Dangerous in Action (Aegis Group Alpha Team, #2)

by Sidney Bristol

  Kyle and Isaac slipped out the back first.

  “I’d like to lock up the house,” Tanya said.

  The home might never be hers, but she wanted to leave it in as pristine condition as possible. The group left filed out into the garden while Tanya locked the house and armed the key box.

  “You guys should go,” Shane said, gesturing at the gate.

  “Come on.” Abigail hooked her arm in Tanya’s. “We’re just two girlfriends and a guy headed home after a long night.”

  “Right.” Tanya blew out a breath.

  “Hey, anyone give you a gun yet?” Luke asked.

  “No,” Tanya replied.

  “Shoot. Here, before we’re on the street.” He unclipped a holster from his belt and handed it to her.

  Tanya secured the weapon under her coat on her jeans. She could fire, well even, but the weight of a gun had never become a natural feeling for her.

  “We need to hurry up.”

  Abigail increased their pace. They paused at the point where the alley let out onto the sidewalk, but the street was quiet.

  Isaac and Kyle were two dark figures farther down the road than Tanya would have liked.

  “Come on, ladies.”

  Luke ushered them forward.

  “At least it stopped raining,” Tanya said.

  “Don’t say that. It’ll start again.” Abigail chuckled.

  “Right? Every time I blink, I feel like it’s raining again. As a kid, the wet seasons used to be the hardest. Trapped inside.” All those people. The sermons her dad would spout nonstop.

  A boom ripped through the near silence of the night, muted, but unmistakable. A silencer could only dampen so much of the noise, and there was no hiding the bright flash of light.

  One of the two figures crossing the road went down.

  Tanya pitched forward, but Luke caught her around the waist, dragging her down behind the parked cars.

  “Guys,” Luke bellowed.

  “We see him,” Shane said, so close Tanya didn’t need the headset to hear them.

  Another shot rang out.

  Tanya flattened herself to the sidewalk, barely able to make out the form of Kyle and Isaac’s boots as he dragged the team lead across the street.

  “Oh my God. Oh, God.” Tanya’s stomach clenched.

  It wasn’t Isaac.

  She immediately felt guilt for the relief. Kyle was as much a part of the team and just as important as Isaac, but he wasn’t the man who’d burrowed into her heart. The one she cared about.

  Shane and Adam rose as one, their guns raised. Each fired off a shot while Felix darted first, no weapon in hand, and helped Isaac move Kyle into cover.

  “Come on, now.” Abigail grabbed Tanya’s hand.

  Luke hauled both of them to their feet, his arms spread over their heads and they ran forward, crossing the street.

  “Masks on,” Tanya yelled over the noise of gunfire.

  The London closed-circuit television system would identify them and have their whole team at the top of the most wanted list if they got a positive ID. A gun fight in the middle of the city next to the palace of the prince and princess was the best way to become of interest to the police.

  “Tanya’s, right. Masks on, cover your faces. Kyle? Is he hurt?” Abigail hugged the side of the building and went to a knee next to the team leader.

  “He’s fine. Hit the vest. His head bounced off the ground. He’s just dazed.” Isaac’s voice was nonplused.

  “Shouldn’t we keep going?” Tanya tugged her hood lower and peered at the roof top. If there was one sniper, couldn’t there be more?

  Shane and Adam jogged toward them, single file, as close to the houses bordering the side street as possible.

  “Single sniper. Bailed,” Shane said.

  “I’m good.”Kyle levered himself off the ground. Isaac gave him a hand up.

  “We can’t go to the SUV,” Tanya said.

  “We have to,” Abigail replied.

  “Abby’s right,” Luke said. “Eight people like us on the metro is going to bring the cops down on us fast at this time of night. A cab isn’t going to stop for us, and we don’t want to split up. We either go for our vehicle, or we steal another.”

  “Fuck, two of us can’t fit in these cars. Have you seen how tiny they are?” Felix gestured at the compact cars.

  “We need to keep moving.” Shane kept glancing back the way they’d come. “Whoever that was, they weren’t a good shot. It’s not our assassin. They could have just been a lookout.”

