by Dale Mayer
“So you can see him doing something like this?”
“I think the cruise was over-the-top,” she said. “And I highly doubt that was solely his work. I think that was more of the father’s work. If you’re asking if Windberg would have minded if people died fulfilling his wishes, the answer is hell no. He would have ordered the attacks himself if he thought it would have gotten him what he wanted.”
“I don’t like this guy at all,” Beau said.
“Well, stand in line,” Jax said, “because you don’t get to hit him until I have first.”
“That’s just because you know I hit harder than you,” Beau said complacently.
Jax raised his gaze, narrowed it at Beau, and snorted. “You wish.”
The two men fell back to verbally wrangling again. Abby sighed, sat down, and said, “Do we get food? I’m hungry.”
Beau patted her gently on the shoulder. “See? A woman after my own heart.”
“Can we go to the hotel restaurant at least?”
Jax nodded. “Jonas didn’t say, sequestered in our hotel rooms. He said, sequestered in the hotel.”
“Perfect,” she said. “Let’s go down, hit the tourist shop, go to the cafeteria or whatever they have, and have a proper English breakfast.”
“I’m not eating a proper English breakfast,” Beau said. “I want real food.”
She glanced at him in surprise. “You mean, you want American food,” she corrected.
“Whatever,” he said. “I want meat, meat, and more meat.”
At that, she laughed and started to close the laptop in front of Jax. “Are you coming?”
He nodded. “Hold on. Let me finish.”
“Sure, as long as you tell me what you’re doing,” she said with a smile.
“I’m redoing our route to and from the hospital with a couple alternatives in case we run into trouble.”
“In the hospital or out of the hospital?” she asked.
“Both,” he said. “I’ve got the blueprints memorized just in case.”
She stopped, looked at him, and said, “Just in case what?”
“Just in case they decide to take the hospital hostage the same as they did the cruise ship.”
From the paling of her skin, it was obvious that Abby hadn’t considered such a scenario.
“I hope you’re wrong,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “Jesus, I hope you’re wrong.”
“It’s a much more vulnerable place to take,” Jax said. “If you think about it, a lot of people will be caught up in this mess too. If the good doctor tries something like that, we’re all in deep trouble.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose and said, “I’m sorry. I was only thinking of the little boy.”
“I know you were,” he said. “And I appreciate that, but we can’t dismiss that the father may only understand brutish methods, and that’s the same methods they will use at the hospital.”
“Oh, boy,” she said. “Then all I’m doing is putting hundreds more people at risk.”
He nodded. “Exactly. Much better to have gone to Dubai.”
“And something about that felt so wrong,” she whispered. “I just knew I wasn’t coming back alive.”
“Maybe,” he said, “but we also must consider that maybe it would leave everybody else alive.”
She glared at him. “We’re back to that me instead of twenty-five hundred, right? Well, I was agreeable then, so I can hardly argue now.”
“Well, we must consider something,” he said. “Just think about it.”
She would, but it wasn’t appealing. “So what am I supposed to do? I don’t want anybody at the hospital put at risk.”
He laughed. “Too late. They already are.”
“Argh,” she said. “Can we count on MI6 for security in this case?”
“Well, we hope so,” Beau said. “But obviously we’ll do a bit more work on that to make sure that we aren’t relying only on them. Because, as soon as you do that, all hell breaks loose.”
“True enough,” she said. “Let’s go eat, and then we can come back and maybe think about this some more.”
Jax laughed. “It’s all we’ll be thinking about for the next twenty-four hours and beyond. That’s just what it is.”
“Got it,” she said. “But still, I want to make sure that we’re as safe as we can be and that everybody in that hospital is as safe as can be. I can say it until I’m blue in the face. I’m sorry. I just didn’t know what else to do.”
“And you played your hand, and it’s happening,” he said. “Now we make sure that the hand that you end up with is one that we can work with.”
She nodded slowly. “It sucks though.”
“Oh, it does,” he said. “It sucks big time. But it doesn’t change anything, does it?”
“No,” she whispered, “it doesn’t.”
On that note, she walked out the door, and Beau stuck to her like glue. Jax remained behind, wanting to look at his phone and see the last text that had come in. Something was definitely happening here that would not be too easy to sort out while she was around.
He checked his phone to find Jonas’s text, telling Jax that father, son, and entourage, nine in all, had arrived. Jax winced at that. He quickly sent back a text message, asking who were all in the entourage. The response, when it came, was to be expected. Some were obvious mentions: security, the head of security, and the doctor. One female, presumably the mother, and then four other men. Likely part of his security detail. Something that they would all keep in mind. He raced after Beau, catching them just as they went into the restaurant. Beau lifted an inquiring eyebrow. Jax nodded and said, “The family has arrived.”
She sucked in her breath.
He caught the sound, gripped her hand in his, and said, “Chess pieces. Remember? They’re all coming into play now.”
She nodded. “I did tell you that I was lousy at the game, right?”
He chuckled. “You didn’t need to tell us that. We already knew.”
