I tried to fall asleep, but the ache in my lower back combined with my fears and paranoia to keep me wide awake in the makeshift bedroom. I peeled myself away from Hunter’s muscular body and threw on a t-shirt and panties with every intent of coming back to bed after I grabbed a glass of water…

Until I saw the notification light flash on my phone.

A feeling of unease and washed over me. I pulled on a pair of jeans, then quickly scooped up the phone. Stepping out into the main space of the abandoned restaurant I made my way past the sleeping bikers and stepped out the front door for a bit of privacy.

The text message came from a number I didn’t recognize, but there was no doubt who was on the other end. It was my client…

My real client.

You’re running out of time, Sarah… And I’m getting impatient. Tell me I didn’t make a mistake when I hired you.

I stared long and hard at the message before tapping out a reply.

Who is this?

I held my breath and hit send. Only a few seconds passed before the dreadful sound of a text message pinged from the tiny speaker.

Do you love your father?

A cold sweat beaded on my forehead as I stared at the phone. Another message came through, and this time, it was a picture.

It was a picture of Daddy’s house.

I thought back to my aging sheriff father, with his limp and the cane that supported his step.

He’s not involved in any of this!

I knew my protest was going to fall on deaf ears, but how the fuck could anyone go and threaten my family? Fear was starting to be replaced by anger.

He’s involved now. Where is the cargo?

My fingers moved fast, flashing over the keyboard in a rage fueled flurry.

At the bottom of the ocean, according to Talon. He says the ship dumped it offshore and he has men out looking for it. I’m doing what you paid me to do. This is between you and me. Leave my family out of this!

I smashed the send button and stood there on the verge of hyperventilating.

You’re going to have to do better than that, Sarah. You have three days. For the sake of your family, find my cargo… Or prove who’s responsible for its absence.

There was a long silence as I read and re-read the message.

And Sarah… If you do anything to warn your father, anything at all, there will be no force on earth that will find his broken body.

True to his word, Hunter was helping me. His men were scouring the streets looking for information, and he’d already managed to bribe someone at the port to provide him with information on Talon’s salvage efforts offshore.

But it wasn’t enough.

We were no closer to finding the crate.

With the threat on my father’s life looming, I had to take efforts into my own hands. Hunter wasn’t going to help me in this. He told me he could protect me, but I saw the unease in his face every time he spoke Soroka’s name…

The answers weren’t out there on the street, and he wasn’t going to get them out of some weasel of a dock worker.

The answers were at the port.

No matter how much my morning sickness and nausea was starting to flare up, I needed to go back.

I waited for my chance to slip away unnoticed. I still had a few tricks up my sleeve, and with a little luck, I’d have something to go on by morning…

And so far, my luck had held.

I slipped into the port without difficulty, and now that I knew exactly where to find Talon and the Devil’s Dragons, I didn’t need to go rattling doors and bugging dock workers. All I had to do was get into Talon’s office, and I’d seen my way in on my first visit.

With a little know-how from my days in the police academy, and some skill from my time as a beat cop, it wasn’t hard to slip over to the stairs up to his building.

I expected the security to his office to be a little stronger, especially taking the outside approach – but on my first trip out here my police instincts had been working on overdrive.

I had paid attention to the way the guards watched the elevator, and the way the club congregated around the bar. Nobody was watching those old rusted stairs. If I could make it without being noticed, the shitty door lock I’d seen from the inside of Talon’s office would be easy work for my pick set.

It was a hell of a risk, but as I slipped past the guards and made my way quietly up the metal staircase, I knew I was going to pull this off. I didn’t even have to pick the damn lock. I tried the handle and the door swung open.

Slipping into the empty office, I reached in my pocket for the voice-activated recorder. It was a high-tech piece of equipment I’d bought on an impulse to prepare myself for a career of private investigation: just advanced enough that it could tap into the port’s unsecured Wi-Fi and upload anything it heard right into a folder I’d set up online.

To keep it from dying on me, I connected it to a high-capacity USB external battery. With that much power, this thing would run for days…

And that was long enough.

