The Revenge by Tijan

Him. Our eyes met. We both knew who he meant.

Harden grabbed the back of the chair and answered for me. “Yep, and your granddaddy didn’t have a clue. If you’re thinking of complaining, save it. We don’t have an HR department, if you know what I mean.” With that said, he lifted.

The second guy lifted the other side.

The back door was shoved open. A guy appeared and yelled, “We have to go now! Now!”

“We know. We’re coming!” Harden yelled back.

The third guy saw the dilemma and his eyes got big. “Clear some space! They’re bringing him out strapped to a chair.”

They carried my brother out the back, going through the door being held open by the third guy. All of us darted over the backyard. Men were working behind us. There were a bunch of flashes as the third guy ran next to me. He took my arm, guiding me into the second vehicle. I saw them taking my brother to the first vehicle.

“No.”

The guy’s grip tightened.

I knocked it off, twisting out of his hold, and at his look of surprise, I snarled back, “Do not attempt to force me. I know your skill level. You don’t know mine.” He let me go. I took advantage and moved around him.

They were loading Chase into the back. I jumped in next to him. They were going to shove him in and shut the door. I got in right as they were reaching for the door.

The guy saw me and paused. “What—”

Harden shot me a look, but commanded, “Leave him. We have to go.”

After that, they got in. Doors were closed. The rest of the guys streamed out and loaded up. We were off.

I waited until we got one block before speaking. “Did you kill those agents?”

Chase seemed to tense next to me.

There was no going back if they had. All of this would’ve been for nothing.

Harden turned around from the front seat. His eyes locked on mine and he shook his head. “Not one. They were tranqed. That was it.”

Good. I didn’t need the feds coming after me for murder.

We’d gone one more block before we heard in our ears, “Uh, guys?”

Harden pressed his com. “What is it?”

“Feds are going the opposite way of you.”

Harden twisted back to me, frowning.

He wasn’t the only one. I leaned forward. “How?”

“Someone broke into our system and took control,” the voice in our ear answered,

“How did that happen?”

The voice was in disbelief. “Remotely. Someone set up at a close enough distance, got in, took our signal, and they’re leading them away.”

I knew.

I knew.

Anger, hot and pulsating, rolled through my body, and I growled out an order. “You take that hack back and you send the feds anywhere except after that car.”

“I’ll try, but they’re moving out of range. I don’t know if I can stop it.”

“She’s smart. Trust your woman,” Chase said.

Trust her? I half growled right back at him. “Are you kidding me? You don’t know her.”

A glimmer of a smile flashed at me, then it was gone. He coughed, the exhaustion now seeping in, and his head bobbed up and down. “You’re right. I don’t.”

He seemed to dissolve in front of me.

What I saw in the house had been what he wanted those agents to see. Now he was here, and the mask was slipping. It was falling fast, too.

“Wait. The signal is gone,” said the voice in our ears.

I didn’t necessarily believe it, but I was praying. I was praying hard.

“We’re good. The feds are turning back to the house. The signal is totally gone.”

Thank God. Bailey was safe.

Still, I touched my radio. “I want a car sent to where that location was. Find her, follow her from a distance.”

“Got it.” And then, “A car has been dispatched. I got control again and went in to clear out the memory data or anything missed. But it’s completely gone.”

Harden shook his head. “What do you mean it’s gone? There should still be some feed there. You said you couldn’t loop over and replace their feed, but you could halt it from going to them and then go in and erase it.”

“That’s what I was going to do, but there’s no system left. She destroyed it all.”

“Jeez,” said one of the men in the vehicle.

Another laughed. “Can we recruit her?”

We drove the rest of the way in silence, taking back roads, and the only person who was making a sound was my brother. He was laughing.

“I like your woman. A lot.”

“Shut up.”





FIFTY-TWO

Bailey


I was coming out of the shower when the bedroom door slammed shut. A second later, the bathroom door was shoved open. In strode Kash.

Correction.

I’d been reaching for a towel, and my hand grabbed it, drawing it to me, but my concentration was all on what was coming toward me. He wasn’t coming at me light and casual. Oh hell no. He was heated. His eyes were flaring with some unnamed emotion, an emotion that was sending serious shivers down my back. And he wasn’t striding to me. There was no “stride” about him.

He was stalking me.

Kashton was in full-on predator mode, and I drew back just by instinct.