by Lexi Blake
Whoever was left would. If they couldn’t go home, they would head for the small town in Colorado where River had lived before she’d married Jax. They would be safe in Bliss.
“All right, do we know where this asshole’s office is?” Owen glanced down at his watch. “We’ve only got five hours until dawn. We can’t be late.”
Tucker glanced his way, but they didn’t have to say a thing. They both knew there was very little chance they would be making the exchange in the park. History had proven that Levi Green always had something sneaky up his sleeve. What was going to happen would go down here in the Kronberg building. They would either leave here with Rebecca or they wouldn’t leave at all.
And they had other things to worry about. “You get rid of your tracker?”
Jax winced. “Yeah. I had River cut it out. She was not happy with me, but she’s now got it glued to Buster’s collar. So I’ll be seen moving around a lot if anyone cares to look. He’ll be pooping in my name all over the English countryside.”
“Oh, they’ll be looking.” Robert started to walk across the parking garage. He had clear access now that he knew Jax had taken over the cameras. “Ezra will be back at the club any minute now, and I’m sure Ariel will let him know we’re no longer in the building.”
He’d had Tucker pull out his tracker, and he’d done the same for Tucker and Owen. Though he wasn’t fooling himself. She would know where he’d gone. There was a possibility that Ezra simply called the cops on them. It would be a good way to foul up their plans.
“I’m surprised she didn’t come along.” Jax fell into step beside him.
“Oh, she did not have a choice in that,” Tucker said. “Robert left her cuffed to the bed where I believe he had recently finished expressing his love for her.”
Jax didn’t miss a step, but his head shook and there was no way to miss the surprise on his face. “Dude, she’s going to kill you. You’re going to owe her so much oral after this. It’s really the only way to pay a woman back. At least that’s what Kay says, and River has never complained. About the oral. She complains about other things.”
“Ariel should thank him.” Owen strode ahead of them to the elevators that would lead them to the upper floors where they needed to go. He’d taken the key card from Jax and used it to call the elevator down. “He’s trying to keep her safe. I didn’t protect Rebecca well enough and look where we are.”
He hadn’t done it for exactly those reasons.
“Rebecca isn’t a highly trained operative,” Tucker pointed out. “I wish Ari was with us, but Rob is afraid she’ll shut the whole thing down or try to turn it over to Solo.”
“I’m afraid she won’t understand, and I didn’t have the time to explain it to her in detail. She’s already feeling guilty. I can’t put more on her.” He strode straight onto the elevator as the doors opened. “And I couldn’t risk the chance that she would put this in Damon or Big Tag’s laps. This is our mess and we need to clean it up. It has nothing to do with me being scared for Ariel. Hell, at this point, I wish she was here watching my back, but I can’t put her in that position.”
“She’s still going to kill you,” Tucker said, checking the magazine on his SIG before settling it back into the holster on his side.
Jax had come bearing all the techie stuff he used to gain control of security systems, but they’d found the real goods they would need had been right there at the club. Peter might have been out of the business, but he’d still had a nice stash of weapons and explosives and tactical gear. It made Robert wonder exactly what else Peter had been doing at that club and whether or not Big Tag had a whole system of his own. Did Big Tag have his own intelligence agency running through clubs across the globe?
It was an intriguing idea and one he would have to think on later. “It doesn’t matter as long as we get Rebecca back. Is our secret weapon in place?”
“Yep,” Jax said. “Placed it myself. Hopefully we don’t have to use it. There’s a lot of wild shit in this place. There’s some security even I had trouble getting through. But I’ve figured out where the safe is. I know where the office is. The safe is in there.”
“It’s on twenty-two.” Tucker reached out and pressed the button that would take them to the twenty-second floor.
Robert looked to his friend. Tucker was calm, but he’d paled as though the mere act of walking into the building had cost him. “Good. We thought you might remember some things when you got in here. Don’t get lost in trying to remember. Let it come to you if it will. If it won’t, don’t push it. We can’t afford to have you sick.”
The elevator stayed where it was, the door opening again as though offering to let them all go.
“What’s wrong?” Owen asked, his voice tight. “Why won’t it move?”
Jax frowned and pushed the button again. It didn’t light up. “Try the key card again.”
Owen swiped it over the panel. Nothing.
“Shit,” Jax said, setting the black bag he wore over his shoulder down and starting to go through it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think there was a code required for that floor. It must be only after hours. I screwed up. I’ll fix it.”
Tucker reached out and quickly input a six-digit code on the keypad offered under the floor buttons. He then pushed twenty-two and the doors slid closed again.
“How did you…” Owen began. “Muscle memory. You probably had an office up there.”
“But he’s been gone for years. Wouldn’t they have cleared his code?” Despite the fact that the elevator was moving, Jax plugged his tablet into the computer that ran the system. He went to work, making sure they wouldn’t need a code for the rest of their stay.
“They should have but they wouldn’t have prioritized it if they knew he wasn’t coming back.” Robert noticed how tight Tucker’s shoulders had gone. “Stop. You don’t need to remember. Everything that’s good in life is out here. Not in there. There’s only pain in there, brother.”
