Page 8 of Run

“I said we don’t want to hurt anyone,” the voice called out again, the words strangely slow and stretched. “Not that we won’t.”

“Just tell us what you want.” Callum’s bellow echoed around in her head.

The reply took ten years. “We…want…Elle.”

Just like that, a switch flipped. Time rushed at her. Speeding up in a way that made her wobble on her feet.

“Elle?” Callum frowned at her. “They want you?”

No, no, no, no, no…

This wasn’t happening. She’d run away from this. She’d been careful to stay hidden—mostly. Crap, Elle just bet it was that mostly part that’d bitten her on the butt.

“Elle,” the voice shouted, “get out here, or we’re coming in to get you.”

The word roared through Elle’s head a second before it exploded out of her mouth: “No!”

She was up before she’d even registered she was moving. Running toward the main doors instead of away from it—as any normal person would do.

“Get down now,” Callum ordered as the rest of her team called her name in alarm.

She heard their fear. Anger. Confusion. It only inflamed the reckless outrage driving her actions. Chest heaving, Elle screeched to a halt in front of the shattered doors. Furious, she glared out into the street beyond. Straight at their attackers.

Straight into the eyes of her brother.

4

“Marcus, don’t you dare hurt anyone. I’m serious. Put those guns down right now,” Elle demanded of the brother she’d once adored. The brother who’d embraced everything she hated. The brother she thought she’d never see again. “I swear, if you harm one hair on the heads of the people in here, I will rain down hell on you and the family.”

“Elle,” Joe hissed. “Get out of the way before you get shot.”

She barked out a laugh. It was brittle and tinged with hysteria. “He won’t shoot me. They need me alive too badly for that.”

Her brother heard her. “No, we won’t shootyou. But we will shoot anyone who gets between us and you. Come out here before someone gets hurt.”

“Elle? What are you doing?” Ryan demanded. “This is insane. Who’s Marcus? How do you know these guys?”

Elle tuned him out, her focus on her older brother. He’d aged in the years she’d been gone, looking older than he should. It appeared being heir to one of the worst crime families in Europe took its toll.

Marcus spread his arms wide, a gun in his hand. “I don’t want to hurt your people. I just need you to come with me before the cops get here.”

“Yeah, I bet you do,” she scoffed. “Do you know you even look like him now? Dressed in your tailored suit, with your slick haircut. Next it will be a platinum pinky ring and pretensions of playing the godfather. Iamdeeplydisappointed in you, big brother.”

“Big brother?” Julia squeaked.

“Holy shit,” Ryan said. “I know who that is now. It’s Marcus James. As in, the James Family Syndicate, one of the biggest crime organizations in Europe. He can’t be her brother. Right?”

“Elle,” Marcus called to her. “I’m losing my patience. Get out here now.”

“Not on your life,” Elle bellowed. “Go on home to Darth. Tell him I’m keeping the plans to the Death Star, and there’s nothing he can do about it.”

“Bloody hell,” Callum said. “Does anyone know what she’s talking about?”

“It sounds like she’s got information her brother wants,” Megan said.

Ryan cursed. “If that’s really her brother, then Tommy James is her father. Tommy makes Darth Vader look like Father of the Year.” He raised his voice and used the singsong tone someone would use to talk a crazy person off a ledge: “Elle, don’t wind up the psycho mobster, honey. Callum, you might want to do something here before things get seriously out of control.”

“Good idea,” Callum rumbled.