The Boss

by Melissa Schroeder

  “Wait for Jay. He’s running a little interference to determine if Blake’s apartment is being watched.”

  She nodded, and they waited. Within a couple of minutes, Jay was on the com system.

  “Looks like a go. I walked right up to the building and didn’t see a vehicle around. Not in the last thirty minutes I’ve been hanging around.”

  “Sounds good. Let’s go.”

  He and Millie were out on the street walking, Mac following behind them. Jay was a lookout right by the apartment, and Rock and Tessa were surveillance from a SUV across the street. Everything should be covered, but he knew anything could go wrong.

  They made it through the front door easily. The key on her key ring apparently did the trick. An older woman with her little yappy dogs passed by them, but even the dogs ignored them as they got into the elevator.

  “What floor?” Mac asked.

  “Three.”

  She punched the number in, and they waited. Mac seemed itchy, like she always got before a job. He could feel her nerves wafting off her, and they were starting to get to him. He glanced at Millie. Nothing from her direction. In fact, she looked as if she were going to see her friend who lived in the building.

  The doors opened, and Millie moved to step out. Mac stopped her with a touch of her hand, leaned out, took a look, then motioned them on. He was in front, Millie in the middle, then Mac in the rear. They both flanked the door and let her unlock it.

  Something still didn’t feel right. Maybe it was the entire situation. It had felt off from the very beginning. It was probably the way he had to approach it. He’d planned most of their jobs, had been there from the beginning. This one, he’d been brought in after everything had been planned and blown to bits. He wasn’t truly in control.

  Millie got the door unlocked, and, again, tried to step through it. Mac let out a growl and held her back.

  “You have got to let me check things before you go running into them.”

  Millie nodded.

  Mac moved into the apartment. Vic kept watch down the hall to make sure no one approached them. It took her only a minute or two to return.

  “All clear. Come on.”

  They stepped over the threshold, and Millie gasped.

  “Damn,” Vic muttered.

  The place was a mess. The tables were turned over. Cushions from the couch had been slashed open, and most of the stuffing was on the floor. All kinds of porcelain littered the floor. They had done their best to find whatever they had been looking for. Vic studied the destruction. It was almost picture perfect. As if they wanted someone to look at the scene and say it had been tossed.

  “I know. I thought the same thing. Wasn’t he married?”

  “Widowed. They never had any children. She was career military, too,” Millie said. Her voice wavered.

  Mac turned to face Millie. “Listen, Millie, I need you to hold it together. You can fall apart when we make it back to the SUV, okay?”

  Millie lowered her head as she closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. It took her a long moment before she responded. When she met their gaze, she nodded.

  “I can use his computer to get in. It will take Liberty about five minutes to pinpoint where it is, but it should only take me a couple of minutes to download the files I need.”

  Vic nodded as he followed her into the office. There on the ground lay the scattered remains of the general’s shadowbox. The medals and ribbons the general had worked his entire career to earn were tossed aside, as was the flag that had accompanied them.

  “These people need to die,” Millie said.

  To a civilian, it might not seem like much, but a shadowbox was a particularly respected treasure for any military man or woman. It showed a definite lack of respect.

  “Yeah, they do,” he said.

  Millie went to his desk, turned it on, and pulled out the thumb drive she planned on using for the file transfer.

  “I’m going to keep an eye out here,” Mac said.

  He nodded and watched her go. She was in full convert mode, and it was always a sexy thing to see. There was no woman on earth who could guard a house like Mac.

  “You two are a really good team.”

  He looked at the younger woman who was now tapping on the keys as if she were a robot. He didn’t know a person could actually type that fast.

  “We work well together.”

  She shook her head. “You and Rock work well together. You and Mac are a team. In sync. It’s like you were made for each other.”

  He grunted and peeked out from behind the curtains.

  “It also means you are both stupid, but that goes with the territory, or that’s what my mother would say.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re stupid in love with each other, which makes you, well, stupid.”

  He turned to stare at the back of her head. She was still typing away, hadn’t paused once.

  “How do you figure?”

  She shook her head. “Please. You look at her as if she’s your last chance in the world.”

  “And Mac?” The moment he asked, he regretted it. He didn’t need some naive computer geek giving him advice.

  “You are her world.” Before he could respond to that, Millie did a little dance in the chair. “Hot damn.”

  “What?”

  “Here are all the files on Walter George. Oh, George, you have been a very bad man.”

  “What is it?”

  “It looks like we have done some work for him, and there might have been a few off the books. Hmm,” she said.

  “What?”

  “It seems General Blake, worried about the situation, sent a memo. It was before he called me in and asked me all those questions. He tried to go through the regular channels, but it didn’t work. One thing is for sure: he did not like Denkov.”

  “I would say not.” Any general who had even a passing memory of the Cold War and had worked with NATO, like Blake had, wouldn’t like any despot such as Denkov.

  “Well, we can look at the rest of this. It should only take a second or two more.”

  “Anything?” Mac asked from the doorway.

