Badge of Honor (The Town of Pearl 9)

“Not an option. They’ll find you and kill you. You’re coming with us,” Orin said in a firm tone.

Lauren was in a panic. She didn’t know what to do or how to react. Miklos and his brothers had put a hit out on her. She knew how that worked. Whatever the price, people, criminals, would come out of the woodwork to find her and bring her dead body before Miklos and the crew.

“How much?” she asked.

“What?” Orin asked her, not understanding her question.

“How much is the payoff for killing me?” she asked.

“A million,” Harper replied and Mary gasped.

Lauren took an unsteady step back and then covered her mouth and turned away.

A million dollars. There’ll be hundreds of people coming to find me. They would kill Mary and Beth. They could find my sisters and Aunt May, too. I’m going to die.

She felt the hands on her shoulders and Harper pressed close.

“We can keep you safe. If you stay here and someone finds you they’ll kill Mary and Beth.”

She turned to look up at him and now Orin, who came closer and stared at her.

“And what about you and your team?”

Orin looked surprised that she even cared.

“This is what we do. We’re trained professionals. We’ll keep you safe and alive, while our friends keep your loved ones safe and alive as well,” Orin told her.

She wasn’t sure what to do. She felt suddenly so numb and unsure.

“We’ll help you pack your things. This is your only option. Trust us,” Harper said and then led her to the stairs. She glanced over her shoulder at Mary, who had tears in her eyes.

“No matter what happens, Mary, know that I love you, and please, please protect May, Daisy, and Carly.”

She headed up the stairs as Mary nodded and then Beth walked into the room and pulled Mary into her arms.

Lauren realized in that moment that the only family she had, the only people she felt comfortable with and trusted, could get killed. She had no choice. She had to go with these men. Why couldn’t her life go back to normal again? Maybe it would be best to just give up, so everyone around her she loved could live?

* * * *

Harper watched her pack some things and then she paused, looked at the dresser by her bed, and pulled it open. She had several clips for her gun and she placed the gun down on the table then went to put the holster on her hip. He approached, covering her hand and her hip with his hands. She looked up at him. The fear, the anger in her expression, touched him.

“Don’t. We’re the only protection you’ll need.” She shook her head. She held his gaze, and he felt the emotion, the power of her statement, go through his body.

“I need this. I need my gun, the only thing in my life that I have left to make me feel like me. Like the well-trained cop, detective, who once hunted and now is the prey. I need it, Harper. Please don’t take my last bit of protection, my strength and feeling of comfort away from me.” The tears filled her eyes and he heard her voice crack.

He held her gaze.

“You can bring it because I understand how you’re feeling right now. But once you’re at our home. Once you’re surrounded by my team and I, you’ll see that you won’t need that Glock on your hip day and night. You’ll have all of us.”

“Thank you,” she whispered as she lowered her head and began to pack her things.

He saw a side of Lauren he had yet to see. A softer, more human side and it made Harper believe that she was more like him and his team, a soldier fighting her fears, evading the enemy, and accepting help when all she’d been conditioned to do was lead and be strong. She was a woman who had suffered loss, been forced to take lives to protect the ones she loved and the ones who could not defend themselves. She was a lot like him. A lot like Orin, Mace, Gus, and Galvin and that was why he felt compelled to help her. It seemed her badge of honor had left her a bigger target than she probably ever expected. It wasn’t right, and it wasn’t fair. Not for a woman like Lauren.

Chapter 11

“What are you planning on doing, Dmitri?” Storm asked him over the phone. “They’re calling you out. They’re challenging the family, you specifically.”

“You and I both know that I could wipe these men out in a flash. No one would give a shit.”