by Paige Tyler
Logan swallowed hard. “How do I know you haven’t hurt her already?”
“You don’t,” Volkov said. “So I suggest you hurry up and bring me the pilot.”
“What do you hope to get out of this, Volkov? You can’t seriously think you’ll be able to sneak him across the border into Mexico. You got away with that the first time a couple of weeks ago, but it won’t work again. The CIA will have everything shut down the moment they realize Maksimov is missing.”
“You let me worry about that. You worry about what’s going to happen to your woman if you don’t get here in time. You really don’t want to see what I do when I get angry.”
Whether he knew it or not, Volkov had admitted he planned on killing the pilot. Not shocking.
“Let’s say I’m able to get my hands on the pilot,” Logan told him. “Where do I bring him?”
“Same warehouse as the first time,” Volkov said. “But before you think you can assault the place like I heard you did when you killed my brother, you can forget it. You have no way of knowing if I’ll be inside waiting with a gun to your woman’s head or watching from three blocks away with my fingers on the trigger of a bomb waiting to blow Felicia to small pink pieces. Either way, if you show up with anyone other than my pilot, your pretty little girlfriend will die.”
Logan ground his jaw. “I’ll be there with the pilot and no one else in an hour, but if you’ve hurt Felicia, I’ll kill you the same way I killed your brother.”
He hung up before Volkov had a chance to reply and headed for his SUV at a run, hitting the speed dial button for Chasen as he ran.
“I’ve got trouble,” he said the moment his friend answered. “That Russian bastard Volkov is back and he grabbed Felicia. I need you to get some of the other guys and do a long distance reconnaissance of the same warehouse we hit the last time. But be careful. It’s possible he’s set up in another building watching the target warehouse. There might also be a bomb involved.”
“Where are you going to be?” Chasen asked.
Logan appreciated his friend’s complete and unquestioning loyalty. Of all the things that made the SEALs so amazing, this was more important than their toughness, their weapons, or their training. Their total commitment to each other made the Teams function. And he needed that loyalty right now to save Felicia’s life…again.
“I’ll be there in less than an hour,” Logan told him. “But first I have to stop by and pick up some bait without letting the CIA know I’m taking it.”
“You’re bringing Nikolay?” Chasen asked, clearly surprised. “How do you plan to get him to come with you?”
“I’m simply going to remind him I saved his ass and ask for his help.”
“And if it doesn’t work?”
“Then I’m going to knock him over the head and carry him out over my shoulder.”
“Need any backup?” Chasen asked. “I can’t imagine Joe and his SOG guys are going to stand around watching while you drag off their newest intel asset.”
Understatement there. “No, I’m good. Get to the warehouse and figure out where Volkov has Felicia. Call me as soon as you know what’s going on. If Volkov is in the warehouse with Felicia, my plan is to go in and keep him distracted until you come in with the cavalry.”
“Simple plan. I like it.” Chasen said. “I’ll have info for you in forty minutes.
Logan hung up and sped out of the parking lot, thinking about how he’d get the Russian pilot away from the CIA. They had him in one of the temporary officer quarters on the base. Physically getting into the place would be easy, but getting in without alarming the CIA agents or the SOG guys watching the place would be a bit more complicated.
* * * * *
Felicia sat tied to the same chair her sister had been trussed up in only two weeks earlier. How the heck could this be happening to her all over again? Wasn’t there some law of probability that said if you got kidnapped by a psychotic Russian killer once, it was statistically impossible for it to ever happen again?
Except it had happened again. Illarion Volkov had slipped up behind her and gotten a hand around her mouth as she got in her car this morning. She’d fought him, but the Russian had wrapped his other arm around her waist, picked her up, and dragged her to his van.
There’d been another guy driving the vehicle, but shortly after dropping her and Volkov off at the warehouse, the man had left on foot. Now she was alone with the former Russian Special Forces soldier. The man sat in a matching chair only a few feet away, regarding her like a bug he wanted to smash.
