just barely.
Now she was just awkwardly close, her body just inches away from his. She craned her head back as he spun around.
Heat that had nothing to do with outrage began to burn her face. Yeah, she was way too close.
Ally stumbled back.
“I’m not cutting you out, Ally,” he said.
“And why should I trust anything you say?” she asked.
Carter arched a brow. “Maybe because twice now I’ve thrown my body on top of yours to shield you from bullets.”
The heat of her blush intensified. And it wasn’t helping her pride any that he had a point.
“T-that’s not the most terrible reason I’ve ever heard,” Ally said, her voice sounding squeaky and small, even to her own ears.
“Oh, honey, don’t you let him sweet talk you,” a cheerful feminine voice said from nearby. “He uses that line on all the girls.”
Ally turned her head to the right, and saw that they had stopped directly in front of an open office door. A cute young woman with bright copper hair was seated on a swivel chair in front of a row of computer monitors. But she wasn’t looking at any of them. The stranger’s eyes were shamelessly fixed on her and Carter like they were the day’s entertainment.
Ally turned back to Carter. “Who is that?”
“That is our resident magician.”
The woman stood up and waved. “Charlie Keswick.”
Ally found herself waving back. “Ally Weaver.”
“Oh, I know who you are,” Charlie said with a smile. “I like you already. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone with the guts to go toe to toe with the Captain here.”
Guts, eh? Ally’s chin lifted a notch as she felt a little of her pride slip back into place. “Thanks.”
The bit about knowing her was a little odd, but Ally figured that Carter had to get his information from somewhere. That somewhere was apparently Charlie.
“No problem.” Charlie shifted her gaze over to Carter. “Speaking of you, Captain, what magic do you need today?”
Carter dug into his pocket and pulled out the flash drive. He tossed it Charlie’s way. Ally watched as the woman snatched it out of the air. She bit into her lip, desperately trying to resist the urge to go and wrench it from Charlie’s fingers.
Charlie flipped it over in her hands. “What’s on it?”
“That’s what we need you to find out.”
“Ooh, a mystery.” Charlie spun around in her chair, wasting no time plugging the drive into one of her computers.
“I need the results ASAP,” Carter said before turning and continuing his walk down the hall.
“You always need everything ASAP,” Charlie shouted after him.
Ally lingered by Charlie’s open door.
“Promise me you’ll be careful with that,” Ally couldn’t help saying.
Charlie swiveled her chair around. Fortunately, she didn’t look the least bit offended. She met Ally’s gaze with nothing but compassion in her eyes.
“You went through a lot to get this little thing, didn’t you?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah,” Ally said, even though she had a feeling that Charlie already knew the answer. “And I wasn’t the only one.”
“Then I promise you. I’ll treat it with the care and respect it deserves,” Charlie said without a trace of humor in her voice.
Ally gave a slow nod. She believed her. More importantly, she felt a hell of a lot more comfortable about leaving the flash drive behind.
She finally turned to try to catch up to Carter, but found her way blocked by a giant.
Okay, he wasn’t really a giant, but he might as well have been. The scowl that he wore dissipated any of the warm fuzzies she’d just received from Charlie. He reminded Ally of an ancient Polynesian warrior, the kind that would gut you for showing the slightest sign of fear.
“E-excuse me,” she said, trying to step past him.
He pinned her in place with his narrowing gaze. “Who are you?”
Hell, even his voice was terrifying.
“I-I—”
“She’s Ally Weaver, Bowie, and she’s here with Carter,” Charlie called out without bothering to turn around. “So mind your manners, and let her pass.”
The giant named Bowie gave her one more glower before stepping to the side.
“Thanks,” Ally muttered as she hustled down the hall. She could feel the man’s gaze following her the whole way, but she didn’t dare turn around.
At the end of the hallway she found a door with Carter’s name on it. She cracked it open and found him standing behind his desk, staring at a computer. He didn’t look up as she slid inside. She rested her back against the door as it closed.
“I never thought I’d say this, but I’m glad I found you,” she said.
“It’s not the best idea to get lost in this office.”
“About that,” Ally said. “Time to ‘fess up. What is it that you guys actually do around here?”
“I told you. Security.”
“Well, yeah…” She kept her hands flat on the door as she leaned into the room. “But there’s security, and then there’s security.”
The hint of a smile lifted the corners of Carter�
��s lips. “And which one do you think it is?”
“Well, since I had the pleasure of meeting Iceman and Bruiser last night, and I just had a terrifying run in with a wall of muscle who’s named after a kind of knife, I’m guessing it’s the latter.”
His amused smirk grew, even as he stood up to his full height and crossed his arms in front of his wide chest. “And does that make you trust me more or less.”
She was saved from having to answer by a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Carter called out.
Ally stepped to the side, and watched as the smile fell instantly from Carter’s face. The door swung open and a tall handsome man with light brown hair and sapphire eyes stepped inside.
The stranger looked her way and cocked his head to the side giving her an honest smile.
“You must be Miss Weaver,” he said. His voice was pleasant, masculine, but not so threatening that her first instinct was to run and hide under a boulder. He offered her his hand. “I’m Mason Wright.”
“Please call me Ally,” she said, taking it.
“It’s a pleasure, Ally.” He held on to her hand a second too long. His eyes lingered on hers as well, and Ally found herself smiling back in a way that bordered on flirtatious.
“Do you work here?” She couldn’t help but ask. This guy, Mason, was polite and likable, pretty much the exact opposite of every other male Macmillan employee she’d met so far.
“I do,” he said.
“I would caution against falling for his charm, if I were you,” Carter said from across the room. “Mason here could put a bullet in the dead center of your forehead from two hundred yards away.”
Mason flashed her an aw shucks smile. “But not without good reason,” he added.
“Good to know,” Ally said.
She looked over at Carter. His easy posture from a moment ago had turned defensive.
For a second, she wanted to believe that it was because of the attention Mason was giving her, but that was silly. It couldn’t be.
“Did you need something, Mason?” Carter asked.
Mason’s spine straightened. In an instant, both men were all business. He nodded at Carter. “Just came to tell you that the cops are at the door.”
Carter: The Sinner Saints #1 Page 5
