Free Silken Threats by Addison Fox Page A

their heads faded from view as they rounded the squared-off stairwell, and Tucker heard the heavy thrum of feet as they booked it toward the ground-floor door.
    He shouted again for them to stop but they never even slowed. The first guy blew through the ground-floor door, followed by his partner. Bright light lit up the space before going dark once more, and Tucker knew the second guy had slammed hard on the door when it stuck tightly closed, the doorjamb clicking into place as his hands hit the thick metal.
    Pressing on the release bar, he barreled through the heavy metal. The two men moved on swift feet through the lobby, picking up speed as they caught sight of him once more. Tucker ducked around a slow-moving patient with a walker, frustrated as he pivoted around the older woman, who skewered him with her gaze.
    An order to stop lit up the serenity of the lobby and Tucker felt a hard fist wrap around his wrist before turning to face a security guard with considerable girth to match his meaty hands.
    “Where’s the fire, son?”
    “I need—”
    The man cut him off, before exerting subtle pressure to pull them both away from watchful eyes. “You need to slow down.”
    Although he’d never got off on intimidating others, Tucker moved up in the man’s grill, his own height adding a measure to his message, even though his opponent outweighed him by a good hundred pounds. “I suggest you let me go.”
    The man dropped his arm and took several deliberate steps back. Whether the good ole boy was surprised by the fight or saw the obvious seriousness in his eyes Tucker didn’t know, and he didn’t care. What he did know was that two men who took off like that in the middle of a hospital were there to cause trouble.
    He took off the moment that ham-fisted grip slackened and sprinted toward the hospital entryway.
    And saw a nondescript black sedan lead-footing it out of the parking lot, the smell of hot asphalt and burning rubber hovering in their wake.
    “What was that about?” Max’s voice hit his ear, breaking up the lingering shriek of tires.
    “I have no idea.” He turned toward his friend, Max’s face set in grim lines.
    “What the hell are you doing running through the hospital?”
    “Those two guys were on Mrs. B.’s floor. They just seemed shady and when I spoke to them, they got shadier.”
    He ran through the quick interaction from the elevator, his instincts humming with the knowledge something was off.
    Without warning, a memory of the missions they used to run in the Corps filled his mind’s eye. Recon, advance planning and any number of operations designed to weaken the defenses of known enemies.
    As Tucker and Max well knew, the ability to understand a structure’s weak points made it exceedingly easy to blow up.
    Sort of like the current situation they found themselves in.
    Blown to bits and looking a hell of a lot more dangerous than they could have ever imagined.

Chapter 6
    C assidy stood at the door to Mrs. Beauregard’s room, pleased to see her still sleeping peacefully. The excitement from the elevator had faded over the past hour, but she knew Tucker’s chase through the hospital had frayed what was left of all their nerves. Although Tucker had promised repeatedly that the police were keeping a watchful eye on her landlady, Cassidy couldn’t shake the lingering sense of unease.
    Nor could she shake the litany of questions whose answers remained elusive no matter how many times she turned them over in her mind.
    What was their landlady hiding? Who could possibly have a vendetta against the woman, especially now, as she approached eighty? And what were they after?
    Violet stepped off the elevator, several cups of coffee in her hands, and gestured toward the visitor lounge with her head. With one last glance at Mrs. B., Cassidy moved down the hall toward her friend.
    “Lilah’s not coming?” Cassidy took one of the coffee cups from the holder, the heat seeping through the thin paper