Page 33 of The Reluctant Siren (Texas Sirens: Legacy #2)

Harlow dropped down on the lawn in the greenest patch she could find since she hadn’t expected the building to have a slanted roof. Jasper had claimed he could get low enough that the drop wouldn’t be too bad. She’d been willing to chance it, but Niall had thrown a Dom hissy fit, and since she really could roll off the fucker, she’d given in.

She looked up and Niall was climbing down. He got to the last rung and carefully jumped.

Jasper immediately took off since he’d already heard some radio chatter about a rogue chopper, and he’d explained he was too pretty to go to jail, so he was heading for his uncle’s office where he would update Big Tag on what was going on.

Niall winced as he straightened up but didn’t complain. Not about pain.

“You should have let me go first. I would have caught you.”

She glanced around, her SIG in hand. Everything looked quiet and calm now that the chopper was off. She looked at the numbers. They would have to move to the other side.

“I couldn’t be sure they don’t have someone on lookout. I didn’t want you to get shot while you were trying to catch me. I knew you would want to.”

He frowned her way.

“Well the next time we have to jump out of a chopper, I’d like the chance to spare your knees.”

He was a beautiful man. Could she trust him? She damn straight couldn’t trust the asshole she’d come to save.

“We should move around to the front.”

She started for what seemed to be the parking lot, moving past the laundry room. This wasn’t like her condo. There were no inside amenities. If Jensen wanted to do a load of laundry and it was raining, he would have to wait. She glanced inside but no one was there.

“Tell me again why we’re not calling the cops.”

Niall’s voice had gone quiet, and he moved behind her.

“Because it would cause a hell of a tangle, and we can’t be sure they won’t arrest Jensen and put him in a cell alongside whoever is trying to kill him.”

She moved slowly, listening for anything that would let her know they weren’t alone. The apartment was set back from the street, and they were in a rundown part of the city. There was a convenience store across the street ahead, but the stores around it were all closed down and abandoned.

All of this could have been avoided if her asshole cousin answered his phone or read his texts.

“Traffic was awful,”

a deep voice was saying.

“Look, can we tell my boss I got here in plenty of time? You said he just went upstairs, right? Big Tag doesn’t care that there was a three-car wreck on I30. He’ll expect my ass to fly here, and he can be mean. I lost his damn niece. He’s never going to forget that. I’m in the doghouse.”

Landon Vail. He was a McKay-Taggart bodyguard. She breathed a deep sigh of relief and moved around the building.

“What’s happening? Where’s Jensen?”

She wasted no time.

Jack’s eyes widened when he saw her. He looked up as though he could still see the chopper.

“Damn it. Ruby. Ruby sent a damn chopper to pick your ass up and make my life hell.”

He pulled his cell phone.

“Guess I should have answered her.”

“Yeah, you should have,”

Harlow said with a frown.

“She wasn’t flirting with you, asshole. She was trying to tell you that the hit is on for today.”

Landon raised a hand.

“Yeah, I’m supposed to tell you that, too. I was just getting to the pertinent information.”

“After you covered your ass,”

Niall added.

Landon sighed.

“It was traffic, and no one sent a chopper for me. Look, I’m here as Jensen’s bodyguard.”

Jack’s eyes rolled.

“I think I can handle it. He doesn’t need a bodyguard.”

Landon’s eyes narrowed.

“Big Tag says he does, so if you want to fire me, shoot me because that’s the only way I’m not glued to this dude. Apparently there’s a hit on him, and it’s supposed to go down today. Also, my boss thinks that this Hamilton guy might already be on the move.”

Jack’s head shook.

“No. My intel puts him still in LA until this afternoon.”

“You have a leak,”

Harlow pointed out.

“Otherwise, how would they have known you were moving him? We need to put hands on him. I can’t believe you let him walk up there alone.”

Jack flushed slightly.

“I was on the damn phone and then this guy came flying in like a bat out of hell. Look, you might follow the big guy’s orders, but I work for the FBI, and Big Tag isn’t a god there.”

His jaw dropped as he stared at his cell. “Fuck me.”

“He’s on the third floor according to Ruby’s intel,”

Niall stated.

“I’ll go up and bring him down.”

Landon moved in.

“Not without me you won’t. I’m serious. Big Tag’s niece wiggled her way out of a bathroom window and got kidnapped on my watch. And then she got her ass kidnapped from where the kidnappers held her. The first kidnappers. There were two. Now I was not responsible for the secondary kidnapping…”

She held a hand out.

“I don’t need to know. Niall and I will go get Jensen and once he’s safely at the MT building, we’ll let you guys handle it.”

Jack’s head shook.

“We’re going downtown to my building.”

“No.”

