Black Jack

by Lora Leigh

  Of course Nissa moved to the messy side of the room.

  “Here you go.” She pulled a large bag from the nearby closet and tossed it to the unmade bed. “Two changes of clothes, your guns and knives, and plenty of ammo. There’s also an unregistered sat phone, but please don’t call Travis yet. There’s also cash, credit cards, a few disguise aids, and some fake IDs. Everything a girl needs to survive in the deep dark underground.”

  Everything she needed to survive, but not to live.

  “You were ordered to contact Santos and Rhiannon if I called, weren’t you?” Lilly sat down on the bed, pushing the mussed blankets behind her as she began to go through the bag.

  “Of course.” Nissa shrugged. “At least that’s what their commanders told them to do. Santos’s exact words were, ‘We were told to order you to do this’.” She laughed. “We rarely pay any attention to orders from Command.”

  “And if Santos had given the order himself?” She looked up at the other woman.

  Nissa shrugged again. “We would have ignored it. Lilly, we only have each other to depend on. One of these days you might be covering my ass again with that rifle of yours. I don’t want you pissed off with me if that day comes.”

  “Where’s my rifle?” She remembered it now. The lethal sniper rifle that she had used to cover the asses of the agents she worked with. There was another in her storage shed, but it wasn’t her favorite.

  “That I don’t know.” Nissa shook her head. “Santos retrieved it from the Land Rover when you were shot. I haven’t seen it since.”

  But . . . There was another safe house, she thought as yet another piece of memory broke free. And that safe house was fully stocked.

  “Company’s coming. Move!” Shea yelled from the kitchen.

  Lilly moved. She didn’t stop to question anyone or ask for directions. She grabbed the holster and pouch of clips before racing to the next room and the window that looked out on the driveway.

  She had time to buckle the belt and strap the holsters to her thighs. She checked the Glocks quickly, shoved the clips in and stood ready.

  “No one called and warned us of a visit.” Shea raced into the bedroom and slapped a comm device in Lilly’s hand. “If we’re attacked, get out, hit the woods, and head for Friendly’s Tavern. Know where it is?”

  Lilly nodded. “I know.”

  “Someone will be there.”

  Shea raced from the room as Lilly slid the device in her ear.

  “Comm check,” she murmured.

  “Comm check,” each woman answered in reply before Nissa reported. “We have a van moving in, dark panels, dark tint. Looks like we have a masked driver. Be prepared to jump and run. We don’t fight this out unless we have no other choice.”

  Lilly pulled the Glocks from their holsters.

  Her jaw tightened as the van moved slowly into view. She watched, silent, eyes narrowed as it came to a stop behind the Taurus.

  A second later, all hell broke loose. The back doors flew open as four dark figures raced from the back, two from the doors, and all began firing.

  The Taurus exploded.

  The house shook, windows imploded, and shards of glass rained around Lilly as she tore through the bedroom for the back door, joined by the other four women.

  “Stay to the trees!” Shea ordered her as they moved out the back door at the same moment the front door burst open in a rain of fire. “Run!”

  As Lilly and the other women raced for the tree line only feet away, Lilly saw the shadows moving there. Dark, masked, though diffrent from the others. Her guns cleared her belt as she ran, keeping the trees between them. Suddenly those dark figures rushed past them.

  “Take cover!”

  Travis.

  Lilly stared, shocked, into his furious eyes as he paused to bark at her. “Stay back with the others! Cover our asses and make sure no one gets hurt.”

  He shoved a rifle at her.

  It wasn’t her custom-made rifle, but it was close enough.

  Lilly holstered the Glocks, grabbed the rifle then ran up the rise to a tree that would give her the best possible view. As though she’d been born to climb, she shimmied up it as Nissa followed her.

  “Spot,” she ordered the other woman.

  “I’m an excellent spotter,” Nissa answered as they moved into position. “You have ammo for that bad boy too in your bag.” Nissa nodded to the bag Lilly had slung over her shoulders.

  Lilly took aim.

  “Our boys have the narrow gray stripes on their shoulders,” Nissa hissed. “Don’t hit one of them. We enjoy the hot, lurid fantasies we have about them. Even though most of them are married now.”

  Lilly gave a quick smile, then braced the rifle on a limb of the tree and took aim.

  “They have a sniper at three o’clock. Looks like a spotter searching for you, sweetie.” Nissa pointed out the slightest disruption among the branches at the three o’clock angle.

  Lilly aimed, checked the wind, calculated her distance and fired.

  The first body fell. With the second shot his spotter followed suit.

  As she narrowed her eyes and surveyed the trees for an additional threat, the whiz of a bullet slamming into the tree next to her head had Lilly freezing.

  She calculated the direction, checked the distance, and waited.

  “Where is he, Nissa?” she growled. “Sometime before he takes our heads off.”

  “To the right of the first, third tree, halfway up at the seven o’clock limb. He’s going to be hard to hit with this wind, though.”

  “See his spotter?”

  “Haven’t seen him. Caught a leaf trembling at nine o’clock, though, if you want to take a chance.”

