Unauthorized Affair (Unauthorized #1)(41)

She looked down at the two guns in her hand. She put them on the floor in front of her and backed away from them as the shouts pushed in the apartment ahead of the people. “I'm a cop! Don’t shoot! I’m undercover!” she yelled as patrol officers spilled into the small apartment. She shot her hands up in the air and backed farther away from the guns. “I called you! I’m a cop! Hunter Foley is my handler! Don’t shoot!” She continued to call out her disclaimers even while praying that Hunter, Sadler, and Ryker were OK.





Chapter 21





Jen sat motionless, her head hanging low, her hair spilling between her knees. She could see the pinkness of it, and for the first time ever, she hated it. If everyone made it out of this alive, she would dye it back to its regular color tomorrow. And if someone died? Ivy? Ryker? Hunter? The thought chilled her to her toes. Then I’ll shave it off, she thought viciously, knowing it wouldn’t help or change anything. But why wouldn’t anyone tell her something?! She got up and paced the tiny room for the 300th time. The uniform cops had handcuffed her and hauled her out of Ivy’s apartment like she was the criminal. She’d almost ended up in a cell, but at the last minute the desk sergeant believed her story. She remembered him. He was the one who had told her where to sit down the day that she took her lie detector test. So instead she’d ended up in this room. They’d taken her phone, locked the door, and no one had been back for what seemed like hours. She opened her mouth to start screaming, start demanding someone tell her something, but closed it abruptly when the door handle turned. She backed behind the desk, her posture suddenly alert and tense.

Hunter! He looked bone-weary, but he was alive, and here to get her. Jen uttered a primal noise and launched herself at him. He caught her and hugged her. “You did good Jen, you did so good,” he whispered.

She pulled back and looked at him, her eyes fierce. “Ivy?”

“She’s fine. She’s in the hospital for observation. She’s awake and talking.”

“But the hospital might not be safe!”

“She has two uniformed guards outside her door. And Ryker is with her.”

Jen collapsed into him again. Everyone she cared about was safe. Hunter gently walked her into the room and sat her down. “You’re going to have to give a statement. I can be here but I can’t be the one to interview you.”


“I killed him didn’t I?”

Hunter nodded. “You killed them both.”

Jen froze. She hadn’t considered that she’d killed the one in the living room. The thought that she killed two people, even if they were monsters, speared through her consciousness, shaking her to her core.

“Am I going to be in trouble?”

“Not at all. No way. They broke into her house. They knocked her out with chloroform. Chances are good they were going to kill her.” He leaned forward. “And both men are on the FBI watch list. You’re a hero, Jen.”

Jen looked down. She didn’t feel like a hero. In her mind’s eye, she just kept seeing that man’s brains cover Ivy’s wall.

“What about the two men at my house?”

“They’ve both been arrested. Neither is talking yet.”

“What about Coleton?”

“Coleton and the private investigator are in the cell block. But they’ll be released as soon as we get your statement, if what they said matches what you say.”

A rush of new emotion flooded Jen at hearing Coleton was in the cell block. He’d just tried to help her. And now he was paying for it. Guilt piled on top of guilt. “Did they say how they knew I was in trouble?”

“Coleton says he was going to watch your house all night. He says he was prepared to follow you for days. He’d asked the investigator to bring him a gun, which is why they both were on your street when they heard you scream.”

Jen shuddered, not wanting to think what could have happened if they hadn’t been there. Her eyes burned with hot tears that wouldn’t fall. Her throat squeezed tight, killing her emotions before they were born. All she felt was a kind of throbbing surrender laced with guilt.

“Are you ready to be interviewed? The sooner we do it, the sooner you can get out of here.”

“And go where, Hunter? Where am I going to be safe? I can’t go home.” A thought struck her. “My brother!”

“I’ve talked to your brother, and his girlfriend. They are in the lobby waiting to see you. They already boarded up the house and are going to stay in a hotel tonight. There are a half-dozen people out there waiting for you actually, two of them are FBI agents who said you can stay with them.” Hunter looked at her questioningly.

Jen smiled to think of them all out there waiting for her. But then guilt choked her again. It was what? Two or three in the morning? “They are my brother’s friends.”

“You can stay with them. Or you can stay with your brother. His girlfriend is the famous former-spy from that secret agency, right?” Jen nodded.

“They are all willing to take you. And they certainly can keep you safe. Although I’m starting to think that we should stick together. Me, you, Ivy and Ryker.”

Jen looked at him questioningly. “What about Sgt. Sadler?”

“He doesn’t believe there is any danger for him.”