“If I don’t, I’ll go mad.” Her voice was shaky, but he had no doubt she’d pull herself together with something constructive to focus on.
“Grab Gallagher’s computer and his phone. If there is a connection, it’s because Escobar recognized me and knew he could get to me through you…and Danny. Find out about any rental taken possession of in the last week. He’ll be close because Washburn and the biotoxin are close.”
Grace swiped at the lingering wetness on her cheeks. “I’m on it.”
He couldn’t resist pressing a swift kiss to her forehead. “Let’s find Danny.”
Chapter Four
After the initial rush of adrenaline and emotion, the drudge work that followed was like trying to run the fifty-yard dash waist-deep in setting cement. And sorting through information they already had in an effort to find new information was frustrating as hell.
The photo of Danny had been taken at the very same airport Grace had taken off from. Flight plans showed the plane also landed at the same airport as Grace’s chartered plane. The plane which had whisked Danny away from his mother had also been a charter, and the info supplied to the charter company was so false even a moron should have known it. And that false identity’s activity had stopped at the airport. They didn’t yet have a thread on their next move.
Hacking into hotel registrations had netted Grace nothing but a lead stomach and a throbbing head, and now she sat holding the photo of Danny, looking into his dark, scared eyes.
What really hurt was guessing how they’d gotten a kidnapped child onto a chartered flight without sending up flags. They had used her. All they had to do was tell Danny they would hurt his mother, and he’d done what was asked of him.
“I need to run the pilot of that flight,” she said out loud, needing to do something—anything—that might give her a glimmer of hope.
“Done,” Gallagher responded. “He’s clean. Just doing his job.”
“I need to do it myself,” she said. Nobody wanted Danny back like she did, and maybe she’d look a little harder than Gallagher did, dig a little deeper.
He turned away from his computers, giving her a hard look. “Let’s you and I go for a walk on the beach and have a little talk.”
She choked out a laugh. “I’m not going beachcombing with you. We don’t have time for chatting.”
Gallagher stood and stretched his back. “I’m hacked into the major credit cards, looking for a local bulk purchase of things you’d buy for a boy that age. It’s a kick-ass bit of code, but it takes time, which gives us time to chat.”
“Fine,” Grace said through gritted teeth. “Talk, then.”
Gallagher shook his head as he walked to the bedroom door. He stuck his head in and told Alex they were taking five. Then he plunked Carmen’s hat on Grace’s head and sunglasses on her nose. “Let’s go.”
Despite the protection of the sunglasses, Grace blinked when they stepped from the rear patio of the hotel into the bright south Florida sunshine. The heat was intense, and she almost balked, but Gallagher grabbed her hand and intertwined his fingers with hers.
“Come on, babe. It’s our honeymoon,” he said a little louder than was necessary.
She plastered a fake smile on her face and walked with him down to the beach. The laughter of children and the raised voices of the parents minding them tore at her heart, but she shoved it down and kept the cover, walking too close to Gallagher and looking like a woman with nothing but love in the sun on her mind.
“Don’t second guess my work,” he said in anything but a loving voice when they’d wandered to a barren stretch of sand.
“I have to do something, Gallagher. He’s my son, and I can’t step aside and put his life in somebody else’s hands.”
He stopped then and turned to face her. “His life is in somebody else’s hands, Grace. Somebody who doesn’t like you and doesn’t like Alex and won’t hesitate to use him to hurt you. I have always had Alex’s back, and I’ve always had your back, and you need to trust me to have Danny’s back, too.”
“I do trust you, but—”
“I need you to trust me with your kid.”
Grace smiled, but she could tell it wasn’t a very convincing one. “I know you’re a good friend of Alex’s, and you know Danny’s his, but it’s a little hard for me to trust people right now.”
He didn’t appear to take offense at her words, but he wasn’t willing to let it go, either. “How about we trade trust?”
“I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
He leaned close to her so he could speak quietly. “My name—my real, tell anybody and I’ll kill you slowly name—is John Gallagher McLaine.”
“John McLaine? Like the Die Hard guy?”
“Spelled differently, but yeah. Only better.”
Grace arched an eyebrow at him. “How so?”
“I’m real, and my gun’s bigger.”
He gave her that little boy grin, but his eyes said You may be off limits, but in my mind I’m seeing you naked.
Too bad her taste ran toward a certain tall, dark and arrogant ass. “How many people know that?”
“Just Alex. But we’re talking about your kid here, so here’s something else.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her close. To the rest of world he probably looked like he was hugging her, but he spoke so quietly into her ear she had to strain to hear him.
“I have a fifteen-year-old sister. Her name is Melissa and she seriously rocks my world. She lives in San Diego with our parents.”
Grace took a deep breath and let her forehead drop to his shoulder. He’d just given her all the information she needed to find his family. That kind of sharing was unheard of in men like Gallagher, and it said more than all the promises in the world could have.
“I’ll trust you with my loved ones,” he said, still in that low, serious voice, “and you trust me with yours.”
She stood up on her toes and stretched to plant a short, sweet kiss on his mouth. “Thank you.”
