Page 53 of Run

“I hate beer.” Elle sat at the breakfast bar, studiously ignoring David, who stood by the back door, staring at her. “Do you have any laptops?”

“Last time I checked, you couldn’t drink those. And no, I don’t keep computers here.” Marcus grinned at her. “Same old Elle, coping with life by looking at it through a screen.”

Oh no, he wasn’t playing the nostalgia card. “You don’t know who I am or what I do anymore. I haven’t even set eyes on you, let alone talked to you, in years.”

His lips thinned. “It was for your own good.”

“People keep telling me that, but no one ever asks what I think.” She shot David a pointed glare. “Except for Callum, which is why he’s now my favorite.”

The room felt chilly. It could have been the vast open-plan area or the company. Either way, Elle was shivering. She looked around for a blanket, but all she could see was high-end décor in chrome, black, and white. Maybe it was the cold, clinical feel of the place that made her want to wrap herself up in a thick, fluffy blanket.

A black sweater materialized in front of her. “Put it on,” David said, now wearing only a black T-shirt. “You’re bluer than usual.”

“I don’t want it.” It would smell like him and would probably still hold the heat of his body.

“I know. Put it on anyway. Otherwise, I’ll do it for you.”

She snatched the jumper and shrugged into it. It was an oversized woolen dress on her. Worse, it felt like David was hugging her. His warmth and scent engulfed her, making her glare at him. He just did that eyebrow thing of his and sauntered back to his position by the door. Elle stuck her nose in the air and tried to pretend he didn’t exist. Or at least tried to look like that was what she was doing.

“I’ll make some coffee.” Joe made himself at home in the kitchen. “Who wants one?”

Those who wanted it answered from where they’d positioned themselves around the room. Elle noted that not one member of her team had relaxed. They all kept their hands close to their weapons and an eye on the windows and doors. In fact, she was the only one sitting. Everyone else either stood sentry or paced. Except for Megan and Dimitri, who were nowhere in sight. Elle glanced toward the stairs in the corner. No doubt they’d gone to scope out the rest of the building—and been distracted by the sight of a bed.

Elle forced herself to deal with her brother. “Why did you go to so much trouble to capture me if you aren’t taking me to Tommy?”

Marcus rested his forearms on the other side of the kitchen island. “I didn’t capture you. I rescued you. You have no idea what’s coming for you, Elle. It isn’t only Tommy; there are groups who think you sold them out, and they want to make you pay. I had to make sure you were safe, and it was clear Benson Security wasn’t doing the job.”

“That’s a load of crap, and you know it,” Callum said. “We didn’t even know what we were up against until your guys hacked our system. Now we do, and we have this covered.”

“You might think you have things covered,” Marcus said. “But thinking don’t make it so.”

Elle was still stuck on something else he’d said. “Wait a minute. How did you know I was with Benson Security?” She clutched the edge of the bench, feeling a little hysterical.

“I have my own men, people I trust, and they’d been searching for you on the lowdown since you left. They spotted you on security footage outside Abramovich’s house a few years ago while you were working an operation to find Dimitri Raast’s sister. We had to hide your trail before one of Tommy’s people discovered you were involved in the Abramovich mess. Did you honestly believe tangling with a guy who ran a sex-trade businessin Londonwouldn’t blow your cover? Tommy knows every crook, crime organization, and mob wannabe in the city.”

“I was in disguise, and I wasn’t in the field.” She’d been careful. She wasn’t an idiot.

“You drove your own car to a known mobster’s house and kept the engine running for one of your teammates until she fled the premises.”

Okay, when you put it like that, it didn’t sound that careful. “If you’ve known where to find me for that long, why did you wait until this week to come in with guns blazing to get me? Why didn’t you just take me for a coffee?”

“Because,” he said slowly, as though she were a dullard, “I was keeping Tommy away from you. But that all went to hell when he hired a bunch of Russian hackers to follow your online trail. Didn’t even know he’d done it until he ordered me to take a team and come get you. Since I didn’t want him to shoot me between the eyes for playing him all this time, I took the team Tommy handpicked and came to get you—James Syndicate style.”

Suddenly, Marcus and Abasi leaving their men for the cops made a whole lot more sense. “That’s why you let the cops clean up your team,” Elle said. “They were Tommy’s men.”

“Bingo.”

“And you came to get me because you’re trying to protect me?”

“I’m always trying to protect you. It’s a full-time job.”

“It’s also one I didn’t know you had until this week.”

Marcus sighed heavily. “Elle, I’ve been watching over you since the day you were born. I’m your brother. I just stepped it up some when Tommy started asking you to hack for him.” He tipped back the cold bottle, gulping it down. “You were nine, and all he could see was another tool to use. You were so excited about him taking an interest in you, and there was no way to explain what Tommy’s interest meant without putting you in more danger.” He shook his head, his smile wistful. “Back then, you couldn’t keep a secret to save yourself.”

“We were both different back then,” Elle told him. “You kept out of Tommy’s sight; all you did was study.”

He inclined his head. “I wanted to be a vet.”