The second Talon talked about that container… I would know about it. That’s what I needed. It was definitely a step in the right direction for getting to the bottom of whatever the fuck was going on with this goddamn shipping thing.

I just hoped it’d be enough to satisfy my client…

Confident that I had a few minutes free, I turned the recorder on, plugged it into the battery, and started brainstorming where it could go. I opted for a tall sill along the top of the right wall. It was high enough where nobody would see the bug, and the row of short windows above looked like they hadn’t been touched in decades.

I planted the device and gave a quick vocal test of two sentences at medium volume to see if it caught the results.

Less than a minute later, my phone notified me of changes to my online folder. I played back the audio, and was pleased with how clear it came out.

Technology is awesome, I thought to myself, mentally giving myself a quick pat on the back as I decided to make my quick escape. It was time to get the hell out of dodge.

As I turned to leave, the shit suddenly hit the fan. A loud noise outside the door clued me into unwanted company, and I kept myself from mentally panicking as I searched for quick cover.

The large lockers on the wall looked good enough.

Quietly slipping one open, I found one that was barely occupied. It was just large enough to fit me, and I squeezed inside and closed the door right as a key entered the office entrance and the door clicked opened.

I could barely see through the slits on the front of the locker, mostly at a downward angle, but I wasn’t surprised to realize that Talon had returned with a few of his men.

“Would you care to explain to me how she got into the fucking port without anyone seeing her?”

Oh God…

He knows I’m here!

“Sorry, boss,” one of the bikers meekly replied. “I left Chet in charge to grab some lunch, and he decided he needed a shit break.”

Talon’s voice rose in defiance.

“I personally don’t give a rat’s ass if he was shitting out the fuckin’ Queen of England. If I ever, EVER catch the posts abandoned again you’ll be shitting inside a sinking motherfucking shipping crate. Do I make myself perfectly understood, ass-wipes?”

“Yes, Boss,” the biker instinctively replied quickly and thoughtlessly. “Sorry, Boss.”

“Won’t happen again,” another biker responded meekly. I imagined that this voice belonged to the Chet who got name-dropped.

“Good,” Talon growled satisfactorily.

Not a moment passed before there was a knock on the door… the door to the staircase that I had taken up here. Talon growled angrily, clicking his fingers. I still couldn’t see them very well, but I heard one of the bikers move towards the door.

“You’ve got company, boss.”

“Yeah, shit-stain, I fucking gathered that. You let the bitch walk straight to my office.” Talon groaned.

What the hell is going on? I wondered to myself, suddenly realizing that I wasn’t the only woman who’d snuck into Talon’s domain today…

There was a moment of quiet in the room before Talon finally spoke again. “Are you just going to fucking stand there or are you going to let her in? Open the damn door and excuse yourselves from my presence. We are going to have some words alone.”

“Are you, uh, sure, Boss?”

Talon practically chuckled, although the layer of menace beneath made it self painfully clear. “Are you questioning my abilities? Wondering, perhaps, about my mental faculties? Are you honestly calling my choices into question?”

The apologies were fast and furious.

“Very well then,” Talon replied as the door knocked again. “Do as I say, or else. Answer the door, allow the girl in, and take your leave outside to guard against other unexpected guests.”

Two pairs of sturdy boots passed into and out of my sight, strolling towards the door. I heard it swing open, and the bikers offered what sounded like a quick, apologetic note to the unannounced guest as she entered.

I couldn’t see her from my vantage point, and she didn’t speak a word as she entered. Neither of them spoke a word. She was hanging out of sight, probably against the far wall.

It was Talon who broke the silence.

“So this time, it really is you, and not some fucking imposter on my territory,” Talon finally spoke. “Yes, I can see it written all over your face…”

His voice sounded surprisingly weary. There was nothing in his tone like the dark confidence that poured off him the last time that I was here.

A light laugh rolled off his visitor’s tongue before she finally began to speak: “It was only a matter of time that we would speak face to face, Talon…”

Holy shit.

I recognized that voice.

But it was Hannah Hargreaves’ next words that absolutely shook me down to my very core, sweeping the air straight out of my lungs…

“You are aware, of course, that I am acting in proxy for Soroka Sarkonov.”

