Under the Gun

If he worried that she was about to make a break for it, he sure wasn’t showing it. Open hand, relaxed shoulders, even a small smile playing on this mouth. Yeah, he was sure he had her under control. She saw it in every line of his body.

He was hiding more than his real profession. Behind the passwords and key cards there might not be an easy way out of what looked like an otherwise normal office. Still, she had to try.

She moved her foot closer to the hallway to test her theory. If the door slammed shut and locked her in, she’d deal with his anger then. It wasn’t as if Luke trusted her, anyway. He probably expected her to bolt. Was waiting for it.

She inched the same foot outside the office. Her gaze stayed locked on Luke. He taunted her by leaning back further into his oversize leather chair. With one last deep breath she stepped out of the doorway. She turned her head to look down the hall.

A second later the barrel of a gun pressed hard against her forehead. She bit back a scream as she stared into the blue eyes of a stranger dressed all in black.

Adrenaline pumping, she raised her hands in surrender. “It’s okay. I’m here with Luke.”

The other man’s smile never reached his eyes. “Luke who?”

Chapter Four

Blood thundered in Claire’s ears. If her heart drummed any harder, it would come right out of her chest and land on the floor at her feet.

With Luke injured and her without a weapon, she tried to use reason to keep the big guy with the gun from firing straight into her forehead. “Listen to me. We can work this out.”

“I doubt it.” Black-haired and well over six feet, the guy radiated danger. His arm stayed straight and the gun never wavered. If ever there was a man ready to shoot first and talk later, it was him.

“You don’t want to do this,” she said, trying to stall for time as she mentally searched for a way out of this.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

At this range, there was no way the guy would miss unless he was cross-eyed, and she was just not that lucky. Not lately. If something didn’t change, she’d die with the presumption of guilt tied around her neck.

And Luke, injured and vulnerable. She didn’t want to think what would happen to him. Her only hope was for the meds to wear off and his brain to kick-start him into action. That even now he had his gun drawn and was working on a plan to free them.

“Phil’s just using you.” She didn’t have any money, her ex saw to that, but maybe this guy didn’t know the intricacies of her financial settlement. Only possible if he never watched the news or read a paper.

“Phil who?”

“I can beat his price. Whatever he’s giving you to do this, I’ll double it.” A total lie, but she was desperate to keep the conversation going and the gun’s trigger exactly where it was right now.

The guy pursed his lips as if considering the deal. “Interesting.”

“Problem out there?” Luke asked from inside the room.

Her heart dropped at the sound of his deep voice. She closed her eyes in defeat. Maybe Luke really was an antiques dealer. Seemed a guy with a badge would be smart enough to understand the benefit of sneaking up on a situation like this rather than announcing his presence.

“Are you going to answer him?” the guy asked.

She thought she heard a touch of amusement in his voice, which made about as much sense as everything else that had happened in the past hour. “No.”

“You should.”

She took that as an order. “We have company.” She shouted that obvious assessment to Luke. She wanted to tell him to bring his gun, but she was pretty sure that would tick off the guy who wanted to put a bullet through her brain.

After a bit of paper shuffling and chair squeaking, Luke appeared in the doorway. He stared down at the gun. Up at the guy. Didn’t show an ounce of surprise.

“Ahhh, I see you weren’t kidding.”

Her hands balled into fists. “That’s all you have to say?”

“No.” Luke stepped into the hall and leaned against the wall. If the other man’s presence worried him, he sure didn’t show it. “I saw you two on the monitor.”

“What monitor?” she asked.

Luke hitched his chin in the general vicinity of the gun. “Ease up. You’re scaring her.”

Oh, he was way past that point. “Lowering the weapon would help. I can’t go anywhere, anyway.”

The mystery man’s shoulders relaxed. “I wouldn’t let you.”

“Looks like we have an agreement, then.” Luke rubbed his shoulder. “Holden Price, this is the infamous Claire Samson.”

“Wait, you know him?” Her heart flip-flopped at the thought. When she tried to turn her head to let Luke see just how angry she was, the gun scratched her skin. “Uh, could you call your friend off?”

Holden looked her up and down. “When I’m ready.”

“Lower the weapon,” Luke ordered, his voice suddenly stronger and harsher. “Now.”

Holden hesitated before pulling the gun back closer to his side. “What’s going on?”

“So that’s a yes?” She looked back and forth between the men. What she really wanted to do was knock their heads together as payback for scaring the crap out of her. “You two do know each other.”

“We both work here,” Luke said.

“Now that we’ve cleared that up, why is she here?” Holden still held his gun at the ready. A fact that kept Claire on edge.

“We had an incident.”

It was as if the testosterone had rushed to Luke’s brain and swamped his common sense. She fought the urge to roll her eyes. “It’s a little more than that. You were shot.”

Luke shrugged on his good side. “Yeah, like I said, an incident.”

“I know about the alley. I’ve already been there to make sure Adam has everything under control.” Holden nodded in the direction of the sling. “You okay?”

Since Holden actually frowned, looking as if Luke’s health mattered, Claire decided to let the gun threat slide. Luke might not understand how serious his injuries were, but from the way Holden’s eyebrows snapped together she assumed he got it.

“Will be,” Luke said.

The color had returned to his cheeks, but the dark circles under his eyes just kept getting darker. She was convinced he’d drop over at some point. Probably right when she’d need him to show off those impressive shooting skills of his, because that was how her life worked at the moment.

“You should be at home resting,” she pointed out. “It’s not normal for most people to get shot. Not even for supposed art dealers.”

“Antiques,” Holden muttered.