Tucker took a long breath. “I don’t like this building. It doesn’t feel right.”
“I know,” he agreed, though for very different reasons. He’d never been in this building, but Tucker had. Tucker had a life here, and it was likely the place where he’d lost that same life. “We’re going to do the job, get Rebecca, and get out. If Jax can get us a copy of whatever we’re going to have to turn over to Dante and Green, he will. But this is almost over.”
“And now we don’t have to worry about codes.” Jax unhooked his tablet. “I’ve got control of the elevators. We won’t get slowed down like that again. You okay, Tuck?”
“I’m good.” Tucker stared at the doors like something was going to attack him when they opened. “We’ll get through this. We go straight when we get to the twenty-second floor. I don’t know why, but my instinct is telling me there’s going to be something on our left that we need to handle.”
Owen pulled the rifle off his back. “I’m ready. I’ve got enough tranquilizer darts to bring down an army. What was Peter doing with all these darts?”
“I found a flyer for a furry hunt,” Robert admitted. “I think they were actually having play parties where they hunted the subs. This is a different world, my friends.”
The doors dinged open and Robert moved out first, Owen to his left. Robert turned and saw what Tucker had been talking about. There was a security guard on this floor. He sat at the reception desk and he was staring at his laptop, earbuds in his ears.
Owen sighed and lined up his shot. The guy went down without ever looking their way. “They need better trained guards. Where’s the office? I want this done.”
Tucker walked straight ahead. “It’s this way.”
This floor was different from the other parts of the building Rebecca had described. This was lush and expensive. Not that the labs were cheap, but she’d described them as industrial at best. This was the floor where McDonald’s office had been. She’d walked these hallways, smiling and networking, never talking about the men s
he had in cages.
Or maybe she had and none of the people who worked on this executive floor had cared. Maybe they were too happy in their posh offices to care where the money had come from.
They moved down the hallway, the four of them a unit in a way they hadn’t been before tonight. They’d worked together but they hadn’t been so united in a cause. They hadn’t been asked to sacrifice for each other until this moment, and it hadn’t even been something to think about.
His brothers needed him. He would be there.
They came to the end of the hall, past the luxurious lobby to a set of doors that looked like someone had stolen them straight out of Versailles. They were French doors, elegantly paneled, and the gold name plate proclaimed this was the office of the vice president in charge of research and development.
“Is the door locked?” He was good at picking locks. He’d brought along a torque wrench and a pick. He’d stuffed them in his bag along with the more dangerous pieces of equipment he would need.
Owen simply kicked it in. The door gave way, pieces splintering off. “Isn’t now.”
It was a damn good thing Jax had control of the alarms. And that the doors had been in the French style. Easier to kick in. He knew that because this wasn’t his first robbery. Not even close. French doors were perfect because the weak point was in the middle, and no amount of dead bolts could stay a well-placed kick.
Tucker went first, assessing the room quickly. “We’re clear.”
This was where he came in. Robert set his pack down on the huge desk in the middle of the room. How many times had he done this very act? He could only remember a few times, but he knew he’d done it more than a dozen. The bank robberies had been traumatic, heart pounding, anxiety-inducing events, but the few times his team had snuck into quiet spaces had been different. There had been an odd freedom in those moments.
And he’d been good at it.
He pulled out the small amount of C-4 he would need. The key was using only enough to blow the door. Any more and he threatened to destroy whatever was in the safe. Any less and the thing stayed locked, but they’d alerted anyone who could hear that they were currently being robbed.
“Found it.” Owen had a hand on the large painting that dominated the wall across from the desk. It was a large landscape showing the Bavarian Alps. It was a peaceful painting that hid a safe he hoped was filled with the secrets they needed.
“I remember this room.” Tucker was standing in the middle of the big office, a haunted look on his face. “I remember a woman. Not McDonald. She’s pretty. She’s crying. I think I made her cry.”
He had to shut this down. He hated to do it because Tucker needed some of those memories, but they had very little time. If there was any way to get out of this building with the goods and force the dawn meeting, they had to take it. The likelihood of them walking away with Rebecca went way up if they made it to the park. “Hey, I know it’s hard, but I need you to think of something else.”
“Think about what we’re going to do when we get out of here.” Jax stood in front of Tucker. “We’ll get this job done, grab Owen’s girl, and get back in time for waffles.”
Tucker’s lips ticked up. “I don’t think Ari’s going to make us waffles. I think she’s going to yell at Robert. A lot.”
Jax gave Tucker a slap to the shoulder. “That’s right. Think about all the ways Ariel’s going to kick Rob’s ass. That’ll be fun to watch.”
Jax was handling Tucker, which allowed Robert to examine the safe. He ran his hand over the cool metal. It was an old-school safe, oddly incongruous with the sleek modern technology of the rest of the building.
“You worked with one of these before?” Owen asked.
He knew the model well. “Yes. It’s fireproof and has three sliding bolts.”
“It’s electronic.” Jax had joined them, Tucker standing beside him. “I could probably break the code. I’ve got a routine for that.”
Jax’s routine would try to crack the code basically by entering all the possible combinations. It could take hours. Hours they didn’t have.
