Chapter 10

Jane held onto the railing in a death grip, her body slamming unmercifully into the side of the metal fire escape. The rain made the metal slippery, she was forced to drop her weapon in favour of gaining a better more life-saving hold. Her taser fell thirty feet to the ground below. She feared her assailant might try to force her over the rest of the way, but he was too busy yanking himself up and then hurtling toward the stairs. He completely ignored her dangling body. She was grateful, but also slightly peeved that he hadn't offered her a helping hand. She was definitely going to tase the shit out of this guy when she got safely out of her current situation.

"Jane, where is he, he didn't come to the door. Should I take it down?" Hudson's voice sounded in her ear.

She levered her body down, crawling carefully through the gaps in the railing until she was laying panting on the metal grate once more. She took two deep lung full's of precious air before rolling over and pushing to her feet. She brought her speaker up and gasped out, "He's on the move, dropped me on the fire escape. Dude is way faster than he looks!" as she hurtled after him. He had a head start and was rounding the second floor, but she was smaller and faster. He gained the ground as she was rounding the floor above him. Without a second thought she flung herself over the railing and dropped the several feet down on top of him.

Jane landed on his back and they both crashed to the ground. Her landing was much softer than his and she managed to roll out of his reach while he processed what had happened. She searched the darkness for her taser, wishing that she hadn't decided to leave her gun behind. She didn't see the stun gun and unfortunately she was trapped between their mark and the building.

"You gonna pay for that, bitch," he snarled, lumbering to his feet and spitting blood out of his mouth. His face must have hit the pavement when she took him down.

He lunged for her, fists raised. Jane tried to run around him, but he grabbed her arm, lifted her right off the ground and slammed her back into the brick wall. Jane cried out as her shoulder wrenched painfully and her head bounced off the wall. She brought her hand up in a swift uppercut to his chin. He stumbled away from her and, much to both of their surprise, into the massive body of a man standing behind them.

The huge man brought his hands up, gripped her mark's head and twisted it to the side until it cracked sharply. He stepped back, allowing the body to fall to the ground. Jane stared in gaping astonishment. She'd seen her share of violence, and even meted some out herself, but she had never seen anything like the swift execution of the man at her feet. It'd been done so calmly, so effortlessly, as though the dead man were nothing more than a bug to be crushed without thought.

"Are you hurt, Jane McKinley?" The hulking giant asked.

Fury flooded through her as his thick accent registered. He was Russian. She finally recognized him in the shadows, Boris Grekov.

"I'm fine," she snapped, "And I was doing just fine before you came along. What exactly the fuck was that?" she demanded, waving her hand at the body on the ground.

He glanced down dispassionately."Boss told me, make sure woman unhurt while she works on dangerous cases. This man attack you. I ensure your safety."

"McKinley," Hudson said, coming up behind the massive Russian. He held his weapon on the hulking giant. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered rolling her sore shoulder to make sure it hadn't been pulled out of the socket. It was fine. She glared down at their bail jumper and sighed, "Unfortunately this idiot felt the need to kill our mark."

"Fuck. We needed him alive to get the bond. Back up," Hudson snapped at the Russian and waved Jane toward him.

Jane suspected the man had a weapon as well, under his jacket, but he wouldn't be able to pull it without being shot by Hudson first. She made her way warily past him until she stood next to Hudson.

"What the fuck is he doing here," Hudson asked, staring hard at the face of the other man. Recognition lit his rugged features. "Motherfucker, Jane. This is Boris Grekov, he's Sitnikov's enforcer."

Hudson and Boris watched her as that bit of news sunk in with all of them. Sitnikov had sent his right hand to watch over her. She knew he hadn't simply let her go. Had likely been watching her for months. Waiting patiently until she fell into his lap. Or until she did something to force his hand. Did he know she had quietly continued her investigation on him, using her newer, dirtier connections to weed out information? She shivered, certain he didn't know. If he did, she was pretty sure she would have endured another face-to-face with the terrifying boss.

"He must really have a hard on for you to send Grekov as a babysitter. Too bad he fucked up our capture. That's $25,000 lost," Hudson said in annoyance kicking the body on the ground.

Jane eyed Boris with calculation. He eyed her back warily. She sensed he didn't like Hudson's proximity to her. "Give me your weapon," she said to Hudson and held out her hand.

To his credit, Hudson didn't even hesitate. He knew Jane was capable with pretty much any kind of weapon. That was part of the reason he had chosen her as his back up. Jane took the taser from him, pointed it at Grekov and fired. Two small electrodes struck the big man and currents of electricity crashed through his body, causing his muscles to spasm and cease to obey. The massive Russian fell to his knees and grunted.

His eyes snapped in anger, but he said nothing.

Jane frowned, stepped up to him, ignoring the growl of warning from Grekov, and pressed the electrodes of the gun against his his neck until the huge man was prone on the ground, his eyes drifting shut. She grinned and handed the weapon back to Hudson.

"Are you done?" he asked sarcastically. "Remind me never to piss you off, McKinley."

Jane stood over the Russian, placing her booted feet on either side of him and dropped down into a crouch. She swiftly yanked his arms back and cuffed him before he could come to. "I need you to lift him and toss his ass into the bed of your truck. We're going to take him to my office and cuff him to the sturdiest piece of metal we can find. I have a feeling he's going to be a grumpy boy when he wakes up."

"Why would we do that?" Hudson asked without moving. "I'm not feeling particularly suicidal today."

Jane shoved a hand full of dark, wet hair behind her ear. She grinned up at her partner. "Because we're going to ransom him back to the Russians for the amount he lost us tonight. If he's Sitnikov's right hand then the Boss is going to want him back in one piece."

Hudson whistled, "You are fucking insane McKinley. That is a plan designed to get me killed."

Jane tilted her head back and thought about it. "You're right. Sitnikov probably shouldn't know you were involved in this. Help me get him back to my place. I'll sit in the back with him and if he starts to come around I'll tase the shit out of him again. You can take off after I've hooked him up to a radiator or something."

Hudson hesitated. "I should say no just to save you from yourself. How do you know Sitnikov won't decide you aren't worth the trouble?"

"He won't," Jane said with conviction and pleaded, "I can't move this guy myself, Hudson, or I wouldn't ask you to help with something like this. He's three times my size."

Finally Hudson nodded and without wasting any more time reached for the unconscious enforcer.