What.

The.

Fuck.

I didn’t have to see Talon to know that he stiffened up at the confirmation. I could feel the rising tension crackle in the room at her words.

“Yes. I’m aware,” he replied coolly, his voice trickling to a low, menacing tone. “Does your big, dangerous brother your role in all of this?”

“Absolutely not,” she replied aloofly.

“You seem so sure, but perhaps I know Hunter Hargraves better than his own sister,” Talon remarked coolly. “I keep him in contempt, and I sure as shit don’t respect him, but I know that he’s good at sensing a snake in his midst – experience has made him rather cautious.”

“My brother was happy to see me,” Hannah laughed. “I’m just a defenseless, traumatized woman, aren’t I?” Her voice turned sickeningly sweet, drenched in venomous sarcasm. “Wandering around the country, barely keeping in touch, all under my strong, capable brother’s protection…”

I absolutely loathed how she mocked the father of my child with that tone. Oh, the things I would have given to wrap my hands around her fucking throat and pin her up against the wall…

How can she betray us like this?

What the hell was her angle?

“Aren’t you just little miss fucking sunshine,” Talon replied wearily, leaning forward in his chair enough to barely pass into view. “Save an old, dying man the bullshit. I know that you’re here to kill me.”

“I could, yes. But I’m a reasonable woman, as is my employer,” Hannah replied aloofly.

Talon didn’t sound particularly convinced. “I hope you realize that my men won’t let you leave this place alive… regardless of how fucking reasonable you are.”

Hannah laughed airily at the threat. “And you are aware that my death would rain down fire upon them, all of their loved ones, and wipe your pathetic little faction off the face of the Earth?”

She laughed at his pause, and it sent chills down my spine. “You overestimate your position, Talon. Even threatening me could be a death sentence.”

“Point made,” Talon begrudgingly admitted. “Tell me, proxy: if not to kill me, what exactly brings you here?”

Hannah passed into view as she placed her hands down flat against the desk, leaning over him. It blew me away that she had fooled us all so easily.

“It’s your lucky fucking day, Talon, because I’m here to solve problems for the two of us. A little bird told me you ‘lost’ our container offshore. We know you’re using sonar to try and find it, but that’s like searching for a needle in a goddamn haystack.”

Talon stiffened up. “You can find it?”

“There are contingencies in place. Short range transmitters on board the container, similar to the ones found in an airplane’s black box.”

“And you choose now to come forward with this?” Talon sounded irritated.

“I had to be sure that you weren’t involved in the cargo’s disappearance. You can thank my little brother and that insufferable brat he calls his lover for this visit. She convinced me that you had nothing to do with what happened here… in a way, you and your entire club owe that woman your lives.”

An uncomfortable silence swept through the room, and my head was spinning faster with every new revelation that they spat out at each other.

I convinced her of what?!

When Soroka had texted me just two days before, I’d been clear that I thought Talon was involved. Every single bone in my body was sure of it.

This bitch and her boss threatened my fucking family! I was hiding like a trapped rat in a goddamn locker because I was bound and determined to prove Talon’s involvement, and now she wanted to make fucking nice?

My blood was really boiling now.

“What do you need from me?” Talon finally said, breaking the dark calm between them.

“Those are the words I wanted to hear,” Hannah audibly relaxed. “I need a crane with the strongest magnets on the dock, one of your barges to haul my cargo up, and a capable truck that can handle the package. Get me out on the water where the container was dumped, and I’ll point you right to it. We’ll have the damn thing off your port in the next few hours.”

Talon’s voice revealed that he didn’t consider that within the realms of possibility. “You believe that you can locate it that quickly?”

“Do you suffer from shit memory on top of that ugly fucking face?” Hannah lashed out. “I told you. We have a contingency in place. I can fucking find it.”

Jesus.

Hunter was terrified of this guy, but his older sister was just absolutely wrecking the old fucker to his face… and she apparently had him by the balls.

“And what makes you think whatever’s inside that crate is still going to be in one piece?”

