Facing Fire

by HelenKay Dimon

  “That’s not the right way to play this, Sutton.” He shifted his weight until he seemed to grow and take up more space. Those shoulders looked broader. And with his hands on his hips he blocked her view of most of the room.

  “It’s the only answer I have.” Unlucky for him, she was done being intimidated.

  Yes, he could shoot her, strangle her, do a whole list of horrible things to her. She got that. She’d also begun to suspect that this team, or whatever it was, didn’t consist of mercenaries or trained killers. They were fighting a battle; she just thought they were fighting with the wrong information.

  “I hope, for your sake, that’s not true.” His gaze shot past her. “That was a quick check-in.”

  Mike didn’t hide his entrance. There was nothing stealthy about the way his boots clunked against the hardwood floor as he walked. “We have a problem.”

  Josiah glanced at her. Apparently he thought she could read his mind because she didn’t know what the look meant. Since he didn’t let her out of his sight, she doubted he wanted her outside, roaming the property.

  “Yes?” she asked, knowing they wouldn’t answer.

  “You need to . . .” He looked around.

  Mike shook his head. “There’s no easy solution, is there?”

  They had to be kidding. “If you go outside to talk or into another room I’ll try to listen.” She tapped a finger to her forehead. “A PI, remember? So you may as well say it in front of me.”

  Mike angled his body so his shoulder moved in front of her and he talked directly to Josiah. “Benton is making a move.”

  Josiah touched his ear, then shook his head. He slipped a small silver disc out of his front pocket and held it. “How do we know?”

  “Ellery intercepted chatter.” Mike’s voice dropped even lower. “The target is Iselwood.”

  “Motherfucker.” Even with the accent, the anger in Josiah’s voice was unmistakable. His hand tightened into a ball.

  She watched him pace. Long strides as he rubbed his hands together. For some reason his agitation touched off hers. “I don’t understand. Are those people or things?”

  Josiah stopped and his head shot up. “Iselwood is a private school.”

  He glared at her and she knew they’d circled back and he come down firmly in the she-can’t-be-trusted camp. Again. Rather than risk saying the wrong thing, she tried to stay neutral. Even as waves of anxiety crashed through her. “Okay.”

  “We have to go,” Mike said.

  “Right.” Josiah shoved that disc into his ear then pulled something out of his pocket and held it in his hand. “We’ll tie Sutton to—”

  “Nothing.” Now she saw the strips. Zip ties. “Absolutely not.”

  She backed up. She’d back the whole way up to Baltimore if she had to. There was no way she’d agree to be tied up here while they ran off to do whatever had them both talking in clipped tones. These two liked to shoot. They attracted danger. With her luck something would happen to them and she’d die out here alone.

  And the idea of being separated from Josiah, after all those hours of wanting to be rid of him, hit her like a kick to the gut. She’d told him he was stuck with her and she wasn’t kidding.

  “I can break a zip tie.” She could if they tied her a certain way. She’d actually practiced getting out of the bindings. She pretended she needed the skill for work, but she’d really just been curious.

  “You can’t come along,” Mike said.

  But even he didn’t sound sure of the logistics of leaving her alone. Sutton saw the opening and dove for it. If Benton really was Bane and they were going hunting, so was she. No way would she be left behind. “That’s your only option here. I have skills. I can use a gun.”

  Josiah shook his head. “No.”

  “I can help, and leaving me here could be a problem for you.” She looked from one unreasonable man to the other. “This is an easy choice. You’re saying we want the same guy. Good. Let’s go stop him.”

  Josiah touched her arm. Didn’t grab or manhandle. Just a gentle hold. “This is a potential kidnapping.”

  She tried to keep the frustration out of her voice. “Then I’ll have something in common with the person being attacked since I’m still in the middle of my kidnapping.”

  “Benton is launching an attack on an innocent.” Josiah’s hand dropped to his side. “You haven’t been hurt. Benton won’t show that sort of restraint.”

  “And you keep saying I’m a loose end for this guy, so why risk leaving me here without you.”

  He frowned at her. “No one knows where you are.”

  “I could escape.” She actually had no intention of doing that. Not until she saw this through.

  These guys had power and resources. If she found the right evidence against Bane, they might be the ones to take him down. She didn’t care who got credit so long as someone took Bane out, regardless of whatever name he was using these days.

  “Not from how I intend to tie you up.” The zip ties dangled from Josiah’s fingers.

  He had an answer for everything. On the rank of annoying character traits, that one suddenly zoomed to the top of her list. “What if I am working with Benton? Are you just going to leave me here without a guard?”

  Both men froze. They glanced at each other. She was pretty sure Mike reached for his gun. She was about to call them off with a “just kidding” when Josiah’s eyes narrowed.

  “You are playing a dangerous game.” Anger vibrated in Josiah’s voice. He took a step toward her.

  Mike held up a hand. “We don’t have time for a debate. We’re talking about a kid.”

  The comment sunk in, making her chest ache. “Who?”

  Mike’s eyebrow lifted. “Does that matter?”

  “No.” It didn’t. The idea of a kid being yanked into the middle of danger made her even more clear about what needed to happen. She looked at Josiah. “Is this your child?”

