by April Hunt
Cruz approached the foot of the stairs and listened hard, peering up into the darkness. Atlas wasn’t any more enthusiastic but both of them could hear the murmurs of conversation more clearly.
Atlas gave a low, eager whine with an upward lilt, his head slightly tilted.
Up was where Lyn was.
A trickle of relief flooded through Cruz. Atlas must’ve recognized Lyn’s voice among the murmurs. The eagerness would only be for her. She was still alive and able to talk then. Which meant she was conscious. Hopefully, she wasn’t hurt.
Hang on, Lyn. We’re on our way.
They were halfway up the stairs when Atlas froze again, his posture tense. A low, almost inaudible growl rumbled in the big dog’s chest. Another guard approaching.
For the second time, Cruz gave Atlas the command to search out a human target.
* * *
“I’m guessing you’re not going to share the full scope of your nefarious plans with me.” Actually, she was torn between wanting to know what could possibly have possessed her stepfather and being too disgusted with his involvement to listen.
He shook his head. “The more you know, the less likely it’ll be possible to convince my business partner to let you move on with your life.”
“Promises to forget everything I’ve seen so far aren’t believable either, huh?” Rolling her eyes might be too much attitude.
Talking was good. Drawing things out. Buying time. And well, this was probably the longest conversation she’d ever had with her stepfather.
Her stepfather sighed. At least that was familiar. “Don’t insult either of us by playing stupid. Sarcasm will only shorten what patience I have.”
Zuccolin snorted.
Jones slanted an irritated look at the other soldier. “Isn’t it about time for you to check in with the rest of your team, Sergeant?”
Zuccolin stiffened but walked away, his footsteps striking the floor in measured cadence. Only marginally comparable to a toddler sulking and stomping his way out of the room.
“America’s finest?” She raised her eyebrow at her stepfather.
No. She hadn’t caught the faintest twitch at the corner of his mouth. Had she? Nah. “All this for a choppy video hidden on a dog?”
“The problem with any shred of evidence is that it is still evidence.” Her stepfather strode over to a window and gazed out. “However, the canine is not the only reason we are here or even the primary objective. I placed what should have been sufficient resources on surveillance in order to ensure the dog would present no threat to our plans.”
“Sufficient might not be the correct term.” She bit her lip.
He turned and glared at her. “Over the years, you have made antagonizing me an art form. I assure you, it’s not as effective a tactic as you might believe.”
“Force of habit.” Keeping her responses shorter might be wise but she was running out of conversational cues.
He huffed. Then he continued to talk, surprisingly. “I’ve had interviews with several local candidates. There’s a land-bound military ship just over the bridge in New Jersey used as a training and testing facility. Many IT contractors with appropriate security clearances have gained relevant communications experience there but are dissatisfied with the temporary nature of their contract work. They’re looking for more exciting projects with better pay. Not a single one of them displayed the nimble intelligence you exercise just to deliver a witty comeback.”
A compliment. Sort of. “I’m guessing social interaction wasn’t exactly a part of any of their skill sets either.”
Her stepfather tipped his head to one side, considering. “Enough to communicate in a professional capacity, but you make a valid point. Cultural fit isn’t a high priority in our search but perhaps it should be. The teams we’re assembling will be isolated on occasion.”
“And you have to be able to trust the men who are supposed to have your back.” David had taught her that.
Jones frowned.
Oh, had she said that last bit out loud? Maybe. Though Captain Jones had always seemed to read her mind as a teenager. She’d like to think her adult mind was less transparent but around him, the temptation to succumb to petty immaturity was about as irresistible as a chocolate cupcake with fudge frosting and salted caramel.
“Building the right teams takes patience and time.” Her stepfather clasped his hands behind his back. “Sometimes you need to make do with what’s available and cherry pick when opportunity arises.”
Whatever he was getting at, they’d gone so far into the abstract she was wondering if maybe she had a concussion because she wasn’t tracking anymore.
A shout cut through her sluggish thoughts. A dog’s growl followed, loud and deep. It sounded familiar and she was hoping she wasn’t going crazy.
Atlas.
Hope shot through her—or adrenaline—she’d take either. She continued to wiggle in her duct tape bindings while her stepfather and the one remaining soldier focused their attention on the approaching chaos.
Sergeant Zuccolin was backpedaling, crossing past the doorway and back out of view in the hallway. A black and tan blur streaked past and a shot rang out.
A dog yelped in pain.
“No!” she screamed, jerking in her chair and tipping over. Her shoulder crashed into the floor. Lifting her head, she craned her neck to see the doorway. “Atlas! Atlas?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cruz advanced through the doorway, his handgun at the ready, focusing on the armed threat and relying on his peripherals to catch any other threats in the room. Farthest from the ideal situation, but based on conversation he’d identified Lyn and someone she knew. She was smart to keep up the conversation and distract her captors. Her discussion had covered the majority of their approach and the exchange let him get a basic idea of location, at least for the two speakers.
Only the asshole, Zuccolin, had the timing to encounter them when there’d been no cover. Only choice had been to engage without the advantage of surprise or any chance of stealth. Atlas had stayed true to his training and taken point.
