by Dale Mayer
As soon as Levi bolted, Ice struggled into a simple jacket to cover her chest, then put her sling on. She’d managed to pull on her jeans and otherwise finished dressing as she made her way to the control room. If Bullard saw her, he’d throw a fit. But these weren’t normal circumstances.
She could sit on a chair and watch the monitors just as well as sitting in her bed. Or rather Levi’s.
But she sure wished the damn alarm had rung a few hours later.
Alfred and Stone were already in the control room.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Alfred snapped. “Get back to bed.”
Dave walked in, looking dashing in a gentleman’s smoking coat. She kept her smile to herself and headed for the monitors.
“I’m fine and would rather know what’s happening than hiding out and worrying.” She patted his shoulder gently with her uninjured hand. “If it’s all good, I’ll go back to bed.” She leaned forward to look at the monitors. “What’s going on?”
“Intruder coming in the second garage,” Stone said. “Looks to be the only one.”
“Who’s checking it out?” she asked.
“Levi and Bullard have both gone down. Rhodes and Merk are checking the other entrances.” Stone leaned forward to peer closer at the monitor. He reached out and tapped the one on the left. “Appears something is up on the hill.”
Everyone leaned closer. “Is it blocking the camera?” she asked. “Or is someone up there?”
“We can’t see clearly enough.” Stone made a few tweaks on the angles. “We also need to put up firewalls to stop the damn hackers.”
“I can help you with that.” Dave patted Stone’s shoulder. “We’ll also make a few adjustments on the camera angles so you don’t have that blind spot there. From my point of view, that blockage appears deliberate.”
“Do we need to get somebody up there to take a look?” Ice turned to walk back outside. “I’ll go.”
“Lots of men here. They can take a look,” Alfred protested. “You’re injured. You need to get back to bed. They can go without you.”
She laughed. Considering the recent session with Levi, she felt strong enough to do anything. “How many of them know about the secret exit that opens up to that part of the hillside? I will lead the men, that’s all. They can do the rest. I promise. I’ll stay at the entrance.”
With men at her side, she headed for her gear. Slipping into her boots, she grabbed her vest, carefully slipped her arm out of the sling and put it on. With her good arm, she twisted her hair, gritted her teeth, clipped it up behind her head, and was delighted to realize the pain wasn’t as bad as she’d expected.
It had to be Bullard’s drugs.
But for the moment, she’d take it.
She grabbed the binoculars and headed down toward the hallway into the two exits. Rhodes was there waiting for her with one of Bullard’s men. She gave a clipped nod and moved. “Let’s go. Who knows if they’ve moved?”
Rhodes handed her a headpiece, which she quickly donned. Dropping her voice just above a whisper, she asked, “Stone, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear.” There was a slight crackle to the line, but there wasn’t too much interference.
Good. That was a clean reception. She could work with that. “We’re leaving the main part of the building now. We may lose some comm as we go through the tunnel.”
“Hoping that won’t happen,” Stone said. “We were aware of that problem and put boosters in. The transmission should hold, so keep talking to me as you move through. Test it as you go.”
“Thanks. Can you still see the blockage up on the hillside?” she asked.
“Affirmative.”
She picked up the pace, holding her wounded arm to stop some of the jostling motion. “Okay, we’re running through the tunnel right now. Turn on the lighting, please.” Instantly the stone hallway was flooded with low ambient light.
“Oh, nice.” She ran forward for another few minutes, then asked, “Can you still hear me, Stone?”
“Breaking up a little bit but you’re coming in loud and clear. Looks like the boosters are working.”
“Okay, we’re less than thirty feet from the exit. Keep alert, everyone.”
Once there she pulled her weapon free of her harness and stepped up to the door. With a nod Rhodes quickly opened the double wooden door, letting a slice of moonlight shine in. She slipped out and went low, sweeping the area.
As she’d promised to stay at the exit, she motioned to the others. Rhodes came behind her and swept high. In the distance she could see something.
Like hell she was staying behind.
Silently the three of them climbed the few feet to the crest of the ridge. What she saw was not what she’d expected. Approaching slowly, she took another couple steps toward the man lying on the ground. If he had a weapon in his hand, she would think he was lining up for a shot; instead he appeared to be motionless.
With Rhodes and Andrew, Bullard’s man, covering her actions, she raced forward and held her gun to the man’s head, then reached down to check for a pulse.
He was dead.
“Shit.”
In her headset, Stone said, “What the hell? You were supposed to stay at the tunnel, damn it. I can see you bending over something. What’s going on?”
“It’s a dead man.”
“You sure he’s dead?” Stone asked in alarm. “Can you identify if it’s his body that’s blocking the camera?”
“Where is the camera?” In the half moonlight she studied the ground—the hidden spot was beyond her. She bent down and lifted the man’s head. Using her cell phone’s flashlight, she turned to look at the man’s features. “It’s one of the men who broke into the compound a few days ago.”
“What?” Stone asked. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“None of this does. But the fact is, we have a dead body on our land.”
