“Move it!” her captor growled, giving her a shove.
As she lost the battle, her knees buckling under the force of the woman’s push, she glimpsed a tall figure darting out of the bank’s back door, the same door she’d been dragged through moments earlier. She knew that dark hair and those broad shoulders….
Hope fired in her chest.
“Gage!” she shouted as she stumbled inside the dilapidated store front.
Gage snapped his gaze in the direction the shout had come and caught a brief glimpse of a dark coat disappearing into a building a couple of blocks down the street. He sprinted down the sidewalk, leading with the security guard’s .38 revolver. His senses tingled, hyperalert as he passed alleys and parked cars, all too aware that an ambush could be waiting behind any blind corner.
Every blown leaf and icy howl of wind had his nerves jangling, and he forced himself to breathe deeply through his nose as he raced down the street. Echoes of gunfire and exploding IEDs ricocheted through his brain, taunting him. The last time the stakes had been this high, the last time he’d had someone else’s life in his hands, he’d failed. Spectacularly.
Adrenaline spiked his pulse and sent a tremor through his limbs.
Stop it! Focus. Concentrate.
He couldn’t let his jumpiness interfere with helping Kate. Couldn’t let his last screw up taint this rescue.
When he reached the area where he’d seen the flash of movement, Gage slowed his pace, the gun ready, and sidled up to the front wall of the building to hide his approach. He crept to the corner of a barber shop and peered in the front window. The only person inside was the elderly barber, who snoozed in the reclining chair.
He edged to the next storefront. Except for the front door, the building’s windows were boarded. The glass in the door was broken, the lock damaged. Someone had broken in.
His body tensing, he inched forward. He stayed behind the boarded windows, out of sight. Listening. Craning his neck to see the inside the dark store.
Over the whistling wind, he heard women’s voices. One was Kate’s. The other…?
Did the kidnapper have another hostage?
He tested the door with his toe. It creaked open.
“Who’s there?” the other woman shouted.
Damn! They’d heard the door. So much for the element of surprise.
“Gage?” Kate cried, then gasped audibly.
He hazarded a better look in the room. Just a quick peek that yielded a plethora of information. The kidnapper was the other woman. Kate was being held in the back corner of the shop with a gun to her head.
The abandoned shop still had a cash counter, a workbench of some kind, rolling wardrobe racks. Instantly he began calculating. Planning.
With a deep breath to steel himself, center his focus, Gage kicked open the door and swung inside. “Drop your weapon!”
Both Kate and the woman gave startled screams.
Gage darted behind the counter. With both hands steadying the .38, he took careful aim on the woman holding Kate. “Let her go.”
The woman, an attractive blonde, probably in her forties, flinched. Her face looked familiar. Alarms sounded in Gage’s mind.
“No! Stay back!” She scooted away, dragging Kate with her until their backs bumped the far wall. Gage heard panic in the woman’s voice, and the hand holding the gun on Kate trembled.
His gut tightened at seeing Kate at the business end of the bank robber’s weapon. The woman’s jittery manner told Gage she was no professional criminal. That thought should have comforted him. Instead, the woman’s behavior made him more uneasy. She could be more unpredictable, more desperate to save herself, more irrational.
And where was the man who’d taken the wallets? Was he lying in wait, ready to ambush Gage?
“Release her. You don’t want to add murder to the charges against you.” Gage fought to keep his tone even and calmly commanding while everything inside him rioted at the notion of Kate getting hurt.
The situation had too many variables, too many oddities, too many unanswered questions. And Kate was caught in the middle. A prime setup for disaster. A cold sweat beaded on Gage’s face.
“Who are you? What do you want?” His voice held a hard edge, and the woman shifted nervously.
“I’m the person who’ll kill your girlfriend if you come any closer. You put your gun down and your hands up, or I’ll shoot her. I will!” The blonde’s tone was growing more shrill.
Gage held firm, mentally recalculating, when the woman’s wording registered. Your girlfriend.
