Daniel shrugged off the question. He had nothing waiting for him when he left the hospital, so he hadn’t given his release much thought.
Setting his well-worn cowboy hat on the table beside him, Jake rubbed a hand over his short-cropped sandy-brown hair and hedged. “Have you...talked to the chief about a job at headquarters?”
Daniel’s cell phone chirped, and he hobbled toward the tray table where he’d left it. “I don’t want any damn, soul-sucking desk job.”
Jake turned up a hand. “You have one of the best minds in the business. You could coordinate missions, develop strategies—”
“Screw that.” Holding Jake’s gaze, he snatched up the phone and dropped heavily on the side of the bed. “I’d rather leave the agency than push paper the rest of my life.” He jabbed the answer button and barked, “What?”
“Daniel!” He knew the voice instantly, recognized the tremble of fear, heard the steady crashing in the background.
He jerked to attention, stiffening his back and squeezing the phone tighter. “Nicole, what’s wrong?”
Jake sat forward, meeting Daniel’s gaze.
“Men broke in...at my father’s. They...tried to grab Pilar.” Her voice was breathless and full of tears.
Daniel signaled Jake with his free hand. Shoes. Pants. We’re moving.
“Are you hurt?” His own fear for Nicole sharpened his tone.
“We’re in the safe room, b-but...they’re shooting at the door, at the locks.”
Jake whipped out a large pocketknife and sliced off the left leg of Daniel’s jeans above the knee. With one hand, Daniel worked the jeans over the brace around his injured knee, while Jake shoved Daniel’s shoes in front of him, ready to step into.
“Daniel, I...I need you,” Nicole said, her voice breaking.
A fist closed around his heart, and a shudder rolled through him. I’m coming, cher.
Jamming the foot of his good leg in a shoe, Daniel lifted his arm for Jake to pull out his IV line. “Call 911,” he grated, his own voice made rough with emotion. He thumbed disconnect and slid the phone in his jeans pocket.
Jake tossed him a shirt, and Daniel jerked it over his head and grabbed his crutches. “Let’s roll.”
* * *
“Daniel?” Nicole shouted, numb with disbelief. “Daniel!”
No answer. Call 911, he’d growled. And hung up on her. Hung. Freaking. Up.
Fury, hurt and disappointment coalesced inside her, a bitter brew. Her life was in peril, and he’d fobbed her off to 911. Never mind that the cops were in a better position than a hospitalized and injured Daniel to come to her rescue. Common sense did little to dull the sting of his rejection. His curt refusal to get involved.
She swiped at a tickle on her neck, and her fingers came away bloody. The sting she’d felt on her neck. Had a bullet grazed her? The bright red on her hand made the vibrating tension wire inside her tug tighter. She swallowed hard and sucked in a calming breath.
Don’t lose it. Keep it together.
Sarah Beth was still on the line with the emergency operator, giving them the address, detailing their unfolding horror. From the sound of it, the men at the office door were making progress getting through the first door and could blast the lock on the inner steel door any time.
Nicole crawled under the desk with Pilar and wrapped her arms around the whimpering child. The men would have to come through Nicole to get to Pilar, and with her own fear jammed deep down inside her, Nicole was ready to put up a fight.
* * *
“I have a 9 mm in the glove box,” Jake said as they roared down the highway in his pickup truck toward the address displayed on his GPS. “Take it.”
Daniel opened the compartment in front of him and took out the weapon. After checking the chamber to make sure it was loaded, he shoved the gun in the waistband of his jeans. The GPS showed them nearing the address a Google search listed for Alan White’s residence. Daniel checked his watch. Nicole had called eight minutes ago.
From under the brim of his cowboy hat, Jake shot him a dark glance, but Daniel saw the keen look of preparation in his eyes. “All right, man, this is your show. What’s the plan?”
“Park one street over. We’ll approach from behind. Obviously, you’re more mobile than I am, so you take lead. I’ll cover you. Nicole said they were in a safe room, which means center of the house, no windows. If our targets are still there, they’ll be working on getting inside that room.” Daniel didn’t bother elaborating on what it meant if the gunmen weren’t still at the senator’s house. He shoved down the frisson of panic that swirled in his gut at the notion of anything happening to Nicole. He had to stay in battle mode. Had to focus.
