by Aspen Drake
“And she’s totally alone?” I still don’t like the idea of a woman being used as bait in this way. Even one as capable as Colin claims Carolina is.
Brandon looks at me like I’m crazy. “Of course not, dude. You think we’re monsters? Travis is perched in the closet, ready to take a shot if it comes to that.”
Alex laughs. “Yeah, as if it’ll come to that.” He glances at me then to the closet inside the hotel room. “Travis is probably nodding off in there or jerking off. But he won’t need to take a shot tonight. Carolina will have the target immobilized within seconds.”
Even though I make a profit off this business, I’ve never been closely involved in the day-to-day workings of it. I’m both surprised and impressed with the caliber of expertise Ray has working for him. I also have renewed hope that Eli might actually make it home to Emma alive if these guys are an indication of the quality of the team going in to rescue him. “So what’s going on with Eli? Have you found him yet?”
Brandon types something into his keyboard, and all the monitors change images. “They’re moving in on the bunker now. If Eli’s still alive and in there, Ray will bring him home.”
“Are you sure Eli’s in that bunker? He could be anywhere, right?”
Brandon and Alex both nod, but it’s Brandon who responds. “He could be anywhere, but if they think they can get any money out of us, he’s probably still alive. This particular island we’re searching is owned by the state but doesn’t have any full-time residents. Guards patrol during the day, but budget cuts keep them on a limited schedule. We’ve noticed unusually high power usage coming from it over the past few days, so we’re starting there. If this gang, the Messina Asesinos, is trying to keep him off any radars, this is the place to do it.”
On the screen, I see Ray using hand signals to communicate with a guy wearing a chest-mounted camera.
The monitors around the room shift to panoramic displays of the bunker, and Brandon speaks quietly into his comms. “Yeah, boss. It looks clear.”
Colin and I stand quietly behind Brandon and Alex while they communicate with Ray and his team to get them inside the bunker safely. Alex holds up his hand and uses some kind of sign language to Brandon before he changes half the monitors back to the hotel room.
Seconds after the empty room appears, a gorgeous blond woman walks in wearing a very short dress and the highest heels I’ve ever seen in my life. Behind her, a huge man follows her inside the room. Before the door closes, I catch the silhouette of another man standing outside the hotel room door. Obviously, Renzo travels with security.
I point to the door and look at Alex to make sure he saw what I saw. He nods and gives me a thumbs-up then quickly types something into his keyboard. I’m curious how his typed messages get to Carolina without him having to speak them, but now is not the time to ask. Right now, his sole focus needs to be on keeping her safe.
No one in the room dares to breathe as we watch the man reach for Carolina and pull her to his chest. He says something in her ear, and she laughs, running her hands up his wide hips and across the front of his chest until they meet again at the top of his head. With her elbows resting on his shoulders, she leans in for a kiss. I can’t imagine how she’s going to kill him without getting hurt first, but she flashes a hand signal above his head before curling her fingers into the man’s hair and twisting his neck.
It happens so fast that I’m sure she used some other method to take him down. But then Renzo slumps to his knees, and she carefully leans him forward. His head is resting on the bed as if he’s taking a break from a long prayer session, and I realize she is just that good.
This woman locked her elbows on his shoulder, held on to his hair, and twisted. It was incredible. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have done that if I tried, so I’m impressed as hell that she was able to. “Damn.”
All the heads in the room nod in agreement.
“Yeah. I told you.” Colin steps forward to get a closer look at the monitor focused on Carolina. The closet door opens behind her, and my heart stops for a second until I recognize Travis coming out of it, holstering his gun.
“Don’t forget about the guy the door,” Alex says into the comms device he’s wearing.
Carolina looks directly into the camera and smiles, then blows a kiss to Alex. But it doesn’t seem romantic. Actually, it’s more patronizing than anything.
I like her.