She snorted. “I’m not that bad.”
“Glad to hear that,” he said, “because we have an awful lot of stuff to keep track of right now. That’s very important.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “It’s all about tomorrow.”
Chapter 11
When the next day finally dawned, Abby was grateful to have something to do. Sitting on edge the whole day yesterday, waiting for something to happen and yet knowing they couldn’t do anything while in this waiting phase, drove her crazy. She’d woken a couple times in the night but finally made it through to a truly reasonable hour of the morning. Now she had showered and sat in the living room with her first cup of coffee.
The men were on their phones. Always. She just shook her head, wondering why she still hadn’t received anything on the child’s file and worried that she already knew the answer. As they walked over to join her in the living area, she said, “What’s the chance of being waylaid on the way to the hospital?”
“A little too big,” he said. “It’s something we’ve considered.”
She nodded. “Good.”
“Is that what you think will happen?” Beau asked as he sat down.
“Not really.” She shrugged. “Yet it’s something I have to consider.”
“We’re planning for it,” he said. “So not to worry.”
At the restaurant, she, Beau, and Jax sat down and ordered breakfast. Jax was a little on edge, his gaze studying the area. He contacted Jonas to let him know they were on the move.
“Make sure you keep all your sensors live,” Jonas said.
“We still have them,” Jax said. “Are we all showing up online?”
“Yes,” Jonas said. “All three of you are tagged, bagged, and ready to go.”
“Don’t put it that way,” Jax said, “but, if you have to, perfect,” he said. With that, he put the phone down beside them and looked at Abby and smiled. “Sorry for using my phone at the table.”
She rolle
d her eyes. “Like that’s the biggest problem facing me right now.”
“Well, you never know,” he said. “I don’t mean to be rude.”
She gripped his fingers and smiled. “If you’re weren’t, I would think you were sick.”
Beau chuckled at that.
Jax just rolled his eyes at her, and, when the waitress came, they quickly ordered, and the food was delivered promptly. He looked down at it, but all his senses were alive. He wasn’t exactly sure what was bunching up the hairs in the back of his neck, so he looked at Beau, and there he met his partner’s gaze.
Beau nodded, his face staring past Jax’s head. “We’ve got company.”
“But is it company we want to see?” Jax asked nonchalantly as he picked up a piece of toast, his gaze going to the picture behind Beau’s head, checking the reflection there, seeing if he could get something off the glass. But it was a shitty reflection. He waited until their company walked past, following a waitress to get to a table. Jax looked up, frowned, and said, “Interesting. They brought the fight to us.”
Abby leaned forward and whispered, “What?”
He tilted his head toward the table where two men just sat down. She turned her head, caught sight of the head of security they’d seen on the cruise liner, and immediately put down her knife and fork. She stared at Jax and Beau. “I’m not feeling very hungry all of a sudden.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Jax said. “You need to eat. For fuel, just in case you need to run.”
She glared at him, stared at the food, and then systematically ate. He doubted that she enjoyed any bite of it, but there was no doubt it was an effective manner. And when she laid down her fork ten minutes later, she said, “Can we leave now?”
“Yes,” he said. “So now we can head home or back up to our room, and our company won’t care. Because they’ve already confirmed that we’re here. Getting a lock on us here, they can keep track of us.”
“Speaking of tracking,” she said.
“Yes, we’re being tracked by a lot of people right now. And quite possibly by them too.”
Back up in her room, the reality of what she was doing just set in. Somehow she’d blocked out all thoughts of this doctor and the pain that he’d caused her—well, most of them. But there was no more ignoring what was happening. Especially not when it was directly in front of her now. There was no way out of this. There was no way to do anything but get through this mess. And, if she could at least just get through it, then she could put it behind her.
She was worrying more about the sick boy now. Determining a condition, establishing a treatment plan, and getting it started couldn’t be done in an hour. It wouldn’t be a simple case of just doing a couple tests to see what was wrong.
And still, in the back of her mind, she didn’t think the boy’s supposed illness had anything to do with a disease. It all had to do with Benjamin Windberg. Benjamin, the man she’d hated for years. The man who still terrified her. And yet, she wondered at his campaign of fear. It was so effective that, back then, she hadn’t slept well for days or weeks after his attack. Only after she heard that he’d finally left the country had she calmed down enough to put it behind her. Now years later, Benjamin’s game of fear reared its ugly head again.
She sat down, looking at her hands. Her fingers still shook. She also knew her cheeks had to be pale because everything inside her had a clamminess to it. She didn’t know how to deal with this. It had been years since she’d seen him. Years during which she’d worked hard and fought long to put it behind her. Or at least seemingly did.
And, just like that, knowing that she could possibly see him again today, even seeing the head of security, the man who had been responsible for the carnage on the cruise ship, to know that both of those men were walking free and clear, her stomach heaved. She raced to the toilet and lost her breakfast.
In the deep recesses of her mind, she knew Benjamin would be after her again. She knew that his ego wouldn’t allow him to not try again. He had to win. Failure was a huge blow to his ego—his lying smooth-talking way and just that sliminess to him scared the crap out of her.
