Two dark SUV’s screeched to a stop in the driveway.
Four familiar men jumped out, their rifles up. Grant even had a ballistic shield.
“Get in. Get in.” Nolan ushered the family forward.
The three men dove into the first SUV. Nolan stayed with the women and piled into the second while the rest of his team laid down cover fire.
He got behind the wheel and shifted into reverse a moment before Brenden and Vaughn leapt back inside the truck.
“Hang on,” Nolan said.
He punched the gas, and the SUV shot backward into the street, cutting off a sparkling white Escalade.
Bullets pelted the stone wall, giving them some cover.
Nolan cranked the wheel and gassed it, watching in his rearview mirror the whole time.
The other SUV bounced over the curb then roared past the Escalade.
“Safe house,” Brenden said.
“What just happened?” Yvonne’s voice shook.
“You okay?” Nolan’s hands trembled a bit at the memory of that man grabbing her. “Vaughn, check her.”
“Who were those men?” Mrs. Krieger leaned forward. Some of her hair had come out of the elegant twist.
“We don’t know, ma’am.” But Nolan had seen a distinctly Asian male take his last breath. He could guess. He didn’t like either answer.
“Where are we going?” Yvonne’s voice was stronger now.
“Safe house,” Nolan replied.
That was standard procedure. Extract the assets, get somewhere safe, assess wounds and ongoing risk.
Nolan needed to touch Yvonne and make sure for himself she was okay, but first, they had to get out of here. They were under attack and a team like that didn’t just try once. This was only the beginning.
FRIDAY. GRIMALDI PLACE, Chevy Chase, MD.
“What the fuck just happened?” Lee sat behind the wheel of the white Escalade watching two more SUVs burn rubber down the street.
The two other men in the Escalade didn’t answer.
Lee shoved his door open and stalked up the driveway of the Krieger home. It even had a pretentious name that showed up on internet map searches of the area.
He’d set up surveillance in a nearby house. The owners were off vacationing somewhere, which gave Lee’s team an excellent place to stage their plan. Their plan that was supposed to be executed tonight.
Who the hell were those amateurs?
Sirens wailed in the distance.
“God fucking damn it,” Lee raged.
They had to clear out now before the cops started going door to door.
A figure in black shoved up from the grass.
Someone left behind?
Lee turned toward the Escalade and waved at the two waiting men. One jumped out and jogged to catch up with Lee.
“Get him in the truck. I want answers.” He whirled back toward the street and pulled out his phone.
These Kriegers were more trouble than they were worth.
16.
Friday. Chevy Chase, MD.
“Where are they? Where did they go?” Samuel pounded his fist on the dash.
Everything had gone perfectly.
They’d arrived, spent an hour confirming their information about the property, then it was go time. By all accounts they should have taken the family unaware and with no security presence to speak of inside the home.
Now Samuel was down at least four men. Six hadn’t made it back to the vehicles before they’d left to try following the targets.
This was supposed to have been easy clean-up. He was supposed to be enjoying this new chapter of his life. Instead he was rushing around a country he hated trying to squash bugs.
FRIDAY. SAFE HOUSE, Huntington Terrace, MD.
Yvonne’s head spun. Her knee had stopped bleeding, but the cut on her left arm still oozed blood. She stared down at the slowly seeping wound soaking her robe, the voices in the SUV melding together.
How had she gotten that cut?
She couldn’t remember.
Everything had happened at once.
The SUV came to an abrupt stop. She braced her good arm on the back of the driver’s seat and blinked out of the window at the single story ranch house set under mature trees in what looked like an average, DC suburb.
Her door opened, and she blinked up at Nolan.
He had such pretty eyes.
“Fuck. I need the med kit. Now.” His voice was hard, commanding. At least until he bent and took her hand in his. “Vee, it’s going to be okay.”
“I’m fine. It’s a scratch, really.” In the back of her mind she knew there were more important things to worry about. Her wounds were minor.