Ice shot through him. A multitude of questions buzzed through his head in a numb heartbeat. How did this woman know of his association with Kate? Was this more than a random act of theft and violence? Was this a personal attack directed at him? At Kate?
Was Janet involved? Larry? Was this a setup?
The possibility seemed too unlikely, too coincidental…
Yet…the woman did seem familiar somehow. Her voice…
“It’s a trap, Ga—”
“Shut up!” The woman jammed the muzzle closer to Kate’s ear.
A trap? Another wave of disquiet rippled through him.
Hank hadn’t planned to go to the bank today until he’d received that text message… From his mercenary’s phone…. Damn it!
Gage flicked a glance to Kate. Her gaze was riveted on him, her eyes bright with fear and…faith. In him.
His heart somersaulted. Doubt burrowed to the bone. How could she put her trust in him when his recent track record was so dismal?
I’m falling in love with you, too.
He blinked hard, yanking himself back to the situation at hand. He had to stay focused. He couldn’t let his emotions cloud his actions.
Or had he already?
“A trap?” He narrowed his eyes on the woman, studying her windblown hair and familiar face hard, searching his memory….
A press conference on TV. One of Hank’s mistresses crying at the microphone. A woman’s shrill voice squawking through Hank’s cell.
Gage stiffened. “You’re Gloria. Gloria Cosgrove.”
Confusion and panic erupted inside the bank the minute Gage disappeared through the side door. Hank pressed a hand to the spot where acid sawed his gut. Weeks of stress and too much whiskey had given him a case of heartburn that felt like a heart attack, and the anxious cries of the women in the bank didn’t help.
“Senator Kelley, in here!” a bank manager called from one of the offices. “I’ve called the police, but until they get here, you’ll be safer to wait in here.”
A few of the patrons hurried out of the bank, while others rushed to the protective walls of the employee offices. Tellers scurried in a crouch to secure the vault and assist customers to safety.
Damn it! Where had Prescott gone? Armed men had robbed him, and his bodyguard had done nothing but run after his girlfriend, abandoning him during the crisis. Such dereliction of duty was grounds for dismissal in Hank’s book.
“Senator Kelley, your security man said to wait in an office,” the manager called again, waving toward the open door behind him. “Please, sir. In here!”
Hank straightened his tie, and, as he headed toward the bank manager’s office, he thought of his Town Car waiting outside. His car had bullet-resistant windows and doors. In his opinion, that made his Town Car safer than the manager’s office.
He stopped in front of the manager and handed him the withdrawal slip and the note with the mercenary’s account number. “I need you to transfer these funds from my account to the one I’ve written here. Today. It’s a matter of utmost urgency.”
“I—of course, sir.”
“And tell Mr. Prescott I’m waiting for him in my car.” With that, he headed for the front door and stepped outside into the blustery day. Despite the scare with the amateur bank robbers taking his wallet—he needed to call Cindy and tell her to cancel his credit cards—he was relieved to have the payoff to Garrison handled. The man was
highly recommended, and it would be worth the price to see Lana rescued.
Hank sighed contentedly. Lana was as good as free, and once she was safely at the ranch with him, he’d tell the Raven’s Head Society to leave him the hell alone.
Ducking his head against the cold wind, he marched toward his car, giving a cursory side-to-side glance around him for signs of trouble. Dark gray clouds gathered over the mountains, promising bad weather to come.
“Senator Kelley?” someone behind him said.
He stopped, huddling deeper in his coat as an icy gust buffeted him, and turned to see who’d spoken. “Yes?”
He saw the man in the dark overcoat, and a chill that had nothing to do with the encroaching storm blasted through him. Hank glanced down at the gun aimed at his chest and stumbled backward.
The man rushed forward, overtaking him in two long strides and jamming the gun in his ribs. “I need you to come with me. We have business to take care of.”
Gloria Cosgrove’s head swivelled toward Gage, her expression stunned. “How’d you know who I—” Then, with a scoff, she firmed her jaw and raised her chin. “Well. You’re pretty smart. Is that why Hank hired you?”
Hank! Nausea swamped Gage, and he bit out a scorching curse.