“The container is weatherproof, waterproof, and fucking lead-lined. It’s going to be intact. You’ll want to go slowly when you bring it up though, because the cargo is rigged to explode – violently – if some asshole tries to open it up without the key code.”

Wait… what?

Hannah continued darkly: “Now, are we going to sit here or are you going to get me a fucking boat?”

Before he could answer, she withdrew a screen about the dimensions of a smartphone from her pocket. “I need to be within about a seven miles’ radius of this thing to activate… and well, would you just look at that?”

The screen was active, pinging some sort of quiet alarm. Talon’s visible body posture relaxed.

“That’s the locator balloon. The crate probably released that when it hit the water. We’ll need to get within two miles’ range to get the signal from the container itself.”

“You have my cooperation. Do I have your word that my club can move peacefully past this… unfortunate hiccup?”

“As a proxy of Soroka Sarkonov, I am empowered to make deals on her behalf,” she spoke with surprising authority. “I can give you my absolute word that your cooperation will not go unrewarded.”

“That’s not the same thing and you know it,” he smirked. “I’ve been around the block a few times. I know what kinds of rewards people in your position tend to give out.”

Hannah chuckled. “Help me put this container on a fucking truck and give me the keys, and none of you will be harmed. You’ll never see me again… and you will never be unfortunate enough to meet my superior.”

“Give me a few minutes to call the boys on the dock, and I’ll have them get us a boat ready.”

I was on the verge of a panic attack. Hannah was working for Soroka…

Talon was working with Hannah to recover the crate, but I already knew he was a dead man walking. Once she found the cargo, Soroka wouldn’t need me anymore, and there was no telling what she would do to the rest of the Devil’s Dragons.

Something told me she wouldn’t exactly differentiate between the Los Angeles and El Paso clubs…

But that wasn’t all.

There was something far more dangerous than Soroka rolling around in my mind. With just a few words, Hannah had flipped the switch inside me that still believed the pledge I’d made when I originally joined the police force. Maybe I wasn’t a cop anymore, but that vow was life-long: the pledge to serve and protect.

The missing container is waterproof…

Weatherproof…

Rigged to explode…

That was ominous enough, but then Hannah had dropped the bombshell.

It’s lead-lined.

I only knew one thing Sarkonov could be shipping that would need a lead-lined container, and if she was half as dangerous as the term international arms dealer made her out to be, then it could be well within her power…

Soroka was shipping a fucking nuclear bomb.

I have to do something.

Thinking fast, I carefully reached for my phone. I had to text Hunter and let him know what was going on… He couldn’t trust his sister. She was the enemy all along… We have to stop this container from getting to its destination!

Nausea chose to hit me right then and there, and hard. Before I knew what was happening, my fingers fumbled with the phone as I tried to steady myself in the locker, keeping from puking my guts up.

CLANG!

My heart stopped in my chest as the locker door swung wide. I realized to my horror that I’d dropped the phone and, in an instinctive attempt to catch it with my foot, I’d accidentally kicked the locker open.

Talon lowered his cell phone from his face as I locked horrified eyes with Hannah Hargreaves. She was staring at me with benign amusement.

“You have got to be shitting me,” she laughed. “Well, this certainly makes things a bit more interesting.” Lifting a pistol, she aimed the tip at my chest. Fully standing in the locker, I had nowhere to move but directly forward, otherwise known as stepping closer to the gun.

“It’s a real shame, Sarah. I didn’t honestly think that you were this stupid. C’mon, out you come!” Hannah ordered me. “Over here, down on your knees, hands above your head. Face the front door.”

I reluctantly followed her orders, held at the mercy of the woman that my man had nearly given up his life to save. She pressed the tip of the gun against the back of my skull, and I hastily made peace with the fact that I was probably about to die.

When that bomb came into Sarkonov’s hands, I probably wasn’t going to be the only one who died…

“If you don’t mind,” she switched gears, talking to the equally surprised Talon, “have your guys bring some rope – and make it the good stuff. It looks like I’m going to have to add kidnapping to today’s list of felonies.”

With that, I felt the sudden, unexpected smash as she pistol-whipped the back of my head, and the world went dark before I hit the ground.