Two seconds later, Rhys and Jake walked back into the room. A scrawny man struggled at the end of Jake’s arm as he was dragged across the carpet. Ally’s breath hitched as Jake thrust him forward and into view.
Lucas Addams.
Ally stood up straight. She leaned back into Carter’s chest, her heart pounding in her own. Even though she knew there was no way Lucas could manage to pull out of Jake’s grip, she still couldn’t stop fear from springing to life inside.
The man had been trying to kill her for the last three days, after all. And from the sneer he cast her when their eyes met, it looked like he wasn’t done trying yet.
“What are you doing here, Addams?” Carter demanded.
Lucas stared at Ally for a full second before his gaze slid over to Carter. “And here I thought you would be sympathetic, Macmillan, seeing how you know what it’s like trying to lead a group of incompetent baboons.”
Jake grabbed a handful of Lucas’ hair and pulled back sharply. “If you want to keep all the teeth in that pretty boy smile of yours, I would answer the man.”
Carter crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“I was cleaning up a mess,” Lucas finally said. “A bigger one than I imagined, it appears.”
“You’re too late,” Ally said, taking a step forward and swallowing past her fear. “We found the flash drive.”
Lucas barked a biting laugh. “Who cares?”
Ally’s victorious smile faltered. “What do you mean?”
“We tried to end this the easy way. We really did,” Lucas’ eyes went almost wild. Ally took a step back. “But you refused to play nice.”
“Refused to die, you mean,” Carter said.
“Just her. She was the only one that knew anything,” Lucas said. “The rest of you could have gone on breathing.”
“Not the men in ODA1213,” Carter said.
“You should know better than anyone that in war there are casualties.”
Lucas squirmed as Jake tightened his grip. “Wrong answer.”
“Do you think we’re any different? We’re not,” Lucas babbled. “Thanks to your friends here, it looks like all of us good little foot soldiers are going to die now.”
“What are you talking about?” Rhys asked, his voice colder than any Ally had ever heard.
When Lucas didn’t answer Rhys pressed on a spot on Lucas’ shoulder. The man’s head fell forward as he screamed in pain. It took Lucas a moment to recover from whatever Rhys had done to him, but when he lifted his head a demented smile twisted his mouth.
“Boom!” Lucas said, before filling the room with hysterical laughter.
Ally looked at Carter. “That’s why the building was clear.”
Carter’s face went hard.
“The time for subtlety was over,” he said. “Since we couldn’t find the disk, I figured why not just destroy it all—scorched earth style.”
Carter looked over at his men. “Get out now. He’s rigged the place with bombs.”
“Too late,” Lucas taunted, acting every bit the madman that Ally had imagined he was. “For all of us. I barely had enough time to set the charges and get out before your boys nabbed me.”
“We’re going to die.” The words fell from Ally’s lips before she could stop them. How much more time did they have? A minute? Ten seconds? There was no way of knowing.
“Like hell we are,” Carter said.
He pulled his gun and turned toward the window. Three precisely placed shots and the glass shattered.
“Get out,” he shouted to the men.
They didn’t waste any time following that order. Jake picked up Lucas by the neck to the opening before tossing him out into the abyss below. One by one, the rest of the men followed, jumping out of the gaping hole.
“Come on, Ally,” Carter called out to her.
“One second,” she said, turning to grab the flash drive from the computer. Her fingers had just wrapped around it when Carter’s arms enveloped her.
“No more seconds,” he said.
Ally clinched the drive in her hands as he strode over to the window.
“Carter,” Ally said, her voice shaking as the cold night air rushed through the broken window and over her body. “There’s no pole this time.”
“And there’s no time.”
He wasn’t lying. Ally heard a thunderous crack the moment Carter’s foot hit the windowsill. A fraction of a second later, a blast of heat surged behind them. It was so intense that it almost made her forget that she was twisting and falling in midair.
Almost.
Air rushed out of Ally’s lungs in a whoosh as they hit the ground. Carter rolled the moment their bodies made contact with dirt, minimizing the force of the impact. Still, Ally struggled to pull in a breath. A few seconds later, they came to a stop on the lawn that lined the office building.
Ally rested her head on the soft ground for a moment before opening her eyes. When she opened them, Carter was propped up above her. His mouth was moving, but she couldn’t make out a word he was saying. Her ears were filled with a loud rushing sound that blocked out all other sounds.
He touched the side of her face with his palms and she did her best to read his lips. It wasn’t that hard to figure out what he was asking.
Are you okay?
She might have had the wind knocked out of her and be temporarily deaf, but she didn’t feel any searing pain or broken bones.
Ally lifted a hand to her head. Her hair wasn’t even singed. So, yeah, she was going to be fine.
Ally nodded. The concerned look on Carter’s face faded a little, and he helped her sit up. Slowly, her hearing started to come back to her, though everything sounded like it was happening far away.