“Technically,” she heard Alfred say, “that’s not our land.”
She nodded as his words crackled in her ear. “I know that.”
Crouching, she turned to study the rest of the area, but she found no sign of anything else moving. “Stone, do the tapes show how he arrived here?”
“I’m searching through them now,” he said. “Give me a minute.”
Rhodes and Andrew spread out as they searched the top of the hill, checking over the sides and down.
There were no roads here. So this intruder either came under his own steam or he’d been carried. And he was not small. No, it was probably foolish, but she couldn’t help but look up and wonder if he’d been dropped. She hadn’t heard a helicopter or plane, but that didn’t mean there hadn’t been one while they’d been inside. And she’d been otherwise busy …
She looked down. No way to know how much damage was done to the body in this light. If he’d been dropped, his bones would be smashed to shit.
“Any progress on the intruder?” she asked.
“No, he appears to have taken off.”
She shook her head. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“None of us do. We’re still searching. Looking to see if he left anything behind.”
“You mean, besides a dead body?” she asked drily. “Maybe he killed his partners?”
“Possible,” Stone said. “We can’t afford to make that assumption.”
“No assumptions here but it’d be nice to have an answer.”
Rhodes approached. “I suggest we take him back into the tunnel. We haven’t seen anyone out here, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more of them.”
“Good idea.” She led the way back with the two men carrying the body. Inside she waved the men to go on first, then stepped outside the door and watched to see if anyone, or anything, stirred.
“Stone, can you see anything out there?”
“No, it’s all clear.”
With one final look, she slipped back inside. “Okay, coming home.”
*
Where the
hell was the intruder? Levi was growing tired of this shit. Not only had this asshole disturbed something very special between him and Ice, but the guy was proving too damn hard to find. With the men all spread out, they were systematically searching the lower floor. Stone said he thought no one was in the house, but that was not enough for Levi. They would check every damn hole to make sure nobody was inside.
They had alarms on the front and back doors, but now they would have them everywhere. Each with its own code so they knew which exit was in use. And, for some reason, the security outside hadn’t been organized. Then they’d been running four-hour shifts and hadn’t shut down for the night. Normally he’d do the final walk-through the place, but he’d been … busy.
His headset crackled as everyone checked in. No sign of the intruder.
“Damn it,” he swore softly. “Where could he have gone?”
“I’m going through the tapes,” Stone said. “We’ll find him. But you need to get to the med bay and take a look at what Ice has brought home.”
Ice? What the hell? She should be in bed. His bed!
He bolted for the medical room. Or had he misunderstood? Was she back there because she was hurt? Had her stitches ripped open? Or something worse?
At the double doors, he slammed through in a panic—and came to a stop.
Not only was Ice not on one of the two beds but she was in combat boots and fully armed, standing over some guy lying down instead.
His gaze swept over the prone man, and Levi realized something else—the man was dead.
Chapter 17
Ice caught the flicker in Levi’s eyes. She straightened her back and gave him a cool look. She met him halfway. “I’m fine.” She nodded toward the man on the bed. “He obviously isn’t. However, we found no sign of anyone else around.”
“Any idea what happened to him?”
Ice shook her head. “No idea beyond the bullet to his head.”
“Right. We need to continue searching the building from top to bottom.”
She nodded, and then a thought occurred. She spun to look at the others. “Did anybody check on Sienna?” They all shook their heads. Ice no longer had all her gear on. She walked to the monitors and hit the comm to call the control room. “Stone, have you checked Sienna’s room?” She glanced at the men. “We need to make sure she’s okay.”
“Dave’s on his way.”
Dropping her hand, she shook her head, not liking any of this one bit. “Something feels seriously wrong.” She studied the dead man. He’d been shot in the back of his head. “Levi, do you recognize this man?”
Levi stepped up beside her and looked. “Definitely one of the men who was here the other night.”
She turned to look at Levi. “Originally we’d joked about planning a morgue for this place. Now it looks like we need one. This is getting ridiculous.” Her words might’ve been teasing, but her tone was not. The longer she stood here, the more the itchiness in the back of her head built. “Okay, we have to search every inch of this place. There is something wrong.” She pointed to the two men standing across from her. “You two go to the garages and the R&D room. Stay fully armed, and watch your back. I swear to God, someone is inside.”
Systematically and fast she and Levi swept the main floor. She studied the tunnel access. The door was slightly ajar. She motioned to Levi. He came up behind her, gun ready, and opened it. Nothing. He turned on the lights but could see nothing. That didn’t mean somebody hadn’t come in or gone out this way. “We’ve done one sweep already.”
“Not good enough.” She motioned toward the pantry and the kitchen and the butler’s kitchen too. Basically what that meant was, there were too many places to hide.
She hit the intercom. “All hands on deck. We’re assuming an intruder is still inside this building. First floor is clear. We’re proceeding to a second-floor sweep.”
“Why did you give our position away?” Levi asked. But no anger or disappointment was in his voice, just curiosity.
