He propped his elbow on the door and scrubbed a hand over his mouth to keep from saying anything. It wasn’t his place. He wasn’t angry about her job, he just wanted half an hour to really talk to her like he should have before things got hot and heavy. For now he just needed to stay quiet, keep his foot out of his mouth and bide his time until later. There would be time. Neither one of them were going anywhere for Christmas.
Or would there be?
Her place was flooded and there was no heat. Hell, there likely wasn’t any heat at his place either, which meant they’d both be displaced. It would be after the first before their crappy landlord did anything worthwhile about the mess.
Shit.
Maybe he needed to say something to her? But what? How did he broach the topic?
All too soon he pulled up in front of the silver and glass building that housed the Aegis Group offices.
“Thanks for the ride,” Merida said.
“Hey.” He reached over and put his hand on her arm before she could get out of the truck.
They looked at each other for a moment.
Now or maybe never.
“We still need to talk about what happened.” There. Up front, but he wasn’t saying when.
Merida’s eyes went wide. “W-What do you mean?”
He frowned. Was she really playing dumb? “We had sex. Now what?”
She opened and closed her mouth. In a way it was almost funny. She was a person who didn’t get flustered, who handled pressure and difficult situations on a daily basis. And now was when she didn’t have a response.
“I... I don’t know. It just happened,” she said.
“That’s what I’m saying.” He turned to face her. “We need to talk.”
She thumbed over her shoulder.
He held up his hand before she could get another word out. “I know. You have to work. But we also have to talk.”
“I really have to go,” she blurted. “Sorry.”
Merida clawed at the door before catching the handle. She yanked on it and as the door opened she practically jumped out. He sat there watching her hustle up the sidewalk toward the door with a growing sense of frustration.
Was that it? Really?
He leaned across and pulled the door open then shifted into drive and accelerated a touch too hard out of the parking lot.
This was bullshit. They’d talked about everything. Even the stuff he hadn’t wanted to. And now they couldn’t talk about this? Had it been a mistake? Should he have pushed her away? Said no?
That was never going to work, and he knew it. Their friendship was good, but it was also a lie. A lie that he was done with. They’d had sex. It couldn’t have just been a convenient fuck. There’d been some feeling in there. Hadn’t there? Or was it all in his head? Was he making this into a bigger deal than it was?
Finley just didn’t know. He and Merida were good friends, but he didn’t know every part of her. Not like he wanted to.
He stopped at a red light. It was just him and the empty road. Flurries fell from the sky, melting long before they hit the pavement.
A gnawing sense of wrongness settled in his gut.
This wasn’t something he could walk away from.
The light turned green.
He cranked the wheel and headed back the way he’d come.
When Merida’s work was sorted, when all the fires were out, they were going to talk. He’d wait out in the parking lot all damn night if he needed to.
WEDNESDAY. AEGIS GROUP Headquarters, Seattle, Washington.
Merida wrapped her arms around her, staring at the concrete in front of her feet as she began walking. Finley’s muttered curse was loud, and yet she couldn’t understand his words. She didn’t think she wanted to.
The door.
She’d left it open.
Shit.
She couldn’t turn back now.
The hard slam told her she didn’t need to.
She flinched and almost turned around to make some sort of pointless apology, but the truck was roaring out of the parking lot and likely any chance of fixing things with Finley was moot.
That was one relationship she’d just screwed up. Literally.
Merida’s step slowed.
She was being a coward. In all her life, she’d never thought she was capable of that. But one look at Finley and she was afraid of losing him. Afraid of becoming something less than a friend to him.
He was right.
Everything had just changed between them. All because she’d wanted something in the moment rather than wait for something she could keep. If she ever got it.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid girl,” she muttered to herself.
She yanked the front door open and stepped into the lobby, wiping her feet dry on the brown mat spread out there on the marble. Despite the late hour the two Christmas trees flanking the door were twinkling as were the spruce garlands and lights decorating the lobby. Normally she liked the chic, festive look. Right now it just made her think of another Christmas tree and what she’d been doing beside it not twenty minutes ago.
It wasn’t like she could avoid Finley. He lived next door. He was working on her car. The parts would be in tomorrow and more than likely he’d give her a ride to pick it up first thing the day after.
They were going to have to talk about the fact that they’d not only kissed, but had sex, and she so did not want to.
How did she backtrack from jumping his bones to wanting something more official?
She was not a friends-with-benefits kind of girl. But there was no denying that was the signal she’d given Finley tonight. What else could he take away from her jumping him like that?
Merida massaged her temples and drew in a deep breath.
It was time to put her personal life aside and work. She...
She hadn’t used a keycard to get into the building.
