The petite brunette checked for the third time that the rope was secure, took a deep breath, and stepped onto the window ledge.
Cars rushed back and forth on the street below her, not even noticing the daredevil feat that was about to take place. Behind her, she could hear the angry voices coming up the stairwell. They would be hard-pressed to find her in the dark, but she still knew she did not have much time.
The cool breeze blew her ponytail in her face; she brushed it back out of sight. The voices were coming closer. It was now or never.
She had only taken one foot from the ledge when someone grabbed her from behind, pulled her back inside, and clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Not leaving without me, are ya?"
She smile, despite their circumstances. Her partner had been shot before they completed their mission and told her to keep going without him. It seemed at the last minute he had been able to catch up with her.
The man had trained her from the beginning, taught her everything she knew, and now refused to take on another partner. She had learned quickly, given him faith that a woman could do the job, and couldn't imagine a career without him.
"We're in a wicked tight spot," she informed him.
"Not as tight as you think," he replied. "I'll distract them while you make a break back for the ground floor. Let the old man take the scary route out of here."
She frowned. "You're already injured. A distraction could mean –"
"Listen, kid. I may have taught you everything you know, but it doesn't mean I taught you everything I know. I'm giving you an order here."
She pursed her lips together; when in her life had she ever been able to defy orders? Quickly and with learned hands, she undid the knot in the rope and re-secured the rope to her partner's harness. She would have to give him some lead-off, so she made way into the dark hallway, found the receptionist's desk, and used it to hoist herself up through the ceiling tiles. Moving through the duct work, she cocked her gun and braced herself. Without ear plugs, this was not going to be fun.
The bullet ricocheted down the sheet metal tunnel, leading their enemies away from the room where her partner was waiting. It would give him time to set up his distraction, but also give her time to recover from the ringing in her ears. The sound of the glock firing was not exactly forgiving as it was, but to have the sound waves enclosed around her and bouncing off the sheet metal only made the effect crueler.
When the ringing had receded to a dull buzz, she carefully crawled back in the direction she had come. Assuming the distraction had been successful, she should have been hearing a lot more noise – unless her ears had really given out from the gunshot.
As she neared the space over the office where she had nearly jumped from the window, she heard the grisly sound of fist against flesh. The groans of pain that followed were too close to the familiar voice of her partner.
She slid over a ceiling tile as carefully and quietly as she could. The three men left from those that had attacked them downstairs were taking turns beating her partner. Anger raged within her, and she reminded herself that these men were to be captured alive or left at large. Compromising with herself that she would only temporarily incapacitate them so she and her partner could make an escape, she cocked her gun and took aim at the man who seemed to be the ringleader.
It happened in a matter of seconds. The man was beating her mentor, she blinked, and then her partner was dead on the ground, a puddle of blood coming from the back of his head and growing larger by the second. The rage that built up within her was one she had felt only before in her life, and was accompanied by a single thought.
To hell with her orders.
Her first shot pierced a hole near the spine of the ringleader. The other two men were tending to him while she jumped down from the ceiling. The second man would die in a few seconds from the slash across his throat, and a second after the third man thought to defend himself, she had stabbed him through the heart.
There was no time to stop and mourn her partner – her friend. She did as would have her do and pulled all identifying items from his person. She tucked them inside her shirt, radioed her position, and untied the roe from his harness. She once again rigged herself up and stepped onto the window pane. There was no hesitation this time as she took a step off; in seconds she was hanging from the window, walking herself down the side of the building.
The man with the knife wound in his chest appeared at the window. He was coughing up blood and his features were pale. With the last of his energy, he grabbed for his own knife and sawed at the rope just above the window pane.
There was no way she would make it down before the rope gave way, but she hurried to make the fall as short as possible. From much higher than she would have liked, she began to free fall to the cement below.
With a hard thud, Boden Bryce hit the sidewalk. Everything for some hours after that was darkness.
xXx
Thorne sat next to Barney Ross at the bar, sipping his beer and trying to understand the offer Barney had just made him.
"You get that I'm highly over-qualified for this job, right? I shut down cities and high-tech security systems. There was all the shit with Stonebanks, and now you want me to take some security guard job?"
Barney turned to him. "You're right, you are over-qualified for this. But this woman needs to be a bodyguard just as much as she needs a guard on the technical side. Everything she does – phone calls, emails, hotel reservations – everything has to be guarded. If the people who are after her find her before she finds them, they'll kill her."
Casually, Barney slid a folder over to him. Thorne opened it and looked over all the information. This woman was beautiful, accomplished, and it seemed as though she had all the training she needed to protect herself without his help.
"She's not as tech savvy as you are," Barney said, as though he could read Thorne's thoughts. "This is serious, Thorne. She may look tough, but she isn't Luna. After a mission that went bad, she's a little bit of a mess."
Thorne took a lighter and torched the folder. No evidence left behind. "What kind of a mess? I'm not a babysitter, Barney."
"I get that," Barney assured. "She needs someone with a stable mind around, to help her get to these guys."
"So I'll be her partner."
"You'll be helping her, but essentially you're there to protect her, from whatever comes at her. A thug in a convenience store, this assholes who want her dead, whatever the case may be."
"What's the pay?"
Barney named a number. "And it's all yours."
