by Cara Carnes
The woman was impressing him more and more. Of course she had a secondary transport near the hospital. There was likely a third as well. To think she’d run what was quickly surfacing as an extremely complicated network without help. Sure, she had Jade and people like Ben.
But no one had helped her with the grand picture. She’d been left alone to tend to all the details and keep it all together. With no one at The Arsenal figuring out she was running an underground safe haven.
While she covered teams and ran ops.
Jesus.
He quietly slipped into the second hall, which ran parallel to the one the four men were charging down. Ben moved from behind the nurse’s station and stood in their way. His voice echoed down the hall, likely a warning to the sleeping Zoey in the room nearby. “Can I help you gentlemen?”
“We’re looking for a runaway and her daughter,” one of the men said. “There’s a ten thousand dollar reward.”
Gage didn’t bother listening to the rest as he slid into the nearest room he could safely enter unnoticed, which was two down from where Zoey and Ariana were. Shit.
“Looks like you’re taking a trip outside,” Mary said.
Gage tensed. He hadn’t realized Mary was even on the com. Given the late hour, she probably hadn’t been until he’d warned Cord there was trouble. If anyone could get him to Zoey and Ariana safely, it was Mary.
She was The Edge—the lethal solution who never failed.
“I overrode the security latches to the windows. They should pop out with a kick to the lower corner,” Cord commented. “Alarms are off for the room.”
“Right.” Gage assessed the outside. Floodlights engulfed the side of the building in a soft, pale yellow glow that would clue anyone who looked up to his presence. “I’m assuming there are more assholes where those four came from.”
“That’s an affirmative. We’ve got four more on the first level and two at the exterior.”
“You want me to engage?” Howie asked.
Gage had forgotten the man was in the lobby. “Negative. Get the transport secure. We’ll be exiting hot.”
“Copy.”
Gage wasn’t a fan of heights. As a Ranger he’d done more than his fair share of LALOs, HALOs, and every other kind of jump. He’d scaled buildings and had even jumped off one on Mary’s order not too long ago. That didn’t mean he enjoyed it, though.
He got to work with the limited supplies he’d brought along. He wasn’t sure how he was moving the twenty or so feet horizontally and entering a secured room. He only knew two things. First, pop the window.
Two firm kicks later, he snagged the pane and set it against the wall. Silence offered the stealth he needed as long as possible.
Second, he dispatched drones. Mary and Cord hadn’t told him to, but the little fuckers proved handy when least expected. He checked the supplies he had and grumbled. He should’ve brought along some rope.
Two drones flitted out the open window as he slid on the headgear for the HERA system. Heat signatures from the hallway where Ben was valiantly attempting to stall the four men appeared, but Gage focused on the secondary feeds from the drones surveilling the building just outside the window.
“I’m afraid these drones aren’t very good with horizontal movements since they’re more for knocking the enemies out,” Mary said. “This is going to get bumpy.”
It was a shame they couldn’t knock the assholes out and get gone. But they needed extrication from the hospital to be quiet and under the radar to prevent troubles later on.
Gage was good with bumpy as long as it didn’t end in a splat against the concrete three levels below. He grunted into the com and removed the two bungee cords he’d brought. “I’m not putting a baby on a drone.”
“Neither am I,” Mary said. “Get to Z. We’ll go from there. We aren’t running like scared rabbits against a third-grade merc squad.”
Gage admired the woman’s spirit. He’d go against ten heavily armed and trained men if necessary. No questions. He secured the bungees to the four drones hovering obediently.
“There’s a drainage pipe running four feet beneath the window to Z’s room. That’s where we’re aiming you. You’ll have to balance yourself on it while the drones support the bulk of your weight. Pop the window from the outside, then enter the room.”
The woman read the steps off in a calm, confident list. He’d done harder, though, and Mary was aware of that fact. Before he could second guess the decision, he nodded his readiness and stepped off the narrow window ledge. He shifted his weight toward the target marked in his readout.
Adrenaline surged as his side slammed into brick and scraped. He scrambled to grab the narrow ledge beneath the window as his right foot landed on the drainage pipe. It groaned beneath his weight, but the drones supporting him via the bungees attached around his armpits held him up.
Their presence at the juncture of his shoulders and arms limited his range of motion, a fact he hadn’t considered. He grunted as he focused on the window ledge his fingers held onto.
Before he could figure out the next step, the window popped from the inside. A riotous head of purple and pink hair appeared before him like a waterfall. Eyes wide, Zoey looked down at him.
“You’re crazy! What the hell are you doing?”
The man was a certified loon. Her heart beat so hard in her chest the vibration pounded clear to her eyeballs. And her stomach had shot up her throat and straight into orbit. Gage Sanderson was dangling from four drones.
She reached her hand down toward him.
“Take a few steps back, Z. We’ve got this,” Mary ordered.
The woman was crazier than him. Why else would she have called the hospital room’s number and told her to pop the window open? There hadn’t been any explanation.
Ariana wailed from her crib.
“Get the baby quieted down,” Cord said.
