Driving Force

by Elle James

  “That’s Jane, to you,” Jane answered.

  Cole chuckled. “I stand corrected. Everyone set?”

  Declan, Mustang, Mack, Snow and Arnold all reported in.

  “It’s game time,” Declan said.

  Arnold opened the door and held it for Jane.

  She slid her legs out the door and let Arnold pull her to her feet.

  Gus got out behind her and waited while Arnold unloaded the suitcase filled with the disassembled parts of the weapons they might need if the assault happened as indicated on the Dark Web.

  Placing one hand on the small of her back, the other on the handle of the rollaway suitcase, Gus walked with Jane into the hotel. The limousine left the covered entrance and drove away. Arnold would park it in the pay-to-park lot near where Cole had positioned the van. He’d be Cole’s eyes around the van and backup for the team inside if the going got tough.

  Security guards stopped Gus on the way into the hotel. He showed his identification.

  Jane patted her body and looked up at the guards with a grimace. “Oh, dear, I left my purse in the limousine.”

  “We’ll notify the limousine company when we get inside.” Gus pointed to the clipboard the security guard held with the names of the guests due to arrive. “That’s us there, Mr. and Mrs. Walsh.” He prayed the guard wouldn’t insist on inspecting the contents of the case. The disassembled weapons were tucked into hidden compartments, but a smart guard would notice the case was bigger than the interior showed, and heavier than the few items displayed inside.

  The guard put a check beside Gus’s name, nodded and stepped aside, allowing them to enter the lobby.

  A number of men wearing business suits stood around, talking in small groups.

  Margaret had done her homework and shown them pictures of some of the people who would be attending the preliminary hearing.

  Gus recognized a few of the men. “The delegates are here,” he said softly.

  “All is quiet in the hallways and at the entrances,” Cole reported.

  Gus and Jane walked to the front desk and registered. A few minutes later, they were in the elevator on their way up to their third-floor room.

  “Delegates are making their way to the conference center,” Cole reported.

  “Almost to our room,” Gus said.

  They emerged from the elevator and walked to the room, waved the key card over the locking mechanism and they were in.

  Gus quickly laid the case on the bed, unzipped it and unfolded it.

  While he opened the hidden compartment on one side, Jane uncovered the other side. They quickly assembled the weapons in time for a knock on the door.

  Gus checked through the peephole and then opened the door to Declan and Mustang dressed in janitor uniforms.

  Wordlessly, Jane supplied them with handguns and several magazines of ammunition.

  They tucked the guns in their pockets and exited, headed down the stairwells toward the second floor where the conference rooms were located.

  A moment later, Snow and Mack arrived wearing the electrician uniforms.

  “Wish I had a submachine gun,” Snow lamented.

  “Kind of hard to hide one,” Gus said and handed Snow several magazines of ammo.

  “Let’s hope this doesn’t get too ugly,” Mack said. “There are a lot of guests in the hotel today besides the delegates for the hearing.”

  “The conference room doors have been closed, all delegates inside,” Cole reported into their ears.

  “Let’s get this show on the road,” Snow said. He and Mack left the room and headed down to the opposite end of the hallway where Declan and Mustang had gone and descended the stairwell.

  Gus watched until they disappeared and then turned back to Jane. “Ready?”

  “Almost.” She strapped on a shoulder holster and tucked a handgun in the pocket. Then she slipped on the jacket Charlie had loaned her to go with the black jumpsuit. She pulled the pant leg of her suit up and checked the strap of the scabbard holding the knife she’d chosen to carry. Then she lifted the other pant leg and patted the spare magazine strapped there.

  Gus smiled. “All I have to say is that I’m glad you’re on our side.”

  She dropped the pant leg and straightened, her eyes sparkling. “You should be.” Then she stepped up to him, planted a kiss on his lips and said, “I’m ready.”

