by Dale Mayer
And that meant the kidnappers were expecting trouble.
The three men exchanged glances, each pointed to a door they would take, and moved to the side of theirs. That they would be up against armed men was a given. Only Devlin had picked up a weight bar. But then he knew Ryder and Easton had hand-to-hand combat that was like no other. Devlin was damn good too. Plus, Ryder was a tank. Even if he took three bullets, chances were he’d take out his man before he dropped.
Easton was slimmer and damn fast. But then he had kickboxing skills too. As long as he could see the weapon before they fired it, chances were good he would take it out before it hit its target.
Ryder held up three fingers. Then on cue, each of them burst into a room. Devlin’s room was completely empty. He did a quick search of the closet and came back out in the hallway. Ryder did at that time too and motioned him to the other door. Easton hadn’t come out of his room.
The door was ajar. Ryder nudged it wider with his foot, and they found Easton sitting on the ground, glaring up at somebody, his hands on his head. From behind Ryder’s broad shoulders, Devlin could see Bristol. Behind her lay her father on the floor.
She held a long metal pipe. The pole from the closet. Nice. And she’d brained Easton with it. Bristol took one look at Devlin, dropped the pipe and threw herself into his arms.
He hugged her close. Against her ear he asked, “Where are the others?”
She pulled her head back and shook it. “I have no idea. I’ve been in this room with my father since we first arrived. I heard men come in the front door.”
The three men looked at each other, and Devlin said, “There should be two from the ambulance and the two who came in after you. Have you checked any of the other rooms?”
She shook her head and whispered, “No. I’m not sure where anybody is.”
“We’ve already searched the downstairs and have only one more room.”
“And it’s empty,” Ryder said from behind him.
Devlin shook his head. “How is that possible? We came in through the basement and searched the whole house. “It’s only possible if they went out the French doors as we came in.” Easton growled as he hopped to his feet. “And that would mean they got away.”
“But why would they go out the back?” Bristol protested. “Unless they parked out there?”
The men shook their heads.
“The truck is in the garage, and the black car is in the driveway.”
They turned to look at Easton. “You must have been spotted.”
He nodded. “It’s the only explanation. If they were going to kill Bristol and her father, why take them here? And why leave their captives behind?”
“Cutting their losses.”
Everyone turned to look at Bristol.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. If they were sabotaging me, in a way this may be enough from their point of view.” She glanced at Easton. “I’m so sorry for hitting you.”
He shrugged. “My fault for taking the hit.” He gave her a sideways grin of apology.
The men nodded, and Devlin said, “Whatever the reason, we have to get the hell out here.” He glanced back at Bristol’s father. “What would you like us to do with him?”
“He needs a doctor to check him over,” she said quietly. “I need to get home and finish my work.” She glanced around. “Thank you very much for finding us.”
“Let’s not take anything for granted. We need an ambulance here for your father, and get you home again.”
“I don’t have time for the police,” she muttered. She glanced at her father. “Maybe we can just take him home. Have a family physician come check on him?”
The men glanced at each other and back at her.
She flushed. “Does that make me sound cruel? I don’t mean to be. I’m caught between a time warp and a deadline. He requires help, but he doesn’t need any more run-ins with the bad guys. At my place, I’m presuming you can protect us, and we can finish the drones …”
Ryder bent down and gently lifted the frail old man in his arms. “I’ll be a whole lot gentler than anybody’s been with him so far. Let’s get you home.”
Devlin pulled out his phone. “I’m calling the police. They can come and deal with the house and boat.” He looked around at the others. “Remember, there’s been a hell of a lot of news media coverage over this boat already and the crazy woman in the back with the sheet. There could be case files and a lot of man hours wasted. I’ll just tell them we’re taking the old man to the hospital and you home. If they want to talk, that’s where they can find you.”
She relented. “You do that.” She marched ahead of them, down the stairs and out the front door. When she saw the boat, she froze. Then shook her head. “I was so damn close to getting out of that thing.”
“You probably could’ve just jumped from the back on a corner when they slowed.”
She turned to look at Ryder and nodded. “I could’ve, but I was afraid to leave my father.”
“Then don’t feel guilty about it,” he said. “We all make decisions. Our unit has to time and time again. But we trust each other to handle what needs to be done so we can move forward with the plan.”
“I didn’t move forward,” she said. “I just got nowhere.”
“Wait until you see the news coverage.” He laughed. “You’ll see that your efforts weren’t in vain.”
“I can just imagine.”
Chapter 18
Devlin filled in the police quickly. Then they got the other vehicle and headed back to her house. Her father was stretched out on the backseat where she could keep an eye on him.
She hoped today’s punches had no ill effects on his health. With any luck he’d sleep right through the whole thing and be back in his own bed before he woke up.
As for her, well, she had a ton of work to get done. She still couldn’t believe Devlin, Tesla, and Ice had gotten the swallow up and running. “I’m really impressed you operated the swallow.”
He laughed. “I couldn’t have done it without Tesla, Ice, and the others. And why is it that your chips aren’t GPS trackable without the swallow?”
