“I’m inside the gate,” Asher said instead of hello.
“What’s next?” Eden asked.
“Four of us are going into the building through the back entrance. We’ve overridden the security codes, so we get in without key card passes.”
“How?” Leland started to ask. “Never mind. You’re getting in, that’s the important thing. Then what?”
“Who’s this?” Asher asked sharply.
“It’s Leland Hines,” Eden stepped in quickly. “We’re down in the basement beside the vault with Señora Azua.”
“That’s all?”
“Yep. I figured this would be the safest place for someone who is injured.”
“Agreed,” Asher murmured. “We’re going to be able to get all of you out through the opening that we’ve blown through the gate. Then we’ll get everyone where they need to be. Let’s start with Señora Azua since she’s injured. It also helps that she is out of sight of Nomad Security and Heinrich Becker. We’re going to have to figure out a way to get the rest of the people away from them.”
“Let me work on that,” Eden said. Possibilities were already beginning to roll through her mind. Maybe they could be lured to the documents floor for some reason?
“The back entrance is through the maintenance area. In order to not be seen, we’re going to go around to the mezzanine, then the front staircase back down to the basement. Two of us will be there as quick as we can,” Asher assured her.
“Okay,” Eden answered, but she was talking to dead air.
“Eden,” Suzanne grasped her hand.
“Yes?” She wanted to be respectful and listen, but she really wanted to see how she could possibly trap Becker, Patel, and Carlson in Suzanne’s office.
“Take care of my employees first.” The woman’s voice sounded the strongest it had been in hours.
“Suzanne, we’ll take care of you and your employees. Trust us,” Leland answered.
Eden patted her hand as she picked up her phone and shoved it back into her bra. “I have an idea. If it works, we’ll all be out of here with no problems. I’ve got to go.”
As she started toward the door of the large office, Leland halted her. “What are you going to do?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” she assured him.
“I’ll damn well worry if I want to,” the man growled down at her. “What in the hell do you think you’re going to accomplish that I couldn’t do better?”
“I’m going to finesse some of the players into believing that they need to get together in the Señora’s office for instructions from the Americans. Then, when I have them in there, I intend to figure out a way to lock them in.”
Leland snorted. “Oh, really? How do you intend to do that? What else do you have tucked into your bra that I don’t know about?”
Eden stood up to her full five-foot-nine inches and glared at the man. “Look here,” she started.
“Ah, shit, I don’t have time for this. I’ll wait for the SEALs and tell them where you are. In the meantime, take this.” He shoved a pistol into her hand. Eden gleefully gripped the Sig Sauer—it felt wonderful to have a gun in the palm of her hand. It was a little bigger than what she was used to, but damn, it packed a punch.
“You were always my favorite banker, Leland.” She reached up and pecked him on the cheek then raced to the door to the stairs. Before she opened it, she ensured the safety was on, then untucked her blouse from the waistband of her skirt and shoved the gun underneath it.
All four SEALs looked over the thick balustrade of the mezzanine and viewed the baroque-decorated lobby of the bank. Overhead were four brass chandeliers and the floor was polished marble. Directly across from them was the teller area, which was still done in the old-fashioned mahogany wood and bronze bars—no bulletproof security glass for them. All windows were locked shut and the entire area behind the teller stations was unlit and looked to be locked off.
It seemed disconcerting to then have cubicles set up along the left and right walls instead of desks, but there they were. Along the left wall was the entrance to the women’s restroom, along the right was the men’s room.
“Do you see it?” Nic nudged Asher as he pointed to the exit sign to the left, next to the women’s restroom.
“Are you asking him if he sees the obvious there? Li’l Nic?” Raiden drawled.
Nic flushed.
“We need to get into the teller area so we can be watching the entrance to the bank and see the offices on the left and right of the entrance,” Ezio said.
Asher had been thinking the same thing. It gave him the heebie-jeebies not to be able to see the entry point of any building.
“I’ve got that covered. You have won the surveillance lottery. I want eyes and ears into Señora Azua’s office.”
He glanced over to the left-hand corner of the mezzanine level. They all knew that directly beneath that was Suzanne Azua’s office. But this bank had been built back in the day when real artisans and builders had been hired, so the floors were thick and solid. How in the hell he was going to get through the floor to surveil the people was anybody’s guess.
“Thanks a lot.” Ezio smiled as he backtracked away from the balustrade and went toward the dark corner.
Asher liked the fact that Ezio hadn’t been flipping him shit when he’d thanked him for the assignment. Instead, he was gleeful. He was looking forward to figuring out a way to do the impossible. He might just be a good asset to Night Storm after all.
“What fun do you want to give us?” Raiden asked.
Asher looked into his friend’s calm dark eyes. That was Raiden—always someone he could count on to be your eye in the middle of a storm.
“I want the main elevators out of commission. According to Eden, everybody but the three of them are on the lobby level, but that could change on a dime. Get those elevators shut down.”
