Espion | Book One

Twenty Seven.

Her heart went into overdrive. Cold fear gripped her, pushed her legs until she was breathing hard outside the mall. The shadows fell over her once more, the light left behind and Anna came to a halt. Her head whipped around as she tried to spot Jessi – or anyone – with her slowly adjusting eyes. In the abandoned parking lot, she saw a couple cars to occupy the silence of the area until her eyes landed on Saenar just up ahead.

He was being pushed by two other guys in full black. There were five of them, two pushing Jessi and the other three looking around, guns ready to shoot. Jessi was struggling in their hold, but his frantic tugs and his french profanities did nothing to slow the men at all. They pushed him towards a black car idling in the lot.

The fear Anna possessed tripled in its size. She scurried over to the nearest car, keeping low to the ground so she wouldn't be spotted. Jessi's voice was louder now, shouting at them in French in anger. One of the men shoving him punched him in the side of his head and Anna gritted her teeth, seething.

That one died first.

Her mind didn't stop to think. She fell back into practice, moving with the same efficiency she normally possessed. Despite the rage sprouting in her, she was calm, digging into her bag. She took out her gun first, checking to see how many bullets she had left. Jessi continued trying to get away from the men, the men continued to force him towards the car, and Anna just sat there, moving as if she had all the time in the world.

She took out her silencer, composed. Still hidden behind the hood of the car, she cocked her weapon and took aim. The first bullet went clean through the man's head, a soft ping echoing in the air.

Jessi froze in shock. The men around him huddled closer, eyes darting back and forth, trying to find the sniper. They hurried along with him, moving faster this time since Jessi's shock at the dead man had brought his resistance to zero.

The next bullet went through the remaining man holding Jessi captive. As soon as he was free, he stepped back, but his eyes were wide, rooted to the spot as yet another body dropped at his feet. Anna's eyes moved on to the next, then to the next until there was only one man left. Before she could pull the trigger, the last man grabbed a shell shocked Jessi, pulled something from his pocket and slammed it onto the front of Jessi's throat.

"Don't shoot or he dies!" the man shouted. He held something high in the air. Anna's eyes narrowed, zooming in on the object, then widened when she saw what it was. A detonator.

The bastard planted a tiny bomb on Jessi.

Jessi was smart enough not to move either. She couldn't see him well, but she knew he knew how bad this situation was. If he made one ill move, all the man had to do was release his thumb and Jessi's head will be blown off. She couldn't risk anything either.

"I know you can here me," the man continued to shout. When silence was his only answer, he gritted his teeth, pulled out a knife and put it to Jessi's side. "It's either you let me leave with him or I blow his freaking head off!"

Anna slowly withdrew her hand. She sat down, tampering the rage that built inside her to think clearly. She was a quick thinker, very light on her feet and she knew the man was not bluffing. After fighting with these guys for a month, Anna knew they were very serious about what they wanted. They wanted Jessi, but they weren't over threatening his life.

She unscrewed the silencer, then tucked both it and the gun back into her bag.

"Come out, now!" the man screeched. Even as he spoke, he was inching his way to the car.

Anna took a deep breath, then fluffed her hair. She crawled over to the trunk of the car, got up and walked out into the open. "Jessi?" she called, her tone light and probing. "Jessi, where are you? Are you out here?"