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His predator cousin wouldn’t listen to reason, and he wouldlet her take care of Dennis because Lou would yell at Kala less. And Loucouldn’t cut Kala off sexually. As threats went, it was definitely one thatwould work on him for the rest of his life.
“I wouldn’t say that,” their captor replied, a serpentinesmile crossing his face. He had a deep scar across his right cheek that matchedthe pictures they had of Huber. And TJ recognized the voice. “You’ll find withme, everything is negotiable. But first I would like to know who rescued you.I’m not normally in a position where I don’t understand the ground I walk upon,but I do with you, Sergeant Taggart. I rather thought you were a soldier whoaided a rival arms dealer, but you’re something more, aren’t you?”
That was where he was wrong. “Well, you got the soldier partright, man. I’m also a really nice guy whose team likes him. I don’t know whatthe German army is like, but we have a whole thing in the US military where wedon’t leave a man behind.”
Huber tsked as he moved closer. Now TJ could see the gun inthe holster at his side. He was sure they were all carrying. Were they planningon interrogating him here? That would lead to a gun battle because one way oranother, Zach, Kala, and Cooper would be walking into this bar guns blazing.
He would have to make sure he protected Lou.
“They never leave a single man behind,” Lou agreed. “Not oneor two or even seven. Those guys always have each other’s backs.”
Not exactly subtle, but she wasn’t in the best situation,and she’d managed to let Kala know how many dudes they were dealing with. Itwas obvious they hadn’t picked up on Lou herself being the one who’d actuallyrescued him.
“They’ll come after him this time, too,” Lou promised.
“Well, maybe I don’t need him,” Huber mused. “Maybe I’vedecided to play this a different way. I’ve done what I should have donebefore—a little research. You, Ms. Ward, might be the actual prize.”
That made the hair on TJ’s arms stand up straight. He shiftedaround to keep Lou behind him.
“And you should take her,” Dennis offered. “No harm, nofoul, right?”
Prick. “Lou’s got nothing to do with it, and don’t thinkI’ll forget that you said that, Sims. I protected her before. I’ll sure as hellprotect her now. Mr. Huber, if you let Lou go, I’ll tell you everything youwant to know about The Jester.”
“What?” Lou kind of screeched out the question.
TJ tried to turn, but one of the seven bad guys waved a gunin his face and muttered something in German that he took to mean stay still.He held his hands up to show how harmless he was. For now. “I meant what Isaid. I lied to you in Germany. I know a lot.”
Huber waved him off, choosing to stare at Lou. “I thinkperhaps knowing The Jester’s identity is not the best way to go about things.It’s recently been pointed out to me that whoever wears that mask is ruthlessand has even less care for human life than I do. However, there is something Ineed. You see, I have an associate who wants some very specific informationthat he believes only The Jester knows. But I think I’ve found another way toget him what he needs.”
Lou.
Whoever had been pulling Huber’s strings back in Germanywanted to contact the bombmaker. Lou couldn’t contact the bombmaker, but whatshe was excellent at was reverse engineering. “You want to see if Lou canrecreate what the bombmaker did.”
His baby was a genius and she used it for good, but if shecould be twisted, oh, the chaos she would cause. And they could twist her withthe right pressure—that pressure being him.
“Yes, I think that would be an even better gift to myassociate than giving him the name,” Huber explained. “What if I could justgive him the bomb he so clearly needs? Wouldn’t that be infinitely morehelpful? That was when I realized the woman who could do it was inside mycompound. She’s so much more valuable than you.”
“That has always been true.”
“TJ,” Lou said, his name an obvious warning.
One he couldn’t take at this point.
Huber said something in German to one of the men, and thenTJ had a gun in his face. He took a deep breath to calm the panic thatthreatened. His first instinct was to punch out, take the gun, and startkilling these fuckers.
But he had to think of Lou. They were outnumbered, and shecould get caught in the cross fire. The space was too small for a gunfight. Hehad to wait for the team and then cover Lou with his body and try to get herout while Kala, Coop, and Zach took care of business.
“Hands up,” the man in front of him said, his English almostunaccented. He was likely in his thirties, with dark hair and eyes and blandgood looks.
TJ held his hands up as the man looked him in the eyes andthen nodded to the dude on his right. That man holstered his weapon and ran hishands down TJ’s sides, a routine pat down before they likely tied him up and helost the opportunity to do anything at all.
He took a deep breath, trying to decide if he should takethe chance.
And then the man’s hand ran over the gun at his back. Ranover it like it wasn’t there.
He straightened up again and nodded to his boss.
He couldn’t have missed the gun, yet he’d just told everyonethat TJ didn’t have a weapon on him.
