Page 66 of Jep

Em looked up at him when he spoke, like she’d only just realized he was there.

“You saved my life, you know,” he said after he pried the weapon from her hand and tucked it into the back of his pants. “That was very brave.”

She mumbled something, then looked back at the woman.

“Em? Talk to me.” He took her arm when she didn’t respond. “Why didn’t you go back to the car when I asked you to?”

She focused back on him again. “I couldn’t leave her.”

“Who? That woman?”

“You would have killed her. Or she would have killed you. Either way…I couldn’t…I had to do something, but then…that man had a gun.”

“Is this because of the prostitute from the other day? I know I told you we could try to help her, but this was different. Today, the woman needed to be stopped before she could have help.”

Em’s breathing sped up with her agitation. “No, I couldn’t let you—” Tears appeared in her eyes.

“Why did you have to protect her?”

“Because she’s my sister.”

Jep glanced at the woman and let out a long, slow breath. He now understood what about the woman had looked familiar. It was the family resemblance.

A hand rested on his shoulder. The man standing above Jep was wearing full protective gear. “We’re going to need you to clear out while we deal with this.”

The bomb squad had arrived.

“Yeah. Give us a second.” He shook his head to reset. “Okay, Em. We can talk about that, but we’re going to have to move while we do.” He lifted her, checking to make sure her legs would hold before he led her away, but she resisted. “They’ll take good care of her,” he said. “But we’ve got to get out of blast— We have to get out of the way before they can do that.”

“They won’t hurt her?” Em said, her eyes round as a kitten. Innocent and searching.

“No.”

“How do you know?”

“Because that’s the order I gave.”

“What if they don’t listen?”

“They will.”

“How can you be sure?”

Jep put his arm around her, forcing her to take the first few steps. He’d carry her away if he had to, but once they got moving, she walked on her own.

“We all want to bring her in uninjured,” he said. “We need to question her. She’s safe.”

“There’s no way she knew what she was doing.”

“She had a bomb strapped to her.”

“No. She would never hurt anyone.”

“Don’t worry about any of that right now, okay? She’ll have the chance to explain herself.”

“Okay.”

He led her down the hill to the sidewalk, past a crowd of agents and police.

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