“Gavin here, filling in for Zain.”
Grant must have looped the guys back home in on the feed. That was a relief to know they had eyes out there on them.
“Best I can tell is that we’ve got six inside on camera and two watching the street.” Keys clicked in the background from wherever Gavin was working. “I’m sending you a staging location. My suggestion is to come at the condo from two sides, take down the look-outs, then proceed inside.”
“I agree that’s our best approach,” Grant chimed in. “We want to avoid them barricading inside the house. Whoever these guys are, they want something. They’re professionals, which means they want to live through this to get a paycheck.”
“What about communicating with Yvonne?” Nolan wasn’t on Gavin or Zain’s level of techno-whiz, but he had a good idea what their capabilities were.
“I thought about that.” Gavin’s voice was grim. “Hacking this home network is going to take time we don’t have.”
“Is there another option? Anything in the house that we could compromise? A home assistant? Ice maker? We have his phone—”
“You what? You have the owner’s phone and didn’t fucking say so?”
Grant broke in. “I didn’t realize that made a difference. Sorry.”
Gavin and Grant spent a moment rigging the phone to communicate with the Aegis network. By the time it was done, Nolan was pulling up to the street a block away where they’d stage their approach.
“Okay.” Gavin’s voice was upbeat, optimistic. “Just get within range of the house and I should be able to at least signal Yvonne so she can get down or something.”
Nolan wasn’t sure how they’d pull this off, but he was bringing his girl home.
19.
Yvonne wasn’t familiar with the structure of the secure server. It was slow going, but so far she’d known all of her brother’s security questions at every checkpoint. It was nice to know that he didn’t have blind access to everything after a single log-in. She was disappointed that there was a way around the two-step authentication process. Then again, being able to get through that with an answer about ice cream was potentially saving their lives.
Their.
Plural.
Her and the baby.
It was crazy how fast her thinking was changing. Like she’d been absorbed into a team or something.
“How much longer?” the group’s leader demanded. His patience was beginning to wear thin.
“I’m getting closer. Want to watch?” She glanced up at him standing in the doorway.
“No.” He turned and stalked out of sight.
She kept at it.
The codes would be stored deep in their system under layers of security. She knew they changed, but not how often. With any luck, the security system had alerted Theodore to their presence. If not, she’d have to hand over the codes to her kidnappers and pray that was all they wanted.
Were the others okay?
What happened to Nolan and Melody?
The home assistant in the office chimed.
“Who did that?” One of the men asked.
“I just touched it,” someone else said.
An upbeat song began pumping through the speakers all throughout the first floor.
Was this what Theodore listened to? It sounded kind of old.
She kept plugging away, too focused to mull over her brother’s taste in music.
“Viva Las Vegas,” the singer crooned.
Las Vegas.
Her fingers froze.
The hair on her arms rose.
She swallowed and glanced at the window framing the sidewalk out front where one of her kidnappers loitered smoking a cigarette.
Yvonne stopped breathing.
Large arms wrapped around the smoker, taking the man down to the ground.
She knew those arms.
She’d woken up in them this morning.
Nolan was there.
The song was her warning.
She glanced through the door.
Four of the men were clustered around the home assistant in the living room, totally unaware of the drama unfolding outside. Any minute that conflict was coming in here and she had nowhere to run or hide. She had to be prepared to protect herself.
She reached over and grabbed the hefty, marble paper weight off the corner of Theodore’s desk and the letter opener shoved under a stack of papers. She’d been caught unaware once, never again. She could not let these men take her again.
Something or someone rammed the front door.
Yvonne slid out of her chair and to the ground.
“Incoming,” a man bellowed.
“Fucking hell,” the leader snarled.
She felt the pounding of his footsteps against her knees.
He would not take her.
The man rounded the desk, his eyes full of rage. He reached for her. She didn’t think. She reacted.
Yvonne swung her left hand, hefting the paperweight. She connected with the side of the man’s head. He staggered sideways and went to a knee.
Adrenaline surged in her. She jabbed with her right hand. It was just a letter opener, but she wanted to stop him. A bit of her wanted him to feel the same pain she’d felt.
“Bitch,” he snarled and struck out.
Something cold and hard hit the tender side of her head and Yvonne’s world went black.
NOLAN HAULED BACK AND with Vaughn at his side they kicked the front door to the condo open together.
Riley darted past them, gun up, and fired, laying down cover.
The patio doors were shattered and Nolan caught a glimpse of Brenden and Grant at the rear of the house.
The office.
Nolan stepped in and whirled to his right, just in time to see a masked man send Yvonne to the floor. She lay crumpled in a heap, not moving.
“No,” Nolan snarled.
He lifted his gun and fired, once, twice. The bullets went wide, sinking into the back wall. He rushed the desk, vaulting over it and kicking out at the man. He landed between the man and Yvonne, swinging his left fist, forcing the man back another step.
Nolan fired once. Then again and again. Three shots, close range.
The masked man hit the wall and went down. Nolan closed in, gun up and secured one wrist then the other before checking for wounds.
