put his gun in the hand holding her and took out his phone to confirm the money transfer had been made. The distraction could be a chance to run for freedom. She struggled against him, but his arm was unmovable. She elbowed him in the gut and hit only his vest and the muscle beneath. He didn’t flinch or make any noise of pain. At least that would have given her some satisfaction.
“Thanks for the payout,” he said. “Trust me,” he whispered into her ear before he pushed her to the other men.
She stumbled in her heels, but one of the men grabbed her. He dragged her toward a car at the opening of the alley.
More gunshots, and Kit ducked. Were they killing the mercenary? It would serve him right. Would-be murderers had it coming.
A man with curly hair shoved her against the car and pulled her to the ground. He wasn’t moving, and he was heavy. It was hard to breathe with his weight pinning her. Several seconds passed before she realized he was dead on top of her. She kicked at him, trying to move him off her. Now was her opportunity to run for freedom.
The body gave way, and then the mercenary was hauling her to her feet. The other men were dead in the alley, blood pooling around their bodies.
Hysteria and panic clawed at her. If he would callously kill these men, he would kill her. Three more men entered the alley. They advanced on her and the mercenary. He nudged her farther down the alley in the opposite direction.
He was already shooting at the others. “Run, Princess. Get out of here.”
Confusion morphed into self-preservation. He was letting her go. She started to run and then stopped to look over her shoulder. He was fighting the three men, landing punches but taking punches, too. She wanted to run, but something held her feet in place.
Before she could decide what to do next, the mercenary had knocked out the three men. He raced toward her. “Come on. I told you to run. You need a better sense of survival.”
“I was worried about you,” she said.
He grunted. “Don’t worry about me. Focus your energy on living through this.”
He threw her on the back of a motorcycle and then climbed on. He handed her a helmet. She didn’t have it snapped and he was already taking off from the alley. As the cycle lurched, she grabbed his shoulders to steady herself.
She had too many questions. Was he planning to sell her or kill her? He had already sold her, but then had saved her. Why? What did he need her to do? What was his connection to the Locker?
The motorcycle drew to a stop on the side of a quiet street lined with boutiques closed for the night. Kit’s legs were shaking with fatigue, and her body was trembling.
He helped her off the motorcycle and she collapsed against him, unable to stand. Her dress was torn and dirty, and based on the way it was twisted, she must have looked indecent. She’d lost a shoe, and her foot hurt.
“I think there’s something in my heel,” she said, lifting it and trying to get a better look.
He set her on his motorcycle and knelt on the ground. Though his gaze dodged left and right, he examined her foot with surprising gentleness. “A piece of glass is in it.”
“Pull it out,” she said.
He held up his finger and reached into a bag on his bike. He removed a first aid kit. “Your shoe is the most impractical choice.”
“I wasn’t planning to run away from armed killers tonight,” she said.
She flinched when he removed the glass. Then he squeezed her foot and cleaned it with alcohol wipes. She held her teeth together to keep from screaming.
“It’s not too deep. We’ll have a doctor look at it later.”
What were his plans for her? If he took her to a doctor, could she find help? “Why did you save me?”
“I was sent to retrieve you.”
“You sold me to those men.”
He gave her a look that said, “Get real.” “I conned them out of two-point-five million dollars.”
“Aren’t you worried they’ll find you?” she asked. That was a lot of money to lose. Retribution would be paid.
“No.”
Just no? Not worried about it? Who was this man? She had left this confusing world years before with zero intention of returning. She hadn’t fit in then, and she didn’t fit in now. It had rules she didn’t understand. “Please let me go,” she said.
Compassion touched the corners of his eyes. “I didn’t plan for it to go this way.”
What had he planned? He’d shown up wearing two guns, a knife and a bulletproof vest. He had to have expected bullets would fly and people would be hurt. “What are we doing now?” They couldn’t wait on the street long. People were looking for them.
“We’re close to the safe house. Someone will explain more then.”
“You can’t explain now?” she asked.
“No.”
He was infuriating with his uninformative responses.
“I need to call in that I have you.”
Call in to whom? “What if I run?” she asked.
“You don’t want to do that,” he said.
Yes, she did.
“If you run, I will catch you. You are in danger, and it’s my job to take you somewhere safe. The sooner you accept that you need my help, the easier this will go.”
* * *
As a retrieval specialist for the West Company and as a former member of the Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, Griffin Brooks knew not every extraction went well. During his time with Delta Force and then with the West Company, he could count on one hand the number that had.
This case was especially problematic. He was part of a team locating the group that had worked on a secret government project. Those individuals were being hunted by an extremist organization, and when the scientists didn’t comply with the terrorists’ demands, they were killed and their bodies dumped in various locations around the United States. The West Company had kept the murders, and any connection between them, quiet and out of the media. As the bodies piled up, the United States government became more nervous. They wanted this handled quickly and effectively.
The international terrorist group known as Incognito had started out as a cyber-only terrorist organization. In recent months, they had allied themselves with several mercenary groups and had shifted their focus to collecting the scientists who had worked on the Locker. Their means were no longer isolated to the computer. Kidnappings and murders were frequently tied to them. Griffin didn’t know what the Locker was, but it was important to keep it, and by extension the scientists who had contributed to it, safe. He knew the code names for three team members who were considered most at risk: Kit, who had gone by the name Lotus, Arsenic, and Stargazer. Arsenic and Stargazer had left the project before it had ended and were proving harder to trace.
Incognito was hunting the three lead scientists, and they wouldn’t stop. The United States had connected the dead bodies to the secret military project, and they’d called in the West Company to assist. Details were closely guarded, and every item was need-to-know.
Connor West, owner of the West Company, had deployed other specialists to retrieve the remaining members of the project, beyond the three leads. Some were deep in hiding. Griffin had been assigned the task to locate and bring in Kit Walker. He had studied her file, but she was more than a techie with a PhD and a love of computers. He had expected her to be smart, but he hadn’t expected her spunk or the red minidress and sky-high bedroom heels.
Dress and shoes aside, she wasn’t his type. Since his wife had died, he went for women who had looks over brains and were more submissive