Black List: HOT Heroes for Hire: Mercenaries: A Black’s Bandits Novel

by Lynn Raye Harris

  Jace hit the speaker as rage engulfed him. He didn’t mind the rage. It centered him. Made him calm. Determined. “I just got a text from Maddy’s phone. She’s alive. Calypso wants to make a trade.”

  “A trade for what?”

  He didn’t need to read it again to know. “Me. She knows who I am, Ian.”

  “Fuck.”

  “It was inevitable, don’t you think? How long could I run from the truth? Hiding in plain sight was always risky. Time’s up.”

  “We’ll figure this out, Jace. Don’t do anything stupid.” Ian’s voice was steel. Jace didn’t care. Nothing mattered to him anymore. Nothing but Maddy.

  “I’m making the deal,” Jace said. “I have to.”

  “We’ll get Dr. Cole out alive. You need to work with me on this and not go off half-cocked.”

  Jace shoved a hand through his hair. “I’m hanging up and calling her. I’ll let you know.”

  “You’d fucking better. You owe me, Jace. I’m calling in the marker.”

  Jace’s jaw worked. “I’ll do the best I can—but Maddy comes first.”

  Ian swore. “Do what you have to do. But you have the full force of BDI behind you, so don’t do anything stupid. Let me do what I do best.”

  “Thanks, boss.” Jace cut the call and dialed Maddy’s number.

  “Hello, Nikolai,” a smooth voice said. It tickled his memory but he couldn’t quite place it. “It’s been a long time.”

  “You’ll have to remind me.”

  She snorted. “No, I think not. Such a bastard, aren’t you? So smug. Traitorous.”

  “If you say so.” He ground his jaw tight. “Maddy had better be okay.”

  “What, no concern for her friend too?”

  Fuck. “Yes, Angie too. Both of them, Calypso.”

  She laughed.

  “I fucking mean it.”

  “Yes, yes. I get it. They are both alive. For now.”

  “What do you want?”

  “You, Nikolai. You’re worth a lot of money. Did you know that?”

  “How much?”

  “More than you can afford, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “How do you know what I can afford?”

  “I don’t. But I know that even if it was sixty million dollars, you still wouldn’t have enough.”

  Jace frowned. Calypso hated him. And he didn’t know why. Who the fuck was she? He searched his memory, trying to conjure up a face or a name of some woman he might have jilted. Someone who had been in the same business he’d been in.

  He came up with nothing.

  “So we’ve established you hate me. Why?”

  “I’ll let you figure that out. Here’s what’s going to happen, Nikolai. You are going to drive to the address I text to you. There, you will find a change of clothes. Put them on and leave yours behind. Follow the instructions you find in the pants pocket. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Let me talk to Maddy.”

  “Why should I?”

  “Because if I know she’s alive, I’ll be more than willing to do as you ask. Everything you ask.”

  “Maddy, say hello to Nikolai,” Calypso said.

  “Jace?” she asked in a small voice.

  “It’s me, baby. You okay?”

  “Yes—she shot Colt. I think he’s dead. It’s all my fault—”

  “Baby, it’s not.” He sucked in a breath, her quiet tears ripping his heart in two. She should be scared—probably was scared—but the first thing she thought about was Colt. That said a lot about her. About her loyalties and strength. “I need you to know something,” he began.

  “Enough,” Calypso said, coming back on the line. “Do as I say, Nikolai. It’s the only way she lives.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  They were in a warehouse. Maddy knew that much. After Calypso had talked to Jace, she’d driven them to a dark spot in the road where someone in a van was waiting for them. A man who spoke Russian jerked her from the car while Calypso dragged Angie out.

  “Kill that one,” the man said coldly. “We don’t need both of them.”

  Of course Angie had no idea what they were saying. As Maddy opened her mouth to protest, Calypso calmly pulled her pistol and pointed it at the man instead. The mermaid tattoo on her arm stood out in stark relief in the light from the headlights. “Don’t tell me what to do, asshole. Give me one more order, look at me cross-eyed—and I’ll blow your balls off. And if you think you can bide your time and eliminate me when you see a chance, you’ll have to answer to the Syndicate for it—and they will turn you inside out while you’re still alive if you do anything to me. Are we clear?”