A vest protected the man’s vital organs.
He’d live to face a jury for these crimes.
Nolan wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
“Vee?” He turned his head and everything else ceased to matter.
She lay where she’d fallen.
“Vee!”
“What’s wrong?” Grant stepped into the doorway, gun pointed out of view, but otherwise calm.
Nolan went to a knee next to Yvonne and felt for a pulse. It was strong and steady. He shifted her to lie on her back so he could get a proper look at her injuries.
The knot on her head was bigger than it looked in the video. From how she lay, he was willing to bet she’d been hit in the same spot again.
Concussion? Whiplash?
“Vee? Vee, babe.” Nolan cupped her cheeks and whispered her name.
Sirens wailed.
“House secure,” Riley called out.
Nolan stroked Yvonne’s cheeks and willed her to come back to him.
As if on cue she groaned, her face twisted into a mask of pain.
“Sh. Sh. Babe, you’re okay. Don’t move.”
Her eyes popped open. Her irises were too large and her gaze wandered over his face as though she couldn’t focus on him, but she was there.
“You came,” she muttered.
“Of course I did. I told you I’d find you.”
Her hand covered his, and she sighed.
More voices yelled. Nolan peered up at Grant directing officers.
“I need a medic in here,” Nolan yelled.
Moments later two paramedics stepped into the room. They glanced at the prisoner than
them.
“Get over here,” he snarled at the two men.
The older of the two men snapped to action, crowding Nolan out of the way and going to a knee. “What’s her condition?”
“She was kidnapped. We know she was electrocuted.” Nolan smoothed hair off her forehead.
Yvonne’s gaze was on his face.
“She’s also pregnant.”
Her mouth went open, eyes wide.
Yeah, they’d have to talk about that later.
“I need you to move,” the man said.
Nolan didn’t want to leave her, but she needed the paramedics more.
Another pair of medics crouched over the downed man Nolan had restrained staring at the now prone man.
A knife stuck out of his stomach.
Yvonne?
Had she fought back?
Damn that woman just kept surprising him.
Nolan hung back, watching Yvonne get secured to a board then lifted over the desk before they set her on a gurney. His role in this was as her protector. There would be time for everything else later.
Cops passed him by. They hardly seemed to recognize his presence.
“Hey.” Grant came to stand next to him. “Krieger’s lawyers just got here. We’re clearing out, heading back to the hotel.”
Nolan rocked forward for a better look at Yvonne being carefully slid into the ambulance.
Grant shoved at his shoulder. “You going with her or what?”
“What?”
“Go,” Grant snapped. “Before I tell you otherwise. Keys? Gun?”
Nolan reached in his pocket and tossed the keys at Grant then his firearms. He couldn’t take those to a hospital and he was sure as hell going to stick close to Yvonne.
“Check in later, but turn your comm off, you hear me?” Grant called after him.
Nolan jogged out of the house and bolted toward the ambulance.
The older paramedic waved him over. “You Nolan? She’s asking for a Nolan.”
“That’s me.” Nolan leapt up into the truck.
The younger man pressed a stethoscope to Yvonne’s stomach.
Nolan reached up and gripped the edge of the truck. His gaze locked with Yvonne’s. Fear tinged her eyes and lined her brow. Every time he’d seen that look, he assumed it was because of whatever bullshit her family was doing. Now he knew.
“I’ve got a strong heartbeat.” The man glanced at him. “Nolan?”
“Yeah.” Nolan had to force that word out.
“What’s your relation—”
“I’m her husband,” he said without hesitation. It was a lie, but Nolan wasn’t going to allow anyone to come between him and Yvonne.
“Okay. We’ve got to check out a few others, then we’ll head out.” The younger paramedic got to his feet then joined the other man outside.
Yvonne smoothed the sweatshirt down over her stomach and didn’t look at him.
She was safe.
He could check that off.
Now, what the hell did he do?
Nolan needed to touch her. Hold her if she would allow him. The moment he’d known she’d be taken from him was the worst one of his life right after he’d realized both she and their child were at risk of being killed.
He side-stepped to the rolling chair the paramedic had vacated at Yvonne’s side and sank into it. Her hand was cool to the touch, a little sweaty, but he didn’t mind. He wrapped his finger around her palm and lifted it to kiss each knuckle.
Yvonne was safe.
“He said there was a heartbeat. Does—is the baby okay?” Nolan’s throat tightened up until it was hard to speak.
“I don’t know. I guess so?”
“It sounded like a good thing.” He pressed her knuckles to his cheek and turned his head to look at her. “We could do with more good today, huh?”
Tears pooled in her eyes.
“Hey. No. Don’t do that.” He grabbed something that looked like a tissue out of a box on the wall and swiped at her cheeks. “You’re safe.”
“You know?”
“Know what?”
“That I-I’m—I’m...”
“Pregnant?” Fuck that word was scary. “Melody told us.”
“I was going to tell you. I swear. But everything—it all kept happening. There wasn’t a good time. We had too much to deal with.” Her pupils contracted, and she stared at him, those fear lines deeper now.
