“We need you to kill somebody.”
“Kill?” He let the shock register in his tone. He wasn’t expecting that assignment, although it hadn’t surprised him.
“So far nobody has succeeded. If you can take this guy out, then you’ll be doing us a great service. You did come highly recommended.
I shouldn’t think this would be a problem for you.” Sully shrugged. “Murder’s going to cost you more than fifty thousand.”
“A fine man,” Shaw smiled. “I believe we’ll have much use for you.” The others nodded in agreement. They would agree to anything the man said.
“So who is it?”
“Gavin McGregor,” Shaw handed him a file folder. “We have information to suggest he works for the government. We’ve already taken care of the snitch in our company.” Sully’s ears perked up.
“A new guy…nothing to trouble yourself about,” Shaw said.
Sully felt his stomach curl into a knot. They had killed an innocent man thinking he was a threat. And now they wanted him to kill McGregor.
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“Anyway, we’ve tried. The fool tried a snake, but apparently it didn’t choke the life out of the man as expected. Then they tried making sure his rope broke during a climb, but apparently the host had switched their gear. Nothing’s going right, and I’ve been asked to make sure it does. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty, but we’re too close to heaven to mess up now. The chip is already on its way to the buyer…” Sully imagined he let his voice trail off because he hadn’t meant to let that detail slip, but he had. So if they no longer had the chip, who did?
“Anyway,” he said. “If you can take him out for us it will make the deal in the Keys go through without incident.”
“I see,” Sully calmly looked over the file in his hand. Now that he knew the deal was going down in the Keys he just needed to get there as quickly as possible. But there was one more thing he had to do first.
“There’s just one thing,” he smiled.
“Oh don’t worry; you’ll get more than the fifty thousand extra.”
“Oh, I’m not worried,” he nearly laughed. “That’s not my one thing anyway.”
“What is it?”
“You’re all under arrest.” He pulled the gun from his waistband and pointed it at Shaw.
“You fool! We outnumber you.”
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Sully shrugged. “I’ve had worse odds.” Then he took the safety off his weapon. “Still, it never hurts to be prepared. You should always stay alert to your surroundings, Shaw. Always.” He watched as Langston and a small team of armed men relinquished their hidden positions.
“Thought you might not get here on time.”
“You left me bread crumbs. It took a while to get the darn tracking monitor to work right. But I’m here now and that’s all that matters.” Langston nearly snapped. “Get this scum out of my sight,” he ordered. “And be sure to keep them in the secure holding area. I don’t want word of this getting out.”
His men apprehended the group. Sully nearly laughed at how quickly all of them turned on Shaw, willing to give him up for a chance to save their own skin. The numerous pleas to strike a deal, giving up Shaw for anything from leniency to all out pardon, reminded him of some lab rat experiment. There was no loyalty among thieves; perhaps Shaw should have learned that lesson earlier in the game. Too bad for each one of them that the other idiot traitor had already done just that—given up as much information as he had, as he assured them everybody below Shaw had, in order to save his own neck.
“Permission to head to the Keys, sir?” Sully’s mission wasn’t over. He had to help finish this. He had to help complete the second half of the puzzle. Only once this was over would he be able to return home.
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“Granted,” Langston nodded. “Be sure Gavin knows who he can trust down there. We’re still missing a few pieces to this. There’s still somebody else involved.”
Sully nodded before leaving Langston to the cleanup. Gavin may have been out of the line of duty in war for years now, but he wasn’t slow witted. As long as he kept thinking with the right head he would be fine. In Sully’s book there was no room for women in these kinds of operations and for the life of him he couldn’t figure out how any man would be fool enough to go and let one trap him into falling in love with her. From what he had ascertained of the situation, Gavin was in love—or perhaps in severe lust—with that McGowan woman. He just hoped that emotion wouldn’t cloud Gavin’s judgment. When it came down to it this job was more important than any one woman.
When he reached the Keys he intended to be sure Gavin remembered that.
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Chapter Fifteen
Every time she looked at the necklace Gavin had given to her she remembered how sweet the move had been on his part and she wondered how she could have ever been angry with him in the first place. He had clearly put a lot of thought in giving her something that represented who she was as a person. If he hadn’t cared he wouldn’t have done that. She was stupid; there was no other explanation for how she had reacted.
“No; I wasn’t,” she mentally slapped herself. She was still too sore to physically do it, although she was getting back to normal faster than she thought she would have. The bruises were still there, but the pain wasn’t so bad that she couldn’t breathe without wincing from the effort. “He lied to you. You were completely justified in being angry,” Capri Montgomery
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she told herself. The smile tugged at her lips as she looked at the necklace on the nightstand. She had taken it off so she could shower.
She loved looking at it, loved touching it—it reminded her of him. she missed him. it wasn’t as if they had been apart for weeks, just a couple days.