  “We split into fours,” Isaac said. “Luke, Abby, Kyle, and Shane, you guys go this way, cut across and come at the SUV from the west. The rest of us will take this alley and come at the SUV from the east. Comms on, we make a go for the vehicle in five minutes, okay?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Kyle replied.

  “Let’s go.” Isaac finally glanced at her, but the man behind the eyes was the soldier and protector, not the man she’d grown to care about. “Come on.”

  Tanya stuck close to Isaac’s side. She understood about needing to compartmentalize. Now wasn’t the time to get her feelings in a twist. They needed to survive this encounter.

  Their four-person team crossed the one way street and between the houses, sticking to the darker shadows. In the distance, sirens wailed. She glanced over her shoulder and the others were gone.

  She stayed right on Isaac’s heels. They kept a brisk pace, single file. There was no hesitation, no second guessing, the team did what they had to.

  Isaac turned left and slowed their pace. Adam stepped past her and Isaac to peer out onto the street, Isaac looking the other way. Felix remained behind her.

  “Copy, I see the van and driver,” Isaac said, voice low.

  Tanya turned to Felix and whispered, “What’s going on?”

  He waved her closer and pulled his ear piece out. She leaned her head toward him and listened to the conversation between the others.

  “That means we see four lookouts. There’s likely another four we don’t see,” Isaac said.

  “Shit, they must have tagged the truck or something,” Kyle said.

  “Isaac, your team hits two, we take the other two. Adam will go for the vehicle and we will make for the airport as best we can,” Abigail said.

  “That’s about the only option we have,” Kyle said.

  Felix shoved his ear piece back in and tapped it.

  “Stay with me and Isaac. Vest on?” he asked.

  “Yes.” Tanya pulled the gun out from under her coat. Everyone else had theirs out. If they were going to treat this as a hostile situation, then she wasn’t going in empty handed.

  “Where’d you get that?” Isaac strode toward her, frowning at the gun.

  “Luke,” Tanya replied.

  Isaac glanced at the brick wall. Judging by the scowl on his face, he didn’t like what he was hearing through the comms.

  “Come on, we’re moving in.” Isaac pointed his finger at her. “You get to the SUV with Adam.”

  Tanya bit back her comment about that and simply nodded.

  “Felix, you’re with me.” Isaac turned toward the street. Both men stood poised, ready to sprint.

  Adam stood at her side.

  Sirens wailed streets over.

  All it would take was a single shot to bring the police here, and then what?

  If they got caught, that would be the end of it. Abigail’s Mossad contacts were only willing to do so much for them. Tanya doubted they’d get their team off the hook here.

  Isaac and Felix darted forward, their footsteps silent, blending into the night.

  Tanya took a step forward. Adam grasped her arm, holding her back. He shook his head once, his gaze straight ahead. She doubted he was seeing the actual car parked at the corner.

  He jerked his head once and stepped in front of her, blocking the walkway with his bulk. She swallowed her irritation and followed.

  She glanced left and caught sight of Isaac
holding a man on the ground, his arm wrapped around his throat. She swallowed, remembering all too well the times she’d been choked out in training.

  Farther down the street another cluster of people had a second figure down.

  “Come on,” Adam jogged between the cars parked along the street.

  She followed him across the narrow lane. A third person was down, Luke securing the guy.

  “Where’s the fourth?” she asked.

  “In.” Adam clicked the key fob and unlocked the gargantuan SUV.

  Tanya paused, glancing back the way they’d come.

  She’d heard four targets. They’d said there were eyes on four people.

  An arm wrapped around her from behind. She sucked in a breath and rammed her elbow back against the fleshy middle of a man several inches taller than herself. He grunted and grasped her right wrist.

  The gun.

  Tanya whirled, swinging with her elbow up. She nailed the guy in the side of the face, but didn’t break free of his hold. Facing him, she kicked out, aiming for his legs, knees, anything. He wrapped his other hand around the gun.

