by Lea Griffith
“Blow the place to smithereens after she’s out,” Jude threw into the mix.
“Kill Savidge,” Rook said in a hard voice.
“Hooyah,” King murmured. “He’s mine, Rook. That motherfucker is all mine.”
Rook nodded. Then they were all in a circle, Vivi included, locked and loaded for a mini-war on foreign soil.
“She doesn’t get hurt,” King reminded them, and his voice was harsh in the silence.
“We got it,” Jude muttered. “She’s important.”
King pinned Jude with his gaze, and the man looked back at him before acknowledging the unspoken demand. If by some chance Ella was there, Jude had to stay on point. No running off to chase the woman who remained a ghost to him.
“I got it,” Jude told him.
“I just received a message from Gray Broemig. He’s got men ready to descend if we need them. He wanted me to tell you to bring his daughter home, King. He said it’s your ass if you don’t.”
King shook off the anger, beating it back with everything in him. Rescuing Allie was the important thing here. Later there’d be time to deal with Broemig and his threats.
“Don’t be brave,” he said.
“Be accurate,” everyone responded in unison.
They loaded up, leaving Vivi and Black to man their temporary headquarters for this mission. They would destroy all evidence of their presence and meet them at the extraction point in two hours. It would take them thirty-eight minutes to get to Beirut from Juniyah. From there, they had twenty minutes to grab Allie and make it to the extraction point an hour away.
They were cutting it close, but their team was an effective, well-oiled machine. They’d engage if they had to. If they were able to get Allie out quickly, Jude would set explosives around the compound and King would have the time to go hunting.
He breathed in deeply and clenched his hands into fists. King was in his element now.
* * *
“The satellite visibility corridor closes in thirty minutes, Endgame,” Vivi said over the communication ear mics.
“Roger that,” King verbalized.
They’d entered the compound’s grounds via the beach, scaling an outside wall and hiding in the shadows. Savidge thought it was a source of a security, but when the men you had guarding that particular venue didn’t know their assholes from their elbows, well, it ended up being the easiest point of access.
“Heat sig to your immediate right, King. Four men heading your way,” Vivi intoned.
He held up a fist, and the men behind him stilled. He pressed his back to the wall and waited for the men to go by. They had no idea what was in their midst.
The guards passed, laughing and joking, and King opened his fist, showing all five fingers.
His men separated, staying in the shadows. Savidge’s compound was set out in a square, surrounded by an outside wall. It was a large complex with the primary residence, a sprawling three-story structure with four wings, sitting in the middle. The house was surrounded by lush shrub barriers with a fountain sitting dead center in the ornate circular driveway. The place was lit up to the heavens, but this left the outside perimeter cast in darkness. Only one wing was being used as party headquarters tonight. The other three were dark.
“You’re coming up on the west wing, Your Highness. There will be a corridor twenty feet off the entrance. Take those stairs and head up two flights. Your girl is on the third floor, second room on the left,” Vivi directed him.
“Ten-four.”
“Rook, you’ve got a tango coming up on your six,” Vivi told her husband.
“Roger that.”
Vivi sighed. “And now you have no more tango. Jude, there are five heat sigs to your left.”
“Got it,” Jude said. “King, this place is loaded for bear. He’s knows we’re coming.”
“He’s having a goddamn party,” Knight’s voice whispered across the links.
“Say again?” Vivi asked.
“There are a shit-ton of people here dressed in their finest,” Knight bit out.
“Savidge gives parties once a month. This is standard. He’s a cocky son of a bitch to still throw a shindig knowing we’ll be coming for him. Stand by, second satellite comm coming online now,” Vivi reported. “I’ve got visual. Best estimate, he’s got up to two hundred people in the main house. Stay away from the main wing of the house, and you should be fine.”
“Roger that,” Knight and Black responded.
“Vivi, which door?” King asked as he moved up the stairs. He came to the second room on the left and found it empty.
“Intel said second on the left.”
“Negative. She’s not here,” King reported. Fear was riding him now. It was entirely too quiet in this wing of the house.
“Hold for further,” Vivi said. King knew intel was only as good as the source and the time that had elapsed since the information had been given. It made his hands shake.
He lowered his night-vision goggles and used the infrared scope on his rifle to go through the remaining five rooms. This wing was entirely dark.
“Nothing here. Party is in the main wing,” Rook informed them.
Vivi came back. “Source says she was in the western wing when she left today, but that was over two hours ago. She should still be out. You’ll have to hunt, King.”
“I’m on it,” King responded. “Meet at the origination point.”
His men were right where they’d entered the dwelling, waiting on him.
“Directions, Vivi,” King ordered.
“Main wing is to your right, up a flight and across a small courtyard. Place is packed. Be prepared.”
“Roger that,” King returned. “Vivi, how much longer on the satellite comm?”
“Fifteen minutes. Your window is closing,” she told him.
He turned to his men. “Knight, stay here and be ready. Rook, Jude, quick, fast, deadly if need be. Find her.”
It took them five minutes to make a two-minute trek. Guards were everywhere, and rather than kill and alert them to Endgame’s presence, they avoided contact. But time was running out. King could feel it in his bones.