  “Might have enough here for the FBI. Let’s go.”

  “Wait,” Millie said. She walked over to another cabinet against the wall. There was no lock on the door. She opened it and found it empty. “Damn. They got the hard drive.”

  “I doubt they would have missed that. We need to go.” He clicked on his earpiece. “Hey, anything going on out there?”

  “No. Quiet. Just a car or two passed by in the last ten minutes.”

  “Be out in five.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “I think we should take the stairs,” Mac said.

  He looked at her. “I don’t like it. If we had a few more people helping us…but we can’t clear every floor. We could get trapped.”

  “But the elevator would leave us trapped.”

  “I’m not sure if you guys realize this, but there might be guys with big guns coming soon. It will only take them a few minutes to realize where I logged in from. Decide which way we’re going, and let’s go.”

  “Stairs?” Mac asked.

  He thought about it, and she was right. “Yeah.”

  They went down the hallway the same way as before. Mac was in front, Millie in the middle, and Vic brought up the rear. She opened the door to the stairwell, stepped in, then nodded and motioned for them to come. It was only the third floor, so it should be easy for them to make it down.

  “I’ll take the front. You know this is my forte.”

  She didn’t hesitate, but stepped back to let him take the lead. As they hurried down the stairwell, Vic cleared each floor while Mac kept guard in the other direction. They didn’t run into another soul, not even the woman with her yappy dogs. They stepped out into the hallway, and Vic made sure it was clear before motioning for Mac and Millie to follow.

  It was too easy. In his line of work, he knew t
he only easy day was yesterday. The SEALs had that right. Blake’s apartment should have had some kind of surveillance, not because of this situation, but because of his job. Sure, Millie had known the security code to get them in, but it was just too damned quiet. A normal person would sigh with relief. It only sent his senses into overdrive, but it did no good.

  Something stirred on the back of his neck, and too late, he realized they were being watched. The attack came out of nowhere and from everywhere. Five men came at them at once. All of them were huge, built like linebackers, dressed in black with ski masks over their faces. One of them approached Mac from behind. Before she could react to the threat, the attacker hit her with a Taser on her neck. She crumbled to the ground in front of him. In that one second, all of his training went out the window, and he rushed the bastard. One of the others shot a Taser in his direction. It struck him in the back. White-hot heat blazed through his body as he fell to the floor.

  It took all his energy to lift his head. He could do nothing but watch as their attackers grabbed Millie. Her screams echoed down the hallway. It took a few seconds to subdue her. The last thing he saw was her feet as their men dragged her away.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Always know exactly what you’re up against.

  —Vic Walker

  Pain was the first thing Mac registered. It seemed her entire body was one big, throbbing bundle of pain. Before she could deal with that, some wanker decided he wanted to die, because he kept tapping her face.

  “Wake up,” he said.

  “Hey, I was only trying to help,” Jay said.

  She sat up quickly. Her stomach turned inside out, and her head started to pound from the fast movement. Gulping in huge breaths of air to keep from embarrassing herself, she realized they were in the SUV again.

  “Where is Vic?”

  “Right here,” he said.

  She glanced over at him. “Millie?”

  “Gone. There were five guys, professionals.”

  Definitely professionals. They got the jump on us, and there was no way to avoid that embarrassing memory. “How could we have been so stupid?”

  “Self-recriminations can start when we can both stand again.”

  She nodded and then cringed. Pain vibrated inside her head. “When I get my hands on the bastard who hit me, I am going to cut his bollocks off.”

  “Where to?” Rock asked from the driver’s seat.

  “I think we can rule out any of our residences. And I don’t want to head out to Maryland again,” Vic said.

  “Agreed. Here,” she said, looking for her bag. She found it, unzipped it, and got a multitude of identification out. Then she grabbed her keys.

  “We have one other safe house that might work.”

  “Wait, what?” Vic asked.

  She knew her brother owned an apartment in D.C. and was planning on subletting it out. He had put it in his mistress’s name, so it made it very easy to deal with.

  “I have a place.” She rattled off the address to Rock, who nodded and started off in that direction.

  “Kind of upscale.”

  “Yes, and the kind of place where security is paid to turn a blind eye to things.”

  He nodded, then winced in pain.

  “Did you get hit from behind?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Tazed.”

  “Bloody bastards.”

  “Were they FBI?” Tessa glanced over at the passenger seat. Mac had forgotten they had an agent on board.

  “Truth is, I didn’t even really see them.”

  “No, not FBI. Russian accents.”

  “And we can’t go to the FBI,” Rock said.

  “Why did you think I would want to do that?”

  “They’re your safety net.” He shook his head. “And we can’t go to them right now without any kind of evidence. We have nothing to back up the story.”

  She sighed. “Yeah, well, my career there is probably over.”

  “Nothing is over yet,” Vic said. “Once we clear this all up, I can pull a few strings, make it look like you are the hero of the story, which you are.”

  “How do you figure?” she asked.

  “You are the only government official who isn’t being bought off, set up, or blindsided by this. You will look brilliant.”

