The Spy in 3B, стр. 51

I gave Rhodes the signal for stop, and he lifted a brow. What’s wrong? he mouthed.

I frowned back toward the stairs. None of the other teams were supposed to be up here.

I stood at the end of the corridor. Using my hand, I signaled for him to get the girl while I covered the stairs.

He frowned at me, motioning that we should stick together.

I shook my head and tapped my nose, letting him know that I smelled trouble.

He sighed and nodded, taking the command.

Once I saw that he was already halfway down the hall, I headed to the right and eased toward that corner. Something wasn’t right. Something felt off. What was behind door number one right here?

Quickly, I rounded to the far side of the door, so that when I opened it, I wouldn’t be giving whoever was behind the door a wide-open target.

I dragged in three long breaths to steady my heart rate. I reached for the knob, turned it, then shoved it open. The person inside wasted no time. They came flying out, stun gun first. It was interesting that they weren’t using live rounds. Why?

Was this The Firm? And had they come for the girl or for us?

Our rival agencies had been battling for jobs for years. Occasionally, we crossed paths, though it had been happening more and more often of late. Usually, we tended to take different jobs. What was their interest here?

You can think about that when you’re not getting your ass kicked.

My attacker was small. Slight. About five foot seven. They were padded with tactical gear, but the fighter was likely a woman. When the Taser hit nothing, the fighter whirled around to my spot, stun gun ready to aim, but I blocked it. I threw a punch to the face, but they dodged it easily with a hand slide along my arm and then dropped to a knee.

Fuck.

My opponent disarmed me with a quick flick of the wrist, then a sneaky elbow to the face had me seeing stars.

This was a woman. No doubt about it. And that scent… I smelled coconuts.

No. No, I did not smell coconuts. Lyra had managed to even contaminate my thoughts now… of all times.

The woman wasn’t going to let me go, though. She stood between me and the target at the end of the hall. I knew Rhodes could do his job. I didn’t like leaving him open though. Because how many of her friends were here?

Yeah, it was definitely a woman. She blocked another hit, but instead of doing the obvious and aiming another knee, she flipped around and delivered a hammer fist to my temple which had me seeing stars. Again.

Fuck. Okay, enough bullshit. If she was aiming to kill, so could I.

The way she moved was familiar, as if I’d fought her before. Maybe all too familiar?

She telegraphed the next kick that came for me, but she still got me right in the ribs. I managed to offset my weight and grabbed her thigh, then I turned my body and tilted my hip out, which sent her careening down.

When I dove for her, she rolled away easily, attacking back with a hammer kick. One that I had to rapidly roll away from. Christ.

She dove for me then with her fists and elbows. We ended up rolling around, and I thought again about how familiar this felt. I caught her arms in my grip and said, “Stop fucking moving.”

Under her mask, her brows furrowed and then lifted. She blinked twice, and then dropped her head away from me.

“Be still. I’m not going to—” I didn’t get to finish my sentence because she brought her head back then snapped it forward with a head butt. “Bugger.”

She did it again, and then she managed to wiggle out of my arms and tried to deliver another cracking elbow, which I blocked. But blocking her, unfortunately, forced me to let her go. She sprung back to her feet in a lithe movement. Like a jack rabbit.

Why was she so familiar?

“Do I know you?” I asked.

She cocked her head as we danced around. From the end of the hall, I heard gunshots, and my heart seized. “Fucking Rhodes.”

While my attention was split, my assailant reached behind my neck and hit me with a fucking taser, and the electrical charge shot up my arm. “Motherfucker.”

As electrical shocks crawled through my skin, I ground my teeth as it took me to my knees.

But what was interesting was that even as the edges of my vision started to gray, she didn’t shoot me. Instead, she turned and headed down the hallway toward Rhodes and those gunshots we’d both heard.

I refused to go down. I couldn’t.

Instead, I pushed to my feet. I had to stop her.

I watched as she ran, and I knew I’d seen that gait before. Oh God. There was no way. There was no fucking way.

I reached for her and then dove at her feet, taking her down.

She struggled to get free, body flailing, trying to break out of my hold. Jesus Christ, she was a good fighter.

Lyra. She smelled like Lyra.

My conscious brain fought it. There was no way. This was not who I thought it was.

When I was on top of her, I grasped an arm, even as she tried to punch me with the other one and I dodged it. “Hold still, I’m not going to hurt—”

And before I knew it, she planted her feet, lifted her hips, and rolled us both over with her on top. With her free arm, she punched me straight in the trachea.

As I wheezed and coughed, she aimed at it again, but this time I blocked it, even as I was fighting for air.

I was forced to let her go as I scrambled to breathe, and she was up on her feet like lightning, trying to get around me. I snapped one arm around her ankle and tugged her back down.

She let