A dozen minutes later, a frantic knock rattled the door.
Hunter opened it to find a girl with long flaxen hair.
A sexy, well-built beauty filled his vision.
It was Mia!
They locked eyes for a heartbeat, then Hunter opened his arms.
The next instant, Mia hurled herself into his embrace.
'Uhh…'
'Hunter…'
'Please save Dom—something's happened to him!'
It was clear Dominic was in real trouble.
Mia had come straight to Hunter; the moment she saw him she buried herself against his chest and sobbed.
Hunter could never stand a woman's tears, least of all from a stunning beauty.
He gently patted her back, pressed a kiss to her cheek.
Only then did he murmur, 'Easy, I'm here.'
'What's wrong with your big brother?'
'I've been job-hunting lately. After I warned him last time, I lost track for a while.'
Mia's head stayed against his chest; she was tall, over 1.7 m.
In heels she could look eye-to-eye with the 1.82 m Dominic—if she hadn't wanted to, she couldn't have nestled like this.
'Thank you.'
She was still trembling, rubbing her face against his shirt.
Then she looked up; her amber eyes were full of worry and fear.
And restrained excitement, the joy of reunion after so long.
Those eyes spoke volumes, and even Hunter, slow to read women,
understood her feelings at a glance.
His arms tightened around her.
The sudden strength let Mia feel the power of the man holding her.
Especially when her cheek met the hard curve of his chest again,
a wave of safety she'd never known washed over her.
'Don't cry, you still have me.'
'Tell me everything.'
Listening to the gentle voice at her ear,
Mia, for no reason, recalled that crazy night over a month ago,
the wildness she'd tasted.
Her cheeks flushed, but she knew why she'd come.
She needed help.
So she said, 'Hunter, Dom's in trouble.'
She spent the next while carefully recounting everything of the past two or three weeks.
A month earlier, Hunter had used a call to Mia to warn Dominic that the FBI was onto him.
At first, Dominic hadn't taken it seriously.
A few days after Hunter's warning,
he even had his girlfriend Letty and a couple of crew move a freshly hijacked load of electronics through their usual black-market channels.
Consequently, Letty and the others were tailed—by either LAPD or the Bureau.
Heavily armed cops stormed the shops soon after the goods surfaced,
arresting plenty of people.
A partner who'd worked with Dominic for years was exposed.
Days later, Hunter paid Dominic another visit,
again telling him the FBI was watching.
Then they struck a deal.
Soon after, Hunter handed over everything he knew about the agent—Brian.
By then, Brian had already marked Dominic's crew.
He tried to get close, targeting Dominic's sister Mia as his way in.
Brian planned to use her to prove the gang were the highway bandits who'd terrorized California for years.
What he didn't know was that Dominic already had photos of him entering the FBI building, courtesy of Hunter.
So when Brian showed up again,
Dominic had a henchman teach him a lesson.
Turned out Brian was every inch an agent; he floored the thug and walked away unscathed.
Brian figured that showing his skills
would make Dominic notice and recruit the car-savvy guy who worked at the parts shop.
He never expected Dominic to do what he did afterward.
---Seeking flowers---Using the excuse that Brian had hit one of his men, Dominic had that man round up a few others.
They seized the chance to corner Brian in that parts store and beat him savagely.
At the same time, the store—simply for daring to work with the FBI and try to make life hard for Dominic—was trashed so badly by his crew that it had to shut its doors for a while.
After the incident, a number of people inside the FBI had already opposed Brian's original plan.
They felt it was better to stop wasting time sending someone undercover to Dominic's side in search of evidence.
Far simpler to find some pretext and haul in Dominic and his inner circle directly.
Interrogate them thoroughly, then look for proof.
Because Brian had been injured by Dominic's men and an cooperative businessman's property destroyed, the FBI Los Angeles Field Office ended up with a majority in favor of arresting Dominic.
So they simply waited for the right moment.
Not long ago, Dominic and several of his men took part in an underground street race.
Just as Dominic's car was about to cross the finish line
a swarm of police cars suddenly burst out from the area near the track.
Dominic and company had just gone through a nerve-racking race; their reflexes were bound to be off.
Add to that the FBI joining forces with the LAPD, deploying a huge force—even calling in several helicopters—and the outcome was obvious.
All of Dominic's crew were captured except for one lucky man who got away.
The rest were arrested.
By now Dominic and the others have been in custody for more than twenty-four hours.
Mia knows her big brother and his crew are the highway outlaws the California government and police would love to skin alive.
She had also learned from Hunter that the FBI had Dominic in their sights.
Fearing that this arrest might expose everything,
and judging by the crimes Dominic and his men had committed,
Mia figured they were looking at several years behind bars at the very least, with her brother himself possibly facing ten, maybe even decades.
After a day of panic, Mia fell apart.
So she went to find Hunter…
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