He held her hand up. “Babe, this is a bullet graze.”
Bullet graze?
“Here. We’re going to get you inside and I’ll tend to this.” He reached across her and unfastened the seatbelt.
“Mom...?” Yvonne glanced to her right, but her mother and Vaughn were gone.
“Hold on to me.” Nolan slid his arm around her waist.
“Need a hand?” Vaughn popped around the door, his face grim.
“I’ve got her. Get everything in the garage, will you?”
Nolan scooped her out of the back seat and strode up the walk and through the open front door into chaos.
Mom was crying and wailing incoherent words. Theodore and Dad were competing in volume. Melody hand her hands up, mouth moving.
“Everyone—quiet!” Grant bellowed.
Yvonne winced at the noise, but his command had the desired result. Everyone shut up.
“Ignore them. I’ve got you,” Nolan whispered.
He crossed to a dining table situated at the back of the open concept space comprising the home’s living room, kitchen and eating area. He set her on the table and she got her first glimpse of the team and her family since their escape.
Theodore and Douglas were both barefoot and wild-eyed. The only difference was that Douglas paced, a nervous energy emanating from him while Theo leaned up against the wall, his complexion ashen. Dad had Mom held tight to his chest, whispering into her ear while she cried, her makeup streaking down her cheeks.
The Aegis team moved around her family each with a purpose.
“Melody—status?” Grant turned toward the woman.
Melody glanced at her phone before speaking. “I’ve contacted the family’s lawyers and prepared a statement that they were not at home at the time of the break-in. We should have receipts to prove the family was out last night and stayed at a hotel so we can lay the story that this was a home invasion, couple of kids, that sort of thing no one will be interested in.”
“Equipment?”
She slid her phone into her pocket. “I verified our security is on-line. Cameras not including.”
“Good. Vaughn, get on that.” Grant nodded.
“I want some answers.” Dad pivoted to face Grant, one arm around Mom.
“I’d like some answers, too,” Grant replied.
“Here.” Nolan popped the top on a can of Coke and pushed it into Yvonne’s hand. “Drink this. No objections.”
She took the can in her right hand while Nolan bent over her left arm. She put the can to her lips and gulped down several big, fizzy gulps. The carbonation tickled her nose, but the cool liquid seemed to wake her mind up from the stupor that had settled during their mad dash out of the house.
“We need to stop the bleeding then clean this,” Nolan muttered.
“Vee—what the hell?” Theodore crossed the living room to stand in front of her.
“She’s hurt?” Dad let go of Mom, pushed past Grant and crowded in around Yvonne.
They were all so big, looming over her with demanding stares, as though she needed to do something for them right that moment. Except there wasn’t anything for her to do. She was the one who’d been hurt.
“Step back, give her some air.” Nolan flung his arm out and glared at the two men. “Breathe, Vee.”
“Get an ambulance here.” Dad pivoted, glaring at Grant and Melody, using that voice that made peons wet themselves.
“No,” Yvonne snapped. The wheels in her head were creaking, turning slowly, but at least they were turning.
“No? What?” Dad frowned at her. “Vee, baby girl, you’re hurt.”
She took another sip of the Coke and glanced at Nolan. He stared back at her, mouth set in a line, his entire focus on her. It might have been unnerving if she didn’t know him.
“It’s a flesh wound. I scraped my arm on the patio glass. An ambulance is a bad idea if our goal is to keep this quiet. Am I right?” Yvonne stared back at Nolan, daring him to correct her. “An ambulance also means more people know where we are, and that seems like a bad idea to me.”
“Yvonne’s right.” Grant either picked up on her hint or was taking the baton she so neatly handed off.
“Is anyone else hurt?” Dad turned toward his other children.
“I’m fine,” Theodore said.
Douglas shook his head. His coloring was off. Too pale with a touch of green.
“Doug?” Yvonne toed a chair out from the table. “Sit.”