Uh-oh. She’d worked with the man enough to recognize the concern in his voice. Unlike his five older brothers, Cord wore his emotions in his voice and on his face. Even though every synapse in her brain demanded she rescue Gage, she did as told and got to Ariana.
“Get her unhooked,” Mary said as two drones appeared beside Zoey.
That was when her focus fanned outward and she heard the raised voices in the hall. Shit. Shit. Shit. Someone was here.
Zoey undid all the monitors on Ariana and got her bundled up. She shoved whatever diapers and formula she could find into the bag she carried and shouldered it on. Gage appeared in her periphery.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice soft.
He nodded, but she noted the torn fabric along his right side and the blood seeping from the visible skin. Damn it. There wasn’t time to patch him up, though. Gage opened the door just enough for them to peek into the hallway.
“You can’t barge into a hospital and demand to search it. Do you have a warrant?” An elderly nurse stood between the four men and Ben. “These babies and their mommas need rest.”
The man ignored the pissed off nurses and looked back at the three men behind him. “You two start at that end of the hall. We’ll start at the other. Search every inch. She’s here somewhere.”
Son of a bitch.
“Who are you looking for again?” Ben asked.
Zoey’s breath froze in her lungs. She didn’t want Ben or anyone else injured trying to be a hero. Fear clawed her insides as she huddled against Gage just outside the door—a scant few feet from the men intent on searching the entire floor.
“We’re looking for a runaway. Cellular activity traced her to this facility.”
“Then you should be downstairs. We don’t have anyone fitting that description up here,” the elderly woman declared.
“We’ll see soon enough.”
“Security’s on their way,” one of the other nurses said. “They’ve called the police.”
Unfazed by the announcements, the four men divided up and headed to opposite ends of the hall.
Now what? She looked over at Gage, who’d already opened the door. He positioned her grip on his waist at his back. “Don’t let go. I’ll know where you are if you don’t let go. If a fight ensues, get against the wall and curl into a ball. Tiny as you can.”
Zoey nodded. She really, really needed to take self-defense classes. She couldn’t imagine Addy or Kamren curling into little balls and letting anyone fight for them.
But she wasn’t a kickass operative or a wicked crack-shot survivalist.
She was a chunky geek with a baby in tow.
Gage moved. Zoey rocked herself up and down, side to side and silently prayed the baby remained quiet. The soft coos and sputters semi-muffled by the blanket echoed like bullets in Zoey’s ears as they moved toward the stairwell near the nurses’ station—a stairwell a nurse held open as she nervously looked about.
Ben was frantically clicking and tapping on the computer. “No one was ever in that room. Okay?”
His voice drifted toward Zoey even though it was directed toward the nurses clustered around them. “Go. Get those men slowed down. Zero needs time to get downstairs.”
The young man looked at Zoey with an intense expression she recognized. He’d do whatever it took to keep them secure. She mouthed her thank you as they slid into the stairwell unnoticed.
Gage paused long enough to hand her a com he’d pulled from his pocket. She put it into place as Ariana started fussing. Damn it. She cooed and rocked as Gage guided her toward the next rung of stairs.
Drones whizzed past their head.
“You’re clear until the first level,” Mary said. “Howie’s three blocks away in a black Mazda. I’m diverting him to the side employee exit. Turn right when you land at the first floor. Go down the short corridor and hang a left.”
“Follow the drones,” Cord suggested.
Zoey liked the man’s straightforward approach. She now understood the need for simple, precise directions because her brain followed his instructions way easier.
But Gage was probably listening to Mary because he was a trained operative. Details helped him. He wanted Mary’s way of explaining things because they gave him the knowledge he needed to take decisive, informed action.
Zoey filed the lesson away as they spilled onto the first floor. Ariana was not happy. The frustrated gasps and infrequent outbursts turned into an outright cry. Gage double-timed their movements.
“Left,” Mary ordered as they began an outright sprint down the narrow corridor. “Exit door straight ahead.”
Zoey’s breaths sawed in and out of her lungs as Gage remained at her side, pushing and sometimes pulling her toward the destination. He exited first. Gun drawn, he swept the area as a black Mazda skidded to a halt. The front passenger door opened.
Zoey got into the back. Gage took the front seat.
Tires squealed as the vehicle tore off and blazed out of the parking lot. Headlights appeared behind them moments later. Zoey unshouldered her backpack and got to work changing Ariana’s diaper. She couldn’t help with the getaway portion, but she could have the baby ready for whatever happened next.
“Get down on the floorboard,” Gage ordered with a growl.
“After I get her changed,” Zoey replied.
“It can wait.”
“You try waiting when you’ve got a diaper full of shit on,” she said. The stench filled the car when she undid the diaper. “Ah, geez. That’s disgusting.”
“Is she really changing a diaper?” Vi asked.
“Someone has to,” Mary commented. “Hang a right half a block up.”
Zoey looked around and noted the car seat. “Was this one of the transports on my map?”
“Yes,” Howie said.
“Make sure we pay the person.”
“Pay?” Cord asked.
“Yeah. Ben, too. Extra for him, though. Double-click on the icon of the service you used, and a menu appears. It if was standard service like this car, you hit the green dollar sign. If it was intense like Ben’s, you hit the red. The system will transfer the money.”