  “Tanya!” Isaac’s voice reverberated off all the brick and asphalt.

  This guy didn’t want to kill her, but he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot Isaac if he got this hand on the gun.

  Tanya squeezed the trigger.

  The single shot blasted through the night.

  The man’s face went slack in shock and his grip slipped.

  “Oh, shit,” Felix said.

  “Everyone—in. Now,” Kyle ordered.

  The man pitched backward on the pavement.

  “Get Tanya in,” Isaac said.

  He and Luke grabbed the downed man and dragged him out of sight. Abigail bustled Tanya into the SUV. She sat in the middle, Luke on one side, Abigail on the other.

  Adam cranked the wheel, reversing out of the spot. Isaac and Felix jumped in at the last second before Adam stomped on the accelerator.

  “He’s gone,” Isaac said.

  Tanya swallowed.

  She’d made that decision. She’d heard Isaac’s voice and known that the greatest risk that gun posed was to the man she’d come to care about.

  “Give it to me.” Luke gently took the gun from Tanya’s hold. “We’ll dispose of this before we take off.”

  “Anyone following us?” Kyle called from the front of the vehicle.

  “Not yet,” Abigail replied. She squeezed Tanya’s knee and whispered, “You did the right thing.”

  “I know. Shouldn’t I feel...guilty or something?”

  “You might later. It was self-defense. If you hadn’t been armed, he’d have done everything in his power to take you. If he’d gotten the gun, he wouldn’t have hesitated to kill us.” Abigail shrugged.

  Tanya nodded. Right now she didn’t feel much of anything, just shock. She hadn’t yet killed someone. She wasn’t sure what she should think or feel.

  Isaac didn’t turn around to look at her once.

  Was it because she’d asked him to go home? Was that really it?

  Abigail squeezed Tanya’s hand and glanced at Isaac with raise brows. Tanya shrugged. It wasn’t like she could carry on a conversation about him right now.

  “We’ve got a tail. It’s not the police,” Luke said.

  Tanya twisted to peer at the headlights a block away and closing.

  “You don’t need me,” she said.

  “What?” Abigail frowned.

  “You know how to track the containers. You know as much as I do about the weapon. You don’t need me.” If it came down to her safety or the lives of thousands, she wouldn’t hesitate.

  17.

  Sunday. London, United Kingdom.

  “Drive, Adam,” Isaac snapped. He turned and stared at Tanya. “Don’t ever say shit like that again. We bring our assets home. End of story.”

  Adam cranked the wheel and turned the SUV around a tight corner. Isaac pitched into Felix trapped in the middle of the center bench seat. The truck accelerated, putting distance between them and the pursuit vehicle.

  Isaac could feel Tanya’s stare on the back of his head. She didn’t like the way things were? Too bad. She had a job to do, and so did they. All of them were on the same side with the exact same goal. They protected people, and in the scheme of things, this time it was a lot bigger than just bringing one kidnapped girlfriend back to the states.

  “Not to rush us or anything, but we have half an hour to make it to the plane,” Abigail said.

  “What?” Kyle whirled around.

  Yeah, that was Isaac’s thought’s, too. It seemed like getting anywhere in the UK took a minimum of two hours.

  Adam navigated the narrow, winding streets of the city pushing the speed limit constantly. The car behind them never got too close, but it stayed within eyesight. Something that didn’t give Isaac a whole lot of warm fuzzy feelings. If the car was just keeping track of them, what was happening behind the scenes? What were they headed into?

  “These guys have to know we’re trying to get out of the country,” Isaac said. He turned again to look at the headlights. “Where are the cops? Why haven’t they found us?”

  “What if there was another car, but the cops stopped their guy instead of us?” Luke suggested.

  “Isaac’s right.” Abigail didn’t seem too thrilled about that statement. “We might be headed into a trap.”

  “I need a map. Let me have a phone.” Tanya held out her hand.

  Isaac passed his phone over to her, reciting the address for the cargo entrance to the commercial hangar attached to Heathrow.

