by Kay Maree
I pick up my cell and check it for what feels like the thousandth time in the last twelve hours. My gut is telling me Flint has changed his mind. He’s not a killer like me. Oh, I’m sure he could put someone down if he had to but not because he wanted to or because he likes it. Throwing caution to the wind, I dial his number.
“Yeah?”
“You haven’t called,” I say icily.
“Been busy. Looks like I can’t make it.”
“We had a deal.”
“Look, man, I’ve got things to do. The big boss’ wife has rocked into town. So I’ve gotta go.” The air in my lungs goes out in a whoosh. “Ah, man, this must be a bad connection. You still there?”
“Petrov has Ann?”
“Yeah, yeah. Look, like I said, gotta go.”
The line goes dead. My knees buckle, and I hit the floor hard.
How did she get out of Switzerland?
How did that bastard find her?
How do I get her back?
I suck in a lung full of air and get to my feet. It’s not going to be easy getting Ann out of his house again. Petrov has beefed up security tenfold. Looking outside, it’s late afternoon. I can’t make a move until it’s dark, but he could shift her before then, and I can’t risk it.
Hell, is she even at the house?
There’s only one thing to be done, I suit up. There’s enough guns and munitions here to bring down a small army. I pack as much of it as I can carry into my duffle, and the rest I put into the slots on my vest and the belt I’m wearing. Going into the closet, I pull out a large trench coat and place more items in its pockets and put it on. Anyone who’s observant is going to be able to tell I’m packing, but regular civilians will think the trench coat is weird for this time of year but dismiss it and move on.
Walking quickly, I head out to the latest car I’ve stolen—a silver Toyota Camry. Boring, lots of them on the road, so no one will notice it. I put the duffle on the passenger side and get in the car.
Where the fuck do I drive to?
I turn it on and head for Petrov’s, my gut tells me it’s where she’ll be. As an afterthought, I redial Hook.
“Yeah?”
“Is she at the Petrov estate?”
“It’s a party, everyone is here.”
I hang up and drive faster toward my destination.
***
It’s broad fucking daylight, and there’s no way I’m getting into Petrov’s compound without being seen. I have no choice but to contact Angelica Strauss. I’ve reverse parked the car in someone’s driveway. So far, no one has come out and told me to move, so I’m assuming they aren’t home. This house is far enough away I can see who’s coming and going. No one has left the estate, but plenty of cars and bikes have gone in.
Angelica answers her phone sounding like she doesn’t have a care in the world. “Jamison! How are things?”
“Petrov has my daughter.”
I hear her sharp intake of breath. “Fuck. I don’t know how she got past us.”
“Irrelevant. I need your help.”
“What do you need?”
“Assurances,” I reply.
“Such as?”
“I’m out after this. If I decide to come back, none of this blows back on me or mine.”
“Out? Come on, Jamison, you know too many secrets to be out.”
I don’t respond. I know she’s right. But if I get my girl safely away from Petrov, she’s going to need a lot of care, and I can’t be on missions or out of the country. Ann deserves better than that. I don’t speak as I try to wade through the options which are available to me—none of them are good.
“Jamison?”
“Yeah.”
“We’ll figure something out. But you can’t retire, you’re too good at what you do. I owe you for not finding Ann, but there’s no way on God’s green earth you can disappear.”
“I can live with that.”
“What do you need? I can have agents there within the hour.”
“It’s funny how the CIA isn’t supposed to operate on home soil, but we do. I need a distraction.”
“We do what we have to do to insure the safety of our citizens. What kind of a distraction?”
“A big one, so I can get in and out without being seen or caught.”
“Send me the address.”
The line goes dead.
Another hour to wait.
***
True to her word, Angelica’s men turned up within the hour. Six of them, all specialists with a black van full of explosives and guns. There’s even a RPG.
“What do you need?” asks one of the men.
“I want you to keep them all busy at the front of the building while I sneak in the back.” He nods, the others stare at me, listening. “I also want you to supply suppressive ground cover to get me the fuck out. I’ll have a female with me. She’s the target we must protect at all costs. She’s a valuable asset, the rest are cannon fodder.”
“How long do you need.? We’ll attack from different angels, get them to scatter and separate. Do you know where the target is in the building?”
“No.”
He frowns, picks up a long-distance big, black phone and dials a number.
“It’s Agent White. We need infra-red intel on the property you were sent information on. Looking for a female inside, but numbers and real-time video would be helpful.”
He nods as he listens and finally hangs up.
“We good?” I ask.
“Yeah, they’re set up already. A satellite will be over the house for the next thirty minutes, give or take, so we need to boogie.”
I nod. “I’m driving to the back of the property. Give me exactly five minutes, then rain hell down on them.”
For the first time, Agent White smiles and nods, and when I cast a glance at the other men, they are all grinning.
The men the CIA employs are a scary group of people.
***
This isn’t going to be easy. It’s daylight, and although it’s starting to fade, there’s not a lot of places for us to hide. No doubt more than one of Angelica’s men are going to get themselves killed, all for country. Well, for my Ann.