Adrenaline surged as he crossed the small courtyard, staying in the shadows. His men moved in the shadows, but the lights were bright tonight. Though there was no moon, the house was lit up like Christmas. He entered the main wing via a darkened window, Rook and Jude on his heels.
“Check in,” Vivi demanded.
Her tone was business, but underneath King heard the nervousness. This was the unknown—this was what made everything dangerous.
“King, check.”
“Rook, check.”
“Jude, check.”
“Well, well, well. I wondered when you’d show,” a voice said from the dark.
King had his weapon trained and sighted in the space of a breath. Savidge. And beside him, sitting in a chair with her hands tied behind her back, was Allie.
Her head hung down, and her hair, which had been braided earlier, was hanging loose.
King flipped on his flashlight and skewered Savidge in the darkness. Allie hadn’t moved to acknowledge anything. She simply sat there, a broken waif.
Savidge laughed. “I knew you’d come. You never disappoint, McNally. And look, you’ve brought company!” He clapped his hands like a kid and smirked.
“Step away from her, Savidge, and I’ll let you live. I’m leaving here with her, and you’re going to let me. Nobody dies. We just take her and leave,” King said softly.
The lights went on then, and the sound of weapons being cocked reverberated through the room.
“How about this, McNally. How about you drop your weapon, and I don’t kill you…yet,” Savidge said with glee.
King didn’t move. Rook and Jude had their backs to him, forming a circl
e. They’d come loaded for bear themselves.
Savidge walked to Allie and very calmly, very quickly slapped her cheek. “Wake up! The fun’s just starting!” Allie didn’t respond.
King was over the table separating him from Savidge in a split second. Savidge was faster. He had a gun against Allie’s temple before King could get to him.
“For all your American special operations training, not even you are faster than a bullet, McNally,” Savidge said with a laugh.
Allie’s eyes were black and blue, her cheek had a long bruise on it, and her nose was now bleeding. She met King’s gaze, and from what he could see in her eyes, she was both surprised and scared.
“Drop the weapon, McNally,” Savidge said and pressed harder on the gun.
“I’m going to kill you, Savidge,” King ground out. But he dropped his weapon.
“Now your men,” Savidge ordered.
Rook and Jude both threw their weapons aside.
Savidge couldn’t be that stupid. A single weapon gone when each of them carried more firepower than most entire units did? He must have something up his sleeve.
Savidge pulled his weapon from Allie’s head. Her eyes closed.
“Release her,” King ordered.
“You are not in a position to order me around. I give the orders now. You want her freed, you’ll give me what I want.”
King cocked his head and waited.
Allie glanced at him, and his heart wept. She’d had nothing but pain since he’d come into her world.
“I want Broemig,” Savidge said casually.
“That’s what this is about?” King asked snidely. “Her daddy?”
Savidge smiled. “It’s about much more than that. She’s a fine specimen, and I will look good between her thighs. But first I want her father.”
King grappled for control. To lose it now would mean Allie’s life, and possibly Rook’s, Jude’s, and his own as well. He wouldn’t relinquish control to this cocky motherfucker.
“Call him. I’m sure he’ll give himself up. She’s his daughter. By the way, Savidge, how’d you find that out?” King asked.
“Your teammate, Ella Banning—she is ever a source of valuable intel. I look good between her thighs as well,” Savidge said with a laugh and a glance at Jude.
King glanced at Jude, willing him to remain calm. If Savidge had been between Ella’s thighs, it was rape. She would have never given herself up. Not like that. Jude’s face was stone cold. His cheeks were red, and his eyes blazed.
Hatred had a scent, and King could smell Jude’s from across the room.
“It wasn’t Ella. Oh, she may have confirmed it, but someone else told you,” King said.
“Lo-Lo,” Allie moaned softly.
In King’s ear came Vivi. “Ella just contacted me.” King didn’t answer her.
“What Ms. Redding is trying to say is that the lovely—” Savidge began.
“I told him,” a woman said from the doorway.
“It’s Loretta Bernstein,” Vivi said through his earpiece at the same time.
Goddamn it, King thought before he had his backup Kimber out and pointed at Loretta Bernstein. “I thought it was you. I didn’t believe it, but yeah, I wondered.”
She walked to stand behind Savidge. King kept his gun trained on her. She lowered her head to Savidge’s and kissed him. He wiped his mouth when she was done, but the smile lingered.
King didn’t look at Allie, too afraid her fear and loathing would drive him to do something he couldn’t take back.
“Buy me some time, Your Highness. Help is on the way,” Vivi told him.
“Why?” he asked Loretta.
“My reasons are my own,” she said simply, and again, just like in Cameroon, her voice was full of things that King couldn’t get a grip on. She seemed to be telling him something, but for the life of him, he couldn’t grasp it. “Dresden offered me an obscene amount of money, and I took it willingly. The CIA paid me nothing close to what Dresden does. She was expendable, McNally. Hell, in the end we’re all expendable.”
A soft sob ripped from Allie’s chest. Loretta looked at her, and for just a moment King saw misery and regret on the woman’s face. Then it was gone and she was the hard, cold Loretta she’d always been.