Gavin had chosen to drive down to the location, thinking he would be there before the crew. He couldn’t have known that Warren changed the schedule and instead of leaving at the end of the week, they left just hours after Gavin hit the road. Even if he drove all night they would still be there before him. She was sure he wasn’t driving all night. He had said he had a detour to make along the way; that he wouldn’t get into Key Largo until Sunday morning. Their flight was originally an overnight flight so she figured they would get there at the same time, but not anymore.
She wasn’t afraid for her safety. She had Drake Daniels looking after her. He wasn’t there twenty-four-seven, but he was there during the working hours. She had always felt his presence. She wasn’t sure how she knew he was there. She hadn't seen him, but still she just knew; she just felt it in her bones. Safety wasn’t her concern—mostly because she knew they weren’t trying to kill her; they were trying to kill Gavin. The thought of Gavin being killed felt like a knife to her heart. She couldn’t let it happen. She didn’t know what she could do, how she could keep him from getting hurt, but she would think of something; she had to think of something. She couldn’t lose him.
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She slid her fingers across the pendant on the necklace and smiled. “When this is over, Gavin you and I are going to stay in bed for weeks.” In fact she might not even let him up to eat…well no, she couldn’t do that. He would need his energy for all the things she had in mind.
The soft knock on her room door pulled her out of her contemplative stupor. It wasn’t quite six o’clock yet. Normally they would still be doing the day’s work, but Warren and Jerry had business to attend to and so they all got the evening off. She was sure the crew had set off for leisure activities given the tense atmosphere on set. They all needed a break—a long one. Warren seemed to be making himself a permanent fixture, which seemed to make everybody else nervous.
She didn’t kn
ow who could be at her door. Gavin couldn’t be there already. He wasn’t due in until four in the morning—at least that’s what he had told her when she last talked to him. But maybe his plans had changed, and maybe he left where he had stopped early.
Maybe he missed her as much as she missed him. “Maybe…” she smiled, rising to her feet as quickly as she could. She hadn’t made the door when she remembered the necklace. She always had it on, especially when he was near her. It was as if she felt the need to constantly say thank you, to constantly remind him of how much she appreciated it—appreciated him. She didn’t wear jewelry often. Having that one piece dangling from her neck should have felt foreign, but it Capri Montgomery
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hadn’t—it felt as natural as having him in the bed with her, kissing her, touching her.
She yanked open the door, unable to control the heavy thudding in her heart. She couldn’t wait to be in his arms. They hadn’t had sex in far too long. He had planned to, so had she, but he didn’t want to hurt her with her injuries in all. Before that she was too angry with him to even think about sex. But now…now she was going to jump that man’s bones.
The smile on her lips faltered the moment she realized it wasn’t Gavin. “Hello, Michelle.”
“Hey. Sorry to bother you, but the boss wants us to visit the set.”
“Tonight?”
Michelle shrugged. “I thought maybe we could ride together. I really don’t like being out at night with Warren by myself—especially in strange places.”
London noticed the visible shiver that assaulted Michelle’s slender body. “Of course, let me just grab my purse.”
“No need,” she said. “He’s getting the car and I believe he said if we’re not at the door before he pulls up we can kiss our jobs goodbye. He might not fire you, but I’m expendable.” She tugged at London’s arm, pulling her out the room and hurriedly walking down the long hall.
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They weren’t two steps from the stairs when she felt a strong hand grip her arm and pull her close to a soft body. She looked up.
“Nick? What are you doing?”
“Shut up,” he lifted his other arm enough to show her the gun he had in his hand, covered by the black jacket draped over his wrist and arm. “Go get the car;” he ordered Michelle and she darted away.
There was no way Michelle was in on this. She just couldn’t be.
She was so mentally not there on most days. If she weren’t talking about makeup or clothes she didn’t really have much else to say. Then it hit her; what a great way to provide herself a cover. Nobody would suspect the airhead type of doing something like this—not true, some people would, people like Grant Yeager.
“Are you all in on this?” She felt fear grip her. She didn’t have her purse, which meant she didn’t have her phone, which meant she had no chance of calling for help.
“I said shut up,” he hissed. He briskly manhandled her enough to let her know he was in charge, but not to alert anybody to their predicament as he guided her out the front door. He had just walked right out the front door with her at gunpoint, right past the front desk clerk who seemed too busy flirting with a guest checking in to notice them leave.
When she saw the black, beat up Toyota with darkened windows she froze. There was no way she could get in that car. He Capri Montgomery
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would kill her. No, she wasn’t getting in. she stood a better chance staying right where she was.
“Get in,” he ordered.
“No,” she shook her head. “You won’t pull the trigger out here, not with witnesses.” Okay, so maybe there weren’t a lot of witnesses to be had. In fact, the only person to possibly throw a wrench in his plan was the front desk clerk—she doubted he would hear anything with the charm he was so desperately trying to blanket over the voluptuous brunette checking in.