She’d shouldered this realization on her own, all while trying to do what she needed to for everyone else. She was a damn super woman in his book. Half the shit she’d handled would have broken a lesser woman.
“Hey? Hey.” He dared to reach over and cup her cheek. “Right now all that matters is that you’re safe, baby’s okay, and you’re going to get better. Understand me?”
She nodded.
“Good.”
He leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.
The paramedics returned and everything became a blur. Nolan was pushed to one side while they made the drive to the hospital. She even gave her name to the paramedics as Yvonne Thompson. The sound of those two words together had Nolan’s gut clenching. He hadn’t recovered by the time they wheeled Yvonne out of the ambulance and into the hospital, leaving Nolan standing on the sidewalk.
What the hell was he doing? Him? A dad?
He and Yvonne had something special, but this was a lot to take in.
Nolan had never counted on a family. It was a future he wasn’t sure fit him, what with his history. He hadn’t exactly had great role models when it came to parenting.
His phone vibrated, and he pulled it out.
Vaughn.
Probably checking in.
“Yeah?” Nolan’s voice was thick, the single word unwieldy.
“How is she?”
“They just took her back.”
“The baby?”
“Not sure. Strong heartbeat. Don’t really know what that means.”
“I hope the kid takes after her. If it looks like you, I’m sorry.”
Nolan dragged a hand over his face.
A kid.
“You there?” Vaughn asked.
“Yeah.”
His voice went hard under the jovial tone. “You aren’t chickening out on her, are you? Because this is at least half your doing.”
“I can’t be a dad,” Nolan blurted out.
“The fuck you can. You did this. You can’t bail.”
“I wouldn’t. I just—”
“I will kick your fucking ass, Thompson. You understand me?”
And Nolan would let him.
“You don’t get to wimp out now,” Vaughn kept going, thoroughly worked up now. “You and me, we know what it’s like to have shit dads. It’s your fucking duty to do better.”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t be a dad? Bullshit.” Scorn dripped from Vaughn’s words.
Panic welled up in Nolan. “I don’t even know if she wants it. What if...”
The future was complicated. Unknown. Scary.
Deep down a spark of hope lit the inner darkness of Nolan’s mind. He didn’t want to give Yvonne up, no matter if it was just her or her and the baby. He wanted them both in his life as much as it terrified him.
SATURDAY. THE MADISON, Washington, DC.
Samuel was going to pull this off.
He checked his reflection in the mirror, ensuring the stack of towels concealed his gun.
The men already upstairs had confirmed that there were only two cops on the floor where the family was staying.
This would work.
“Everyone is in position,” Karuki said.
“On the move,” Samuel whispered and headed out of the staff area and toward the service elevator.
The remaining team echoed Samuel’s comment.
In five minutes they’d all converged on the all. Two wrangled a maid trolley. One had a luggage cart.
The two cops sat outside the suite, looking at their phones.
Too easy.
“Now,” Samuel whispered.
He dropped the towels and lifted the gun.
Two shots rang out from behind him, the bullets hitting their targets. Both cops toppled over. The silencers made the shots quieter, but there was no mistaking the sound to the trained ear.
Samuel reached the suite door, knelt and pulled a keycard from the officer’s pocket. He handed it to the other men then flattened himself to the wall and watched the four men rush through the door.
A woman screamed.
Glass shattered.
It was over in moments.
Samuel pushed off the wall and stepped into the room.
Four Kriegers and a woman he didn’t recognize.
One daughter was missing, but that wasn’t the Krieger he was concerned about. He had his prize, now he just needed the drone video and all of this could go away.
SATURDAY. PRIVATE RECOVERY Facility, Bethesda, MD.
Yvonne was both exhausted and wired all at once. Physically she was sore, aching, worn out, but her mind was still twisted around the day. She hooked her fingers together and stared down at the plush blanket draped over her lap.
This talk with Nolan, the one about the baby, she wanted it over with already. The sooner she knew where he stood, the sooner her heart and mind could decide what she felt.
They’d told the people at the hospital she was his wife. The stolen moments between doctors hadn’t been the right time to discuss anything. Mostly they’d sat in silence, his hand wrapped around hers, waiting for the next doctor or specialist.
Yvonne had a concussion, minor whiplash and bruising.
The baby was fine.
Where was Nolan?
The family lawyers had arranged for Yvonne to be moved to a private recovery facility in the hopes that it would be both safer and private. The aim was still to keep them out of the news, so here she was, shuffled off to a luxurious prison. To her knowledge, no one had passed along the news of her pregnancy.
Had Nolan left now that she was tucked in? How did she begin to talk to him about the future? Did he care about her plans?
The room phone next to her bed rang, breaking the silence. She jumped then glared at the offending piece of technology.
Was it Mom again calling to make sure Yvonne didn’t speak to anyone? Or maybe Theodore? It could always be Dad. Or even Melody to tell her that Nolan was gone.
Dangerously Involved Page 25
