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  “I’ll know in time if they do,” he informed her. “My guess, they’ll come in, see no trace of you, and assume I have you hidden somewhere else.”

  “How do we get out of here then?” she asked, her heart in her throat as she caught a glimpse of the parking lot, too far below.

  Okay, so a fall probably wouldn’t kill her, but a broken bone was still a broken bone. No doubt they’d both break something.

  “Just a little farther ahead,” he muttered. “The big tree that grows along the side of the apartment building is a perfect way down. I have a truck parked right beneath it.”

  “Good thing John D. taught me how to climb out of trees.” She sighed.

  Just a little farther.

  She could make it just a little farther. A few more feet, she kept telling herself. She could see the tree, growing nearly to the fourth floor. It was sturdy, its limbs full and shielding.

  They were going to make it.

  Just a few more feet.

  “Here we go,” Turk muttered, reaching out and gripping a heavy limb just in front of him. “I’ll go down first. The truck is right there.” He nodded toward the ground below.

  “Got it.” She nodded quickly. “Go on. I know how to shimmy down a tree, I promise.”

  The look in his eyes was approving as he stepped over to the limb. “One minute, then follow. We’ll be out of here quick.”

  “One minute,” she promised.

  Reaching out for the heavy limb she stepped out to it and began the countdown.

  One minute.

  Taking a deep breath she began moving down the tree, listening careful for Turk, for the sound of the truck door opening, the vehicle starting.

  What the hell was he waiting for?

  Looking down, all she saw was shadows. Nothing moved, not even Turk. The heavy foliage kept her from seeing much as she moved slowly down the tree.

  Finally, she dropped to the ground on the darker side of the tree trunk, crouched, listening carefully.

  She wasn’t moving.

  Turk should have been there. He should have been waiting for her.

  The passenger side of the truck was just on the other side of the tree, the trunk was huge. It spread out on each side of her, the foliage drooping, shielding her. The heavy layer of grass beneath her feet had shielded her drop.

  Something was wrong. She could feel it.

  It was in the air, like an ominous presence, watching, waiting for her.

  Turk’s alarm system should have alerted Gabby in the other apartment. It should have alerted Jake and Cooper at the bar. Surely there was backup somewhere?

  Reaching behind her back she slid her weapon free silently, thankful that she’d chambered that first round before leaving the apartment. That small, mechanical snick would have given her away the second she pulled it back.

  Swallowing tightly she lowered herself to her stomach, inching forward slowly until she could see just beneath the front of the pickup Turk had parked under the tree’s spreading branches.

  “What the fuck do you want?”

  She froze at the sound of Turk’s voice.

  “Hell, Turk, I thought we were friends,” another voice answered, harsh, grating, and familiar. Though Erin couldn’t immediately place it, she knew the voice.

  “Friends don’t ambush me in the dark, Gyron,” Turk snapped back at him.

  “Well, it’s not often I watch you drop out of a tree like a cat burglar either.” Gyron gave a hard imitation of a laugh. “I have to say, I was rather surprised.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s not every day I have four bozos trying to break into my apartment either.” Turk grunted. “Now, why don’t you get out of here while I find me a nice little place to hide so I can figure out who they are and what they want?”

  “I know what they want.”

  Erin felt the breath still in her chest. As she moved to launch herself to her feet she heard the sudden rustle of bodies struggling, a male grunt, and the thump of a fist.

  She was moving quickly around the front of the truck, weapon held ready as she risked a fast look around the side of the vehicle to see Gyron dropping to the ground.

  “Stay there,” Turk suddenly ordered with a hiss. “They’ll be out here any minute.”

  Throwing Gyron over his shoulder he was pushing her ahead of him a second later until they were once again behind the tree. There, he dropped his burden carelessly before turning to her.

  “Okay?” Narrow-eyed, intent, his gaze went over her quickly.

  “Ready to get out of here,” she assured him, her voice barely above a whisper.

