by Paige Tyler
Kendall blinked
Beside Wes, Kyla’s eyes went wide. “Are you actually suggesting we break Holden out, steal something from an organized crime boss, then barter it for Holden’s freedom? Not to mention our own since the FBI will realize we’re the ones who broke him out.”
Kendall’s head spun as she tried to figure out how they could possibly pull something like that off. It was beyond insane.
“You know that’s crazy, right?” Kimber pointed out. “We’ll never make it past the front door.”
Kendall prayed she didn’t regret this.
“You guys can’t, but I can,” she said.
* * * * *
Holden was sitting there with his eyes closed when he heard the door of the interrogation room open. No doubt it was another agent there to question him. He still had no idea what time it was, but it had to be close to 0400.
The light footsteps told him it was a woman. No surprise there. They’d thrown a dozen different guys at him from intellectual to threatening in an attempt to get him to talk. It made sense that they’d try a woman next. They probably thought he’d respond well to a softer touch.
Like that had a friggin' chance in hell of working.
If she followed the same script, she’d sit down across from him and introduce herself, then say she was there to help him. The first few times he’d been amused. After that, it had just become annoying.
But she didn’t do that. Instead, she grabbed his wrists and unlocked the cuffs around his wrists. He jerked his head up and almost fell out of his chair when he saw Kendall. Which would have hurt like hell, since his ankles were chained together.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded, his heart soaring and plummeting at the same time. It sank even further as the significance of her presence hit him. “Oh, I get it. They sent you in to question me, figuring you have the good cop role down pat since you’ve already banged me. I bet the other agents had a good laugh when you told them how easy it was to get me to fall for you.”
She flinched at his words, and he immediately felt like shit for saying them. But hell, she’d lied to him about everything. What the hell was he supposed to do…thank her?
Kendall’s mouth tightened, but she didn’t say anything as she crouched down to remove the shackles on his ankles. Straightening, she stepped back and motioned for him to stand.
“Come on,” she said when he didn’t move. “We don’t have much time.”
Holden stared at her. He’d thought way too much about Kendall since the Feds brought him in here. He wasn’t naive or stupid enough to blame her for being FBI or for him getting arrested. The former was her job. The latter was his fault. He’d stolen that damn thing from the NSA.
No, the thing that made it nearly impossible to look at her, much less forgive her, was the fact that she’d tricked him into falling in love with her. He’d thought she was different and it had all been a lie.
“Let’s go,” she urged.
“Go where?” He rubbed the chafe marks around his wrists a few times before crossing his arms over his chest. “If you’re taking me to a holding cell, why did you take off the cuffs and shackles?”
“I’m not taking you to a holding cell, you idiot,” she snapped, then glanced at the door, a panicked look in her eyes. “I’m breaking you out.”
He frowned, sure he was hallucinating. “What?”
“I’m here to get you out.”
Kendall darted a quick look at the door again, like she thought someone would walk in at any moment. Why would she care if anyone did? She was one of them. She had a friggin' FBI badge with her photo clipped to her belt for heaven’s sake.
“What kind of game are you playing?” he asked. “Do you think that if you act like you’re trying to help me escape, I’ll trust you again and tell you where the Key is?”
She took a deep breath, then let it out. “Dammit, Holden. I get it. You don’t trust me. And you have every reason not to. I screwed up, and I know it. There’s nothing I can do to change that now. I can try to get you out of this situation, though. But to do that, I need you to trust me enough to come with me before another agent comes in here.”
“You recognize the inconsistency in what you just said, right?” he asked. “You get that I don’t trust you, but then you ask me to trust you. Why the hell would I do that?”
She sighed, and for a moment he thought those might be tears in her eyes. Then she shook her head and locked gazes with him. “Because Wes, Dalton, Noah, and Sam are in a van downstairs, along with Kyla and Kimber. I need to get you out of this building before someone stumbles over them. Or us, for that matter.”
He must be more exhausted than he’d thought because he simply couldn’t comprehend what Kendall had just said. There was no way he’d heard her right.
“Why would they be downstairs in a van?” was all he could say.
“Because if I can get you out of here, we’re all going to get that damn thing you stole and use it to barter your freedom.”
If he thought he was confused before, it didn’t compare to how much his head was spinning right then. “Why would you do something like that? You’ll go to prison right along with me if this goes wrong.”
Kendall gazed at him for a long time. “Because I love you and I’ll do anything to get a chance to prove it.”
Before he had could say anything, Kendall turned and headed for the door. Hand on the knob, she looked over her shoulder at him.
Holden took a deep breath, then got to his feet and followed her out of the room.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE DRIVE UP to San Francisco was horrible. Holden’s friends had worked it so she and Holden were both sitting together in the last row of the big van, with an empty row between them and everyone else. Maybe they thought they were giving the two of them privacy to talk, but it hadn’t worked out that way. Instead, she and Holden stared out each of their respective side windows and ignored each other for the whole fifteen-hour drive to San Francisco. In fact, Holden hadn’t spoken a word to anyone since she’d sneaked him out the back way of the San Diego field office.
