Untrue, Perez is his right-hand man. Maduro’s secret police will listen to him. Perez is greedy. Might make move on the bank without Maduro.
“Yeah, but that would piss off Maduro,” Asher said with a frown.
Suzanne underlined the words greedy and bank.
The light dawned.
“Fuck me. He couldn’t care less about your cash, it’s worthless. Hell, in order to buy a loaf of bread, people are weighing the cash instead of counting it out. But you have gold stashed away here in the bank, don’t you?” How could he, Kane, and Max have missed this?
She nodded, then wrote again.
Safety deposit boxes.
“How much total?” Asher asked.
For the first time, Suzanne’s eyes cut away from his.
“Never mind, you don’t have to tell me your bank’s assets. It’s enough to know that it could encourage the cockroaches.” Asher’s head felt like it was going to explode; he didn’t know if it was from the crash or because they’d screwed the pooch so badly.
“I’ve got to get my team on the phone,” Asher said as he pulled his satellite phone out of his tactical vest. “I need to get some background on Perez and find out if he’s one of the bastards who currently have us surrounded.”
He started out of the room and caught Eden’s grin. “Yeah, yeah, I remember,” he smiled reluctantly.
“Now you don’t think my plan was all that farfetched, do you? It’s all about the creative thinking, SEAL boy.”
She was beautiful. She was smart. And she scared the hell out of him.
He watched as Suzanne motioned for Leland and Eden to come closer. It looked like something important. But he didn’t have time to go and see what the hell was going on, he needed to talk to his team.
Asher moved to the office furthest away from the Eden and the others and tagged Kane.
“What?” Kane’s voice was gruff as he answered the phone.
“You okay?” Asher asked.
“There’s a lot of variables. It’s about goddamn time you called in. I’ve heard from Raiden and Ezio. So, what have you got for me?”
“More than either of us want,” Asher said as he leaned against the wall and kept his eye on the door to the staircase and the office down the hall. “We have a bank full of gold and safety deposit boxes that one of Maduro’s men, a guy named Perez, is itching to get his hands on.”
“Perez?” Kane asked. “If you give me a minute or two, I’ll pull him up.”
“While you’re at it, I want the full fucking run-down on Eden York. Did you know that her brother is Pete York, the former Green Beret who operates Force-Tactical out of Vegas?”
“No shit. I’ve met him.”
Asher could hear the grin in Kane’s voice.
“Well, I’ve now met his sister, and she’s a wildcard. She intends to be part of this op, and the only thing that is going to stop her is locking her in the bank vault.”
“Dammit, Thorne, that’s the last thing we need, some damned civilian thinking they can help us out. She’ll get herself killed and fuck up the mission. You’ve got to sit on her!”
Asher sighed. “Kane, the crap thing is? I think she could be of help.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Get me the file on her. I want it the same time you find out about Perez. When I ran into her twenty minutes ago, she had a Sig Sauer in her hand and had a harebrained plan that ended up being pretty damned good. Since I don’t know where we stand with Becker, Patel, and Carlson, I think having her around to help sort shit out will help.”
“Think this through, she’s a fucking civilian!”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Asher kept his voice down, barely. “Just do what I tell you to do. You’re the one with the info, so get it to me. There is more to this woman than being an interpreter, and I want to know what it is. Hell, I think she might have been a Girl Scout.”
Kane barked out a laugh. “Nah, she was probably just a Camp Fire Girl.”
“Get me the info.”
Chapter 9
As soon as Asher came back into the office, Eden knew that she had won. She was going to get to help. Officially. Not that she wouldn’t have done what she would’ve wanted to do anyway, it was just easier to be on the payroll officially, so to speak.
“What’s the plan?” Leland asked before she had a chance to.
“Well, I’ll tell you what’s happening right now.” Asher pulled out the chair from behind the office desk for Eden to sit down. She gave him a jaunty smile and sat. It was easy to smile and be happy now that she knew she was getting her way.
She totally felt vindicated. It meant that Asher must have gone to bat for her. They’d only really met twenty minutes ago, but he’d found value in her in just that amount of time. That tugged at her. Made her feel really good. Yeah, in her job as a translator she was well-respected, but to have someone like Asher Thorne really see her value in a situation like this made her feel worthy in his estimation. And that was important to her.
Her mouth quivered into a smile as she stopped with the mushy stuff. What was really important was that the man was positively delicious. Now that was a real reason to smile.
Focus, York.
Surrounded by bad guys, remember?
Still. Those blue eyes.
She sat down and he leaned against the desk so he could look over all of them. “I have three other men here in the bank building with me. Two of them are working on disabling the elevators. One is working to get eyes and ears on your office, Señora.”
They all nodded. Made sense so far.
“On the outside coordinating our effort is my lieutenant and the second-in-command who is our computer genius. He’s pulling up everything he can on Perez to see if there are any weak spots we can exploit. Then there’s our resident wildcard who was out front working with your nephew,” Asher said as he nodded to Suzanne.
Asher had been reluctant to mention that bit of information, but knew he needed to be as transparent as possible.
“What has Rafa got to do with all of this?” Suzanne asked in a calm whisper.
