Deadly Encounter

by K. L. Humphreys

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Skye

  “I’m going to check your room, stay here and I’ll come back and get you when it’s safe,” Will tells me as if I'm someone who's never done this before. This is how we treat victims and how we treat those who are not trained. Would you treat your colleagues this way? I'm not invalid, and I can look after myself. He enters my room with his gun raised, he closes the door behind him leaving Winter and I standing outside.

  “Where the hell has he gone? Does he realize that you look after yourself? Is this like a macho thing? Does he think women are lesser than men?” Winter’s outraged for me, and I can't help but smile. Winter’s full of sass, and it’s amazing to see it coming out in full force. “How long does it take to check a hotel room? Did he get lost or something?”

  Alarms start to ring in my head, she’s right he should have been back out by now. Taking the gun out from my thigh holster, I place my hand on the door handle, and I feel Winter’s hand clutching at the tiny strap of my dress. Taking a deep breath, I open the door and push it, so it’s open wide. My eyes do a quick scan of the room, nothing. Nothing out of place and no sign of Will, what the hell is going on? Tightening the grip on the butt of the gun, my finger close to the trigger, ready to strike if need be. Winter’s heavy breathing is all I can hear as I take a step into the room.

  Even though there is nothing out of place something feels wrong, there’s no blood, and there’s no sign of a struggle. Where the hell is Will? The only place that I can’t see is the bathroom. I take another step forward and reach out to close the door; if someone’s here they’ll strike from the bathroom when they hear the door close.

  That was my mistake.

  As I push the door closed, I hear movement and before I can even turn around something smashes against the back of my head. Pain blasts throughout my head and I crumple to the floor.

  The last thing I hear before all goes black is Winter screaming!

  Please God, let them leave her alone. She’s been through enough.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Ryder

  The gunfire is still going on, it’s relentless, and those fuckers are everywhere so far, we’ve counted at least fifteen shooters, but I know there's more. We didn’t even know that they knew that many people let alone have them fucking working for them. So far twelve men are dead, and by the sounds of it there’s at least six more to go through and we’ve got another four floors to clear. This place is a fucking maze; we have met Oscar and his team twice already. They’re all fine and no injuries as with us.

  “Ryder, this is too easy,” Sam says as he lifts his gun and fires two rounds into a guy who opens the door to the left.

  “I know, but we’ve yet to see Aleksandar Marić, Dominik Kovačević, and Ivan Grgić. They’re here, there’s no doubt about it.” Misha walks ahead of us; he’s been helpful to an extent. He’ll shoot but most shots aren’t fatal, and that’s the problem that I have. If someone’s shooting at you, you shoot back, and you aim to kill.

  “What about him?” Sam says quietly as he nods to Misha.

  “I don’t trust him.” No way do you give up your men, no matter what! He doesn’t know for sure that they killed his sister. If it were one of my men or women, I’d find out the truth, and if it were true, there’s no way they’d live to see another day.

  “Yeah, him and his brother are up to something and I can only hope that we are ready for it.” We walk to the end of the corridor and Sam’s still staring at Misha, he’s acting shady almost as if he’s expecting someone to come out of one of the rooms. I stop in my tracks as does Sam, he’s either following my lead, or he’s noticed the shadiness. My guns pointed toward Misha and my fingers ready to pull the trigger, doors to my left and right open simultaneously followed by the exit door opening, they’re trying to ambush us. I don’t even hesitate when I see the gun to my left, I shoot. Instincts take over, and I do as I’ve been trained. Shoot to kill, I hear another gunshot, and I know that Sam has shot the person coming from the right. I look at the exit and see Oscar, Patrick, Maisey and Andrei.

  “Damn, seems as though you two are having all the fun.” Maisey’s looking pissed as she looks down at her shoes, she’s still not able to walk in them properly, but she’s managing to balance.

  “Yep, just what we needed, a massive shootout against incompetent fucking morons.” Sam’s anger is in full force, we’re being played.

  “Let’s clear the rest of this building.” I push Misha ahead of me, and I look back at Sam and nod to Andrei, I want the brothers far away from each other as possible.