“One thousand for the car and ten thousand for Ben sound right?” Mary asked.
“Probably. Might want to give Ben more. It seems he trusted some of his coworkers with what we were doing. Plus, he’s a college student and helps me a lot,” Zoey admitted.
“Will him sharing that be a problem?” Mary said.
“We’ll need to run everyone on shift with him, but I trust his judgment. Either way I won’t be able to use him for a while after this because the zone is too hot.” She paused. “So he needs extra to get him through.”
“On it,” Vi said. “I’ll run the employees, too.”
Howie hung the turn as ordered. Zoey buckled a now-quiet Ariana up into the car seat and remained on the cramped floorboard as Mary navigated Howie through complicated twists and turns. Zoey kept her mind off the fact that she was in a high-speed chase and got to work putting the drones away. She’d been so busy running for the car she hadn’t given them a second thought.
Fortunately Cord, Vi, or Mary had flown them into the vehicle.
Her stomach tightened as her brain processed what had just happened. A cellular call had tracked Sara to the hospital. Anger spiked in her brain as she put pieces together. While it might have been someone who happened to spot the young woman, Sara’s belligerent and downright whiny tone before Zoey had arrived echoed in her head.
She needed to have a heart-to-heart with Sara after they got away from whoever was following them.
7
They’d switched out their transport to a large cargo van and picked the rest of the team up. Silence had filled the vehicle as they headed out of Chicago. Sara was safe, but the drama had only begun because some answers were needed.
This entire situation never should have happened. Zoey’s pulse quickened when the vehicle parked outside an out-of-the-way diner. She recognized the road as ending at the airfield. “We’re going back, aren’t we?”
“Can you think of a more defensible location?” Gage asked.
No. Which was why she’d put off the overdue confrontation with Sara long enough. “You have a choice, Sara. We either do this here in the van where I will likely lose my temper and yell or in the diner where I’ll be forced to behave. Either way, you know where this talk is going because you’ve been mighty quiet since we met back up.”
The young woman looked at Zoey from the farthest back seat. They’d commandeered one of the two remaining transports in the area. Zoey hoped they didn’t need more than what she had available because that would slow the exfil down. Tears filled Sara’s eyes, but Zoey didn’t have enough compassion left in her to react.
“Gage vaulted from one window to another like freaking Spiderman while dangling from drones to get me and your daughter to safety,” Zoey said, her voice low and quiet.
“I’m thinking our girl’s pissed. We missed something,” Vi said. “Deep breaths, Z.”
Deep breaths wouldn’t help the good men and women risking their asses to keep Sara alive. Common freaking sense and a bit of brains would, though. It was about danged time someone made the eighteen-year-old grow the hell up.
“What did you do?” Zoey asked.
“Nothing,” the woman lied.
“That’s strike one.” Zoey held up a finger. “Remember what I said when this shit started? Three strikes and you’re out. I’ll take Ariana and put her in the network so deep she’ll be a grandma before you ever find her. And you? Well, this diner will eventually need a waitress. Good luck.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Try me!” Zoey thundered. “Do you have any idea what could have happened because of you? Do you have any idea how much work I’ll have to put in to ensure your stupidity doesn’t get hundreds if not thousands of women and kids killed? Or worse.”
Sara’s mouth thinned as she crossed her arms and narrowed her gaze. “That’s stupid. There’s nothing worse than death.”
“That’s strike two.
” Zoey ticked off another finger. “Sit there and think about what’s gone down the past few days and then think back to your life before Ariana. The life you said you wanted to escape, the one you swore you were so desperate to flee you’d do whatever I told you.”
When the woman offered no argument, Zoey continued. “A lot of very brave men and women have put their ass on the line for you because I’m a part of their team and needed help. They don’t know your story. They haven’t seen the pictures. All they know is I stood toe-to-toe with your father and vowed he’d never get his hands on you.”
The girl’s eyes widened. “You didn’t.”
“I did. I swore he would never touch you again, Sara. I came close to putting a lot of people I care about in danger because I didn’t tell them about you and I should have.” Zoey paused a few seconds. “Then I realized today that you lied to me.”
“I didn’t,” the girl whispered, her voice pained. “I-I’m sorry.”
“Tell me what you did. I know you called someone on a phone you aren’t supposed to have. If you’d used the burners I gave you, no one could have tracked you. But they did.”
“They’re ugly,” she groused.
“They’re ugly,” Zoey repeated. “Funny, I thought those whip marks on your back were pretty damn ugly. And those burns on your inner thighs. How about that broken arm when you were eight and all those busted lips?”
“Jesus,” Jesse said as he shifted in the passenger’s seat of the cargo van.
“See, to me, and likely everyone around me, that’s the ugly we risked our asses to keep you away from,” Zoey said. “Not disposable flip phones.”
“They really found me because of the call I made?”
“Yeah. We’ll have to do a bit of looking, but I don’t make mistakes to draw attention to someone I’m protecting. Neither do the people here with us. They’re the best around and the only reason you aren’t on your way back to your dad.” Zoey looked at Sara. “Is that what you want? To go back?”
“No!” The woman paled.