The fact he crossed the room and parked his butt where she told him was enough for her to know her little brother might look okay, but his head was all jumbled up. She passed him the Coke figuring it had helped her.
“What are we doing here? Who were those people? What’s happening?” Dad paced the room. Every couple of paces he shoved a hand through his salt and pepper hair.
“We’re containing the situation, Mr. Krieger.” Grant watched her father.
“Those men—who were they after? Why?” Dad paused long enough to glare at the team.
“That man who grabbed us, he didn’t speak English. I want to say he was Asian, but...” Theodore opened and closed his mouth, then shook his head.
Nolan tipped his head forward.
This was the attack he’d feared. The retaliation.
Yvonne could see the banter unfold in her mind. Dad would continue to demand answers without sharing what they knew. Grant would make decisions based on their limited information. Nothing good would happen without a little honesty.
She closed her hand around Nolan’s forearm, his hands still applying pressure to the graze on her arm.
“Grant?” She turned her attention on the team leader. She was the only one who knew both sides. She didn’t have the luxury of being hurt and out of it right now. “If you had to guess, were these Yakuza or could they be employed by the man who was killed? Sato Ito?”
“Vee.” Theodore frowned at her, eyes wide.
Dad and Douglas both went still.
Grant grimaced, but he answered without hesitation. “They were too well-equipped to be that Yakuza gang. If I were to guess, these are Ito’s people. But that doesn’t make sense. He’s in the same business we are. Kind of. They aren’t mercenaries. They don’t do hit jobs.”
“But they might be out for revenge.” She swallowed.
“What are you getting at Vee?” Theodore still had that wary look on his face.
She stared back at her brother, weighing her options.
They had to trust someone.
Once more Yvonne directed her gaze at Grant. “We have video evidence that Douglas’ drone did not kill Sato Ito.”
Her mother gasped. “Yvonne!”
“Be quiet,” Dad snapped.
“Vee.” Douglas turned to stare up at her.
“What?” Grant took a step closer.
Nolan’s grip on her arm tightened.
She held up her good hand. “There was another man on the terrace. He shot Sato a moment before the drone fired. Sato was already down.”
“I need to see that video,” Grant said.
“Absolutely not!” Mom quick-stepped across the room, her flats tapping on the hardwood.
“Douglas can show it to you,” Yvonne said over her mother.
“You will be quiet.” Mom grabbed for Yvonne’s hand.
Nolan’s arm shot out, keeping Yvonne safe.
“I will not.” Yvonne glared at her mother. “We are in this mess because at every corner we have chosen to cover up, deflect, evade the truth. That hasn’t fixed anything. Now our lives are still at risk. I won’t sit back and do nothing. Someone else killed Sato Ito and we have evidence of it.”
Her stomach tightened. She knew what had to happen. It was the only choice since she’d let her mother walk her into the police station.
“I know what we’re going to do.” Yvonne slid her good hand between her thighs and stared at a spot on the floor where the mid-morning light cast a glare. “Yesterday morning Mom and I went to the police station. We made a report that a drone I demonstrated while on a trip was later stolen, used and recovered partially damaged. We’re going to do the right thing and go to the...FBI? CIA?”
“We have a contact with the FBI,” Grant offered.
Yvonne nodded. “Then we go to them. We tell them everything we know. Give them the video. But we stick to the story that it was me who operated the drone. Douglas will stay out of prison. It won’t cause as much of a stir. Tabby can probably back the story up. Everyone knows we are friends. We spin the story this way, and worst-case scenario, I step down or take a hiatus from the company. In a few months, this is all behind us.”
“That’s not going to work,” Douglas blurted out.
Theodore’s mouth worked silently, his brows drawn down. “You can’t be serious, Vee.”
“Grant?” Yvonne didn’t allow herself to look at her parents. She was afraid of what she’d see. “Can we count on your team backing up this story?”
Grant’s face was twisted up, like he’d chewed on a particularly sour lemon. After a few moments he said, “Yeah.”
