But now was not the time to get lost in his blue eyes, study his chiseled and handsome face, or fantasize about running her fingers through his short sandy-blond hair. She didn’t let men distract or affect her, and she wasn’t about to start now, no matter how appealing this male specimen was.
She turned to the man on the floor, shoved him onto his hurt shoulder, ignoring his grunt of pain, and then pushed him over face-first on the tile floor. Springing on top of him, she yanked both of his hands behind his back and dug her knee into his shoulder. No exit wound in the back meant it would hurt immensely.
Once upon a time, she would’ve winced and shied away from hurting somebody, but she’d seen too many evil deeds in her travels around the world, done too much herself to waste precious time attempting to “talk” to hardened criminals. With her level of training, she’d been able to right a lot of wrongs and prevent a myriad of tragedies from happening. But not enough. Not nearly enough. She’d seen enough atrocities from human trafficking rings, drug lords, crime syndicates, and lone criminals to harden her in ways her mom and dad would probably shed tears over if they knew about. Thankfully, she was an expert at hiding the truth from almost everyone. Papa being the lone exception.
“Braden, can you bring me some rope, duct tape, or, worst case, dish towels to tie this loser up?”
The man was panting out breaths of pain and not even trying to fight her.
“Sure.”
“Now tell me who you work for and what you hoped to accomplish tonight,” Maddie directed.
“No,” the man bit out.
“I’ll loosen the pressure on your right arm and move my knee if you start talking. If you don’t, I’ll shoot you in the left shoulder and pull them both back harder.”
Braden approached. She looked up at him. His blue eyes were surprised, concerned, disturbed by her actions. It made her a little sad to see that he was glimpsing how hardened she was. It didn’t matter. She flirted with men all over the world, sometimes even letting the really impressive ones kiss her or take her out to dinner, but she was too cold inside to have a lasting relationship with anyone. She’d have fun with Braden, maybe get a few tantalizing kisses out of the deal, save the universe with her impressive family, and be on her way around the world again.
She used her cover of human-interest photography to rescue innocent victims from human trafficking and protect villagers caught between feuding drug and crime lords, working with Jasmine Quinn and, by association, the famed Sutton Smith to obtain the intel and assignments she needed. Sometimes she even worked with Sutton’s impressive team members, but mostly she worked alone.
Papa was the only family member who knew what she really did. Even her parents, her brother Colton and her sisters Alivia and Jessie had no clue. They were all so proud of her photography success. She was a fabulous photographer, but spent minimal time on it, mostly using her expensive camera as an accessory to back up her cover story. Little did her family know, she had some incredible employees who developed her photos and kept her brand selling, while she used that money to protect those in harm’s path.
“Thanks,” she said, taking the clean dish towel from his hand. “Keep an eye out for a van, please.”
Braden nodded and moved to one of the front windows.
She leaned down and snarled, “Now do you want me to shoot you and then start tying your arms really snugly behind your back, or do you want to talk?” She needed to get Braden out of here. Who knew what they had loaded in that van or where they’d gone? The fact that they weren’t here yet had the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. Did they believe she’d called the cops? Not if they knew anything about the Deltas. She’d rather get Papa’s people here and let them turn this guy over to the police after they had the complete story. Maybe the fact the van wasn’t here yet meant they were after Braden and thought he had called the police or the Navy shore patrol.
“I was instructed to bring in Lieutenant Braden Moyle. That’s all I know.”
She pulled harder and was rewarded with a yelp, but inside she relaxed a little. Nothing related to the Deltas. Maybe the van wasn’t coming back and had bugged out thinking the police were on their way. She could hope, but she wouldn’t compromise Braden’s safety by relaxing. “Bring him in to who?”
“I don’t know who. We were to bring him to North Pier, and they said they’d find us.”
“Who do you work for?”
“We’re independent. We get contracts for jobs from … lots of people.”
Mafia? Drug lords? King Frederick? Despite not wanting to add to her nightmares or her body count, she almost wished she’d placed the shot in his heart. She could’ve ended his miserable existence and the possibility of him escaping and hurting more people. Papa had taught her to never take life if she didn’t have to. Despite the high number of deaths she’d caused, she’d honored that teaching as much as she could over the past four years. Maybe an interrogator could get more out of this man, but she didn’t have time.
She looked up at Braden and he glanced her direction at the same time. “No van,” he said.
“Good.”
She was oddly saddened by the way he was studying her. It definitely wasn’t the smitten look he’d had when he’d pinned her against the fridge and almost kissed her. Whatever. She didn’t have time for intense romantic feelings anyway. He’d stolen her attention from the job, and that wasn’t acceptable.
“Bring me the duct tape, pack your essentials, and grab my bags,” she instructed. “We need to be on the move before his buddies come back or someone else completes the job.”
He thankfully didn’t argue, walked over, and handed her the tape. Maddie holstered her gun and got to work tying the guy up. “If you want a lot more pain, fight me,” she warned.
“I believe you,” he admitted quietly.
He’d given her info and he surprisingly didn’t fight her, so she very kindly rolled him over, pressed the towel into his wound, and taped it up to stop the bleeding. Then she braced his arm against his side before trussing him up and leaving him against the wall sitting up.
“They’ll find you,” the man said, staring at her.
She realized why he hadn’t fought her. It was just like she’d feared. They were coming for him. Whether to rescue him or kill him for failing, she wasn’t certain.