Immediately he pulled the handgun from his waist and held it up against her face. “I said, sit down and shut up.”
She glared at him. “Fine. I’ll sit,” she snapped. “But, Jesus, this is really not the time to piss me off.”
“Shut up!” he roared.
“What do you think will stop these guys from taking you out?”
“It’s bulletproof glass,” he said. “Now sit there and shut up. I’m not telling you again.” She turned and stared forward, but inside she was fuming and terrified. “What’s this all about?”
“You got out of the office building,” he said, trying to steer while talking to her and managing the handgun, “and I was asked to replace the other cab with my own,” he said. “I often do special trips for people.”
“What? You just happened to be handy?”
“Actually I was on call, like a backup.”
“That’s nice,” she said snidely.
As they came up to a red light, he looked like he would slow down to take a turn.
Immediately she grabbed the wheel and yanked on it hard. The vehicle spun around in the middle of the intersection, and she started hitting him with all her might. Because she was half climbing all over him, he couldn’t get the gun in position to hurt her. He reached up to grab her by the neck, but, before he had a chance, she punched the lock button, unlocking the doors. Then she punched him as hard as she could in the face.
Blood spurted from his nose, and she tried to jerk back from his grip, now pinching the upper part of her arm. Just as he got his other arm free, the driver’s side door popped open, and, in no time, Diesel and Shane had pulled him out and tossed him to the ground in the middle of the intersection. Immediately the gun flung free, and the man scrambled after it. Shane punched him once and then again, and the gunman went down in a heap. Shane walked over and kicked the gun away from his body and stood over him, pulling out his phone.
She had no clue what was going on, but she admired his technique. She would have to work on hers.
Shane glared at her from outside the cab. “What the hell did you think you were doing?”
“Improvising,” she said, with a shrug. Diesel laughed. She looked at him and said, “At least one of you has a sense of humor.”
“Well,” Diesel said, “if you were mine, I’d have turned you over my knee and gave you a spanking.”
She looked at him, shocked. “Damn good thing I’m not then,” she said in an ominous tone, “because anybody who thinks that’s a good idea won’t do well with me.”
“I was kidding,” Diesel said, “but you had to know Shane would be unhappy about what you just did.”
“Why?” she said. “At least we’re not all locked inside a damn taxi right now, being taken to God-only-knows where,” she said. “In case nobody noticed, I’m a little tired of being ordered around today.”
“Got it,” he said, with a smile, and she glared at him suspiciously. He just turned and motioned toward Shane, who stood there still glaring at her, his hands on his hips.
She hopped out of the cab and immediately put her hands on her own hips, imitating his posture perfectly. “Come on. You know I won’t be the one who sits there and follows orders,” she complained.
Rolling his eyes, Shane pinched the bridge of his nose. “You could at least try not to get yourself killed.”
“Well, obviously you guys wouldn’t be any help,” she said. “What was I supposed to do?”
He stared at her, shaking his head. “You never change, do you?”
“Am I supposed to?” she asked, and he heard a little bit of insecurity in her voice. He sighed, then opened his arms, and she ran into them. He closed them around her immediately and held her tight. “You always got into trouble at every turn.”
“I also get out of trouble, thank you very much,” she said.
“You’re also damned lucky sometimes.”
“Well, obviously I picked a time when I knew his hands would be busy,” she said. “You should be nice to me, since I did get us out of that ugly situation.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, “I’m really happy about it. Now, do you think you can stay out of trouble long enough to let us check this guy over and make sure he doesn’t pull something else?”
“Not to worry,” Diesel said. “I just patted him down. No ID on him. Lots of cash in his back pocket, but, other than that, there’s nothing.”
“Anything in the cab?”
“No registration papers and the license plate doesn’t belong on it either.”
“Figures.”
In the meantime, the cops finally arrived, as the traffic had slowly been going around them, but they were definitely a hazard. When they tried to explain what had happened, they just looked at him in shock. “What?”
Then she said, “We were the ones in that office-building-hostage thing that just happened,” she said, the words all tumbling out.
Shane pulled her back into his arms, held her close, and said, “Just stay calm.” Then he explained everything to the officer, who just shook his head.
“Jesus,” he said, “can you guys just get to the hotel and stay out of trouble?”
“Maybe,” she said, lifting her head away from Shane’s chest. “Will you provide any security to keep us out of trouble? We took a cab. That’s all we did. We took a cab to my place to pick up some clothes, and then we were supposed to go back to the hotel. That’s it,” she said. “So how the hell is that our fault?”
Shane squeezed her shoulders and said, “Sorry, guys. She’s a little overwrought.”
The officer looked at her like she was a time bomb. She just rolled her eyes. Shane glared at her and said, “Calm down, would you please?”
She sighed, then slumped against him and nodded. “Okay, this is your show,” she said. “But you’ll have to get me something to eat soon.” She yawned and snuggled in close. He sighed and said, “Any chance you guys could give us a lift to the hotel? We stopped at her place to pick up a change of clothing, and the cab switched while we were inside. We said we’d be available to answer more questions, but we got held up.” He then provided the name of the SWAT leader from the telecom building task force.
Nodding, the officer said, “Come on. Get in the back of my cruiser here.” Shane led her to the police car, and the three of them piled into the back. She never said another word, until they were outside the hotel.
Looking up at the third-rate hotel, she smiled. “This is all you can afford, huh? I guess they don’t pay you that well for those missions.”
He just sighed, shaking his head. “We were trying to avoid calling any attention to ourselves. We’re not trying to impress anyone or to make a statement with our lodging choices anyway.”
She looked at him sideways. “Yeah, so how’s that working out for you?” At that, Diesel laughed and laughed. She glared at him. “What’s so funny now?”
“You two,” he said. “You’re really great together.”
“We’re not exactly together-together,” she said.