by Lexi Blake
They thought they had Ben? The fact that they knew names told her someone had planned this operation. Maybe that meant someone wanted more than just her head. Stay alive. Stay alive.
She opened the door and stepped out, holding her hands up. “I’m here. Don’t kill Ben.”
She wasn’t going to correct them. She wasn’t sure why they thought Chase was Ben, other than the fact that they were identical twins.
An enormous man dressed all in black stepped into the bathroom. “Guess you want him to live after all.”
Shelley nodded. He was so big, and there was something in his hand. She couldn’t quite see it.
He moved faster than she could breathe, and she felt the heat of his body and then the sting of something pressing into her neck. The world got foggy.
“Time to take a nap. When you wake up, we’re going to have a long talk.”
She slumped in his arms, reality receding. Before the whole world went black she held on to one thought.
Leo, Wolf, find me.
Chapter Nineteen
Leo sat back, looking around the bar, feeling a sense of contentment he hadn’t felt in a long time, perhaps ever. Wolf was talking to Logan, the deputy nursing his beer and looking a bit more settled than before.
Logan was staying. Logan was dedicated to getting better.
Wolf was staying. Wolf was dedicated to Shelley. Oh, he was going to have to grovel and make Shelley accept that he was a dumbass, but a dumbass who loved her. It would be kind of fun to watch, and even more fun to spank Shelley’s ass when she inevitably took the argument way too far and turned that bratty mouth on him. He hadn’t forgotten that she’d told him to shut up. He mentally added it to her punishment list. There was a whole lot of gingerroot in that girl’s future.
Ben walked into the bar. He looked completely out of place. He was in sweats and a T-shirt, his dark hair ruffled. There was a stack of papers in his hands. He glanced around the bar and then made his way to the table Leo shared with Julian, Logan, and Wolf.
“I thought you were over at McKay-Taggart.” The whole group had been working on the plans for tomorrow’s security upgrade and looking into the situation with Ada.
“I’ve been on the phone with Charlotte’s sister and Adam, but I wanted to be alone.” Ben was frowning. “Has anyone seen Chase?”
“I sent him upstairs with Shelley about an hour ago. Why? What’s up?” Leo asked.
“I need Chase to run through some things, but I found something disturbing. Adam Miles sent us a bunch of info on Holder’s company, White Acres. Some of his financials are a bit odd. And this afternoon Chase managed to find several large transfers to his accounts during the time he was on the Teams. How the hell did he manage to make a million dollars while he was active duty?”
Leo felt the room go cold.
“Investments, perhaps?” Julian asked.
“He wasn’t a trust-fund kid,” Leo replied. Holder had been one of the guys. He’d talked about his rough-and-tumble childhood. He’d grown up the hard way. There was no way he’d had the type of money he would have needed to make it to a million dollars.
Wolf’s face went dark. “There was a rumor a couple of years back that someone was aiding drug runners in Kabul. No one believed it.”
“No one wanted to believe it.” Ben frowned. “Most of Holder’s squad now works for White Acres.”
A whole unit involved in something criminal? God, the thought turned Leo’s stomach. “Ada had some sort of meeting the afternoon she died. She mentioned it to me.”
“She was meeting with her CO,” Ben said. “Ada spent a lot of time talking to locals. If anyone would have heard something, it would have been her. The translators often found things out the soldiers couldn’t.”
“But why now? If Holder killed Ada, why would he bring it up now? He’s gotten away with it for a very long time. Why would he deliberately reopen old wounds?” Wolf asked.
Julian sat forward. “Leo, would you have made plans to see this man?”
“Probably not. We weren’t close at all, and I dislike his business. He preys on former special ops, turning them into mercenaries, and from what I’ve heard not particularly scrupulous ones. White Acres isn’t like McKay-Taggart. They provide ground security for some of the world’s worst dictators. Big Tag wouldn’t do that. Holder’s men train their armies.”