Alex watched them from the hotel window, never breaking stride mentally as he talked to the man who was canvassing the airport, looking for any information on how the little boy in the Red Sox hat left the terminal.
He hoped Gallagher could calm her down. She’d been like a caged animal since her arrival, and he couldn’t take the time to reassure her himself. It was already draining him trying to be Sean Devlin and Alex Rossi at the same time.
“Hold a sec,” his contact said. “Let me talk to this guy.”
Alex watched Grace and Gallagher making their way back to the hotel and squashed a pang of envy. He’d been in this damn bedroom too long, trying to juggle his identities and get the job done. He wanted to be the one walking on the beach with her.
He’d hidden his role as Sean Devlin from Grace during the years they’d worked together, of course, but it had been easier then. With scheduled, tightly run jobs and separate locations, it had been easy to maintain the subterfuge. But now, with chaos reigning and all of them jammed into one hotel suite to work, it was more of a struggle.
And he’d have to tell her. Not now, not when they couldn’t afford yet another distraction and even more tension between them, but when it was over. Because as far as he and Grace were concerned, it would never be over. They shared a son, and he’d have to share his secret. Later.
“Your boy got into a black, late-model Civic rental with two males, one female.”
Grace was right about a woman being involved. “He’s sure about the car, and it being a rental?”
“Yeah. He talked to one of the guys. Told him they could upgrade to something a little bigger since there was four of them and all. Guy said they wouldn’t have it long.”
“Okay. That’s it for now, but stay available.”
Alex hit the main living room seconds before Grace and Gallagher entered. “You two done sightseeing?”
“Yup,” Gallagher said easily, sliding back into his position at t
he computers.
“Did the satellite images pick up a black Civic at the airport?”
“Affirmative. The angle didn’t allow me to see who got in it, though.”
“Go back and see how far you can track it.”
“Any activity on the boat?”
Alex shook his head. He’d been watching the live surveillance feed on the laptop in the bedroom and there had been nothing. No armed men, no black Civic and no Danny. “The boat’s just for the meet, I guess.”
Carmen slid into the room, tucking both the hotel code key and the extra card—another layer of security programmed by Gallagher—into her considerable cleavage. “I hate bar duty.”
“But you’re so good at it,” Gallagher said. “Learn anything?”
“I’ve got the name of a down-on-his-luck charter boat captain who’s suddenly buying rounds at every bar on the island, and the info on his boat.”
“Bingo. Let’s run him down.” Alex nodded his head toward the silver case. “I heard from…Devlin, and the pharmaceutical company isn’t happy we’re holding their poison.”
“I’m not really thrilled with it, either,” Carmen said.
“We’re not giving it back until we know how it’s connected to Danny,” Grace said.
“We don’t even know if it’s connected.”
“Come on, Carmen. Like Alex said before, the timing can’t be a coincidence. My son being kidnapped has something to do with that damn briefcase, and it’s not going anywhere until I have Danny back.”
Carmen narrowed her eyes. “You and I have been friends a long time, Grace, but this isn’t your call. Even if you were still with the Group, there’s no chance in hell of your being objective.”
“As long as there’s even a chance the kidnappers are—”
“Carmen’s right,” Alex interrupted. Not only because he was in charge, but he knew Carmen was one of Grace’s few friends, and he didn’t want something said that couldn’t be taken back. “You can’t be objective.”
“Objective? Danny’s my son. And maybe that doesn’t mean shit to anybody else, but it means everything to me.”
Alex felt a chill spread through his body. “Are you implying I’d sacrifice my son to fulfill a contract?”
“I know what you’d sacrifice to fulfill a contract. Do you want to see the scar?”
He tried to remind himself she was emotionally distraught. He told himself they’d be hashing it all out when the mission was over and Danny was safe. But it wasn’t working. He was going to strangle her well before the mission was over.
“You wanna do this now? In the bedroom.” She started to speak, but he shook his head. “Get your ass in the bedroom or I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you there.”
Grace walked into the bedroom with as much dignity as she could muster, but she was trembling with rage and indignation. And fear. Not fear of Alex, but the breath-stealing fear for her son that was now her constant companion.
The arrogant son of a bitch could say whatever he wanted, but she wasn’t letting them give back the biotoxin until Danny was safe. He’d poured himself a drink to carry in with him, and she sat on the edge of the bed and watched him sip from it. She wasn’t going to open the conversation. If he wanted to talk, he could damn well talk.
“How could you keep my son from me?”
It wasn’t the question she’d expected, but fine. If he wanted to do this now, then they’d do it. “Do you know when I found out I was pregnant?”
“How would I, since I didn’t know you were pregnant?”
“They did a screening before I went in for surgery in the hospital. I learned I was carrying your child while being treated for the gunshot wound you gave me.”
“I pay for that by never knowing I have a son?”
Grace thought of the seconds before Alex’s bullet tore through her shoulder—the way his eyes went so flat and cold. He had been ready to do whatever it took to attain his objective.
Alex knocked back the last of his drink. “I would have explained myself if you hadn’t transferred to a different hospital without telling anybody where you went.”