It takes me four minutes to get into position. It sounds crazy, but every minute you wait for the action to begin feels like hours. I jog from the car, up and over the wall to a cluster of bushes and wait. Adrenaline pumps through my system, it heightens all my senses.
In my earpiece, I hear White say, “Time to party.”
An explosion sounds from the front of the property, and then I’m running across open ground to get to the house. Hopefully, all eyes are diverted away from me as this is the most dangerous part of the mission.
I hit the outside wall of the house and flatten myself against it. I listen, but apart from the gunfire and explosions the men are setting off, I don’t hear anyone at the rear of the property. I try the handle on one of the doors, it’s locked.
“Wait,” orders White. “Unfriendlies coming your way. Move to the next door on the left.”
I do as he says, again I try the handle, it’s locked too, so I drop down and pick it, then enter.
“Keep moving. If you go out into the hallway, you’ll have a clear path up the stairs to the second floor. The third room on the left has a female inside, or the tech said it could be a man of slight build with long hair.”
I’m grateful for the infra-red technology but nervous about relying on someone else for information, someone I don’t know. I normally hand-pick my teams, so they are loyal to me and the mission. These guys were sent by Angelica, so they are loyal to her.
Whispering, I tap my mic. “Unfriendlies on the second floor?”
“All are at the front of the building. Keep going.”
With my gun held in both hands and up in front of me, I continue. There’s plenty of shouting and screaming going on, but so far, I haven’t encountere
d a single person. I get to the door White said a female was behind, and it’s locked. Again, I drop down and pick it.
Opening the door, I slip inside and close it behind me. Standing in the far corner of the room is Ann. When she sees me, she runs and throws her arms around me.
“Daddy!”
It’s been so long since she called me that. I engulf her in a hug briefly then hold her at arm’s length. The entire left side of her face is bruised, and her bottom lip is split and swollen.
“What the fuck happened?” I hiss at her.
“Alec.” A sob escapes her and tears fall. “He told me I should have tried harder to get away. He accused me of sleeping with other men. Daddy, he… he… raped me.”
Rage colors my vision as I look at my little girl, bloody and bruised. I knew Petrov was a monster, but I thought he loved Ann.
“We need to get you out of here. You need to stay close to me. Where I go, you go. Understand?”
Ann nods. I take a deep breath to calm myself and turn toward the door.
Focus!
I need focus to get us both out of here alive.
I open the door when White speaks into my earpiece. “Move toward the stairs, your path is clear for the moment.”
Scanning the area continuously, I keep moving. I can hear shouts from the men below as they yell for more ammunition. As we hit the bottom of the stairs, I feel a sting as a bullet goes through my lower leg. I buckle and fall down on one knee.
“Daddy!” cries Ann.
I force myself back up and look for the assailant. Not seeing anyone, I assume it’s friendly fire. Pain is a feeling which can be controlled, and right now, I don’t have time to deal with it.
“Stay close and keep quiet.”
“You’ve been shot,” Ann whispers, but louder than she meant to.
“Quiet,” I repeat, holding my gun to my lips.
Ann nods as tears flow down her cheeks, there’s terror in her eyes.
I continue toward the back of the house when Jax walks out into the hallway. It takes him a moment to realize we shouldn’t be here.
“Who the fuck are you?”
I raise my gun, which has a silencer attached and shoot him dead center of his forehead. In the movies, the sound a silencer makes is very different to real life. In real life, it’s loud, granted not as loud as a normal gunshot, but people will have heard it. I’m hoping with all the noise around me, no one will pay it much attention. I keep walking.
Ann stumbles and clutches onto me.
I stop and look down at her. “You need to stay close, but you need to let me go. I can’t keep us safe if you’re crowding me.”
Slowly, Ann, releases me, her eyes fixed on the body in front of us.
“Don’t think about it, keep moving. The dead can’t hurt you.”
I step over him and hold out my hand to Ann. She tentatively takes it and focuses on the back of the building. Raising her foot, she attempts to step over Jax without touching him, stumbles, and I catch her before she falls.
“Ann?” asks a voice from behind me.
We lock eyes, Ann and I, and I see pure terror in their depths. Positioning her behind me, I turn and come face to face with Petrov.
A smile creeps across his smug face. “You’re doing all this to get her back?” Petrov shakes his head. “She belongs with me.”
Ann’s hands clutch onto me, and I feel her press herself against my back. Petrov has a gun trained on us, but I have the advantage. I’m well trained, and Petrov isn’t. I look behind him, and it’s the distraction I need. He looks over his shoulder, and I shoot him in exactly the same spot as Jax. Ann screams, and I reach around with one hand to hold her in place.
“Ann, sweetheart, I need you to close your eyes and walk with me. Can you do that?”
Without waiting for an answer, I move forward. With her body plastered to my back, it makes it a little harder, but I can tell she’s terrified. We take three steps, and I know we are close, so close to getting away when Reaper appears, and unlike the two men before him, he raises his gun and fires. Pain burns across my temple, and I’m flung backward, knocking Ann over as I fall.
I stay still as Ann screams and screams.
“Shut up,” yells Reaper. “Hook! Hook! Look what I caught.”
I hear footsteps.
“Holy fuck! Jax and Petrov?”