King nodded. “There’s more.”
“Dresden hates you as much as I do, McNally. And he knows your secrets, just like me.”
“So this is about me? Well, then you can let her go,” King urged.
She laughed and stroked Savidge’s shoulder. “You’re funny. Now I’ve got everything. Money, revenge, and you, McNally.”
“You hate Broemig,” Rook said into the silence. He was about ten feet behind King, hands at his sides. Keep her talking, and whatever Vivi had in the works could maybe bear fruit.
“With a passion,” Loretta said and glanced once more at Allie.
Why did she keep doing that? Looking at Allie as if she wanted absolution. He didn’t understand any of this.
“So much you’re willing to hurt the one you helped raise to get at him?” King asked.
“I’d use anything to get at Broemig. I wondered for years whether or not he even recognized it. Allie was a pleasant way to pass the time, get into his good graces, et cetera, et cetera, but once I was there, it was easy to hate him.”
“What did he do to you?” King questioned, feeling the buzz of movement at his back and hearing the throb and whump-whump-whump of helicopter blades in the distance.
Allie heard it too because her head lifted. How much longer could she hang in there?
“All manner of things that he needs to pay for,” she returned.
“He didn’t leave his wife,” Jude said astutely.
Loretta’s gaze speared Jude, but she smiled to hide the truth. “He was never anything to me, but he did make promises he never kept. His wife never even knew I was fucking her husband in their bed. She was pathetic.”
“Not quite as pathetic as a woman sleeping with a married man,” Vivi said in their ears.
Rook coughed to cover his laugh. King ignored them.
“Incoming in thirty seconds, Your Highness. Don’t say I didn’t warn you guys,” Vivi called out.
The chopper was closer, but by the time Savidge and Loretta realized what was happening, and their men caught on that something big was headed their way, King had positioned himself beside Allie, cut her bonds, and had her on the floor covering her with his body.
The rush of the rocket blast in the courtyard shattered the windows and blew a huge hole in the wall behind King. He picked her up and was running with her as soon as the whoosh cleared from his ears. Fire rained down on them.
“Another hit coming in thirty seconds, men,” Vivi informed them.
“Goddamn, woman! Let us get the hell out of here first,” Rook demanded.
King ran for cover. The next blast took him off his feet, though he rolled with Allie, taking the brunt of the impact. Allie clung to him as debris fell on them.
“I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you,” he said in her ear.
Then he was up once more, carrying her slight weight over his shoulder and running through a ballroom full of well-dressed people who were now screaming and taking cover.
Rook and Jude were on his heels. When they came to the front door, Rook took Allie from King, who set up for cover.
Sporadic gunfire had erupted outside the ballroom, and soon Savidge’s men were pouring out and heading King’s way. He and Jude picked them off one by one.
King saw Savidge then, slipping on debris. He aimed and took his shot. Savidge fell immediately, but it wasn’t solely because of King. At the bastard’s back, holding a smoking handgun, was Loretta Bernstein. Her eyes met King’s. She smiled and then she took off, disappearing in the smoke.
What the hell
had just happened?
“You now have three minutes to get to the beach and head for extraction,” Vivi pointed out.
“Damn, woman, you’re killing me,” King muttered.
Jude got up and started to make his way toward Savidge, but then he stopped as if he’d been shot. Proof of death was a valuable thing for the Piper and Endgame. King glanced at his man and then followed his line of sight.
Ella. One of the ballroom patrons was Ella. She held out a trembling hand, beseeching desperation in her gaze, and then she turned and ran. Fire licked up the walls of the ballroom, and more gunfire erupted.
Jude dropped to a knee, eyes closed.
“Get it together, Jude. We’ll get her,” King promised his man.
Jude opened his eyes and nodded, then stood and began returning fire.
“Bernstein is getting away,” Jude muttered.
“Two minutes, Endgame. If you came to play and win, time’s running out,” Vivi counted down. “And Loretta Bernstein has much bigger problems than you, Jude. Those warbirds out there are courtesy of one very pissed-off Gray Broemig. She won’t make it past him, I assure you. Once Endgame and the objective are out of the structure and clear, Savidge’s entire place is going up.”
“Move, Jude. Let’s get the fuck out of Dodge,” King ordered.
They ran, making it to the rendezvous point, jumping in the SUV, and beating a path away from hell.
King grabbed Allie from Rook, who looked at him with a knowing smile before he shut it down.
His gaze lowered to Allie. Her eyes were wide open, fear etched in the blue irises. He pushed her hair back from her face and winced at the multiple bruises.
Her sobs took him by surprise. Deep, racking cries that made his heart bleed and his soul yearn for revenge.
“It’s okay, Allie. You’re safe now, baby,” he soothed.
Her cries were heartbreaking wails now.
“Allie,” he said loudly. “Allie, look at me.”
She did, but her eyes were swollen and the tears weren’t helping. He needed her to calm down instead of cry. Her sobs were ripping him apart.
“Allie girl, you talk like a lovely loon. Keep going, please, until I go insane,” he said desperately at her ear.