But as scared as she was for herself, she was even more terrified for Logan. She’d heard Volkov talking to him on the phone and seen the look of hatred on the Russian’s face as he spoke. The son of a bitch wanted Logan dead and he wanted to be the one to kill him.
She prayed Logan wouldn’t come, but at the same time, she knew he would.
“Logan didn’t want to kill your brother,” she said. “But your brother tried to kill my sister. Logan didn’t have a choice.”
Volkov glared at her. “Do you think I care why he killed Peter? He spilled my family’s blood. Your Navy SEAL will die right after he watches me kill you. If he brings the pilot and his SEAL friends, all the better. I can kill them, too. If not, I will be satisfied with the two of you.”
Felicia shuddered. Volkov was insane. She could see it in his eyes. “You don’t even care if you live through this, do you?”
Volkov stood and walked over to her. She cringed, afraid he might kill her right then, but instead he grabbed a handful of her hair and jerked her head back. She fought and struggled against the duct tape holding her arms down to the chair, ignoring the way her skin chafed. But the tape holding her down didn’t give, and there wasn’t anything she could do as he yanked her head back so hard she thought for sure he would break her neck. She screamed in pain, but the sound was muffled as he stuffed a rag into her mouth then tied it in place with another length of cloth.
He glanced at his watch. “Your boyfriend will be here soon. I’m sure he’ll try something heroic in a sad attempt to save your life, so I’m going to leave you here on your own. But don’t worry. I’ll be back in time to see his face when he realizes he can’t save you. It will make all of this worthwhile.”
She tried to tell him he was crazy, but nothing got through the gag except muffled grunts. He ignored her anyway, turning and walking out of the office with a laugh. A moment later, she heard a metal door slam.
Felicia struggled against the tape again, but it wouldn’t budge. She briefly considered pushing the chair over, thinking maybe she could get it to break, but then she imagined the back of her head slamming into the concrete floor and decided against it. Besides, the metal chair didn’t look like it would break if you hit it with a sledgehammer.
She forced herself to calm down and try to think of a way out of this situation, but ultimately the only way she would get out of this alive was if Logan rescued her. He was probably on his way there right now. He might be bringing the pilot and some of his friends, or he might be coming alone.
She tried to tell herself rescuing hostages and dealing with very bad people like Volkov was what SEALs did every day. That didn’t mean she wasn’t freaking out. The thought of Logan getting hurt her made her lightheaded.
That’s when Felicia she realized how far she’d fallen for Logan. They’d talked a lot last night about being in love and wanting to have something long term, but those had been words. She hadn’t understood what it meant to totally love a man until this moment as she realized she didn’t even care what happened to her as long as he was okay.
Oh God. Just be okay…please.
* * * * *
“Nikolay got a message to me through headquarters,” Logan told the SOG agent sitting in a car outside the temporary officer quarters. “He wants to talk to me about something.”
The SOG guy regarded him thoughtfully. “No one told me anything about it.”
Logan shrug
ged. “I just found out about it when my boss called and told me to get the hell over here and be nice to this guy—whatever the hell that means. I’d much rather be sleeping in on a Sunday, but nobody bothered to ask for my opinion.”
The guy laughed. “I hear you. At our level, we’re basically mushrooms. The people in charge leave us in the dark and feed us shit.”
“I’ll be in and out of there as fast as I can,” Logan promised.
He walked up to the small duplex unit that served as one of the temporary housing billets for senior officers who visited the base. Due to the sensitive nature of the pilot’s identity, headquarters had put the man in the most remote building they had. That made it easy for the CIA to keep an eye on their asset while at the same time not treating the valuable intelligence resource like a prisoner.
Logan tapped on the door then let himself into the small apartment. Like every military style billeting room he’d ever been in, the place was filled with generic furniture and painted in boring colors.
Nikolay sat on the couch, reading a magazine, and he looked up in surprise. “Logan, what are you doing here?”
