Banks, Maya - Falcon Mercenary Group 02 - Into The Lair.pdf

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Chapter One
Katie Buchanan stared at the clock with growing dread.
A knot of panic—and grief—swelled in her stomach
until she feared vomiting.
He wasn’t going to call.
Despair rolled over her shoulders, and she slumped
forward, dropping her head into her arms. Don’t cry.
You can’t cry. You can’t lose it now.
Her teeth sank into her bottom lip. Gabe was all she
had left. Her only family. And now he was gone.
You don’t know that. Maybe something went wrong on
a mission.
But no, he’d missed both call times, and he’d never
missed the second. He once told her that the only
reason he would miss his check-in was death. His. And
in her heart she knew that. He’d never let her down.
The cell phone that was clutched tightly in her hand
rang, and she lunged upward, grabbing at it to flip it
open.
“Gabe, thank God!” she babbled into the phone as a
rush of relief so strong it made her weak stormed
through her veins. “I thought you were dead.”
Heavy silence settled over the line. Her brow furrowed
as dread took hold once more. “Gabe?”
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“Katie, this is Ian Thomas.”
She slammed the phone shut, fear-induced adrenaline
sparking and flowing fast through her veins. She
scrambled out of her chair and looked wildly around
the tiny apartment.
“Okay, calm down,” she said as she tried to steady her
breathing. No one had that number. Gabe had arranged
for the high-tech phone, and it had an international
number from a remote country at the ends of the earth.
5
It started ringing again, and she nearly hyperventilated.
And then as quickly as panic had gripped her, an eerie
calm descended.
Gabe was gone. He couldn’t help her now. He hadn’t
spent the last several years teaching her independence
for her to crumble when he was no longer around to
help her pick up the pieces.
First she had to get the hell out of here.
She went through the room, throwing her clothes into a
backpack. She only packed the necessities. Everything
else would have to stay. The phone began ringing
again, and she ignored it.
She pocketed the ATM card for the account Gabe had
opened for her. Her first stop would be to drain what
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cash she could, and then she’d be out of town in less
than an hour.
West. She’d go west. Maybe some isolated mountain
town. Montana. Or Colorado. There had to be some
place she would be safe.
She zipped up her backpack, her heart heavy. Gabe had
been working on getting her out of the country. A year
ago, he’d been prepared to take her to Argentina, but
then things had gotten weird. He’d become distant.
Worried and anxious.
Her departure was delayed, and Gabe became more
paranoid, more cautious. She moved constantly, once
every couple of months, and he’d enacted their call
system.
He drilled into her over and over what to do if he failed
to make his monthly call. Oh God. Maybe that was it!
Was he testing her? Making sure she followed through
with their escape plan?
A flutter of hope swelled in her throat. It would be just
like Gabe to force her through the steps of a plan
they’d gone over until it was branded into her mind.
She snagged the now-silent phone, hauled her
backpack over her shoulder, and then, taking one last
look at the apartment that had been home for the last
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two months, she took a deep breath and started for the
door.
Early morning sunlight shone bright, causing her to
squint as she hustled down the rickety steps toward the
street. As she turned onto the cracked sidewalk, a black
SUV pulled to a stop alongside her.
6
The passenger door opened, and a large man stepped
out. She froze as they stared at each other. Slowly, he
removed dark sunglasses, giving her a glimpse of deep
green eyes. His expression was indecipherable.
Power radiated from those broad shoulders. Tall,
muscular and intimidating as hell.
“Katie,” he said in a low voice.
Anger, fear, panic. They all swamped her, and she
didn’t wait around to figure out which would prevail.
Dropping her backpack, she turned and ran.
Curses rang out behind her, and then he called out to
her. “Katie! Katie, wait!”
God, they knew who she was. Bile rose in her throat.
Gabe wasn’t testing her, and he hadn’t warned her.
Which meant he hadn’t been able to.
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