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Gage grabbed a lamp, swung hard and fast, and caught the guy with the gun across his face. The gun went off, but the blow had knocked it off course and Gage was still moving forward. The second guy was also going for a weapon, so Gage took him down with a roundhouse kick to the side of his head and two hard punches—one to the throat and one to the temple. Whoever these two were, they weren’t top-of-the-line pros, just hired muscle, Gage would guess.
He heard Anna cry out and saw the first guy had gotten off the floor and headed for her, trying to wrestle her purse from her. She gave slightly, put the guy off balance, and kicked him hard in the groin.Good for you, Gage thought. The guy doubled over, and she was able to yank herself and her purse free from his hold.
Striding to her, Gage grabbed Anna’s hand. “Time to go, before reinforcements arrive.”
“You think there will be more?” She hung back, but Gage dragged her out into the hallway.
He punched the call button for the elevator, and when it showed, he started it down on its own. No sense walking into anything by doing the expected. For all he knew, those guys from the apartment had friends waiting in the lobby. He headed to the stairs. “I think these two are working for someone—meaning whoever is giving them their marching orders will be around somewhere. I also think whatever they think you have is something they’re willing to kill for.” He pulled her with him into the stairwell. Their steps echoed on the metal treads.
She wrenched free of his hold. “What I have? What are you even talking about?” Her frown deepened. “Come to think of it, what are you doing here? Have you been following me? What is this all about?”
He grabbed her wrist again. “We’ll do twenty questions later. Right now, we need to move.”
She struggled against him, but he had a good grip on her now, and he had a substantial advantage in terms of size and muscle—though of course he didn’t want to hurt her. “I’m not going anywhere with you, not until I know what’s going on.” He could hear the fear in her voice, but she was trying to put a brave front on it.
“Bad stuff, Anna.”
“I’m not leaving Romeo with those…those robbers!” She grabbed the stairway banister and hung on. That stopped him.
Gage let out a breath and pulled out a burner phone. “Fine.” He dialed 9-1-1. “Hello? I want to report shots fired at the apartment next to mine.” He reeled off her address. “I’m in six-twelve, and it was next door. I don’t know—I think it’s a robbery. Yeah, I’ll wait.” He started down again, and this time, Anna went with him. When they reached the lobby, he pulled open the door and glanced around, checking to see if anyone was in sight before leaving the safety of the stairwell. The lobby had potted plants and a fish tank but no people—not for now, anyway. Gage tossed the phone into the tank and kept pulling Anna with him. “There. Cops will be here in no time, meaning we need to be gone. They’ll look after Romeo”—okay, that was probably a lie, but he didn’t have time to argue with her any more—“but if that cat’s got any sense, he’s hiding and will stay hidden.”
He peeked out the front door and heard something zip by. Next to him, a piece of the brick building façade cracked off. Grabbing Anna, he pulled her back away from the entrance.
She stared at him, eyes wide. “What was…?”
“Sniper fire. Trying to keep us here.”
Her face paled even more, making the freckles across her nose stand out. “Sniper? Someone’s trying to kill me? Or you?”
“No, I’d be dead if they were shooting to kill. They had an opportunity and used it to push us back inside.” He pulled out another phone. Anna slanted him a look, but he called the emergency number his team had set up when this ride began. Scotty answered. “Need some help,” Gage said. He gave a fast sitrep.
Scotty was all business when he spoke again, none of the usual humor in his tone. “Hang tight. Kyle just showed his face, so we’re on our way over. Is there a back door?”
Gage glanced at Anna and repeated the question to her. She bit her lower lip, then nodded. Gage spoke into the phone again. “Yeah, but my bet is it’ll be covered, too. We’re going to have a small window to move.”
“Give us ten.”
“Make it five. I hear sirens.” Gage tucked the phone away and pulled Anna over to a corner of the lobby. He took her shoulders in her hands and made her face him. “I’ll explain later, but right now my focus is on saving my ass, your skin, and whatever the hell someone wants from you. Do you trust me?”
She lifted her chin. “I barely know you.”
“Yeah, but that’s not what I asked.”
She stared at him, eyes still wide and scared. He saw her throat work as she swallowed. “What do we do?” It wasn’t quite a solidYes, I trust you,but it would have to do for now. At least she was cooperating.
“We need the cops to ignore us. Just follow my lead. And if I say run, you run like you’ve got the hounds of hell on your heels.”
She nodded. The scream of sirens grew louder. Gage ruffled Anna’s hair, pulled his shirt halfway out of his jeans, then pulled Anna into his arms and kissed her.
For a second, he lost track of the world. She parted her lips and let him dive into her, and everything around them faded. Then the building’s front doors burst open. Gage had no problem looking startled—or acting like he didn’t welcome the interruption.
One of the cops fixed him with a glare. “You call about shots fired?”
Gage put on a blank face. “What? Shots?”
The cop’s partner batted his arm and nodded to the elevator. The two headed upstairs. Gage grabbed Anna’s hand and went for the back exit. Opening the door set off an alarm, but Gage wanted noise and confusion just now. Cops were showing up in back, too, and Gage waved toward the lobby. “Two other guys in blue just went upstairs. What’s going on? Did someone get shot? They said there were shots? Dammit, I thought this was a safe neighborhood. What’s going on?”
One of the uniformed officers stepped out of his car. Something wasn’t right. Gage didn’t know what it was, but the tingling on the back of his neck said he’d seen something that didn’t fit. The two cops swapped a look, and then one of them was going for his gun—and that’s when it hit Gage. The cop had a tattoo peeking out from under the collar of his uniform. Specifically, a well-knowngangtattoo. No cop would have that tat visible and still be on the force.