Julian shuffled through the papers Ben had brought down. “He wanted to talk to you. He needed to either see you specifically, Leo, or he wanted access to the building. He tried to call. You didn’t return it. He forced the issue with the only thing he knew would get you talking. Ada.”
Wolf paled. “Someone tried to kill Shelley the night before he showed up.”
“Tried to kill or wanted to take her?” Julian asked.
Wolf’s head shook. “No idea. Maybe. If they were trying to take her, they damn straight changed their mind. Why would anyone want to kill Shelley? The feds cleared her. Do you think this is someone her husband screwed? Do you think Holder’s become an assassin?”
Julian’s eyes closed briefly, but not before Leo saw a flare of guilt.
“Julian, what did you do?” Leo’s mind practically exploded with possibilities, catching on one. His boss had a brutally wicked brain, and there was nothing the man liked more than information. “I called you the minute I found out about Bryce.”
“Trev called me sooner,” Julian admitted. “Ben and Chase were already on their way to Deer Run by the time you called.”
“The minute we found out about the blackmail op Bryce Hughes was running, we knew we had to make sure nothing could be traced back to Shelley,” Ben explained.
“But nothing was found on her computer. Nothing in her office.” She’d been perfectly clean despite the fact that her husband had used her business to get his dirt.
Ben frowned. “Nothing was found at all after Chase got through.”
Leo felt his blood pressure jump. “You didn’t bother to tell me?”
Julian held his hands up in apology. “You were in a bad place at the time. You didn’t even want to talk about her. You simply gave Finn a ridiculously large check and told him to handle it. I was rather worried you would take it poorly.”
It took him a second for those words to sink in. Wolf understood before Leo did.
“I don’t care what was on that computer,” Wolf said. “Shelley didn’t know. She would never do anything like that. If she had known what was going on, she would have told someone. Leo, you can’t think she had anything to do with this.”
Shelley? Truly involved in Bryce’s schemes? Fuck no. She was sweet and honest. She had a bratty mouth and a soft heart. She would never be able to sit around while her husband was hurting people. “I know that. But I will admit at the time I was upset with her. I think Julian was worried that I would take it as evidence against her.”
Julian looked tired all of the sudden. How much had his boss tried to shield him from? How much did Julian think he was risking? He could fix that last question right away. He wasn’t mad at Julian. Julian had done what he thought was right for both him and Shelley. Julian was a manipulative bastard, but he gave a damn.
“Julian, I am grateful for everything you’ve done for all of us, but the time to protect me is over. What did you find?”
Ben sighed. “A bunch of stuff. There were hours of footage buried in her system. Her asshole husband had set it up for her to take the fall if anyone found out. Luckily, Chase turned all of that around. We managed to load some of the information on to Bryce’s system. Enough to make the feds happy they had the right guy. The rest of the stuff we downloaded to a hard drive.”
Oh, there was a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Where is this hard drive?”
“It’s being stored at McKay-Taggart,” Julian admitted. “I didn’t look at it. I simply had Ian put it in a safe place for me. I have to admit, I didn’t have the stomach for it at the time. Kitten had just shown up on our doorstep. You were in a depre
ssion. Danielle was trying to get pregnant. It kind of slipped away, and then it seemed like a bad idea to get into it.”
Wolf stood. “We need to look at those files. We need to figure out who’s after Shelley. This is about her, and Holder is involved.”
“If I find out he’s the one who killed Ada…” Ben began.
“Do what you need to do,” Julian said. “Just be smart and let me know what the alibi is. I’ll make sure it holds water.”
That was Julian. He was a law in and of himself.
“I want to talk to Shelley,” Wolf said. There was a deep crease between his brows. Leo understood what was going on in his brain. He wanted to find her, hold her, make sure she was safe.
Leo wanted it, too. “She’s in complete lockdown. She doesn’t go outside of this building.” He pulled out his cell to call Chase. Then he would call Big Tag and get a team over here.
No signal.
What the hell?
“Wolf? You have your cell?”
One of the bouncers called out for Julian as Wolf pulled his cell. He held it up as though trying to find a signal. Julian waved the bouncer over.
