Free Secure Target (Elite Operators) by Rebecca Crowley Page B

together behind his back and was standing with one black combat boot planted on Harlen’s waist.
    Harlen wriggled and squealed, his nose digging a trench in the snow. Bronnik leaned down until his mouth was beside the other man’s ear.
    “If you had touched her,” he said icily, “I would’ve broken your arm. I assume you know enough English to understand that.”
    Harlen’s reply was muffled by the snow, and as Bronnik began to explain the terms on which he’d be willing to let her brother stand up, she reeled with conflicting emotions. The warm, swelling delight she felt that anyone would stand up for her to such a degree—even someone who was essentially getting paid to look after her—was bisected by a jagged, cutting sense of fear and disquiet as she considered the extent of the violence he was capable of.
    She’d seen him kick down a door on video—she’d seen him point a gun in person. He spoke freely about being shot at, about being stabbed. But the silence and swiftness with which he neutralized Harlen was something new.
    As she watched him release her brother, and as Harlen got shakily to his knees, she realized that on some level she’d been thinking of Bronnik as a pretty regular guy who happened to have a risky career. More and more she was coming to understand that he was quite the opposite. He was an extraordinary man who put his life on the line every day, and did it without fear.
    That scared her.
    And thrilled her.
    As Harlen shuffled toward the entrance of the restaurant they’d just left, Bronnik pulled out his phone.
    “Stay where you are—it was unrelated. Just her brother running his mouth. We’re on the move now, keep close.”
    As he turned his calm blue eyes on her, that old humiliation took one last lap at her gut.
    “I’m sorry. I never thought that stupid rumor would get back to him, not so quickly anyway, and I never imagined he’d care enough to confront me about it.”
    He dismissed her with a noise of irritation, crossing around the back of the car to open her door. “Don’t you dare apologize for him. He deserved much worse.”
    She slumped into her seat. He slid into the driver’s side and put the key in the ignition but didn’t turn it. She looked at him expectantly.
    To her astonishment, his smile bordered on sheepish. “Look, I grew up without a father, and I have two older sisters who happen to have terrible taste in men. My protective instinct is a little overdeveloped when it comes to women I give a damn about.”
    “Are you saying you give a damn about me?”
    Bronnik cleared his throat and started the engine. “I can’t very well save you from Hardy only to have your brother undo all my handiwork, can I? Now, on to our afternoon activity.”
    She twisted to look out the window, concealing her delighted smile from his view. Secretly she tucked this moment deep inside her heart where it would be safe, ready to take out and hold on to the next time she needed it.

Chapter Seven
    “A shooting range?”
    “I saw it when we were driving earlier.” Bronnik forced playful enthusiasm into his tone. There was no way he was telling her he wanted to be sure she could defend herself with a firearm, if it came to that. “Have you ever shot a gun before?” he asked, although he could guess the answer.
    “Can’t say I have.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste as she followed him through the main entrance. “Can’t say it’s a particularly burning, unfulfilled desire either.”
    “One round and you’ll be addicted,” he assured her. They approached the slim, middle-aged man at the front desk.
    “One lane, two shooters please.” He took out his wallet. The man looked at him skeptically.
    “You got ID?”
    Lacey dug out her driver’s license, which the man barely glanced at before handing it back and staring at Bronnik expectantly. Normally he would’ve produced his driver’s license as well, but he sensed it might be quicker if he skipped to the second