by Dana Marton
Her face lit up. “Really? I was nervous.”
“It didn’t show.”
“Like hell,” came from the back. “If my leg didn’t go out, I would have toasted the bitch.”
Reid glanced in the rearview mirror and locked his gaze on Billy. “You better shut your mouth if you want to keep those teeth.”
Reid pulled back onto the highway and drove north, toward a string of small towns. He figured they could all use some breakfast, and especially coffee. Before long he could hear sirens in the distance, then see the flashing lights. A half dozen cop cars flew by him.
Billy swore. Reid looked at him in the rearview mirror. The guy shut up. Apparently, he did like his teeth.
LARA WAS STILL SHAKING inside. She’d never held a weapon on a person before. She hadn’t been sure if her knees would hold up. Billy was right. If he hadn’t hurt his leg, he would probably have taken her out with no trouble.
But she’d contained the situation somehow, by the grace of God, and then Reid had been there, his speech transforming to redneck talk when he spoke to Kenny. Probably to establish a rapport. An FBI trick? Even his posture had changed. It was like she hadn’t even known him.
She didn’t know him, she reminded herself for the hundredth time. He always worked undercover. He could probably switch between personalities with ease. He could be playing a role even now, with her, and she would never know it. Except something told her that the way he’d been with her for the last couple of days was the real Reid. And she was fast becoming as attracted to this new Reid as she’d been to the old one. Or more so, God help her.
“Hey. Zak and Nate are fine,” he was telling her. “We’ll have them back soon. Whatever it takes.” He reached for her hand, his long fingers wrapping around hers. “I promise.”
And even though he hadn’t always been straight with her in the past, she trusted that promise. Because whatever role he’d played before, whatever role he might be playing now, she was beginning to recognize some core deep inside the man, a core that never changed. He was tough, he never hesitated to put his life on the line for others, he made her feel…
If Billy hadn’t been in the back, she would have scooted across the seat to lean against Reid. The last remnants of her anger toward him having evaporated when she wasn’t looking, every part of her craved the strength and comfort he offered.
He was going to break her heart all over again, she realized. Only this time it would be worse, because what she felt for him was no longer a mixture of girlish lust and a crush. She was a woman, falling in love with the man who was the father of her children.
Chapter Ten
By the time they stopped at a drive-through and got some food and coffee, Kenny was calling. “I think I know where you need to go.”
Reid gripped the phone. “I’m listening.”
“I want Billy first.”
“Now, you know that’s not going to happen. We’ll do an even exchange, how about that? You tell me where those babies are. I’ll go see if you’re right. If what you say checks out, you get Billy.”
“I wanna be with him while you go, then. I wanna see my brother.”
Easier than he’d hoped for. Reid suppressed a smile.
“That’s fair. So where do we set this up? Should be close to where the babies are.”
Silence filled the line while Kenny thought things over. “North of Philly.”
“Anywhere particular?”
“That’s all you get until I see Billy.”
“I trust you. You know the racetrack up there?”
“Sure.”
“Let’s meet in the back of the parking lot. By the hot dog stands. And, Kenny? Let’s not mess this up. There’s too much at stake for the both of us.”
HE WAS THERE BY 9:00 a.m. The whole place was empty. Lara was dozing on and off in the passenger seat. They hadn’t gotten nearly enough sleep. Snow began to fall. Reid’s hip was pulsing with pain. He pushed the car door open, needing to get out and test if he could stand. He stopped when his phone rang.
“How’s it going?” Cade asked.
“I’m about to trade one of their guys for information on where the twins are.”
“Need help?”
“You have a pregnant wife at home who’ll skin you if you get back in the business.”
“Truth is,” Cade said with a chuckle, “it’s my pregnant and beautiful wife who’s making me call. I had to come clean. We made a promise to each other about honesty. If I do something she hates enough that she bashes my head in with an iron skillet, those are the risks I have to take. But I’m not going to lie to her. Never had, won’t start now.”
“Good strategy. But, seriously. You don’t have to do this. It’s not your fight.”
“So anyway, I told her about the twins. And you know how pregnant women are. Ouch. So anyway, I’m coming to help.”
Reid still hesitated a moment before he said, “We’re at the old Giorgio Brothers’ Racetrack. I’ll brief you when you get here.” Truth was, having Cade with him would give him options he wouldn’t have otherwise. It would make all the difference.
His phone rang again almost as soon as he’d hung up. “What the hell are you doing?” his FBI handler shouted. “I want you to come in. I want you to come in and bring the Jordan woman with you. If you’re not in by noon, I’m considering this a kidnapping. You hear me, Graham? This is not one of your wild commando ops where anything goes. Your damn colonel says he ordered you to return. Where the hell have you been? Did you have anything to do with the 9-1-1 call up on Route 11 this morning?”
“What call?”
“Don’t play dumb, Graham. Cops found Ron Rollins cuffed and yelling that his friend was kidnapped. Billy Briggs. Kenny Briggs’s little brother. Hell of a coincidence.”