  The man’s eyes widened. Maddy’s heart thumped, wondering what was about to happen. But then he gulped. “Of course. I meant no disrespect.”

  Calypso tucked the weapon away. “Let’s go then.”

  Maddy and Angie were thrown into the back of the van and chained to the floor. The van had no windows, other than the one in front, so it had been no use trying to figure out where they were going. Instead, they’d huddled together while the man drove and Calypso sat in the passenger seat with her feet propped on the dash and her phone in her hands.

  “Are they going to kill us?” Angie had whispered.

  “I don’t know,” Maddy said softly.

  Angie had trembled. They didn’t say anything more to each other because Calypso had turned and glared at them. “No talking. Keep talking and I’ll start removing fingers.”

  Now they were in the warehouse, chained together inside a metal cage that was about twelve by twelve. A spotlight shone down on them. All around them were crates, stacked high and with a logo on the side.

  ATHENA ARMS COMPANY

  Guns, she supposed. Or mortars and rocket launchers. Not that it mattered all that much to her. Calypso shut the door to the cage and locked it. Then she stalked away. As soon as she was gone, Angie let out a quiet wail.

  “I’m so sorry, Maddy. I don’t know who she is or how she found me, but she came to my house. I answered the bell because I thought she was soliciting—but then she pulled a gun and came inside. She made me call you, made me tell you that story about wanting to stay with you. I didn’t know what else to do, and I was so scared that if you didn’t tell me where you were, she’d kill me. But I’m sorry. Really, truly sorry.”

  She started to cry. Maddy tried to hush her. “Angie, honey, it’s not your fault. How could you know? It’s my fault for not telling you what really happened in Russia. Who Jace was. Colt. All of them. They’re spies… I think so anyway—and I got into the middle of their operation when they were trying to capture her. It’s a long story, but anyway, they were protecting me. I should have told you. I should have insisted they protect you too—but I didn’t know she’d go after you.”

  “Who is she?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know. I just know she’s killed people, and they wanted to capture her.” Maddy drew in a sharp breath that hurt going down. “She killed Colt. It’s all my fault.”

  Angie started to cry. “No, it’s mine. If I hadn’t asked where you were…”

  “But I didn’t tell you the address. How did she find it?”

  “I don’t know. She talked to someone, but it was in Russian. Or I think it was anyway. She made me drive until we got there, then she tied me up and put me in the back seat. She left me, but I couldn’t get free. Then she was back and you were there.”

  Maddy gritted her teeth. “We’re getting out of here, Angie. Jace won’t let this happen. He’s coming for us.”

  She didn’t know if it was true, but she hoped it was. She was so confused right now. Calypso had called him Nikolai. Was that his real name? The one he wouldn’t tell her? It had to be. Calypso had said he was worth was a lot of money. She didn’t know what that meant, but she feared for him. And she knew what he was about to do. He was going to come for her, but he would give himself up in exchange if he couldn’t get her out any other way.

  But she
didn’t think it would matter if he did because she didn’t believe Calypso was going to let her live. She’d seen and heard too much. So had Angie.

  Maddy didn’t know how long they were there before she heard the scrape of metal. A key in the lock on the outer door. She sat up, jiggling Angie as she did so. Angie came awake, stiffening when she heard it too.

  There were voices, but she couldn’t hear what they said. They came closer, the voices coalescing into Russian. “Do you really think he’s going to give himself up? For these women?”

  It was a voice she hadn’t heard before. But then Calypso answered. “Not for both of them, no. For Dr. Cole, yes. He’s fascinated with her. He believes he can save her—save them both and himself too—or he wouldn’t be coming. But he won’t succeed.”

  “You hate him, don’t you?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “It is when my money’s on the line. I expect you to turn him over, not kill him out of spite.”

