The Big Guns

by HelenKay Dimon

  He pulled the bathroom door shut again. “Silencer.”

  “What?”

  He showed her the attacker’s gun again. Pointing to the end, he indicated the device. “This one has a silencer.”

  “But I heard the sounds of the shots.”

  “Silencers don’t really silence all sound. It’s not like in the movies.”

  She held the gun, balanced it in her hands. “I see.”

  “Disappointed?”

  “A little.”

  Footsteps pounded on the wooden porch right before a dark figure flew through the door. The blur screamed to get down as he tripped over the couch and made a diving roll to the side.

  Zach had his gun up and aimed before the guy hit the floor. It took another breath before he could ease his finger off the trigger.

  With an arm around her shoulders, Zach dragged Sela down beside him. “Don’t move.”

  “It’s me. Don’t shoot!” Adam yelled his warning as he backed against the wall in a crouch.

  After the initial flurry, silence pulsed around them. Zach pushed up to his knees and looked across the small room. Adam sat exactly where he landed. His chest rose and fell in a rapid beat.

  “You’re late.”

  “Hey, I drove fast,” Adam said.

  Zach forced his hand to relax. A twitchy finger on the trigger could lead to trouble, and they had enough of that already. “Nice entrance.”

  “You know me. I’m all about the show.”

  “Stats?”

  “We’ve got one alive out there at sniper range and closing in.” Adam glanced at his watch, then around the room. “You take out this one?”

  “Yeah, he was likely your guy’s partner. Plus there’s another one in the bathroom.”

  “You’ve been busy, but could you do me a favor?”

  Zach didn’t miss the amusement that had moved into his friend’s voice. “What?”

  “Could you ask your friend to lower her weapon?”

  Zach turned around and saw Sela, elbows balanced on the couch with the attacker’s gun in her hands. She looked ready and quite able to kill.

  “You can’t shoot Adam.”

  “Thanks for that.” Adam glanced at his watch one more time.

  Zach put his hand over Sela’s and lowered the weapon, but his attention centered on his partner. “See anything?”

  “The camera on the car gives us limited access only.”

  “Not to butt in, but why don’t we get into one of your cars and get out of here?” She shifted her weight until one knee rested on the floor and the injured leg stretched out in front of her.

  “The man with the gun trained on the front of this house is pretty determined to make sure we never get to the car,” Adam said. “Getting around him without being seen was tough, but he surely saw me nosedive through what used to be the front door.”

  Sela’s gaze traveled the room before landing on Adam. “Just how did you get past him?”

  Adam smiled. “I’m good.”

  “And modest.” Zach sized up the situation and decided Adam sat in the safest place. Out of the range from the open door and snug in a corner. They could cover Sela there. “Go sit with Adam,” he told her.

  She shrugged out of Zach’s light hold. “I’m fine here.”

  “Adam?” Zach waved his gun in Adam’s direction. “Apologize.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You threatened her a few weeks back. I promised I’d make you apologize.” Zach ignored the shocked stares from Sela and Adam.

  She shook her head. “I never said—”

  “I threatened Trevor, not her,” Adam said at the same time.

  “Look.” Zach held up his hands, trying to get everyone to calm down and keep quiet. “She needs to trust us. She doesn’t trust you.”

  Adam’s eyebrow rose. “Does she trust you?”

  “Yes,” Sela said.

  Her answer filled Zach with an immense sense of satisfaction. “Apparently.”

  “We need a distraction. I’ll draw his fire and you can get her to the car, then—”

  Zach started shaking his head before Adam finished the sentence. “No way. Maddie will have my hide if anything happens to you.”

  The window above the kitchen sink shattered, ending the argument. Glass rained down, pelting the floor. The room broke into action. Adam jumped to his feet. Zach stepped in front of Sela and tried to force her closer to the floor and behind what was left of the couch.

  “He’s coming around front.”

  As soon as the words left Adam’s mouth, Zach started moving. He’d made it two steps to the side before a gun appeared in the front door and shots rang out. They passed close enough for Zach to feel the movement of air by his shoulder, then they sprayed across the inside of the cabin.

  By the time the figure slid into the room, the three of them were ducking for cover. The offensive strike gave the attacker the brief window of advantage to get within inches of Sela.

  “Zach!” Her scream bounced off the walls.

  The man reached for her over the couch but caught nothing but air. Zach pressed her head down as he straddled her body. If anyone was getting shot or going down, it would be him. Since the close contact put the gun right at his forehead, that was a greater possibility than he’d hoped.

  “The girl for you.” The raspy voice didn’t offer another option.

  “No.” Zach had already turned down that offer. And he had a secret weapon who was right now creeping up from behind with his gun loaded.

  “I have a different suggestion.” Adam pressed his gun against the man’s upper back. “You drop the gun and we let you live.”

  The man picked the third choice. He swung around, firing as he went. Adam jumped to the side as he shot back, but it was Zach’s bullet, placed right in the thin seam on his neck between all the protective padding, that took the guy down.

  Deep breaths filled the air as the layer of smoke floated to the ceiling. “That was close,” Adam said.

