Chapter 13

THIRTEEN

She fired.

Dec fired.

The men with the semi-automatics went down first. Dec had nailed two of them, her weapon had sent the other two curling into fetal positions.

Hagar grunted, staggering back and grabbing his head. His gun slipped from his fingers.

Tommy’s knees buckled, the USB falling from his grasp as he collapsed, disoriented but still conscious.

Anderson groaned from underneath his desk.

Neither of them wasted a second. Declan surged across the room to retrieve the weapons, and she was glad the ultrasonic weapon hadn’t affected him at all. She yanked out her earplugs and snatched up the USB. For the span of a heartbeat, relief flooded through her. “Got it.”

Finally.

Tommy whimpered at her feet. What was she going to do with him? She leaned down and shook him, her fingers digging into his shoulder. “Tommy, what are you doing here?”

He blinked up at her, and she didn’t know if it was because he didn’t recognize her or simply wasn’t expecting her to be there. Either way, all he did was moan, still reeling from the blast.

She tried to force him into a seated position, but he kept falling over. Declan would have to carry him out.

She turned to tell him so and heard him yell, “Watch your six!”

In her peripheral vision, a shadow lunged for her. Hagar.

He was off balance but managed to grab her by the hair and yank. It pulled her backward, off balance.

Instinct, combined with years of self-defense training, had her twist to face him. Ignoring the pain of her hair being pulled from her scalp, she kicked his shin to destabilize him.

He roared with rage, falling, but didn’t release her, his weight pulling her down with him.

He rolled, pinning her under him, and—too late—she saw him reach for his fallen handgun.

She tried to jam her thumbs into his eyeballs. He jerked his head from side to side, avoiding her probing fingers. Changing tactics, she boxed his ears.

Declan loomed above them, seizing the terrorist by the back of his jacket and yanking him off of her. He tossed him aside as if he were an old shirt rather than a two-hundred-pound man.

Meg snatched up Hagar’s gun as Dec pulled her to her feet. Anderson reached out from under the desk and grabbed her ankle. “Help me,” he said, his words slurred as if he were drunk.

She yanked him out of his hiding place and shoved him toward the exit. “Go!” She would deal with him later. He started crawling for the door.

The squad members who’d been closest to the ultrasonic weapon when it went off were still down for the count, but the two who’d been behind Tommy were recovering. One staggered to his feet, going for the pile of weapons Declan had made. Dec popped the guy on the temple with the butt of his gun. The man went down, a solid KO.

Hagar got to his hands and knees, eyes locked on Meg again. His sadistic gaze raked over her, and it was all she could do not to kick him in the face. “You are one tough bastard,” she told him, “but you’re done. It’s over. You’re coming with us to be tried in a court of law for your crimes against humanity.”

Dec blinked in surprise but didn’t argue, and she hoped one of the security guards had handcuffs. She wasn’t sure how she was going to march Hagar out and get him back to the States, but dammit, she was going to see justice done.

Either that, or she was going to put a bullet in his brain and not look back.

I’m not that person , she told herself, even though there was a very cold, desolate part of her that claimed differently. A devil on her shoulder, whispering for her to do it right now. To take Dec’s gun and end it, making sure Hagar never terrorized anyone again.

Jessie, her sister of the heart. Her teammate.

She rubbed the pendant, sending up that familiar prayer. The old agony clawed at her heart, shredding it all over again, but at least this time, there might be a sliver of peace in sight.

As if Hagar knew where her thoughts had gone, he smirked. “I will haunt you forever. She will, too. Her death is on you.”

Dec drew out a pair of flexicuffs and jerked first one and then the other of Hagar’s arms behind him. “Yeah, yeah. We all know you’re a douchebag, and you love to terrorize people. As you can see, Meg is fully recovered, and she just kicked your ass. Now,”—she jerked the man to his feet—“get up.”

The terrorist struggled against Dec’s strength and the restraints, but Declan was a force to be reckoned with. Meg glanced toward the open door, hearing the shouts of the SWAT team finally arriving. She wasn’t sure how to convince them that she and Declan were the good guys, but then she saw Tessa leading the charge down the hall.

Meg let go of a soft laugh.

And then she realized Anderson wasn’t the only one who had managed to escape.

Panic flooded through her. “Dec, where’s Tommy?”

Her second turned, scanning the room with her.

Tessa and the SWAT team barreled in. Her eyes landed on Hagar, and she smiled. “Look what the swans bagged today.”

“Did you see Tommy?” Meg asked.

“Tommy?” Tessa shook her head. “He was here?”

The SWAT team leader ordered his men to lower their weapons. Then he demanded an explanation in broken English, but Meg shoved past him, trying to reach the door. “I have to find him.”

Armored officers blocked her way. None of them would let her pass, their leader demanding an explanation again.

“I told you what you need to know,” Tessa complained to the brute of a man who towered over all of them. She said something in Romanian, possibly repeating herself in his language. “Mosai Hagar is a wanted terrorist that we’ve captured. We’ll escort him to the 71st Airbase, where a team will be waiting to take him to the United States.”

The SWAT team leader responded in Romanian, and Meg felt her insides twist. She couldn’t translate his words, but she knew by the way he dismissed Hagar with barely a glance that something was amiss. Tessa’s face fell, and she started arguing with him.

Hagar gave Meg a satisfied smile.

The SWAT team leader gestured at him and the flexicuffs, then at one of his men, who stepped forward. Dec pulled Hagar back, keeping away from the eager officer. He raised his gun. “Over your dead body.”

The man stopped, glancing at his commander. Tessa did some fast talking in Romanian, propelling Meg through the blockage of black-clad SWAT members. “Go after Tommy, I’ll handle this.”

Meg considered her options. She had the USB. She would alert Flynn to let him know that Hagar was about to walk away. Flynn would do something.

He had to. She couldn’t let Hagar get away again.

Should’ve put a bullet in the bastard’s head .

She holstered her weapon, raising her hands in surrender as she pushed past the SWAT officers. Declan held his ground, giving her a nod when she glanced at him. He winked. “Go get our boy,” he said.

She gave Hagar a pointed look. “Even if you walk free today,” she told him, “you better keep looking over your shoulder. I’m a ghost, and I’ll haunt you forever.”

She squeezed through the line of officers and, once free, ran for the stairwell. Tommy couldn’t have gotten far with the lasting effects of the ultrasonic blast slowing him down. She was going to find him.

And when she did?

She was going to kick his ass.