Read Online Thresh: Alpha One Security: Book 2 by Jasinda Wilder - Free Book Online Page A

intercom buzzed and the lock clicked. I ran up the stairs, taking them three at a time until I reached the third floor, gun still drawn. I scanned the hallway as I left the stairwell, then jogged to Lola’s door. I put my shoulder to it, ear to the door, listening—all I heard was the TV.
      I knocked, twice, softly.  
    She opened the door after a second, but with the safety chain drawn, showing only a sliver of her face, and her body clad in a thin purple robe sticking to her wet body. Her hair hung in long damp black strings beside her face.  
    “Thresh? What are you doing here? I thought—I thought you left?”
    “Can you let me in? We need to talk.”  
    “Is everything okay?”  
    I shook my head. “Not really. Let me in, and I’ll explain as best I can.”  
    She hesitated, eyeing me. Her gaze slid down, lit on the pistol in my fist. “Um…you’re armed?”  
    I frowned at her. “You treated me for double gunshot wounds. Is the fact that I’m carrying really a surprise?” I leaned close to the cracked-open door. “I know this is going to sound like a Tom Cruise movie or something, but you’re in danger, Lola.”  
    “You’re right, that does sound like a line from a bad action movie.”  
    “Go to your front window, look out. There’s a car across the street.”  
    She closed the door, was gone for a few seconds, and then I heard the chain slide and she opened the door, looking pale and shaken. “Who—who is—who was that?”  
    I pushed in past her, did a quick, thorough sweep of her condo, and then returned to where she was still standing in shock by the door. “Someone was watching you, with orders to kidnap you when the opportunity presented itself. Next time you went to work, probably. He’s not dead, though. Just rendered temporarily unconscious.”
    “Kidnap me? Why would anyone want to kidnap me?”  
    I tapped my chest with the barrel of the gun. “Because of me. I sort of got you pulled into some shit, babe.”  
    “Pulled into some shit?” She staggered backward, caught up against the door. “What…what does that mean?”
    “It means you’re in trouble just for meeting me.”  
    “With whom?” Unsurprisingly, she sounded faint.
    “Bad guys. European gangsters, mercenaries. Short version is this: the guy you treated last year, Harris—he owns a security company called Alpha One Security. We usually do personal bodyguarding type shit, but sometimes we take more dangerous assignments, and the last one put us afoul of a pretty nasty character named Cain. We pissed him off, and now he’s going after me. Seeing as you know me, that puts you in his sights. He’s the type that’s not going to have any qualms about hurting you if it gets my attention, and since I kind of like you, I’m not willing to allow that.”  
    Her big brown eyes met mine, reflecting a welter of fear and confusion. “So you’re…a mercenary?”
    I shrugged. “Sort of.” I holstered the pistol behind my back, and then cupped her shoulder. “I can explain later, but right now we need to get you out of here. That guy out there wasn’t alone.”  
    “Where are we going?”  
    “Not sure, immediately. Anywhere but here. I have car close by, we just need to put some distance between us and the guys looking for us.”  
    “I still don’t get why they’d want me. I barely know you.” She tugged the edges of the robe tighter, which didn’t help my concentration any, since it only served to mold the thin, damp cotton to her breasts.  
    I forced my gaze away from her tits—there’d be time for that later…hopefully. “Leverage. If they can get you, they can use you to get to me.”  
    “Would it work?” she asked, staring up at me. “Could they get to you through me?”
    “Absolutely. Which is why I’m here, to make sure that doesn’t happen. I can protect you, but you have listen to me. Right now, you need to get dressed.”
    “How do I know this isn’t some game to get