Page 70 of Fast Kill

“Hey,” she said, aiming a smile at all eight of them, assembled along the length of the bar. Then she nodded at the stool beside Logan and tossed her long dark hair over one shoulder as she raised an eyebrow. “This one taken?” Her voice held the slightest trace of a British accent.

“No, please,” he said, shifting a little and angling his body so she had room to climb up.

She hopped up onto the stool as Hamilton slid onto the one beside her.

“This one’s on me,” their team leader said to her, flagging down the bartender. “What’ll you have?”

“Soda with lime, please,” she said to the bartender.

“Beer,” Hamilton said to him, then faced Agent Rabani. “Sure you don’t want something stronger?”

“No, I’m not a drinker.”

At that Zaid leaned forward and peered over at her. “Hey, me neither.”

She offered him a polite smile. “What are you drinking, then?”

He held up the bottle and turned the label toward her. “Root beer.”

The smile turned into a grin, showing the hint of a dimple in her cheek. “I like it. I’ll have one too, instead of what I just ordered,” she called to the bartender.

She and Zaid made polite small talk for a few minutes, until Logan started to get antsy. What time was it? Taylor’s meeting must be underway by now. How long would it take? If he left now, he could grab them dinner and the ice cream and have everything ready when she got there.

Agent Rabani stopped in mid-sentence in her conversation with Zaid and Hamilton as ring tones went off. She reached into her pocket for her phone just as Hamilton did the same. She read whatever was on the screen while Hamilton hopped off his stool and walked away from the bar with a finger plugged into his other ear.

Rabani frowned and glanced back at Hamilton.

“Everything okay?” Zaid asked her.

“No,” she answered, still looking at Hamilton.

Logan angled his stool to look at Hamilton. A cold shock rippled through him when he realized his team leader was staring right at him as he spoke to whoever was on the other end of the phone, his expression grave.

“What’s going on?” Logan asked Rabani.

“There was an incident a few minutes ago, a shooting involving some of our local agents, in broad daylight out front of an apartment building they were guarding.”

Logan shot out a hand and gripped her shoulder, urgency thrumming through him. “Where?”

She stilled for a heartbeat, then showed him her phone. “It doesn’t say. Are you all right?”

No, he wasn’t okay. Fuck.Fuck. Cold sweat broke out on his face as he fished his phone out of his pocket. He had to call Taylor. Just needed to hear her voice and know she was okay. What if Dillon had somehow figured out where she was and attacked?

“What about Taylor? Agent Kennedy?” he clarified, the desperation clear in his voice.

The words were barely out of his mouth when Hamilton lowered his phone and strode back to the bar, his gaze trained on Logan before he glanced down the length of the bar at the others. “We’ve got a situation. Minutes ago, one shooter attacked an agency vehicle en route to a meeting at headquarters.”

No!

“Two agents are dead and the gunman made off with a hostage in a getaway vehicle.” When that steely gaze landed on Logan once more, his guts clamped tight. “It’s Taylor. He took her.”

Chapter Twenty

Don’t let them know how scared you are.

Taylor kept repeating the command in her head while she fought to keep the panic at bay. They’d been on the move for the better part of forty minutes so far, best she could determine.

Her captors had stopped to change vehicles in a remote area before heading to the coast. One of them still rode in the back with her and had secured her hands behind her before putting her in this new vehicle. A van without any windows in back.

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