by Katie Reus
Wesley and Karen both cursed. Then Karen said, “I don’t see anyone on satellite. Wait . . .”
Thump.
Whoever was shooting had to have a suppressor on the fifty-cal. She could hear the discharge now but it was muted.
Thump.
The glass wasn’t going to hold much longer.
“Someone’s moving out of the hedges, rifle in hand,” Karen said, her voice tense. “He’s hitting the window with the gun.”
Slam, slam, slam.
The SUV shook with the impact of the tango starting to punch through the laminate and glass.
Selene leaned back, crouching down behind the driver’s seat and angling her SIG toward the passenger window. Gloved fingers appeared through the growing hole. She wanted to start firing but exercised calm and waited in the shadows behind the driver’s seat. She couldn’t be sure if anyone could see her yet and she wasn’t giving away her location.
When the glass started to bend back and a full hand came through, she fired.
Someone cursed savagely in Russian, making her inwardly smile. Next she shot her laptop twice, blowing it to pieces.
“You hit him but there are two more men arriving now.” Karen’s voice was tight. “Hang in there, Selene.”
She didn’t have a choice. Staying low, she kept her weapon aimed at the window but then a small canister was shoved through the hole. “Tear gas,” she growled as she shoved up and dove into the very back.
The distance wouldn’t protect her. Nothing would but a gas mask and unfortunately she didn’t have one.
Her eyes, nose, and throat started burning with tears, mucus running down her face as she hunkered down, still clutching her weapon. She’d been through this before during training but it didn’t matter. She wasn’t immune to it and it burned like a bitch. Nausea bubbled up, but she fought it. She grasped her weapon tight, ready to fire blindly. If she was going down she was taking as many of them with her as she could.
“Hang in there!” Wesley shouted.
She tuned everything out as she tried to swipe away her tears and focus through the haze of gas. A man wearing a mask suddenly appeared over the back of the seat, reaching out for her with one hand. He’d probably unlocked the SUV but she couldn’t see or hear shit at this point.
Everything was blurry but she fired through the back of the seat since she couldn’t force herself to get up. Her muscles were clenched too tight in pain. She heard screaming and cursing and tried to fire again but the nausea she’d been fighting took over.
Her stomach heaved and she started puking as something hard struck the side of her face. She lifted her arm to protect herself as she flew back into the two rear doors. One of them opened and she fell out onto the pavement, unable to stop choking.
Disoriented, she tried to push up when pain suddenly exploded in the back of her head and blackness took over.
• • •
Ortiz tapped his earpiece as he descended the stairs, his MP5 drawn. Below the stairs he saw a woman huddled on a mattress, her eyes wide. A man he recognized as Claus Schmidt stood by a dry-erase board, his eyes bleary as if he’d just woken up. In his hand he held a cutlery knife.
Ortiz held a finger to his mouth as he quickly scanned the rest of the space. It was large, but there weren’t many places to hide except behind two long, rectangular tables. Silently he moved around them before focusing on Schmidt, who now stood protectively in front of his daughter.
Ortiz pointed to his eyes, then around the room, hoping the doctor understood. The man shook his head but pointed to his ears.
So the room was bugged like Selene had thought.
He nodded once and headed for the dry-erase board. Just like Selene had said there was writing on both sides. He took pictures of everything since he wasn’t sure what she’d transcribed. He tried to send it to Burkhart, but the phone wouldn’t work.
Hurriedly he looked around and saw a pad of paper on one of the tables. He grabbed the pencil next to it and scribbled the word “antitoxin” on it with a question mark. The girl flinched as he strode toward them but the doctor remained calm as Ortiz handed the pad to him.
Schmidt pointed to his head, then to his daughter, himself, then upstairs. Finally he pointed to the word “antitoxin.”
He wanted their freedom in exchange for the antitoxin. Yeah, Ortiz didn’t blame him. The doctor knew that they’d move heaven and earth to get him out alive with that bargaining chip.