On this she would not be moved.

“You might work for the FBI, but someone there is obviously working for Hamilton. There is zero chance all of this is coincidence. Who did you call last night? Did you tell someone you thought you would be bringing him in today?”

“More importantly, did you tell someone where his data was?”

Niall asked.

“I talked to several people. People I trust. People I’ve worked with for years now,”

Jack replied.

“Then give me a logical reason why the hit suddenly had a target date, and it was the very morning you were bringing Jensen back to Dallas.”

She wasn’t letting Jack off the hook. He was loyal, but he had to see logic.

“I’m not joking with you, Jack. You are going to take him to Big Tag and you can have whatever meeting you want in that building, but you aren’t bringing him in until you figure out how this information got out. You’re lucky they weren’t waiting for him. How long has he been up there?”

“He was walking up the stairs when I got here,”

Landon explained.

“I saw him disappear around the corner, but Jack said it was okay.”

A pit opened in Harlow’s gut. She stared at her cousin.

“I swear if he’s dead, I’ll take you out myself.”

Jack seemed to suddenly take the threat seriously.

“I didn’t… I thought Ruby was calling to tell me I was a bastard for taking Jensen in. He wouldn’t let me leave him, damn it. Whose idea do you think this was? It sure as hell wasn’t mine since somewhere out there my papa is mad as hell at me and likely ready to sic my momma on me. What am I supposed to do? Knock him out and leave his ass behind? I have a killer to bring in.”

She wasn’t truly angry about that.

“I don’t care that you brought him here. Jensen is a big boy, and he made his choices. He wants to go into witness protection for the rest of his life, more power to him. He’ll get a whole new life, and I won’t be around to bug him anymore.”

“I don’t think that’s what he meant,”

Jack argued.

She didn’t care.

“What I’m angry about is the fact that you ignored every attempt to contact you. Ruby has been trying to warn you all morning, and you ignored her like she’s some chick with a crush you don’t want to deal with.”

“Believe me, I know she doesn’t have a damn crush on me,”

Jack shot back.

“That woman can’t stand me which is why I avoided her, but I do understand. I’m sorry, Harlow.”

“I don’t need an apology. I need Jensen alive and whole and on his way to someplace safe, which will not be the FBI building until you figure out where your leak is,”

she announced.

“I know you can’t imagine anyone would take Hamilton’s piles of cash over their deep belief in our justice system…”

Jack held a hand up.

“I get it. I fucked up, and for some stupid reasons that I need to work on. I’ll go get him. You stay here.”

She was done talking to Jack. She started for the stairs.

“Landon, we’re going up. Watch for anyone coming in or going out.”

Landon moved behind her.

“I’ll take a spot on the stairs while you grab him.”

She strode down the path toward the stairs at the west side of the building that would lead her to Jensen’s apartment. Naturally it was as far away as possible, and she wondered if he chose it for the privacy. It certainly wasn’t for comfort, as the place looked like it was going to fall apart. The walkway was lined with overgrown bushes that would have been nice if anyone gave a damn. They gave the place privacy, but in a creepy way.

She rounded the corner and felt a hand on her arm as someone moved from said creepy bushes, and she realized that her instincts were right on time. A big guy with disheveled hair and kind of wild eyes pulled her against him.

“Drop the gun, bitch,”

he snarled. He had his own gun shoved against her side.

Niall immediately dropped the gun and had his hands up.

“Hey, no problems here, buddy. Why don’t you let the girl go?”

Fuck. They were here. She noticed neither Landon nor Jack had rounded the corner. Smart boys. So they would be trying to find a way to get behind them. She wasn’t sure that was possible with the overgrown greenery.

“Where’s Jensen?”

“I said drop the gun,”

he reiterated, trying to get as close as he could, likely making himself a smaller target.

She did as he asked and let the gun fall to the grass. And eased her hand into her pocket, feeling for the knife she’d put there. She didn’t need a gun to take this asshole out, but if she could get some information from him, she would.

She took a deep breath and let the adrenaline flow over her. In a good way. She’d been trained to stay calm in dangerous times.

Your mind is the most important weapon you have, Harlow. Staying calm means you can make decisions other people can’t in the same circumstances. You wait and bide your time, and then you make your move and no one will see it coming.

Damn it. She was trained by her dad. Oh, her papa had been there, too, but it had been Chase Dawson who sparred with her, who questioned her until all of this was habit. Staying calm. Breathing. Waiting for the right time.

“Where is Jensen?”

She let a tremble hit her voice. Like she was scared and ready to cry. She needed to get as much information as she could.

“Please, I want to see my boyfriend.”

“Your boyfriend is in serious trouble,”

the man said.

