A dull thud has my head snapping to the bedroom door, and I start pulling out the Glock still in the duffle from last night when one of my guards calls out.
“Everything’s okay!” he yells from the living room. “I just tripped over the carpet.”
“Our best guys, my ass,” I grumble under my breath, tossing the gun back into the bag before venturing out to the living room. “You guys need help?”
Only, when I get there,myguys are out cold—one on the couch and one face down on the floor with a small blotch of blood where his nose smashed against the ground, little darts sticking out of their necks.
“Tranquilizers?”
“Correct,” a voice from behind me replies, the same voice that called out pretending to be one of the guards that I should have taken more time to get to know.
Before I can react, I feel a prick in my neck, and something covers my face, then everything turns pitch black.
* * *
Sawyer
The drive to Peak Securities Headquarters is made in silence and not of the comfortable kind. The tension radiating off Jonah could be cut with a knife, and I’m honestly nervous.
Jonah can be intense, I’ve witnessed it enough times during our service, but I’ve never been on the receiving end.
“We’ll join debrief in five,” Jonah informs Elijah in a dry tone as we walk into the building, indicating for me to follow him to his office.
“What’s up, Joe?” I try to sound lighthearted even though I’m not feeling so great about the conversation ahead.
“Tell me you didn’t, Sawyer. Tell me my intuition here is so off it’s on a different planet.” I blink at him, playing dumb though I know exactly what he’s asking. “You’re a womanizer, but you’re not an asshole who uses women.”
“No, I’m not.” I try to keep the offense out of my voice, knowing Jonah is right. Heck, I was thinking the exact same thing up to thirty minutes ago.
“Then why do I get the feeling that you turned your notorious charms on Maddie?”
“My mission was to befriend her. That requires a degree of kindness.”
Jonah groans out in exasperation. “She’s alone and scared, Sawyer. If what I’m reading off you guys is you being protective of an asset and Maddie having a crush, then fine. But that’s not what I think is happening.”
“Just ask your question, Lieutenant,” I command in a firm voice, making it clear there’s no place for him to argue or keep beating around the bush.
“Did you have sex with Maddie?” Jonah confronts me with the question I knew I’d have to answer eventually. I was hoping it would be after Maddie was safe, though.
I’m about to respond, tell Jonah everything, starting with how I feel for her, but then Elijah comes bursting into the office, Micah and Isaiah right after, all with a panicked look on their faces.
“Someone placed a call to Langley from inside the safe house, and now we can’t reach Evert and Finley.” Elijah’s gritty voice is tight, and I feel as if someone’s grabbed my heart in their fist and is squeezing hard while simultaneously trying to pull it out of my chest.
Before anyone can react, I’m already running full speed towards the garage, barely hearing Jonah when he yells at me to stop. The blood is rushing in my ears, cars honking as I zip by on the Ninja bike I took from the garage.
I shouldn’t have left her. I made Maddie a promise, and I broke it, and now she’s gone. Someone took her because I let her out of my sight. God knows what they’re doing to her.
“Fuck.” That last thought rattles me worse than I was prepared for, and I run into the safe house only to find Evert and Finley lying limp in the living room and Maddie nowhere to be seen.
My phone is ringing off the hook, and I pick it up, my fingers shaking as they rake through my hair.
“Tranquilizer gun,” I say into the receiver, not giving Jonah a chance to speak first. “Evert and Finley are out cold, and Evert’s nose is broken. There’s a duffle Maddie was packing to run still on her bed.”With my clothes too, I realize when I look inside. “Her computer is still here and her phone as well, so she didn’t leave by choice.”
She was waiting for me. She chose to stay despite the danger just so we could be together, and I let her down because I didn’t do what I knew was right. I didn’t stay.
“Sawyer, stay in the safe house. We’ll rendezvous and make a plan.” Jonah’s voice is firm and commanding, but I can sense the hint of pleading in it. He doesn’t want me to go on a suicide mission.
“I’m sorry, Joe, but I have to go get her.”