Page 95 of Out of the Shadows

Her head flew to the side. Pain exploded along her jaw. Managing to keep her hands locked together behind her, she nearly toppled over, but Branson grabbed her by the throat, righting her.

Holy shit, who knew the asshole could move that fast? One second, he was standing a few yards away, and the next...

She refused to squirm when his fingers tightened around her throat. Yeah, she’d probably pushed too far, but she didn’t care. Meeting his gaze, she wheezed out, “You can’t kill me until you get your money. Or are you unfamiliar with how extortion works?”

His hand dropped from her throat, and he backhanded her. “I know what the fuck I’m doing, bitch!”

She leaned into the boulder and worked her jaw from side to side. “Do you? Because you need some kind of leverage?—”

He yanked the gun from his waistband and took a menacing step toward her, crowding her space. “I know what the fuck I need! He fucked up our first plan and he’ll pony up every fucking dime.” He jabbed the gun into her ribs on the last three words.

She held herself completely still.Shit. Her plan to get himtalking, to press his buttons until he was distracted enough so she could somehow disarm him may not have been the best idea.

Fuck it.

He may be bigger than her, but she sure as hell was smarter. “And how do you plan on getting your money, huh?” Holding his gaze, she shrugged. “Pretty sure you missed that call time you mentioned in your video.”

His eyes narrowed, and he spun away from her. He tucked the gun back into his waistband and reached for his phone. Yanking her hands apart, she rushed him. Jumping onto his back, she locked her arms around his throat as they fell to the ground. He bucked beneath her, but her mind replayed every self-defense video she’d watched, every mixed martial arts fight she’d seen, and she held on.

He managed to pull out of her hold and scrambled to stand. She wasn’t as fast. He came at her while she was still on her back. Her feet came up and landed against his chest, pushing him away with everything she had. She launched him backward, and two loud pops had her freezing.

She gasped as his body jerked to the side. He landed on his back, arms spread out, and he groaned.

Before she could take her next breath, there was movement all around her. Multiple dark figures swarmed from out of the trees and converged on Branson who was writhing on the ground, moaning and cursing. She scooted backward, desperate to get away. Strong arms enveloped her, and she tensed. Her mouth opened, a scream ready in her throat, when the arms tightened around her.

“Bean, honey, it’s me.”

She stilled at the familiar voice.

Gavin.

Every bit of tension in her body liquified. She twisted, burying her body deeper into his arms. The sharp edges ofhis tactical vest dug into her chest, but she didn’t care. Her trembling arms wrapped around him, and she buried her face in the side of his neck.

His arms tightened around her and emotion threatened to overtake her. Until this moment, she hadn’t realized how scared she’d been, how worried she’d been that she’d never see this man again.

He’d come for her.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Once again, everyone was gathered in the large conference room, and Gavin scanned the faces of their group. Xander, Wilson, Buchanan, and the entire cyber team were seated around the large table. MacKay, Tiny, and Esme were on the Smartboard. It was nearing eleven at night, and Quinn, along with three FBI agents, had just left Hudson Security’s offices.

Despite the hour, there was a buzzing energy fueling the group. Because Bean was sitting with them. She was beside him, the fingers of her left hand laced with his. Of course, that didn’t prevent his amazing woman from typing on her laptop one-handed.

She was okay. A little bruised and battered—which had him howling—but she was good. If only his heart could believe it.

Finding her deep in the forest of Jackson Cove State Park had been relatively straightforward. Once they’d had her general location, they’d headed to that sector of the park. Abbot had launched Bean’s thermal drones and it hadn’t taken long to locate her. Their team—him, Alvarez, Wilson,Buchanan, and Xander, with Witherspoon directing comms and Abbot flying the drones—had quickly and silently trekked to get her. The hardest part had been waiting for the right moment to move. He’d nearly lost his mind as he’d watched that asshole hit her. Multiple times. Thankfully Xander had taken over as team leader or else Gavin would have been arrested for gutting the fucker.

The last five-plus hours since they’d found her had been absolute chaos. The FBI had descended, along with Quinn’s team. Between Bean getting checked out by the EMTs and then doing interview after interview with the feds, Gavin hadn’t had a moment alone with her. There were a million moving pieces that still had to be dealt with, but none of them mattered.

He squeezed Bean’s hand and studied her profile. The left side of her face was bruised, and there were a few small scratches along her cheeks and forehead. But the corners of her lips curved up while she continued to type.

She glanced at him. “What do you say we get this mission debrief over, boss?”

The exhaustion in her eyes tore at his gut. He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to each of her bruised and scraped knuckles. He’d come so damn close to losing her.

Giving her a nod, he wrapped her delicate hand in both of his and turned to the group. “All right. What do we know?”

“We know that Wilson’s still a fucking crack shot,” Xander said with a grin. “Two bullets. A through-and-through in each shoulder. Impressive.”

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