Laura Kaye - Hard As You Can

But Shane couldn’t take any pleasure in the destruction of that godforsaken hellhole. Not yet. Because he still hadn’t done his job. He still hadn’t saved Jenna.

S ARA SAT IN a metal folding chair trying to avoid asking Jeremy for information he didn’t have. He’d been honest with her at every step, including the one where Jenna had shown up where she wasn’t supposed to be—with Bruno at the garage. And now it appeared Nick and the Ravens with him were chasing them through the streets of Baltimore.

Which meant Shane couldn’t save her. And the uncertainty and fear were eating Sara up inside and making it hard to sit still.

Just as she inhaled to ask if Jeremy was hearing anything, Sara’s cell phone rang. Shane! Her gaze dropped to the screen. Instead, it read, “Bruno Ashe.” She gasped and showed Becca, and the other woman’s face went pale with alarm.

“Bruno’s calling Sara,” Becca called across the room.

“B-Team Leader, we have another situation,” Jeremy said. “Bad guy just called your girl.” Jeremy listened and nodded. “He says to answer. Come over here and put him on speaker so Shane can hear.”

Sara rushed across the room and swiped the answer button before Bruno hung up. “Bruno?” she answered.

“Oh, if it isn’t the lying, scheming bitch I’ve been taking care of the past four years while she stabs me in the back.”

“I don’t . . . what are—”

“I have Jenna, but I’d rather have you. Meet me, and I’ll let her go. If you don’t, I’ll slit her throat and drop her body in the harbor.”

Head reeling, Sara asked, “Um, where? Where should we meet?” A few beats of silence passed. “ Where, Bruno?”

Something roared in the background, like the sound of an engine. “I don’t fucking know,” he snapped. “I need to think of a place.”

Pressing his hand against his earpiece, Jeremy furiously scribbled on a sheet of paper and held it up. Sara nodded.

A screech. The sound of a blaring horn.

What the hell was Bruno doing? “Where, damnit? If you don’t have a place, just pick me up where I am.” Never before would she have spoken to him that way, but Jenna’s life was on the line, and Sara was out of patience.

Bruno almost growled. “Where the hell are you, you little bitch?” Sara read off the address Jeremy had written though she had no idea where that was. “If you aren’t there, Crystal, you’ve just killed your sister. Fifteen minutes. Don’t keep me fucking waiting. And don’t even think of not coming alone.” The line went dead.

“Take over, Charlie,” Jeremy said. “Sara, you have to come with me.”

Leaning against Becca and trying not to fall apart, Sara looked at Jeremy. “What? Why?”

“It’s not far. Shane will be there any minute. He thinks—”

Sara’s phone rang again. Shane. She picked up right away, walking with Jeremy even as she was confused about what they were doing.

“Sweetness, I need your help.” His voice rushed and deadly serious, Shane explained the plan. It boiled down to her as bait. “If there were any other way—”

“I’m glad to help, Shane. If there’s something I can do, I want to. I trust you to keep me safe. I’m with Jeremy. We’re going right now,” she said. The line disconnected.

Outside the gym, she dashed down the steps right on Jeremy’s heels. They crossed the lot to a dark green Jeep Wrangler. Soon they were racing through the run-down industrial neighborhood surrounding Hard Ink, but only went about eight blocks when Jeremy parked on the edge of the street along a mostly-fenced-in dirt lot belonging to some sort of supply company, by the battered sign on the fence. Train tracks ran through one section of the fence and into the yard. A row of mostly boarded row houses ran down the opposite side of the street. “What is this place?” she asked.

“A place for this asshole who harassed you to die. Nothing more, nothing less,” Jeremy said, reaching across the seat and squeezing her hand.

The rumble of motorcycles sounded out from nearby. Sara twisted in her seat and saw the first of the bikes come into view behind Shane’s big truck.

Sara climbed out of the Jeep and ran around the hood just in time to jump into Shane’s arms. They held each other for mere moments, when Shane put her down. “Gimme a second,” he said, then he turned to the Ravens. “Everyone out of sight. Half of you this way, half of you that,” he said, pointing down the street. “You all are the net in case the spider somehow crawls through us. No matter what, he does not leave the radius you establish.”

Agreements rang out over the sound of the motors, then all twelve bikes disappeared. Soon thereafter, the sound of their engine noises faded away, too.

“Head out, Jeremy. We got it from here,” Shane said. “And thanks.” Clearly unhappy to leave, Jeremy nodded, drove down to the next intersection, and turned out of sight.

“Say whatever you have to say to draw him out,” Shane said. “It’s going to feel like you’re alone, Sara. But you won’t be. You’re totally surrounded. The three of us have sniper training. We’ll take him out the moment we have a clear shot, you just stay back from him, so you’re not in the cross fire.”

“Okay,” she said, shaking from the cool of the night and the adrenaline barreling through her body.

Shane kissed her, then retreated to the truck. “This will be over quick, I promise. He doesn’t know what he’s walking into.”

As Shane drove away, a blast of panicky loneliness shot through Sara, but she shoved it away. She wasn’t alone. She knew it. And this could literally be the only way to get Jenna back. It was worth the risk. Because if Sara knew there was something she could’ve done to save Jenna but hadn’t, nothing else in life would ever make up for the failure.

In the distance, a pair of headlights slowly got bigger. Sara knew it was Bruno. This . . . this was the moment Sara had promised her father about. That she would take care of Jenna, no matter what. And she was doing it.

The thought stiffened Sara’s resolve and had her taking a few tentative steps away from the fence so Bruno would see her. But then she froze in place, feeling a lot like bullets might very well come whizzing by her head. She hugged herself as Bruno’s SUV came to a stop about thirty feet away.

As she made eye-to-eye contact with him through the windshield, Sara’s heart tripped into a hard sprint that she felt in her skin and her ears and her throat. She stood there, waiting, not sure what she was supposed to do.

Finally, Bruno flashed his lights and waved her toward him.

Sara took a few steps in his direction, hearing Shane’s voice in her head telling her to keep still. Did Bruno suspect something? Why didn’t he just come get her? And what about his end of the bargain to free Jenna?

Two more steps, and Sara froze and shook her head. “I want Jenna first,” she yelled.

Bruno frowned and yelled something inside the truck, but she couldn’t begin to make out any of it. She put her hand to her ear and shrugged to say she couldn’t understand.

Glancing around, Bruno drove closer, then rolled down his window about six inches and leaned his head toward the opening. She couldn’t understand the words that left his mouth because just then the side of his head exploded in a spray of blood. Sara was still trying to process that when Bruno slumped forward, then suddenly the truck revved and lurched toward her.

Was he still alive? Had he not died after all? Sara bolted to the right and darted into the open section of the fence where the railroad tracks cut into the yard.

A crash sounded out right behind her, the chain links unleashing a metallic rattle as the truck continued to rev and push into the fence.