“My boss wants a word with him, and I think maybe he’ll talk faster if I take you up there. Maybe if he sees how we’re going to treat you, he’ll tell us what we want to know.”

Niall’s face went a florid red, but she watched as he clenched and unclenched his fists, his eyes on her. She gave him a wink. He was trying. He wasn’t following his caveman instinct to protect his woman and screwing everything up. He was doing what she asked him to. Staying calm and letting her take the lead.

“I don’t…please don’t hurt me. I can’t…you’re going to…”

Thank the universe he couldn’t see her face because she was really better with making her voice sound all subby and sad. Everyone told her she could sound scared but still look like she was going to cut a bitch.

“How many of you are going to…hurt me?”

She didn’t say what she meant. How many of you motherfuckers plan on gang raping a girl? She wanted a number.

He chuckled as though all of this was funny. He thought he had them right where he wanted them. Did this asshole even know there were two more of them or had he simply waited in the bushes and done no recon? “Well, darlin’, there are only three of us right now, but maybe we’ll take you with us. There’s always a place for another whore. My boss is going to think you’re real pretty.”

His boss might think she looked real familiar if he paid any attention. After all, she’d been arrested at one of his company’s houses.

“I think you should take me,”

Niall offered. He was obviously trying not to panic.

Her Master was having a shitty, shitty day.

“What the hell do I want with a fed?”

the asshole asked.

So he thought Niall was Jack. Nice.

“Hey, Harlow, are you going to play with him some more or can we get this train moving?”

Jack asked as he walked in behind Niall. Landon followed, his gun trained on her attacker.

The man behind her stiffened, but she was already moving. She stabbed him in the arm, the one that was holding the gun, and he immediately dropped it. She then brought her other arm up and back, hitting the fucker in his solar plexus like her dad taught her. Her attacker let out a low moan and stumbled back. But not so far back that Harlow couldn’t do the other thing her father taught her.

You’ve heard the phrase never kick a man while he’s down, baby girl? Well, you kick him while he’s up or down, and you get him right in the nads.

The man whimpered and fell to the ground.

Harlow picked up her gun and stood over the asshole. She pointed it right at his head.

“How many men are up there?”

She believed him, but it was good to verify.

He held his hands up.

“Three. It’s me and the boss and Phil. The boss didn’t want a big group because he had to move real quick, and the person he has at the FBI didn’t want a mess made. We’re supposed to get the data he stole and get out. If he showed up we were supposed to disappear the asshole, but we couldn’t find the drive.”

She was confused about a couple of things. There was a scream going on inside her to get upstairs, but she had to find out as much as she could before she went in. Jensen wouldn’t give it up, and they knew Jack was out here. They would need to take him out, too, and that was a problem.

“You were willing to kill an FBI agent? That’s heat you don’t want.”

“Someone in the bureau doesn’t like that kid. We’ve known who he was for weeks. We have shit on him that will make his disappearance be something the FBI will want to hide. They’ve been planning this for a while,”

the man said.

She looked back at Jack, whose expression had shuttered. This part was his mission. She had to go finish hers.

“Take care of him. I’m going to get Jensen. I’m not playing, Jack. Am I going to have a problem?”

She’d known the minute she realized Hamilton was here that she would likely be causing local law enforcement a shit ton of paperwork because they wouldn’t go down easy, and if they got the cops involved they would defer to the FBI, and she couldn’t trust any of them except Jack. So taking them all out was the likeliest scenario. If she tried to bring Hamilton in for questioning, he could get the upper hand and take Jensen hostage.

Jack shook his head.

“I’m keeping this one alive, and if he ever wants to see the light of day again, he’ll tell everyone the truth. I’d like a couple of moments alone with him. Landon, go with them. Make sure Niall doesn’t hurt himself, and stay out of Harlow’s way.”

Harlow took off, jogging up the stairs. Halfway down the walkway she clung to the side and slowed down, not wanting to make a sound or make the place shake since this was a flimsy building. She put a hand out, and Niall paced his steps to meet hers.

She looked back and took him in. He was grim but determined to watch her back and to get Jensen out of this.

She heard the sound of a taser being flipped on. It was an unmistakable sound. This particular wisdom hadn’t come from her dad. It had been Big Tag who taught her how to use and evade and recover from a taser.

She would bet Jensen hadn’t gotten hit by one before.

A low groan floated to her ears.

She moved closer, stopping before the front window. The drapes were closed but they didn’t mask the sound of fists hitting flesh.

Landon brought up the rear but moved past Niall. He whispered her way.

“I’ll go first. They’re expecting a man. We got two, and it sounds like Jensen’s on the floor. Do you want me to shoot to incapacitate?”

She shook her head.