Her eyes popped open and she drew in another deep breath. Every fiber in her body went on high alert. After hours the building was supposed to be on keycard access only. It shouldn’t matter if there was work being done. The guard on duty should be there to let people in an out, not disable the keycard system.
Oh, God...
She knew that smell.
The hair on the back of her neck rose and gooseflesh broke out on her arms and legs. She tilted her head and listened. Where was the security guard? It should be Sai, the young Indian man. He followed the rules faithfully. He’d never deviate like this.
There.
A footstep.
She wasn’t alone and she didn’t have a good feeling about that.
“Sai?” She whispered.
No answer.
The thump of a boot was unmistakable that time.
She glanced over her shoulder at the glass walls on all three sides of the lobby.
A bit of movement reflecting back at her caught her eye.
Someone was coming around the outer perimeter.
She needed to hide. Now.
Merida stepped lightly and hustled around the desk.
A foot came into view and then a leg bent unnaturally.
Her heart pulsed in her throat. She didn’t let herself stop. She kept going, around the desk and to her knees. She hit the marble and scooted under the spacious desk, doing her best to make herself as small as possible.
Lying against the wall, shoved out of the way in a pool of his own blood was the night security manager. Sai. His eyes were closed and his lips parted. She didn’t see his chest moving.
Was he...?
Merida couldn’t remember his last name right then. It was on the tip of her tongue. He’d laughed at her standing there for ten minutes trying to sound it out. She’d been determined to get it right despite it being one of those absurdly long surnames with fifteen or so letters, but she’d gotten it right, eventually.
Why couldn’t she remember it?
He was young, enrolled in community college. Most nights when she left late he was sitting
here studying. His family was immigrants from India. When his mother found out how fond Merida was of authentic Indian food, she’d occasionally send extra along with Sai. They’d pull the chair out of the management office and eat together, talking about parts of the world they’d seen and what Sai wanted to do after school.
And now he was dead.
His chest wasn’t moving.
She slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from sobbing.
Her emotions were haywire. This wasn’t her first dead body. She was stronger than this. She had to be. Something was seriously wrong. She had to think.
Footsteps thumped on the marble and a shadow stretched toward her, falling over Sai.
Merida’s heart raced as she listened to what sounded like one person take a slow stroll through the lobby.
She closed her eyes and envisioned the layout.
The front doors let onto the lobby. The front desk was positioned directly in front of the doors. People could go right or left down long halls that led to the elevators, restrooms and smaller, first floor suites. If the man was making a circuit, she estimated he circled once every minute to a minute and a half.
This was why Elias Wood had called her.
There wasn’t really some building maintenance going on.
The man on the other side of the desk thunked something down just over her head. Merida sucked in a breath through her fingers and prayed Elias was okay.
Whoever these people were, they had to be coming after the Aegis Group offices. None of the other tenants in the building made sense. And Elias had said the maintenance people wanted access to their suite.
She swallowed and peered at the desk over her head, as if she could look through it and see the man above her.
Which job was this about? Who had they pissed off this time? And what did they want?
Something scraped on the surface and the man moved away, his footsteps fading.
She had moments. Seconds.
Hurriedly she patted her pockets looking for her phone, only it wasn’t in her pockets. She reached into her purse, her heart climbing back into her throat as her mind replayed the moment in Finley’s truck.
She’d been talking to both Elias and Finley.
The call had cut off.
She’d clutched the phone with both hands...
And then what?
What had she done with it? Was it still in Finley’s truck?
She didn’t have time to waste on her phone. She needed to call the police. The FBI. Zain. Someone.
Merida set her bag aside and leaned forward, peering out of the desk and toward the front of the building.
The coast was clear.
She crawled on hands and knees toward Sai’s body, whispering a prayer. She felt his pockets, but they were empty.
No phone.
He had one. She’d always seen him with it.
Because it was lying on the desk.
She turned and checked the view, scanning for men. For now she was alone. Turning her gaze to the desk, she found his phone half under an opened textbook.
It was Christmas break and he was already studying for next semester. A next semester he’d never see.
Merida bit her lip and grabbed the phone. Bits of glass stuck in her thumb.
Voices drifted toward her. She dove for the desk, folding herself out of sight again while powering on the screen.
It was an older model phone. Sai was that guy who always wanted a deal. She swallowed down the memories of him bragging about silly things that had endeared him to her.
The screen flickered once, twice. The glass wasn’t just cracked it had been shattered on purpose.
The phone died.
“Shit,” she muttered.
She couldn’t even use a lock screen to call 911.
The voices came closer.
Merida closed her eyes and tilted her head back.
How had she managed to arrive at exactly the right moment to slip in unaware and safe?
There were two men now.
She didn’t know what they were saying or what language they were speaking, but it wasn’t English, Spanish or French. The first two she spoke, the last one she understood enough to get herself in trouble.
