Maya Banks - Into the Lair

Katie Buchanan stared at the clock with growing dread. A knot of panic—and grief—swelled in her stomach until she feared vomiting.

He wasn’t going to call.

Despair rolled over her shoulders, and she slumped forward, dropping her head into her arms. Don’t cry. You can’t cry. You can’t lose it now.

Her teeth sank into her bottom lip. Gabe was all she had left. Her only family. And now he was gone.

You don’t know that. Maybe something went wrong on a mission.

But no, he’d missed both call times, and he’d never missed the second. He once told her that the only reason he would miss his check-in was death. His. And in her heart she knew that. He’d never let her down.

The cell phone that was clutched tightly in her hand rang, and she lunged upward, grabbing at it to flip it open.

“Gabe, thank God!” she babbled into the phone as a rush of relief so strong it made her weak stormed through her veins. “I thought you were dead.”

Heavy silence settled over the line. Her brow furrowed as dread took hold once more. “Gabe?”

“Katie, this is Ian Thomas.”

She slammed the phone shut, fear-induced adrenaline sparking and flowing fast through her veins. She scrambled out of her chair and looked wildly around the tiny apartment.

“Okay, calm down,” she said as she tried to steady her breathing. No one had that number. Gabe had arranged for the high-tech phone, and it had an international number from a remote country at the ends of the earth.

It started ringing again, and she nearly hyperventilated. And then as quickly as panic had gripped her, an eerie calm descended.

Gabe was gone. He couldn’t help her now. He hadn’t spent the last several years teaching her independence for her to crumble when he was no longer around to help her pick up the pieces.

First she had to get the hell out of here.

She went through the room, throwing her clothes into a backpack. She only packed the necessities. Everything else would have to stay. The phone began ringing again, and she ignored it.

She pocketed the ATM card for the account Gabe had opened for her. Her first stop would be to drain what cash she could, and then she’d be out of town in less than an hour.

West. She’d go west. Maybe some isolated mountain town. Montana. Or Colorado. There had to be some place she would be safe.

She zipped up her backpack, her heart heavy. Gabe had been working on getting her out of the country. A year ago, he’d been prepared to take her to Argentina, but then things had gotten weird. He’d become distant. Worried and anxious.

Her departure was delayed, and Gabe became more paranoid, more cautious. She moved constantly, once every couple of months, and he’d enacted their call system.

He drilled into her over and over what to do if he failed to make his monthly call. Oh God. Maybe that was it! Was he testing her? Making sure she followed through with their escape plan?

A flutter of hope swelled in her throat. It would be just like Gabe to force her through the steps of a plan they’d gone over until it was branded into her mind.

She snagged the now-silent phone, hauled her backpack over her shoulder, and then, taking one last look at the apartment that had been home for the last two months, she took a deep breath and started for the door.

Early morning sunlight shone bright, causing her to squint as she hustled down the rickety steps toward the street. As she turned onto the cracked sidewalk, a black SUV pulled to a stop alongside her.

The passenger door opened, and a large man stepped out. She froze as they stared at each other. Slowly, he removed dark sunglasses, giving her a glimpse of deep green eyes. His expression was indecipherable.

Power radiated from those broad shoulders. Tall, muscular and intimidating as hell.

“Katie,” he said in a low voice.

Anger, fear, panic. They all swamped her, and she didn’t wait around to figure out which would prevail.

Dropping her backpack, she turned and ran.

Curses rang out behind her, and then he called out to her. “Katie! Katie, wait!”

God, they knew who she was. Bile rose in her throat. Gabe wasn’t testing her, and he hadn’t warned her. Which meant he hadn’t been able to.

She could hear her pursuer behind her, and he was gaining ground. She threw a look over her shoulder and wished she hadn’t. Two men were closing in on her.

Her chest on fire, she pushed herself harder, faster. Her tennis shoes pounded the pavement. The park loomed ahead of her, a study in lush green grass and playground equipment. The men chasing her wouldn’t want to take her down with a dozen children and their mothers looking on.

She turned onto the jogging trail and poured on the speed. To anyone else, she’d look like she was out for a run. She was dressed the part in athletic shorts, T-shirt and tennis shoes.

Her phone and ATM card, all she needed, were in her pocket, and she reached down to make sure the phone didn’t fall out. When she got to the other side of the park, she chanced another glimpse behind her and nearly fainted with relief. They weren’t there.

Not that she could count on them to be gone for long. They’d find her again. She’d been a fool to ever think Ricardo would forgive the fact that she’d killed his brother.

“Piece of cake, huh?” Braden Thomas snorted derisively as he and his brother Ian drove down yet another street paralleling the park. “This was supposed to be a simple extraction. We show up, she falls gratefully into our arms and we haul ass out of the country.”

Ian ground his teeth as he contemplated the pleasure he’d take in shoving Braden out of the moving vehicle.

“It’s your damn fault,” Ian growled. “You had to barrel out of the truck and scare her shitless. What the hell was she supposed to think?”

Braden snorted. “Yeah, like you did any better on the phone? She hung up before you finished telling her your name.”

“Spooky flake,” Ian muttered. “I’m not convinced she’s worth all this trouble. We’re risking a lot to fulfill a promise to a guy who betrayed us.”

Even as the thought crossed his mind, a wave of grief consumed him. Gabe was gone. Yeah, he’d betrayed his team, and that was hard to swallow. They’d been through a lot together. But until he knew the full truth behind Gabe’s defection, he couldn’t bring himself to condemn a man he’d called friend for so many years.

“Yeah, but if we have her, sooner or later, Esteban will come calling. We’ll kill two birds with one stone.”

Ian nodded. Braden had a point. They’d talked it over with Eli and with Falcon, and it was decided that Katie was too good an angle not to exploit. Worst case scenario, they were stuck babysitting for a few weeks. Best case scenario, they nailed Esteban and could then send Katie Buchanan on her way.

Where the hell was she? She’d taken off like a scalded cat, and she was damn fast. He had to give her that. He would have caught her, but in the midst of the chase, he’d felt the prickle up his spine, a sign he was fast associating with the need to shift.

His heart had damn near pounded out of his chest, and vivid images of a cat stalking its prey had come to mind. He’d been just a few seconds from transforming to jaguar. He would have hunted her and probably killed her.

A resigned sigh escaped him, and Braden cast a sidelong glance at him.

“You okay, man?”

Ian grunted in return. He didn’t want to admit to Braden how close he’d come to losing control. They both battled the beast on a daily basis.