AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I offered her a hand as she struggled with making it up on the running board. Once inside the truck, I shut the door and hurried around to the driver’s side. I climbed in, pulled out of the lot, and kept my attention on the road. I made sure that no one followed us.
“How have you been? Well, I mean minus all this,” I said. What a stupid question. Since when did I become a bumbling fool around the ladies? Hazel had captured my interest and my heart in high school. We’d gone to boarding school together in Chicago. While my parents had lived in Montana, I’d gotten into a mountain of trouble, and they’d sent me to live with my Grandma in Chicago. That hadn’t lasted. Two weeks with her and I had the option of attending military school or boarding school.
Hazel sighed long and loud. Her stare was on me the entire time.
“Do I have something on my face?” I asked. I rubbed at my forehead.
“No. It’s just, I haven’t seen you in so long. I want to hug you and then hit you for breaking my heart,” Hazel said.
What? When had I broken her heart? I tried mulling it over, but my attention was quickly diverted when a black town car headed north up the road. On instinct, I reached out and guided her head down so that as the vehicle passed up, they wouldn’t see her face.
“More Russians?” Hazel’s voice trembled.
They didn’t look like the goons from earlier, but it was still peculiar to see anyone who wasn’t a local at this hour.
I waited until the vehicle passed to answer. “I don’t think they were with the guys back there at the restaurant.” There were guests who stayed at the resort and came up to the restaurant or hiked on the local trails, but that didn’t happen until daylight. Something felt amiss, but I didn’t want to worry her either.
The sun was almost about to peek from the horizon. I stomped on the gas. It would be easier to move in the dark. Daylight would make Hazel stand out with that fiery auburn hair. I’d have to send Ariella to the store to pick up hair dye and probably a few other necessities for Hazel. One thing at a time. The first was making sure she survived.
I pulled up out front of Eagle Tactical and rushed her inside the building, securing the deadbolt the moment we were inside. “Come with me.” I led her down the hallway and to my office. I didn’t want her anywhere near the entrance, and while there was a backdoor, it wasn’t easily accessible with the snow and ice along the path leading up to it. No one ever shoveled the back walk.
She followed me into my office, her footsteps soft and invisible against the tile as my strides were loud and forceful, as I announced my presence.
Aiden and Declan poked their heads out of their respective offices. “Good morning,” they said in unison.
“This is Hazel. Hazel, meet Aiden, Declan.” I said, introducing them.
“Glad you made it in time to the restaurant,” Declan said. “Lincoln texted us the firefight was over, or we’d have sprinted over to help.”
“We had it handled.” We weren’t outmatched or outgunned. I’d been through worse countless times. “I’m going to take Hazel into my office, chat with her in private for a few minutes. The sheriff will come by in a bit for our statements. Let him in, would you? Also, keep the door locked. We can’t be too careful.”
I didn’t wait for their answer. I shut the office door almost in their faces. They took a knowing step back; I was in charge since this was my case. Hazel was a priority,mypriority.
“Have a seat,” I said, offering her the sofa in the corner. I approached the storage cabinet and fumbled through a few trinkets before landing on one that would have to do.
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
I showed her the golden bangle, sliding it on past her hand, letting it dangle on her wrist.
“I’m more of a silver kind of girl,” Hazel said.
“Keep that on until everything is resolved with Franco. Okay?” We didn’t have much in terms of tracking devices upstairs.
The basement housed our surveillance equipment, specialty gadgets, and a high-end server with a faraday cage to keep hackers out while we were able to infiltrate even the toughest security. We also had weapons locked away, but we’d made an agreement early on that only those of us who worked for Eagle Tactical would be the only ones to know about the basement or what was down there.
I wasn’t ready to leave Hazel unattended, even to go downstairs and search for a different style of tracking device. The bangle would suffice, and it looked good on her.
She stared at the bracelet on her wrist. A faint smile played at the corner of her lips. “If I’d have known you were going to give me jewelry, I’d have visited you a lot sooner.”
I turned the desk chair around and slunk into the leather, facing her. “It’s a tracking device. As long as you’re wearing it, you’ll be safe.”
“Isn’t it rather obvious?” She thrust her arm at me, the bracelet swinging on her wrist. “It’s not very discreet.”
We had discreet high-tech trackers, but the fact was I wasn’t letting her out of my sight. It was a formality, just in case something happened. “It doesn’t have to be. I’m not letting Franco anywhere near you.” I sat across from her, clasped my hands together in my lap. “I want to know everything about the bastard. Lay it on me, all of it.”
Her fingers played with the bracelet as she spoke. “I don’t know much about him. My brother, the new head of the Russian mafia, sold me to his second in command.”
“He sold you?” My fists clenched, and I stood disgusted with any man who thought a woman was his property. I couldn’t sit still; my legs wouldn’t allow it. I paced the length of my office, practically wearing a hole in the tile. “Keep going.” I needed more details. As much as it sickened me to hear it, I wanted to knoweverything.