“Stranger things have happened. Any news on Ben?” He was pretty messed up when the EMTs had taken him out of that safe house, but he was a tough operator. Reid’s money was on him.
“He’s going to make it. You just focus on Billy Briggs and Lara Jordan. That’s two counts of kidnapping so far,” Adams warned. “Don’t think the FBI is going to go easy on you because you’ve been so helpful. Once you go rogue, that’s all forgotten.”
“There you go making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. You know how much I hate that.”
“By noon,” Adams gritted out the words. “And every one you have in your custody better be with you. Unharmed. Am I clear?”
“Crystal.”
CADE ARRIVED AROUND 10:00 a.m. Reid got out and limped across the parking lot with him, strategizing, while he trusted Lara to hold her gun on Billy.
“I’m not going to miss,” she warned again when Billy fidgeted, his eyes shifting all over the place. “And even if I did, those two won’t. They’ll shoot you dead the second you step foot outside of this car.”
He swore at her at length, including enough family members for a reunion.
She let it roll off her.
Then, eventually, Cade came back and took over. “Reid wants to talk to you,” he said.
She crossed the lot to him. A precaution, she supposed, to be far from the car so Billy wouldn’t hear them. Reid stood just a little differently than usual, favoring his bad hip. The tight lines around his mouth told her how much standing there cost him.
But when he spoke, there was no trace of pain in his voice, never a sign of weakness. “The best thing would be if you stayed here with Cade. You could help him keep an eye on Billy. Kenny, too, when he gets here.”
“I’m going to be wherever Zak and Nate are. If you’re trying to sell me on the idea that Cade will be outnumbered, and he needs me to help him, I’m going to be really offended. How stupid do you think I am?”
“Too smart for your own good.” He pressed his lips together. “Okay, how about if I ask you to stay for the sake of your own safety?”
“Not a chance.”
“How did I know that you were going to say that?”
/> “Because I’m a strong, independent woman?”
“That you are. Exactly like your grandmother.”
“Really?” She felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth.
“But even so, please don’t do anything reckless.” He reached out and pulled her to him, brushed his lips across hers, rested his forehead against hers. “I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you.”
Warmth spread through her at his sudden confession. Because the truth was, in the last couple of days, she’d started to feel—
“You’re the mother of my children.”
She swallowed her disappointment. The mother of his children. She was that. But she was afraid that things had gone beyond that. She was also the woman falling in love with him. Well, who needed that complication? Nobody. Especially not now. She pressed her lips together and forced a small smile. She was going to keep her idiot heart under control if it killed her.
The snow picked up. She blinked a fat flake off her eyelashes.
Reid pulled away, but kept one hand on her arm. “Okay, when Kenny gets here, I’ll have him get in the back with his brother. Cade will stay and hold them until we know for sure whether the twins are here or not.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Be careful. No insane heroics like at the bridge.”
She flashed him a look. “I knew you’d bring that up. I had to try something. I thought they had the twins and they were just going to drive away. Might not have been the smartest thing to do. Thanks for not jumping down my throat about it.”
He gave a sour smile. “You don’t know what it cost me not to bring it up until now. I could have—” He shook his head. “You didn’t get hurt. That’s what matters.”
A small smile spread across her lips as she processed his words. “What, no macho yelling and I’m-the-boss speech? I think you’re growing.”
“Don’t tell anyone.”
He watched her, an unreadable expression on his face. Then he pulled her back to him and kissed her like he meant it. And she responded fully, her twisted emotions and her desperation giving the kiss an edge.
They only pulled apart when Cade beeped the horn behind them. A red pickup was coming down the road toward the gates.
Kenny was here.
THE PLACE KENNY SENT THEM was two exits up the highway, down Slaughterhouse Road. Reid parked Cade’s white SUV—the perfect color for the rapidly whitening landscape—way up the road, and pulled in among the bushes. He and Lara walked up to an abandoned slaughterhouse on foot—his hip hurting like hell—through the shrubs that had overtaken the holding pens nobody had used in a decade.
Most of the fences were down, covered by dead weeds and snow. The building was in the same deplorable condition. The steel roof was rusty and peeled back in places. Some of the windows were boarded up, some plain missing.
The front doors, which were ten feet tall and wide enough to drive a truck through, were held together by a thick chain and padlock. There were a number of other, smaller entrances on the side. They headed toward the one where the bushes were tallest, providing them with the best cover.
“Should we separate and circle the place?” Lara whispered. Like him, she had her gun out, at the ready.
He shook his head, shifting the bag of weapons on his shoulder. He wanted to keep her in his sight for as long as possible. “We don’t separate.”
They reached the building, and he noted footprints in the snow that made a path around the structure. Looked like whoever was in there was cautious enough to check the perimeter from time to time. Reid held her back with one hand, turned the doorknob with the other.
“Locked.”
But someone was definitely in there. As he heard voices, he lifted his hand to signal Lara to be quiet. A few men were talking. Arguing. Three or four, he would have guessed, but couldn’t be sure. And he needed to be. Walking into a situation like this, surprises weren’t a good thing.