  “The truck’s fouled. Someone must have known it was mine.” Catching her hand he was pulling her quickly around the side of the apartment building. “Come on, let’s see if Jake still keeps a spare key beneath that damned sports car of his.”

  Still holding on to her hand he pulled her quickly across the other side of the parking lot. Moving between two pickups to keep the vehicles between them and the apartment building, he led the way along the grassy border to Jake’s glistening black Corvette.

  Pausing at the front of the car he pulled her down next to him, reached beneath the car, and a second later pulled free a small, magnetic box. Sliding open the panel on the front, he froze.

  “Turk?” she whispered.

  “I anticipated that.” Erin froze, alongside Turk, at the hard voice behind them.

  Turk rose slowly as Erin followed. He pulled her behind him, forcing her between him and the front of the Corvette as he faced the dark silhouette that moved from the bushes alongside the grass border.

  Three other shadows moved into place behind the first, eyes gleaming in the darkness as their features slowly became recognizable.

  They were regulars at the bar.

  Tyler Stanley, the talent scout that often drank with Gyron and his three friends. All four of which were linked to a suspected criminal figure that operated out of Corpus Christi. Though Tyler hadn’t been linked to the organization.

  Until now.

  “Bad move, Stanley.” Turk sighed as though they were actually on the winning side here. “Did you think we weren’t waiting for this?”

  Waiting for them and being without backup were two different things. Right now, Erin hoped desperately, Turk had a little more up his sleeve than a bluff.

  Tyler Stanley chuckled at that. “Your friends are all at the bar,” he informed Turk. “Your security was incredibly easy to break. All emergency contact was blocked before it could go out. You’re all alone, Rogan. Just you and Ms. Masters, and the four of us. You’re a little outnumbered, don’t you think?”

  “What do you want, Stanley?” Turk growled as Erin slowly tucked her weapon into the band of his jeans at the small of his back.

  She wasn’t good enough to take down all four of those assholes before one of them shot, but maybe Turk was.

  “All we want is the girl,” Tyler assured him. “You’re just in the way. You should have stayed out of the way, Turk. Killing you wasn’t how I wanted this to go.”

  Turk grunted at that. “What makes her so damned important?”

  “The same thing that made John Delanore and his son, John Delanore, Jr., race out here when we nearly had her last week. She’s important to him.”

  “She’s his stepdaughter.” The tension building in Turk’s large body had Erin nearly holding her breath. “Of course he came running. That doesn’t tell me what it has to do with you or your friends.”

  “And he has something we want. We need her. We don’t need witnesses. Tonight, you get to die. She’ll die later.” Tyler spoke as though killing someone were an everyday occurrence.

  “What does your stepdaddy have that these assholes want, Erin?” Turk asked her then, the irritation in his tone not in the least feigned.

  “Hell if I know,” she whispered.

  “If I’m going to die for it, I’d at least like a fucking answer,” he snapped.

  He was getting
ready to move.

  Erin could feel the energy gathering in his body.

  Tyler watched Turk carefully, though the three men with him kept their gazes more on her.

  “What do you think you can threaten my stepfather out of, Tyler?” Erin stepped around Turk just enough to watch the other man more closely. “He’s an asshole. And trust me, he won’t pay a ransom.”

  “He’ll pay.” Tyler sounded far too confident. “But he’ll give me far more than money for your life, honey. He’ll give me the identity of the Giovanni heir that he’s hiding. And I know he’s hiding him, because I traced him as far as your stepfather’s home nine years ago before he disappeared.”

  The who?

  “What the fuck is he talking about?” Turk hissed, reaching behind his hip as though to catch her arm.

  Instead, his fingers curled around the butt of the weapon she’d tucked into the band of his jeans.

  “The hell if I know.” Erin slid back marginally, giving the appearance that Turk was indeed holding on to her.