But Cruz couldn’t think about that now. The primary objective was Lyn. Locate. Extract.
He’d worry about the rest after.
The solider who’d accompanied Zuccolin was drawing his weapon.
“Stop moving,” Cruz growled. He immediately stepped to one side of the door, away from the hinges, to have his back to the near wall plus a foot or two of extra buffer space. There were a few crates in case he needed to dive for cover. “You’re going to want to get the safety back on that and put it on the ground. Now.”
A procedure they were both familiar with and in the other soldier’s place, Cruz would be fighting a nasty internal battle. But the other soldier valued his life and complied quickly.
Lyn was tied to a chair overturned in the middle of the room, and to the other side of her had to be the person he’d heard her talking with earlier. An older man and an officer, with his hands out to his sides. No immediate threat.
Still, Cruz was only one man and he had two potential hostiles in the room with a completely immobilized Lyn.
“Lyn?” He kept his gaze on the nameless soldier with the officer at the edge of his periphery.
“Hi.”
Relief flooded through him and he blinked quickly to keep his sight clear. “Good to hear your voice.”
“I’m pretty happy to see you, too.” Her words were wobbly but she was talking and making a good attempt at upbeat.
“Can you get up on your own?”
There was a creak as she wiggled on her side. “No.”
Her frustration was much better than the possible alternatives. If she’d been hysterical or panicking, or even devoid of hope, he might not be able to get them moving. But his girl had fight in her and he could work with that.
He skirted the room, keeping the wall to his back and getting closer to her. “Hang out for another second.”
The nameless
soldier’s eyes gave away his intent. Cruz charged and crashed into the man shoulder to shoulder as the other man tried to reach down for his gun. The other man stumbled and Cruz followed through with a knee to the head. His opponent fell to the floor unconscious.
Cruz let his momentum carry him forward and gathered his feet under him for a smooth controlled turn, expecting the old man to have taken advantage of his back being turned.
“Son, why didn’t you just shoot him?”
Cruz trained his handgun on the officer, the last man standing.
The officer held his hands up, still empty. “Well, don’t start shooting now.”
“Who are you?”
“Captain Jones…”
“Her father…”
Both the officer and Lyn spoke at the same time.
Well, shit.
“My step-father,” Lyn clarified. “Which doesn’t matter considering the circumstances.”
“You are not in a position to fully understand the current situation.” The other man’s voice definitely sounded patronizing in a familiar way.
“Trust me, I’d be very happy to survey things from a higher viewpoint. All I’ve got now without craning my neck is a bunch of shoes and an unconscious man. At least, I think he’s unconscious. Hard to tell from here.” For her part, she obviously wasn’t letting on whether her stepfather was a threat or not.
When in doubt, everyone is a threat. Cruz did not lower his weapon.
Despite his exchange with Lyn, her stepfather was watching Cruz.
Cruz tipped his head in her direction. “Help her up.”
Her stepfather complied with slow, deliberate movements. The man could’ve yanked her chair up or followed the order in a number of ways that could hurt her. It was a calculated risk to let the man touch her at all.
But Cruz was going on a hunch.
Her stepfather cradled her head as he helped set her upright and broke the duct tape binding her to the chair. Odd gentleness for a kidnapper.
“She wasn’t supposed to end up here.” Her stepfather stepped away from her again to a safe distance. “Only the canine was supposed to have been retrieved.”
“Is Atlas hurt badly?” Lyn was yanking off the remainder of the duct tape and rubbing her arms. It’d probably been tight enough to cut off some circulation.
Cruz ignored her question. “And what were you going to do once she showed up?”
Captain Jones pressed his lips together. “To be honest, I was weighing my options. However, you arrived. All the others are…unconscious?”
“Indisposed.” Cruz had managed to take out any of the other guards with Atlas’s help, leaving them zip tied and unconscious.
“How many men?”
Interesting question. Still, Cruz had a feeling Lyn’s stepfather was a man of many layers. Time to give him the chance to peel back a few. “One outside. Two at the top of the stairs. The sergeant outside the door and our friend here.”
A sharp bark and a growl had Cruz down on one knee, turning his weapon to the door. A man stumbled through the doorframe with seventy-five pounds of Belgian Malinois on his back.
Cruz charged forward a second time, engaging with the newcomer. The other man had no chance and was shortly on the floor, unconscious.
“Atlas!” Lyn sounded so happy. God, he was glad she could still be happy.
Atlas stood panting, his left shoulder laid open by a bullet graze and trickling blood down his foreleg. But the big dog was looking at Cruz, waiting to be released from his last command given out in the hallway. Bewaken. Guard.
Cruz jerked his head in Lyn’s direction. “Okay.”
Atlas broke his stance immediately and bounded over to Lyn, licking tears off her face. She flinched and Atlas whined softly.
Cruz got a good look at the side of her face and anger burned through him until the edges of his peripheral vision started to darken. There was a horribly spectacular bruise developing across her cheekbone up to her temple. It had to be painful if even Atlas’s gentle touch hurt her.
“I’ll be making sure the man who hit her will never do it again,” Captain Jones said quietly, calm, cold. Very cold.