“While we were blowing our way into the back gate, we needed a diversion. He and Cullen used the food truck to give away free food to keep all of the civilians away from the blast site.”
“If you say one more word, instead of writing it down, Suzanne, there will be holy hell to pay,” Leland said as he leaned over her. The woman was not intimidated.
Asher almost laughed at the byplay and would have if they weren’t in such deep shit. He noticed Eden’s eyes twinkling. He did laugh when she winked at him.
“What is so damned funny?” Leland demanded to know. “Eden, check her throat. Make sure it isn’t swelling worse than it was because she’s talking so much.”
Suzanne’s pen dug into the notepad as she quickly wrote something down and handed it to Leland.
“What did she say?” Eden asked.
“Nothing worth repeating,” Leland said as he glared at Suzanne. “Please check her out.”
Asher watched as Eden competently examined the woman’s neck and throat. “Damn. Suzanne, you should have raised your hand. Why didn’t you tell me you were in pain?” Eden looked up at Asher with an intense expression on her face. “We need ice. I need to go upstairs.”
“Send Leland,” Ash said.
“What’s wrong? How bad is it?” He cupped Suzanne’s shoulder and leaned in. “Woman, why didn’t I notice that the swelling had gotten worse?”
“Because, scarf,” Suzanne croaked out the two words.
“I’ll be right back with ice.” Leland stood up straight.
“Bullshit,” Eden said. “Everybody is expecting me to be the one to get the ice for Suzanne. I’ve been doing it since we arrived. If Leland starts doing it then there are bound to be questions.”
“Nobody but the clerical workers will notice,” Leland protested. “Eden, we don’t have time to argue.”
“Thi
Asher snorted. “Seriously, is this how you did your job as an interpreter? I’m surprised anyone hired you. You need to learn when to take an order.”
“Not the same thing. This is a fluid life-and-death situation. We need everybody cooperating to stay alive. Now, if you have something better than me getting the ice—and fast—let ‘er rip. But the Leland idea is crap.”
All that fire. God, she was compelling. She was wrong, but damned hot.
“You’re wrong. What we want is one of the guards, that guy named Torres, to notice Leland and come on down. This would be a perfect way to get him in on what’s going on without our suspects suspecting anything.”
Eden opened her mouth to disagree. He could tell it was a knee-jerk reaction, but she shut it, instead nodded her head. “You’re right.”
Asher’s radio clicked. He picked up. “Yeah?”
“I’ve got eyes and ears,” Ezio said.
He was liking this Omega Sky guy more and more. “Give me the status.”
“Five people. Four men, and one woman. Speaking English. I recognize Carlson’s voice. One has been referred to as Heinrich. The woman is a tall blonde. One man is overweight, and the other man is Asian. That’s all I’ve got,” he said apologetically.
“Our only wildcard is Patel,” Leland said. “I’m going. I’ve got my phone. I’ll call Eden if I have any problems.”
Asher nodded in agreement.
“Good luck,” Eden encouraged as Leland strode out the door. She bent and checked Suzanne another time, even though the woman tried to wave her away.
“You’ll be doing good once we get some ice on you again.” Then she stood up and looked at Asher. “Is that thing on?” she nodded to the radio.
Ash nodded.
“The people you saw are Heinrich Becker, he’s the IMF Chairman, you know Carlson, the tall blond woman is Dr. Gerta Nilsson. Gerta may or may not be in cahoots with Becker.” She looked up at Asher. “Your computer genius is following Becker’s money to see if he has anything going on with Maduro, right?”
Ash nodded at Eden. He was less than happy, because his friend the guru was late.
“So, who else?” Ezio’s voice came through the radio.
“Kaito Nakamura is the Japanese man. He’s our international stock market expert.”
“Do you speak Japanese?” Asher asked.
“Some. But Kaito’s fluent in English.”
“Ezio, we’ve got Eden York, Leland Hines, and Suzanne Azua here in the basement. At least we did. Leland just left to get ice for the Señora’s neck wound. Let us know the second anyone leaves the office.”
“Roger that.”
Asher clicked on his radio. “Raiden. What’s the status with the elevators?”
“Give me two more minutes, and they’ll be disabled. No explosives necessary.”
“How in the hell did you manage that?” Asher demanded.
“These are an old brand with a specific hoist motor and pendant controller. Nic was able to YouTube how to cripple it. It’ll take new parts to fix.” He could hear the pride in Raiden’s voice.
Gotta love you some YouTube.
Eden heard Asher’s radio click again. It was the first guy, the one who had eyes and ears on Suzanne’s office.
“Another guy just joined the party. He’s American. He’s holding a bag of ice. He and Carlson are yelling at one another.”
Fuckity fuck fuck. I’m not going to scream.
What is Leland doing in there? He needs to be coming down here with ice for Suzanne.
Suzanne started to cough. Asher had moved to the door of the office when Leland had left so that he could monitor the stairs. He rushed back to Suzanne’s side when she started to cough.
He hit the button on his radio. “You done with that elevator, Raiden?” His voice was clipped.
“One more minute. What’s up?”
“Need a medic down here. Stat.”