“I have nothing,” Wolf said.
Ben was the same.
“Mr. Lodge, we’re having a problem in security. Everything went black. Harry is working on it, but the cameras went out ten minutes ago, and we can’t get them back on. Does this have something to do with the install tomorrow? We tried to call you, but the cells don’t work.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Leo got to his feet, adrenaline pumping through his system. This was how he’d felt when he was going into a mission. “Someone is jamming the whole building.”
Wolf was right behind him. “Shelley.”
Julian began barking orders. “Get everyone you can here now. Find that goddamn jammer and turn it off. I want to know where everyone is. I mean everyone. Every member, every employee, every guest. And have someone find a landline and call Ian.”
Leo ran, praying the elevators still worked. He was in luck. Ben followed Wolf. Not a one of them had a gun. They weren’t allowed in the dungeon. Wolf’s SIG was in his locker. Wolf reached into his boot and came up with a wicked-looking pitch-black knife. Leo had a similar one in his own boot. He felt naked without some form of weapon on him.
He prayed it would be enough.
The doors opened to the sixteenth floor, and Leo saw it. The door to the condo was wide open. Chase would have secured the door.
“Fuck,” Ben breathed. “They’ve got Chase. I didn’t feel it. How could I not feel that? We’re connected. How could he be gone?”
Chase wouldn’t have hidden. If someone had come for Shelley, they would have had to get through Chase. Though it gave Leo a sick feeling, he had to agree that something bad had happened to Chase Dawson.
Wolf moved forward, sinking into a standard stance. He kept near the wall, moving with a silent, deadly grace. For the first time, he had to admit that he was willing to follow his brother’s lead. Leo had joined up because he’d wanted out of Colorado, and he’d wanted to help his mother.
Wolf had joined up because he truly believed. Wolf was a soldier, deep down to his soul. Leo followed him, though his first instinct was to run screaming into the room. Wolf was right. Leo had been out of the game for far too long.
Wolf entered the condo, his face completely blank. It was only after he realized no one was there that he broke down. The living room was in shambles. The couch had been knocked over, and there was a streak of blood on the coffee table. Two of his lamps had been broken.
“She’s gone.” Leo felt his fists clench. Helpless. He was totally helpless. Shelley was gone. She was out there somewhere. He didn’t know if she was dead or alive or being hurt. His heart clenched.
He’d wasted time. He’d wasted so much fucking time. He loved her. He’d never loved another woman the way he loved Shelley McNamara. She was in his heart, and if she was dead, it wouldn’t matter if his body walked the earth, he would bury himself with her.
“Leo.” Wolf’s calm voice cut through Leo’s panic. “They took her. They want her for something or we would have found a body. Chase, too.”
Ben had made a sweep of the whole condo. “I can’t find any of them. Kitten isn’t here. The living room is the only place that shows signs of a struggle. They took Chase down in here.”
Wolf pointed to a bloody handprint about halfway up the door frame. The fingers trailed as though someone was pulled out of the doorway. “They carried Chase out.”
Leo walked to the master bedroom. He had some guns in a case in his closet. Having his SIG Sauer in his hand might make him feel less helpless. He needed to think. He had to get into those files that Ben and Chase had taken off her computer. The key was buried somewhere in there. Holder had her. With his connections, Holder could get out of the country and disappear quickly. He could change identities and never miss a paycheck.
But Holder obviously wanted something, and Leo would bet his life that whatever he wanted or his client wanted was in those files Julian had taken.
Bet his life? Fuck all. He was being forced to bet hers.
Wolf walked in, a grim look on his face. He held his spare gun, the one Shelley had stolen earlier in the day. It looked like the third time had been the charm for those bastards.
“Come on. We’re not going to get anything here. We need to track Holder down.” Wolf checked his piece and slid it into the holster he’d put on.
Finding Holder was their only shot. She was out there in the city somewhere.
“All right.” Leo went to open the closet door, and he heard a soft sound.
Wolf went silent.
