by AJ Wyatt
“Talon found it,” Vice said. “But I found the horses.”
“There are horses in the stables?” I asked.
“Every one more beautiful than the last. Glossy, full of energy and spirit. The kind I know you’d like.”
Talon put a hand on my thigh and squeezed. Having them both touch me at once was almost too much.
“You saved our lives,” he said. “This is for you.”
“It’s wonderful,” I said. “Not to, uh, sound ungrateful, but the cattle and horses… that’s a lot of work. I’ve been living my life pretty unfettered. Kind of goes with the territory.”
“Not to worry,” Talon said. “Daisy and the ranch hands handle all that.”
Daisy?
We drove past a beautiful corral, and I saw the house.
To call it a house was an understatement. It was a Texas mansion in a ranch house style. Two stories and lots of bedrooms is what it looked like. And just gorgeous. I'd never had a home since I ran from Iowa that day. Kept moving. But this place…if a woman like me could ever have a home, it'd be someplace like this.
A young woman sat on the rails of the corral. She had sun-kissed skin and a cowboy hat on her head and denim shorts that almost covered her whole behind, just above some very nice boots. She hopped off the fence and came to shake my hand.
“Daisy,” she said.
“Rayne.”
“The rowdy bunch are out dealing with the cattle, but they’ll be back around sunset. We don’t go up to the house. We’ve got our own place about two miles out. You’ve got plenty of privacy, and we’ve got ours. We tend to like it that way.”
“Me too,” I said. “Um…rowdy bunch?”
“That’s what they call themselves. They really think they’re something, those Texas ranch hands.”
“I bet.”
Daisy had a winning smile, and while I'm generally not jealous of a woman's looks, I found myself kind of wishing Daisy would mosey on away from Talon and Vice before either of them got any ideas. She was beautiful.
Once the introductions were done, she did just that and vanished off down the trail, on the back of her horse. Talon was already carrying stuff inside. Vice had the decency to pretend he didn't notice how short her shorts were.
The house was beautiful. A vast porch wrapped around it, with a solid stone floor and plush chairs. Inside, someone had hung a sign over the door that read, Let Love Guide All Those Who Enter Here. I kicked off my shoes to walk across the thick rugs and the cool tile floors. Out the big picture windows, a waterfall spilled crystal clear water down the rocks into a gorgeous pool. The kitchen could serve a small army, and the living room was almost bigger than the house I grew up in.
I walked out back in a trance, tossed a few logs in the fire pit, and got the fire started. I pulled up a chair and watched the sun going down over the corral.
I could spend a hundred years here.
Somewhere, the boys carried our things in. I’m sure Trib was setting up her computers and probably giving out orders to set up cameras and the like. I just looked out over that land and felt like I was home for the first time in ten years.
Somewhere in my heart, something was breaking too. I knew this place wasn't my home and that it never could be. I was a killer, a hunted woman, and I'd likely be running for the rest of my life. And given the enemies I was making, my life probably wouldn't be all that long.
Still, it was nice to pretend.
My phone buzzed, and I didn't want to look at it, but I did.
I am near, Yuri said.
Don’t forget to close the gate, I told him.
The spell broke, and I got up out of my chair to head inside. Trib had set up a command center in the living room and dictated a list of items for Talon and Vice to procure. She saw me come in and broke it off to walk with me.
“What am I doing?” I asked.
“Not enjoying this gorgeous house?” She replied.
I smiled. “I’m enjoying it plenty. I mean, what do I think I'm doing with these men? One of them is my enemy. One of them killed my father. One of them will catch a bullet from my gun as soon as I know who and why. And I’m setting up house with them like…I don’t know, we’re all going to be friends? Ugh. I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
“This is hard,” Trib said. “And we knew it was going to be hard going into it. But you’re on mission now, Rayne. There’s no going back. The CIA will put you inside of a cell if they catch you. And whoever is trying to kill these guys…They’ll probably kill you too.”
“And you,” I said.
“That too. Also, um, have you seen the news?”
“No, why?”
She took out her phone and showed me.
Osborne Energy was all over the news sites. That made sense, given what had happened there last night. But what didn’t make sense was the story they were telling. A minor explosion…the result of a gas leak…
"But that's impossible. Those were mercenaries," I said. "They weren't CIA. This is the kind of bullshit the Agency puts out to cover for their messes. Why would they do this for a bunch of rando Blackwater wannabes?"
“There’s only one reason I could think of: The CIA thinks you did it.”
“Oh, shit. That’s why Shane is here.”
"It makes sense when you think about it," she said. "You're a rogue agent, and they know by now that you were casing the place. They just don't know why. From their perspective, the mercenaries could be working for anyone, even you. Those mercs cut the power and the security cameras before they went in. So the Agency is just trying to put this together with what little they have. And you…"
“I’d be the most likely suspect. Jesus, Trib. They’ll find this place. They’ll come here and kill everyone.”
“Maybe…”
“What are you thinking?”
“You’ve got two of the world’s richest men in there,” she said. “The CIA doesn’t like it when the status quo gets knocked sideways. So as long as they know you’ve got them, we’ve got some time. They’ll want to know more before they move in. And I’m going to secure this place from the ground up.”
