Prologue
East
She was faster than she looked. What the fuck?
The woman darted out of the private room and into the bar. I followed as quickly as I could, but I had to avoid tripping over Livy. I practically jumped over a chair, and narrowly avoided the hostess, so she had a lead of several feet on me.
I was out of the backroom in the VIP area like a shot. And the woman in front of me turned back, her eyes slightly widening when she saw that I was approaching.
She grabbed one of the busboys by the collar and shoved him toward me, then she sprinted.
No way was she going to be fast enough.
I spun around him, avoided a table with a couple on a date, then scooted around the pair of blondes who eyed me appreciatively.
Note to self: Come back for them later.
Then I bolted out the door.
I saw her running to the right, long legs eating pavement. Oh, she was a runner. Awesome. I was too. London Marathon, five years running. Former track athlete. This was going to be a Sunday jog.
She quickly darted across the street, and I followed suit, ignoring the cars blaring their horns at us.
As she crossed the park, she started to lose some of her steam, which was when I picked up speed.
Up the hill, her legs stopped working for her and started working against her.
She slowed, and that gave me just enough advantage to put on a burst of speed and catch up to her. I grabbed her by the back of her shirt, yanking her back. "Nah, uh-uh-uh-uh. You don't get to take pictures of me and my friends and not at least tell us your name." I was irritated that I was huffing and puffing.
Jesus Christ, she was fast.
"I know all about you and your friends, the kind of men you are."
As I spoke to her, I felt along her arm. Then I spread my hands across her waist, lifted her top, and pulled the wire. She grabbed for it, but I kept it just out of reach. "Uh-huh, this is the camera, isn’t it?"
What I didn't account for was her quick thinking, and her knee came straight for my balls. I turned my leg just in time to catch her knee on the side of my thigh. It still hurt like a son of a bitch. “What the fuck? Who are you?” I didn’t let her go, and she continued to struggle. I held on to her, and I grabbed and tried to pull the camera free one handed, but it wouldn't come off.
"Let me go." She struggled in my grip.
"No, not until you tell me who you are and who you work for. I'm not going to hurt you, but I can't let you run loose. So who are you?"
"Someone who's going to see all of you burn."
"Bold words for a captive woman."
"Oh, you think I'm your captive, do you?"
She elbowed me, and I doubled over. "Jesus fucking Christ."
She tried to twist free, and when my hands slipped, I hooked into her belt instead, and she fell on the ground with me. I rolled on top of her. "Stop moving. I don't want to hurt you."
I tried to yank the camera from her body. "I just want the camera. You can't take pictures. I don't know who you are, or what you want, or what story you think you saw, but it's not happening. Not today."
"I will end you."
"I'm sorry sweetheart, but aren't I the one on top of you?"
Then a jolt hit me. Right in the center of my chest, and I felt like I had been punched by Thor's fucking hammer. I jerked back, convulsing. She rolled me off easily then. "I told you, you can't hurt me. People like you aren't going to hurt me again."
She stood over me, and I could see that the messy brown hair she had tied at the nape of her neck was a wig. It was askew at the front. Her hair was darker. Chestnut maybe? It was hard to tell in the dark.
Fuck. Why couldn't I move? My teeth started to chatter, and I jumped. Fuck.
Then she reached down to my hand. I tried desperately to hold on to the camera, and we fought for it. What was a valiant fight in my head, to her was my laughingly feeble attempt to hang on, because she plucked it easily out of my hand.
"You, East Hale, are going down. I won't stop until I crumble your house of cards. Do you understand me?" She leaned close, and the scent of honeysuckle filled my senses, making my mouth water.
But then my mouth was filled with the taste of metal, and my teeth rattled. Then along with not being able to fucking move, I couldn't breathe either. It was like her scent wrapped around me, enticing me, and then when it was too late, choking me.
I wasn’t sure how long I laid there seizing. God, had she used a Taser on me?
That was how Bridge found me, on my back in the grass, my eyes open, my body coiled and tight. He was panting from the run. "Christ, both of you are fucking fleet-footed. I saw her hit you when I was across the street. Are you okay, mate?"
I blinked up at him and groaned. "Fuck me."
With a cheeky smile he said, "East, we've talked about this. You're not my type. I like you as a mate."
"Fuck you."
He grinned. "I see you're getting back to fighting form. You'll be all right. What did she hit you with?"
That buzzing in my head and my teeth had to mean she’d hit me with a fucking Taser. She came prepared with a Taser. Why?
Bridge pulled me to a sitting position, and I dragged in slow, steady breaths. "Fuck, that hurts."
"Is it actually pain or tingles?”
I groaned. "I guess more tingles. My teeth, God, they feel awful."
"Yeah, that's a lot of voltage. I think you should get checked out by the doc."
I shook my head. "I'll have the staff doctor come to the penthouse. I'm sure it's fine, but fuck me, who was that woman?"
"Well, you’re the one who went after her. And you caught her. She didn't tell you anything?"
I studied my friend in the darkness, the moonlight making his jet-black hair appear slightly bluish. I opened my palm, displaying the SD card I'd stolen out of the camera. "I am Elite, remember? I have some tricks up my sleeve."
Bridge squatted down next to me and took the SD card out of my hand, studying it. "How long will it take before she finds out her SD card is missing?"
"I'm not sure, but it could be a day. But I’m sure that I'll have everything off of that thing tonight."
"Of course, you will."
I glanced around, staring into the darkness, wondering if she had turned back to watch her theoretical kill.
"I don't know who you are princess, but I will find out, and then you and I are going to have a very long chat about why you don't tase strangers."
Nyla
My legs ached. My lungs burned. But still, I forced my arms to keep pumping.
If your arms moved quickly, then your legs moved quickly. Neural coupling, right? It was some long-ago advice from a running coach, but I was going to rely on it to survive.
I’d miscalculated. I’d thought tonight would be easy. I should have probably predicted this outcome. I just didn’t want it to be a failure.
You almost got caught.
Run. Run. Run. Run.
I darted down an alleyway despite the lack of illumination. I could only hope nothing unseen waited to trip me. The safe passage was on the other side. Amelia had a car waiting, and all I had to do was make it to her.