Ortiz nodded and pointed at the girl to move. She stood on shaky legs and moved behind her father. At least she wasn’t crying. He couldn’t deal with a histrionic principal.
Using hand signals he motioned for them to stay behind him as they crept to the stairs. On silent feet they all ascended the first set of stairs, his weapon on the door.
When the soft click of the door opening sounded, he gritted his teeth. Sweeping out one arm behind him, he urged them to the side so they’d be more protected by his body. The second a man wearing all black fatigues stepped through, he fired a double tap, striking the man in the neck and chest. His suppressor absorbed most of the sound so if someone wasn’t directly outside it was unlikely anyone had heard.
As the man fell off the balcony, blood spurting everywhere as he slammed against the tile floor at an odd angle, the girl screamed in horror. Even though the shots had been muted, her cry would have alerted whoever was listening.
Running footsteps came from outside the door.
Well, hell. Shit was about to get a whole lot dicier now. “Move back,” he ordered them, breaking silence. “We’ve got to take cover.”
Because he planned to hunker down and wait for the assault team. If it was just him he’d fight his way out, but he couldn’t risk either of the principals getting killed.
Chapter 20
Auditory exclusion: a form of temporary loss of hearing occurring under high stress. In combat, a temporary filtering of irrelevant noise including gunfire.
Levi grabbed a button-down shirt from the closet while Jack still stood in the doorway. He weighed his next words as he finished getting dressed. Before he could say anything though, one of his burner phones rang from the tote bag.
“Is that a new style, a man purse?” Jack murmured as Levi headed for where it sat next to the side of the bed, unexpected humor in his voice.
Despite the situation, a small smile tugged at his lips and for a brief moment he remembered how easy things used to be between him and Jack. “Don’t hate when you know you want one. And it’s a man bag, not a purse.” He shot Jack a glance and was glad to see his former friend half smiling too. Levi snagged the ringing phone, all humor fleeing when he saw the number. It was Tasev.
The terrorist had one number for Levi, to a burner phone he kept charged at another location. Anyone who called him on that phone would be forwarded to whatever phone Levi had routed the number to. In this case, he’d routed all calls to this current burner. When he ditched it, he’d reroute it to his next one.
Why the hell was Tasev calling so soon after their meet? Levi pressed the green button to answer the call. “Yeah.”
“You want to tell me why I found your assassin whore hacking into my security system?” Tasev’s voice was razor-wire sharp.
His words made the bottom of Levi’s world drop out. That monster had Selene. His throat tightened and he knew his expression must have showed his horror because Jack straightened, taking a couple of steps into the room. Levi tuned him out though. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I found your Wolf breaking into my home with another man. Looks as if they want to break out my doctor.”
“Don’t fucking lie to me,” Levi snapped, forcing himself to play his role of criminal asshole. “What game are you playing?”
There was a short moment of silence. “I’m not playing a game, Mr. Moore. Now explain yourself or I’ll kill your bitch.”
“I have nothing to explain. I’m not sure that I even believe you. What could she po
ssibly gain by breaking in? We want to do business with you. Long-term business that will be profitable for all of us. She’s seen the numbers.” Full-blown panic hummed through Levi but somehow his voice remained steady. As if he was more annoyed than anything. Not terrified, even though for the first time in years, he was experiencing true, crushing terror.
“She’s told one of my men that she’s here out of revenge and that you knew nothing about it. That she’s been using you all along too. Maybe the little assassin is telling the truth.”
“Using me?” he growled. “Fuck that. Where is she?” he demanded, heart in his throat.
“Are you willing to meet with me? Alone and unarmed?” Tasev asked, a test.
One Levi couldn’t fail. “Yes. I have nothing to hide and if she’s been lying to me I want answers. This doesn’t make sense.”
“Fine. Come alone to my home, no weapons.”
“I need the damn address first,” he snapped.