Dalton was driving while Noah rode shotgun. Wes and Kyla were in the bench seat right behind them. Kyla had been glued to her laptop the entire time, keeping an eye on the Dark Web auction as well as the various law enforcement dispatch systems, making sure no one stumbled on their location.
The only people not with them were Kimber and Sam. Since Kendall knew the FBI would be looking for her and Holden, she’d given Kimber and Sam the keys to her car and told them to drive to Mexico. With Kimber’s blond hair and Sam’s muscular build, they’d look enough like her and Holden on any traffic cams. It might buy them a couple extra days.
Or get Kimber and Sam sent to prison.
Kendall didn’t even want to think about that.
Their little group probably could have made it to San Fran in ten hours if they’d taken the interstate, but that would make it easier for the FBI to spot them, so she told Dalton to stick to secondary roads. It had made for a long trip, especially with the cold shoulder Holden was giving her. At least he’d changed into the clothes she’d brought him.
Kendall glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, trying to look at him without him knowing. She needn’t have bothered. It was like he didn’t even know she existed. Then again, he didn’t seem to be aware of anyone else, either. After getting in the van, he’d given Dalton an address outside Napa Valley and hadn’t said a word since. He’d simply stared into space, looking a million miles away.
Kendall told him why she’d come back for him, had even said she loved him. And Holden hadn’t responded. She hated to admit it, but that hurt. She understood why Holden didn’t love her or even trust her, and she knew the only reason he’d agreed to come with her was because his friends were involved in this crazy scheme, but knowing all that did nothing to ease the ache in her chest, or the tears threatening to run down her cheeks.
“We ju
st pulled off Silverado Trail,” Dalton announced from behind the wheel.
“In half a mile, you’ll see a sign on the right for Soda Canyon Road,” Holden said, still looking out the side window. “Take the turn, then follow it until I tell you to stop. There’ll be a narrow ravine we can park the van in. We’ll walk from there.”
“Walk where?” Dalton demanded, a little of the frustration that everyone seemed to be feeling starting to show. “You going to let us in on what the plan is? Or where the hell we’re going?”
Holden turned his attention away from whatever was so interesting outside the window. “About a mile past the ravine we’ll cross over a fence line into McKinney’s vineyard. McKinney runs the majority of his criminal operation out of there. That’s where the Key will be.”
“You honestly think McKinney would risk having something as incriminating as that on his personal property?” Kendall asked.
Holden was silent for so long she didn’t think he’d answer her question, but then he finally snorted. “McKinney isn’t exactly paranoid, but he got to where he is in the world by trusting no one. He’d never keep anything as valuable as the Key anywhere else.”
“Assuming you’re right, do you know where he’d hide it?” Noah asked over his shoulder.
“There’s an entire suite of storage vaults under the garage,” Holden said. “It’s where McKinney keeps his most valuable possessions and only a few of his most trusted people have access to it or even know it’s there. He may be running the auction out of the main house, but he’ll keep the Key in one of those vaults until the buyer transfers the money to his account.”
Kyla looked up from her laptop to glance at him. “That’s going to be sooner rather than later. The auction is winding down. The bidding is up to almost two hundred million and there are only two serious players involved.”
“Crap,” Kendall muttered. “We need to hurry.” Her heart beat faster. If they didn’t get the Key back, breaking Holden out would have been for nothing. “We have no idea how long McKinney will hold onto the Key after the bidding closes, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the buyer has someone ready to pick it up the moment the deal is done.”
Everyone murmured their agreement. Well, everyone except for Holden. He went back to looking out the window as if he couldn’t care less.
A few minutes later, Dalton pulled the van into the ravine and moved forward until the vehicle was hidden in scraggly brush. The moment they were out of the van, Holden called out instructions.
“With the auction going on, McKinney will have guards set around the perimeter of the vineyard. Once we slip past them, Wes will head down to the vaults below the garage with me. Dalton and Noah, you maintain security topside.”
Kendall opened her mouth to ask Holden where he needed her, but he turned his attention to Kyla.
“Think you can hack into the security system?” he asked. “There’ll be a few layers of passwords and encryption on the signals, but if you can get in, we’ll have a visual on nearly everything that’s happening on the property.”
Kyla nodded, giving him a confident smile. “Get me close enough to pick up a wi-fi signal on my laptop and I’ll get us in. If we’re lucky, I might be able to stay outside that defensive perimeter thing you mentioned.”
That seemed to satisfy Holden. He turned to head toward the vineyard and almost walked right over the top of Kendall. He stopped and gave her a cold look that twisted her stomach into even more knots than it was already in.
“Where do you want me?” she asked softly, only realizing after the words had left her mouth that her question could lead to an answer she really didn’t want to hear.
Holden gazed at her for a moment longer, then jerked his chin in Kyla’s direction. “Stay here and cover Kyla. Don’t come anywhere near the main house or the garage, no matter what you see or hear.”
And just like that Holden turned away and headed up the ravine, catching the short automatic rifle Wes tossed casually in his direction before disappearing into the darkness. Holy crud, they’d brought automatic weapons. This was really happening.
