by J. D. Tyler
“What about us?” Bricker just had to open his mouth to ask, coming forward to get in Luke’s face.
Zoe pulled the spoiled man back by his arm. “We stay here until the all-clear and try not to draw attention from anyone who might be hiding in another part of this level. Or do you want to die tonight?”
“What I’d like,” the man said between clenched teeth, this time nearly hissing at his bodyguard, “is to get out of the hotel before someone blows it up on top of us.”
“Then stay back here and let the others get us out.” Zoe’s dark eyes flashed at her employer and Abby had the feeling if there weren’t important reasons to keep the man alive, Luke’s cousin would shoot him right now.
Luke shook his head then looked at the young waitress. “Cassie, you stick close to Abby. For a supermodel she knows how to handle herself.”
The blonde nodded, her blue eyes huge with fright, but she moved to Abby’s side. Abby gave her a half nod, then focused on watching the hallway behind them. She had a job to do and watching Luke head into a potential problem wasn’t it.
* * * * *
Luke allowed himself one more look at Abby as she turned to watch their rear—only to reassure himself she was focused on her job.
Yeah, and the Devil’s wearing a parka today.
He laid his hand over his thigh, feeling the diamond ring still safely tucked away. In all his life, he’d never thought he’d need or want to be needed by someone as much as he did Abby. When this was over, he was going to make sure she knew how special she was to him.
First, he had to get them all out of here.
Signaling the others to follow him, they moved down the corridor, past all the closed doors with the disabled keypads hanging loose from the walls beside them. His gut had enough knots in it to be considered a seventies’ macramé hanger. Not good. Trouble was, he had no idea if the danger was inside that room or behind him in the group of men following him down the hall.
* * * * *
All he had to do was wait for them to get in the room. Then he’d make his move.
They wouldn’t even see it coming until it was too late.
He bit down hard on the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. The character he played—the waiter—wasn’t happy about this. No, he was scared and anxious. No smiling.
It was almost his time to do his part for Methan and the Red Mantle.
* * * * *
Luke stopped the group just outside the employee break room.
Good news, the keypad was intact. Bad news, it was meant to be used by someone either as an escape route or it was a trap.
He motioned for Smith to take up his position on the far side of the door. Ben, armed with a weapon, joined him. That left Travis and Castello at his six.
Once they were in position, Luke nodded at Travis and then the keypad.
The kid stepped up and punched in the numbers. A click sounded.
Before Luke could stop him, he pushed the door open.
“The exit’s in here,” Travis said, pushing into the room where two men whirled around, pointing AK-47’s at them.
“Travis, get down,” he yelled, trying to dive in after the waiter, only to find the kid jumping over an up-ended sofa barricade, yelling something about a red mantle.
The next second, all hell broke loose.
Behind him, Ben, Jones and Castello crashed through the door. At the same time, the two surprised gunmen let loose. Luke’s team dropped to the floor, returning fire as bullets slammed into the drywall above them.
“To your left, kid,” Castello said from his right.
Luke turned in time to hit a third gunman smack in the chest. He caught his breath and scrambled up to the sofa barricade where the other were. Ben was peering around the corner, shooting at the gunmen like the trained soldier he was. Castello was holding his lower left leg, blood dripping from it. Smith lay motionless in the doorway. Blood covered his chest, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.
Focusing on the targets he’d seen near the door, Luke scooted around the sofa, took aim and shot. One of the gunmen slammed up against the wall. A flash of white and black scrambled in that direction.
The traitor, Travis.
He zeroed his sights on the guy’s right shoulder. He wanted him neutralized, but alive. He wanted some damn answers.
Focusing on his target, time seemed to slow as he pulled the trigger.
Travis’ body jerked and blood soaked the white of his shirt, right over his shoulder. “Ahh,” he screamed, rolling to his side.
Bullets from the other AK slowed, then stopped.
“They’re all down,” Ben said, standing and going around the barricade.
Luke crouched near Castello. “How bad is it?”
“Hurts like a son-of-a-bitch,” Frank said. “Caught me as I was trying to pull Smith in.”
Luke reached over and closed the agent’s eyes, saying a quick prayer. Then he moved Castello’s hand from the wound. “Let me take a look.”
“Had the wrong waiter pegged as our mole,” Frank said quiet enough for only Luke to hear.
“Good thing, since he had the gun,” he said with a grin.
Frank laughed. “Hell, don’t make me laugh. It hurts.”
“And well it should,” Abby’s voice sounded behind them.
“What are you doing here?” Luke asked as she crouched beside him. “I told you to watch our rear.”
“I did. Jones and Zoe are handling it now. I couldn’t stand the silence.”
“I didn’t want you to see this,” he said, staring into her eyes.
“Too late. Besides, everyone came this way, too.”
He glanced at the door to see Jones watching the hall. Zoe, with Bricker stood just inside the door. The young waitress Cassie, who’d gone pale and her blue eyes looked like saucers as she took in the carnage, stood like a statue against the wall.
