Once they emerged onto the sidewalk, she lifted her free hand to shade her face from the evening sun. “Success?”
“Yep,” he said, assuring her he’d placed the listening device. Unfortunately, they couldn’t activate it right away.
He pulled her into the alcove that protected a set of glass doors and they did a quick once-over to check each other for bugs or trackers.
“He didn’t even recognize Natalie’s name.” Emma glanced up at Jason, her blue eyes shimmering. “What kind of person kills so indiscriminately that they don’t even know their victims’ names?”
“I’m sorry.” He wanted to hold and comfort her, but now was not the time. Instead, he planted a quick kiss on her lips and gently squeezed her hand. “Unfortunately, we need to keep moving.” Still on high alert, he kept hold of her hand as they rejoined the light foot traffic on Pilatusstrasse.
Just as they reached the cross street, Byron rounded the corner and almost smacked right into them. “What are you doing here?” he asked, looking genuinely surprised.
Jason instinctively moved Emma slightly behind him. “Just had that meeting with your boss. He was damned eager to keep us quiet.”
Byron's eyes narrowed. “You took the money, right?”
“You fucking traitor!” a man yelled from behind Jason.
He turned.Oh, shit. Warner was about twenty yards away, marching toward them with one of his massive goons at his side.
Todd and the two Steele operatives he’d tapped for overwatch—Finn and Michael—walked toward the potential clusterfuck, each coming from a different direction. For now, their weapons were still concealed.
“How’d you do it?” Warner asked Byron, closing in quickly.
“Do what?”
“Take all of my money!” His face was so red he looked ready to pop a vein.
Bystanders were watching openly now, and Jason’s nerves ratcheted up another notch. If this escalated, the chances of someone innocent getting hurt were too high. He shifted to put himself between Emma and Warner.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Byron said, giving Jason a questioning look. “I didn’t take any money.”
“How’d you convince your goody-two-shoes brother to go along with it?”
Byron gaped at his boss. “You were the one who wanted the meeting. You said—”
Warner reached into his jacket.
“Sir,” his bodyguard said. “No.”
Jason pushed Emma toward the corner of the building and dove toward Byron. “Take cover!”
“Drop it!” Todd yelled at Warner.
“Ungh.” Byron bent slightly, pressing a hand to his chest as a firecracker-likebang bang bangsplit the air.
A collective gasp went up from the crowd, and someone screamed.
Heat burned up the back of Jason’s left arm as he dragged his brother around the corner and into a recessed doorway, covering him with his body. Emma was curled up in the opposite corner behind a trash bin.
Amid the shouts and cries on the street, something clattered to the ground, and someone howled in pain and rage, but Jason ignored all the noise and focused on his brother.
“What can I do?” Emma asked.
“Just stay safe.” Déjà vu hit him hard. Only yesterday, they’d been kneeling beside Natalie’s dying body. And Viktor’s. And now…
His throat tightened. Calm under pressure was usually one of his superpowers, but this was hisbrother. He tore apart Byron’s dress shirt and put pressure on the oozing wound in his right side. “You’re going to be fine, Byron,” he said, hoping like hell he was right. “Just hang in there.”
There were so many variables. Bullet size and type, angle of attack, distance from the shooter, whether the projectile shot clean through or bounced around inside the body…