  He grabbed her around the waist, his hand bumping against the gun beneath her jacket. It didn’t deter him from pulling her close and kissing her harder. Then he set her away from him and muttered, “Focus.”

  “That’s right. We have to focus.”

  Gus opened the door and stepped into the hallway, checking left and right before he held out his hand to Jane.

  She placed her fingers in his palm and walked with him to the elevator.

  Once inside, Gus pushed the button and waited for the doors to slide shut.

  As they closed, Cole’s voice sounded in his ear. “We have movement in the hallway from the direction of the kitchen.” His voice was tight, urgent.

  The elevator door closed all the way and the car started down.

  An explosion rocked the building.

  The elevator shuddered to a stop and the lights blinked out.

  “Damn.” Gus pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and turned on the flashlight application. “We’re trapped in the elevator. What’s going on out there?”

  “Can’t tell,” Cole replied. “The security cameras blinked off. Wait—they’re back on and the hallways are lit with emergency lights. It’s a lot harder to see anything with them.”

  “Where are the guys who were coming from the kitchen?”

  “Hold on...” Cole said. “There. They’re climbing the east stairwell to the second floor. They appear to be carrying automatic weapons.”

  “Should have brought a submachine gun,” Snow said into Gus’s ear.

  “You guys will have to start the party without us. We’re stuck in the elevator. But not for long.” Gus laid his phone on the ground, the flashlight pointing up. Then he reached up and pushed on the panel above his head, shoving it to the side.

  “Need a boost?” Jane laced her fingers and cupped her hands.

  Gus stepped into Jane’s palms and pulled himself up through the narrow opening into the elevator shaft. The elevator had stopped five feet below the third floor. If they could open the doors on the third floor, they could get out.

  He leaned over the trap door and looked down at Jane’s face gazing up at him. “Give me your hand.”

  She reached up and clasped his hand in hers.

  He pulled her up through the hole until she could grasp the edges of the opening and drag herself the rest of the way through. Her hat had been knocked off and her hair spilled out of the pins and down her back. She’d tossed the sunglasses in the dark. This was the woman Gus was growing to love and admire. Not the socialite in the fancy clothing, but the kick-ass female who could take a man down with her hands and her skills.

  Together, they dragged the elevator doors open to the third floor.

  The hallway was empty, the only illumination that of the emergency lighting and the exits signs.

  Gus pulled himself up and out the elevator doors, then reached down and helped Jane up to stand beside him.

  No sooner were they on their feet than they were running for the stairwell.

  “We’re out and moving,” Gus reported. “Heading down the west stairwell.”

  “Beware,” Cole said. “More men, heavily armed, are heading up from the ground floor to the second floor. You might converge at the same time.”

  “Got it,” Gus said.

  “Looks like they have the conference room on lockdown,” Cole added.

  Cole pulled the handgun from the shoulder holster beneath his suit
jacket and ran down the stairs.

  Below him, he could hear the clumping sound of boots coming up the stairs from below.

  Halfway down to the second floor, Gus paused on the landing and waited for Jane to catch up. Ready. He mouthed the word.

  She gave one brief nod.

  They descended quietly, clinging to the wall as they rounded to the landing onto the second floor.

  Two men, carrying semiautomatic rifles, charged up the stairs only a few steps from the top. They wore black clothes, black ski masks and no police markings on the tactical vests they had strapped on over their shirts.

  When the lead man spotted Gus, he jerked his rifle up in front of him and fired.

  Gus saw the move coming and backed around the corner, pushing Jane behind him. If the gunmen had been hotel guards or Department of Homeland Security, they would have identified themselves before shooting.

  The bullets pounded into the wall where he’d been standing.

  He ducked low and popped out around the corner at around knee level and fired, hitting the man in the chest.

  The man staggered backward but didn’t go down.

  Figuring he must be wearing protective armor in his tactical vest, Gus aimed lower and hit him in the knees.

  The front man dropped and rolled to the side to be replaced by another.

