Silver Shield Security Box Set

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “Need some air, man,” he said to no one in particular and went out.

  Nico turned to Tamika. She’d been quiet since Cruz left, which was a couple of hours ago. He glanced at the others and saw that they had joined the card game and were preoccupied. He shifted his attention back to the woman by his side.

  “I’m sorry,” he said simply.

  She turned and looked at him then and Nico felt his heart drop at the emptiness he saw in hers.

  “Why?”

  He searched for the right words to use, but in the end he opted for the truth. “I did not want you involved in this.”

  “Would it have made a difference if Drew had been your bodyguard?”

  Nico had never felt so helpless in his life. He didn’t know how to answer without digging himself into a hole. He wanted to tell her that he did not care about Drew the way he cared about her, but he knew how she would interpret it.

  “You’re here because of me.” He tried to make her see things from his point of view.

  “No! I’m here because I am a special operator with Silver Shield Security,” she retorted in a fierce whisper. “I’m here because my teammates trust me to get us out of this.”

  “Tamika…”

  “You, Nico Ortega, did not trust me.”

  “That’s not true,” he protested.

  “The hell it isn’t.” She looked away and when she looked back, there were tears in her eyes.

  Nico went weak at the knees. He had to find a way to fix this.

  “Tamika, please.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t do this, Nico.”

  “What are you saying?” His voice was hoarse, but he didn’t care.

  “I can’t be in love with someone who does not trust me,” she said sadly.

  But it was the tone of finality that got to him and made him start to panic. He stared at the floor in a daze. She was in love with him? At that moment, he vowed that he was going to make it out. He was going to convince her to give him another chance, even if it took him the rest of his life.

  Chapter Thirty

  2:38 a.m. Thursday Morning

  “We have no idea where they are. How could this happen?” Emily said as she paced up and down the living room of the safe house.

  The tension that filled the air was thick enough to slice with a knife. Keisha had her arms wrapped around her body, her eyes were filled with tears. Her baby was soundly asleep in the room they’d assigned to them and it was wonderful having her daughter in her arms again. But did such happiness have to come at the risk of losing the sister she’d just found?

  Both Nico and Tamika had been missing for sixteen hours. Tamika’s watch was found at the spot where Drew had dropped her earlier in the day.

  “We need to file a missing person’s report,” Ryan said.

  “The cops don’t like to get involved with the goings on in the hood,” Keisha said sadly.

  “But the missing person is Nico Ortega, CEO of Blue Silk Enterprises. He is a person of interest,” Ryan pointed out.

  “It might be worth a shot,” Rusty conceded.

  “No.”

  They turned to the man who had been silently staring out the window all the while.

  “What are you saying, Alex?” Emily asked.

  Keisha knew him, of course. He was Alex Orlov, Nico’s brother.

  “We can’t involve the police in this, not just yet.”

  “Is this because of your shares? Because I think that’s just bullshit!” Rusty said, getting to his feet.

  Alex turned to face him, “Yeah, it will affect our shares to know the CEO has been abducted,” he said with a nod.

  Keisha gasped. The cold-hearted bastard! She’d thought Nico was the cold-hearted one—she couldn’t believe Alex had a cash register for a heart. He was more concerned about their company shares? Over his brother’s life?

  “But, if the news gets out, and it will, it might spook the abductors. They’ll have no reason to keep them alive.”

  Keisha’s outrage subsided as did everyone else’s.

  “He’s right,” Drew said quietly. What he did not say was what everyone else was thinking; that they had no way of knowing if they were still alive.

  “I don’t understand why we’ve heard nothing from the guys in the field,” Emily said.

  They had their special operators out in the Bronx looking for Tamika and Drew, but so far they’d turned up nothing. It was almost as though they’d vanished into thin air.

  “They’re still alive,” Alex said thoughtfully.

  “How do you know?” Keisha asked.

  “Would you believe me if I said I feel it here?” He touched his chest with a wry smile, then the smile vanished. “From what Nico told me when he came for the cash, there’s someone inside Blue Silk who is orchestrating this.”

  They all nodded their agreement.

  “I don’t think it’s Uncle Ivan, although that man has had it in for Nico from the first day Mom brought him home.”

  “Do you have any idea why?” Emily asked.

  Alex curled his lips in distaste. “It seems Nico’s blood wasn’t pure enough for good old Uncle Ivan.”

  Keisha was surprised to feel herself outraged on Nico’s behalf. What a thing for a child to have to put up with.

  “How are you sure he’s not behind this then?” Drew asked.

  “Mostly because he does not have the intelligence to pull this off. I think his obvious hatred for Nico made him as much a victim as Nico was.”

  Keisha snorted, “Some victim.”

  Alex looked at her and smiled genuinely. “Right?” He got that she was upset on Nico’s behalf and his smile said he appreciated it. “There’s something else at stake and I’ll get to know what at the shareholder’s meeting tomorrow. Did you remember to place the fake plans in the safe like I said?”

  She nodded. Just before she’d closed the safe, she had pushed in an exact replica of the plans. Emily had given them to her saying they were from Alex.