  Sela pressed her body against Zach’s side, her fingers curled around his forearm and her body vibrating with fear. The simple touch calmed the blood speeding through him but did nothing for his anger. He swore under his breath.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “He’s dead.”

  “Isn’t that good?” Her voice carried a what’s-wrong-with-you squeakiness as it rose an extra octave.

  Adam shook his head. “No.”

  Zach wanted to hit something. Preferably revive one of the idiots in the room, question them and then start punching. “Definitely not.”

  “Why?”

  Zach glanced at Adam and saw the answer on his face. The same one that was on Zach’s tongue. This wasn’t over. They had no lead, other than Trevor.

  “We wanted to question him,” he said for Sela’s benefit.

  Adam shrugged. “I doubt he would have said anything anyway.”

  “Now we don’t know who wants you dead,” Zach said.

  All of the color leeched out of her cheeks. “So, the men will keep coming.”

  He couldn’t look at her with this one. “Yes.”

  Chapter Seven

  Trevor braced his palms against Sela’s breakfast bar. He should have insisted she move into a high-security building, a place he could control and monitor. But no way would she have agreed without a fight.

  As it was, false rumors about their supposed affair pushed her to the edge of quitting more than once. Having Adam burst into the office with a gun a few weeks back only added to her stress level.

  Since there were so few people he trusted, Trevor had asked her to stay on. She was trained and loyal. She never asked questions and she understood his moods. In a word, she was perfect. Never anything to him on more than a professional level, but no one believed them.

  Sela heard the whispers. So had he. He ignored them. She dwelled on them.

  Not that he could blame her. She was trying to build a career, to
resurrect her reputation after being wrongly accused of financial wrongdoing at her last job, and find a future. He had convinced her she could do that at Orion.

  And now she was missing.

  His check a minute ago confirmed what he already suspected—the building’s security tapes had been wiped clean from an external source. Surveillance showed her leaving her apartment, then nothing. It was as if she disappeared before hitting the elevator.

  Trevor knew better. The mysterious caller had talked about tying up loose ends. He’d hoped that meant the Recovery Project agents. He sensed it included him. He never thought he’d moved Sela into the line of fire.

  Now he had to figure out where to turn. His team specialized in kidnapping protocols, but this wasn’t business. This was personal. Only a few groups could locate those who seemingly vanished. The best would never help him. Luke had made that clear when they brokered their informal agreement. In exchange for telling them Maddie’s location when she disappeared, Luke and his team agreed any evidence in the WitSec probe that led back to him would go no further, not from Recovery. If someone else found it, Recovery wouldn’t save him.

  That meant Trevor was on his own.

  SELA WAS SO TIRED she could drop. It was ten in the morning and the sun shone bright outside. Still, after a night of running, hiding and ducking, she didn’t have any energy left.

  That wasn’t quite true.

  When it came to Zach, she had plenty of reserves. He’d driven them through a wooded area and back into Washington, D.C. When she’d asked to go to her apartment, he’d refused, reminding her that someone out there wanted her dead. Contacting Trevor was out of the question, so she hadn’t even made that request.

  Now they were stationed in a small corporate studio apartment in southwest D.C. The place was as sparsely furnished as the cabin had been. It had a bedroom area and a small sitting room near the front door that consisted of a love seat and a table.

  She knew the neighborhood because she could see the Potomac River and the National Mall in the distance. There was a small balcony, but Zach had locked the door. He’d also pulled the curtain and unplugged the phone. Not hard to see he was serious about the lockdown thing.

  “We can get supplies tomorrow,” he said as he lined up several weapons on the dresser under the mirror.

  She wondered if he even had a clue what a woman would want in an emergency grocery run. She guessed she’d get a toothbrush and little else. “How long are we going to be here?”

  “As long as it takes.”

  She leaned back with her palms against the mattress. “Is that really your answer?”

  “Trite but effective.”

  “I need to let people know where I am.”

  He glanced at her in the mirror but didn’t bother to turn around to face her. “Who?”

  The deep scowl grabbed her attention. He seemed furious and a little rough. From the stubble on his chin to the ruffled dark hair to the cut at the corner of his mouth, he looked like a guy who’d been in a bruising fight. And he had been.

  When she didn’t answer, he began his cross-examination. “Your parents died years ago, one after the other, from cancer.”

  The man knew his Sela history. For some reason, that didn’t impress her. “Yeah, I know.”

  “You don’t have any siblings.”

  “True.”

  “From what I can tell, you focus your life on your work.”

  It sounded pathetic when he broke it down like that. She could walk off the face of the earth and the only person who would care was Trevor, and that was only because she kept his schedule. Had her life really become so dreary and cold?

  “You must have other things to do than dissect me.”

  “No.”

  “This is my life we’re talking about here.”

  “Hard to argue with that.”

  The man-of-few-words had returned. Between the clipped responses and the weapon obsession, he didn’t need her to fill in the blanks. He could handle this alone.

  She stood. “Continue this without me.”

  That fast, he whipped around to face her. “Where are you going?”