Logan considered coming up with a bullshit reason to get the Russian pilot out of the house but quickly dismissed the idea. It would likely cause more problems than it would help in the long run, especially when the man figured out what was going on.
“I need your help,” Logan said. “The Russian government has sent a former Spetsnaz soldier named Volkov to get you back, maybe even kill you. He’s kidnapped my girlfriend and he wants to exchange her for you.”
Nikolay’s eyes widened. “The man is here on the base?”
Logan shook his head. “No. He has her in a warehouse near here. I have a plan to get her out, but I need you to be the bait.”
Nikolay stared at him, and for a second, Logan thought maybe the guy didn’t understand what he’d said, but then the pilot nodded. “You have not told the CIA people about this, have you?”
Logan shook his head. “No. They’re good people, especially the ones with us over in Syria, but I don’t trust them the way I trust the men on my SEAL Team.”
Nikolay nodded. “I will help you.”
Damn. Logan had expected some kind of resistance. “You know I’ll do anything I can to keep you safe, but I need you to understand, I’m not even sure I can get my Team and I out of this safely. Volkov is dangerous. I’m doing this to save my girlfriend’s life, no matter the cost.”
Nikolay smiled slowly. “I understand. I know what it’s like to have a woman worth risking everything for. I will help, no matter the cost. It’s what I owe you for risking your life to save mine.”
Logan imagined there was a hell of a story somewhere behind those few sentences, and hopefully, someday, he’d get a chance to ask Nikolay about it. But now wasn’t the time.
Nikolay tossed the magazine side and headed for the front door, but Logan stopped him. “Not that way. There’s a guard out there we need to avoid. You’ll have to go out a window along the back of the building. Go in a wide circle around the duplex, and I’ll pick you up on the main street outside.”
“And from there?”
“I have some of my teammates already moving in on the warehouse, pinpointing where Volkov is,” Logan said. “Once we know, we go in together to distract him then do whatever’s necessary to get Felicia away from him.”
Nikolay was halfway out the window when he stopped to look back at Logan. “If we make it through this, you are likely to get into much trouble, right?”
“Probably,” Logan agreed. “But if we get through this, it’s a cost I’ll gladly pay.”
“This Felicia is worth much to you, yes?”
“She’s worth everything to me,” he said, meaning it from the bottom of his heart.
* * * * *
It felt like Felicia had been tied to the chair for hours before the outer door opened again. She tensed, fearing Volkov was coming back. She almost fainted when she saw Logan, both because she was relieved to see him and terrified at the same time. There was a shorter dark-haired man with him. He must be the Russian pilot Volkov had mentioned.
She shook her head, making as much noise as she could through the gag in an effort to get Logan’s attention and trying to tell him he was in danger. Logan ran to her side and yanked the gag out of her mouth.
“It’s a trap,” she told him urgently. “Volkov is planning to kill us all.”
But rather than run, Logan and the pilot began to work at the tape holding her to the chair, ripping it away slowly to avoid hurting her. “Logan, stop! You don’t understand. He’s coming!”
“Your man understands,” Volkov said from out in the warehouse. “He doesn’t care. He knows this is only going to end when one of us is dead.”
Heart in her throat, Felicia watched as Logan stood up and spun around, a small weapon coming out from behind his back so fast she could barely follow it. He stood facing the doorway of the little office they were in, moving the pistol back and forth as he waited for Volkov to come into view. While he did, the pilot kept tearing at the tape on her right arm, ignoring what went on behind him.
“I’m surprised you brought the pilot with you,” Volkov said, his voice closer now. “The Russian government would have preferred I brought him back alive to face his punishment for desertion, but they’ll be happy if he’s dead, too.”
“It doesn’t have to go down like this.” Logan said in a loud voice. “You know I have other people closing in on the warehouse right now. You’re not going to make it out of this.”
“He’s insane,” Felicia told Logan as the pilot got one of her arms free and began to work on the other. “I don’t think he cares about living through this.”