  “You don’t have to know who he is,” Tyler snapped, anger filling his tone now. “All you have to do is come along quietly. Do so, and I won’t make your boyfriend suffer before I kill his ass.”

  If she was going to die either way, then she’d just die here, with Turk, rather than later. Rather than lying down and grieving for the man who had stolen her heart so effectively that she hadn’t even realized how much of it he owned, she’d just die with him.

  “Don’t let them take me,” she whispered under her breath.

  Turk grunted at the almost silent plea.

  “Walk away, Tyler, and this won’t have to get messy.” Erin knew him. He used that tone of voice only seconds before dealing with the irrational drunks at the bar.

  “But I do so love leaving a mess.” The cold smile that curled at the other man’s lips was the first indication that he’d run out of patience.

  She felt Turk shift closer to her, his arm bunching, muscles tightening to pull the weapon free when she was suddenly blinded by bright, white light.

  A manacle at her waist lifted her clear off the ground as she felt herself thrown to the side. The blast of gunfire exploded around her as a heavy weight followed her to the grass, crushing her beneath it.

  The scream of tires on blacktop filled the night, screeching through her senses as male screams filled the violent symphony for endless seconds.

  Then, silence filled the air.

  It was so deathly still now that she wondered if time had stopped.

  A curse whispered at her ear then—Turk’s voice—deep with irritation as his hand tightened at her hip before his weight suddenly rolled from her.

  Rolling to her back Erin quickly scanned what she could see of the parking lot only to be blinded once again by the bright lights of a helicopter overhead.

  The steady drone of the helicopter’s motors were almost a distant sound before Turk blocked the light, reaching down for her.

  “It’s over,” he promised her, pulling her to her feet as she placed her hand in his. “They’re dead.”

  “What the hell happened?” She breathed out, still shocked by the suddenness of it. “God, Turk. What happened?”

  She could see the bodies then. Tyler’s and his two friends’, sprawled out on the blacktop, their bodies twisted or lying at odd angles. There was no way they were still alive.

  “The hell if I know.” He breathed out roughly, pulling her to his side and surveying the scene as well. “I’ll be damned if I know, Erin. But I have no doubt J.D. will figure it out. No doubt at all.”

  At that moment the helicopter landed in the deserted restaurant parking lot beside them as vehicles began pouring into the area. Residents of the apartment building were beginning to creep from the doors and if the black-clad figures erupting from the SUVs that braked to a quick stop were any indication, those residents would never see, nor ever know, exactly what happened.

  “Turk. Erin. Let’s go.” One of those black-clad agents neared them, lifting the dark mask he wore to reveal his identity.

  Iron’s eyes were icy cold, his expression hard as he stepped to them. Dressed in dark jeans and jacket, it was obvious he hadn’t had time to change into the dark military gear normally worn in such situations.

  “Come on, we have to get you out of here,” Turk muttered, pulling her with him to the SUV.

  Of course they did. She was J.D.’s stepdaughter, and someone knew far too much if what Tyler said was true. So much, that it could change her life forever.

  CHAPTER 11

  Three days later

  Once again Turk stood at the windows of Cooper’s office staring out into the night.

  He was tired.

  He’d realized in the past few days, he’d been tired for a very long time until Erin had arrived at the bar. When his eyes had met hers, he’d begun looking forward to each day again rather than just existing within each night.

  He’d looked forward to getting up each evening, had looked forward to leaving each morning. Because Erin had been there.

  She wasn’t there any longer.

  Leaning his shoulder against the wall, his gaze narrowed into the darkness outside, he could feel that steel hard core of determined fury he’d once possessed, absent. The man who had joined the Covert Information Network didn’t exist anymore. Not just in name, but in spirit as well.

  The fury had been gone for a while, he realized. The dark, bitter anger that the evil in the world had destroyed the last innocence he’d believed in, had eased to regret, to that feeling of aching loss that came with time.