  “No.”

  Relief knocked her breathless. The tension bouncing around the mood wasn’t about a father’s worries. But the child belonged to someone they knew. She could feel it. Some parent was about to be thrown into a nightmare.

  “Boy or girl?” Neither of them answered her, but she didn’t let that stop her. “Fine, pretend a boy. Do you even know him?”

  Mike shook his head. “Never met him.”

  They could not be this clueless. “Then it’s settled.”

  Josiah watched her with an unreadable gaze. Mike didn’t stay silent. “Sounds like you skipped a step in your argument.”

  “According to you I’m not safe alone anyway, and maybe even can’t be trusted. Honestly, you are all over the place on who and what you think I am.” She focused all of her attention on Josiah. The way he carried himself, the confidence. He was in charge. He had the final say, which meant she needed him to agree. “But I can help here. I don’t know how old this child is, but he might be more willing to come to me, a woman, than some male carrying a gun.”

  Instead of launching into another lecture about how she couldn’t be trusted, Josiah waited. After a few beats of quiet, he started talking. “A life is at stake. More than one since this is a school.”

  The thought of kids and gunfire made her want to heave. So many innocents and so much danger. She had to concentrate to keep from breaking down in a flurry of panic.

  “Your file says you can shoot,” Mike said.

  Josiah immediately turned on him. “What the hell?”

  Time to educate him that he wasn’t the only proficient one in the room. “I’m the daughter of a badass policewoman. A single mother who raised her daughter not to be a victim. Add in my hours on the gun range, gun license, and job, and I’d think you’d have some level of comfort with me being able to hit a grown man.”

  “Have you ever shot a person before?” Josiah asked in a flat tone.

  Not the question she expected, but a fair one. Unfortunately she had an answer that might bring Josiah some relie
f. “Yes.”

  She waited for him to argue.

  He tucked the zip ties back into his pocket. “Welcome to the rescue team.”

  8

  THEY’D SPENT all day practicing how they’d move in until Sutton practically begged for mercy. Even made her prove her shooting abilities, which she passed without trouble. Josiah had to admit there was nothing amateur about her skills on that level. Now they waited a safe distance away through the trees, just out of surveillance range, for the “go” signal.

  They depended on Ellery to work her magic from miles away. Josiah and Mike were hooked into her and other members of the Alliance team who were listening in through a communication system. The small discs in their ears allowed them to hear and talk, though Josiah knew there would be little time for chatter.

  Tasha could direct them around inside as Ellery handled the safety protocols. But even Ellery’s powers were limited when it came to Iselwood, the private boarding school consisting of rolling hills, centuries-old stone buildings, and armed guards. Which made this, like almost every other Alliance operation, a potential death mission.

  Josiah watched Sutton stand at the front of the car and slip on her protective vest. She wore black pants and a black shirt, courtesy of the clothing stored at the farmhouse. The place wasn’t one of the Alliance’s usual safe houses. They’d dumped all those locations to eliminate any risk that Benton had discovered them. Tasha secured the farmhouse, bought it . . . who the hell knew. She somehow worked her magic and had it stocked and waiting when they got off the helicopter.

  “This is for you.” He opened his hand to reveal a silver disc.

  Sutton poked at it as she frowned. “An earpiece?”

  “The comm.”

  She turned her frown on him. “Is that a British thing?”

  He slipped it into her ear, careful not to pinch her. Didn’t rush the process. Not after she put her hand over his to guide him. “We communicate through these.”

  “You and this team you keep talking about but I never see, except for Mike and the one appearance of Harlan.”

  The comment set off a warning bell in his head, but he ignored it. “You’ll be able to hear what Mike and I say, and whatever else we want you to hear.”

  “But not everything, right?”

  Ellery could manage the comm in that way, blocking access and opening up lines. Josiah depended on her to maintain that control. “Right.”

  Sutton said the right things and her file looked clean. Her story about chasing another guy who just happened to be the same guy every intelligence organization in the world sought had a ring of truth to it. But the just-happened-to part kept him skeptical and questioning. He had no plans to let down his guard until he had the opportunity to walk her through every single question he needed answered. Even then . . .

  Sutton sighed at him. “Please say you’ll tell me before someone sneaks up and puts a gun to my head.”

  “Probably.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re hysterical.”

  “I like to think so.” He tapped on the disc in her ear. “Ellery is going to walk you through a sound check and fill you in on some directional cues you need.”

  She made a face. “I didn’t even understand that sentence.”

  “You’re going to be fine.”

  “So you keep saying.”

  He walked away then because that look on her face, the mix of reluctant trust and worry, tore at him. He shouldn’t care what was happening in her head. Shouldn’t be thinking about how he was going to protect her and make this mission work with limited resources. Shouldn’t be looking. Period.

  After a quick check to make sure the disc had Sutton occupied, he joined Mike at the stash of weapons and electronics equipment hidden in a compartment in the trunk. Talking to Mike would help . . . or piss Josiah off. One of those.

  Josiah slipped a knife out of the case and slid it into the guard hooked to his belt and within reaching range under his vest. “You realize this could be the trap, right?”