Tasev chuckled, the sound like fingers on a chalkboard. “You are either very smart or very stupid. I’ll have someone pick you up.”
Levi rattled off the address of a park very near where he suspected Tasev was for the pickup before ending the call. “They have Selene,” Levi said as he turned to Jack, who was slipping his cell phone into his pants pocket.
“I know. Wesley just told me. They’re twenty minutes out.”
He’d done some calculating and had figured out Tasev was in one of three neighborhoods. With the pickup from one of Tasev’s guys he should still get there sooner. The thought of losing Selene gutted him. “I can’t let her die. I fucking can’t.” And that was all he could squeeze out. He wasn’t sure if he loved her but it felt a hell of a lot like it. And he was going to tear Tasev apart with his bare hands.
Jack’s pale eyes widened, maybe at Levi’s tone or what he saw in his expression. Then in standard Jack-fashion, he made a split-second decision and nodded. “Let’s go. I’ll stay invisible at the park but be your backup in case Tasev just tries to kill you outright.”
• • •
Arms cuffed behind her back, Selene stared straight ahead at the wall of the freezer. Tasev had a freaking walk-in freezer. Probably liked to hang dead bodies in here and look at his handiwork. Sick freak.
Chills snaked through her, making her teeth chatter, but she clenched them together trying to calm the effects on her body. It was useless though. She needed to start moving and get her blood circulating faster.
The freezer was empty except for some shelves, the chair she was sitting in, and another chair. Tasev had had one of his guys drag her in here. He’d demanded to know why she was here and who the man in the lab was and what his intentions with the doctor were. Which told her that they hadn’t managed to get to Ortiz yet.
She said a silent prayer they never got to him. She knew by now that backup was about twenty minutes out so he just needed to hold on. And she had no doubt Ortiz could stay alive and keep the doctor alive. Saving all those lives was all that mattered.
Her only regret was that she hadn’t told Levi she loved him. She didn’t care how short of a time they’d known each other. When you knew, you simply knew, and she didn’t see the point in analyzing it. She loved him.
And now she was going to die.
She wondered how much he’d care. The thought that he wouldn’t hurt worse than anything.
She just hoped he killed that bastard Tasev. She’d lied to Tasev, telling him she was after the doctor out of revenge for what Tasev had done to her friend Meghan. Which had some truth in it. Tasev had killed a woman Selene had known and she had details to back up her story. It was the only thing that might keep her alive long enough for the teams to arrive. She doubted it, but she wasn’t going down without a fight.
She tensed as the freezer door opened. She expected to see Tasev come back in. He’d been gone for less than sixty seconds.
Instead two men strode in. She recognized both as guards. One had blond hair, dark eyes, and a bandaged hand. Crap. It had to be the man she’d shot. The other was the one she knew as Grisha, shaved head, scarred neck, and all-around scary-looking bastard.
The one with the bandaged hand came to stand directly in front of her, holding a blade. Her KA-BAR. She refused to meet his gaze, looking at his torso instead. It didn’t matter that backup was on the way. Anything could happen in minutes and a mere sixty seconds could feel like an eternity of hell while being tortured.
The man ran the dull, back edge of the blade down the side of her face. “So pretty. For now.”
She didn’t respond, which was certain to annoy him. Terror forked through her at what could happen to her, but she didn’t focus on her fear. Victims did that. She was a fighter.
He grabbed the other chair, the scraping against the floor in the enclosed area jarring to her senses. A shiver raked through her, more to do with the cold than anything else. The adrenaline rush from earlier and the gas attack in the SUV had left her overly weak. At least she could still think straight.
The man turned the chair around and straddled it about a foot away from her. Their first mistake was in not binding her legs. Though she wasn’t exactly surprised. Tasev was an egomaniac and she was “just a woman.” He would think he had her beat no matter what because of the sheer opposition. Too bad for him he was wrong.
“Your boyfriend is on the way,” the man said. “We’ve got a bet going who’s going to hurt you more, him or Tasev. My money’s on Tasev.” He let out a wicked laugh.