  He could now remember his youth with a bittersweetness that he hadn’t been able to remember it with before. The memories didn’t shred his guts with helpless guilt any longer. Instead, he realized, the memories of the laughter, the good times, had returned.

  He hadn’t realized those memories were back until he’d lain down the night after the attack at the apartment and realized how he ached for Erin.

  Her smile, filled with such innocence.

  The warmth that had begun to fill her gaze, the softness of her expression that he knew, knew to the bottom of his soul, had been her love for him.

  And he hurt now. His chest ached, his heart protesting the loss with such virulence that he knew, somehow, she’d made him love as well.

  He had to find her.

  God knew J.D. would try to hide her. That was what Turk would do under the same circumstances. Hide her someplace that no one would ever find her again. But he couldn’t imagine never holding her again. Never feeling her warmth. Never seeing her smile.

  Wiping a hand over his face as he breathed out wearily, he knew he’d never really rest again until he was with her.

  The office door opened, causing him to turn slowly and watch as Cooper, J.D., and John D. entered the dimly lit office.

  Flipping the desk lights on to fill the room with soft light, Cooper glanced at him silently, his gaze just as assessing, as considering, as it had been for the past three days that he’d helped debrief Turk.

  “Turk.” J.D. moved to him, his hand reaching out to shake Turk’s. “Thank you for taking care of Erin. We had no idea this situation had developed as it had.”

  As he released the handshake, J.D. gave him a small, sharp little nod. “You’re an asset to the network. I’m damned thankful you were here.”

  “Where’s she at?” The question refused to be held back.

  J.D.’s gaze sharpened for a moment.

  “She’s in protective custody at the moment, Turk.” John D. answered as he took a seat at the far corner of the room, his expression hard as Turk’s gaze lifted to his. “I’m sure you of all people realize our determination to ensure her safety.”

  He of all people.

  Did they believe that reminding him of Cara, the sister he’d lost with such sudden violence, would cause him to back off? They were wrong if that was the case.

  “The assailant you incapacitat
ed and threw in the back of your pickup was a fount of information,” J.D. spoke before Turk could protest John D.’s announcement. “The agent they were searching for was a contact for the U.S. and Italian authorities nine years before. He helped destroy a criminal organization that had held Italy in its grip for generations. His work alone identified assassins, drug lords, and individuals involved in local as well as national government that ensured the continued hold that organization retained. His identity has remained hidden, just as his location has. Unfortunately, he was tracked much further than we’d believed. The network itself is secure, but my and John D.’s association with him was revealed.”

  “Where’s Erin?”

  He really didn’t give a fuck about the agent and where he was tracked. If he was part of the CIN, then no doubt once leaving J.D.’s residence he disappeared forever to those who had known him before. Turk really couldn’t care less about the details at the moment.

  He wanted Erin.

  J.D. sighed deeply. “Turk, the risk to her…”

  “Where is Erin?” Iron hard, the relentless need to see her, to claim her, hardened inside him until it ran soul deep.

  J.D. grimaced as he turned back to meet his son’s gaze.

  “Erin will be relocated for a while…” John D. began.

  “Then you’ll relocate me with her.” He wasn’t giving up.

  Cooper sat back in his chair, watching everything thoughtfully, but Turk knew the other man. His friendship with the agents that worked with him was a bond forged in the hottest fires. If push came to shove, he’d back Turk. It wasn’t a position Turk wanted to put the other man in, but he would if he had to.

  “The risk to her is too great.…” J.D. tried again.

  “J.D., don’t turn this into a battle,” Turk warned him, his fingers clenching at his sides, fisting to hold back the rage gathering inside him. “You may keep her away from me, but I promise you, I’ll cause you more trouble searching for her than it’s going to be worth to you and your family.”

  The other man crossed his arms over his chest and glared back at him.

  “You’re an agent for the network, Turk. A network I run. You don’t give me orders here. It’s the other way around.”