Tossing his cowboy hat on the back seat, Jake pulled to a fast stop on a residential street lined with multilevel garden homes. Shouldering open the truck door, Daniel grabbed his crutches, cursing his limited mobility when he needed speed and agility more than ever.
“Go.” He waved Jake away, and they started across the neighbor’s lawn. By keeping his weight off his bad leg, Daniel could plant the crutches and swing his good leg forward in a large hop that moved him at a decent clip. As he approached the senator’s house, he scanned the scene, picking out spots he could dive for cover if a gun battle erupted, choosing the best point of entry, searching for the best vantage point to survey the scene. As they neared the back garden gate, a steady thumping reached his ears. He hobbled up beside Jake, who’d pressed himself against the back garden wall to peer through a crack in the gate.
“What d’ya got, cowboy?” Daniel asked, finding the padlock that secured the gate had already been cut off.
“Garden’s clear. Back door’s ajar.” Jake moved to get a different angle view. “Brick grill pit twenty paces to the left. No window to the right of the open door.”
Daniel jerked a nod confirming their destinations. A sheen of sweat beaded on his brow as he pushed open the gate. Senses alert to his surroundings, heart pumping, Daniel hurried to the protection of the grill pit. Then while he covered Jake, his teammate skulked to his position by the door. Flattened to the wall of the house, Jake reconnoitered the situation inside. Using hand signals, Jake waved Daniel closer. In four silent hops, Daniel took his position next to Jake. Propping his crutches beside him, he pulled out his gun. Balancing on his good leg, he leaned against the house for support.
More hand signals…. Three tangos. All armed. Two by safe room door, third watching front yard by window.
Daniel nodded and craned his neck for a look. The men at the door of the safe room were chopping their way through the wood frame around a steel barricade with an ax.
The goal of any operation was minimal casualties. Dead men couldn’t give up valuable intel, lead them to those higher up the food chain.
The contingency plan, if they met resistance, was simple. Lethal force.
I’ll go high. You take a knee, Daniel signaled. Take the lookout. Head shot. Which left the men by the safe room for Daniel.
Jake jerked a nod, sank to his knee and raised his sniper rifle.
In the distance, Daniel heard the wail of approaching sirens. Inside he heard a woman’s scream as the men with the ax broke through the door frame. No time to wait.
Adrenaline charged through Daniel’s blood. He funneled the surge of energy into focus, concentration, training.
“Freeze!” he shouted. “Drop your weapons and lie on the floor! Now!”
The three men turned. Both the lookout and Daniel’s target raised their guns.
In a heartbeat, Daniel and Jake reacted.
The concussion of twin gun blasts pounded his chest. The man by the front window dropped. One down. Jake shifted his rifle and re-aimed.
Daniel’s target staggered back a step, then clutched his neck. The third man dropped the ax and scrambled for his weapon.
Daniel re-sighted and squeezed the trigger again. Plaster splintered from the wall behind the ax man. A miss. “Merde!”
&nbs
p; The man Daniel had shot in the throat slid down the wall but raised a handgun. Daniel finished the wounded man with a second shot that hit its mark.
Ax Man jumped behind a massive entertainment center and returned fire. As Ax Man shot at Daniel, Jake darted inside, running in a crouch until he reached the sofa.
“Drop your gun and get on the floor!” Daniel repeated.
Axe Man fired again, keeping Jake pinned behind the couch. Daniel needed a better position, preferably inside the house if he was going to help Jake. Gritting his teeth, he did a quick mental inventory of his surroundings, strategizing. Keeping his injured leg straight in front of him, Daniel slid to the ground, then crawled on his belly and elbows into the house. When Axe Man spotted him and opened fire, Daniel log-rolled until he was behind the couch with Jake.