Yvonne nodded. Her gaze caught on Mom’s.
She was beaming at Yvonne, her smile so big and bright you’d have thought Yvonne just inked a huge deal, won a title or saved children from a burning building. She glanced at Dad, now standing behind Mom. His eyes were sad. Disappointed in her again? It was something Yvonne was getting used to.
“No.” Theodore said, his voice reverberating in the silence. “No, you can’t do this.”
“If we don’t stick to the plan, then yesterday I made a false report to the police.” Yvonne looked at her big brother, the person she’d always emulated, and willed him to understand something he couldn’t.
Nothing Yvonne did mattered.
When this was over, her plan was still the same. She was resigning her position in the company, taking on a smaller role, training her replacement. And in three months, when she could no longer hide her pregnancy, she was leaving Krieger, Inc behind to start a new chapter of her life. One where her baby was the first thing she thought about every day.
This was her parting gesture to her family. They just didn’t know it yet.
Nolan’s thumbs massaged her. She lifted her chin and looked him in the eyes. Instead of judgment she saw acceptance. He was trusting her, just like he’d said he would.
What would he think of her plan if he knew all of it? Would he approve?
She hoped so.
FRIDAY. SAFE HOUSE, Huntington Terrace, MD.
Nolan twirled the pen between his fingers while the hold music continued to play. The last thing he wanted to be doing was his job as the team’s Communication Officer. Coordinating bullshit was tedious when Yvonne sat across the room.
She was still staring into space. Her color wasn’t right. He hated the sight of the bandage on her arm and knowing how close she’d come to getting seriously hurt.
And for what?
To avoid the spotlight for the sake of stock prices or some other bullshit?
If he could scoop her up and walk out of here, he just might do it. But Yvonne had a plan, and damn it, he’d said he was going to trust her. Now he had to prove it. Whatever secrets she was keeping, he’d get them out of her, eventually.
Som
ewhere in the last two days he’d changed his tune completely. They’d gone from barely being able to stand each other to something more. Now that he had a chance to do this right, he wasn’t going to allow anything to get in his way.
“Hello? Hello?”
Nolan shook his head and glanced down at the pad of paper. “Yeah, I was waiting on details for tomorrow.”
The woman began rattling off names and times.
This was going to be a shit show.
He jotted it all down then after he hung up transferred his notes into the program that would populate mission data onto each team member’s device. Melody kept harping on him to just put the notes straight into the program, but Nolan liked the feel of a pen in hand.
“Nolan?”
He glanced up at Grant standing in the entrance to the garage.
“When you’re done?” Grant nodded at the empty space behind him.
“Be right there,” Nolan said.
This house wasn’t laid out the best for their needs. There was nowhere to have a private discussion. Even the office at the front of the house wasn’t ideal with the decorative doors that didn’t do anything to keep sound in.
Nolan slid his tablet under his arm, spared Yvonne one last glance, then headed toward the garage.
Grant stepped back and let him enter. Melody stood leaned up against a deep freezer, arms crossed over her chest.
Vaughn, Riley and Brenden were nowhere to be seen.
“You slept yet?” Grant asked.
“No.” Nolan hadn’t even tried lying down after this morning’s close call.
“Grant and I were talking.” Melody pushed off the deep freeze. “First, what is the nature of your relationship with Yvonne?”
“None of your business,” Nolan said without hesitation.
“Watch your tone,” Grant snapped.
“What we’re getting at,” she said over Grant, “is that we want someone to stay close to Yvonne. You and her appear to have a relationship that might mean she’d trust you more than others.”
“That’s a safe guess.” Nolan crossed his arms over his chest.
They hadn’t been that discrete last night. Yvonne had pulled up a chair right there in the guest house and hung out with them. No, he hadn’t kissed her or made any sort of move. He’d been on duty and that meant something to him. But neither had he hid that they had a spark.
Dangerously Involved Page 21