“Let me see to Frank,” Abby said, moving him out of the way and holding a linen napkin she’d somehow found to Frank’s leg. Tears glistened on her cheeks and he knew it wasn’t his friend’s injuries that had her crying. She’d been scared. Scared for him. She looked past him. “Cassie, see if you can find me something to use as a bandage,” she said, then looked hard at the young girl. “Cassie!”
The waitress jumped, then went to one of the tables holding stacks of clean linen napkins.
“Zoe, I need a belt,” Abby said over her shoulder, once more focused on their friend’s wounds.
As his cousin went to one of the dead men and pulled off his belt, Luke watched Abby work efficiently to stem the blood flow and cover Frank’s wounds with the napkins, getting Cassie focused on helping her. His friend was in the best care he could have for the situation. Time to get some information from Travis.
Ben was already bending over him. “Who the hell are you working for?”
“You’ll never…stop us,” Travis said, clutching his shoulder where Luke shot him, blood seeping out beneath his fingers.
“Look, you son-of-a-bitch—” Ben said grabbing him by the shirt front.
With a hand on his shoulder, Luke stopped him. “Ben, I got this. I need you to watch the hallway for anyone coming to check out the gunfire.”
The guy practically snapped to attention, pivoted and headed out of the room.
Luke knelt beside the terrorist, strangling the urge to pummel the guy himself. He chose a firm, but patient tone—one his father used on him or his brothers when he wanted cooperation, not belligerence. “What group are you with, Travis? Tell me and maybe I can get you a deal.”
“Too late. You can’t…make deals when you won’t…be in control anymore.” The kid laughed, then coughed—his lung probably filling up with blood. The shot had been a little lower than he’d meant. “We’re taking…the country back.”
“Who are you taking the country back from?”
“Women. Women…not…in…charge.” Suddenly, he stopped talking and clenched his mouth tight.
Shit. He’d taken a suicide pill, just like the men upstairs.
Luke grabbed him by the neck, trying to pry his mouth open with the other hand. Moments later, Travis’ body arched and his face turned beet red. And he was gone.
“Goddammit!” He stood, both hands running through his hair. He’d needed the information. Clenching his fists he stepped back, taking in the carnage around him. Three dead terrorists. One dead agent, a good man. His friend injured. Time to get these people out of here.
Then his eyes landed on the door that exited out to the street and his heart fell.
The entire thing was lined with C-4 explosive.
CHAPTER SIX
Strapping the belt that Zoe had pulled off one of the dead gunmen onto Frank’s thigh as a tourniquet and adding pressure to the site with the linen napkin, Abby had managed to stem the bleeding from his wound. His face had lost a little color, but she suspected it was more from pain than actual blood loss. She wasn’t a doctor or nurse, so it was only a guess on her part.
“Will you be able to walk?” Abby asked.
“Doesn’t look like I’ll have much choice,” he said with a wince. “Besides, can’t have Luke telling the rest of the Edgars I wimped out with a little bullet in my leg.”
“You’d never hear the end of that.” She gave him a soft smile and a squeeze to his shoulder, her gaze traveling to where Luke stood. His hands were fists at his side. His body stiff as he stared down at the dead waiter. The last time she’d seen him like this was last spring when he refused to let her enter a warehouse where charred corpses were stored and he was afraid one might be her friend Brianna. It hadn’t been, but the anger and frustration in him were just as apparent as they were today.
“What are we waiting for?”
Bricker’s loud question drew the attention of most everyone in the room.
“Adrian, quiet down,” Zoe said, standing and laying one hand on her client’s arm.
He jerked it off, leaning into her face, no longer the trembling man they’d seen upstairs. “No. After all that gunfire, if there’s anyone down here looking for us, they already knows where to find us. What I want to know is why are we just sitting here? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m getting out of here.” He stomped past Zoe and around the dead bodies, overturned furniture and wall debris that had been knocked loose in the gun battle. Straight for the exit door.
Abby and Zoe saw the explosives lining the door at the same time.
“No!” they both shouted, lurching in the crazy man’s direction.
Just as he neared the door and reached for the handle, a black and white body flew through the air. Luke landed on Bricker in a heap, knocking him several feet to the side of the rigged doorway.
Thank God. Abby exhaled slowly, willing her heartrate to slow.
“What the hell?” Bricker said, trying to free himself from Luke’s grasp.
Looking like he wanted to plant his fist in the man’s face, Luke clenched the other man’s shirt front and hauled him to his feet. “Look,” he said, pointing to the door. “One jerk on that door handle and you would’ve blown us all to hell.”
Bricker stilled and Luke let him go. The arms dealer quickly retreated to the other side of the room.
“What do we do now?” Cassie asked, in her quiet, fear-filled voice, what was running through all their minds.
“We find another way out,” Zoe said, turning to Abigail. “Can you see another exit for us? Like down in the second sub-basement you were talking about earlier?”
Abigail glanced at Luke. He nodded and she focused on pulling up the hotel’s schematics in her brain once more, letting all the people and carnage in the room fade away.
“Right beneath us is the loading dock for kitchen and hotel deliveries. The only access is from the stairs we just left and a service elevator.”
