Page 18 of Hawk on the Hunt

Finally, the black man let go of her throat, and she coughed and gasped, sucking much-needed air into her lungs. Her captor loosened his grip on her while he jerked her toward the house. She stumbled and almost tripped over her own feet, but the two men dragged her to the front entrance of the villa, her feet barely touching the ground.

Fuck! What had she gotten herself into here? She hadn’t expected this to turn bad so quickly. She hadn’t even had a chance to find out where they were keeping Dylan. Her chances of getting him out of here had just dropped to zero. And she didn’t even want to guess what they would do to her now. They wanted to make her talk, which sounded like it would be painful. And her threshold for pain was extremely low.

The two men hauled her into the house, and she heard the heavy door fall shut behind her. The large foyer with the impressive mahogany staircase leading to the second floor was well-lit and sparsely furnished.

“Let go of me!” she cried out. “You have no right—”

“Drop your shtick! Nobody here is gonna buy it!” the black man snapped.

“They sent a woman?” a dark-haired man coming through a door from the right said, as he marched toward them. She instantly recognized him as the man Dylan had been talking to in the Café the prior evening.

“Nobody sent me!” Why didn’t these men listen?

“Don’t worry, I can break her,” the blond man said with conviction.

“I didn’t do anything wrong!” Tears welled up in her eyes. She was way in over her head. The first reckless thing she’d ever done in her life was turning into a catastrophe. And all she’d wanted was to help Dylan.

“Was anybody with her?” the dark-haired man asked.

“Not that we could see,” the black guy replied. “But we should get ready in case we have to evacuate.”

The dark-haired man turned back to the open door from where he’d emerged and called out, “Fox, get out here. We need to sweep the intruder for any bugs or transponders.” Then he turned back and motioned to the black guy. “Check her handbag and strip her.”

The black guy snatched her handbag and unceremoniously dumped its entire contents on the floor, while the blond guy pulled on her jacket and yanked it off her. When he reached out again, she slapped his hands away and twisted away from him so he couldn’t touch her.

“No!” she yelled.

There was a loud sound coming from the stairs.

“Yankee, take your fucking hands off her!”

Zara whipped her head toward the familiar voice. Dylan was rushing down the stairs, wearing only a pair of shorts, his hair damp as if he’d just stepped out of a shower, a gun in his hand.

11

Dylan had been taking a shower in the room Ace had offered him to stay in, when the intruder alarm had gone off in the mansion. He’d quickly thrown on a pair of shorts, grabbed his gun, and stormed out of his room. At the top of the stairs, he’d heard Zara’s voice, and a split second later, he’d seen her defending herself against Yankee.

He ran downstairs, his eyes instinctively roaming her body to scan for injuries. He found none, but that fact didn’t slow down his racing heart. Several thoughts shot through his mind. How had she found him? What was she doing here? And had somebody followed her?

The other agents stared at him in surprise, and Yankee instantly took his hands off Zara, while Zara stared at him, mouth gaping open. Dylan shoved his gun into the back of his waistband and stopped in front of Zara.

“Zara! What are you doing here?”

Before she could answer, Tiger interrupted, “You know her?”

Without taking his eyes off Zara, who looked more than just a little confused and annoyed, he said, “She’s my girlfriend.” Then he took her hands, and noticed they were trembling. “What’s going on?”

“I didn’t hear from you…” She swallowed hard, hesitating.

“She climbed over the gate,” Yankee explained. “She was armed. We figured Smith sent an assassin.”

“Assassin?” Zara gasped. “I’m not an—”

“She was definitely armed,” Tiger added. “Looked like an iron rod.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “And don’t deny it.”

“Maybe you wanna tell us what your girlfriend is doing here,” Ace said in a calm voice. “You could have mentioned that you were expecting her to join you.”

Dylan cast a sideways look at Ace. “I could have, had I known she would show up here.” He looked straight at Zara. “’Cause I’m pretty sure I didn’t give you this address.”