“Nic, you’re with me,” Raiden said. Asher watched as the two of them melted into the shadows.
Asher knew they were headed to the sub-basement. Now he had to make contact with Eden as well as secure the teller area. He could take out both of those priorities at the same time, since there was a secure staircase and an elevator that went between the lobby teller area and the vault area in the basement. It totally bypassed the document room below the lobby floor. So, he just needed to get to the basement.
Asher pushed away from the balustrade to head to the East staircase when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. The long black ponytail swished as the woman quietly shut the west staircase door shut on the lobby floor next to the women’s restroom. He zeroed in on her face. He recognized her from the files that Kane had provided.
It was Eden York.
Goddammit, why isn’t she still in the basement?
Chapter 8
Dammit!
Her boobs just buzzed twice.
Doesn’t Asher know I have a plan? I don’t have time to call his ass back.
Eden was really itching to use the gun. Not that she was going to, that would just be stupid. Didn’t mean she didn’t want to.
Fine.
She looked around the lobby. No sign of the bank employees. She saw Marco talking to one of the other bank guards. She gave him a head nod, then he turned back to the guard. Good. She darted back to the stairwell.
She pressed in the number to Asher’s satellite phone as soon as the door closed behind her. It took three rings before he picked up.
What the hell? He was the one who wanted me to call back so damned fast.
“Stay where you are” were the first words out of his mouth.
It took her a moment. “Did you see me in the lobby? Where were you? I thought you were outside the bank. You got in? That was fast.”
“Geez, Lady, one question at a time. First, getting in fast is what we do. Second, you were supposed to be in the basement. Now, get back there.” She recognized that tone of voice. He sounded like every other typical overbearing male in
“No way, Asher. I have a plan.” She hit the bar on the door so she could go back to the lobby.
“Don’t you dare.” The hair on the back of her neck stood up. She could almost feel the warm air of his voice as he rumbled into the phone.
Eden hesitated. Should she listen? Dammit, they needed a diversion. His team was probably all kitted out in little camo uniforms—they couldn’t divert Carlson, Patel, and Becker, but she could. She started to push the door open.
A big hand covered hers and yanked the door shut. “What the hell did you not understand about stay still?” Asher growled into her ear.
Eden shivered.
She turned slowly around and looked up to see blue eyes blazing down at her. There was nothing typical about this male. He was the antithesis of typical, but…
Oh.
My.
God.
He was male.
“I have a plan.” Was that squeaky voice hers?
“So, do I. It includes you getting your tushie down to the vault with the others and letting me and my men rescue the bankers and getting them safely on a plane,” he snapped down at her.
Eden sighed. They were back to typical.
“Nice to meet you too, Asher.”
“It would have been nicer to meet you if you’d been in the basement, Eden.” His sarcasm was hard to miss.
“Well, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”
His lip twitched.
“Humor isn’t getting you downstairs any faster. Seriously, I need you to move your ass, so we can get our job done.”
She pointed her finger and twirled it up and down the front of his body. “So, tell me, Army boy, in all your fatigue finery, how are you planning on blending in and culling the herd without Patel, Carlson, and Becker taking notice?”
“We’ve got it covered, but you running around fucking things up with some cockamamie plan is not going to help things.”
“Really, that’s how they’re training special forces these days? Turning down help? Rigidly staying to plan instead adapting to changing circumstances.”
Asher’s eyes narrowed. “Interesting phraseology,” he drawled slowly, his eyes clearly assessing her in a different light.
Gotcha!
“You said there were only seven men. Seems to me that having Leland and me as extra hands would be a Godsend.”
He took a deep breath. “Okay, Ms. York, lay it on me.”
“Well, it’s a partial plan. It totally depends on who’s in the office. When I left, Carlson was in the office, and I passed Patel heading into the there too, as I took Suzanne to the stairway. Hell, I don’t know if they’re still there or not. God knows who’s where. But I thought I would gather them up in the office. Hopefully track down Becker while I was at it. I figured I could tell them that Suzanne had died, and that the real reason Maduro’s men wanted into the bank was the gold in the vault or some such shit.”
His eyes widened. It was that same incredulous look she’d seen on her dad’s face far too many times.
“We’re getting your tushie down to the basement.” His voice brooked no argument.
“But—”
“It’s a half-baked plan and you know it.”
She grabbed Asher’s arm. “You don’t understand, the best part of the plan is the ‘some such shit.’ I’m really good at flying by the seat of my pants. I really will figure something out. It’ll be good, and I’ll get those men into the office and hold them there.”
She whipped out the gun from the back of her skirt and held it up in front of his face to show him.
“Jesus. Put that away. What the fuck, Eden? Where did you get that?”
“Leland gave it to me. Trust me, I know how to use it. Don’t be a pussy, the safety’s on.”
He was going to kill Kane. Why in the hell did they not have a file on this woman? He was flying blind with just her resume and hot-looking picture. There was a hell of a lot more under the surface, and he hated not knowing what he was dealing with. But there was definitely something more than just a translator, and it was time for Kane to start digging.