What the hell was she going to do? She couldn’t leave. Elias was by himself up there and then there was the wealth of intel. These days it wasn’t just their intel. They worked closely with CIA, FBI and Mossad, among others. Somehow she had to signal for help and she had to get word to Elias. If anything went wrong, it was on her. She was the boss right now. Leaving wasn’t an option.
No pressure or anything.
She set the phone down and absently picked the glass shards out of her thumb.
This was a terrible situation. No part of her could deny that.
If there were two men down here there had to be at least four or more upstairs. By now she had to assume they had either breached the secure floor or were about to. She had no doubt that Elias would make a stand and possibly die doing his job if she didn’t get to him first.
He was so new she wasn’t sure if he’d make the right call and kill the servers before time ran out.
Lights slashed into the lobby.
More men?
She risked looking out to the parking lot.
Oh, no. No, this could not be happening.
Merida knew that pickup truck.
Finley.
He had to have the last word, so he’d come back.
Any other time she might have swooned at the idea of him chasing her down to talk or argue or whatever, but not now.
Two figures stepped into her field of vision. They were dressed in black jumpsuits and carried guns. Their faces were covered by knit ski masks and they wore leather gloves.
Finley would never see them behind the reflective glass.
She was about to watch the man she loved die if she didn’t do something quick.
Merida turned, taking in the sparseness of the security desk.
Sai’s belt was gone and with it his Taser.
She turned her head and looked at the three foot tall wooden candy canes propped against the wall. They were solid wood and heavy, a little thicker around than her thumb.
Merida muttered to herself and grabbed both of the candy canes. This was crazy and it was happening right now.
The men’s voices rose. She didn’t have to know the language to understand that they were discussing what to do about a quickly approaching Finley. She was willing to bet he was scowling, too. He always did look scary when he did that.
Armed with her make-shift weapons Merida crouched in the space between the desk and the wall. If either man glanced back, they’d see her.
Finley was maybe two dozen paces from the doors.
One of the men had his hand on the door while the other was adjusting his rifle.
If she did nothing, Finley would die. A shot at close range like that would be devastating.
If she waded in there, chances were good she’d be the one getting shot.
At least she was the one making the decision. It was her choice. And if that meant protecting Finley, well so be it. She loved him.
The man holding the door barked an order.
The other with the gun nodded.
Now or never.
Merida rushed them. She was halfway across the space before the man holding the door glanced over his shoulder.
She took another long stride and swung, aiming for the man who posed the greatest threat. The one with the gun. She put everything she had into it, striking him across the back of the head with the crook of the cane.
No sooner had she hit the shooter than his companion rushed her. He grabbed her around the waist and tackled her to the ground with a roar of rage. Merida flailed with the canes, trying to land a hit on him, but he had her face down.
An almost inhuman snarl made her stop breathing.
The weight was snatched off her. She rolled and skittered back, sucking down ai
r and watched Finley hold the man up off the ground with one hand and slam his fist into the man’s face twice. It took that long before the man struck back, kicking Finley in the thigh.
Merida only gave herself a moment before scrambling to her feet. While Finley grappled with the one man, she went to the would-be shooter. She found what looked like zip-ties in his pockets and used those to secure his hands. They were actually plastic restraints, much easier to travel with than handcuffs.
“What the fuck, Merida?” Finley’s breathing was ragged.
He had the man face against the glass, arms restrained, all the fight gone out of him. The man’s mask had come off and his face was bloody. He looked to be on the brink of losing consciousness.
“Wrists. We have to get them out of sight.” She mustered her courage to venture into Finley’s orbit and used the thick plastic ties to bind the captive’s wrists behind his back. She lifted her chin and looked at him in the eye. “We need to take them into the security office next to the bathrooms.”
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but the security guard is dead and we could be next if there are more of them. Help me?”
It took them two trips, but they managed to get both men into the small security office and leashed to a pipe running along the wall. Of course they had to first unstring Christmas lights and move the tiny LED tree out of the way. Merida wasn’t sure how either man could use the things to escape but Finley demanded they do it, so it was done. For now she hoped this would hold their prisoners.
Merida closed the door softly behind them, straining until the last to listen for anyone else making rounds. Only then did she turn to face Finley in the dimly lit room. One of her candy cane batons slid to the floor with a thud neither acknowledged.
He stood with his hands on his hips scowling at the two men.
“When I got here, they were making a round. I slipped in between their sentries, saw Sai was dead and holed up.” She crossed to the desk and picked up the landline.
No signal. Nothing.
Shit.
“Do you have your cell?” She turned only to find Finley frowning at his phone. “It’s not working, is it?”
He glanced up at her as he pocketed his device. “No. It’s not working. We should get out of here. Call the cops.”
Spirit of Danger (Body of Danger, #2) Page 4