  “If we park along one of these side streets, we could possibly get across the fence onto the area near the hanger, or go in through the employee entrances on foot.” Tanya showed the map to him, pointing at the locations.

  “We’ll never make it through that fence without setting off alarms. It’d be better to make it to the facility on foot if we need to. We could lose the tail in the metro traffic if we go underground here, and pop up here.” He stared at Tanya’s face lit by the LED light.

  “That would work, and it’ll be morning commute so a lot of people.”

  “What’s the plan?” Adam called from the front seat.

  Isaac leaned forward and ran Tanya’s idea past Kyle.

  “It’s the best we’ve got. How close is our tail?” Kyle asked.

  Isaac glanced back. At four in the morning it wasn’t hard to make out a vehicle that they couldn’t shake.

  “Still a good thirty yards back. We aren’t losing this guy in a car.” Isaac thumbed over his shoulder.

  “If we get off the A4 we could lose him, but it’ll add time,” Adam said.

  “Stay on this road. We can’t risk adding time. The plane will not wait for us.” Kyle jabbed his finger on the dash. “How does it take a fucking hour to go fourteen miles?”

  “Welcome to Europe,” Adam muttered.

  “Turn on the A40 and stop at the Hatton Cross station,” Tanya yelled from the back.

  “Try telling me with a little more time.” Adam cranked the wheel.

  They passed the metro station and a small car lot. Adam whipped the SUV into a larger lot.

  “Get ready to run,” Kyle said.

  “He’s right behind us,” Tanya called out.

  “Stay tight around Tanya. Do not let her out of your sight,” Kyle said.

  Adam pulled across three parking spots and jammed the breaks. Isaac jumped out of the SUV first, his gun in his pocket. He yanked the seat forward, allowing the three in the back to get out, and turned his focus on the aisle leading to where they’d parked.

  “Where is it?” he asked.

  Felix was on the other side of the SUV, watching the other direction.

  “I don’t see him,” Felix said.

  “We’re out, come on.” Tanya grabbed his elbow.

  He turned and jogged after her. Despite the early hour and complete darkness, there were a number of vehicles in the lot and ple
nty of activity within the fence.

  Tires squealed at the end of the row and headlights bore down on them.

  Isaac shoved Tanya forward and nearly ran into a car to avoid the vehicle that’d tailed them.

  “Go, go, go!” Isaac kept his hand planted on Tanya’s back.

  The car doors opened, and three men got out, but their group had a head start.

  They sprinted across the street and small lot attached to the metro station. Kyle burst through the doors of Hatton Cross. Isaac heard the first, sweet notes of sirens wailing. He put on a burst of speed and wrapped his arm around Tanya, carrying her through the doors with him.

  “Lock them. Lock’em!” He planted his foot and put his shoulder into the door, twisting the emergency lock.

  Tanya secured the other door and Felix the last one.

  Bright lights bathed the damp streets, skidding to a stop right in front of the three men who were intent on following them.

  “Go, now. Quick.” Isaac snatched Tanya’s hand and they jogged through the station and out the other side.

  “That’s the cargo company. Come on, we’ve only got ten minutes.” Abigail took off in the lead.

  Tanya kept a tight hold on his hand as they sprinted across five lanes of traffic, another car lot and into the commercial offices for a cargo company he’d never heard of before.

  “I’ve got the doors, get Tanya out of sight,” Felix said as soon as they were through.

  Abigail had a hold of a man’s coat, their faces close together.

  Through the windows they could barely see the police cars surrounding the suspects.

  “Keys are in the rental,” Adam said.

  “Good thing we reported it stolen last night,” Kyle said.

  “You did?” Isaac frowned at them.

  “Hey, we were hoping we’d have another way out of there besides the SUV. Seemed like a good idea at the time.” Kyle shrugged.

  “Guys—come on. We have to go now.” Abigail skipped sideways, waving them after her.

  Two uniformed men who were far too interested in their surroundings to be the average cargo hand escorted them to a small bus. In a matter of moments, they’d been waved through and onto the grounds of Heathrow airport without so much as a wand down or passport check. No one spoke, which was for the best.