Page 86 of Crowe
Noah moved without hesitation, no calculation, no pause; he just moved, putting himself between Corvane and Imogen and pushing her hard to the right. She stumbled against the wall, and I heard the breath go out of her, but she stayed up. Corvane’s hands found Noah instead.
He had Noah by the collar and the arm and wrenched him around. I was three steps away, and those three steps felt like three miles.
“Hawk.” My voice was flat through the earpiece.
“I don’t have a shot. Imogen’s in my line.”
“Gator.”
“Noah’s in my way. I can’t.”
Corvane had Noah’s back against his chest, one arm across his throat, his eyes wide and desperate. This was a man, a predator, who’d never tasted fear, and there was nothing as dangerous as a cornered predator.
“Back up,” he said. “All of you. Imogen, toss me that folder or I—”
Noah dropped his weight.
I saw it happen. It was the move I’d taught him in the gym. The thing we’d drilled until it was muscle memory. He dropped, fast and sudden, driving his elbow back, and turned into it the way I’d shown him. Corvane’s grip broke exactly the way I’d told him it would, and Noah twisted away. I was already moving—
The shot was loud in the hallway.
It happened so fast that, for a second, I didn’t understand what I was seeing. Imogen had the gun in both hands, her feet planted, her eyes on Anton Corvane. He was looking down at himself like he didn’t understand what had happened as blood spread across his chest. Then he went down, and the hallway went very quiet. None of us had known she had a gun. None of us had seenher reach into her bag, and none of us had seen her raise the weapon, but she had.
She was still holding the gun when I got to her. Her hands were shaking. Her eyes were fixed on the place where Corvane lay bleeding out on the floor in front of us.
“Imogen.” I kept my voice level. “Give me the gun.”
She looked at me. Then she looked at the gun in her hands as if she wasn’t entirely sure how it had gotten there. She held it out, and I took it.
“Is he—” she started.
I looked back over my shoulder at Hawk. He was holding a gun on both Corvane’s guards while Gator kneeled over him. He looked up at me and shook his head. Imogen put her hand over her mouth like she was holding in her panic as tears streamed down her face.
Both guards were standing in the entryway, staring in shock at a woman they not only knew but had protected with something on their faces that looked a little like respect.
“One at a time, both of you put your weapons on the ground and then kick them my direction,” Hawk said. Not loudly. Just absolutely.
They looked at him. They looked at me. They looked at Gator, who was still crouched beside Corvane, but neither of them argued. They both did as instructed, and Gator zip-tied their hands while Hawk called Wolfe.
He picked up right away, like he was waiting for our call. He probably was. Hawk put him on speaker.
“We have a situation,” Hawk said. “Corvane came back early. He’s down. Imogen is okay. Noah is okay.” He paused. “We need Chance here ASAP.”
We could hear the murmurs of him talking to someone who was in the room with him, and then he was back. “Chance can be there in under two hours. He’s sending someone named Michael Troy to secure the scene. Keep Imogen inside and stay with her, don’t let her talk to anyone until I get there, and don’t let anyone touch the documents.”
“Copy,” Hawk said.
Noah was standing in the middle of the hallway with his arms loose at his sides, looking at the place where Corvane’s body lay crumpled on the floor. I crossed to him and put my hands on his face and made him look at me.
“You okay?” I asked.
He looked at me for a moment. Then something in his expression shifted, coming back from wherever he’d been. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m okay.”
“You remembered what I taught you.”
“You made me drill it often enough.” The corner of his mouth moved slightly. “Apparently, it works.”
“Apparently it does.” I looked at him for another moment, at his steady eyes and his steady hands. At the man he’d become between a basement and a flower shop and a hallway in Ashford Grove. “You scared me, baby boy, but you were so brave.”
