“There’s nothing we can do,” he said.
Levi leaned forward, only to retreat with a huff when Dominic shooed him back. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that house is a black box, and approaching it would be suicidal. There’s no way for us to determine the internal layout, the number and position of the enemy, their defensive measures . . . There could be ten men armed to the teeth inside, with alarms and tripwires covering every inch. We just don’t know.”
“There aren’t—”
Dominic kept talking right over him. “You’d have to set up a mobile surveillance post with infrared technology and a laser microphone to even start planning a successful extraction—and that’s assuming Stanton really is inside, which I can’t prove either to myself or the cops. They’re not going to enter the house guns a-blazing on my word alone, especially when I can’t explain how I found out about it in the first place.”
Levi’s glare could have scorched earth. “You broke into a walled compound crawling with armed gangsters, alone, to rescue a woman you barely knew.”
“That was completely different,” Dominic said, refusing to be cowed. “Volkov’s compound was enormous, with plenty of options for cover and concealment. This tiny house?” He inclined his head toward it. “That thing’s a shooting gallery. There’d be no way to disguise our approach, and likely nowhere to hide once inside. Plus, when I infiltrated the compound, I had the distinct advantage of the enemy being distracted on multiple fronts.”
“Then that’s what we do. Cause a distraction—something to break up their pattern, and hopefully lure them outside.”
Dominic rubbed his jaw, considering. The idea did have merit. “I brought tear gas.”
“I’m not tear-gassing Stanton! Don’t you think he’s been through enough?” Levi’s eyes unfocused as he stared into space. “We could start a fire.”
Dominic dropped his hand. “You’re not willing to use nonlethal chemicals, but you’re okay with the risk of burning the house down with Stanton in it?”
“It would just be a small fire!” Levi shot back. “If we started it at the front of the house, say in the garage, they’d be forced to evacuate through the rear.”
“There’s no guarantee they’d bring their hostage with them if that happened.”
Levi fell silent, and Dominic turned to face the windshield. He should get in the back with Levi so no passing neighbors would wonder why a guy was just sitting in his car in the driveway, but Levi’s body language was screaming Don’t come near me.
“I could trade myself for Stanton,” Levi said quietly.
Dominic twisted around so fast his spine popped. “What?”
“I’d make a much better hostage. I could offer myself in return for his freedom.”
“No.”
“You could put a bug on me. I’d be able to get you and the police the inside information you need, and I’m better trained to protect myself if something goes wrong.”
Unable to believe what he was hearing, Dominic snapped, “I’m not risking your life for his!”
Levi recoiled like the words had been a physical blow. His nostrils flared. “That’s not your decision.”
“Levi,” Dominic said, drawing out every syllable, “the only way you are walking into that house is by stepping over my dead body.”
The air inside the car crackled with tension. Rebel whined, stamping her front paws against the seat.
Dominic wasn’t backing down on this one. He cared about Barclay inasmuch as the guy was important to Levi, and because he was a human being, but he would push Barclay off a cliff in a hot second if Levi’s life hung in the balance. If Levi tried to pull some asinine stunt like trading himself for Barclay, he was going to have to beat Dominic unconscious first.
Their ferocious staring contest might have continued forever, if not for the rumble of an approaching truck. They both looked out the window—and snapped to attention as a large moving van stopped just beyond the kidnappers’ hideout, went into reverse with a loud beeping noise, and backed into the driveway of the safe house.
“What the hell?” Dominic said.
“They must be planning to change locations.” Levi slid closer to the window. “Nobody will question a moving van at a foreclosed property, and this way they can fit multiple guys and maybe a hostage in the back without anyone noticing. The state cops won’t be looking for one or two men in a truck like this.”
Levi was vibrating with nerves. Dominic reached a hand back to touch his arm.
“This is a good thing,” he said. “We’ll call the truck’s information in to the police and follow it to make sure they don’t get away. We wanted them to leave their defensible position, remember? People are always most vulnerable while in transit.”
