Page 90 of Armed ’N’ Ready

Did like her? As in past tense. As in, I won’t be around much longer.

She grabbed Joe’s arm, crushing his shirtsleeve in her fist. “Meera, please.” She was surprised at how steady her voice was because inside she was shaking like a leaf.

“Don’t do this.” Joe pushed in front of her, holding his arms up and away from his sides as if that would actually shield her from a bullet. “She didn’t do anything to you. Let her go.”

When Meera lowered the gun and uttered a heavy sigh, Andi thought he’d actually gotten through to her.

Meera stepped closer, stopping when she was five feet away from them. “I told you once that you can’t walk away. Ever. There’s only one way out.” Then she raised her arm.

…

Nick flung open the door to the conference room, aiming in, shouting, “Platz.”

Saxon lowered to the safety of the floor, his head erect, his body quivering with tension.

Breathing hard, Nick scanned the room.

Empty. No Meera and no deputy marshal.

Someone groaned.

Nick bolted to the far end of the conference room. Saxon rose to his feet.

“Pass auf,” he commanded over his shoulder, wanting Saxon to remain at the open door and guard it.

The deputy lay on the floor behind the table, and several rolling chairs that had been strategically placed there to conceal the injured man.

He clicked his mic. “Officer down. Conference Room C. Female suspect—Meera Devine—is loose in the building. Approach with caution.” He added a quick description then holstered his Smith & Wesson and knelt by the deputy. Blood flowed from a deep gash on the man’s head, but his chest rose and fell with even breaths. Nick stood and yanked a handful of folded paper towels from the sink dispenser, then pressed them to the wound to slow the bleeding. “Hang in there. Help’s on the way.”

The deputy groaned again, louder this time. A good sign.

“What the hell’s going on?” Cox said from the doorway, shooting Saxon a wary look.

Saxon’s head was lowered, his big body blocking Cox’s entry.

“Lass es.” Nick commanded. He didn’t want his dog taking a chunk out of the agent’s leg.

Saxon backed off, allowing Cox to run into the room.

“She hit me.” The deputy touched his fingers to where Nick held the towels to his head. “Ah, damn, that hurts. What did she hit me with?” He tried getting up, then grimaced and thought better of it, easing onto his side.

“Who hit you?” Cox looked at the deputy then to Nick.

“Easy there. Stay down,” Nick rested a hand on the man’s shoulder. “It was Meera,” he said to Cox, then nodded to the small blood-covered bust of George Washington lying on the floor beside the deputy.

The deputy moaned, and as he rolled onto his back, the hem of his jacket caught on the man’s holster, and Nick froze. The holster was empty, as were the leather handcuff and spare magazine pouches.

In a nanosecond, Meera’s plan crystallized. A moment of panic gripped him, and his heartbeat seemed to slow to a complete stop.

She’d go after Myer, and Andi was with him.

“Stay with him and keep pressure on the wound,” he said to Cox, then ran to the door, clicking his mic along the way. “All units, she’s heading for Conference Room B, and she’s armed.”

“Hier!” Saxon spun and followed Nick as he charged down the long corridor to the other conference room.

Only then did he realize how much Meera had played them. She would have had no way of knowing where Joe was, and what better way to find out than to get inside the federal building and pretend to be a co-witness against Brian Argyle. She’d orchestrated the whole thing, then played them like a bunch of chumps fresh out of the academy. With security and magnetometers at every door, she never could have gotten a firearm into the building, but she’d procured one just the same, and she knew how to use it.

Eric’s voice came over the radio. “ETA five minutes.”