Oh God, what a moron. She was glad he was talking though. The longer he talked, the better chance she had to survive. She had to be down to seventeen minutes now. She’d been knocked out for less than a minute, because she’d come to as she was being dragged through the foyer. Mascara and her tears still streaked her face. But hell, she was alive so that was something.
“Lucky for me Tasev lets us have his leftovers and you are one tasty morsel.” There was a slight accent to his voice so she focused on that, not his vile words. It was how she compartmentalized. And seriously, who said words like “tasty morsel” anyway? She clenched her jaw and kept looking straight ahead at a point over the man’s shoulder.
Grisha had moved closer. Maybe he wanted to hurt her too. She twisted her wrists against the back of the chair and bent her thumb all the way back. There was just enough wiggle room to get it out. But she couldn’t be obvious about it.
“Almost as tasty as your redheaded friend.”
Against her will her gaze snapped to his. Instantly she cursed her reaction, but it was too late.
Grinning evilly, the guard tapped the edge of her blade against her knee. “That got a reaction. You really are here because of that whore. Tasev wasn’t sure if you were lying or not.”
Selene clenched her teeth, willing herself not to say anything. Her position was awkward, but she slipped her thumb under the cuff. It scraped against the back of the chair but he didn’t seem to notice. Unfortunately Grisha took a step forward. Crap, did he suspect? She shifted her wrists and let her thumb fall back into place. Her heart pumped overtime but he just moved in behind the other guard. Now she had to start over.
“I had a lot of fun with her. We all did.”
“I’m going to kill you,” she growled, the guttural words tearing from her throat. This man had actually been part of hurting Meghan? Of doing unspeakable things to her? Of breaking Levi’s heart? If it was the last thing she did, Selene was going to kill this bastard and feel no remorse. “What kind of monster rapes a pregnant woman?”
His eyes narrowed on Selene’s face. Moving faster than she anticipated he backhanded her with his nonbandaged hand.
Pain exploded in her cheek and the iron taste of blood filled her mouth. But she wouldn’t be stopped. “I’ll tell you what kind, a fucking degenerate. Big strong man hurts a weak, pregnant woman. You want a fucking medal for that? Go fuck yourself,” she spat. She twisted her wrist again, working faster this time. Her thumb slipped free and she c
lutched on to the cuff to keep her hands in place and to keep it from jangling against the back of the chair.
Instead of responding, he just laughed at her. When his gaze flicked down toward her chest, she took advantage of his distraction. She struck out with her boot, kicking at the leg of the chair, tipping him off balance.
He cried out in surprise and she moved fast, slamming her cupped hands down on his ears in one violent attack. The ear slap was one of the most basic self-defense moves and it worked every time if done right.
The guard shouted and jerked back from her, falling onto his side. She stood, ready to attack Grisha but he moved for the other man, blade raised over the man’s chest. The guard kicked at Grisha’s ankle, knocking him off balance.
Without pausing Selene grabbed the nearest chair and bashed it across the guard’s chest. She heard a cracking and knew she’d broken his ribs. Good. He deserved to suffer for what he’d done.
Before she could move again, Grisha moved lightning fast, grabbing the guard and rolling him onto his face. He wrenched the guy’s arms up hard, making him cry out in pain as he secured his wrists behind his back with cuffs.
“What the hell?” the man snarled, struggling under Grisha’s hold.
Yeah, Selene was thinking the same thing. Keeping the guard pinned, Grisha pulled a blade from a sheath on his belt.
“You raped a pregnant woman?” he growled, disgust in his voice.
Selene glanced at her fallen KA-BAR, wanting to dive for it, but not wanting to gain Grisha’s attention. She had no idea what his endgame was.
He saved the decision for her and kicked her blade over to her. Grisha didn’t look up as he said, “You can kill him if you want. It doesn’t matter to me. We need to get out of here.”