His face bloodless, Levi said, “Mercenaries would know that as well as you and I do. What if they decide the benefits of a hostage aren’t worth the risks of transporting one?”
Dominic didn’t have an answer for that. He doubted the kidnappers would surrender their high-value insurance policy this early in the game, but he couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t cut their losses here and leave Barclay’s corpse behind while they made their escape.
The garage door rolled up as two men got out of the truck’s cab—both wearing heavy jackets and baseball caps, their features too difficult to discern in the dark. One of the men opened the back of the truck and pulled down the loading ramp while the other disappeared into the garage.
“All right,” Dominic said. “Here’s what—”
Levi slipped out of the car and darted toward the house.
“Levi!” Dominic hissed. He banged his fist against the door. “Goddamn it.”
This was exactly what he’d been afraid of.
He jumped out of the car as well, unzipping his windbreaker and drawing his gun. When he slapped his thigh, Rebel sprang out of the back seat, which Levi had left open. “Danger,” Dominic said to her, before he hopped the low wall between driveways. She let out a low growl and followed.
Dominic rounded the moving truck just in time to see Levi surprise the first kidnapper from behind, jamming a stun gun into the man’s neck. Levi must have taken the weapon out of Dominic’s bag while he and Rebel had been on their walk.
As the kidnapper convulsed, choking on his scream, Levi grabbed the back of his head and smashed his face into the floor of the truck bed. The man crumpled to the ground.
“Put him in the truck,” Levi whispered.
Dominic communicated his displeasure with a searing glare, then glanced into the garage. It was empty, save for a large rolling garbage can, and the internal door between the garage and house was shut. No doubt one or more men would be coming out shortly, but the noise of the first man’s face hitting the truck hadn’t been any louder than someone walking on it. No alarms seem to have been raised, at least.
The truck itself was filled with furniture and moving boxes, all the better to support the kidnappers’ ruse and offer concealment to anyone hiding in the back. Dominic cleared it first, just in case, then holstered his gun only long enough to sling the unconscious man over his shoulder and carry him up the ramp. The moment he dumped the man’s body on the floor, he drew his weapon again and crouched to pat the guy down.
As expected, the man was packing. Dominic confiscated the Beretta and tucked it into his own empty holster, since he hadn’t had time to grab any of his own backup weapons or ammo.
Levi was lurking in the shadows of the garage with Rebel. When Dominic rejoined them on the ground, Levi gestured between himself and Dominic, then pointed to the internal door with two spread fingers. Catching his drift, Dominic nodded.
First, though, he placed Rebel in the middle of the garage, about ten feet in front of the door. “Enemies,” he said, indicating the house.
She pinned her ears back, her body lowering into an aggressive stance. Dominic and Levi took up positions on either side of the door with their backs flat to the wall.
They
only had to wait a few seconds before the door opened. A man strode through it, a duffel bag slung over each shoulder, only to stumble to a halt with a strangled gasp as he saw Rebel.
She was an intimidating sight, a hundred pounds of solid muscle and sharp teeth. She bared those teeth now, her lips peeling back as her snarl reverberated through the garage, crouched as if preparing to spring for the man’s throat.
Frozen with the instinctive terror of a human confronted by a large, belligerent dog, the man didn’t notice Levi and Dominic until it was too late. Levi zapped him with the stun gun, and Dominic pistol whipped him for good measure, knocking him out before he had a chance to shout an alarm. After they rolled the man’s body out of the way, Dominic disarmed him, keeping the magazine and chambered bullet for himself and then tossing the empty gun into the garbage can.
They’d been quiet, but they hadn’t been silent. “Hey, Boone!” a voice called from inside. “You all right, man?”
Dominic and Levi quickly returned to either side of the open door, squatting low to the ground this time. Dominic waved for Rebel to come stand beside him.
Footsteps sounded on a wooden floor, moving closer. “Boone?”
