Free Guns & Burning Rubber: The Iron Brotherhood series by Samantha Westlake Page B

certainly take his mind off of worrying about where his little handler is.”  Her lips quirked briefly upward.  “Hell, maybe I’ll invite him here, call it ‘burying the hatchet,’ making peace between your two gangs.”
    “I don’t want peace with them,” Savage protested.  “I’d be as happy if they were dead.”
    The woman waggled a finger at him.  “But wouldn’t it be so much easier to ambush them if they weren’t suspecting it?”
    Savage frowned slightly at this, although whether the frown was due to the dishonest and backstabbing nature of the plan, or simply him not thinking of it first, Kara couldn’t say. 
    “Listen, don’t worry about it,” Alicia soothed her relative, reaching out and patting Savage on the chest.  “I’ll go take care of Cross.  And I’ll leave you here, to have some fun with our little police snitch, before she vanishes for good.”
    With that, Alicia turned and sauntered off towards the stairs - but not before looking back over her shoulder and shooting one last grin at Kara.  The smile was teasing, mocking, taunting the FBI agent for how easily she had let herself get captured.
    But it was the eyes above that smile that made Kara shiver.  Savage was a brute, amoral and used to getting his own way, but he still seemed to have at least a hint of conscience, and still considered the strategic impacts of his choices.  There was no way that he could run a gun smuggling operation of this size without some sort of control on his impulses and emotions.
    Alicia, on the other hand, was a blazing wildfire.  In her eyes, even in that split second, Kara could see that she didn’t care what consequences followed from her actions.  She was out to get her way, to have fun - no matter the cost.
    And then, a minute later, the woman was gone.  Kara was left alone in the basement with Savage, the big president of the Hellraisers, the head of the gun smuggling operation.
    And he was advancing towards her...
    CHAPTER 10
    Savage, the big, hulking biker president of the Hellraisers, wore a grin on his face as he stepped forward.  He looked as if he was already several minutes in, imagining all the terrible things that he was going to do to the woman, handcuffed and helpless before him.
    Down on the ground, staring up at him, FBI Special Agent Kara Sybil felt small tendrils of panic climbing up her spine.
    Focus, she tried to tell herself.  Take stock of the situation.  Measure the negatives and positives, and look for avenues of action.  Remember your training.
    Positive: she wasn’t dead yet.  She was conscious, alive, and unharmed, at least for the moment.
    Negative: she was currently handcuffed to a pipe, trapped in a basement.
    Negative: no one else knew where she was - which meant that there was no cavalry on the way.
    Negative: the man in front of her, now advancing towards her with an evil glint in his eye, had been given orders to kill her.
    Positive: it seemed that Savage had some other activities in mind before he actually took her life.
    Negative: Kara was absolutely certain that she was not going to enjoy these activities, even if they were holding off her death for a little longer.
    Counting up the results of this analysis, Kara concluded that there were definitely more negatives than positives.  Not a great situation, all things considering. 
    So what next?
    Well, ideally, the first goal would be to get out of these handcuffs.  Kara risked a quick glance up at the metal bracelets around her wrists, the pipe in between her limbs and keeping her arms lifted up above her head.  The cuffs looked like a standard set, which meant that they would be relatively easy to pick - if she had the time and was left alone to do so.  She would also need some sort of tool.
    However, the more pressing problem, as well as the biggest obstacle to her getting free, was definitely Savage.  The man was standing over her now, looking down at her with a grin.  Kara could feel the