I crack one eye, both men are looking at the bodies on the floor, blood seeping from them pooling around their feet.
“Yeah, I’m grateful to him for getting rid of Jax. What a fucking waste of space? At least now I have a clear run for presidency. Unless, of course, you want a shot?”
Hook shakes his head. “Reaper, we’re going to get blamed for this.”
Reaper shakes his head and points at Ann. “No. It’s all her fault. Petrov’s family will see that.”
“He’s the only son. The old man won’t see it that way. We’re fucked.”
“Come on, we have him and her. The old man will be grateful.”
Another explosion wracks through the space, and then everything goes quiet.
“You alive?” asks White in my ear. “More men have arrived. For the moment, we’re pulling back. I’m going to re-group, call in for more men, and come back. You also have the problem of local law enforcement who are on their way. We can stall them for a while, but you’ve got fifteen minutes tops.”
Hook moves to stand over me, peering down, he smiles. A noise from the front of the house gains his attention. I hear many footsteps and close my eyes.
“Vassili,” sobs Ann.
“Ann? You’re back?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Where’s my… nooo!” I hear hurried footsteps, then the howling sounds of a man who’s broken.
“Mr. Petrov, sir… we’re sorry for your loss. But we got the guy who killed your son. He’s her father.”
I can tell by the distaste in Reaper’s tone, he’s putting it all on Ann. I open one eye again, and with my limited vision, I see Hook, Reaper, and four other men. One of whom is kneeling beside Alec’s body. He must be Vassili Petrov.
Vassili stands, lips curled down in a snarl, and a raw, animalistic sound rushes out of him. He storms toward Reaper, and I hear gunshots. The man turns and is clutching onto his chest. His eyes are uncomprehending as death begins its march to take his life. Reaper falls flat on his face, a fitting end for a vicious, immoral bastard.
“I know I said you have fifteen minutes, but from the sounds of it, shit’s about to get real. We’re launching the RPG at the front door in five, four, three, two, one… run.”
I knife up, tackle Ann to the floor, and cover as much of her body as I can. The front door explodes. My ears are ringing, there’s fire, smoke, and the smell of blood in the air. I get to my feet, gun in one hand, Ann’s arm in the other. I shoot anything that gets in my path as I drag us to freedom.
Vassili sits up and fires, hitting me in the leg. I go down, taking Ann with me. She’s screaming, I can’t make out what she’s saying, all I want is for her to get out of this alive.
I touch my mic. “Target needs assistance, I’m hit. Target needs assistance.”
The back of the house explodes, and three men come in. One throws Ann over his shoulder, and the other two lay down to cover fire. In and out. They’ve got what they came for, my girl is safe. One of them looks at me, I think he’s one of the men from earlier, but I can’t be sure. We lock eyes for a moment, he glances at his gun. The meaning is clear, do I want to be put down? I shake my head, he nods, and they all retreat.
A growl to my right grabs my attention. Vassili is shaking his head, wiping blood off his face as he tries to get to his feet. He slumps down, back against the wall, and looks at me smiling. “For Alec,” he cries and raises his arm.
A gunshot pierces the air, and I know I’m done for. I brace myself for the impact, but it never comes. Instead, Hook, bloody and bruised, has shot
Vassili.
With all his energy seemingly gone, his arm drops, and he falls to his knees. Hook pulls out a phone and has dialed someone.
“Cover blown, I repeat, cover blown. Need immediate extraction. Agent down.” He hangs up and lets the phone fall to the floor. “With all this noise and now I’ve called the cavalry, you need to get out, Felder. Or they’re going to put you in a dark pit for a very long time.”
“Why?” I croak out.
“I’m free now.”
Hook slumps over, and I pray he’s not dead. I force myself up onto my feet. Both legs have wounds, and my head where the bullet grazed my skull is bleeding profusely. I take a step and stumble. There are still men in this house who would kill me if given the chance. I grit my teeth together and take another step, this time, I don’t falter. The back of the house is a burning mess. I can hear sirens and know there will be helicopters and SWAT here any moment. I need to move faster.
It feels like forever as I hit the back fence. I look up at the wall and laugh. I’m injured, and I don’t think I can climb over it.
Fuck.
I’m done for.
A rope appears in front of me. I look up, and White is there.
“Get your ass up and over this fence. Now!”
I grab the lifeline, and with White’s help, I make it up and over the fence. He puts my arm over his shoulder and drags me toward the car. Once there, he opens the door and helps me inside.
“Why?” I ask.
“You saved me once. I was being held in Beirut. Watch out for Strauss, she’s got a hard-on for you. My orders were to put you down if you couldn’t make it out. This makes us even. I don’t owe you anymore. Disappear, Felder.”
With a nod, he jogs away.
I start the car and head for the freeway. If I can make it there, I can disappear.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Wraith
There’s a breeze blowing, and I smell salt in the air. It takes me a moment to realize where I am. The events from the past few days flood back. I sit bolt upright in the bed, glance down where Ann is asleep on the floor. The bruises on her face are turning purple, but her lip still looks painful. I look to my left, and Suzannah Stone is sitting in a chair, looking at me with a worried expression.