Though the house was dark, the lights in the garage had come on automatically when the main door was raised, so Dominic could see inside. This door opened onto a narrow hallway, directly across from a rectangular kitchen. Aside from that one entry point, the kitchen was surrounded on all sides by either walls or thick counters, providing a natural barrier from the rest of the house.
Dominic heard the rustle of a weapon being drawn. Looking at Levi, he saw they’d come to the same conclusion.
Dominic took a deep breath and fired two blind shots around the corner.
“Fuck!” the man inside yelled, though Dominic couldn’t tell if he’d been hit. There was a sudden commotion of running feet, shouted voices, and slamming doors as the rest of the kidnappers were stirred to action.
While Dominic continued shooting, laying down suppressive fire, Levi and Rebel dashed across the hallway into the kitchen. Once they were safe, Dominic dove across the same gap, rolling along the tile until he banged hard into the cabinets. A few bullets whizzed down the hallway, only seconds too late.
“What the fuck is going on?” one of the men said.
“They found us!”
“Who, the cops?”
“I don’t know!”
Between the individual voices and footfalls, Dominic counted three separate men. Levi put a hand on his arm to get his attention, then held up three fingers with a questioning look. Dominic silently confirmed his assessment.
His flight across the hallway had given him a fleeting impression of the rest of the house. It was divided in half lengthwise, with the left half containing the kitchen—where they were currently hunkered down behind the cabinets beneath the sink—and beyond that, one wide-open living and dining area. That meant all the bedrooms and bathrooms were on the right side of the house, but the arrangement of the walls provided plenty of corners, and it was there the kidnappers had taken cover.
They’d regrouped and were attempting to pin Dominic and Levi down in the kitchen with heavy fire. Staying low, Dominic peered around the edge of the counter and shot at the nearest man, fifteen feet diagonally to their right. He jerked back behind cover when the man returned fire, then winced as additional shots rang out from the back of the house.
That was two guys. Where was the third?
When Dominic finished the mag in his Glock, he switched the pistol out for the stolen Beretta. He continued trading bullets with the mercenaries while Levi hunted through the kitchen cabinets.
The low lighting and uneven numbers complicated matters, and it was more luck than anything else when Dominic managed to wing the mercenary closest to them. The guy let out a shrill cry of pain, but he kept shooting.
Levi tapped Dominic’s shoulder. Taking the opportunity to reload the Beretta, Dominic checked out the two items Levi had laid on the floor—a can of Raid and a fire extinguisher.
Levi hefted the fire extinguisher, raising his eyebrows. Dominic snorted and shrugged. He only had a few shots left before they were totally screwed, anyway.
They popped up at the same time. Levi hurled the fire extinguisher into the living room, and Dominic shot it in midair.
The resulting rapid decompression filled the living room with billowing clouds of thick white smoke, sending the two kidnappers into coughing fits. Dominic heard a loud curse, followed by pounding footsteps and a slamming door as the man near the rear of the house took refuge in one of the bedrooms.
He and Levi wasted no time. While Dominic and Rebel raced out of the kitchen, Levi grabbed the Raid and simply vaulted right over the counter, heading straight for the kidnapper Dominic had wounded.
Still hacking, the man attempted to raise his gun—only to have Levi spray Raid into his eyes and mouth. The man screamed, clawing at his face, which made it easy for Levi to disarm him. Levi then smacked him in the side of the head with the can, sending him unconscious to the ground.
The smoke from the fire extinguisher had dissipated, finally giving Dominic a clear view of the house. The living room was empty except for a dozen duffel bags laid out in neat rows, clearly awaiting inspection and inventory in preparation for the kidnappers pulling up stakes. There were no lamps or overhead lights on, but shaded nightlights had been plugged into the wall outlets here and there—providing just enough light to move around safely without being seen from outside the house.
Levi handed Dominic the confiscated gun, and they returned to their low crouches, clearing the small hallway where the man had been taking cover. There were three closed doors here, one per wall. Dominic and Levi each took a door, finding a laundry room and bathroom—both empty.