“What’s to explain? You wanted Ricardo Escobar dead, and you were willing to sacrifice me to kill him.”
The blood drained from Alex’s face, and she got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“Is that what you believe?” he demanded. “Have you truly believed that all these years? You think I would kill you just to take out a second-rate criminal?”
“I…” She looked down at the carpet. Now, seeing his face, she was too ashamed to admit it.
“So you think I can’t be a father because I’m a heartless bastard willing to sacrifice my loved ones for my job?”
Loved ones. She swallowed hard and tried to shove the words away. It was just a handy phrase.
“Do you want to hear the truth?” he asked, “or do you prefer to cling to your hate and misperceptions?”
“Misperceptions?” Her voice rose, but it was either yell or slap him upside the head. “What exactly is there to misperceive? Escobar was standing behind me, using me as a shield, and you shot through me to get to him.”
“And the knife, Grace?” Alex asked in a deceptively calm voice.
Knife? She didn’t remember a knife. She remembered guns. Threats shouted in English, Italian, and Spanish. Smoke. The acrid scent of Ricardo’s fear. But no knife.
“Yes, there was a knife,” he said, no doubt reading her face—something he’d always done better than she liked. “A very wicked-looking hunting knife. He was preparing to stick it in the area of your kidney. You were expecting to be shot, and he wanted me to see your face when the knife slid into your vital organs. I watched his eyes, Grace, and you were about to die. That shot was the only way I could stop him from killing you.”
“I…didn’t know.” It was lame, but the only thing she could think to say.
“It’s all slow-motion in my nightmares, Grace. As soon as I saw the knife he started to smile. And I couldn’t have told you all the thoughts that went through my mind at the time I made the decision to shoot through your shoulder into his heart. But now, late in the night, I can tell you all of them. Would you move? Were my hands shaking? The fire was getting hotter and I’d have to move you and what if you bled out while I was carrying you to the car? The only thing I knew for sure is that you were definitely going to die if I hesitated.”
He stopped and swallowed hard. “God, Grace, I loved you.”
She pulled her heels up onto the bed so she could wrap her arms around her legs, rest her forehead on her knees and sob. She’d never heard pain in his voice like that—never heard the ragged hurt when he spoke. And now she would never forget it.
“When that job was over I was going home to get my mother’s ring. I planned to take you to Italy and ask you to be my wife. Instead I had to put a bullet in you, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to apologize to you for it. Don’t you ever throw that in my face again.”
The door slammed a moment later, and Grace crumpled sideways on the bed. Her shoulders heaved and she pressed her face into the comforter to muffle her crying. Everything she’d been trying to hold in crashed down on her and it was a long time before she could roll onto her back and take a deep, shuddering breath.
If she had only agreed to see him one time before disappearing from his life, they could have had this discussion while there was still chance. Or if she’d talked to Sean, maybe it would have made its way to Alex and…
And nothing. Whether he had any other option but to shoot her or not, nothing changed the fact that his life was too dangerous for her son. The Devlin Group was the reason her son wasn’t safe at home right now, and when they found him, she and Danny were gone. She’d take him so far under her past would never catch up with them again.
“Hey!”
She jerked awake, stunned to find she’d fallen asleep. She heard Gallagher’s shout from the living room and flew off the bed. O
nly when she stumbled and had to grab the dresser to right herself did she realize she’d fallen asleep. For how long? She pulled up the hem of her T-shirt and swiped at her face as she ran to the door.
“We got him,” Gallagher yelled. He had to mean Danny.
Alex was already leaning over Gallagher’s shoulder and he didn’t look up when she stood behind beside him to peer at the screen.
“You have satellite face recognition technology?” she asked.
“You’ve been playing with the boys who answer to budget committees for too long, Grace.” Gallagher zoomed in, clicked, then repeated it. “I tracked the car from the airport to the boat to the island, then real-timed it. Is that our boy?”
Her breath caught in her throat. It was. She leaned over and touched a finger to her little boy’s face on the screen. He’s alive. “When was this taken?”
“Four and a half minutes ago. Your son should be finishing up in the outhouse right about now.”
Grace stood upright and tried to take a deep breath, but it caught in her chest and she held the back of the chair to keep from hitting the floor. Danny was alive. Alive and unharmed. Tears coursed down her cheeks and she had to concentrate on every breath to keep from hyperventilating.
The trembling robbed her muscles of strength, but she stayed on her feet. He was alive, and the people around her right now were the best in the business. They’d get him back.
Her focus sharpened as some of the maternal desperation eased in her chest. She embraced the single-mindedness that had always overtaken her before a mission. Time to put Mommy in the closet and kick some ass.
“Zoom out,” she said. “What’s the situation?”
“Island off the Keys. Pretty well uncharted, so to speak. A shack…some outbuildings. Trees. And at quick count, a dozen well-armed guards.”
Alex folded his arms and watched Gallagher’s fingers flying over the keyboard. “Work your mission-planning magic, my friend.”
“Get the other laptop fired up. I want topo and meteorological maps for a ten mile radius.”
72 Hours Page 4