“I see you’ve figured out our ploy,” Gloria chortled.
He’d left Hank to follow the kidnapper. Abandoned his duty to rescue a bystander. Forsaken a U.S. Senator to come after Kate.
Because he loved her…
That truth stole the air from his lungs.
“While you’re here saving your honey, the good senator is exposed, vulnerable. By now, my friends have found him.” Gloria gave Gage a purely evil smile. “And taught him what happens to traitors to our cause.”
His mistakes sat on his chest like boulders. Gage fought for a breath. Black spots swarmed his peripheral vision. He’d failed…twice. Not only had he let his emotions sidetrack him from his duty to the senator, but he’d let Kate past his private defenses. His weakness for her had given her false hope that they could have a future together, that she could trust him, that he’d protect her from getting hurt.
Furious with himself for falling for Gloria’s trick, yet still worried sick about what Hank’s scorned lover might do to Kate, Gage scrambled for a plan. He had to disarm Gloria, free Kate and get back to Hank. Like, ten minutes ago.
“Fine,” Gage grated. “You fooled me. Now let Kate go. She’s an innocent in this. You don’t want to hurt her.”
Innocent. And yet, because of her involvement with him, she’d been tainted, put in jeopardy. Proof positive he needed to get out of her life and leave her the hell alone.
Gloria shrugged. “Irrelevant collateral damage is always a sad fact in a war. You’re a soldier. You know that.”
Fear tripped down Gage’s spine. “Kate is not irrelevant. If you hurt her, I’ll—”
“What? Come on, tough guy, make your move!” Gloria taunted, growing bolder.
Wind rattled the metal awning of the deserted shop, creating a rumble like distant thunder, and his heart pounded an answering drumbeat.
Should he force Gloria’s hand?
He resighted his weapon on Gloria, aiming for her gun arm—
And hesitated. If he shot Gloria and, in pain, shock or a physiological response, her finger tightened on the trigger, Kate would die.
Gage had no time to waste. He had to find Hank before—
Bang!
He jerked at the all-too-familiar noise. Then Kate’s wail of agony rent the echoing concussions, and Gage’s heart stilled.
“Who are you? What do you want?” Hank demanded as the bank robber hustled him at gunpoint into an alley and through a weatherbeaten door.
“I’d think by now it’d be obvious who we are, or at least who we work for.” He shoved Hank forward, into the unlit room, and two more men stepped out of the shadows.
Hank squinted, trying to make out their faces, but he didn’t recognize them. “I don’t know what you—”
Before he could finish, the two men grabbed him by the arms, and the bank robber landed a breath-stealing blow to his gut. Pain ricocheted through him, and his knees buckled.
“We have a message for you from the Raven’s Head Society, Senator.”
Hank raised his head, gasping for air, and leveled a challenging glare on his tormenter. “Go to hell,” he rasped.
The thug chuckled darkly. “You weren’t smart to defy the members of the Society by sending that mercenary after your daughter. In case you’re wondering, he failed to rescue her.”
Hank shook his head. “You’re lying. I heard from him this morning. He’s ready to move in.”
“He just needed his payment sent to an account in the Caymans by eleven,” the man finished for him and pulled out a cell phone. “I know. He texted you at breakfast, right?”
Cold seeped to Hank’s core. “You— The robbery was—”
“A setup. Yes. We had to get your bodyguard out of the way long enough to have our…chat.”
“You sonofa—” Hank struggled against the grip of the two thugs but to no avail.
Stepping closer, the bank robber slammed his fist into Hank’s jaw, followed by another swift jab in the gut. “Do I have your attention now?”
Bile rose in Hank’s throat, and he wheezed.
“You know what you have to do to get Lana back. Cooperate with the Society, do as you’ve been instructed, and Lana will be returned. Defy us again, and things will get really nasty for you. They’re not above killing your daughter if you don’t comply.”
Hank spat out the blood in his mouth and sent his captor another defiant glare.