  “I’m feeling lucky.”

  She found the position, watched the leaves, and took the shot.

  The body fell, but she didn’t track it—she watched the seven o’clock limb, waited, caught a gleam of black, and took the next shot. Another body fell as she quickly swung the rifle to the battle raging in the front yard. Somehow snipers had been in place before the attack. Someone had sent ten men to take out four women. They should have sent more.

  She had taken out the snipers while the team below made quick work of the assailants that had rushed the house.

  Below, the four shadows with their little narrow gray stripes were kicking some serious ass. Within minutes there were only two left, lying flat on the ground, hands raised in surrender as the dead bodies were being gathered.

  Lilly watched as the team worked with perfect precision while the four women covered their backs. This was one of the reasons they existed, what they had been trained for.

  She and Nissa watched for snipers, while the two women on the ground kept the perimeter clear and watched for any breaks or surprises.

  “We have a clear.” Raisa’s voice came over the link. “I repeat, we have a clear. Two live ones on the ground. Stay in place and I’ll bring you your masks.”

  Lilly and Nissa waited until they saw Raisa below them. Jumping to the ground, they took the dark masks, pulled them over their heads, and tucked their hair beneath.

  “Stay clear of the live ones,” Raisa told them. “Black Jack and Live Wire want a clear field with no distractions.” She looked amused. “Live Wire seems to think you might be a distraction for Black Jack. Now, what would give him that impression?”

  Lilly shook her head, her lips thinning. “They weren’t here to take out Live Wire, they were here to kill me. I think I have the right to know why.”

  Moving quickly to the front of the house, the rifle cradled in her arms, Lilly strode straight to where the two men were restrained and laid out in the grass.

  The four men standing over them moved aside as she came closer. Staring into the dark, fu
rious gazes, she handed her rifle to Travis, reached down and, with a quick jerk, revealed their faces.

  She wished she hadn’t.

  She stared into faces she knew. Into the eyes of men who had been hired by her father. Men she had known before her “death.”

  “Do we need to interrogate them?”

  Her head jerked to Live Wire. Jordan Malone.

  She gave a quick nod. She didn’t remember the rules, but she knew not to speak, not now, not here. They knew her, knew her voice, knew their target. She wasn’t taking chances.

  Jordan jerked his head to Travis. “Get out of here.”

  She backed up, still staring into the malevolent gaze of the bodyguard she knew as Ritchie. He wasn’t one of her mother’s most trusted, but he was still a part of the Harrington staff and had been for years.

  The other, Samuel, was also well known. He’d been hired by her father and well trusted. He’d flirted with her several times. Laughed with her mother, played poker with her uncle.

  “Ritchie James and Samuel Mayes,” she murmured to Travis. “Bodyguards working for my mother and uncle. I need to see the others.”

  Travis nodded, his body language showing his fury as he led her to the others and quickly stripped off their masks.

  She stared at them icily.

  “We have files on them,” Travis said quietly. “Enemies, Lilly. All four of these men were with a private mercenary group we went against in Berlin three years ago.”

  “I know them.” She heard the complete emotionlessness of her voice, felt it inside her. “But not from Berlin. In the past six months I’ve seen them either speaking to Desmond, Isaac, or one of the other bodyguards. This was an orchestrated hit. I was set up.”

  “We don’t have reports on them,” he stated quietly. “We’ve been watching the family. We’ve not seen them or we would have put a better circle of security around you.”

  She shook her head. “It would have been easy for them to get past you. One at a time, coming in quietly. They met inside the house here or in England. I saw this one.” She kicked the balding blond in the shoulder. “This one was at the hospital several times when Desmond’s bodguard Isaac came in.”

  Travis lifted his hand and motioned one of the others over.

  “Burn the bodies,” he ordered them. “We need to interrogate the other two, but get a team in to clean this mess up. Let’s keep this quiet. I’m sure Lilly doesn’t want to deal with her mother’s concern over a hit when she returns to the house.”

  Lilly turned to him in shock. “Are you crazy? Do you know what she’s planning? I’m not going back to the house. She’s having me committed, Travis, and Harrington bodyguards just tried to kill me.”

  A hard, cold smile formed on his lips. “Does she know what I have planned, sweetheart?” he asked her. “Trust me, neither she nor Ridgemore will dare to defy me once I show up with you. And this time, trust me, I won’t be leaving until this is settled, baby, and you’re safe.”

  Her lips curled mockingly. “Strange you say that.” She stared at him now, so damned happy to see him that she could barely stand it. So furious that she hadn’t been able to find him, that he hadn’t been there when she needed him. “You didn’t tell me you were leaving.”

  His eyes narrowed on her. “I left security.”

  “I didn’t need your damned security,” she hissed as she moved closer, staring up at him, her body shaking she was so damned mad at him. “I needed to know you would be gone. I needed to know to watch my own ass while you weren’t here.”

  “You should know that anyway.” He reached out, grabbed her arms and jerked her closer. “I left security, Lilly. I would have never left you unguarded.”

