Page 9 of Merciless Protector

I was led through several halls and corridors and ended up at a door with no window. The guard used keys to open it. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see my handler on the other side of that door, but I was.

“You’re here,” I said, tongue in cheek with raised brows.

“Of course. I did as you asked and paid the guard for this visit,” she said, with emphasis on visit.

What she meant was a conjugal visit, which wasn’t allowed in the state of Illinois, at least right now. A glance at the guard and he nodded. Even though I’d paid for nothing, she obviously had.

“You have fifteen minutes,” he said, holding out his hand to indicate for me to go inside.

Though I was more than annoyed by her presence, I’d been working undercover for too many years not to let this play out. I’d learned to school my features and play the role I needed to in order to survive. So I stepped inside. The door was swiftly closed behind me. The telltale clicking of the lock followed immediately after.

“Why are you here?” I asked, as coldly as I felt.

Her bright smile did little to lift my mood or the drab decor of the small room. The size in shape was much like my own cell, except the bunk was replaced with a single twin bed. Still, everything was gray and lifeless. I guessed it was a room used by guards for downtime or if they were staying overnight for whatever reason.

“Not happy to see me?” she said, without losing her high-wattage grin.

The saucy look in her eye did nothing for me. There had only been one woman I’d thought about for the last ninety-one days. “Three months too late,” I said flatly, sounding bitter.

She took a step forward, but my narrowed gaze stopped her. She held up a hand. “I see someone’s bitter.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Three months in a hell hole gives one new perspective when you aren’t given the basic rights like due process.”

She folded her arms across her chest and her face went flat and businesslike. “Some lessons are hard earned when one goes rogue. As far as due process, you were out on bail, Shawn. Your freedom was revoked when you were found committing a crime.”

If she thought I’d been put in my place, she was wrong. “You can go the same way you came and I’ll get a lawyer,” I said, calling her out. She wasn’t here as a favor to me. That went away when I’d been left here. She, no, they, the FBI wanted something from me. “And next time, you can come during visiting hours, which I’ll deny.”

“I did it this way so we could have privacy.”

Everything a prisoner did was subject to scrutiny, from visitors to communication with the outside world. All of it could be read, recorded and used against me.

“You could have sent me a lawyer to explain my rights instead,” I groused.

“I came to offer you something,”

It was my turn to cross my arms over my chest and mirror her pose of not giving any ground.

“Tayla,” she began.

Unfortunately, I’d been unable to stop an eye twitch after hearing her name. Once I realized the FBI wasn’t coming for me, I’d worried about Tayla. Especially since the local cops acted like she was a prostitute. With no way to get information about her, because I hadn’t wanted to bring her to the attention of any of Shawn’s friends or enemies, I’d been unable to learn her fate.

“What about her?” I asked, hoping I’d come across as disinterested.

“You care about her,” she said perceptively.

Obsessed was a better word. The memory of her had been the light in the darkness that held me together when this place was trying to rip me apart. Prison was hell, and every minute was an act of survival. The things that I’d endured in these walls would haunt me for many years to come.

“Talk or go. Your choice,” I spat out.

“She’s missing.”

“Again?” I roared, not caring who heard.

“We don’t have a lot of time for your grandstanding,” she said. “She wanted to go after this Ruin guy.”

“And you let her?” I said, dropping my arms as my hands balled into fists. I wanted to pound on the wall for how helpless I felt in that moment, stuck in prison for trying to rescue her.

“For your information, she came up with the plan.” As my eyes closed to near slits, she pushed on. “It was solid, and she had backup. But the bastard was good, and he got her out somehow when we had the place surrounded.”

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