  The next two floors are clear, and Misha keeps staring back at Andrei, and I know that the worst is yet to come; these fuckers are getting on my last nerve. As we reach the top floor, I know that Aleksandar Marić, Dominik Kovačević, and Ivan Grgić are going to be waiting for us. The thing is we all know that, they don’t know us and how well we’re trained. We don’t lose. Ever!

  We press our backs against the wall. And I give the signal. Oscar opens the door with such force that the door bangs against the wall and just as I suspected an onslaught of gunfire. Stupid morons. We wait until they need to reload; the assholes are firing at the same time. Instead of one firing then while he's reloading someone else fires. It's what I would do if I were outnumbered. Before we even get a chance to enter the floor both Andrei and Misha barrel in ahead of us. We’re hot on their tails, my eyes scanning the room as I do. Three men are standing in the middle of the room all looking at Andrei and Misha walking towards them.

  “Fucking assholes, I knew those bastards were up to no good. Fuckers played us from the start!” Sam grumbles as he lines up his gun, he’s dying to take out these fuckers. He starts shooting when Dominik moves, and I hear a whimpering sound over the gunshots, Sam’s taken both Dominik and Aleksandra out, leaving Ivan, Misha, and Andrei left. I raise my hand when I hear the whimpering sound again. Sam stops firing, and we listen… there… there’s the whimpering sound again. It's coming from the door furthest away from us. Hope surges, this could be Addison.

  “You killed your own sister? Damn, that’s cold.” Maisey shakes her head looking disgusted, “Was she even your sister?”

  Misha growls like the fucking dog he is, “Darya is our sister… was our sister. You’re disloyal to say that.”

  Maisey scoffs, “I’m disloyal? Please! You’re the asshole that’s standing beside the people who murdered your sister. Now drop the weapons.” She stands with her feet apart, gun in both hands she’s looking like a cop right now.

  Laughter rings out around the room, “You’re delusional young lady. We do not answer to women or cops.” Ivan Grgić spits at her feet.

  I’ve had enough, I lift my gun and shoot the fucker in his kneecap, wanting the fucker to be maimed, but that doesn’t happen as Patrick shoots him in his chest. “Fuck, Patrick! I wanted him alive.”

  He shrugs like he doesn’t give a damn, “Fucker should learn that women are to be respected.”

  Geez, does he realize that Maisey’s married? “Thanks, Pat.” Pat? Maisey calls him Pat when the hell did that happen? “How did you know that we’d be at the warehouse?” She’s looking at Andrei; he’s the only one of them that looks ashamed. The rest are looking for a chance to strike, the brothers have definitely lied to us, no way is Ivan the leader if he were the rest of them would have started shooting at us.

  “The same way we knew your wife was going to the strip club.” Misha grins as he talks about Skye, “She was so worried about finding her sister, that she didn’t realize that she was the one we wanted all along.” I really want to kill the fucker.

  “So why did you get us to come here?” Patrick asks, and dread fills me as I already know the answer, I don't need the laughter from these assholes to tell me what's going on. They've got Skye!

  Sam must know that they’ve got Winter and Skye because he loses it. He starts firing again, and I'm not far behind him,
I fire two shots in succession and watch as they sink into Misha’s body, killing him instantly. I don’t need to shoot anymore rounds as Sam has taken care of Andrei. We need to hurry up and leave, my minds on the task at hand. Right now I need to get Addison and then back to the hotel.

  Maisey’s running toward the room where the whimpering sound has stopped. She tries the handle, but it doesn't budge, it must be locked. Fuck! My foot connects with the door and it splinters. Tied to the chair in the corner of the room is a woman who looks so much like Skye it makes me lose my breath. Seeing the black eye and busted lip, rage soars through me, if this is what they've done to Addison only God knows what they’re going to do to Skye.