  For a second, the woman said nothing, and then she smiled. “That just might work.”

  “Okay, well, then let’s get to this apartment and start working the case. We need to know exactly where she is and who took her. We will get Millie back.”

  Vic said the words to everyone, but he was looking at Mac. She wanted to believe him, she really did. But as each minute ticked by, Mac understood the chances of recovering their client were weakening.

  All they needed was one little clue, something that would give them a lead. With most of their contacts cut off from them, and now their one primary asset not able to trust her friends at the FBI, Mac knew something would have to fall in their laps.

  She just hoped it was soon, because she knew they’d whisk Millie out of the country, making it impossible to find her. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head against the window and sighed. This really was the worst job of all time.

  …

  When Rock pulled into the underground parking area of the building, it was hard for Vic to tell just what kind of residence it was. The area spoke of money. Crystal City had been growing the last few years, thanks to the multitude of defense contractors who now filled the offices surrounding the apartment. The close proximity of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, along with the Pentagon being a metro stop away, added to the wealth of business and hotels that had popped up, too.

  “Down that third aisle, you’ll find my parking space. 1515,” she said to Rock.

  Vic kept an eye out for anyone that would cause alarm, but the place was deserted. Not uncommon, he was sure. It was a few hours from sunrise, so it made sense. Rock parked the SUV.

  First, Jay and Rock exited the vehicle to stand at the back of the vehicle to keep an eye out. He, Mac, and Tessa followed. Having a weapon handy isn’t a problem at the moment, he thought with a smile. Each of them had a sidearm, and more than likely a few other weapons at their disposal. Still, both he and Mac had been armed when Millie had been taken. Being vigilant of the surroundings was the best deterrent.

  Not wanting to draw attention to themselves, they walked together as if they had just popped in for a visit. Scouting the area like an advance team would only cause them to stick out. As they reached the elevator, pain radiated from his knee, and his shoulder was starting to ache. Hell, his lower back felt as if someone had beat on it for five hours straight. This job was starting to take its toll on him, but it was to be expected. He was nearing forty, and he had spent six months at a cabin in the woods. He’d kept busy physically, but being on the job was definitely more strenuous.

  They filed into the elevator, and Mac waited until they were all in before she hit the fifteenth floor. The top floor. Leave it up to Mac to have a secret apartment and have the most sought-after apartment.

  “When did you get this?”

  She shrugged. “A couple months ago.”

  That is why he didn’t know about it. She hadn’t told him because of the rift in their relationship. He felt a little lighter at the comment, because she hadn’t been keeping it from him.

  “You own it?”

  “In a way,” she said, not really answering the question.

  He glanced at Rock, who shrugged. Jay shook his head. They had no idea what was going on.

  “Where did you get the apartment?” he asked.

  She sighed. “My brother.”

  Damn. Another sin to lay at his feet. Mac was strong enough to deal with her family. Their nastiness was one of the reasons she was so tough.

  Born and raised as a diplomat’s daughter, she’d had an isolated childhood. While she’d experienced much the world had to offer, she had suffered at the hands of a demon
from hell, otherwise known as her father.

  She had said there was no physical abuse, but the man thrived on mind games, and he didn’t hesitate to experiment on his daughter. Her siblings had been no better. Any contact with them wasn’t good.

  She came from old and new British money. While she didn’t show it all the time, her siblings often did. They spent much of their money on frivolous things—including an apartment used once or twice a year.

  “Is this why you were thinking about going back to London?”

  She shot Rock a dirty look before answering. “No, but it gave my father an opening. You know how he is. Of course, in all his rambling, he forgot to tell me about my new half sister.”

  Before he could respond to that, the elevator opened. Vic checked down the hallway, then stepped out, signaling to the others that they should leave the lift. There were only two doors. She headed to the door on the right.

  “Nice to have only one neighbor here,” Tessa commented.

  She shook her head. “My brother owns both. Or I should say I own both, but it’s not in my name.”

  He nodded and waited for her to unlock the door. When they did, he waited for Tessa and Mac to enter before following them in.

  The foyer was marble, he was sure of it, and the style was…well, not Mac. If she planned on living here, she would have done a lot more work to the decorating. There was a lot of gold and black, and much too much over-the-top decor. There was what looked like a gold-plated unicorn on the ornate black marble hearth. The furniture was all leather and black.

  “Uh…”

  She shot him a smile over her shoulder. “Yeah, I didn’t decorate it.”

  “Definitely shows.”

  She had been the one behind the decorating of their farmhouse in Maryland. But then, if she wanted this to be a safe house, she might not want to make big changes. And, he thought as he looked out over the lights of Crystal City and beyond to the Pentagon, it fit the location. Over the top and too much money.

  “You said it wasn’t in your name, but you own it?” he asked.

  “No. I convinced my brother to let me sublet it but keep it in the original name on the apartment.”

  “And that would be?” Rock asked.

  “A woman my sister-in-law knows nothing about. Or maybe she does and doesn’t give a damn.”