“Let me put it to you this way,” he jabbed the gun into her already bruised side. “You get in that car and come with me, or your boyfriend gets a bullet to the brain.” Gavin. Her heart lurched to a near stop. They had Gavin. How?
When? Oh God…was he hurt?
“Get in the car, or I have Michelle make a call.” She nodded slowly as she slid into the back seat with him sliding in next to her. The entire time he kept his gun trained on her as if he were ready to shoot her if she made a wrong move. He shut the door with a loud thud. “Drive,” he ordered Michelle.
“You can’t be in on this Michelle, whatever this is right now this is kidnapping and you don’t want to go to prison over this.”
“Shut her up will ya?” Michelle’s voice went from bubbly ding bat to in control, and in charge master puppeteer. She wasn’t just along for the ride; she was pulling his strings.
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“Look you two can’t—”She felt Nick jab the gun against her head. “Nick, please don’t do this. Just let Gavin and me go…” He hit her, hard, letting the gun do most of the dirty work for him. “We don’t have your stupid boyfriend.” He grinned like the Cheshire cat. “But we will. He’ll come for you I’m sure. But not until we’re ready to get him. you’re going to tell us what he knows before we get that bastard.”
“Shut up, Nick.” Michelle’s voice was calm, but it still demanded obedience.
“What for? It’s not like she can do anything. We’ll get what we want from her and then we’re going to call your boyfriend when he gets here tomorrow and you’re going to ask him to come get you—real nice and sweet like...” He turned his attention back to London. “He’ll come for you. It’ll be perfect timing. Do you know why?” She didn’t answer fast enough for him apparently because he hit her again.
“Ask me why,” he demanded fiercely before slipping his big hand in her hair and yanking her head back.
“Why?” She staggered on the words.
He laughed. “Because we’ll already know what we need to know, and the deal will already be done. We just have to tie up—.”
“Shut up, Nick!” This time he did shut up.
She moaned, not just from the throbbing pain in her face, but from the realization of the brevity of the situation. They hadn’t had Capri Montgomery
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Gavin. They needed her to get to him and she had just willingly gone along with them thinking she was saving Gavin’s life when in reality she was going to be the reason he died. She had no misunderstandings what Nick meant about tying up lose ends. They were going to kill Gavin, and her. The question now was just how long and hard would they work to find out whatever it is they wanted to know. What did they think she knew? How much did they think they could learn from her?
She wouldn’t tell them anything. She would keep the secrets she had learned from Gavin, and she would take them to her grave with her.
“You’ll talk,” Nick mumbled as if he had heard her silent thoughts. “Trust me. We have ways of making people tell us what we want to know. You’ll be singing like a little bird in two seconds flat;” he assured her.
Unless they planned to shoot her up with some truth serum he was going to find out just how wrong he was. She would not talk. She didn’t care what they did to her; she couldn’t jeopardize Gavin that way. She had resolved to keep her mouth shut…now she just needed to keep reminding herself of that. No matter what they did to her she couldn’t risk Gavin—she just couldn’t.
Just relax. Stay calm. You’ll find a way out. She tried to reassure herself, but the longer they rode in silence the more fear she felt gripping her. Then, when they pulled up outside what appeared to The McGregor Affair
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be a warehouse in a well deserted location she just knew this was her chance, make a run for it or stay in danger? She opted for making a run for it. The moment the door opened she was going to knock Nick down and take off.
There wasn’t any place for tree cover so she would have to move fast.
She had a plan—at least she thought she had until two men emerged from the building with really big guns. She didn’t know what they were, but she knew she had seen them before. They looked just like the weapons she had seen in one of those Chuck Norris Missing in Action movies—the type of weapon that seemed to fire for days.
Oh hell; she was in trouble now. She didn’t want Gavin to come for her. They would kill him if he did. As much as she wanted him to save her again, she didn’t want him to get hurt—killed. They could call if they wanted, but she wouldn’t open her mouth to tell him to come for her. Instead she would be sure to tell him not to. He might not listen to her, but she would have to try to make him. She wouldn’t have much time. She would have to think of something. She had until morning to do that.
She would give her last breath for him. Gavin had saved her.
Now it was her time to save him; even if it killed her.
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Chapter Sixteen
Heads were going to roll if they had done anything to London. Gavin felt his heart racing, his grip on his temper slipping.
When he arrived early and went, with Drake, to pick her up from her room he hadn’t expected to find it empty. Drake had a copy of the room key because Gavin had insisted London let him keep one. He had told her it would be easier for him to pick the key up from Drake and get to her room without being noticed when he came in that morning. What he hadn’t old her was that plans had changed and with the D.C.
connection being taken down he was coming in hot tonight. He wanted her some place safe, which is why he went to get her from that musty hotel Warren had the crew staying in.
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