Page 2 of Shielding Maya

She stood and turned toward him, pocketing her phone in her back pocket as if she did it a hundred times each day.

"My name is Maya Sager." She held her hand out to him.

He took her hand in his. "Jasiah Weston."

"It's nice to finally meet you Jasiah. I'm sorry it's like this. Do you know who that man was? Was he one of your people?"

2

Maya watched Jasiah's facial expressions. He was handsome, which surprised her. She'd assumed he looked like a mountain man, all grizzly and unrefined.

He had dark hair cut short and a short beard. Basically, he was groomed, which was in contrast to her assumption of him.

His brows furrowed, then he shook his head. "No, he isn't one of my people. Are you assuming that because he killed that man?"

"No, but he's up here on the mountain, so I wanted to make sure."

"So is that dead man but he isn't one of mine either. Is he one of yours?"

She sucked in a deep breath, eager to change the trajectory of this conversation. "Yes. Sort of."

She dropped her arms and tucked her thumbs into her front pockets. Footsteps behind Jasiah had him swirling around to face Myles, her brother.

Myles' eyes locked onto hers, the set of his mouth was stern, his shoulders were stiff and slightly lifted. "Did you see the senator?" She asked.

"Yes." Myles then looked at Jasiah. "Who killed him?"

Maya took a step forward, so she stood next to Jasiah. "I don't know. We—“

she motioned between herself and Jasiah "—witnessed him being shot. The second time, not the first."

Myles nodded.

Maya motioned to the road. "He got in a car and sped down the mountain. I got the plate number and texted it to Tate."

"That's good. Maybe we'll still be able to get him."

"One of the others will have to do it. Tate asked that we stay here and guide the EMTs to the senator."

The sirens began to grow louder. She took another deep breath and turned to Jasiah. "You should tell your people everything's okay. They've likely heard the shots and they'll hear the sirens."

"How do you know he won't be back?"

"I don't. But he came to kill the senator, and he's done that. Unless he feels as though we saw him, which I don't think he does or he would have come looking for us, he'll be out of town by now, unless my team managed to get to him first."

"Why would you let him go?"

"I didn't let him go."

"You said you were armed."

"Should I have shot him down? In the back? Like a fucking coward?"

Jasiah's head jerked when she swore. She heard Myles chuckle, clearly entertained by Jasiah being affronted that a woman would swear. Or, whatever had caused his reaction.

"Of course not. But..."

Myles stepped toward them. "He was just a hired assassin. He'd likely not give us anything on who hired him, and we already know who hired him. We just have to get the proof."

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