  “Someone is after Nico’s position. If Nico is declared dead before this person is named the new CEO, then we’ll have to wait a month or two before naming a new CEO. But if Nico is discredited, then the change can happen immediately,” he explained.

  “We have twenty-four hours to find them and get them out,” Emily said in a grim voice. “Failure is not an option.

  **

  The next morning, Cruz Fuentes went to the small room he used as an office. He did not have time to kill, he had to meet the man in half an hour. He reached down to the safe, put in the combination and opened it. He frowned.

  The stash of cash was missing a few wads. He paused to think back. Had he taken some money out without realizing it? It seemed unlikely. He examined the lock. Everything was intact. There was no break-in. There was only one person he knew who could have broken into his safe and she was safely tied up in a warehouse not too far away.

  Oh well, he didn’t have time to worry about that. He was five million dollars richer and about to receive two hundred and fifty gees more. He grabbed the plans from the safe, then placed the fresh stack of notes in there and locked it up.

  He dropped the plans on the table and rubbed his hands. He was on his way out. It occurred to him then that he could get five million more. Nico had a brother who would be willing to cough up the amount in order to get his brother back.

  He placed his hand on his chin as he thought about the possibility. Ten million would go a lot farther than five. He smiled at how brilliant he was. With ten million, he could even let the bastard live. He figured that was more than enough payment for his sister’s life and that way, he wouldn’t have the cops after him for murder.

  Feeling confident, he strode out of the room.

  “Hey, Ma, I’m off!” he yelled.

  There was no response. He frowned. The house was strangely silent. He’d returned late the night before and had figured his mom and daughter had gone to bed.

  He walked
to his daughter’s room to investigate. Her bed was rumpled. He found her favorite blanket on the floor. Her clothes were scattered all over the place.

  “What the hell!” He glanced at the disaster around him and swore again. His mother was going to drive him crazy someday. How hard could it be to look after one small child?

  He stalked to her room. “Mama, what the hell did you do to Mira’s room?” he shouted. When there was no response, he pushed open her door. There was no one inside.

  What the fuck?

  He didn’t have time for this nonsense. He had two hundred and fifty grand with his name on it. He flipped the collar of his coat till it was standing up and walked out to the living room. Five of his men were seated there waiting for him. They got to their feet immediately. He walked out the door without pausing and they fell in line behind him.

  As he stepped out, the men that were hanging outside on the front porch joined them and formed a ring around him. He loved going around like that. It intimidated his opponents. If that suit-wearing asshole thought he could double-cross him, one look at the men around him should change his mind.

  **

  Janey got off the phone with Drew and buried her head on her arms as she sobbed. She could not believe Tamika had gone missing. She loved that woman and she could not bear for anything to have happened to her.

  She got up and paced the house she’d purchased with Drew. Her heart ached. She felt so useless just sitting there waiting to hear news about the best friend she had, after Drew of course. She felt guilty that they hadn’t spoken in a while. She should have kept in touch with her. Called her more. Found out what was going on with her.

  God, she was an abject failure as a friend.

  She spent the morning walking round the house, thinking hard. She put a call to the manager of their restaurant, letting him know she would not be in that day.

  “How hard can it be to find two people in the Bronx?” she wondered aloud.

  She had never been to New York City, but it couldn’t be that much different from any major city in the US, could it? It certainly couldn’t be worse than Chicago. Surely, two human beings couldn’t go missing without a trace, could they?

  It was around midday when an idea suddenly occurred to her. She rushed to the phone and called a number she had on speed dial.

  “Janey, honey, how are you doing, girlfriend?”

  Hearing the warm voice at the other end, Janey smiled. “Not so good.”

  “What’s the matter? Talk to Maria.”

  So Janey told her friend about all that had happened. The missing plans, the blackmail by the man named Cruz Fuentes and the disappearance of both Nico Ortega and Tamika White.

  “Oh, honey, that’s bad. We need to do something,” came the voice full of concern.

  “That’s why I’m calling. I was hoping you could talk to Slim?” She held her breath as she waited for a reply.

  “Hmm. My brother’s in control of the Chicago mafia, but don’t worry. My cousin Mateo is a huge deal over in New York. He might be able to help. Let me get back to you about this, honey.”

  Janey thanked her and ended the call. She had no idea if she’d done the right thing, but she was thankful for her friendship with Maria Vitale, the widow of the man who had been after her life just a few short months ago.

  “Well, it’s done now,” she said to herself. She placed a hand on her belly, trying to hold in the butterflies as she waited to hear more news about Tamika.

  **

  7:00 am. Friday Morning

  Tamika was weak from hunger. Her wrists ached and she was beginning to have a headache. They had been tied up on the floor of the warehouse for two days straight and she was exhausted. After she’d bitched at them several times, they’d finally relented and given them water to drink. Unfortunately, they hadn’t untied them as she’d hoped.

  She sighed and glanced at Nico. The swelling on his face had gone down and he was left with purplish bruises. They looked ugly. Probably as ugly as the bruises on her own face, she figured.