  He fired up the stairs.

  Gus lay flat on the floor and returned fire.

  Behind him, Jane came out from the corner and aimed at the man’s head, hitting him with her first round. The man went down and didn’t move.

  She fired at the guy Gus had hit in the knee. He didn’t move.

  Gus and Jane descended the rest of the way to the second floor and pushed open the stairwell door, just enough to look down the hallway.

  The sound of gunfire echoed off the walls along with the screams of people caught in the melee.

  “Five shooters have made it to the doors of the conference center,” Cole said. “Four more are on their way through the lobby.”

  Jane darted past Gus and ran down the hallway toward the conference center.

  “Wait,” Gus called out. “You can’t go in alone.”

  “What’s going on?” Cole demanded.

  “Jane’s almost to the corner. She ran ahead.” Gus raced after her, close, but not close enough to cover for her. The woman had worked alone for so long, she didn’t know what it meant to wait for backup.

  Now she was running straight into a situation where she’d be outnumbered from the get-go.

  When Jane disappeared around the corner, Gus’s heart skipped several beats. He wasn’t far behind her, but any distance could mean the difference between dead and alive.

  Shots were fired and the blurp sound of a machine gun made Gus’s blood run cold.

  He burst out from around the corner to find Jane lying prone on the ground, her handgun in front of her. She fired one round after another until her magazine had emptied. When Jane dropped the magazine, and pulled the second one from the strap on her leg, Gus laid down protective fire, aiming for the man who’d taken cover in an alcove. One man had a submachine gun he aimed around the corner, firing indiscriminately.

  “Declan and Mustang have the ground floor,” Cole reported. “They’re firing now on the men moving through the lobby. Snow and Mack made it into the conference room before the lockdown. They’re protecting the doors.”

  “We’ve got the hallway in front of the conference room,” Jane said.

  “No, we don’t,” Gus disagreed. “There are five of them and two of us. And one of them is armed with a submachine gun.”

  “He wasn’t carrying additional rounds,” Jane said. “He’ll blow through what he has soon. We only have to keep him from doing it in the conference room.”

  The hallway went silent for a moment.

  When Gus took the opportunity to duck out from the corner and fire, Jane grabbed hold of his shirt and yanked him back behind cover.

  The man with the submachine gun lay in the middle of the hallway, aiming low to the ground. He let loose a burst toward where Jane and Gus were positioned, the number of bullets coming at them chipped away at the corner, spewing Sheetrock dust and paint.

  When the firing ceased, Gus dared to look around the corner. The man with the machine gun was gone, along with his backup.

  “They’re closing in on the conference room,” Gus said. “I’m going forward.”

  Jane jumped up beside him. “Not without me.”

  Together, they raced after the attackers, rounded another corner and came face-to-face with the five men in black ski masks, all pointing weapons at them.

  “Drop your weapons and we might let you live.”

  “In that case,” Gus said. “No.” He dove for Jane as the men opened fire.

  A bullet hit his arm and one pierced his side.

  Jane fell to the floor, crushed by his weight.

  The doors to the conference room burst open. Declan and Mustang emerged, firing on the men attacking Jane and Gus.

  From the other end of the hallway, Snow and Mack flew out of the stairwell and fired, careful not to hit Declan and Mustang.

  Gus lay on top of Jane, holding her down as the others picked off the attackers one by one.

  When the shooting stopped, Gus rolled to the side and checked Jane. “Hey, are you all right?” Blood pooled on the floor around them.

  “I think I was hit,” she said, her voice weak. She reached out and touched near the wound on his shoulder. “I can’t tell if it’s my blood or yours.”

  Gus pushed to his feet, pain shooting through his side and arm. He didn’t care. Jane had been hit.

  He bent and lifted her in his arms. “We have to get you to a hospital.”

  She shook her head. “No. I don’t have any identification. And for all I know, I’m probably on a CIA most wanted list. You can’t take me to a hospital. But you can go. Put me down.”

