The code red for Sierra hits my phone, and in all the code reds I’ve gotten in my life, this is the only one that made my entire body clench. I’m over the bar and shoving a drunk asshole out of my path in all of ten seconds. Savage is by my side by the time I land, and linebacker that he is, he charges forward ahead of me into the thinning crowd thanks to the open mic, and clears a path. We reach the hallway leading to the bathroom and something smacks into Savage. “Got him,” Savage growls. “Get Sierra!”
Savage backs up, and holy shit, he’s dragging Ju-Ju who isn’t even fighting him. Like he just got his version of having his fucking cock blown and he’s satisfied. Which freaks me the fuck out, and has me running full speed down the hallway. How the fuck is he even here? Where the fuck is Sierra? Please let her be alive. I round the corner and Sierra steps into the doorway of the bathroom, covered in some kind of white residue. “Don’t touch me,” she warns, holding up her hands. “I don’t know what he threw on me. You can’t touch me.”
“Like hell,” I say, scooping her up, carrying her through the bar, shoving people out of the way as needed. Our quickest exit is down the employee hall and that is where I go. And my team damn sure better be waiting. I get to the back door and Luke opens it.
Exiting to the alleyway, the surveillance van is not only waiting, but the doors are open and I immediately help Sierra inside and sit her down on a chair built into the wall. I follow her and go down on a knee in front of her. “Are you okay?”
“How is she?” Luke asks, climbing inside and shutting the doors.
“Hospital?” Smith calls back from the driver’s seat.
“No,” Sierra says. “I feel nothing. I’m not hurt. I’m not sick.” She touches my face. “Stubborn man. It’s all over you. How do you feel?”
“Same as you. I feel nothing.” The powder bleeds into my mouth and it’s familiar. I lick my lip. “It’s fucking baby powder. That little prick.”
Sierra smells her fingers. “It is. It’s baby powder. He was scaring me. Or us. He was setting us up.”
“Holy hell,” I murmur, eying Luke. “Where is Ju-Ju now?”
“Savage has him at the front, giving him hell for mistreating one of the bartenders. There’s no way he’s seen us back here.”
“I should go back inside,” Sierra says. “He can’t think that—”
“No,” I say. “That is not happening. You’re done here and I will tie you to the damn bed and keep you there if that is what is necessary. Or drug you and put us both on a plane. Tell us what happened.”
“He cornered me, and I didn’t want to shoot him until I had real cause. But then he shoved me onto the bathroom floor and was going to shoot him. I had my purse unzipped. I was reaching and then came the powder. And he took my picture again. Can Savage get the phone?”
“If he can, he will,” Luke says. “Savage is an asshole, but he’s good under pressure.”
“He was under pressure because Ju-Ju was in the building and Sierra and I didn’t know,” I say. “How the fuck did that happen?”
“It has to be a decoy,” Luke says. “Like Kara is for Sierra, which is probably why he saw through our attempt at the same.”
“That means he knows he’s being watched,” Sierra says.
“Agreed,” I say. “And I’d bet money that he has a spotter watching us right now.”
The sound of the back door of the bar opening has Luke eyeing the monitor. “Savage.”
I rotate to face the doors as they open, and Savage leans in to talk to us. “How is she?” He eyes the powder on me. “How the hell are you?”
“It’s baby powder,” I say. “Where is Ju-Ju now?”
“I had to let him go or they were going to call the police,” he says, “and I didn’t think my cover would hold if that happened. And I didn’t think you’d want Sierra to talk to the cops. Tell me someone has eyes on him.”
“Jacob,” Luke interjects. “He just sent me a text confirmation.”
“I have to get back,” Savage says, “but I grabbed this.” He holds up a phone. “The only photos on that phone are Sierra’s. No calls. It’s clean. He had his day-to-day phone but there were no photos.” He hands it to me. “I’ll update the team when I can.” He pulls back and shuts us inside.
“I have to go to the apartment,” Sierra says. “Stay the course.” She focuses on me. “We can fight over what just happened. Kara is there waiting on me, but we have to finish the night.”
“No,” I say. “You won’t go back in that bar. You won’t go to the apartment. He knows we’re watching him.”
I look at Luke. “Tell Blake and Kara to be careful, but Sierra is out. I’m taking her home.”
“I don’t blame you, man,” Luke says. “I’ll have Smith shadow you.”
“No,” I say. “Ju-Ju is outsmarting us. I have Sierra. Just stay on Ju-Ju.”
“This could have been a distraction for another kill,” Sierra warns.
And with that grim note, I take Sierra’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.”
She doesn’t argue, and when we step onto the street, I don’t speak. We don’t have back-up. I need to focus and her silence says that she understands. The walk is short, but feels like forever before we are safely inside a subway car with four other people.
We can’t talk, but the realization that she could be dead right now is punching all kinds of holes in me for the entire ride. I grab the pole and pull her to me, and she sinks against me, trembling, as if it’s just hit her that she battled with a serial killer. Incredible, she not only battled, she survived and wanted to keep fighting. I look down and her purse is unzipped, her weapon a reach from being pulled. I leave it that way and just hold her until we arrive at our stop.
Once we’re street-side, the walk is short to the apartment. The walk through the lobby to the elevator even shorter. Inside the elevator, I punch our floor and pull her to me, tangling fingers in her hair. “You scared the shit out of me, woman,” I say, and I kiss her, a deep, drink-her-in, I-almost-fucking-lost-her kiss that I don’t end until the ping of our arrival. Then and only then do I part our lips, take her hand and lead her to the apartment.
The instant we are inside and locked up, we walk side-by-side up the stairs to the bedroom, and straight to the bathroom and the shower. Before we ever undress to wash off all this powder, Luke calls. I answer on speaker. “Sierra and I are here,” I tell him.
“He went straight to his house,” Luke announces.
“Are you sure it’s him?” I ask.
“We’re sure. I talked to Blake. He hacked the security system at Ju-Ju’s apartment and upon inspection, found a loop.”
“A what?” Sierra asks.
“A disruption that makes you think you’re looking at present time footage, but you’re not,” I explain. “Which means he hired a hacker or he has skills we didn’t know he had.”
“Whatever the case,” Luke says. “We know now. We have eyes on him. You two can have some peace with that.”
“He’s done with me,” Sierra says. “He’ll go underground now. He won’t kill anytime soon. He’ll wait until you give up.”
“We never give up,” Luke says. “Not on something like this, even if our client does. You two try to get some much-earned rest.” He disconnects, and I set the phone on the counter, and step into Sierra, cupping her face. “He made you. You can’t go back. You know that, right?”
“Yes. Now that I’m coming down from the high of it all, I know that.” Her fingers curl on my chest. “I was scared and that seems to be my trigger to do that overthinking thing. I could have killed him. I should have killed him. If I get the chance again, I will kill him.”