“You’re not alone, you know,” Jax said as he crouched down beside her. He picked up one of her hands that had been lying in her lap and rubbed her fingers, obviously picking up on the fact that they were chilled, and so was she.
She looked at him but couldn’t muster a smile. “I know I’m not alone,” she said, “but you don’t understand who this man is.”
“Maybe you should tell us more,” Beau said, standing in the doorway to her bathroom.
She shrugged. “There’s not much I can tell you. Just that he has this incredible way of making everybody afraid of him. I was just thinking about the campaign of fear he ran against me and how all it took was the sound of his voice to send me into absolute shock.” She paused, then said, “I’m terrified of meeting him today. And I know that doesn’t say much about me being strong, and I’m sorry because I would like to be better than this …”
“Stop right there,” Jax said. “You are doing incredibly well. Don’t ever let yourself think otherwise. I get that you think this is a horrible scenario, where you’re supposed to stand up to this and face it and then toss it off with a semblance of nonchalance. That’s how the movie-goers would have you act. But it’s not that way. Life is not that easy. It’s not that simple. This man did run a campaign of fear against you, and I really like that terminology, by the way. That’s exactly what he did. It was all about power. It was all about abuse. It was always about keeping you terrified. And, because he had the power to do so, he kept pushing it and pushing it. You’d have given him anything to have him out of your life.”
She nodded. “I would have,” she whispered. “I still would.”
He immediately squeezed her fingers. “And that’s what I mean. Benjamin being here is not the end of the world. We are both here for you. Benjamin won’t get a hold of you.”
She gave a half snort of laughter. “He’s gone to a lot of trouble to get his hands on me again. The chances of him doing it again are pretty darn good.”
Beau asked, “Any idea what he might have up his sleeve?”
She looked at Beau and answered his question. “Not really. My mind keeps going to the worst scenarios possible. And it would require assistance from other men to make any of those scenarios happen. But he obviously has some people around, willing to help him get what he wants.”
“What scenarios?”
She looked at Jax. “I keep thinking he’ll likely knock me out or hit me with a pressure syringe that knocks me cold, and then I get spirited away to a private jet back to Dubai.”
“Dubai isn’t exactly a lawless land though,” Beau said. “Obviously we don’t want that happening, but something about Dubai terrifies you even more.”
“Sure,” she said. “I could disappear there, and nobody would be the wiser. I could end up in a sheikh’s harem out in the middle of nowhere, and nobody would ever find me again.”
“Except for us,” Jax said with such a note of certainty that she stared at him in surprise.
“What will you do against all that Iraqi military manpower?” she asked.
He gave a gurgle of laughter. “What we’ve always done against military manpower. Be sneakier, faster, and better. We would bring you home. I promise you.”
She looked at him, slowly studying the look in his eyes, and then smiled. “I know you believe that.”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter what I believe. It matters what you believe because, when you walk in that hospital, if you’re looking over your shoulder every step of the way, you can’t do your job. You can’t focus on what you do, and you’ll be getting in our way. We need to focus on our job, and you need to focus on your job. But, in order for that to work properly, you must trust us.”
She took a deep but shaky breath. “You’re asking for a lot.”
“Exactly,” Beau said cheerfully. “And, speaking of whi
ch, it’s almost time to go.”
Her breath was once again shaky. She nodded and said, “Already?”
“Yep. Time to sneak you out of here.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “I thought the whole point was how they already know where we are?”
“Sure, they know that we’re here. You can bet that they know that we’re in this room in this hotel, but that doesn’t mean that they get to know when or how we move.”
“So we’re not staying here? We’ll stay at some other secret place after the hospital?”
“In case you didn’t notice, your luggage has already been moved.”
At that, she looked around, and her jaw dropped. “I didn’t,” she said. “Wow, am I completely out of it. Somebody took my luggage, and I didn’t even see.”
“It was moved while we were downstairs,” Beau said. “We know we’re being watched. So it’s more of a case of making sure that you’re moved as needed under the guise of secrecy.”
“Well, cameras are up here,” she said. “And just how will you stop that?”
At that, Jax’s watch beeped. He stood, helped her to her feet, and said, “That signal tells us the cameras are off. Let’s go.” And she was quickly led out the door, across the hall to the set of stairs, and then moved two flights down. He sent a beep back on his watch.
She looked at him. “Was that the signal to say that we’d moved?”
He nodded.
By the time they had left the hotel, surrounded by MI6 men, out the rear door in the parking garage and into a vehicle heading toward the hospital, she had reverted to Abby the doctor under extreme duress. Jax knew that she felt she was doing the right thing, and likely she was, as far as her code of morals and ethics went. But most of the world didn’t operate on the same scale of morality that she did. Which was too bad, because then a lot of people didn’t understand her reactions to everything going on.
They were led into a hospital door, through the morgue area. And then back up through service elevators to the floor that they needed. With Jax and Beau at her side, they finally walked into a small waiting room. There was a woman and a small boy.
