Up in Smoke (Crossing the Line, #2)(81)

The chill of metal against Connor’s arm had his eyes opening. In the driver’s seat, Derek held out a gun to him without comment and he took it gratefully, holstering it beneath his jacket. At the end of the expressway off-ramp, Derek took a hairpin turn and slammed on the brakes just beneath the overpass.

Connor looked upon his worst nightmare.

The white van was parked at the very edge of the water, doors flung open. A man Connor assumed to be the off-duty cop had his gun aimed at Luther. Luther, pointing a gun back at the officer, had his foot propped on the side of a cage, as if he were in the process of shoving it into the water. Erin was inside that cage. Alive, thank Christ. But in a f*cking cage.

Rage leached his body of reason. Flashes of light compromised his vision as he threw himself from the van and raised his gun. Don’t look at her. He couldn’t look at her or he would lose it. Her fear would rip him wide open.

The only thing that kept Connor from firing his weapon at that moment was her stepfather’s obvious panic and Erin’s proximity to the water. One wrong move and she would be sinking to the bottom in a tiny prison. Surrounded by pitch black. That image socked him in the gut and it took him a moment to inhale through the denial of such an outcome. The off-duty cop demanded Luther drop his weapon, but had no luck. His foot inched the cage closer to the water.

“Don’t do it. You’ll be dead before she hits the water,” Connor rasped, slowly moving closer, once again fighting the need to reassure Erin. “Or you give us Erin and we give you what you want in return. Seems like a pretty easy choice to me.”

“You must think I’m an idiot, trying to talk me down like an average perp,” Luther sneered. “Don’t insult my intelligence. I’ll never see that money now, so I might as well give her what she has coming.”

Terror turned his blood to ice. Don’t talk about what she deserves, he wanted to shout, but forced himself to keep a level head. “You willing to die for that?”

Beginning to look indecisive, Luther glanced down at the cage and Connor couldn’t help it any longer. He made eye contact with Erin and almost fell to his knees. She was…serene. Like she’d already accepted what was going to happen. There were tears in her eyes, but love crowded them out. Love for him.

When he spoke again, his voice wavered slightly. “The one who wronged you is dead. You’re taking it out on the wrong person. But you can make it right if you just give her back to me now. Get in your car and drive away.”

Everything happened so fast. Too fast. Erin’s stepfather’s foot slipped off the cage, edging it closer to the water. Connor, Derek, and the off-duty cop raised their guns, causing Luther to jerk his weapon back up defensively and fire off a round. Connor didn’t wait for any more encouragement, but unloaded his weapon at the same time as Derek.

Just as the cage…and Erin…went flying backward into the water.

“Noooo!”



Ah, f*ck.

Erin’s head slammed into the bottom of the cage. Or was it the top? She’d anticipated the bastard trying to send her to a watery grave, but being upside-down and not knowing which direction the surface was hadn’t entered the equation. Her head connecting with the cage had disoriented her, making it twice as bad. Even now, she could hear Connor’s bellow echoing in her skull. Could see his anguished face. She’d tried to calm him, telling him she had everything under control, but he hadn’t been in a very interpretive mood. She didn’t blame him. If someone put him in a cage, she would unleash unholy wrath on whoever had made such a mistake.

After an effort that had left her sweating and the beginnings of quite a few bruises, she’d found a bent nail in the van’s storage rack. It had only taken her seconds to pick the lock, but the van had stopped, her stepfather throwing open the back doors before she could climb out of the cage. Her plan had been to wait for an opportune moment to take him by surprise. Jam the nail into his foot and bust free of the cage while he howled in pain. Then the cop had shown up and forced Luther to draw his gun. No way could she make her move when he held a weapon. When Connor had shown up, it became an even bigger impossibility. She wouldn’t place him in the line of fire for anything in the world.

Beneath her in the water, she heard a splash. No, wait, it had to be above her. She was upside down, which meant the cage door was to her left. Erin felt along the metal crisscrosses and pushed open the door. A moment later, she was through it, but her legs had cramped up from being in the fetal position for so long. Dammit. She swam with her arms and twisted her hips, trying desperately to bring life back into her dead limbs. There it was up above. The surface. She could see a glow of headlights, streetlights lining the expressway above. Blood rushed to her feet, making them prickle, but she welcomed the discomfort and began to kick. How long had she been under the water? Her lungs were starting to burn. Jesus, she needed to breathe. Needed Connor.

Almost there. Almost…

Erin broke the surface and sucked in delicious air.

Once her vision came back into focus with the resurgence of oxygen, she expected to see Derek and Connor at the edge of the concrete drop-off, ready to pull her from the water, but she saw no one. Using her kicking feet, she turned in a circle and saw a male head break the surface of the water before it went back down. In the near-darkness, she couldn’t tell who it was. She kicked toward the rock piling at the edge of the water and waited. Above her, she heard tires squeal to a stop and doors slamming.