Kyla gave her a small smile. “If it helps, I put twenty dollars into the betting pool saying you and Holden were going to work this out and get back together.”
Kendall snorted. “If you put your money on us getting back together, what did everyone else go with?”
“Noah and Wes put their money on you and Holden getting into a big argument and you smacking him. Dalton bet this whole thing is going to blow up in our faces and we’ll all end up in prison.”
Kendall sighed as she pulled her FBI issued Glock out and checked to make sure it was loaded. She had to admit, if she was putting her money in, she’d bet on that last outcome, too.
* * * * *
“Are you being an asshole on purpose or does it just come naturally now?” Wes whispered as they cautiously moved down the dark stairwell beneath McKinney’s garage.
Holden whipped his head around to scowl at his friend. At least, he’d thought Wes was his friend. But hearing his Teammate say something like that had him wondering.
“What the hell does that mean?” he demanded softly.
This wasn’t the time or place to have this conversation, but they were going to have it anyway. They probably should, he guessed, since the drive up from San Diego had been friggin’ awful. Like getting a root canal through your ass. Kendall had ignored him the whole time, no doubt calling herself every kind of stupid for breaking him out of FBI lock-up. Then there was that crap she’d said about loving him. She had to be regretting that, too. It was obviously a lie. FBI agents didn’t fall in love with the criminals who were on the way to jail.
“You know exactly what it means,” Wes murmured, checking around each corner as they descended the stone steps. “Kendall risked her life and her freedom to get you out of that field office, and you’ve been a complete douche-canoe ever since.”
Over the radio in Holden’s ear, Kyla and Dalton called out updates over the radio. The auction was wrapping up and McKinney’s security personnel were getting restless. Maybe they thought the losers were going to make trouble. Fortunately, Kendall and Kyla were outside the security perimeter and not in any danger.
Holden would have punched his friend for calling him a douche-canoe if it wasn’t for the simple fact that Wes was probably right. Holden had sulked like a damn five-year-old the whole drive up. But in his defense, he had a damn good reason. “Wes, she lied to me.”
His friend snorted. “Oh, boo-fucking-hoo. So, she never told you she was a Fed. Get over it. You told lies, too. Like the part about not mentioning you’d stolen a piece of national security technology.”
Holden cursed under his breath. “That’s completely different. And besides, I’m not mad about that part. Okay…yeah…maybe I’m a little mad about that part. But mostly, I’m pissed she played me. The whole time we were together, she made me think it was real. She made me believe I’d finally met the woman I could spend the rest of my life with. Shit, Wes. I think I was falling in love with her.”
“Maybe you should cut the woman a break,” Wes pointed out as they reached the lowest level and moved along the long central corridor off the stairwell. “Just because you two kept secrets from each other doesn’t mean everything that happened between you was a lie.”
“Yeah, it was,” Holden said softly. “All of it.”
Over the radio, Kyla warned them that a group of people were moving from the main house to the garage. “They might be coming to collect up the Key. Get the thing and get out of there.”
Holden picked up his pace and moved ahead of his friend, heading for the end of the corridor. The place looked exactly the same as it had when he’d seen it all those years ago. Dimly lit and wreathed in shadows, little alcoves and smaller passageways branched off to the left and right of the main hallway. Hopefully, that meant everything else was still the same. Like where McKinney preferred to stash his most prized possessions—in the
last vault along the passage on the right. If they were lucky, the combination would still be the same. The one on the door upstairs had been.
McKinney was a creature of habit and didn’t like changing things.
“I was there when Kendall admitted she fell in love with you while she was undercover,” Wes said. “I don’t know her as well as you do, but I got to tell you, she seemed pretty damn sincere to me. She stood in front of us and poured her heart out. She was the one who came up with this crazy scheme to break you out of FBI custody and get the Key back so she could use it to bargain for your freedom. None of that sounds like a lie to me. It sounds like a woman who’s seriously in love with a man she doesn’t want to see in a prison cell.”
Holden didn’t know what to say to that so he didn’t say anything.
Stopping in front of a vault door that would have made a bank proud, he punched in the combination that had to be at least a decade old. He said a silent prayer of thanks when the bolts retracted and the heavy door swung open, revealing a room full of individual wall safes and a heavy table in the center of the room with a black case sitting in the middle of it.
The same case he and Wes had stolen a few weeks back.
He walked in and opened the case to reveal a decidedly boring smaller black box with a few LED lights on it and some USB connectors.
Holden reached for it when he heard the unmistakable sound of automatic gunfire from upstairs. Cursing, he grabbed the Key and shoved it in his pocket, then headed for the door of the vault.
“I’m not sure what happened, but I think you must have tripped some kind of alarm,” Kyla said urgently, her voice hard to hear over the rattle of gunfire. “There are armed men running toward the garage. I don’t think Dalton and Noah are going to be able to stop them. Kendall is coming to help.”
Up until then, Holden hadn’t been too worried. He and his Teammates had gotten themselves out of every possible kind of situation, including ones where they’d been overwhelmingly outnumbered. But the part about Kendall coming to help changed everything.