Carolina walks to the front door while Travis unsheathes a knife and stands behind the closet door so he won’t be seen. Carolina runs her fingers through her hair to make it look messy then smudges her lipstick before opening the front door and inviting the man standing guard to join her inside.
This guy seems to forget that he has a job to do and eagerly enters the room, obviously expecting to be part of a threesome.
I almost feel bad for him when he passes by the closet and Travis grabs him from behind, quickly slitting his throat. Carolina tosses a towel onto the carpet just before the guy collapses to the ground.
Obviously, she’s done this before. I smile and whisper to Colin, “Where did Ray find a courteous assassin who is gorgeous and can fly drones?”
Colin laughs. “Where the hell does Ray find any of us? All I know is she’s hot as hell and my future wife.”
Brandon reaches back and smacks at Colin. “Don’t be talking about my wife like that. I’ll kick your ass.”
Colin swats at Brandon’s flailing hand. “Yeah, as if you could.”
With Carolina and Travis waving goodbye and leaving the hotel room, I turn my attention back to the bunker. There’s a fight going on there that I’m surprised I missed. Blood is smeared across one of the camera lenses, but there are three other body cameras showing the action from different angles. It looks like Ray has control of the situation, and after a few minutes, his team leaves that room and is walking down the hallway. They check every room but most are empty. When they come across a locked door, they give the camera a thumbs-up.
“This must be it,” Brandon whispers to us. He hits the keyboard, and a new angle is displayed. This one is from the ground up. Ray must be sliding a tiny camera under the door to see what’s inside the room. Crates of his missing cargo are piled along one wall, and Eli is tied to a chair on the opposite side with two armed guards talking near him. He appears to be unconscious, and for Emma’s sake, I hope he is, but it’s possible he’s dead.
The camera peeking inside the room pans down as a little cylinder slides across the floor and stops in the center. It’s about the size of a quarter, but within seconds, white smoke begins to seep out of it.
I’ve never seen anything like it. The smoke dissipates quickly, and before either of the two guards in the room notices, they stumble to their knees and pass out.
Once again, everything moves quickly after that. Ray’s guys are in the room and collecting what they came for. Ray immediately goes to Eli and checks his pulse. He flashes a thumbs-up sign in front of his chest-mounted camera then unties Eli and tosses him over his shoulder.
On the other screens, the rest of the team is unloading crates and filling large duffel bags with the stolen arsenal. The weapons in those crates are worth several million dollars, so whatever they can recover is worth the few minutes they’re taking to do so.
As soon as Ray gets Eli out of the room, the other guys close up their bags and follow behind Ray until they’re all safely outside. Ray is moving pretty fast considering he’s carrying an extra 180 pounds on his shoulder, but the path they take back into the cover of trees is short. Once they’re no longer exposed, they slow their pace until they reach the water’s edge and get into the boat waiting to bring them home.
The entire operation lasts less than an hour, but I can’t relax until I see live footage of Eli sliding into the cabin of the boat and Ray climbing in beside him. Once the entire team is on the water, I pull out an empty chair from the desk behind me and drop into it, strangely exhausted.
I’m surprised
by how stressful this was even though I wasn’t physically a part of anything.
Colin sits down beside me. “It’s intense, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I don’t know how you guys don’t have gray hair.”
“I do, but they blend in pretty well. It comes with the job. You get used to it after a while.” Colin laughs and runs his fingers through his light brown hair. “Those guys are highly trained to do exactly what they just did. That was a textbook recovery mission.”
“Yeah, they made it look easy.” I check back on the monitors and see Ray turning to face one of the guys in the seat behind him. They’re laughing about something we can’t hear. “Why was it so easy?”
“They weren’t expecting us. The Messina Asesinos are cocky bastards. They think they can come in and take what they want without repercussion. Now they know this territory isn’t one they should try fighting for. Because they’ll lose every time.”
I look over at Alex, and he’s flipping through something on his phone. “Hey, Alex. Is everything good with Carolina and Travis?”