  “Then where the hell were they?” Her finger stabbed into his chest. “What am I supposed to do, damn you? Kill the whole fucking family while I’m waiting on your damned security? Or just hope for the best as the guys in white suits drag me off?”

  “No one would have gotten you out of that damned house. I had men in place. If you had given them time, they would have gotten you out and gotten you to safety.”

  “Well, excuse me for not twiddling my thumbs while I wait on you to take care of poor little ole me.” She tried for American Southern, it came out rather mangled. She blamed it on her anger. She was certain she had pulled it off before.

  “Don’t push me right now,” he snarled back at her. “Do you have any idea the hell I’ve gone through while trying to find you? Do you have any idea how close I was to not getting here in time?”

  “Do you have any idea how close I was to blowing them all to hell and back?” she snapped back. “I might not remember jack shit but don’t think I don’t know what I’m doing. And don’t think I will ever tolerate you disappearing like that again without one word of warning. Not while you’re sleeping in my fucking bed.”

  “Wow. He’s sleeping in your bed. Do I get details now or later?” Raisa laughed behind her.

  Lilly ignored Raisa. She glared at Travis. “Find a place to talk. Fast. We have things to clear up, love, and we’ll do it rather quickly. Or you’ll wish you’d never seen me, met me, or touched me. I promise you that.”

  She turned on her heel and stalked away from him. It was all she could do to keep her hands away from her guns.

  That way, she didn’t shoot him just for being a man. For leaving. For not letting her know. For making her fear he would never return.

  Chapter 17

  in a perfect world, she would have known there was security in love. There was a mother’s dedication, compassion, and devotion as she had once believed. There was a family’s loyalty. In a perfect world, there was the knowledge that tomorrow would bring another day to add to the vault of memories and love.

  Where had her perfect world gone?

  Lilly sat on the bed in the darkened bedroom of another safe house, this one a large apartment in the heart of Hagerstown only a few blocks from the bar she had often met Travis in.

  She stared into the dark but it was memories she saw. Her father’s laughter, his gentle voice, and his loyalty. She saw their walks, remembered their talks. She saw her mother, always distant from them, always appearing amused, yet accepting of the bond they had had.

  She’d been wrong.

  Jared had often stood with Angelica, quiet, intense. Her brother had always been very intense, very studious, but she’d believed he was being protective.

  Where had her family gone?

  Looking down, she could barely make out the dim outline of her fingers as they picked at each other. A nervous habit she’d had all her life. Her mother had often lectured her over it. Lilly had seen those lectures as loving, as a mother’s concern. But she remembered now the times that her mother had commented that perhaps it spoke of a deeper problem. That perhaps Lilly would feel better if she spoke to a doctor about her problem.

  Lilly stared at her fingers. Perhaps it hadn’t been her problem that had needed to be addressed.

  She remembered, although she hadn’t wanted to remember before, the horrible fights her parents had once had. Not that she had known what the fights were about at the time. All she remembered were the sounds of the raging arguments that had come from their suite.

  They had argued over her often.

  How many times had her mother tried to have her confined during those years that Lilly had believed she was safe and secure with her mother’s love, with her brother’s loyalty? That it was all simply threats.

  She nibbled at her lower lip as she felt the pain gather in her soul before bleeding through her spirit. Where was that perfect world she had believed existed?

  This was why she had chosen a far different life when she’d had the chance. But still, how desperately she had missed her family.

  She had forgotten the monsters that
existed in that perfect world.

  “Lilly.” A soft knock at the door heralded Travis’s arrival.

  She wiped the tears quickly from her face as the door cracked open, allowing a slender ray of light to pierce the darkness.

  “You have a very bad habit of disappearing when I don’t want you to, Travis,” she told him quietly as the door closed behind him, enclosing them once again in the darkness.

  “Can I turn the light on?” he asked.

  “I’d much prefer you don’t.”

  She watched as he paused, his dark shape shifting slightly before he moved to the bed as though he needed no light to see by.

  “Whoever is trying to kill me is someone associated with, or within, my family. Isn’t that right?”

  He eased down on the side of the bed. “That’s what we suspect.”

  She nodded slowly. “How would they have found me after the first attempt to kill me? A new face, new hair, new eye color, plastic surgery.” She rubbed her fingertips together. “No fingerprints. How did they find me?”

  “We don’t know.” He sighed. “That’s one of the things I’ve been trying to find out. So far though, all signs point to the Harrington camp.”

  She gave another slow nod. “The first attempt was during the party. Father was in a meeting when I came to the office. I remember that much. He’d been investigating the embezzlement from several companies Harringtons owned or had shares in. The money was going into an account proven to fund terrorism. I had been helping him for months, but those final months, he pushed me out of it. We argued over that.”

  “He was trying to protect you?” he asked.

  “I think perhaps he was,” she said as she looked down at her hands to realize she was picking at her fingers once again. “Do you think it was Uncle Desmond?”

  Her father and uncle had been very close, but she remembered that Desmond hadn’t known that her father worked for MI5, and he had cautioned Lilly against letting anyone in the family know that she was as well.