“You want to tell us what you’re doing here, Captain?” Cruz asked. He still hadn’t holstered his weapon. The captain hadn’t asked him to, either. That made Cruz more certain there was a lot more going on here.
Captain Jones nodded. “I’ll be making a phone call shortly to have them taken into custody. The two of you should leave.”
“Not the question I asked.”
“As I said to Lyn earlier, the less you know, the better,” Captain Jones countered.
Cruz shook his head.
The two of them glared at each other.
Captain Jones sighed. “This is a covert investigation. I became aware of this group a short while ago when I was approached with the opportunity to join as a business partner. However, my concern was the recruitment plan. Several soldiers seemed to be a part of the planning process under duress.”
“You could say that.” Cruz didn’t bother keeping the growl out of his voice. He wasn’t active duty anymore; insubordination wasn’t an issue.
“Your friend, Calhoun, had put in for a transfer. It was denied. When he died and his dog was sent back here, I was asked to intercept. Instead, I made sure the dog got to where Calhoun wanted him to go.” Captain Jones shrugged. “It’s easier to flush out the true intents of people if you let them act on their plans for a certain amount of time. I sent Lyn so I’d know when you were getting too involved. I’ve needed time to identify all the people involved, not just those most directly visible. If you forced my partner to move too quickly, it would have been unfortunate.”
“For you?” Lyn was on her knees, her arms wrapped loosely around Atlas’s shoulders. Her bravado was good but she needed the comfort of Atlas’s strength to hold on to for the moment.
Cruz desperately wanted to go to her, hold her, and check every inch of her for any other hurt.
“Organizations like this are like patches of weeds.” Captain Jones’s voice took on a patronizing tone. The man really let Lyn get under his skin. “It takes time to determine how far the roots have spread and determine the best way to cut them out. Otherwise, they just pop back up someplace else. When I conduct an investigation of this magnitude, I don’t just pull up the visible weeds. I root up every runner and eliminate the issue.”
Bastards like these people would always be around. Cruz didn’t envy the Captain a job like that.
“I still need to learn more about my…business partner and his potential investors.” Captain Jones took out his phone.
“You mean you’re still working with this man, whoever he is.” Lyn didn’t bother to hide her disgust.
“His business plan has serious ethical issues.” Captain Jones raised an eyebrow at her. “Currently, there’s no proof tying him to all of this besides my word. The best I would be able to manage with any accusation at this time would be a dishonorable discharge. He’d still be free to move forward with his plans, albeit under a certain amount of scrutiny from the US government. That, however, is insufficient.”
“There are people being hurt—dying—while you gather your evidence to make sure this guy has no loopholes to slither through.” Cruz thought about Calhoun.
A sad look flashed past Captain Jones’s eyes and was gone. “Some are surviving because of my intervention as well. The video your dog had implicates many men who only agreed under duress. It would be unfortunate to catch them in the same net we use to snare my business partner.”
Harris had a family. How many others did? How many wives, kids, relatives would be hurt if men like Harris were caught up in legal action?
“I see what you mean.” Cruz paused, then tossed a bit of information out. “We have a mutual acquaintance, Evans. He’s got a copy of the highlights right now. Probably plans to bring it back to you or your partner in exchange for bailing him out.”
Captai
n Jones nodded. “His ability to identify the entire group here puts this portion of the operation at risk. A good reason to cut losses here and leave.”
Cruz had been planning to give Evans enough rope to hang himself. This wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind, but it’d do. The investigation Captain Jones was conducting was serious business, every bit as dangerous as the situations Calhoun and the other men were facing. And then some. If Jones’s business partner suspected him, Lyn’s stepfather was a dead man.
Captain Jones regarded Cruz with a steady gaze. Cruz gave the man a nod in grudging admiration. This undertaking wasn’t easy. And he might never be sure he had every person involved.
“Take her out of here, Mr. Cruz. Do a better job of keeping her safe.” Captain Jones’s voice cracked. “I will continue my mission. It won’t be much longer and then the men who didn’t want to be part of this in the first place will be able to breathe. You’ve done me a favor with the group here. It will be fairly easy to see to it these men face charges while I go back to my business partner and tell him how unfortunate it was that they were incompetent enough to be compromised.”
Cruz nodded. What else was there to say? He needed to get Lyn safely out of here and then he could absorb the new information.
“Lyn knows nothing. I’m sure my business partner will keep an eye on her and agree. Especially when he’s told the asset was killed here.”
“You are not touching Atlas.” Lyn shot to her feet.
“Sergeant Zuccolin shot the dog dead. We both saw it.” Captain Jones stared at Cruz.
Cruz nodded. “I run a kennel. I could’ve brought more than one dog.”
The other man nodded.
Lyn held her peace.
It would be better for all of them if no one was looking for Atlas anymore. And now that Atlas had chosen his handlers, easier for him, too.
“Take the dog with you.” Captain Jones’s tone was definitely gentler. “He’s seen enough and based on your reports, it’s likely his rehabilitation will require further work. It would be best for everyone if he disappeared.”
Lyn bit her lip, obviously caught without words.
