Maya
Maya Danvers had never been so afraid in all her twenty-seven years. Doing the right thing never looked so terrifying in the movies. She silently cussed her idiotic brother—and his friends for dragging him into this in the first place. And then she cussed him again, because if he’d justlistenedto her for once in his life, he would have released the poor man he’d kidnapped, or perish the thought, not have kidnapped him in the first place, then none of them would be in this whole sorry mess.
And now, trying to do the right thing was about to get her arrested by the FBI, and facing accessory charges at best, or kidnapping charges, or…
How had her life come to this? It was one thing to look out for Noah—that’s what she’d vowed to do since the night they’d lost their parents—but this was beyond ridiculous. She’d meant cook and clean and make sure he got to school. Shehadn’tmeant talk him out of drug dealing, and kidnapping, and extorting money. Threatening to kill people? He’d reached an all-time low. And now he was going to drag her down with him.
As if this day wasn’t turning out awful enough.
Maya lifted her head to look athimagain. The FBI SWAT agent who’d punched his teammate in the jaw after the man had shouted at Maya to get down on the ground. He’d looked horrified immediately afterward and had pulled his teammate to the back of the room to talk to him while the rest of the team released the hostage, and put her brother and his friends into handcuffs.
At the beginning of their conversation, the handsome man who had hit his friend hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off her, but then his friend had started looking at her too. When she tried to gauge the reactions from the rest of the man’s teammates, she could have sworn they were all looking at him with pity in their expressions, and she definitely didn’t miss the covert glances they were all shooting her way. What in the heck was going on? A chill ran through her spine, making her shiver. What was wrong, and why were they all staring at her like that? She was no-one, and she didn’t belong in this world.
At the same time as ice froze her spine, heat fluttered in her stomach. She had a million other things she should be worried about right now—prison time, for example—but she couldn’t take her eyes offhim.She knew shouldn’t have been so concerned with such trivial matters at a time like this, but watching them, no, watchinghimwas utterly fascinating. There was something about the way he moved, the way he gestured with his hands and shot glances in her direction, and the intensity of his gaze, that made her think about things shedefinitelyshouldn’t be concerning herself with right now. Like what he looked like under that uniform.
Ugh, get a grip, Maya!
The small group broke apart, and the female agent came up to Maya with a set of handcuffs poised, then glanced back at the handsome agent, as if asking for his permission to cuff her. He gave an almost imperceptible nod before the woman leaned down and slapped the cuffs on her wrists. That was weird. Perhaps he was the team leader, but why would the female agent have required permission to do her job?
“What’s his name?” Maya asked, the question falling from her lips before she could prevent it.
The agent followed her gaze then raised her eyebrows before replying. “Gray, but we’re thinking about renaming him ‘Slugger.’”
Gray looked across from his conversation and frowned at the female agent and the man he was talking to chuckled. But they couldn’t have heard what the agent had said, they were all the way across the room and the woman had been talking quietly.
“Gray,” Maya whispered.
The man’s gaze snapped to hers and she shivered at the intensity of the look he gave her.
She supposed the name was a nickname, or some sort of code name he used for work. It wasn’t like he was going to give his real name to every criminal he arrested.Criminal.That’s what he thought she was, and the thought bothered her more than the idea of going to prison, and thatthought was frankly more than a little alarming.
Still, she liked the name. It suited him somehow. She had a mind to ask if he was single, but that would have made her look like a crazy person as well as a criminal. She frowned. For a reason she couldn’t understand, she didn’t like the idea of this man thinking of her as either of those things.
“Come on, let’s go,” the woman said, and Maya allowed herself to be led from the warehouse towards the waiting vehicles. Putting up a fight wasn’t going to do her any good—a memo some of Noah’s friends didn’t seem to have gotten. Noah was the exception, keeping his head down as one of the agents led him out by his arm, proving he had at least some sense. Maya snorted and shook her head. Better late than never.
He jerked his head up and made eye contact with her, and as the agent turned to open the back door of one of the cars, Noah ducked his head close to hers.
“Just tell them the truth, okay?” he whispered. She nodded in response.
“Promise me, Maya,” Noah said, searching her face desperately. Something melted inside her. He was an idiot, but he wasn’t all bad. He was her baby brother.
The agent helped him into the back of the car and slammed the door shut.
“This one,” the female agent said, steering her to another car. She’d hoped that Gray would escort her to the vehicle and that she’d get to ride with him, but neither of those things happened. Perhaps it had been for the best. Maya was in a lot of trouble and she needed to focus all her attention on getting out of it. She loved her brother, but not enough to go to prison for something he’d done.
At the FBI facility, Maya was taken to a small room; there was no sign of her brother or his friends. She supposed they wanted to interrogate them before they had a chance to speak to each other. Not that there was any chance of a cover-up when they’d been caught in the act.
The female agent took the cuffs off one of her wrists then handcuffed her to the table.
“What happens now?” she asked the woman as she turned to leave the room.
“Someone will be in shortly to question you. You never been arrested before?”
Maya shook her head.
“I shouldn’t have been arrested this time, either,” she mumbled.
The woman snorted. “Why, you think you’re above the law?”
