Midnight Captive Read Online Free Page A

one of the others walk out with the hostages, someone might recognize us. You’ve been off the grid long enough that none of those Garda rookies would know who you are.”
    Jesus Christ.
    He’d just been handed a winning lotto ticket.
    Sean kept his face expressionless, careful not to reveal his eagerness. “Whatever you think is best,” he said with a nod.
    “But . . .” Gallagher frowned. “They’ll be expecting six men. With you in the hostage pool, there’ll only be five left to surrender.”
    “Because the sixth is dead.” Sean arched a brow.
    Gallagher instantly understood, a wry smile playing on his lips. “The cop.”
    “Our leader,” Sean corrected. “You’ve been dealingwith the negotiator, but when he calls back, get someone else to talk to him. Murphy, I’d say—lad’s a pathological liar. Murphy tells the negotiator that our merry band had a disagreement and our leader was taken out of the equation, and the other men are ready to give themselves up now that the head of the snake has been cut off.”
    Gallagher narrowed his eyes. “You’re a clever little bugger, aren’t you, Reilly? Always have been.”
    He didn’t answer.
    “All right. We do this, then.” After a moment of hesitation, Gallagher reached into his pocket and pulled out the flash drive. “Go to the staff room and find something else to wear. I’ll grab you after Murphy talks to the Garda. Then I’ll bring you to the lobby at gunpoint and throw you in with the other hostages.”
    Every nerve ending in Sean’s body crackled with triumph as Gallagher handed him the flash drive.
    Well, goddamn. Maybe he
wasn’t
going to die today.

Chapter 2
    Bailey spent the majority of the flight making phone calls and cashing in favors. She had no idea what to expect when she got to Dublin, but she would damn well be prepared for anything. She would’ve felt better if Paige had come with her, but the woman had adamantly refused. Paige shied away from any mission that might place her in the public eye, and since the bank was crawling with police and reporters, Bailey wasn’t surprised that her request for assistance had been categorically denied.
    Of all the women who worked for Noelle, Bailey was closest to Paige—yet she didn’t have a shred of insight about the woman’s past. She suspected Paige harbored secrets that rivaled her own, but she had never pushed her friend for answers. Paige would tell her eventually. Or she wouldn’t. Either way, Bailey still adored the woman.
    And it wasn’t like she didn’t have any backup—she’d already contacted a former colleague and he was hard at work on his end, gathering as much intel as he could about the bank robbery.
    Bailey checked her phone again, but Rafe hadn’tchecked in, so she dialed Paige’s number instead. The helicopter’s cabin was noisy as hell, but despite the whir of the rotors and the wind hissing past her window, she clearly heard the frustration in her friend’s voice.
    “I can’t find a bloody thing,” Paige grumbled. “The bank’s system doesn’t have any floor plans or schematics. I’m trying to hack into the city records to get my hands on some blueprints, but their security is surprisingly intense. Every time I knock down a firewall another one pops up.”
    “Shit,” Bailey said. She needed those blueprints
now
. If the holdup was still in progress when she landed, she had every intention of finding a way into that bank.
    “It might take a while. I’m working as fast as I can, though.” There was a pause. “Is there really no way to talk you out of this?”
    “Nope.” Her tone was light, but the tension weighing on her chest was heavier than a block of cement.
    A part of her still questioned her decision to hightail it out of England to rescue Sean Reilly, but no matter how many times the rational part of her brain tried to point out that she didn’t even
like
the man, she hadn’t been able to talk herself out of it.
    She and Sean might