“What else is down there?” Luke asked. He’d come to stand right beside her, his body’s heat easing some of the shakes the adrenaline pumping through her was causing. She’d love to bury herself in his arms until all this was gone and her body relaxed completely, but that wasn’t an option, not when so many people were counting on her.
Focus. That’s what she needed to do, focus on the problem and find a solution.
“Just left of the stairs is the phone room and the Security Office. From there it’s a straight shot to the loading dock that has an exit onto the street.”
“Are there any other exits?” Zoe asked.
Abigail zeroed in on each section of the plans, almost like enlarging them on a tablet computer. “There’s more storage for furniture, an old freezer, the service elevator and mechanical rooms to the right of the stairs.” She paused, concentrating on one little section.
“What is it?” Luke asked.
“Looks like some old room that used to connect out to some old tunnels.”
“Tunnels?” Castello’s gruff voice asked.
She smiled at the marshal. “There’s numerous tunnels built decades—in some cases centuries—ago, running beneath the city. Most entrances to them have been sealed when they’re found due to the increased terrorist attacks. Not only that, they’re a hazard, so if there’s new construction, like this, they’re sealed.”
“Where do they lead?” The question came from Zoe.
Abigail shrugged. “I have no clue.”
“Why?” Bricker almost snarled at her. “I thought you had this super memory.”
“I don’t have a super-brain, Mr. Bricker. What I have is an eidetic—sometimes called photographic—memory. I see something, it’s forever in my brain. I remember everything I see, like the building plans of this hotel and all the guests. I only have the plans to this building, because my bodyguard,” she looked at Luke then back at Bricker, “insists I know the layout of every building I go into.” She wanted to keep her cover going if at all possible. “What I can’t remember is something I’ve never seen in the first place. Like, oh, the layout of the tunnel system.” It was her turn to talk through gritted teeth as she narrowed her eyes at the man who was looking more like a weasel and less like some sexy playboy by the minute. Luke’s hand on her shoulder kept her from towering over the man like an Amazon warrior. She turned to the man she loved and respected instead. “Well, I can’t.”
The corner of Luke’s mouth lifted in a half I-know-you-can’t smile. “Does it look like there’s an exit door to the tunnels there?”
She shook her head. “No, it was sealed off years ago before they tore down the old building here and built this hotel.”
“Okay, looks like our best way out is through the loading dock. Let’s hope there’s no surprises like more C-4 waiting for us down there.” He exchanged looks with Castello and apparently didn’t like what he read on the marshal’s face. “What?”
“I’d plan on that door being rigged.”
Luke inhaled, then let it out slowly. “Yeah, I am. What else?”
“The security office down there,” Frank said.
“Good place to keep an eye on things, given the access to security cameras. That would be the first thing I’d want to secure,” Jones said from his crouched position at the door to the hallway where he and Ben were keeping watch for anyone approaching.
“Yeah, me too,” Luke muttered. “First thing we need to do is take out anyone in there. Then we’ll assume they’ve rigged the loading dock’s door. We’ll have to figure out how to get out once we’re down there.” He paused a moment. “Abby, is there anywhere to hide until the security office is cleared? The last thing I want is leaving this group in the stairwell.”
She pictured the plans once more. “There’s a storage room just across the hall from the stairwell. It looks big enough to hide this many people.”
“Good. Here’s the plan. We go back down the hall. I’ll take the point, Abby you come next, then Ben, Zoe and Bricker. Cassie, do you think you can help Frank?”
“I think I can,” the blonde said. She wasn’t
terribly tall, but not petite, either.
“We’ll be good,” Castello said and winked at the waitress.
“That leaves you to bring up the rear, Jones.”
“I’ll cover your six, no problem,” the special agent said, still keeping watch out in the hall.
“We go down the stairs in silent mode, access the storage room and make our move from there. Everyone got it?”
When everyone agreed, they checked their weapons and headed out.
* * * * *
“Should we check out the kitchen?” Abby asked from just behind Luke’s right shoulder. They’d paused at the junction of the hallways opposite the entrance to the stairwell they’d exited earlier.
Her warm breath and the soft scent of her perfume wafted over his nerves like a soothing balm. Unfortunately, her question added to his frustration. With the size of the staff this place needed to run the hotel, let alone a huge political ball, the kitchen could be littered with dead bodies. Dead bodies she didn’t need haunting her dreams. “Given how quiet it is, I don’t think you’ll like what we find there.”
“We couldn’t save anyone upstairs, other than Zoe, Bricker and the waiters,” she whispered. “If there’s a chance anyone is hiding back there…”
She let the words die, but he read in her eyes the tender pain of leaving someone behind they might save. There were many things he loved about this woman. Her beautiful and complicated mind. Her body that had him hard almost from the moment they’d met. But her heart and compassion always forced him to be a better man—even if it meant putting them all in danger.
“Okay, Ben and I’ll take a look. You and the others stay here.” His tone brooked no disagreement from her and she nodded. He knew Abby was hurt he wouldn’t take her with him, maybe thought he didn’t trust her, but he wasn’t exposing her to more images of butchery that she’d carry with her forever.
He motioned Jones and Ben to the front, since they were sure no one was coming from their rear and told them his plans.
