Page 12 of Brooks

That was the sad reality of my life. I spent the majority of it dodging bullets. Scumbags didn’t like it when I shut their rackets down and stopped the flow of money. It was simple economics.

“Five armed males. There are two in the cab of the truck, three in the bed,” Thad reported.

Declan pulled his phone out of his pocket, swiped the screen, and walked out of the room.

“Not twice a day, huh? Is it safe to say you’re taking fire once a day, then?” Brooks asked.

“No. Not every day. I really need to get back to work.”

I couldn’t decipher the strange look on his face. His jaw ticked and his eyes narrowed. I was happy Declan had returned, until he spoke.

“No reason for you to rush off now,” Declan said. “The annex is on fire.”

“What the fuck? I have to go.”

“You have orders to stay put.”

I took a moment to stare at the ceiling and blow out a calming breath. Declan was full of shit. I didn’t have orders to do anything.

“We’re done playing games, Declan. I’ve shown you and your team nothing but respect and now you’re lying to me. I’m leaving.”

Brooks stepped in front of me halting my exit. “I’m not fucking around, Brooks.”

Thad broke into our standoff. “Three hostiles are out of the bed of the pickup, patrolling the front gate.”

I was screwed. Five men were going to break through the gate any second and when they did, I needed to be armed.

Chapter 5

Tatiana’s eyes held mine before they shifted to Declan.

“The men outside work for a man named, Matek Nazari. They’ve been hired to kill me—”

“Who is he?” Declan cut her off.

“A trafficker—”

“Human?” he asked.

“Any minute they’re going to breach the gate,” Tatiana snarled. “This would go a lot faster if you’d let me finish without interruptions. He traffics ancient artifacts. I was posing as a competing buyer. I put in a bid Nazari wasn’t happy with. He’s been sending his men after me to try and take out the competition. Things were going as planned until you guys showed up. I was letting them play their games. Unfortunately for them, now I have to take them out. I can’t risk them going back to Nazari and reporting I’ve been seen with American soldiers.”

“You’re agency?” I couldn’t hide my distaste. “Not that any of us were buying the UNPOA cover.”

“I’m…something. Which is not up for discussion. What else do you have in the weapons cache?” She directed her question to Declan.

My team leader eyed her before he turned to Thad, and with a lift of his chin Thad jogged out of the room.

“What do you know about the guys out front?”

“Nothing. The only thing I know is they miss. Before today, they’ve made three attempts, all as sloppy as the current situation. Nazari is a heavy hitter but apparently hires his hits out on the cheap.”

Thad came back in the room with two HK416 rifles. He handed one to Tatiana before passing one to me. Next he pulled fully loaded magazines from the pockets of his cargo pants. Finally, he passed her a Sig P226, identical to the 9mm pistol he’d handed me earlier.

I don’t know what kind of man it made me, but watching her inspect the rifle she’d been given was turning me on. She fingered the mag release button, ejected it, confirming it was loaded, jammed it back into place, and pulled back on the charging handle. The sound of the metal slamming, pushing a bullet into the chamber, was some sort of tactical foreplay I’d never experienced.

“Two tangos broke south,” Thad informed us. “They’re moving around back.”

“You two, take the back. Thad, you’re with me out front,” Declan told us, then repeated his instructions into a two-way radio adding, “Max, Kyle, you stay on the second floor.”