  Maisey touches Addison’s shoulder, and she freaks. Jumps and screams and tries to scramble away. What the hell is wrong with men who think it’s okay to hurt and traumatize women? “Addison, my name is Maisey, and that's Ryder standing by the door.” At the mention of my name Addison’s head tilts to the side slightly as if she knows me. “We also have Oscar, Sam and Patrick here. Skye sent us; we're here to take you home.” Maisey’s voice is very soothing, she's extremely sympathetic; she's building trust between them. Skye does this too when we had ops where we had to rescue hostages Skye was the one we sent to help gain the trust of the hostages. It's probably why she and Skye get on so well.

  Addison smiles and I know that it's okay to go over to her. I start to untie her when she speaks, her voice raspy almost as if she hasn't used it in a while. “Is Skye okay?”

  I help her to stand and hold her while she tries to get her balance. “I don't know they believe that they have someone holding her, but we have a man with her, so she's not alone.” I try and reassure her, but as I say it, I know that it's untrue.

  Addison must see through the lie, “You should know by now that Skye is one tough cookie!” She coughs, and it makes her sound like an old lady who smoked cigarettes every day of her life.

  “It seems that being a tough cookie runs in the family.” It's true, she seems to be okay, but time will tell.

  “Suck up.” Addison jokes and I shake my head. She's definitely Skye’s sister, push everything to the back of their minds and deal with it never.

  “How is he sucking up?” Maisey asks as we reached the others.

  “He's trying to get into my good books. I mean he did marry my sister while they were drunk.” The guys start to laugh as I try and block her view of the dead bodies. “And he got her pregnant.” She turns to me those big green eyes are now full of anger. “Oh yeah, he also told her he didn't want her. Did you change your mind, big guy? Decided she was good enough for you after all?”

  “Now’s not the time to talk about this, we need to make sure that Skye’s okay and then I’ll answer any questions that you have.” I don’t give her the chance to answer; I lift her into my arms and cradle her into my chest as we make our way back to the exit.

  “Still no answer Ryder, do you want me to have the hotel send someone up to the room?” Fuck, listening to the fear in Maisey’s voice makes my fear surface; I can’t lose Skye, not when I’ve finally got her.

  “No, if someone has her, we can’t risk sending in a civilian. We’re less than ten minutes out. She’s going to be okay!” Oscar tries to reassure us, but nothing is reassuring in his words, he doesn’t know what’s going on. We’ve both seen too much to believe that she's okay.

  “Okay? You don’t know that! She may be okay, but the baby might not be!” Addison screams, tears streaming down her face, “Don’t say things that you don’t mean.”

  “You have to have faith, just like Skye had faith that you were still alive.” Maisey is still being sympathetic, and she’s calming her down, right now I want to shake Addison and tell her to shut the hell up.

  “I’ve tracked their cells, Skye, Winter, and Will’s cells are all in the hotel.” Henry’s voice fills the van. I look over at Sam who's looking at the floor, he looks devastated right now, and I finally get it. I finally understand the look that both he and Nathan have when they think about Sophia and Winter. The nervousness they feel when the girls are not around them. It's crazy because I know that Skye is more than capable of looking after herself. Hell, that girl’s fighting skills could put me to shame; she has Will with her who is more than capable of killing anyone with his eyes closed. That doesn't stop the fear that I have right now, that she's somewhere, with someone who could hurt her. This feeling I have, I hate it. What's happening now is my worst fucking nightmare; I thought my mom dying was the worst thing. But this, this is a whole new world of hurt. Some lunatic out there has my wife and unborn child at their mercy, and I have no idea what's going on. I have no idea if they're even still alive.

  “ETA, seven minutes,” Patrick calls, and it feels as though time is crawling. “Not long now boss.”

  “Patrick, please put your motherfucking foot down on the gas. My wife is in that fucking room, and we need to get to her.” I finally lose it, punching the back of the seat. He needs to hurry the hell up; I can’t contain my anger any longer.

  “When did you know that my sister was the one?” The question comes completely out of the blue and it makes me think back to the day I realized that she was it for me.

  “Did you see that guy? He’s so fucking hot!” Some blonde says at the bar as she looks over at our table.

  “She’s talking about me.” Smithy had his signature smile on his face. It’s the one that the girls go crazy for, it saves us doing any of the chasing. The girls come to us and they don’t play hard to get.