“Put the gun away, Eden. You’re right, we could use another set of hands. How well can you shoot?”
“My brother Pete is one of the owners of Force-Tactical out of Vegas. He’s taught me a few things.”
Ah-ha. That explained a lot right there. Pete York was an amputee who had taken early retirement from the Green Berets and started a firearms, martial arts and combat training center run entirely by disabled vets. If Eden had been trained by her brother, she was good as gold.
“I still need you to get—” he started as patiently as he could.
“My tushie down to the basement. Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first few times.”
She was giving in, he could hear it in her voice. It was time to press his advantage.
“Look, Eden, I like the idea of brainstorming, but let’s not do the fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants part. You don’t know what the rest of my team has planned. You don’t know if all three of those guys are bad guys. There are too many variables.”
Intelligent green eyes twinkled up at him. “But look, gun.” She held up the pistol again and grinned when he winced.
“And it’s called a some-such-shit plan. It’ll work,” she cajoled.
“You are so trying to play me. It’s not going to work. Did it ever work with Pete?”
“Sure, when I was five or ten. However, it stopped working with my dad and brothers as soon as I was dating age. Downstairs, right?”
“Damn right. I want you where I can see you.”
“Fine,” she huffed. “But if you don’t have a good plan, I’m going for it. Remember. Gun.” She went to reach for it again.
He held up his hands. “Stop already. Remember. SEAL.”
She rolled her eyes and started down the stairs two at a time. That was in a pencil skirt that showed off a very nice ass. Before she could reach for the handle of the basement door, he stopped her.
“Now what?”
“We proceed with caution.”
“Maduro’s men are outside,” she started to protest. Then she gasped. “Damn, you’re right. I’m an idiot.” She pulled the damn gun from the small of her back. Holy hell, she was a hundred times worse than Cullen’s sisters. He was so screwed.
“Me first,” he demanded.
“Agreed.” At last, a little bit of sense. He raised his eyebrow in a question.
“You have body armor. But I have your back,” she assured him.
He quietly opened the door. The lights were dim.
“The lights were always low,” she answered his unasked question. “The lights are on in the back office where Leland and Suzanne are.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
He made his way across the hall, between the offices and what he assumed was the walled-off vault. He didn’t hear a sound behind him. He turned and saw that Eden was holding her shoes and walking in her stocking-covered feet.
Asher heard a man talking.
“I told you not to talk. Just write down what you want to tell me.” The man was clearly agitated.
Asher relaxed. That had to be Leland talking to Suzanne Azua. Still, he wasn’t taking any chances. He checked every office on his way down the hall, ensuring they were empty. Eden kept her post at each of the doors, covering him. Yep, she had definitely trained with her brother.
“No, I’m not sure what Eden is going to do, but I trust her instincts,” Leland was saying.
Eden sauntered into the office in front of Asher. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Leland. I appreciate it.”
Leland did a double-take when he saw Asher following her into the office.
“I have to admit, I’m pretty damn glad to see you with our girl,” Leland grinned at Asher. “She was hellbent on doing something to help, but I like the idea of her being somewhere safe better.”
“Me too,” Suzanne rasped.
“Oh, one way or another, I’m going to help. This is just a pitstop while Asher explains his plan. Or should I say, as he develops his plan.”
Asher went over to the woman who was trying to sit up in the chair. Even with the blue blood-stained scarf wrapped around her neck, she looked regal. He could see where Cynthia got her good looks. Let’s just hope she’s as feisty as Lenora.
He crouched down in front of her. “It’s good to meet you, Señora. I am very impressed with your family. They are worried about you, and I promised that I would be bringing you home soon.”
Suzanne smiled. “I’m proud of them,” Suzanne said before she started to cough.
“Write it down, Woman.” Leland glowered at her.
Suzanne closed her eyes. If Asher had to guess, she was praying for patience. She took the proffered notepad from Leland and started to write.
Asher read her note aloud.
I hate the thought that my actions on this council might have put any of my family in danger.
“Seems to me that your nephew courts danger,” Asher teased gently.
Suzanne sighed her agreement.
“Asher, are you in charge of this op?” Eden asked.
“I’m taking point on-site. My lieutenant and the second-in-command are outside determining the best way to ensure that Maduro’s men don’t infiltrate the bank. Ultimately, we want to get you out with no casualties.”
“Good thinking,” Leland clapped Asher on the back. “Keep all non-combatants alive, that should always be the mandate. Do you have any idea why they haven’t just led an all-out assault? If Maduro is out to get us, we’re sitting ducks. Now’s the time.”
“Maduro is busy being entertained on the Isla de Margarita. He’s incommunicado. According to our sources, he won’t be back until Sunday morning to attend Mass, so we’re safe until then.”
Suzanne shook her head, then winced as she gingerly touched her throat. She then demanded her notepad back from Asher with an imperious wave of her hand. He handed it to her.
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