  He shook his head. “You’re going.” Gus headed for the stairs.

  Declan stepped in front of him. “Let me take her. You’re hurt.”

  “No. I’ve got her,” Gus insisted. “Get out of my way. She needs a hospital, ASAP.”

  Gus had just about reached the stairs when a man burst through the doorway and blocked Gus’s path.

  “No one leaves Trinity alive,” he said and pointed a gun at Jane in Gus’s arms.

  Jane gasped. “I know that voice.”

  “You should. You worked for me,” the man said in a low, menacing tone. “Since you insist on disobeying orders, Trinity has no more use for you.”

  Gus, with his hands full, couldn’t do anything but hold Jane. If he dropped her, she’d be no better off. Her handler would redirect his aim and kill her anyway.

  “Don’t hurt her,” Gus said. “She might die anyway.”

  The man shook his ski-mask-covered head. “Can’t leave loose ends.”

  “Maybe so, but I can’t let you hurt my people,” a woman’s voice sounded behind the man.

  A shot rang out.

  Gus stood for a moment fully expecting the bullet to have hit either him or Jane.

  The gun slipped from the hand of the man in front of him and fell to the floor. A second later, the man toppled over, dead.

  Margaret Rollins stood behind the dead man, a .45 caliber Glock in her hand. She wore dark pants, a dark shirt and had her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail.

  Gus, Jane, Declan and the others all glanced her way, brows raised.

  “What? Did you think I was only John’s secretary?” She snorted. “Back in my prime, I worked as a field agent for the CIA. I know how to fire one of these.” She nodded toward the man on the ground. “Ask him.” Then she bent to pull the mask off the man’s head and nodded. “I thought we had a leak in Halverson International
.” Quincy Phishburn lay on the ground at her feet. “And I had an inkling it was him.”

  “I’d love to stand here and argue but Jane needs a doctor,” Gus reminded her.

  “I have an ambulance on standby downstairs,” Margaret said. “Let one of the others carry her down.”

  “I’m taking her.” Gus stepped around Margaret and descended the stairs to the ground level.

  Police, SWAT and emergency medical personnel filled the lobby, caring for the injured and taking statements.

  Cole and Arnold had joined them as soon as the threat had been neutralized.

  “Lay her down here,” an EMT insisted, pointing Gus to a stretcher that had been rolled in from one of the waiting ambulances.

  “Get her to a hospital before she loses too much blood,” Gus insisted.

  “We will. Let us stabilize her before we go too far,” the EMT said. “And in the meantime, take a seat on the other stretcher. You’re bleeding all over the floor.”

  Declan placed a hand on Gus’s shoulder. “Let them stop your bleeding,” he said. “You’re of no use to Jane if you die.”

  Gus eventually stepped back and let the medical personnel work over Jane. Mack and Snow ganged up on him and forced him to take a seat on a stretcher. “Don’t leave her for a moment. Trinity might have someone standing by to take her out.”

  “We’ll stick with her,” Declan said. “You’re losing blood. You need to let the emergency medical team help you.”

  “Damn it, don’t worry about me. See to Jane.” Gus fought back the hazy gray fog blurring his vision. “I let her down. I didn’t keep her from being shot.”

  “You did the best you could.” Declan patted his arm. “Cole, Mustang, Mack and Snow are standing around Jane. They’ll make sure she gets to the hospital and the treatment she needs. You need to go, as well.”

  The EMTs wheeled Jane to an ambulance first. Four of Declan’s Defenders climbed into the ambulance with her. Two in the front, two in the back, making it pretty crowded inside, but reassuring Gus that she would be guarded with their lives if necessary.

  “Hurry up. Get me into the ambulance,” Gus shouted. “I need to get to the hospital.”

  Margaret appeared beside him. “I’m going with you to the hospital. I have a proposal we need to discuss. Are you going to be conscious enough to listen?”