Miah-1(Lane Brothers, Book 2)(44)

My thoughts are halted when I hear the squeal of tires and see Miah, Jared, and Jace running my way.

I almost fall before he reaches me and hugs me tightly to his chest with a curse.

“Babe—”

“Josh? Is he alright?” I cut in, needing to know that he didn’t flip out when that agent took me.

“Fine. He called Jared right away and we went to the school to get him. He’s shaken but settled down right away once Jared got him home. Are you okay?” he demands, holding me at arm’s length and cursing at the state of my wrists.

Jared grabs the package and Miah cuts me loose, growling when he sees blood oozing from my bruised wrists. It’s not that bad, but I am a fair-skinned woman and tend to bruise easily.

“Hush, let me speak. Please,” I say when he starts yelling again. “That envelope you’re holding is a package from Agent Stephanie Williams of the FBI. She wanted me to give that to you. She also let me know that the first man who broke into my house was hired by Nick to kill me. The second guy was there to get rid of him so that he could bring me in.”

Jared narrows his eyes, leaning down to get eye level with me.

“Stephanie Williams? She a short brunette with slate-grey eyes and a big rack?”

My lips twitch at his description, and I nod, rolling my eyes.

“Fuck. Miah, man, if Williams went to all this trouble to get to us, we need to at least look into it. She’s a good cop, and I owe her a debt for a favor she did me back in Kabul.”

Miah starts cursing and runs a hand through his hair before picking me up and walking back to his SUV.

“Take a look at the package and get in touch with her. I want her to answer for scaring Clari this way, and then I want to know what the hell is going on.”

He’s agitated and looking too unsettled for my liking when he gets into the back with me and tosses Jace the keys.

“Babe, I am so sorry. I should have—”

“Hush, Miah. I swear you seem to get more upset about these occurrences than I do,” I chide, putting my fingers to his lips to stem the tide of apologies I know are forthcoming.

“Told you so, bro.” Jace chuckles from the driver’s seat.

“Shut up and drive, asshole,” he snarls before looking down at me with guilt. “I keep failing you. It’s my job to protect you, and yet every time I turn around you keep getting hurt.”

“Uh, I’m doing alright for a chick who got snatched right in front of her kid brother, Miah, so just quit your guilt already. You can’t protect me twenty-four hours a day. Really, Miah, you take the blame for the strangest things. Now if you want to get upset about something, let’s focus on Nick and his plans for me. That man sent someone to hurt me and then had the audacity to show up at my workplace, demanding I go back to him. And he hasn’t stopped calling since.”

I wait for him to explode at the news and sigh in relief when he just kisses me softly and shakes his head.

“Jared, take care of this, would you? I’m not leaving Clari and Josh to fly down to Philly to take care of that SOB, and I want him off the streets before he tries something again.”

Jared nods and whips out his phone, murmuring into it so softly, I can’t make out a word.

“Done. You want me to read this now or at home?”

“Now.”





Chapter Seventeen


Miah

I’m so relieved to have my girl back and for her to have done the right thing and put in for a leave of absence. After getting home and spending the rest of the day just holding her, I finally went down to Jared and Jace and had my brother tell me everything about this Williams woman.

It turns out that instead of needing to kill the woman, I owe her for saving my family and opening up a whole other avenue in our investigation.

The extremists basically made me from day one, as well as Dobson and his crew, because if Agent Williams is right, we have a leak in the SEALs and were in danger of walking into a straight-up trap.

My first inclination is to get Roman the hell out of there and just wash my hands of it all and leave the colonel to take care of this mess he was so willing to get me into. But Roman, it seems, is in and getting closer to the big dogs as we speak. He’s convinced that he can gather enough names for us and the FBI to start unraveling what appears to be a hive instead of just one cell operating out of New Orleans.

So yeah, Roman can stay right where he is and keep this thing going while I focus my attention on bigger fish, like that idiot Nick Grimes and whoever the hell he’s working with. The man disappeared off the face of the earth yesterday morning and hasn’t been seen since.

“If Williams is right then it’s a good thing you officially resigned from the SEALs. Dobson might believe that you left to pursue a life of crime like him and his buddies.”