The scene she saw wasn’t all that much better. Broken glass and steel littered the lawn. She lifted her eyes to the building. The whole second floor was gutted. Flames licked out the open holes in the building as black smoke billowed up to the sky.
Dear God, that son of a bitch, Lucas, had done it. He’d blown the place up. He’d almost killed them all and destroyed all the evidence scorched earth style.
But he hadn’t succeeded.
Ally opened her fist and looked down at the flash drive in the center of her palm.
“Is everyone all right?” she asked. She looked around the lawn.
“I think so,” Carter said.
Ally’s breathing slowed a little as she took roll call in her mind. One by one all of Carter’s men stood up and started walking around. It seemed everybody knew how to take a fall better than she did.
Everyone except Lucas Addams. That sorry excuse for a man was writhing on the ground, clutching his knee. Even through the tin bell ringing in her head, she could still hear his howling.
And that wasn’t the only thing she could make out. Off in the distance, Ally was pretty sure she caught the sound of sirens headed their way.
Carter sat down next to her on the grass. “See, I told you it’s only twelve feet.”
She cast him a glare. “That was a long twelve feet.”
He turned his head toward the building as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Next time we’ll have to do thirty.”
“Next time?” she raised her brows.
“What, you have a better idea for date night?” he asked, a smile curling up the corners of his lips. “Fine, next time it can be your pick.”
“Seriously?” Ally asked, as she shook her head. “You can’t talk like this when anyone else is around? You know they all think I’m crazy.”
Carter crooked a finger under her chin and lifted her face. Her eyes locked with his.
“It’s just for you,” he said, and pressed his lips to hers. “Everything, it’s just for you.”
Chapter Sixteen
Two months later…
“Excuse me,” Ally said to the workman, busy putting the final touches on the gold stenciling outside the new offices of Macmillan Security. She smiled and thanked him as
he held the massive glass door open for her.
She had to admit, it was nice to see the place buzzing with activity. The official reopening might be in two days, but it looked like everyone was back to their regular routine already.
Not that any of Carter’s team had been idle since the night that Lucas Addams had reduced their old office to rubble. The days immediately afterwards had passed by in a blur of police interrogations and FBI interviews, but Carter had stayed true to his word, and taken full responsibility for all their actions.
Of course, the moment Ally presented all the evidence of why they’d had to run and fight for their lives, they’d set him free. But even though he’d been fully exonerated, it didn’t seem the higher ups in Sacramento were too keen to have him set up shop in their city again. So, Carter had moved his team eighty or so miles down the road to a temporary office in San Francisco until they could fix up a more permanent space in the heart of the Financial District.
Ally smiled as she looked around the lobby. She might not like the commute to come see Carter, but she had to admit, the new place was nice. Modern but not cold.
The city seemed a better fit for him as well, more suited toward his fine tastes.
So, why he’d stuck with her after the fog had cleared, Ally would never figure out.
Ally waved to the receptionist as she approached the desk. “Is he back there, Diane?”
“Of course,” Diane said, with a twinkle in her eye. “And calling me every five minutes to see if you’ve arrived yet.”
“It’s not my fault that I’m late,” Ally said, slowly shaking her head. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to park in this freaking city?”
Diane’s laughter followed Ally as she started down the hallway behind the reception desk.
She poked her head into the offices and cubicles that she passed on her way to Carter’s office. Some people said hello back. Some even smiled back. Some, like Bowie, barely nodded in acknowledgement.
Well, it wasn’t like she was expecting to be greeted with hugs and kisses just because she was the boss’ girlfriend. Though she would have thought that all the work she’d done to topple Fuller, thereby creating the biggest political corruption scandal in half a century and saving the lives of an entire Special Forces team, would have at least counted for a friendly wave.
Dare to dream, Weaver.
A moment later, Ally was stopped short by a pair of slim arms wrapping around her middle.
“Ally,” a voice squealed in her ear.
Charlie.
Ally turned around, and hugged her friend back.
Turned out, there was some love for her in this building, after all.
“I was hoping you would come and see us before we opened up,” Charlie said. “So, what do you think of the new digs?”
Ally smiled. “I like them.”
Charlie tilted her head to the side as her eyes narrowed, “Like them enough to move here?”
Ally laughed. “Have you seen what they charge for rent in this city?”
“Oh, come on,” Charlie said, throwing up her hands in exasperation. “Didn’t they cut you a huge check when you signed that book deal?”
An amused chuckle bubbled from Ally’s lips. She shook her head. “Sadly, huge isn’t the adjective I would use to describe it. Besides, I’m still writing the book. It won’t come out for months.”
“You know,” Charlie said, giving her a sideways glance. “You could always move in with the Captain until it hits the shelves.”
Ally threw her hands in the air. “I’m not discussing that.” She slowly started backing down the hall.