He smirks and holds up a picture of $100 poker chip. “Better than good. She just won four grand at a blackjack table. She said she might never come home.”
~**~
My brief texts back to Emma aren’t calming her fears. She’s home from babysitting Mercy’s nephew and wants answers.
Immediately.
But until I see for myself that Eli is alive and well, I don’t want to give her any false hope. I promised not to lie to her, and this is one way to prove that. A caravan of SUVs pulls into the warehouse about three hours later. By the time they pile out of the vehicles, Eli is awake and limping toward the break room. I follow him in and pour a mug of coffee while he sits at the table. His eyes are closed, and his forehead is resting in his palm.
“You okay?”
He startles as if he didn’t realize I was in the room with him. “Yeah. Just one bitch of a headache.”
“Cream and sugar?”
Eli opens one eye and looks at me. “Yeah, both. A lot.”
I smile. He already reminds me of his sister. “I’m Sebastian, by the way.”
“Eli.” He reaches for the cup and lets the steam waft up into his nostrils. “And thanks for this.”
“I should let you know that I’ve been seeing your sister.”
Eli’s back straightens then his eyes harden as he stares me down. “What do you want?”
“Emma,” I answer honestly. “I’ve been dating her.”
Eli looks around the room then stands up as if he’s planning to kick my ass. “Who the hell are you? And why are you hounding my sister? She has nothing to do with any of this. What do you want?”
“Nothing, have a seat.” I raise my hands in surrender to get him to chill. “I met her before you came to town. She happened to mention that you were in trouble, so I did some digging. Seems like a lucky coincidence that you ended up here since I’m one of Ray’s partners.”
Eli drops into the seat as if his knees have just given out on him. “You know Ray? You’re part of his business?”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Yep. I’ve known him for a long time. You should be glad you ended up here where we could keep an eye on you.”
Eli snorts. “Yeah, thanks for the rescue and all, but I’ve still got some murderous pimp in Vegas after me. I doubt Ray will hire me again, so I need to figure out how to take care of that shit.”
I shake my head and wave off his concerns. “It’s done. Renzo has been taken care of. Without anyone to pay the bounty, no one will bother looking for you.”
“Seriously? He’s gone?” Eli’s shoulders sag in relief, and he relaxes into the back of his chair.
“I saw it with my own two eyes.” I point to the coffee to remind him to drink it while it’s still hot. “You think you’ll be ready to head home in a few hours?”
Eli looks at his watch. “I’m ready to head home now.”
I nod in agreement. “I’m just as anxious to get back as you are, but my pilot can’t get clearance leave until 6:10. That means we have a few hours to kill. If you’re feeling pain, you might want to take a nap. I’ll take you to one of my private doctors once we get home.”
“I’m fine.” Eli checks the time again then looks at me. “You think it’s too late for me to text Emma and tell her I’m okay?”
Just then, my phone chimes with an incoming text. I expand the window and hold the screen up for him to read. Is he okay?
I chuckle. “I think she’s awake.”
Eli grins and quickly thumbs out a text to his sister. I don’t know what he says to her, but within a minute of him sending his text, she replies back with one to me. “Thank you, Sebastian.”
Chapter 23
Emma
The relief I feel when Eli’s text comes in is intense. As scared as I was, it’s not until I know he’s safe that the full impact of what could’ve happened hits me. I’m lying in bed, so I don’t try to stop the tears from flowing. I’ve never been a crier, but the past few days have been somewhat cathartic.
I barely slept and just finally dozed off for a nap after breakfast. When I wake up, I feel refreshed and ready for a new start. I check my phone and discover I slept through a text from Eli that came in a few hours ago. We should be at your place around two.
That doesn’t give me much time to get ready. I stand up and stretch then head for the bathroom. After a quick shower to rinse off, I get dressed and brush my hair. I consider running down to the deli to get sandwiches, but I don’t want to leave and miss their homecoming.
