The door opened.

My heart was pounding. Rachel still wasn’t moving, in shock as she stared down at Kaapo, as though he’d wake and begin talking to her. My hands—fuck, the pain was almost unbearable!

“Sorry for the interruption, folks,” Briggs announced as he came into the center of the room. He came to a stop near Rachel, looking down at Kaapo the same way she was doing. “Shit,” he said, laughter laced through his words, “I guess that solves one problem. But it creates another.” He lifted his eyes and regarded me. “What are we going to do with you when we’re done?”

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it won’t be as much fun as going with him would have been.”

His expression tightened. I never seemed to say what he wanted me to say.

He crossed the room in two steps, stopping just in front of me, that long blade making another appearance. He pressed the tip of the blade against my throat.

“I have some questions. You’re going to answer them, or you’re going to end up on the floor with your friend.”

“Then I will be leaving with him after all. Make up your mind, brother.”

He slapped me with the edge of the blade. The blow itself didn’t hurt much, but the edge of the knife caught the corner of my chin and sliced it.

“Watch your mouth!”

“What the fuck do you want to know, Briggs? I’m getting tired of these damn games!”

He raised the blade again, but one of his men came around my chair and grabbed his wrist.

“You’ve got to tone it down, brother,” the man said in a calm voice. “The boss wouldn’t like this.”

That seemed to cut through Briggs’s ego. He lowered the blade and backed away.

I twisted my neck, looking over my shoulder to see who was behind me. There didn’t seem to be anyone but Briggs and the guy who’d calmed him. And this was a new guy, not one of the three he’d brought in with him before. Someone who seemed to have a little control here.

Who was the boss if it wasn’t Briggs? I’d thought…

“Why did Harry Cravits call Jack Stone?”

That was not one of the questions I’d anticipated being asked in this situation. I studied Briggs, trying to figure out where this was coming from.

“I don’t know.”

“How did they know each other?”

“The DEA.”

Briggs glanced at the other man, surprise in his eyes. Was that something he hadn’t known?

What was going on here?

“The DEA?”

“They worked for the agency together. Harry was Jack’s mentor.”

“Why did he call him here? Was it because of Alli Collins?”

“I don’t know. But I don’t think so. Alli came up later.”

“Why would an ex-DEA agent want private security?”

“I don’t know that he did. They were friends.”

Briggs tilted his head. “Jack Stone came out here on a friendly vacation and decided to open a new security office here? That doesn’t make much sense, does it?”

“He fell in love.”

Briggs scoffed at that idea, his eyes jerking toward Rachel briefly. She was still standing in the middle of the room, her arms crossed. But she was no longer staring at the body. She was watching me.

“Why start a satellite office? Why here, in the middle of nowhere? Why not in Tucson? Albuquerque? Los Angeles?”

“He likes it here. And it’s central to most of our west coast clients.”

Briggs shook his head. “Not good enough. I need a better answer.”

“Tell me what you want to hear, and I’ll say it.”

He glanced at his companion, but then he shook his head, sighing. “You have shit clients. You haven’t done anything more exciting than following an executive around town. Why would you come all the way out here just for that?”

“Our offices aren’t complete yet. We can’t handle big cases until they are. But thanks to you assholes, we’ve been set back another six months or more.”

Briggs glanced at his companion again.

“More,” he told me.

I shook my head. “What does any of this have to do with you? What does it have to do with the Guardians? Why go to so much trouble to get information on me, to put a virus on our computers, for this?”

“None of your damn business!”

Briggs was losing it again. He was pacing, tossing the blade from hand to hand, anxious to use it. My fear was that he’d use it on Rachel. I moved my head slightly to my left side, indicating for her to move there. I wasn’t sure she got the subtle signal at first, but then she began to move, her step unsteady as she carefully moved around Kaapo.

“Where are you going?” the new guy demanded.

“I’ve got to get away from him. He’s creeping me out!”

The guy hesitated, but Briggs gave an impatient wave. “Go run and hide, Rachel. That’s what you’ve always been good at.”

She moved faster, sliding around the side of my chair. But she was smart enough to keep her distance rather than give Briggs any reason to distrust her.

I just hoped she was also smart enough to keep from giving away anything she saw with the expression on her face.

“I was just a pawn, right, Briggs?” I demanded. “You weren’t after anything about me. You were looking for information from Stone. You were just using me because Kaapo fell into your lap.”

“And a great big fucking lot of good he did!”

“How did you find him? How did he know I was in Arizona?”

“He didn’t. I told him.”

“How did you find him?”

Briggs was pacing, faster and faster, that blade moving between his hands more and more quickly. He was agitated. Annoyed with my questions, and not clear-headed enough to see the game I was playing.

“I didn’t,” he finally said. “The boss did.”

“What boss?”

“Shut up!”

Briggs suddenly screamed, spinning around on his heel, racing toward me with the blade raised. His companion reached for him, tried to stop him, but he wasn’t quick enough. Briggs was on me in an instant. But his eyes were on my face. They should have been on my hand.

I sank the scalpel deep into his neck, lifting my broken arm to stop the blade from sinking into my shoulder as it had done his man’s shoulder. The pain was beyond excruciating, but it was only for a second. His companion grabbed Briggs by the waist, yanking him back, unaware of the scalpel. They fell back, blood suddenly spurting around the small weapon, pouring out of Briggs’s neck.

I jumped up, finally free from the rope that had secured me to the chair. I’d been free for minutes, all through Briggs’s interrogation. But I’d needed answers. I had gotten some, but not the ones I really needed.

How did Kaapo find me? Was anyone else aware that he had?

Rachel rushed toward me, nearly knocking me over as she fell into my arms, sobbing. Briggs’s companion chose that moment to have a second of clarity, to see what I’d done.

“You’ve killed him!” he cried.

I wasn’t sure if his excited tone was grief or relief. I was hoping for the latter, but expecting the former.

“How many people are out there?” I demanded of Rachel, pushing her back and smoothing her hair from her face. “How far is it to an outside door?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. They had me in another room. Blindfolded.”

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

I turned, grabbing her hand with my good arm. We had to get out of here before Briggs’s companion remembered the massive blade on the floor beside his former leader.

We were halfway to the door when it suddenly burst open. I pushed Rachel back, bracing for whatever was about to come, aware my ability to fight had been seriously compromised by the broken arm and the concussion. And then my mind started screaming.

It’s over.

Jack Stone was coming through the door, following Crispin, with Quentin rushing up behind him. It was the fucking cavalry! We were rescued.

It was over.