She steadied herself, feet at hip distance apart.
He moved in fast, kicked her legs wider, and shoved her head into the concrete wall. Her head buzzed with the impact.
She felt the gun on the base of her skull as his other hand ran up the inside of her shirt. “What else are you hiding?”
“Nothing.”
She ignored his hand as he grabbed at her chest and ran the length of her bra.
Bile rose when he ran his fingers over her tight shorts. Groping her was a fear tactic. A successful one.
Claire did everything she could to hide any emotion. Showing fear would only encourage him.
“You like that, bitch?”
Tony squeezed the most private part of her body until it hurt.
She bit her tongue.
He wouldn’t be searching her if he planned on just killing her, so she kept quiet and prayed to God the team had found the third tracking device disguised as a clip in her hair.
“Stop fucking the girl.”
Claire turned her head to see the face behind the voice, was rewarded with a palm pressing her face into the hard surface until she felt her skin break and blood trickle down her cheek.
Cooper stood over Claire’s discarded phone and watch. One in each hand.
She could be anywhere. The residential neighborhood emptied out close to a freeway and they were twenty minutes behind her if they were on the run.
He spun in a circle, looked at the houses. Or she could be feet away and he didn’t know it.
“Tell me you have something,” he said into the phone.
“Her receiver’s offline.”
Eastman . . . or Grant, as it stood, was talking to his people.
“Who is left? Who isn’t in custody other than Tony?”
“Milo and Russell.”
“How the hell did they mess that up?” Cooper asked.
Grant looked over with a shake of the head.
Cooper stared at the broken screen on her phone. “C’mon, Claire.” Damn thing still worked, but he didn’t know the password.
The watch pinged and so did the phone.
“Can you get into Claire’s phone? I need a password.”
“Try Loki,” he heard Jax suggest.
He used the keypad, typed in the numbers associated with the letters.
It opened to a home screen.
“Perfect.”
He found the app they used as a team and opened it.
Sure enough it was a slow signal feed from a noncomputerized tracker. “Are we tracking anyone on the H system?” he asked the team.
“No.”
Clearly Claire had considered the possibility of being without her phone, watch, or car. Each blip on the screen was like her heartbeat. Every beat gave him hope. “God, I love this woman.”
“What do you have?” he heard Neil ask.
Cooper forwarded the information to the team and put the car in drive.
Claire had been shoved on the floor next to Elsie.
The girl clutched onto her as if Claire were a life raft on the Titanic.
Milo knelt down, far enough away to avoid a shoe to the face. “I remember you. The paranoid one with the busty blonde friend.”
Russell stood to one side, his gaze just as awestruck as Elsie’s had been.
“Private investigator. I didn’t see that. What does that make her?” Milo asked.
“A scared little girl,” Claire told him. “Nothing more.”
Elsie’s hands were free, but the girl was too scared to use them.
Russell spoke up. And he did so in Russian. “We should go before anyone comes.”
“We’ll leave,” Milo said, again in Russian. “After we clean up a few loose ends.”
“What the hell are you saying?” Tony asked.
Milo took to his feet, walked back to Tony. “I thought I told you to keep all the cops out of my home.”
“She’s not a cop. Has never been to the station.”
The two of them started shouting at each other, giving Claire an opportunity.
“Elsie?”
The girl was whimpering.
“See the pin in my hair?” Claire watched the men fighting. Felt Elsie’s nod.
“Take it out and put it in my hand.”
Too scared to move.
Russell looked at them, briefly, then back to his uncle.
Claire spoke slowly. “You can do it. Trust me.”
Elsie’s hand moved up Claire’s back, stopping every time the voices grew louder.
Finally, Claire felt the pin leave her hair.
“You’re the one who skipped the line and gave her friend a green light,” Tony screamed, pointing the gun their way for a second before tapping his own chest with the thing. “I have a system that keeps all of us safe . . .”
Relief flooded Claire’s body when she felt the pin in her fingers. She worked as fast as she could and still stay in control. She bent the end and found the keyhole to the cuffs.
“. . . you and every damn family sidekick you bring in. How do we know he didn’t narc us out?”
Milo turned to his supposed nephew. “Any of that true?” he asked in Russian.
“I don’t know these people.”
Milo looked at Claire right as she felt the lock go.
She made a noise to disguise the click.
“Good. Then you won’t mind removing one.” Milo removed a gun from the inside of his coat, cocked it, and handed it to Russell.
At first the kid didn’t take it.
“Do it.”
As Russell reached for the gun, Claire started talking. Her Russian was so rapid it took them both by surprise. “You don’t have to do this, Russell. We don’t have anything on you.”
His eyes opened wide.
“What the hell . . .” Tony took a step forward.
Claire inched up the wall, hands still behind her back. “It was Tony we were following. He led us to your house and the storefront,” she lied. All in Russian, which was pissing Tony off.
“What the fuck is she saying?”
“Don’t do this, Russell. You don’t want to go to jail. You have the rest of your—”
“Enough!” Milo yelled.
Cooper knew the team was three minutes behind him.
They heard voices in the warehouse. Men, arguing.
Where are they? He mouthed the question to Eastman, who was on the other side of the entrance.
The man pointed one finger, signaled left. Two fingers, signaled right.
The voices rose and finally, Cooper heard Claire’s.
It took everything not to storm in.
“Taking position,” Neil’s voice informed him.
Eastman pointed to his watch, lifted five fingers twice. Ten minutes? Was he kidding?
Cooper shook his head. Pointed to the ground. Then held out a hand holding him off.
Voices in the warehouse grew louder.
“Russell, in my sights,” Jax reported.
Cooper hoped she didn’t have to squeeze that trigger.
“Tony’s moving in and out,” Sasha reported.
“I have Milo.” Neil’s voice was last in Cooper’s ear.
“Tony’s moving.”
“Go!”
Cooper gave the signal and Eastman yelled the loudest. “Federal agent, put—”
Claire caught a glimpse of a shadow in the upper reaches of the warehouse.