“Nic, finish up,” Eden heard the man say. “Asher, I’ll be done to the basement in less than a minute. I’ve got my med kit.”
Thank God.
Eden looked down at her hand and was amazed it wasn’t trembling. She’d talked a good game to Kane, but the idea of having to perform a tracheotomy on Suzanne Azua scared the shit out of her.
“I’m going to direct Raiden this way,” Asher said before he ran out of the office.
Suzanne wheezed.
“Help will be right here.” Eden grabbed the one bottle of water they had and cleaned off as much blood as she could from where she judged Suzanne’s windpipe to be. Suzanne whimpered and Eden wanted to cry.
She gripped Suzanne’s hand and looked her dead in the eye. “It’s going to be okay. These guys are supermen. Don’t pay any attention to all the shit I’ve been giving them, they will save your life, do your dry cleaning, and then cook your dinner. You’ll see.”
She saw Suzanne’s eyes sparkle before her face suffused with pain.
Fucking hurry!
A door slammed.
Almost before she could turn around, a big, rough-looking man was skidding on his knees beside Eden, knife, and tubing in his hand.
“Good job on wiping the area clean,” he said as he grappled with his utility pouch. He yanked it off his tactical vest and shoved it at her. “Grab the antiseptic wipes.”
“Asher, down here. Help me get her on the floor.”
“You got it Raiden,” Asher answered.
As soon as Suzanne was lying prone, he cupped her cheek. He put his ear next to her mouth and grimaced.
“Gotta do this now.”
Eden handed him the moist towelette.
“Have gauze ready,” he commanded. Then he cleansed the area and wiped off the knife. He wasted no time in making a deep cut in her neck. As soon as he pierced her windpipe, Suzanne’s chest heaved upwards as she took in a deep breath. Raiden was inserting the surgical tubing as Eden tried to work around him and stop the flow of blood around the cut.
“Slower,” Eden told Suzanne as she brushed back her hair. “You have air now, don’t take tiny breaths, nice even breathing,” she advised. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Raiden applied tape to the surgical tubing to keep it in place.
“What now?” she asked Asher.
“Now, we get her to a hospital, just like we said in the beginning.” His smile was calm and soothing.
“Just going to walk on out the front door and put her in an ambulance, are you?”
He turned to Raiden, “Sarcasm is how she deals with stress,” he explained.
“Answer the damned question.”
Asher came closer and put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. Eden was surprised at the amount of comfort she took in the act, especially since he hadn’t proven himself to her yet. But hasn’t he? Hadn’t she finally met somebody cut of the same cloth as the men in her family? At last?
There was something about Asher Thorne that made her want to lean on him. Something about him that made her ache to believe in him. She shrugged it off; she needed to focus on the fact that they were still stuck in the bank, and Suzanne still needed to get to a hospital.
“We’re going to get Señora Azua out the same way we came in. My lieutenant will be waiting to take her to the hospital on the other side of the gate. You’ll see, she’ll be in a private room with her mother and daughter real soon.”
Her heart clenched at his steady words.
“I want to believe you,” she whispered.
“You can,” he whispered back. “You can, Eden.”
He crouched down and lifted Suzanne up as gently as Leland had, then his radio crackled. “Ash, we’ve got a problem.”
Eden didn’t recognize the voice.
; Raiden finished stuffing supplies back into his utility pouch and stood up. He made a motion and Asher shifted Suzanne into his arms. Raiden spoke into his microphone. “Nic, get down to the basement, now!”
“What’s the problem, Cullen?” Asher asked.
“There’s a tank that’s coming down the boulevard. Right now, everyone is ignoring it, thinking it is part of the parade, but it’s not. It’s coming straight to the bank.”
A tank?
Eden heard the door to the stairway open again, she put her head out and saw a young blonde man in uniform. It had to be Nic. “This way,” she motioned.
Raiden brushed past her holding Suzanne. “You’re blocking for me, Nic. We’re taking her through the gate. Need to get her to a hospital. Asher, tell—”
“I’m on it,” Asher said as he waved Raiden away.
“Cullen, Raiden just trached Señora Azua. He and Nic will be coming out with her. She needs transport to a hospital. You got it?”
Eden heard Cullen say, “Rafa.”
“I don’t care if it’s a fucking water taxi, just get ‘er done. I asked Kane for files on some people thirty minutes ago. What’s his problem?”
“Ash, this is Kane. I’ve been monitoring all the chatter. Been waiting for you to have a moment to go offline so I could give you the debrief, or did you want me to cut in and debrief you now?” His tone was sarcastic.
She saw Asher wince.
“Roger that.” Was Asher’s response.
“Ash, this is Leo.” That was a new name. “Rafa’s in position to pick up his aunt. The hospital has been notified. We also have eyes on the tank. It’s an Alvis Scorpion.”
“Oh shit. Are you sure?”
Asher seemed really worried. This was not good.
“Yep. One of Rafa’s friends posted it on their Instagram.”
“Did you say Instagram?” Asher asked.
“Can it, Thorne,” Kane grumbled. “We’ve got to get everybody the hell out of there, now.”
Asher turned to Eden. “What’s your gut telling you? Who’s the bad guy? Becker or Carlson?”
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