Page 12 of Run

“Good luck with that,” Elle muttered.

The video feed was saved on a server outside of the building, and the only live screens—now that Elle had worked her magic—were in the panic room with them.

Tessa lifted her phone to her ear. “Callum, when you get this message, call me back immediately.” She ended the call, unaware that Callum’s phone had been fried along with everyone else’s in Elle’s handy magnetic machine, and no one outside of the team had the numbers of their burner phones.

Then, as they watched, Tessa seemed thoughtful before her eyes narrowed, and she headed for the stairs to the basement.

“You are so busted,” Ryan said. “You never should have shown her the panic room.”

Callum frowned as the screen showed Tessa marching down the stairs. “No matter what that woman says, we aren’t leaving this room without our lawyers. Is that clear?”

Everyone nodded.

Callum focused on Elle. “There’s goin’ to be a lot of people desperate to get their hands on you. I imagine you’d be quite the resource for several government agencies. Whatever you do, make sure you have at least one Benson Security lawyer with you at all times. I don’t want you disappearing into the bowels of MI5, never to come out again. Got me?”

“Yes. But I don’t think the lawyers will hold them off for long.” Elle was no idiot. As soon as word got out that the police had Tommy James’ daughter in for questioning, every agency on the planet would swoop in to claim her. All they had to do was mention that she had information in relation to terrorist activities—Tommy had brokered for several terrorist groups—and the intelligence agencies could hold her indefinitely. She’d be answering questions for years, and there wouldn’t be anything anyone could do about it.

“They’ll hold them off long enough for us to come up with another way to deal with things,” Callum said as Tessa began pounding her fist on the bookcase-covered door.

“Open up,” she shouted. “I know you’re in the panic room.”

“She doesn’t know anything,” Megan mocked. “She’s guessing.”

“I swear I will charge everyone in there with obstruction if you don’t answer me,” Tessa threatened.

“Bloody woman would, an’ all.” Callum hit the intercom button. “What?” he barked.

“Get your backside out here right now,” she ordered. “Along with whoever else is holed up in there with you. I’ve got questions for you all.”

“Aye, I bet you do. Unfortunately for you, we’re staying put until our lawyers get here.”

“Why exactly would you need your lawyers?”

“Don’t play games, Tessa. It’s beneath you,” Callum grumbled.

She heaved a sigh. “You can’t protect Elle for long. There are people with a whole lot more influence than I have who’d like to talk to her,” she said, proving she’d known exactly who Elle was before even setting foot in the building.

Word was well and truly out about the location of Tommy James’ daughter.

Callum was immovable—the big, stubborn Scot that he was. “Aye, well, they can talk to her with our lawyers present. Now, if you don’t mind, my tea’s getting cold.” He cut the connection and dug out his phone again. “Need to give Lake a heads-up that the Sinclair sisters are on their way,” he muttered.

“I should run,” Elle whispered, but there was no conviction in her voice. Or her heart. She didn’t want to run. She wanted to stay with the people she loved, doing the job she—mostly—loved. She didn’t want to lose everything again.

“It’s too late for that,” Joe said softly. “All they’d do is work their way through the people you love until you came back.”

He was right. Elle bent over and rested her forehead on the table with a groan. “I’ve made such a mess,” she wailed.

“Yep,” Megan agreed. “But we’re good at cleaning up messes, and we were all bored anyway. If you think about it, ending up at Benson Security was the best thing you could have done. You’re surrounded by bona fide commandos…and Ryan.”

“Thanks,” Ryan said. “Remind me, what are you again? Oh, yeah, thebarely qualifiedteam member.”

“Thetrigger-happybarely qualifiedteam member,” Megan corrected. “Never forget that part.”

“It doesn’t matter how skilled our team is,” Elle said into the table. “We’ll never be able to take on someone who’s willing to cross lines we would never cross. The James Syndicate is above the law. It’s fearless and has more money than you can imagine. They have connections in every law enforcement agency in the country, which makes playing by the rules when dealing with them even harder. Trust me, I’ve spent years thinking this through, trying to figure out what I could do to bring them down, and all I came up with was hiding and holding information over their heads. Even then, I don’t think the information would cause much damage. Tommy James is untouchable.”

“No, lass, everyone has a weakness.” Callum sat down at the table. “All we need to do is find his. You cannae choose your genetics, but you can damn well choose your family. Sit up and look around you.”

Reluctantly, Elle did as she was told.