“Oh,” I said, leaning in close. “Don’t worry about rumbling Magnus. Yuri did it for us. He’s really calm in a crisis. He seemed totally fine being kidnapped by the Russian mob and held prisoner.”
“So we don’t need a white van, or the masks, or the rope and handcuffs?”
“Keep the rope and handcuffs.”
Trib frowned.
“You never know.”
The front door opened, and I drew my pistol on reflex.
It was Yuri, so I kept my pistol aimed at him. No reason for him to be too comfortable. He put his hands in the air and smiled at me.
“I am unarmed, your highness. I have only my two favorite pistols and some knives.”
“That’s unarmed?” Trib said.
“For him, yeah.”
I took Yuri's guns and frisked him to find the blades. I had a feeling he hid the one in his crotch area on purpose because his cock swelled when my hands got to his thighs. He always loved being touched. So I made sure to check him thoroughly, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little fun.
I introduced him around, and I was honestly shocked that he wasn't more…grumbly. He shook Talon's hand, and Magnus got a big hug. Yuri and Vice exchanged some sparks in their gaze at each other that seemed a little dangerous, but other than that, he was really magnanimous. It made me wonder if he really had changed. Picturing Yuri reading a self-help book made me laugh a little.
“Nice group of guys,” Yuri said.
I had to agree. The four of them together was something to see. I thought the view of the sunset was beautiful, but these guys…every one of them, was their own brand of perfection. Heat pooled in my middle when I looked at them. A girl could lose a few days at a place like this, with some guys like these…
“Alright,” Trib said. “Here’s what I’ve managed to dig up while Rayne was lounging.”
“Really?”
She ignored me and opened a window on her computer.
“Is that…Osborne’s mainframe?” Talon asked.
"Technically, it's a mirror I made before the mercenaries tried to kill you and the Agency cleaned it up, and we lost our access."
“I don’t understand,” Talon said.
"Then yes. This is the Osborne mainframe. Now, pay attention. I found a set of files that normally would have been hidden. If I hadn't been creating a mirror, I never would have found them. They were in a subsection called Iowa holdings."
“What the hell is in Iowa?” Vice said. “We don’t have any holdings in Iowa.”
Talon gave his twin an appraising look but said nothing.
Trib didn’t need to look at me to know that my brain was buzzing. Iowa was where my father’s farm was. It was where I was born and raised.
“Inside that folder is another called Section 7,” Trib said.
“What is this Section 7?” Yuri asked. “I have heard it from my contact at CIA, but he does not tell me what it is.”
“That’s a trick,” I said. “Saying it to sound like he knows what it is, but really he’s hoping you’ll tell him.”
“How do you know?”
I groaned. “Because I taught him to do that.”
Talon and Vice both looked at me with raised eyebrows. I was pretty sure that they'd both just figured out that I'd mentioned Section 7 to them too. Magnus was the only one in the dark, but he stood there nodding along with Trib as if he was following fine.
I found myself wondering again what that man was doing with this group of people. Two billionaires, a powerful Bratva leader, and… an art professor? Something about him didn't add up, and I needed to get to the bottom of it soon.
“Section 7,” Trib said, “Is a physical location. It’s in a sub-basement beneath the Osborne Energy building. You need a special code to get the elevator to go down there.”
“That’s impossible,” Talon said. “If there were such a place, I would know.”
“You should know, actually,” Trib told him. “According to the documents on your mainframe, you’re the one who approved construction.”
“That’s ridiculous. I did no such thing.”
“Is this your signature?”
Trib pulled up the documents and zoomed in.
"Whoever did this is going to pay," Talon said. "I'm going back to Dallas, and I'm going to find out what the hell is going on down there."
"There are no details in the documents about exactly what was built or why. The only way to find out is to go there physically and break-in."
“I’m going,” I said. “The rest of you are staying here.”
“Like hell,” Talon said. “That’s my building. You’re not going in without me. Someone put my name on this project, and I will find out why."
“If he’s going,” Vice said. “I’m going.”
“These soft boys will not protect you,” Yuri said. “No offense to soft boys, but you are mine, and I will not allow you to put yourself in harm's way without me to kill anyone who tries to hurt you."
Magnus sighed. “Well, I’m not going to sit here alone.”
“Trib will be here with you,” I said, desperately trying to corral these guys. “She’ll need protection.” I pinned my hopes on that convincing him, but Trib wasn’t having it.
“I’ll need to go too,” she said. “The Agency swept the building and cleared out all our bugs. I’ve got no access to the site anymore. If there’s anything that needs to be breached electronically, I’ll need to be there to do it.”
“And I will protect Trib there then,” Magnus said, nodding.
“You’re all fucking frustrating.”
"What is frustrating," Yuri said, "Is that I drive an hour to be here, and now we drive back."
Vice and Talon smiled. It took my breath away a little to see them both grinning together…
“We won’t be driving anywhere," Vice said, pointing his thumb outback. "The chopper is fueled and ready to go."
“Who the hell is going to fly it?” I asked.
Talon looked at Vice.
“No,” Trib and I both said at once.
