Where that silly notion had come from, Anna couldn’t guess. But Roberts and Jackson moved with the same steps, the same crouch, mirror images of each other into what seemed to be a storage room. Horizontal shelves packed with jars and glass bottles blocked their view into the depths of the room, but it was clear the space went on beyond the first rows, far more than anyone would suspect. Red brick walls boxed them in on all sides, along with a dark floor and low ceiling with dim lighting.
Jackson stopped at the end of the row, his back to the shelf. A quick glance around the side and his hand came up:Four.
The number of men.
More:On the right.
Jackson’s side.
Anna’s hand went to her throat as Jackson slipped around the shelf, heading straight for all four men.
She glanced at Roberts, but he hadn’t moved.
Dread snaked around her spine. The man couldn’t stay there. Jackson was up againstfourmen.
She gave an exaggerated wave until he looked her way.
We should move.
His response was immediate:We hold.
The hell she would!
Whack.
The sound of a fist finding purchase.
A grunt.
Jackson.
Anna grabbed two glass bottles from the shelves—one for each hand—and shot around the corner, ignoring Roberts’s sound of dismay.
Racing around two more rows of shelves, she made it to the back of the space... and came up short.
Three of the men were already down, in an unconscious heap. Jackson had the fourth man around the neck, his arm flexing.
Anna’s heart froze at the expression on Jackson’s face: Blank.
That can’t be Jackson. But it was his eyes, his jaw. His lies.
One of the bottles slipped from her grip.
Crash.
The glass shattered at her feet.
Jackson’s head snapped up. His gaze fixed on her.
A muscle worked in his cheek, but he didn’t release the fourth man, who was now flailing and turning a frightening shade of purple.
Cold liquor soaked into the soles of her boots.
She didn’t look away.
She’d known he’d held something of himself back.
Thiswas Jackson Cole. The real one. Without mask or artifice. Cold. Skilled. Capable of disarming four men singlehandedly.