If he were alone, trying to retrieve some weapon or sensitive documents, he would have busted in. But Lara was here with him. And there was a chance that his little boys were inside. Which meant that a lot more recon work and planning was needed.
He pulled back into the brush and began walking to the left, rounding the building, Lara close behind him. Every time he came to a door, he tried it as quietly and carefully as he could. Every time, he got the same result.
They were locked up tight in there.
He looked up. No obvious way to climb, not without equipment and without making too much noise. The metal siding was no help.
He considered every option carefully. Big place. Way too big to hold just two little babies. They could have other things here. Their headquarters, their arsenal, a freaking tank, whatever.
There was the main door, two side doors and two emergency exits. Now that they’d fully circled the place, he had an exact count. The windows were all too high to see through. Not much help, but useful in another way. Nobody could look out and see him coming either.
When he heard the sounds of a car pulling up, they inched up to the front again and watched from around the corner, hidden behind the bushes. After a brief knock, three more men walked into the slaughterhouse through one of the side doors. They’d left the car running.
“Jimmy Sparks,” Lara whispered behind him.
Oh, he’d recognized the bastard—same shaved head and red goatee he’d worn back in Hopeville. Reid’s muscles drew tight. He could feel the burn on his skin all over again. The thought that the thug would come anywhere near his children made him want to tear Sparks apart with his bare hands, from limb to limb.
He considered his options. He could call in the FBI. They would grab him first and take him out of the operation and off the scene. Adams was mad as hell at him. They would come with force. There’d be negotiations, which Sparks could resist. He’d proven over and over that he would do anything not to get caught. A shoot-out was a distinct possibility.
Reid shifted to ease the pain that seemed now to be pulsating through his whole body. He thought about calling the colonel instead of the FBI. Except that would get the SDDU in trouble. Not to mention that few SDDU soldiers were stateside at any given time. Mostly they were deployed, deep undercover overseas. They were only brought back to the States for debriefings in between missions or, if they were injured, to recuperate.
He looked at the building again. There could be a number of surprises waiting in there. Risks he would have taken as a lone-wolf commando soldier—hell, he would have enjoyed the challenge. But with Lara and the boys…
He didn’t like it.
There were too many people inside, and he’d have to go in blind, prepared for every possibility. Such as the chance that this was a trap, and Zak and Nate weren’t in there, after all. Kenny could have set him up.
This sure didn’t look like what he’d pictured as the endgame. He’d figured the twins had been passed off to the wife of somebody in the group. Some woman who already had other children and had the necessary stuff in her house. He’d planned on making sure she was alone, then going in. She wouldn’t do anything foolish. She would hand the twins over without trouble, to protect her own kids.
But this place…
The more he looked at it, the surer he was that Kenny had to be either up to no good or mistaken.
The sound of a baby crying came from inside the building.
Reid swore under his breath, a wave of emotion slammed through his chest, as Lara whispered, “That’s Zak.”
He was on the phone already, giving Cade the go-ahead to take the Briggs brothers in.
Instinct pushed him to bust through the nearest door. Experience held him back. Since Sparks and his men had left the car running, it probably meant they didn’t plan to be there long. The smartest move would be to wait until they left, even the odds a little.
For a second, he wondered again if he should have called in the troops so Sparks could be picked up. But he was within feet of t
he twins. No way he would let anyone sweep in now and take over the op, pull him off. If they made some blundering mistake…
He punched Sparks’s license plate number into his cell phone and sent it off to his handler as a compromise. It was the best he could do under the circumstances.
Half an hour passed before Sparks and his entourage exited the building, with one extra guy joining them. The man walked the others to the car, but didn’t get in. They talked another minute before Sparks and his men left. Then the guy walked back to the side door they’d used and pulled out his cell.
The door was open.
Reid signaled Lara to stay back, leaving his bag of weapons with her as he inched closer. But he couldn’t get close enough to take a look inside. If he went too close to the edge of the boxwood bushes that were his cover, the goon on the phone would see him. And he couldn’t grab the guy either. The others inside would see through the open door.
“No, your mother can’t take the kids to get their picture taken with Santa,” the guy was saying. “Because I said so, dammit. She can have her own damn picture if she wants.” He began to pace. “End of conversation.” He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. “Yeah, I know it’s still snowing. No, I ain’t coming home. Grab the shovel and get out in the driveway.”
One more foot. Reid watched, ready to lunge.
Then froze in place.
Kenny’s phone was buzzing in Reid’s pocket. He’d set both phones to vibrate.
He held his breath, but the guy pacing in front of him was too busy with his own conversation to hear anything else.
Reid stayed still. His hip burned with such pain he could barely stand, but he compartmentalized it. He didn’t care what damage he was doing to himself, as long as he could complete this one mission successfully. Nothing mattered beyond his boys.
Then the guy did take that extra step, turned his back to pace the other way. Reid hooked one hand over his mouth, the other over his neck and hauled him into the bushes. He broke his neck before Lara came up to them, was answering the call on Kenny’s phone the next second.