So in an unprecedented move, I pull up my Meals2Me app and order food to be delivered. It feels good to be on the receiving end of an upcoming delivery.
With the windows open to get some fresh air flowing, I turn on the news and wait. I don’t know why I feel so anxious, but my knee won’t stop bouncing and my cuticles are close to bleeding as I poke at them.
In the back of my mind, I expect Eli to still have my key on him and to just barge in, but when there’s a knock at my door, I practically jump out of my skin. I flip off the TV and rush to open the door.
Eli is standing there with a sheepish grin. “Hey, sis. Is your couch still available?”
I pull him into a tight hug, grateful he’s safe. “God, I’m glad you’re okay.”
He wraps both of his strong arms around my back and lifts me off the ground. “Yeah, me too. I was afraid they’d find out about you and come after you next.”
Eli releases me, and I take a step back so I can look up into his eyes. “So that’s it? No other psychopaths in your past that are going to come looking for you?”
Eli shrugs with a guilty grin. “As far as I know, your boyfriend took out the last one. I should be okay for a while.”
The reference to Sebastian brings back some of the pain I felt prior to Eli’s disappearance. I glance at Sebastian then back to Eli. “He’s not my—”
Sebastian cuts me off before I can finish my sentence. “I think we should talk, Emma.” When I look at him, his expression is unreadable. “When you’re ready.” He reaches out to pat Eli’s shoulder. “Take care of yourself, man.”
Eli looks between me and Sebastian, confused. “Okay… Is it because of me?”
“No,” Sebastian and I say at the same time.
I turn back to Eli and shake my head. “No, not at all. But…”
Eli is unusually perceptive to the situation and steps farther into the apartment. “Yeah, I’m gonna go jump in the shower. It’ll take at least half an hour to wash off the last few days.” Before Sebastian or I can stop him, he takes off down the hallway and disappears into my bathroom.
“So, do you want to come inside?” I ask Sebastian, waving him in.
He hesitates for a moment before nodding and stepping inside.
I sit down on the couch and wait for him to join me. The air between us is awkward and tense, but for many different reasons. Not the least of which is the ch
emistry that always seems to be pulsing between us.
“You’ve been avoiding my calls.” Sebastian jumps right to the chase. I guess that’s good. No sense in beating around the bush.
“Honestly, I didn’t think I’d have the strength to say no if I talked to you. But in my heart, I know I have to.”
The hurt in his eyes is obvious, but his voice is steady. “What are you saying no to?”
“To your…indecent proposal or whatever it is. I won’t be a kept woman, Sebastian. I can’t take your money and be on call for sex, especially if you’re still sleeping with other women. It’s just not who I am.”
“What makes you think I want to sleep with other women?”
I look at him like he’s an idiot. “Why wouldn’t you? That’s who you are. You have lots of women. Shit, you have a whole paid harem available to you any day of the week. Why would you give that up for me? For anyone?”
Sebastian blows out a slow breath and gets closer to me on the sofa. “I keep asking myself that same thing…”
I scoff. “And then you realize how ridiculous it sounds?”
“No, I realize it means something else. Something I don’t want it to mean, but I also don’t want to stop.”
I bend my elbow on the back of the couch and rest my temple against my palm. “I don’t understand these riddles, Sebastian. What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that… I’m in love with you, and I don’t want to be with anyone else. I don’t want to control you, but I also don’t want you to see anyone else either.”
All the air in my lungs is pushed out in a heavy sigh as his words slowly sink in. “Do you really mean that?” I whisper, finding it hard to believe that what he’s saying is true.
Sebastian reaches for my hand and brings it to his lips, placing a kiss there. “I’m not sure if I was ever truly in love with any of the women in my past, but I knew I could live without them just fine when it was over. But without you, I can’t breathe. When you won’t talk to me, I can’t function. The only thing that got me through the past week was having the distraction of Eli’s situation. And even that was just to keep you happy.”