“Because they’re very old,” she said. “They were done years and years ago, before it was common practice. There was no GPS software back then. Today everything is smaller, easier, and faster.”
He nodded. “That’s what we figured. Maybe it’s time to update that.”
“We discussed it at one time, but the ID chips have actually grown into the muscles, so we’d have downtime of many weeks and possible nerve damage.” She shook her head. “That didn’t make any sense to us. We can have new chips installed, but that would likely confuse the issue with two chips so close together.”
He nodded. “And you’re in the unique position of having the swallow to track you and your father.”
“My father had a version to track us back then too. His own program,” she said. “And I got so busy I just forgot about the chips.” She took a deep breath and added, “Until now.”
“At least they were there and usable.” He glanced at her. “Is there anything you need while we’re still out?”
She shook her head. “The only thing I need is to get home, make certain my father is safe behind locked doors with a guard posted and resume my work,” she said. “Even though today’s folly caused no major physical damage, it did set me back again another full day. The sabotage is working in that regard.”
They approached the gate.
She gasped. “The gate’s been fixed.”
She hopped and out, checked the gate, realizing the entire structure had been rewelded, and the solid lock was fixed. She quickly punched in her code, and it opened. After everyone was in, she quickly secured the gate and changed the lock code on it. As she approached the vehicles, Ryder exited, and with Devlin’s help, they gently eased her father out.
She opened the front door and said to Ryder, “If you could lay him in his bed, that would be ideal.”
Carme
lita raced toward her. “Oh, my goodness, you’re back safe and sound.”
She was crying and blubbering at the same time. Bristol threw her arms around Carmelita, and after a moment, she said, “Let’s get him into his bed, please. Then put a call in to the doctor.”
“Yes, yes, yes.” Carmelita raced down the hallway and stepped in front of Ryder, quickly calling for the elevator.
Now that she was home, she could feel her tension slowly easing back. But only a little. All that had happened was time lost to her, and she had very little of that left to meet her contract. She walked back to the car, pulled out her laptop and turned around. She found Devlin with the swallow in his hand. She smiled, picked up the lifesaving device and walked inside her house. If she was grateful for one thing right now, it had to be her home.
Instead of going through the kitchen to the stairs, she punched in the elevator code and quickly headed down to the lab. When the doors opened below, she stepped inside and froze. At least another six men were in here. She raised her gaze in shock. She didn’t know if she should be outraged, terrified, or delighted.
And then Tesla stepped in front of her, holding up her hands. “I know I didn’t ask you. I didn’t have time. You were in trouble, and it wasn’t like I could ask your permission.”
At that, her mouth opened and closed. “Permission?”
Tesla motioned at the new group working on the hardware and another few her side of the table. “They work for me.”
Bristol glanced around to see everybody was working and realized just how much of a friend Tesla truly was. She put down the laptop and swallow on the closest table, turned and threw her arms around Tesla. She could feel the relief flow in from her friend’s body as she relaxed and hugged her back. She whispered, “Thank you. Dear God, thank you.”
Tesla hugged her fiercely. “You’re back, and we’ve got lots of work to do. We have a contract to finish. And I am working to get you a better one.”
Something in her tone made Bristol stand back and look at her. “What have you been up to?”
Tesla grinned. “I do know a few people,” she said, and quickly shared something she had set up.
Bristol’s eyebrows rose. “Do you think that would work?”
“I’ll tell you what. It can’t get any worse. First, we deliver. Second, we do a demonstration.” She grinned. “This time for the right people.”
*
Devlin kept an eye on Bristol for the rest of the day. She moved at an almost frantic pace, between rushing upstairs when the doctor arrived to check on her father, then back down again working on her software.
Tesla and Ice worked on the drones. And a production line was in progress. They had fifty to put together with a certain level of aptitude. Like Bristol had said, she’d had a breakthrough. And so much more was available today. But these assholes wouldn’t get anything else from her. Not Brent’s company. They’d made her life difficult enough. And from what research he’d found, Brent’s business practices were questionable, like cancelled contracts or nonpayment on others.
They had approximately six days left on the extension deadline. In Devlin’s heart, he knew they’d make it. He just didn’t know how much Bristol could make it through. Her nerves were like edged wire. There was a sense that, if anything went wrong, she would snap. He’d seen that same wire bend and twist with a tensile strength he had never expected. But at the same time, it was a joy to see.
The days went in a blur. She now had a houseful of helpers. And her housekeeper had her hands full feeding everybody. They worked long into the night, crashed for a few hours, got up the next morning and repeated it. By the time they reached the day before the contract extension was due, he knew he had to do something. She was ready to collapse. He tugged her off to the side midmorning and said, “You need to lie down and get some sleep.”
She turned to look up at him, bags under her eyes, almost a feverish glint to their inner depths. She shook her head. “I can’t afford the time.”
He caressed her neck with his thumb and gently tilted her chin up. “And you can’t afford not to.” He shook his head gently. “Look at yourself. You’re running on empty.”