“What?” Vice said. “It’s like you’ve never met a billionaire playboy before.”
11
For a billionaire playboy, he did alright. Even in the high winds over Dallas, Vice was quickly able to set us down on the rooftop of Osborne Energy without the slightest bump. I did a perimeter check and scanned the neighboring buildings but didn't see any sign of trouble.
We piled into the elevator.
"You input the code here," Trib said as she opened the panel for the emergency phone and revealed a tiny keypad. She typed a string of numbers, and the elevator dropped. We cycled down through all eighty floors and then slowed as we dropped below the parking levels to the sub-basements.
"There are two sub-basements for maintenance," Talon said. "That much is supposed to be there.”
The digits on the elevator blanked out, and we dropped another level down.
Yuri and I pressed to the front and got ready.
“We don’t know what we’re going to find down here, so everyone keep back.”
“I’ll take point,” Yuri said.
Point was the most dangerous position, so I said, “Sure.”
The doors opened to a nondescript concrete hall. The sort of place usually filled with wiring and water pipes, but this hall was bare except for a huge vault door at the end.
“It’s like Scrooge McDuck’s basement,” Vice said.
We walked ahead. I was vaguely looking for traps, but the hall was so blank, the white walls so smooth, I couldn’t see any sign of anything. It looked fine. I couldn’t think of a reason for anyone to set traps in the hallway either. I just liked being paranoid.
Plus, Yuri wasn’t rattled.
He was walking ahead of us, taking point like he said. Not that there was much to worry about in a hallway with no corners. He moved so gracefully, rolling forward like a Bengal tiger, muscles loose and ready to spring. He had the kind of reflexes you could only get from years of fighting for your life. I tried not to find it sexy and failed miserably. I like being the girl who can get the job done but being able to sit back and let him take the lead felt amazing.
His ass in those jeans was nice too. Is that what it’s like walking behind me?
I glanced behind me, and the other men all looked up suddenly to meet my gaze. Yup, they were all watching my ass, the perverts. I went back to watching Yuri’s.
The door was something else. Solid steel, computer-controlled. It was lucky Trib insisted on coming. She stepped forward and went to work, carefully removing the stainless steel control panel door and digging around in the wires. It took a few minutes for her to cut the right ones and clip onto the ones she needed. She'd brought a small backpack of electronics and began hooking them up to the wires. The display showed gibberish to me as she went from wire to wire, touching each with a small wand. Sometimes the screen would show something like a heartbeat, other times an undulating wave.
“None of this is ringing any bells?” I asked Talon.
“No, nothing. This shouldn’t be here.”
"Agreed," Vice said. "I've seen the original plans for the building, and this was not on them.”
“But wouldn’t it have to be built when the building was built?” Magnus asked.
Talon sighed. “It must have been. You couldn’t get the equipment down here without someone noticing. But that doesn’t mean all this was here. It could have been meant for storage and retrofit later.”
“No,” Vice said. “This door is solid and recessed in the wall. There’s no way it came down that elevator. This had to have been installed original. Which means the old man put it there.”
“We don’t know that!” Talon snapped.
Yuri knelt by the wall and clicked out the blade on his switchblade. He scraped a thin line in the
paint on the walls.
“Hey, Mother Russia,” Talon said. “Do you mind?”
"At least seven layers," Yuri said. "How old is the building? Twenty years? Thirty? This kind of paint is once every three or four years. Industrial type, used for commercial buildings."
"A handyman," Vice said appreciatively. "After my own heart."
“Thirty years is exactly right,” Talon said.
Something in the door clicked, followed by the whir of large steel cylinders retracting. A hiss came out as the door opened. The air that washed over us wasn't stale but smelled antiseptic, like a dentist's office.
“Find something to prop this open,” I said. “I don’t want it closing behind us.”
Trib sniffed. “It’s not going to close. I opened it, and it’ll stay open.”
“Better safe than sorry.”
Yuri and I went in first, but it was clear pretty quickly that no one was in there. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I don’t know what I expected. Gold bars? A pile of dead bodies? The Holy Grail? Something.
A large hand rested on my back, and Magnus was there, gently rubbing up and down my spine.
“We don’t know yet what we will find here,” he said. “There could be evidence somewhere that we will find when we look more closely.”
What Section 7 had, at a glance, were about three dozen bunk beds, a water fountain, and what could only be described as the world's least discrete bathroom. A sink and toilet sat near the wall on one side, with no barriers or partitions at all to hide your business. If someone took a dump there, everyone in the room could watch. A camera was mounted in two of the corners.
"Vice, cut the power to those cameras. Magnus, slide one of those bunks in the doorway to keep that thing open."
Magnus tried and failed to move the bunk. What was it made of? Solid lead?
“Bolted,” he said. “They all are.”
"So is toilet and sink," Yuri said. "They are prison style. You need a special tool to remove."
“Prison?” I said, looking around us. The purpose of the room suddenly seemed evident. People were kept there. Against their will? It was impossible to say.
“I told you to relax,” Trib said. “I don’t second guess you on guns, do I? I’m an elite hacker, and if I say the door is staying open, it’s staying open.”