“Take ’em all out. Jack has what he needs, and it sounds like Hamilton doesn’t, so he’s not going to shoot Jensen quickly. Don’t play, Landon.”

Landon nodded.

And then they moved in.

“My man is about to walk in with your fed friend and then we’ll have a good time with him, too,”

a deep voice was saying.

“Hurting you doesn’t seem to work, so let’s see how long it takes hurting another asshole. You look like the kind of pussy who can’t stand to see someone hurt.”

“Yeah, he always stopped people getting rough with the girls,”

another voice said.

“He was weak. I’ll be glad he’s gone so we can start running the clubs like they should be.”

“Fuuuuuck…yyyoyou,”

came Jensen’s reply. She could hear his teeth chatter.

Niall reached out.

“Be careful. I love you.”

She nodded. But didn’t say the words. She was too focused, every bit of her attention on the job ahead. A cool professionalism had come over her, and nothing else could touch her right now. She wished she’d left Niall behind but it would have hurt him.

Landon knocked.

“Yo, boss, took out the fed. What you want me to do with the body?”

He did a decent impression of the man she’d taken down. Landon was going to be excellent at his job one day.

The door opened and the man from the club frowned in the doorway.

“You’re not…”

Landon shot him and moved out of the way for Harlow. She pushed past Phil and entered the small space Jensen had called home for months. Hamilton stood over Jensen’s body, his eyes wide with shock. Jensen was on the ground, his body still seizing from who knew how many encounters with electricity.

Hamilton dropped the taser and went for his gun and Harlow shot him.

In the end it was that easy.

When you shoot, make sure he doesn’t get up. You take aim and fire, and don’t wait for him to give you an excuse or tell you how wrong you are. Take him out.

Hamilton fell to the floor as Harlow shot him again. Two to the chest. She thought she could avoid the head shot or it might look like a pro had done it or the mob. Then again…

The truth is usually best. Or some approximation of it. Don’t let your cover get too complicated.

Her dad was in her head a lot today.

Niall rushed in, dropping to his knees by Jensen.

“Damn, man. What did they do to you?”

“Go easy with the darts. They can hurt coming out. And turn that fucking thing off so it doesn’t accidently get him again,”

Harlow said, standing over them, watching Niall helping Jensen. Jensen had tears running down his cheeks, but she couldn’t bring herself to drop to her knees and hold him.

He’d left her. This was what she had for him now.

“Yeah, hey, could you tell Big Tag…no, don’t get Big Tag…”

Landon sighed into his phone.

“Hey, boss, yeah, we’re going to need a cleaner. Or maybe a friendly police contact.”

He paused.

“Nah, he’s alive. He just won’t be using a TENS unit anytime soon. All the friendlies are alive, but I did kill a bald dude who looks like he belongs on the back of a bike as the old version of one of the Sons of Anarchy guys. Yes, he was an asshole. You told me I was only allowed to kill assholes…”

She stared down at the men she’d loved and realized how easy it would be to fall right back into their arms again. It had been the safest place. Well, it had seemed like the safest place. Like many things in Jensen’s life, it had been a lie.

“Harlow, I think he should go to the hospital,”

Niall said quietly.

“We’ll get him looked at,”

she heard herself say.

“Well, he was tasing a guy and not in a fun way. Yeah, it was one of her dudes. That’s how I knew he was an asshole.”

Landon put a hand over the microphone of his cell.

“He’s sending someone. He’s going to talk to our DPD contacts, and then he’ll put the call into the FBI. I’m going to take the phone down and let him talk to Jack.”

Was she going to stand here? If she did for too long, she might break down. He almost died. He’d been tortured.

Jensen was looking up at her with agony in his eyes. He managed to reach a shaking hand up.

“Har…har…low…”

The impulse was right there. To take his hand and comfort him and stay with him when he went to the hospital. She wanted to smooth things over for him. And he would take it all. He would take everything she had to give him and then next time he decided something was “better”

for her than he was, Jensen would leave. It was what he did.

She took a step back.

“Make sure he tells you where the data is. I don’t want the feds to get it first. I want a copy made before we turn it over.”

She turned to Landon.

“Here, I’ll fill Ian in. I’m sure Jack’s busy.”

“Harlow,”

Niall called out as she started to step outside with the phone.

“He needs you.”

But Jensen didn’t, and he’d proved it over and over again.

“He’ll live and he has you,”

she said quietly.

“I’ll make sure the ambulance knows where to pick him up.”

She put the phone to her ear.

“Hey, Ian, Landon did a great job, but Jack has some real problems.”

She walked out, letting professionalism hold back the storm of emotion that threatened.

She wasn’t going to give him one more second of her tears.