The man in the dark coat sighed as if dealing with a petulant child, then loosed another attack on Hank’s ribs, his kidneys, his face. When Hank crumpled to the cold concrete floor of the old storeroom, the men took turns kicking him.
The edges of his vision wavered and grew dim. Pain screamed from every muscle and bone in his body.
“You can’t hide on your son’s ranch forever,” the man growled in Hank’s ear. “Consider this your last warning.”
Chapter 14
Kate collapsed on the floor, a searing ache exploding in her thigh. No sooner had she hit the floor than another ear-shattering blast echoed through the room.
The woman—Gloria, Gage had called her—screamed in pain and dropped her gun. The weapon clattered to the floor beside Kate. Shoving aside her haze of pain and shock, Kate rallied her wits and scrambled to the gun, dragging it into her grasp.
She cut a side glance to Gloria, who was curled up on the floor clutching her bloody hand to her chest.
Gage darted around the counter and dropped to his knees beside her. “Lie still, sweetheart. I have to tie her up, then I’ll find something to staunch the bleeding.”
Her head still buzzing with adrenaline, Kate glanced at her leg and gasped. She gaped in horror at the hole in her flesh that seeped a steady trickle of blood.
Biting the inside of her cheek, she swallowed the wail of agony and fear that welled in her throat. She had to stay strong. Gage didn’t need the distraction of her breaking down while he dealt with Gloria.
Following his directions, Kate rolled to her back, tears prickling her eyes. She fought to steady her breathing, calm her racing pulse. Gage was here. She would be all right….
Turning her head to the side, she watched numbly as he used the belt from Gloria’s coat to tie her wrists together and secure them to a heavy metal rack. The woman whimpered and groaned in pain, her face deathly pale and her hand severely damaged by Gage’s well-placed shot.
“It hurts…” Gloria moaned.
“You should have thought of that before you put that gun to Kate’s head,” Gage growled. He took out his cell and dialed. “I need an ambulance and the police in downtown Maple Cove.”
As he gave directions to the operator, Gage grabbed the scarf Kate wore draped around her neck and wrapped it in a tight tourniquet arou
nd her leg. He worked quickly, efficiently, his expression intensely focused. Then he used both hands to apply pressure to her wound.
She yelped as lightning pain streaked though her.
Worried blue eyes found hers briefly, and he rasped, “I’m sorry. I know you must be in agony, but I have to push on the wound to stop the bleeding.”
She gritted her teeth and swallowed against the nausea that swamped her. Instead of the throb in her leg, she centered her attention on Gage, the fine lines of stress and concern framing his eyes.
“You came for me. Saved me,” she whispered.
His gazed darted back to hers. Stunned. Guilty. Grief-stricken. “Of course I did.” He paused, and a muscle in his jaw twitched as he clenched his teeth. “I love you.”
Kate felt a hot tear leak onto her cheek. “Then give me a chance to love you back.”
Silently, Gage held her gaze for several taut seconds. Only when the whine of an approaching siren splintered the quiet did he jerk his gaze away and shove to his feet.
Without answering her, he hurried to the door to flag down the ambulance. He stood back as the EMTs bustled in, and he gave the medics a bullet-point recap of what had happened.
Pointing to Gloria, he said, “Keep her restrained until the police come. She’s to be charged with kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted murder.” Shifting his gaze to Kate, he said quietly, “I’ll check on you at the hospital later, but I have to go now. I have to find the senator. Pray I’m not too late.”
Kate’s heart lurched as Gage disappeared through the door. His parting words reverberated in her head. He’d put her life ahead of that of a U.S. Senator.
Of course I did. I love you. Her heart twisted. He’d had a terrible choice to make, between duty and love. And he’d chosen her. Perhaps at the expense of an important man’s life.
Gage had a dangerous, critically important job. How could she expect him to give even a second thought to a relationship with her when he had responsibility for a man’s life, possibly even matters of national security to handle? She couldn’t.
Yet at dinner last night she’d pressed him for a commitment. Remorse settled in her chest like a rock. She’d been so selfish!
Special Ops Bodyguard Page 18
