Raw Redemption (Crossing the Line #4)(4)

Tears blinded Ailish as she sprinted toward her stolen car. Almost there.

Blinding white light filled her vision, the breath leaving her body. Pain like she’d never experienced bloomed along her forehead, behind her eye sockets. Something had struck her. A fist? When she managed to crack an eyelid, she was stunned to find herself on the ground, faceup, the two men standing above her and blocking out the sun.

“Are you out of your f*cking mind?” Cubs Cap shouted, nearly splitting Ailish’s head in half. “Bring her back unharmed. That was the job. How are we going to explain a black eye?”

“She threw a knife at me.”

Cubs Cap paced away, throwing his hands up in the air. He jerked a cell phone out of his pocket and started to dial, but Tall Man knocked the device out of his hands. A shouting match ensued. Even in her woozy state, Ailish knew this was her chance. They were distracted and believed they’d incapacitated her. The car keys were still clutched in a death grip inside her palm, the vehicle only twenty yards away. She could get there. She could.

Ailish flopped over onto her stomach and started to crawl. Her elbows dug into the dirt, little lights winking before her eyes as the pain expanded inside her skull. When a foot landed on her back and collapsed her to the ground, Ailish screamed through her teeth. Not fair. This wasn’t fair.

She was jerked up onto her feet by Tall Man—only to find a gun pointed straight at her head. “Don’t,” she managed through numb lips. “Please, don’t.”

“Can’t bring you back like this,” Tall Man said, with more than a hint of pleasure. “And can’t have you talking, saying I knocked you one.”

Ailish played her final card. “I have money,” she whispered. “I can give you money. You won’t need to go back to my father at all.”

Both men tensed, like two dogs that just had a bone tossed down between them. Their expressions turned calculating. Ailish saw Cubs Cap reach for the small of his back and dived away with a prayer on her lips, expecting to feel a bullet enter her body at any second. The quiet zing of shots being fired through a silencer were greeted by still morning silence. Silence so loud, she swore death had found her. But she couldn’t be dead if she still felt pain, could she?

Ailish uncovered her head and looked up, finding Cubs Cap staring at the crumpled body of his associate.

“You show me where the money is.” He punctuated each word by stabbing his gun in the air. “Then you get the hell out of here.”





Chapter Two


Henrik thundered into the squad meeting room, seeing his six teammates and one captain through tunnel vision. He’d never played video games—even as a kid his hands had been too big for the controllers—but he imagined this was how it felt. His objective was secondary to the more immediate crisis he’d been presented with, and that crisis was a sword twisting in his back. Nothing looked familiar or tangible. The walls could turn to smoke at any moment, so he needed to get the required information and get back to the objective.

If, in fact, that objective still existed.

A deafening ring started in his head, making his steps waver. He couldn’t think in terms of what-ifs yet or nothing would get accomplished. Nothing would move forward, because he would turn to stone. Already, his limbs felt like they were swimming through cement as the undercover squad meeting came to a standstill around him.

Henrik found Polly, much like he’d found her the first time they’d met. Always inches away from Austin, her now-boyfriend. And always calculating. But there was a difference in both Austin and Polly since coupling up, like an unbreakable alliance had been formed. One that Henrik could freely admit was formidable with Austin’s skills as a con man and master of disguises. Add in Polly’s hacking abilities and they were invaluable to the squad. A fact they made no qualms about flaunting.

Henrik made sure he had Polly’s attention. Then he removed the bloody knife from his pocket and tossed it on the dirty floor. “She wasn’t there.”

If he’d been in a room full of cops—or even law-abiding citizens—they would have already exploded with questions. Where did you get the knife? Who wasn’t where? However, Henrik was in a room with Bowen and Connor, former gang members from Brooklyn. Erin, a pyromaniac and accomplished escape artist. Seraphina, a rogue cop whose revenge plans had once almost gotten her killed. Austin, a con man with a God complex, and expert hacker, Polly. So instead of asking the typical questions, they all leaned back in their chairs and waited, watching through their own unique, dysfunctional lenses to consider their play. Distantly, Henrik wondered if the smoke coming out of his ears was white, blue, or possibly a light shade of purple.

“She wasn’t there,” Polly repeated, having the decency to look a little pale. “But the knife was?”

Henrik’s chest tried to cave in. “That’s about right. Signs of a struggle outside, too. She’s gone. And that might be her…blood, goddammit.” He drew a long breath that hung in his neck like dangling razor blades. “Why don’t you have your laptop out yet?” Incidentally, another device for which his fingers proved too large. “Get it out.”

Austin came to his feet beside Polly, his once-nemesis. “I understand your frustration, old boy. But you’re going to want to rethink your tone.”

Derek blocked Austin from Henrik’s line of vision. Only then did it occur to Henrik that the captain hadn’t asked any questions, either. Attempting to blend in with the team he’d built? Or had the line between cop and criminal become just as blurred for Derek as it had for Henrik? Didn’t matter. He couldn’t question the captain’s motives now. He had to find Ailish. He’d stopped second-guessing his sanity and embraced the lunacy of finding this girl he didn’t even know. And it felt good, simply allowing the need to rule him. He’d explore his motivation after he knew she was safe.