  “To shower.”

  He nodded toward the stacks of pillows behind her. “You should sleep.”

  The man-is-in-charge ordering was getting a bit out of hand, but she let it pass. He’d killed for her. When a guy took that step, you cut him some slack.

  But that didn’t mean she’d jump when he yelled. In fact, he could stop with the raised-voice thing anytime now. “Since you asked so nicely, which you didn’t, I’m not getting into bed before I wash the dirt and blood and heaven only knows what else off me.”

  His gaze wandered all over her. “Smart.”

  The skin under his heated gaze tingled and her breath hiccuped in her lungs. “What about you?”

  “You’ll have to be more specific.”

  She fought the urge to roll her eyes. “Where are you going to sleep?”

  “On the couch. The floor.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

  The man was a good two feet longer than the couch and his shoulders would hang off the side. It was a chivalrous offer but she’d prefer to have him well rested and thinking soundly. “You can have half of the be—”

  “No.” His voice cracked like a whip.

  “Wow, you weren’t cryptic there, were you?”

  “Meaning?”

  “I get it.”

  He gripped the edge of the dresser behind him. Held on tight enough to turn his knuckles white. “It’s not a good idea.”

  “I was talking about getting some rest. Nothing else.”

  “If you say so.”

  She should be offended. Part of her was. His reaction blew well over the reasonable line. “This reaction is because you still think I’m sleeping with Trevor.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  “No.”

  If possible, Zach’s grip tightened. “He’s very close to you.”

  “He depends on me.”

  “Same thing.”

  “No, it’s not. There is nothing between us. Never has been. Never will be.” She exhaled nice and loud to let Zach know she was sick of this topic. “I believe I’ve mentioned that already.”

  “You’re a very attractive woman.”

  “One with her own mind. I know who I’m attracted to and Trevor is not it.”

  “Many women are attracted to the money and power routine.”

  She hated the way Zach lumped her in with all other women and made generalizations about her. In one sense, she understood the conclusion he’d made. He wasn’t the only one to make it. Even Trevor’s now-ex-wife dropped some not-so-subtle jabs on the subject.

  Still, the random show of judgment ticked her off. “Do you actually know any women?”

  “Some.”

  “They sound lovely.”

  “If you’re not with Trevor—”

  “I’m not.”

  “Then what type of guy are you attracted to?”

  She debated playing it safe, then thought about how close she’d come to death over the past twenty-four hours, and skipped right over the games to the truth.

  “You.”

  SHE’D DISAPPEARED into the bathroom right after she delivered her bombshell. Must be adrenaline burn, or fear or some messed-up sense of gratitude. There was no way she meant it. No way he could let himself believe it.

  Zach repeated that mantra until no other words rang in his head. He’d nearly lost his mind a dozen times since the water shut off. Imagining her in there. Thinking about her stepping out of the shower.

  This was not good at all.

  Steam rolled out of the room as she opened the door. Stepping out, covered head to toe in the most ill-fitting, oversize sweatpants and T-shirt he’d ever seen. Zach wondered if Adam was trying to send a message or a warning of some type when he included the clothes in the duffel bag he brought for them. If so, it wasn’t working. She looked better than Za
ch anticipated. Face scrubbed clean and blond hair wet on her shoulders. Man’s clothes or not, she was all woman.

  He waited a full minute, letting his body enjoy the sight while his brain clicked back to reality. “You can’t be.”

  She froze with a pile of dirty clothes in her arms. “What?”

  “Attracted to me.”

  “That’s what you were doing out here while I was in the shower? Waiting to finish our conversation?” She dumped the load on the dresser next to his gun.

  “Yes.”

  “The whole time I was in there?”

  “You were quick.”

  “The hovering thing? It’s weird, Zach.”

  Not the first time a woman accused him of that. “Pick someone else.”

  She blinked a few times before her lips broke into a smile. “It doesn’t work that way.”

  Oh, no. He could handle a lot. A sexy but off-limits woman shooting him a take-me-now look was not on the list. “It should.”

  She stepped right past him, headed for the bed. She dragged down the covers and climbed in. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to jump on you.”

  “That’s probably wise since I haven’t showered yet.” Still he stood there. He’d honed his muscles, kept his mind sharp, but when he looked at her his internal barometer for right and wrong shut down.

  She pushed up on her elbows. “Are you attracted to me, Zach?”

  No way was he answering that one. “Promise me you won’t leave while I’m in the bathroom.”

  “Answer the question.”

  “This is an assignment.”

  “I’m a woman, not an assignment.” This time she shifted so her arms were wrapped around her upraised knees.

  He had to get in a cold shower before he went nuts. “You can sit on the toilet while I shower.”

  “I’ve never heard that line before.”

  Lines of nonsense filled his brain. “In the bathroom.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but no.”

  “That way I can see you while I’m in the shower.” He turned toward the other room. Got almost to the door.

  “So, the attraction… Is it yes or no?”

  He balanced his head against the door frame and prayed she would stop talking. That husky voice kept licking at him, tempting him. “Nothing is going to happen, Sela.”