Before the fire could reach it, Thorne pulled the wallet-sized picture of her and shoved it in his back pocket. He finished off his beer and shook hands with Barney.
"I'm in."
xXx
Boden was shouldering her duffle bag up to a hotel room, pretending like her whole body didn't still hurt from the fall from that window. That had been almost a month ago, but her broken ribs were still healing. The bruises were finally receding, and the internal bleeding had no complications after the surgery to fix it. It was a miracle that no other bones had broken.
She slid a keycard into the door, groaning in defeat when the red light flashed at her. She slid it again, with the same result.
"Here, let me help you."
She turned to the man next to her. He gently took the key card from her hand and slid it just so; the light went green and the door clicked.
Taking the key card back, Boden muttered, "Thanks."
"Hey, I'm Thorne, by the way. Your new partner."
Boden frowned as she dropped her bag on one of the beds. "Thought I was getting more of a bodyguard. Not that I'm happy about that either."
Thorne was taken aback by her tone. "A little of both, I guess."
Boden studied him for a few moments before reaching out her hand to shake his. "Boden Bryce. Perfectly capable not only of taking care of myself, but figuring this whole thing out on my own. If I didn't accept you coming on with me though, they wouldn't let me keep this case. Let's just be clear right now that if you get in my way, I'll find a way to keep my case and get rid of you."
"Slow down, princess," Thorne replied, holding his hands up in surrender. "I don't exactly want to be here any more than you seem to want me here, all right? This job isn't exactly going on a résumé. I took it for the money and because Barney Ross is a good friend of mine."
"I don't even know Barney Ross," Boden shot back. "So you'll have to excuse me if I don't seem impressed."
Thorne scoffed. "What a joke. Look, we clearly don't want to be around each other, but we both have a job to do, so besides that, why don't we just try to stay out of each other's way."
"Fine by me."
"Great. I need all your electronics."
Boden raised her brow. "Excuse me?"
"I specialize in a lot of tech stuff that you probably can't even wrap your mind around. One of my duties here is to make sure no one tracks you down via your phone, your internet connection, whatever it is. So if you could just hand over all your shit, I'll make sure we're safe on that end, then you can go right back to pouting in the corner."
Narrowing her eyes, Boden shoved her messenger bag in his direction. "They're all in there, big shot. I assume you're all right with me taking a shower while you throw up firewalls or whatever?"
"It's a little more complicated than fire walls, but sure. Do whatever you need to do, princess."
Boden rolled her eyes as she gathered clean clothes from her duffle. "Call me princess one more time and you're going to regret it."
She disappeared into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. When the water was warm enough, Boden took a deep breath and pulled her shirt over her shoulders. Nothing was more painful than raising her arms, so every time she dressed and undressed, the pain was inevitable. Reaching for an orange bottle, she shook out one pain killer, swallowed it down, and let out the breath she'd been holding. Boden stripped off the rest of her clothes, let her hair out of its braid and stepped carefully into the shower.
xXx
While he finished securing her devices, Thorne dialed Barney. The old man picked up after four rings, just when Thorne had about given up on him.
"Make it in all right?" Barney greeted.
"Yeah, I'm here. Barney, this chick is a trip. You said she was more fragile than Luna, but I'm not seeing it yet."
"Give it time," Barney warned. "I'm guessing you'll get a glimpse of it before the night is over."
"You know, when you introduced this to me, it sounded like you knew her. She said she doesn't know you, though."
"She doesn't. Look, Thorne, I've got to cut this short. Be patient with Boden."
The line disconnected; Thorne looked at the phone in disbelief. "Thanks for the help, boss."
A few more minutes and he returned everything where he'd found it in her bag, although he was tempted to just drop everything on the bed next to her duffle bag. Realizing the shower had been running for a while now, he went and knocked on the door.
"Hey, Boden, think you can save some hot water?" No answer; Thorne's heart beat a little faster. "Come on, I know I was a jerk. Doesn't mean I should have to take a cold shower."
Still no answer. Thorne pressed his ear against the door; was that whimpering that he heard? Whatever it was, it told him that something wasn't right. Going back to his bag for a gun, he called her name one last time before kicking the door open.
If anyone was in the bathroom with Boden, they were in the shower with her. Risking embarrassment for both of them if he was wrong, Thorne pulled back the shower curtain, ready to shoot if necessary.
Only Boden was there, crumpled in a ball on the floor of the tub. The water was cold by now, and she was shivering as she cried. Setting his gun on the counter, Thorne turned the water off before getting a towel and lifting her out of the tub.
She clung to him as though they were familiar, and he was the relief of safety. He tried to say comforting things as he rushed her back to her bed and laid her under the covers, tucking them tight around her.
"We have to warm you up," he encouraged.
Tears streamed down her face, and Boden didn't bother hiding them. "I don't care. I don't care, I just want to go back."
Thorne assumed she didn't mean back to the shower. "Listen, whatever it is, Boden, I'm sure it's going to be all right. Everything gets easier with time."
She cried harder, making him fear that he had said the wrong thing. This must have been what Barney was talking about – the messy part of Boden. At any rate, Thorne figured his job was to protect her from anything and everything, so he did the only other thing he could think of. He kneeled next to the bed, stroking her wet hair, wiping her tears, and holding her hand until she fell asleep.