  “I’m a professional. I won’t kill him. But he will wish I had.”

  Maddy’s gut churned. She wished she could see Jace one more time. She wished she could tell him what was in her heart. What she’d known last night when he’d made love to her so intensely.

  She loved him. He was so much more than the man who’d tackled her that first night at Sokolov’s party. He’d been protective, tender, understanding. He’d listened to her cry over Mimi, and he’d promised to keep her safe. She trusted him. Believed him.

  Loved him.

  Wildly.

  What if she never got to tell him that?

  Maddy gritted her teeth together tight, determination sinking into her bones. She had to tell him. She had to live long enough to do so.

  No, even more than that, she had to believe that Jace was going to save her. And she had to do whatever she could to save him. Even if she had to sacrifice herself.

  She couldn’t do anything less for him than he was willing to do for her. Knowing that made a strange kind of calm settle over her. She would stop being so scared and start paying attention to everything. She didn’t think she’d get an opportunity to escape, but she was no longer blindly accepting that she was a prisoner and there was nothing she could do. There had to be something. She just had to think of it. Then she had to act.

  Jace had done everything she’d told him to do. He’d driven from one location to the next, changing clothes, changing cars, circling back on himself and changing again. He knew why she’d done it. To prevent him from bringing BDI along with him. If he’d had any conventional trackers, they were long ago discarded. By the time he arrived on the wharf in Baltimore, he was alone and unarmed. At one point, he’d had to discard his phone. He’d wrestled with that one, but Calypso was tracking his phone through Maddy’s. If he used it, she would know. So he’d discarded it when told. Calypso and her people had cameras at each location, and they would have known if he kept anything.

  So he hadn’t. He hadn’t stopped either because they’d know that too. He was using their cars and they tracked everything.

  He was literally arriving with nothing. No weapons. No Ian. No BDI. Nothing but his fucking name and the fact somebody wanted him alive. He could work with that. He would work with that until he couldn’t anymore.

  Jace put the car in park and threw the door open as he arrived at the next location. Since this one was the wharf, he had a feeling it was the final checkpoint. He’d already grabbed the tire iron from the trunk and he dragged it with him as he climbed from the car. They hadn’t thought to take that away. He got out and stood there, tire iron hanging at his side, waiting.

  If they were watching, they’d see him.

  A phone rang nearby. Jace turned his head, looking for it. It kept ringing. He walked in the direction of the sound—and found a cell phone taped to the back of a pole. He ripped the tape off and answered.

  “Very good, Nikolai,” she said. “You found us.”

  “Where’s Maddy and Angie?”

  “They’re alive.”

  “Going to need proof of that.”

  “Warehouse sixteen. Be there in five minutes—or you’ll be too late.”

  The phone went dead. Jace turned to get his bearings. Then he took off at a run, heading for the warehouse, counting them desperately as he passed, scanning for the numbers before heading for the next one.

  He finally found number sixteen and skidded to a halt. His blood pounded in his ears. The sounds of heavy loading equipment and voices came to him in the darkness. The wharf was busy around the clock with containers being loaded and unloaded. The noise was in the distance though. Here, it was quieter.

  He still clutched the tire iron as he walked up to the door. He tugged it quietly open and slipped into the blackness of the interior. Straining to hear any sound, he moved as stealthily as he could. He knew this was a game to Calypso, knew the likelihood of finding Maddy and Angie and freeing them so they could escape was a shot in the dark. But he had to try.

  He moved between floor-to-ceiling shelves and shipping crates, making his way across the warehouse, listening for any signs of life.

  And then he heard it. Someone was crying. His heart skipped a beat as anger crashed into him. But he forced himself to breathe more slowly, to find the calm he’d need to act. Jace moved toward the sound, always listening for any other noise that might indicate ambush.

  A single bulb illuminated a large cage in the middle of all the shipping crates. Inside the cage, two women sat on the floor, their hands bound in front of them. Only one of them was crying. The other looked furious. Maddy. His Maddy. She sat up tall like a queen, frowning hard, her jaw set in a determined expression.