  “Please, she’s talking about me. She said the words ‘Fucking hot.’ have you heard anyone say that about you before? No, I didn’t think so.” Geez, now Sam’s getting in on the act too. It’ll end up with those two arguing about who will get the girl and neither of them getting any.

  “Bitch, please. She’s definitely talking about me!" I bite back my laughter. Typical Smithy, always the one to have a laugh and joke.

  “Yeah, but he’s totally damaged. I went back to his house before, and he and his thing are so weird, they have a daughter.” That blonde woman says, and we look at Smithy, he and Soph stay in the same house when we’re home on leave.

  “Oh, you’ve always wanted to be a mom. How was he?” The brunette asks, and I watch as Smithy’s face starts to redden.

  “Amazing, but girl, he isn’t worth it! He’s totally fucked up, he has nightmares and shit. I don’t need that! I need a man that is whole and don’t need no fucking fixing. No one is worth that amount of work.” The bitchy blonde says, and I hear a chair scraping and watch as Skye walks over to where we’re sitting, her hips swaying in those tiny denim jean shorts and slides up beside him. She looks fucking phenomenal and has every man in this bar staring at her ass.

  “Hmm, sugar. You don’t look fucked up. Hell, you look like you could show me a good time.” Skye puts on a southern accent and fuck; my dick stands at full mast.

  “Yeah baby, I’ll show you a good time.” Smithy looks uncomfortable, Skye is like his sister, funnily enough, I never thought of her that way.

  “You have nightmares sugar?” Smithy nods, not sure what to say, “That’s okay; I’ll help you sleep easy. Helping you sleep easy will be one of the greatest rewards anyone could ask for.”

  “Oh yeah? Why’s that then Baby?” He asks the question that is on my mind.

  Skye looks directly at me, “Well sugar, if you’re able to sleep easy that means that your demons have been set free. You should know sugar; you’re worth fighting those demons away.” Her eyes are staring into mine as though she can see through me, “Whatcha say sugar? Are you gonna let me try?”

  Damn, I think I fell in love. Who knew Skye thought this way? Could she chase away my demons? Could she be the one to make me sleep easy?

  Smithy doesn’t answer her; the blonde and her dumbass friend leave just as Soph joins our table, “Holy shit Smithy! That was your stalker, Sadie!”

  “Sie
rra.” He rolls his eyes at Soph as he throws his arm around Skye’s shoulders, “Skye was the one to save me today. Damn that woman is fucking crazy.”

  “Don’t worry Smithy, Soph and I’ll protect you from the women.” He smiles at her and kisses her head.

  “Well? Are you going to answer me?” Addison demands looking pretty pissed that I’ve ignored her.

  “I’ve known your sister was the one for a long time now.” That’s all she’s getting from me, she doesn’t need to know anything else.

  “We’re here,” Patrick says as he puts the van in park.

  I don’t say a word, I’m out of the van and heading for the hotel lobby not caring if anyone’s behind me or not. I need to get to Skye.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Skye

  Pain radiates through my head as I groggily come too, what the hell happened? I think back, I was at the strip club, and then Winter and I were outside the hotel room waiting for Will. I remember something hitting me before I must have passed out. I hear movement, so I keep my breathing even as I listen around me, I want to hear who’s around me before I open my eyes. I’m sitting on a chair, and my hands are tied behind my back, I can hear heavy breathing. Who the hell is here?

  “I know that you’re finally awake. So why don’t you open your eyes?” That voice, it sounds familiar, where the hell do I know it from? “Now Skye, or I’ll hurt this pretty friend of yours.” Fuck! The bastard has Winter, my eyes fly open. “Ah, thought that would get you to look at me.”

  “You!” I say in disgust, Winter’s sitting on a chair on my right and Will’s sitting on one to my left, he hasn’t made any movements or noise since I’ve woken.

  “Me.” he laughs, “Who would believe that a Sergeant from the Metropolitan Police would be part of the criminal underworld, let alone be the leader.” I always knew there was something weird about this fucker. “You were so easy to manipulate.”