Without warning, bullets ripped through the third door, flying into the living room on the other side of the house to crack into the wall and smash through a window.
Christ, where were the cops? There was a goddamn firefight going on in here—the neighbors had to be in hysterics by now.
Dominic signaled for Levi to stay in the bathroom on his side of the hallway. With Rebel pressed tight to his side, he hunkered down beside the closed door and strained his ears. He heard a frightened whimpering noise on the other side, which he didn’t think was the kidnapper but also couldn’t imagine was Barclay.
Laying his finger alongside the trigger guard, Dominic banged the muzzle of the pistol hard against the door. The man inside yelped and loosed several more panicked shots that sailed harmlessly down the empty hallway. Then Dominic heard what he’d been aiming for—a muffled curse and the sound of the man reloading.
Dominic threw himself at the door, busting it open with his shoulder. Rebel sprinted inside, snarling, and bounded at the man just as he was raising his gun. Clamping her jaws around his arm, she bore him to the ground, savaging the captive limb as he shrieked at the top of his lungs.
Dominic swung in a tight circle, scanning the rest of the barren room. The only other person in there was a captive, bound and gagged on an air mattress—but it wasn’t Stanton Barclay.
It was Juliette.
Dominic’s arms wavered for a split second before he firmed his hold on his gun. He looked at Levi, who had come in behind him and was staring at Juliette with a slack jaw.
“Close the door,” Dominic said.
Levi pushed the door shut—though it wouldn’t do them much good, as it was riddled with bullet holes and Dominic had broken the lock. Juliette was thrashing on the mattress now, screaming behind her duct tape gag, and Levi moved to her side.
Dominic snatched up the kidnapper’s fallen gun. “Release,” he said to Rebel. When she let the man go, Dominic dragged him into the corner of the room and patted him down for any more weapons.
“Oh my God, get me out of here,” Juliette said the second Levi stripped off the tape. “Get me out of here!”
“Shh!” Levi pressed his fingers to
her lips. “We’re going to help you, but you have to be quiet.”
Dominic noticed that Juliette was bound at the wrists and ankles with zip ties, which would come in handy right about now. “They got any more of those over there?”
Levi hunted through an open bag next to the air mattress and came up with a roll of duct tape and a pack of zip ties. He tossed both to Dominic, who set about giving the kidnapper the same treatment Juliette had gotten.
“I never should have trusted her,” Juliette moaned, though quietly.
“Who?”
“Carolyn!”
Dominic met Levi’s eyes across the room.
“Motherfucker,” Levi spat.
“I was so happy when I got pregnant, but Nathan didn’t want it,” Juliette said. “He said I had to have an abortion. And I’ve done that before, but things are different now—I’m older, and I have a good job, and I wanted this one. But he wouldn’t even talk about it.”
Levi came up with a small pair of scissors from the bag. “So you told his wife.”
“She was furious. I guess he’d done the same thing to her when they first got married—pressured her into having an abortion—and only afterward he told her he didn’t ever want kids. He’d lied to her about it when they were engaged.”
Finished securing the kidnapper, Dominic moved closer to the mattress, where Levi was snipping through the ties around Juliette’s wrists.
“She said we would punish him. We could set him up and get him out of the way, and then she’d take care of me and we’d raise the baby together.” Juliette burst into tears. “But she lied! The whole time, she’s been setting me up too. All she wants is the baby. She just wants to take what she thinks he stole from her.”
“An eye for an eye,” Levi murmured. He sliced away Juliette’s ankle bonds.
When the kidnappers had taken Juliette from her apartment, they’d made it look like she’d run away of her own free will. Carolyn could have held her captive until the baby was born, then killed her with nobody ever the wiser.
“This is why Carolyn was so adamant about making Royce give me the list of potential victims,” said Levi. “She wanted me to know Stanton was on it. She wanted to rattle me.”
One-Eyed Royals Page 24