“It’s just a suggestion,” Charlie tried.
Ally turned around and sped her steps toward Carter’s office. “Not talking about it,” she called out.
“Just saying,” the voice followed her.
Ally threw open Carter’s door, happy to hide behind something. Carter looked up from the work in front of him on his desk as she slipped inside.
“What does Charlie want now?” he asked.
“To know when I’m going to move in with you.”
Carter put the tablet in his hand down on his desk and stood up. “That makes two of us, then.”
Ally crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I already told you. When you agree to have Thanksgiving dinner with my parents.”
Carter rolled his eyes. “Your mother hates me.”
“That’s not true,” Ally said. She shrugged her shoulders when Carter shot her a look. “It’s not totally true. She just blames you for the death of her precious porcelain figurines.”
“She should be thanking me for the life of her precious daughter instead.”
Ally waved his words aside. There was no way she was ever going to get her mother and Carter to see eye to eye. Their first meeting had been a disaster.
“My dad likes you,” she tried.
“Smart man,” he said.
“And my sisters want to know when you’re going to bring some of your friends over,” Ally said with a wicked smile.
Carter smiled as he slowly walked over to her. He wrapped his hand around hers as his eyes locked with hers. “You know I can’t in good conscience let any of my men walk into such a dangerous situation.”
Ally laughed. She lifted herself up on tiptoes and laid a kiss on his cheek.
“That’s all right,” she said, giving him a wink. “I still love you.”
The tender look in his eyes intensified as he looked down at her. Ally knew that look well. More than that, she knew how it usually ended—with their clothes strewn around the room and contented sighs.
Ally wasn’t sure that was the best way to christen his new office…at least not while there was a whole floor of people that could walk in at any minute.
She stepped around him and headed to the window. The view looked over the city and the bay. It was gorgeous in the sunlight. She could only imagine how stunning it would be at night.
Carter stepped up behind her and ran his hands up her arms.
“So what do you think?” he asked.
“I think it’s very high up,” she said.
“Twenty-three floors,” he said.
Ally let out a long whistle. “There’s no way we’d survive that drop.”
“That’s why I stowed parachutes under my desk.”
Ally let out a giggle, but turned her head when he didn’t laugh back. Carter’s expression was flat.
“Wait, you’re joking, right?” she asked.
“Come on,” he said, turning away. “I’ll take you out to North Beach for lunch.”
“No, seriously,” Ally tried again. “Tell me you’re joking.”
Carter shrugged, but a mischievous twinkle shone in his eye. “No, really. There’s a lot of good places for lunch there.”
Ally glared at him as the image of gliding down between the skyscrapers to the city streets below floated through her head.
Carter ignored her stare and walked to his desk. He pulled his jacket from his chair. “Then maybe after, we’ll swing by my new place, and I can try to persuade you to make it your place too.”
Ally shot him an amused look. She wasn’t going to lie. She might be holding firm on her decision, but she couldn’t wait to see what tricks Carter was going to pull out to get her to change her mind.
“You’re not giving up on this, are you?” she asked.
He walked over to her and cupped her face between his hands. “Not until my home becomes our home. Not until my bed becomes our bed. Not until your face is the last thing I see when I fall asleep every night, and the first thing that I see when I wake up.”
Ally couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face at his words. It was a tempting thought.
A very tempting thought.
<<<<>>>>
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Rhys
Excerpt from RHYS by Adrienne Bell
Book 2 in The Sinner Saints Series
Chapter One
Something wasn’t right.
Rhys Vaughn was too familiar with the unsettled feeling that had taken root deep in his belly to ignore it. Listening to his gut had saved his ass before. Hell, it had saved his life.
Rhys grimaced as he steered his Mercedes around another sharp turn and continued up the steep, hillside road. It didn’t matter that he was driving out to see an old friend, one he hadn’t seen in years. He still felt as though he was in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle.
And, God only knew, maybe he was.
It wasn’t like, when his old Army buddy, Dylan Murtry, had called him up earlier that afternoon, he’d asked to meet up at the corner bar. No, Dylan had invited Rhys up for drinks at his boss’ mansion high in the hills of the San Francisco peninsula.
Invited wasn’t exactly the right word.
Summoned—that was a better way of putting it.
And there was only one reason that Dylan would insist that they meet there—to offer Rhys a job.
It was the one thing Rhys Vaughn wasn’t looking for. Sure, he could have saved himself the trouble and told Dylan that over the phone, but Rhys figured the least he owed the friend who’d endured the hell of Ranger training by his side all those years ago was to refuse his offer face-to-face.
But that wasn’t the only reason Rhys was out here, traveling up this narrow, winding road on a moonless night. And it sure as hell wasn’t the possibility of a potentially awkward situation that had the hairs along the back of his neck standing at attention. It was that Dylan had called him at all.
Carter: The Sinner Saints #1 Page 17