  “Benton can’t get into the school, so he has us walk her in so she can snatch the kid and wipe us out.” Mike wiggled his eyebrows as he whispered, “Yeah, I’ve thought about that.”

  That scenario had run through Josiah’s head, too. Benton would not think twice about using her as a decoy. Josiah couldn’t figure out why she’d agree to that, but people often did shit that made him wonder about humanity.

  “But you believe we should bring her.” Josiah still debated handcuffing her to the metal ring in the backseat and knocking her out.

  “Her as a Benton minion doesn’t feel right to me. I mean, she has a gun, so shoot us now. Or she could have radioed to bring Benton running to our safe house today.”

  “Thoughts like that may keep me up at night.”

  “I think she’s clean.” Mike kept loading up on weapons. “Besides that, we may need the manpower and clean shooting ability. We’re operating with limited hands here.”

  “And she can provide all of that?”

  “Ask her. She can probably lecture you about it.” Mike slipped extra ammunition into the deep utility pocket on the side of his pants leg.

  “I continue to delude myself that we’re in charge.” Though it was starting to feel like Sutton might have too much say when she shouldn’t have any.

  “That’s adorable, by the way.” Mike glanced in Sutton’s general direction. “But seriously, you need to understand something.”

  Whenever Mike slipped into that serious tone, Josiah knew something pretty shitty was coming. “This should be good.”

  “You’re not going to like it.”

  Yeah, very bad. “I’m listening.”

  “She’s pretty.”

  As if Josiah hadn’t figured that out. The woman was so fucking hot that his concentration blinked out when he stared at her for more than five seconds. He’d never let an impressive pair of legs or amazing body kick him off stride. He focused. Did what had to be done. He’d do the same with Sutton, but something about her kept dragging his attention away from necessary things to stupid stuff, like the color of her hair.

  The way she breathed through the terror and didn’t let the fear clamp down on her. Her refusal to shrivel and hide from him. The fierceness that grew stronger as the hours passed. She didn’t come out kicking or shooting. She acted like a woman caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that made him feel for her.

  Not that he planned to admit any of that. He barely admitted it in his own head. “Your point?”

  “You’ve noticed her.”

  “I’m not blind.” Josiah had noticed. Any guy with half an interest in women would notice.

  Mike peeked around the trunk lid to where Sutton stood before dropping his voice to a whisper that barely registered. “If she makes one wrong move I will kill her. Head shot and done. No questions and no chance for explanations, regardless of what she looks like or how into her you are.”

  The words ripped through Josiah but he knew they were right. “I’ll beat you to it.”

  “That’s just it, Josiah. It’s got to be me.” Mike rested a hand on the lip of the trunk and leaned in. “You’ll hesitate.”

  That was a fucking insult. He’d never whiffed on an operation. “Are you forgetting who runs Delta team?”

  “I’m not questioning your commitment or your leadership.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Mike wiped his forehead against his arm. “I’m not blind either. I’ve seen you watching her.”

  Josiah refused to believe that was true. “Which is my job.”

  “The way you held her on the roof. The touching.” Mike shook his head. “Since when do you do that shit?”

  “I’ve slept with women on assignments, then had to kill them. You know I don’t buy into the argument that only men can be bad. I’ve known some pretty fucking lethal women and taken them out.” Not actions he boasted about, but necessary moves to protect the public.

 
; “Yeah, I bet you didn’t look at them the way you look at her.” Mike pushed away from him and stood up straight. “Just laying it out there, boss. She so much as twitches in a way I don’t like, she’s going down.”

  Josiah’s stomach went hollow. “Agreed.”

  “Happy we’re on the same page.”

  Sutton came around the side of the car and stopped right in front of Josiah. “Are others meeting us?”

  Mike smiled at her. “Like who?”

  “We’re going to set off alarms and corral people as they come out and grab this kid . . .” Her gaze bounced from Mike to Josiah. “Or not.”

  Mike shook his head. “Not.”

  “Definitely not,” Josiah said at the same time.

  She finished fastening her protective vest. “Maybe I need a second vest. Do they make these in full-body armor?”

  They’d gone over the particulars all day. Her part anyway. Josiah skipped over what he and Mike would be doing. But she’d been quizzed and repeated every detail back. So Josiah didn’t quite understand the nervousness now. “We sneak past the alarms, grab the kid, and get out. Simple.”

  “Well, I get that.” She put her hand over her ear and whispered, “But this place is huge. Are we sure this Ellery person I’ve never met but can hear in my head can beat this alarm system?”

  “She can hear you right now, by that way,” Mike said in a dry tone.

  Josiah jumped right to the point. “The kids who go here are children of very powerful people. They’re sent here because it’s a lockdown facility. Retinal scanners, security card access at every door. We may have forgotten to tell you that these kids have trackers on them.”

  Some of the color drained from her face. “Are we sure this is really just a school? It sounds like a weird sort of military training ground. I mean, come on. Trackers?”

  “Small and less than the size of a breath mint, implanted under the skin.” Mike used his fingers to demonstrate just how small he meant.

  Her mouth dropped open. “Who are these kids’ parents? Like prime ministers and such?”