“Seventy-two. Seventy-three. Seventy-four.” The sound was so quiet he’d almost missed it, but it was soft and feminine. And not Shelley. He opened the door and found Kitten, her arms wrapped around her knees. She held herself in a tight ball, her eyes closed and her mouth moving in her almost silent count.
“Kitten?” Leo felt Wolf move in behind him. Felt his deep disappointment that she wasn’t Shelley. But if Kitten had survived, she might be able to tell them something, anything.
Her eyes flew open, and her lips trembled. “You made Kitten lose count.”
Oh, god. Kitten could be fragile at the best of times. “It’s all right. You don’t have to count.”
Tears squeezed from her eyes. “Shelley told Kitten to. Shelley saved Kitten, and Kitten will do as Shelley asked. She told Kitten to count to one hundred after the bad men were gone. But Kitten lost count. Three times. Kitten was never good at math.”
Leo got to one knee in front of her. “Bad men? Do you know how many there were?” Any information would help.
She sniffled. “I think there were four.”
It was the first time since he’d known her that she’d referred to herself in anything but the third person.
“I heard steps, lots of steps, but only four voices. They were calm. They weren’t angry. They had Tasers. They Tasered Kitten’s keeper.” Fat tears rolled down her cheeks. She was so young, and Leo knew how hard this must be for her, yet she was trying.
Wolf got to one knee, his deep voice gentle. “Kitten’s keeper is in danger. Shelley is in danger. Is there anything else you can remember, sweetheart, anything at all? You would make everyone so happy if you could recall even the smallest detail.”
“Did they say anything?” Leo asked, holding his hand out.
Kitten sniffled again and took it. “They told Shelley they would kill Kitten’s keeper if she didn’t show herself. But they were not smart. They thought Master Chase was Master Ben. How could they make that mistake? Master Chase is much different than Master Ben.”
Not physically he wasn’t. It was interesting.
“Shelley asked them not to kill him, and then she was silent. One of the bad men told another that he had both targets and to fall back to the meeting point.”
Targets. They were organized. Most likely they were all White Acres employ
ees. But both targets?
“Why would they want Ben?” Wolf asked.
Leo shook his head, and then it hit him. “Fucker. Ben is the perfect patsy. He had a relationship with Ada. Holder didn’t know about it. The Navy didn’t know about it. I’m sure somewhere out there Holder has a hacker making sure those photographs look as though Ben had them stashed somewhere. That way if all goes bad, he sets up Ben to be the killer.”
Wolf growled a little. “And then Ben would either kill himself or have a convenient accident. Son of a bitch. We handed that to him. We have to find her. They think Shelley has those files that Bryce stored on her computer. When they realize she doesn’t, they’ll kill her.”
Kitten nodded, her hand going to her collar. “Yes, find Shelley.”
Leo squeezed her hand in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. “Let’s get you to Finn. You can stay with Finn and Dani tonight. You did very well, Kitten. If you think of anything else, let Finn know, and he’ll tell us.”
“You’ll find Shelley?” Kitten asked.
“I’m going to find her. I’m going to bring her home.” He had to. There was no other acceptable outcome.
Kitten smiled. “Good. Because Kitten’s collar is naked without its charm.”
Leo’s eyes flew to the ring where one of the staff attached a leash on Kitten the nights she was in the dungeon. His heart nearly stopped. Two months before, she’d wandered off while her Dom for the night was dealing with a scene gone bad. She’d gotten lost and nearly allowed herself to be taken home by a man she didn’t know. Finn had been worried. Kitten didn’t have limits. It was one of the things they were working on with her. If a true sadist with bad intentions picked her up, it could go poorly. Her past proved what trouble she could get into.
So Chase had fitted her collar with a GPS tracking system.
Kitten was far smarter than anyone gave her credit for, and in that moment, Leo vowed to figure the young woman out. He would work with Janine. He would find a way to give Kitten the life she deserved. Because if he was right, Kitten had saved his life. He couldn’t live without Shelley.