Staying on his stomach, Daniel peered around the couch and zinged a few bullets near Ax Man’s head. While Daniel distracted the gunman, Jake snuck from the other end of the couch to the opposite end of the entertainment center. He gave Daniel a hand signal, and Daniel took his cue, firing at a vase near the front window. The gunman jerked his attention across the room where the vase shattered. And Jake pounced. Before Ax Man could react, Jake took him down and held him pinned to the floor with a knee between the gunman’s shoulders.
With adrenaline numbing his pain and his crutches still outside, Daniel hobbled over on his injured leg and disarmed Ax Man. He gave Jake a nod of thanks. “Get whatever information you can from him before the cops arrive.”
“Roger that.”
A whimper filtered out from the safe room, and Daniel’s chest constricted. “Nicole!” He pounded a fist on the steel door. “Are you all right? Open the door. It’s Daniel.” He paused, listening, but blood whooshed in his ears, drowning out all but his own thundering pulse. “Nicole!”
Chapter 7
Nicole snapped her head up. In the silence following the barrage of gunfire, a familiar voice called to her from outside her father’s office. “Daniel?”
Heart in her throat, Nicole eased Pilar into Sarah Beth’s lap, then scurried to the battered reinforcement door. She threw the massive bolt that locked the steel door in place and struggled to push the door back in the wall pocket. Once the barricade had slid a couple inches, a large male hand grabbed the edge and shoved it aside in one powerful thrust.
Nicole’s breath caught seeing Daniel’s brawn filling the portal, a gun in his hand and a concerned scowl furrowing his chiseled face. Daniel. Fierce, handsome and...here. A familiar thrill tripped down her back and settled low in her belly.
“You came,” she rasped in disbelief and joy.
His frown deepened. “Of course I did. You were under assault. You said you needed me.”
“I know, but...you were in the hospital.”
He lifted one eyebrow. “I checked myself out.”
Nicole blinked, her ears still ringing from the gunfire and her post-adrenaline crash muddying her brain. “But you...hung up on me.”
Daniel jerked a shrug. “I mobilize faster if I’m not on the phone.”
“Your knee—”
“I’m getting the impression you’re not glad to see me.” He narrowed a dark penetrating stare on her and stepped closer. “Did you really think I’d ignore your call for help?” The intimate whisper and deep pitch of his voice sent a ripple of pleasure to her marrow.
“No.” Maybe that’s why her first instinct had been to call Daniel instead of the police.
He reached for her chin and swiped his thumb across her damp cheek. “Who are they? What did they want?”
Nicole took a few seconds to answer, needing time, unlike Daniel, to mentally shift from the deeply personal moment they’d been sharing back to the frightening business at hand. “I don’t know who they are. I’ve never seen them before in my life. They were trying to take Pilar.”
His eyebrows drew together. “Pilar?”
She nodded. “That’s Tia’s real name—Pilar Castillo. Her father is a prominent judge in Bogotá. I was in the process of confirming her identity through the Colombian embassy when the men attacked us.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched, the only outward sign of what was going on behind those dark eyes. “You’re bleeding.” He touched the stinging spot on her neck.
“It’s just a nick. Slap a Band-Aid on it, and I’m fine.” She forced a smile, hoping he couldn’t tell how shaken she was knowing that a bullet had only missed her carotid artery by a few inches. Keep it together.
He scowled his discontent. “You can’t stay here,” he said at last. “You’re not safe until we figure out how Pilar’s location got leaked.”
A chill shimmied through Nicole. Not safe in her own home? Two days ago, when she’d walked on U.S. soil again for the first time in months, she’d believed the nightmare was behind her. She’d been wrong.
Nicole glanced at the dead man lying in the hall behind Daniel, and her stomach roiled. “So what do I do? Go to a hotel?”
The front doorbell rang, interrupting any reply from Daniel. “This is the police. Open the door. We have reports of shots fired.”
“I need to deal with the cops now.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze. “But I’ll be moving you and the girl to a safe house as soon as possible. Be ready.”
A safe house? She opened her mouth to ask for elaboration, but Daniel spun away and limped on his bad leg toward the front door where the police knocked loudly. Nicole turned and staggered back into her father’s office where Sarah Beth and Pilar still huddled together behind the large desk.