“I still have the reserve tank,” she said defiantly. “Look at everything. It’s on target. We’ll make it. But if any one thing goes wrong, if any one hiccup happens, everything is lost.”
Then he saw her physically lock down, regain control and stare at him.
“I’ll be fine.”
He watched her walk away and sit back down. He had no idea what she was working on, but it had to do with the swallow, and something was beside it, an even smaller device. He walked over to see a tiny songbird-looking thing sitting beside the swallow. “What the hell is that?”
She glanced up at him. “You’ll see when I’m finished.” In an almost bitter note, she added, “If I finish.”
He realized whatever she was working on was so important she couldn’t afford to let herself stop. He glanced at Tesla and raised his brows.
Tesla nodded. “She must finish it tonight.”
He frowned at her, wondering just what that meant, then figured he’d better get back to his job. He turned and resumed what he’d been working on. He would just wait and see. It was one thing to be involved in something like this from the peripheral level. But for Bristol, he understood her commitment was so much more, her loss so much worse.
And over everything hovered the unexpected air of the kidnapping. The men took turns doing security laps, checking the video feeds. They were running on fumes as well. And the new people Tesla had brought in were so focused on the drones that they had the freedom of hours to lock down security tight. They were also on Levi’s satellite feed now. Every day Stone, one of Levi’s main men, made sure no intruders were on the property.
And through it all, Bristol kept working, rarely sleeping. The worried glances of the others became more frequent, concerned, and directed at him.
He knew he had to do something.
After dinner that night, she got up from the table to go back down with the others, but she was trailing them, and he could see the pallor of her skin, the heavy black bags under her eyes.
He stepped in front of her. “No.”
She looked up at him, swaying in place. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re not going downstairs with them.”
“Of course I am.”
He shook his head. “No, you’re not. You’re going to your room and to bed right now.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, jutted out her chin and said, “And who’ll make me?”
“Me.”
“You and whose army?” He took a step forward, and she took one back. She shook her head. “There’s no way I can let all those people down. They came here out of the goodness of their hearts, and I can’t let them work without me. Don’t you understand I have to be there? I can’t just quit.”
“In any other circumstance, I’d agree with you.” He led her to the hallway where a big mirror was and said, “Look at yourself. You’re exhausted. You’ll collapse. You’re determined by sheer willpower and stubbornness to keep moving. You’re the last one to go to bed at night, and even then I don’t think you sleep. I believe you continue to work in your room where nobody else can see you. You show up every morning looking worse day by day.”
She glared at him in the mirror.
“You can hardly even stand straight. You’re swaying on your feet.”
Her knees locked, and her shoulders stiffened as he could see her temper building up inside. He had witnessed this before. But within seconds, she sagged in place again. “I can’t leave them to work alone. I’m out of time. It doesn’t matter if I’m exhausted or not. When this is over, I can sleep for a week. At this moment I can’t afford downtime.”
No point in talking to her. She wasn’t hearing anything he had to say. He bent and scooped her up in his arms.
She hit at him, crying out, “Let me d
own. Let me down.”
He heard running feet and turned to face Carmelita, coming from the kitchen with a tea towel in her hand.
“Bristol?” Carmelita asked worriedly.
Devlin knew what it must look like. But he was quick to reassure her. “I’m taking her to her room so she goes to bed. She needs to sleep. She can’t do anymore. She can barely even stand.”
“I’m fine,” Bristol yelled. “Carmelita, go get the others. They won’t let him manhandle me.”
He could see the indecision on Carmelita’s face. Then the resolve.
She shook her head. “No, Bristol. You need sleep. Tomorrow morning is a whole new day.”
With a shriek of outrage from his captive, Devlin quickly raced down the hallway, carrying his charge. He shifted her wiggling body over his shoulder, opened the double doors, kicked them shut, bolted them behind him and dropped her on the bed. Instantly she was off, racing toward the door.
He snagged her with one arm, picked her up and dropped her on the bed again. She rose on her hands and knees, glaring at him.
And for that, he’d never seen a more beautiful sight—spitting like a cat, exhausted, and still a warrior, doing the right thing. But her body had hit a wall. He knew what that felt like. He knew she couldn’t keep this up. She would rest and come back fighting after a few hours.
Quietly, holding his voice steady, he said, “You’ll stay there and rest. I can stand here all night if I must, to make sure you do. Only one of us will win this fight, and it’ll be me.”
She opened her mouth, and a scream of frustration ripped through the room.
But she didn’t get up again.
He grinned when she rolled over in defeat. Less than a minute later, her body melted into the boneless relaxation of an exhausted sleep.
Good. He sat down in the big chair beside her to stand watch.
Chapter 19
She woke to a room filled with darkness. Her instant panic eased back when she recognized her room. Her body was heavy, peaceful. She didn’t want to move, but her bladder was insistent. She rolled over and froze. Devlin was asleep in the chair beside her. His big feet up on the edge of the bed. His arms crossed over his chest. She figured if she made any move, he would know. And he looked tired too.