  “Ang, honey, stop crying. Jace is coming. I promise you he’s coming. We aren’t dying here.”

  “It’s a bomb, Maddy. A bomb. Aren’t you terrified?”

  “Of course I am.”

  Jace’s gaze dropped frantically over them both and then over the cage until he spotted the bomb. It looked like a simple steel pipe bomb, but it was located inside the cage, lying in one corner of the structure. He dropped all pretense of stealth and rushed the door. Maddy cried out and dragged herself up with her hands on the cage’s bars.

  “Jace! Oh God, Jace.”

  “Hang on, Maddy. I’ll get you.”

  He tugged on the door but it was locked. He dropped the tire iron and spun around, looking for something to pick the lock. A nail, maybe.

  A set of picks lay on a crate nearby. He grabbed them.

  Calypso was one sick fuck.

  Jace went to work on the lock, freeing it within seconds, then rushed inside. He needed to get Maddy and Angie out of there before the bomb went off. Defusing a bomb wasn’t typically done by one guy rushing in and cutting wires. That was a Hollywood solution performed for effect, and Jace knew his chances of setting the thing off were greater if he tried to yank a wire or disturbed the device in any way.

  Maddy was already up. Her friend was trying, but her legs were bound. Jace went over and scooped her up. Maddy leaned into his side, her body shivering. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her, but there was no time.

  “I knew you would come,” she said.

  “Come on, baby. There’s no time to talk.” He started toward the cage door.

  Feminine laughter rained down on them. The door slammed shut and the tumblers slipped into place. Calypso walked out from among the crates, shaking her head as she tapped something on her phone screen. “Well, well. Here we are.”

  Jace put Angie down and then pushed her and Maddy behind him. He peered at Calypso. She was still in shadow, but he could see she was small boned, with medium length gold hair and fine features. She did not look like Maddy, which was both a relief and a frustration. She’d played them all back in Russia for reasons of her own.

  Her tattoo was noticeable, and much the way Maddy had described it. Clearly a vanity she hadn’t been willing to give up.

  Jace threw a desperate
glance at the bomb. She’d said he was worth money, but maybe she’d decided to kill him instead. She followed his gaze.

  “Oh, it’s a fake. I just wanted to see what you’d do. If you’d do the work to save Maddy and Angie or if you’d turn your back and walk away. You’re good at abandoning people who need you, aren’t you?”

  Jace frowned. What the fuck?

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Of course you don’t, Nikolai Alexandrovich. You’re not only a traitor, you’re also a soulless bastard.”

  She stepped into the light then and tilted her chin up. The truth of who she was staggered him. Knocked the breath out of him. He hadn’t seen in her so long now, and she’d grown up a lot. Equal measures of surprise, wonderment, and confusion rocked through him. Behind him, Maddy nudged a little closer, curling her fingers into his shirt as if offering her support. He appreciated that more than he could say.

  “Natasha?” he asked in disbelief. “Are you really alive?”

  She frowned. “Please don’t pretend like you care. You didn’t care about me then, or about Mama and Papa. The gulag was brutal, Nikolai. Brutal. And you did not come.”

  His guts turned to ice. “I didn’t know. They told me you were dead. All of you.”

  “We were, big brother. We were.”

  “Natasha—my God, what happened? Are they still alive?”

  She tossed her hair. Looked at him with icy disdain. “No, they are not. I survived because I was young and pretty. And because I could be used. They were executed.”

  He’d known his parents had been executed. He’d thought she had been too, and he’d mourned her. Natasha was little when they’d been thrown out of the US and returned to Russia. She hadn’t grown up with the stigma he had, the doubts. She’d been so bright and pretty and filled with ambition. He hadn’t seen her very much once he’d joined the army. She’d matured without him to look out for her like a big brother should.

  And she hated him for what had happened to her.

  “What happens now?” he asked.

  “Many things, Nikolai. First, I’m going to make you regret you were ever born. Then I plan to collect the bounty on you.”