“She is right,” Volkov agreed. “I don’t care. But then again, I’ve rarely cared. It’s what helps me survive impossible situations.”
Logan looked like he might say something, but he didn’t get a chance because Volkov suddenly came into view outside the office and started firing into the room with an automatic weapon of some kind.
Logan threw himself in her direction, taking both her and the pilot to the floor with him. The last of the tape holding her left arm down tore loose, freeing her from the chair and allowing her and the pilot to crawl across the floor to hide behind the desk. It didn’t offer much protection, but it was better than being out in the open.
The sounds of glass breaking and bullets hitting concrete reverberated around the small space until Felicia thought she might go deaf. But she kept moving for the relative safety offered by the metal desk as the pilot tried to keep himself between her and the incoming bullets.
She expected Logan to join them, but instead he stood up and sprinted toward the row of broken windows, launching himself through them.
Felicia screamed his name and tried to get up, but the pilot grabbed her and pulled her back down. She fought him, but he wouldn’t let go, and she could only listen as the gunfire got even faster and louder. There was no way a person could live through so many bullets being fired in his direction. Logan would get himself killed!
After what seemed like forever, the shooting finally stopped. She elbowed the pilot in the ribs hard enough to make him grunt in pain then ran for the door of the office. She couldn’t stop the tears of relief flooding her eyes when she saw Logan standing there looking down at the unmoving body of the Russian mercenary.
Hurrying over to him, Felicia wrapped Logan in a fierce embrace even as she realized they weren’t alone. Chasen, Dalton, Nash, and Kurt were standing there watching them, pistols held casually down at their sides.
“I was so worried about you,” Logan said, his voice hoarse in her ear as he squeezed her tightly.
She pulled away to stared at him. “Worried about me? You were the idiot running toward the guy with the gun. What the heck did you think you were doing?”
He must have done something with his weapon because he brought both hands up to cup her face. “I was doin
g whatever I had to keep you safe.”
“Well, thank you, but don’t ever scare me like that again,” she told him. “I thought I was going to lose you.”
He smiled. “That’s never going to happen. I promise. I’ll always be there to keep you safe and love you.”
Her heart melted. Going up on tiptoe, she kissed him, totally forgetting about the other people around them
“That’s all very romantic and stuff,” Dalton drawled. “But I don’t suppose you two know where our pilot is?”
Felicia pulled back with a laugh. “He’s behind the desk in the office. I thumped him in the ribs. I guess I hit him a little harder than I thought.”
Dalton walked into the office, stepping around the worst of the glass until he could see behind the desk. “Somebody call for an ambulance. Nash, get in here and start doing some of that medic shit you do. Nikolay has been hit.”
Felicia and Logan followed Nash into the office. The Russian pilot was lying flat on his back, his hands pressed to a bleeding wound in his stomach. That’s why he’d grunted so loudly when she’d elbowed him. She’d hit him right where he’d been shot. And he had gotten the wound protecting her.
She watched nervously as Nash ripped away Nikolay’s shirt and began tending the wound.
Nikolay smiled at her. “Don’t worry. I will be okay.”
“Nash?” Logan asked.
His friend nodded. “He’s going to need surgery for sure, but he’ll make it.”
“They’re on the way,” Kurt said from the doorway. “Along with half the federal and state law enforcement. This place is about to get very crowded.”
They were still hovering around Nikolay when the ambulance and cops showed up. That’s when the questions began. But at least she was better at answering them this time.
* * * * *
Felicia was exhausted by the time Logan brought her home. The questioning from the CIA and the Navy had been much worse this time, and Logan was probably looking forward to days of additional interrogations so the CIA could fume about him getting their Russian intel asset damaged. Luckily, Nikolay would be okay, if perhaps off his feet for a while. He’d already come out of surgery at the hospital and, according to Nash, who’d ridden in the ambulance with the pilot, everything had gone well.