“Is it over? Is it safe to come out?” Sarah Beth asked, her face still pale with fright.
Nicole held her arms out to Pilar, who tumbled into her embrace, and nodded stiffly to Sarah Beth. “The police are here, and Daniel...”
She shuddered and tried to erase the image of the blank stare of the dead man in the hall. Daniel and his teammate had arrived just in time. She didn’t want to think about the lethal means they’d employed to save her, Pilar and Sarah Beth.
Over the next couple hours, the police interviewed everyone at the scene, including the surviving man from the trio that had attacked the women. Nicole’s father arrived minutes after the police and surveyed the ransacked house in horror. Nicole rushed to her father and hugged him tightly, reassuring him over and over that she was unharmed, only shaken by the attack.
Jake and Daniel showed the police their military credentials, and the preliminary ballistics assessment supported their claims of self-defense in the deaths of the two intruders. Pending an investigation, no charges were filed against them, but everyone, including Pilar, was required to accompany the cops to the police station so their hands and clothes could be tested for gunshot residue, along with other evidence collection.
The first long shadows of evening stretched across the parking lot of the New Orleans P.D. by the time Nicole and Pilar were released to go home. Jake and Daniel, leaning on his crutches, met them on the sidewalk as they exited the police headquarters. Nicole assessed Daniel’s clenched teeth, the lines of pain and fatigue around his mouth and eyes, and concern burrowed past her own weariness. “You should go back to the hospital. You need rest and painkillers, and—”
“No.” He shook his head, his eyes grim, uncompromising.
“Daniel...”
“No. We’re going back to your father’s place, but only long enough for you to pack a few necessities. Jake’s agreed to drive us to the safe house I mentioned.” He hitched his head toward the street. “His truck’s down here. Let’s go.”
“Daniel, wait. Don’t I get a say in this?” Nicole squeezed Pilar’s hand and squared her shoulders.
Daniel’s stern expression hardened further. “There’s nothing to discuss. These men— whoever they are, whoever sent them—aren’t going to give up just because this attempt to take Pilar failed. This is bigger than just an attempted kidnapping, and you’re in their way. They won’t hesitate to kill you to get the girl.”
>
Nicole released a shaky breath, nodding. “I get that. But my father can hire men to—”
Daniel’s chin jerked up when she mentioned her father, and Nicole hesitated. “Hold on. You can’t think my father had anything to do with this!”
Pilar inched closer, casting Nicole a wary look when she raised her voice.
Daniel arched one eyebrow. “I can’t?”
“Damn it, Daniel! Do not try to pin this on my father!”
Raising a hand to quell her argument, he leaned toward her, pitching his voice lower. “He may not be behind the attack, but we can’t rule him out as the source of the leak. You told him about Pilar, didn’t you?”
“I—” Nicole snapped her mouth shut. She had. Her father had promised to make phone calls to locate Pilar’s parents and smooth over any red tape regarding her presence in the U.S.
Daniel clearly took her lack of response as capitulation. “Until we know where this threat against you and the girl is coming from, I’m not going to trust your safety to anyone else.” Pivoting with his crutches, Daniel moved aside to let her precede him to Jake’s truck. Sighing her resignation, Nicole led Pilar to the street and climbed inside Jake’s dual-cab Ford F-150.
When they reached her father’s house, Jake ran interference with the senator while Nicole packed. Pilar clung to her as she gathered what few belongings she’d amassed since getting back to the States, including some clothes and toys for Pilar. Oreo, clearly recovered from the ruckus earlier in the day, hopped up on the bed and tried to curl up in the suitcase. Pilar’s face brightened when she saw Oreo, and she left Nicole’s side in order to pat the cat.
Daniel, who’d accompanied Nicole to her bedroom, sat on the opposite side of the bed with his bad knee stretched in front of him. He knitted his brow as he watched Pilar with the feline. “That’s not the cat I rescued for you, is it? The one I got from the storm drain was orange.”
The Reunion Mission: The Reunion MissionTall Dark Defender Page 8