  He’d been trying to talk to her for several hours and had finally given up when she continued to ignore him. It was bad enough that she’d told him she loved him. At the end of this she wanted to walk out with her dignity intact.

  She saw the way he was drooping and knew they could not take much more of this. She was still fine. It was nothing compared to the month she’d spent as a prisoner of war while she’d been in the army. But that had been years ago, and she was beginning to feel the effect of sitting in the same position for so long.

  She needed to cut them loose. But even if she did, escape was going to be a problem. She didn’t see how they would come out alive. She’d managed to step out twice, yelling at them that she wanted to pee. She’d been taken outside with an armed escort and she’d seen the place crawling with Cruz’s men. They were everywhere. Escape was futile, they would not get very far the way things stood. What they needed was a distraction.

  “Do you have your phone on you?” she suddenly asked.

  Nico lifted his head and gazed at her. Her heart ached at the bleakness she read on his face.

  “Yeah.”

  “Is it on?” If it was her teammates would have located them.

  Nico shook his head.

  “Where is it?”

  “In my pocket,” he said, nodding towards his right hand side.

  They were speaking in whispers. Even though there were several feet between the men guarding them and where they were, they could not take the risk of being overheard.

  Tamika shifted till she was sitting at an angle where she could reach into his pocket and bring out his phone. It took some doing, but she finally got hold of it. Once she had it in her hand, Nico shifted a bit so that they shielded the phone from the gaze of anyone looking at them.

  The lights in the warehouse were not very bright, but the light from the phone would have given them away.

  Surreptitiously, Tamika turned on the phone. Nico coughed at the same time the phone came on, covering up the sound that came from the phone. Once it was on, she slipped it back into his pocket.

  She hoped it would lead her teammates to them. All she needed was a distraction and she would get them out.

  Wearily, she leaned against Nico, welcoming the feel of his hard body. She felt comforted by him in a way she could not explain. She decided that a light doze would help her keep her strength up.

  Help came in totally unexpected quarters.

  She’d barely shut her eyes when she heard a ruckus. Opening her eyes, she saw Cruz Fuentes enter the warehouse in his usual flamboyant style.

  “Aw, how cozy. You two look fuckin’ cute together,” he said on a laugh.

  “Fuentes, I see you didn’t outgrow that horse’s laugh you have,” Nico said in amusement.

  Tamika snorted because Nico was so right. Cruz laughed like a damn horse.

  “Very funny, Ortega. Keep up the shit and I’ll change my mind about letting you go free.”

  Tamika sat up with a frown. He was thinking of letting Nico go free? What had brought about the change?

  “How much is that going to cost me, I wonder?” Nico mused dryly.

  “Oh, not much, just an extra five million dollars.”

  “Wow. You’ve become greedy, man,” Nico said in a gentle voice.

  “Well, you don’t have to worry about my greed since it’s not your pocket it’s coming from.”

  She felt Nico stiffen beside her. “Who are you stiffing this time around?”

  “Haha. Aren’t you curious?” Cruz said throwing back his head and laughing. He got his laughter under control and faced them. “There’s a man who would pay five million, more even, to get his brother back alive.”

  Tamika could feel the anger radiating off Nico. She reached out until she felt his hand. It meant she was twisted at an awkward angle, but she didn’t mind. She held his hand and squeezed. He squeezed back.

  “Well then, knock yourself out,”
he said in a bored voice.

  Ten Million dollars! It was highway robbery. Tamika fumed in silence. More determined than ever to get them out of there before the greedy crook could get his hands on any more of Nico’s money.

  Just then they heard the burst of rapid gunfire outside.

  “What the fuck!” Cruz yelled.

  One of his men ran inside, “Boss, we’re under fire from the Incas!”

  Tamika swore she saw Cruz go pale. The Incas were one of the largest gangs in New York. They usually did not occupy themselves with small fries like Cruz Fuentes. She wondered what was going on, but didn’t dwell too much on it. She watched as swearing, Cruz drew his weapon and ran out of the warehouse with his men.

  Suddenly, the warehouse was quiet except for the gunfire outside. It was now or never. If they didn’t escape now, they would have a hard time doing so afterwards.

  “Nico, there’s a knife on the lapel of my shirt. Can you get it?” she said urgently.

  “If you lie down, I should be able to reach it.”

  So she lay down, and he shifted till his hands were touching her neck. He fumbled around and finally found the knife.

  “I’ve got it,” he said, his breath coming out in a huff.

  Using him as support, she raised herself to a sitting position with her back to Nico’s. She felt her hands get free as he cut the ropes. Then blood rushed to her wrist and she gritted her teeth at the pain. She did not have time to feel pain. She grabbed the knife from him and made short work of his ropes before bending to cut off the ones on her feet.

  They got to their feet hurriedly and creeped to the opening of the warehouse. She pulled off her glove and got the tiny handgun she’d hidden in there. She met Nico’s eyes and he nodded.

  It was time to make a run for it.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Thirty minutes earlier

  Alex had stormed into the Silver Shield safe house just a few minutes before. He was furious. He could not believe that greedy little bastard.

  “He asked for five million dollars more?” Emily asked thoughtfully.