Already Taken (Laura Frost FBI)

She swung the car hard to the left, almost colliding with a taxi that was emerging from the station entrance. Laura ignored the gestures and shouting trailing out of the driver’s side window as she left it in her wake, pulling up with a screeching carelessness, letting the car stop where it would stop. There was a staircase leading up to the overpass.

Laura jumped out of the car, leaving it running, the keys still in the ignition. She didn’t care. She was an FBI agent. If someone decided to steal her car, she could probably do something about tracking them down. And even if she couldn’t—a car was worth far less than her partner of four years, one of the best men she knew, and, by a very long distance, her closest friend.

Laura took the stairs two at a time, racing to the top, the heels she’d been wearing on her date earlier clattering against the metal. She looked to one side and saw him immediately. Nate was easy to spot—six two, well-built, Black, and—the best giveaway of them all—wearing his blue windbreaker with the FBI logo emblazoned on it in yellow.

He was too far away to hear her if she shouted. She could barely even make out his face.

The train appeared on the horizon, as far down the tracks as she could see before buildings got in the way. It was already coming.

Laura took off at full speed, kicking off her shoes as she went.

She yelled his name, but it was useless. He didn’t even turn. He was looking at something else—someone else—coming toward him from the other side of the overpass. He had his back to her now, and the other person—a man—was approaching him.

They stood opposite one another. Laura saw it happening as if it were in slow motion. Nate was shaking his head. She screamed his name again, and his gaze flicked in her direction for a moment but then back. She was running at full pelt, not even breathing anymore, not thinking or feeling, just running.

Nate put his hands up in front of him in a gesture of defense, his back hitting the railing as he moved away from the stranger.

No!

Laura forced herself forward faster than she ever had before as Nate shook his head, as his mouth formed an O of surprise, as the stranger standing opposite him stepped forward—

And Laura collided bodily with him, slamming him to the ground, twisting her head and looking up at Nate as she did so. He was teetering, losing his balance—