“Because I want him to find us,” she said. “We have to flush him out somehow.”
He grinned, his teeth flashing white in the darkness of the room. “I wouldn’t expect anyone to try a stunt like this until we were all asleep.”
“Except we’re running four-hour shifts, so, in actual fact, we were never all asleep.”
“Which would imply he would know that.”
She shrugged. “We’ll work to find the nuances of the how and why later.”
In tandem, as they had many times before during practice runs, they again swept through the lower floor of the building, checking out the nooks and crannies, the closets, the hallways. When they were clear, they moved up to the second floor. The other two men checked the garage and did a full sweep outside. She hadn’t heard from Stone for a while. They did a full inspection of the second floor, coming up to the control room last. Without any warning, they charged in, guns ready, and found Stone and Alfred, sitting there, watching.
“Hey, guys. It’s just us. Were fine. No sign of anyone yet.”
Silently the two moved back out to the hallway. As they headed to the stairwell and last bedroom, they were silent. Outside Sienna’s room, they found Dave standing guard. “She’s fine,” he whispered. “She’s sleeping like a baby.”
Levi nodded and motioned Ice to move ahead of him. They crept up the last staircase together. There wasn’t much up here. Her now empty room and Levi’s.
With a frown, they glanced at each other and headed toward hers first. They checked out the closets and bathroom, then turned to Levi’s suite.
It bothered her to think someone had slipped into that space. It was her space—hers and Levi’s—but then again, maybe someone expected her to be there right now. She was injured. What if the sniper knew he’d hit her about her relationship with Levi, and expected her to be in his room?
Gearing up for the confrontation, they burst through the door. She went low; Levi high.
Even as pain jarred her system at the movement, she gritted her teeth and charged through it. Things could have been much worse.
With the room open in front of them, they froze. There was nothing to see.
But they had to make sure. They checked the closets and bathroom. Like every other room so far, they found nobody. Back in the hallway again, Levi was already heading to the small door on the side that led to the roof. She’d forgotten about that one and quickly followed him, even though he motioned for her to stay back. Like hell she would. He opened the door, and they crept up the stairs. This compound was unbelievable. There was a rooftop deck, if that was what one wanted to call it. At the top, they pushed open the door slowly and peered out into the night. She hadn’t been up here for days.
Weeks actually. In the summer, it would make an awesome retreat in the evenings. However, in the darkness, it gave them a hell of a vantage point to view the compound.
But even here the place was empty.
So where was the intruder?
She lowered her weapon and turned to Levi. “What do you think? Is he long gone?”
“It’s possible. I’m worried he might have left bugs behind. Harrison will have to go through the place with the detectors and make sure we’re clean.”
In her mind she was okay with that idea. The intruder could have left so much worse. But, until they actually checked, there was no way to know. They headed downstairs to their floor. She walked into Levi’s room and sat down on the edge of the bed.
She was done.
He stood at the doorway, a worried look on his face. “Are you okay?”
She gave him a lopsided smile and said, “I will be. I’m just tired.”
“Did you reinjure yourself?”
Ice shook her head. “No, just tired,” she said firmly. Ice waved her good arm at him. “Go. I need to rest.”
Undecided he stood in place until she shooed him away several more times.
When he finally did leave, she sank back to the pillows.
/>
“Dear God, I’m glad that’s over,” she whispered.
Unfortunately he also left the door open. That meant she had to get up again. She struggled to her feet and made her way slowly to the door. Now that he’d gone and the panic was over, she was more tired than she could believe.
She closed the door and turned back to the room. All she wanted was to collapse on her bed.
Except she was no longer alone.
Even worse, she’d left her gun half concealed by blankets on the bed where she’d been sitting.
“Who the hell are you and what do you want?” she asked the gunman standing in front of her.
In her mind she was figuring out where the hell he’d been hiding that they’d missed him. But that wasn’t the biggest issue bothering her. It was that this asshole held a Luger in his hand with the casual ease of someone who was used to firearms and had no qualms about using them.
A head shot she would not survive, but a body one she might. She was wearing her vest, but she was definitely not at her strongest to take him down.
And she’d just closed off her one escape route.
The man wore a full face mask and was dressed in dark military garb and combat boots. But something was very unmilitary about his bearing. And the paunch didn’t add to the image either.
And then she knew.
“Rodriguez?”
Instead of answering her, he cocked the gun and pointed it at her head.
*
Levi hated to leave her. Ice had been strong at his side the entire time, and he had forgotten she was wounded. She had never given any sign her injury was holding her back in the least. Until she sat down on the side of the bed. He should have forced her to stop earlier.
But she knew when to quit, and he admired that about her. As he walked down the hallway toward the stairs, he really hated to go.
Dave stood watch over Sienna, and all the other men were busy checking out the security of the entire compound. But what about Ice? Was she safe? She was vulnerable right now. She’d be horrified to even hear him worrying about her.
He continued toward the stairwell and realized he couldn’t force himself to. Something was wrong. He stopped and looked back.
