“Money, power, more money. It makes the world go round.”
“The missing agent–”
“She got too close. Hell, she was sharper than you Walkers. She had to be dealt with. Just like you.”
“And my brothers?”
“Will never know I was involved.”
“Ouch,” a familiar voice said. “Don’t pull so hard.”
Luke’s blood ran cold at the sound of Julie’s voice. She appeared on the stairs, being pulled forward by another one of Hendrix’s men.
“Look what we have here,” Hendrix said as she was shoved toward him. “Nice taste, by the way,” he said looking her up and down and flicking a taunting glance at Luke. “Perhaps I can sample the goods before we do away with her.”
She didn’t react, as if she knew it would please him. Her eyes met Luke’s. “I figured out it was him, and I tried to warn you.”
“Better late to the party than never,” Hendrix said and winked. He walked towards her, stopped directly beside her. “You certainly will liven up this little party. How should we get started?”
“Touch her and you die,” Luke promised, his voice low, lethal. “You’re dead anyway, Hendrix.”
Hendrix gave an exaggerated laugh. “I hardly think you’re in a position to be making threats.” He looked at his watch. “The next train will be here in five minutes.” He called over his shoulder. “Pull the car to the exit.”
“Luke,” Julie said. “There’s something I should have told you and I didn’t.”
“Shut up!” Hendrix said, and cut a look to the man holding her. “Deal with her.”
The man slapped her. Julie yelped with the pain, and pressed her hand to her cheek.
Hendrix smirked at Luke. “Come and get me.” He pointed to a guard. “Tell Marco the journal was destroyed before we could get to it. Make it convincing.”
“All this so you don’t get in trouble with Arel over that damn journal,” Luke said. “You really are a sick man.”
Hendrix laughed. “I am what I am, and that’s smarter than you.”
The wind picked up as faint sounds of the approaching train humming through the tunnel. “Let’s go,” Hendrix said to the men, and moved towards the stairs.
One of the men holding guns on Luke motioned for him to move forward. Hendrix and two other men were already headed up the stairs. The odds just improved. That left Luke with his guard and Julie’s to dispose of. The trick was making sure Julie was safe.
The subway car was approaching. Luke’s guard shifted his eyes toward it, and gave Luke the opportunity. He grabbed the man, covered his gun hand with his own, and fired on the other guard. Before he ever hit the ground, Luke had turned, taken the gun fully from the man he still held and put a bullet in him, too.
Luke pointed the gun, surveying the area for anyone else. “Grab the other gun,” he ordered Julie, “and if in doubt, use it.”
The subway car came to a stop and Luke rotated around to point his weapon. Jesse came out, his gun raised, and fired at the stairs. A man rolled down the steps, his gun falling to the pavement.
“That’s close to even,” Luke said. “But you aren’t there yet.”
“Close is better than nothing,” Jesse said, joining Luke. “Where’s Hendrix? He disappeared on me.”
“He’s Dragonfly,” Julie said, “and how do we get out of here?”
“Everyone okay down there?” Royce shouted from above.
“All clear,” Luke shouted.
“Batman has arrived,” Blake said, appearing on the stairs, two guns in his hand. “Hendrix is dead. Three others in custody. Two others escaped.”
Royce followed Blake down the stairs. “How is it you lost your phone again?”
“We have the same phone, brother dearest. He grabbed mine. And in case you didn’t notice, that’s what warned us about Hendrix before it was too late.” Sirens screamed above ground. “The cavalry has arrived.”
Luke went over to Julie, who was staring at the dead bodies, the gun still in her hand. “You okay?” he asked, removing the gun from her hand.
She nodded, lifted her gaze to his. “I love you.”
“What?” he asked, shocked by the sudden confession.
“I love you and I should have told you before now, and I don’t want to risk ending up like them and you never knowing. I love you.”
He shoved the gun into his coat and wrapped his arms around her. “I love you, too.”
She blinked. “You do?”
“Yes. I do.”
Murphy rushed down the stairs. “Arel’s house is cleared out and we just got a call from a motel a few blocks away. The judge and Julie’s secretary were found dead.”
Blake scrubbed his jaw. “You really know how to mess up a romance novel moment, man.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Julie was exhausted by early morning when she, Luke, and his brothers returned to the Walker apartment. The questions had been many, the answers not as easily found as everyone wanted. The missing agent was most likely dead. Gina and the judge were dead. Arel had disappeared along with every known operation he’d been involved with that the task force had known about.
Julie looked around Luke’s kitchen, eying Luke’s brothers and Lauren, with an odd feeling of belonging she’d never before experienced. She sat on Luke’s lap, as Lauren did Royce’s. Blake, as usual, was eating, stuffing his third donut in his mouth. To watch them together made her experience a little part of something warm and wonderful that she had never known. To be with them helped make the night’s tragedy just a little more bearable.