“No, I’m going to blow it.” He examined the door carefully, estimating what he would need.
“Are you sure?” Owen asked. “If the data gets damaged…”
They would lose Rebecca. “I’ve done this before. I promise I can do it again.”
It was the one thing McDonald had taught him that would come in handy.
He gently manipulated the C-4, taking the small amount he would need. Three small sections to blow each bolt. He worked quickly and before he knew it, he was ready.
“Get back,” he ordered.
They moved out of the office. Robert eased behind the door before blowing the safe.
Owen practically tackled him in his haste to get to that safe.
“Hey, be vigilant. Take everything and we’ll figure it out later.” They would go over whatever they found in the van Jax had rented. They’d ditched the car they’d been forced to steal since Solo and Ezra had taken the van because they didn’t think the body they needed to dispose of would fit on the motorcycle.
Luckily Tucker was damn good at stealing cars.
Owen pulled the safe door fully open and exposed the secrets it held. There were files and drives, none of them labeled. Owen took them all.
They loaded up and turned to go.
“Good work, gentlemen.” A voice came over the loudspeaker. Fucking Levi Green. “Now, if you’ll come down to the Blue Lab, we can finish our business. Dr. Walsh, could you please give our boys proof of life?”
“Levi Green is an asshole,” a snappy female voice said.
Owen breathed a deep sigh. “That’s my girl.”
“I’d like for Tucker to bring me the bag and I’ll release Rebecca. Robert, you can come and escort her back to Mr. Shaw. You’ll forgive me if I don’t want to greet him personally. Owen, you should know that no harm was done to any lovely doctors during this kidnapping. It actually wasn’t my idea at all. Minions. What are you going to do? Can’t live without them. Can’t shoot them while they’re still useful.”
He hated Levi Green.
“And don’t think for a second that I’m alone. I’ve got a team placed around the building,” Levi continued. “This doesn’t have to go bad. I promise you if I get what I need, you’ll all walk out of here. If not, we’ll make other arrangements. I don’t want to kill anyone. Go down to the fourth floor and we’ll have a chat. Jax and Owen can surrender to the team waiting for them. They’ll be released when we’re done.”
Jax frowned. “This is a trap.”
Yep, and they’d walked straight into it. He had to hope his own trap sprang at the right time.
* * * *
Ariel stared at the ceiling and vowed bloody vengeance on her lover. Except she wouldn’t really hurt him. But she could find ways to make his life hell.
If he had a life when he was done doing whatever the hell he was doing.
Meeting with Levi Green was what he was doing. She’d been so mired in her own misery that she hadn’t seen Robert was planning a whole mission under her nose.
One more thing she should have seen.
Stop. Stop. Stop.
She wasn’t going there again. She was a therapist, not a bloody mind reader. Rob was right about that, and guilt didn’t solve a damn thing. It definitely wouldn’t save her love.
She hadn’t told him she loved him. It was all he’d asked from her and now he could die and she hadn’t given him the words.
He could be dying right now.
Panic wouldn’t help either. She had to think, and the good news was she’d had plenty of time to do just that since those cuffs weren’t going to open themselves and the bed was remarkably well built. Thank you German engineering.
He would be at Kronberg. He would almost certainly have cut out his tracker so they wouldn’t be able to rely on finding him that way. He would have gone straight to Kronberg to try to get the files that name
d all the people who ever supported McDonald’s work. He would use those names as leverage to get Rebecca back.
He was walking into a trap. It didn’t matter that he knew he was walking into a trap. He would still do it, and no matter how prepared he seemed, Levi would have something nasty up his sleeve.
She squeezed her eyes closed and tried not to see his dead body laid out on the floor.
How much time had passed? How far had he gotten? They would have to have stolen a car unless they’d decided to take public transportation to their robbery. She could see that. Tucker would find a pretty woman and try to flirt. He could get very distracted by a shiny object.
A frustrated scream came from her mouth and she pulled at the damn cuffs again. She couldn’t even cut herself and use the blood to try to slip her hands free because Robert had used padded cuffs. He’d very gently made it so she couldn’t get away.
She was right back to thinking about violence. She could do it without actually doing permanent damage. Attaching electrodes to his balls wouldn’t kill him.
“I don’t know if we should open that door,” a feminine voice was saying. “I mean screaming in this place usually means do not disturb.”
But she needed to be disturbed. “Kim! Kim! Get in here right now!”
The door came open and Kim rushed in, Ezra behind her. Ezra stopped and his eyes went wide when he saw her.
She’d kicked the blanket off in her futile attempts to get out of the cuffs. So she was pretty much out there for all to see.
Kim stared at her for a moment. “Uhm, did Robert get lost or is this some game you guys are playing? Because I did not see him when we came in.”
Ezra had turned, giving her a bit of privacy. “I think I’ll go look for him and have a talk. This isn’t the time for punishment play.”
“He’s gone.” She didn’t even care that Ezra had seen her au naturel. If he’d ever come down to play at The Garden, he would have seen most of it anyway. “He and Tucker and Owen are trying to get Rebecca back. I don’t know the whole plan, but I think Dante contacted them at some point and he’s willing to trade Rebecca for the files at Kronberg.”
