by Tawny Weber
“They worked, sure. But we were pretty much done here anyway. The restaurant, it served its purpose and let us wash a lot of money. Enough that we were already winding things up, closing up shop and all that. Just a few loose ends to tie before we’re done. You’re one of them.” She pointed her beer bottle at Lila. “We can’t have anyone linking us to criminal activity, if you know what I mean. Garcia, he’s not big on moving so he’ll stick around here. Which means we can’t just pick up and go. Not until we squeeze every detail out of you that you know.”
“Squeeze?”
“Garcia, he’s got a weak stomach. You should have seen his face when I made him help me clean up the mess my guys left after hauling Rodriguez’s dead ass out of that office. But me? I’m good at the torture thing. Knives are my specialty, but I’m not adverse to using fire.”
For the first time, the woman’s evil showed through her bubbly cheer.
Terror coated Lila’s vision with a greasy black film. She had to blink a few times before she could focus past it to Dory’s cheerful face.
“And then?” she finally asked.
“You mean after we get that info from you and finish everything?” Dory shrugged. “Then Garcia wants to kill you.”
* * *
“Recon reports that Lila is being held in an apartment building across from the Apartamentos Blancos. Body heat monitors indicate two hostiles in the apartment with Lila being held in the kitchen.”
“Weapons?” Travis asked, checking his own handgun before adding another two magazines to his belt.
“Both hostiles are armed. Two pistols and an automatic rifle, with knives on the premises.”
“Accessibility to the apartment, specifically the kitchen?”
Lucas pulled a sketch out of his pocket and handed it to Travis. One side of the paper indicating the building, the block and streets with access points and sniper nests clearly marked. The other side was a detailed drawing of the apartment, Lila’s location designated with a star. The op was outlined in the margins, along with two backup plans.
“The local cops have been apprised?” Travis asked, gesturing with the sketch.
“They won’t be integral to this operation, but they’ve been informed.”
“Montoya must have loved that,” he said with a derisive shake of his head.
“His focus, his priority, was on breaking the money laundering ring,” Lucas mused. “Protect the locals, to hell with the tourists.”
“He used Lila as bait to break that ring,” Travis pointed out.
From the look on Lucas’s face, that was news to him. Not good news, either. The man’s nod made it clear he’d be dealing with that issue at a later date. Travis wanted to be there when it happened. Hell, he wanted to eat popcorn and watch.
“Let’s get this started.” Was all he said, though. Adrenaline sparked and sizzled in his system, fueled by fear and fury.
Once they were in place in the apartment directly above Rodriguez’s and the men had synchronized their watches, Lucas leaned against the wall, his forearm resting above his head, and watched from above while Travis used the laser drill to cut a small hole in the floor.
He waited until Travis had threaded the optical wire through the hole, then attached their end to a handheld computer. They did it again toward the back of the apartment above what was supposed to be Rodriguez’s kitchen. As soon as the wire was fed, Travis ran the electrical. Within three minutes of stepping into the upstairs apartment, they had eyes below.
Each taking a cell-phone-sized monitor, they silently studied the layout. Parker had two goons with her in the living area. One of them cleaned a hunting knife, and the other sat on the couch watching TV while the bartender talked on her cell phone. Since they hadn’t drilled for sound, Travis couldn’t tell what she was saying. But she didn’t look happy about it.
A slide of his thumb over the monitor brought up the kitchen view. Lila was tied to a table weighted down with a tube TV, an ancient microwave and a stack of cast iron pans. Plenty heavy enough that she couldn’t lift it enough to slide her hands free.
Gripping the monitor so hard his knuckles showed white, Travis watched Lila struggle to free her hands from behind her back. Every few seconds she angled a look toward the door and stopped as if to listen. Then she’d resume her struggle.
The black wave of fury surged, coating his vision and burning his gut. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to move past it. To focus on the goal: get Lila out and get her out safely.
He could be as pissed as he wanted once she was free.
He wanted to dive into that room and get her out of there. Now. But the orders were to wait until all of Parker’s associates had been rounded up. So after tamping down the fury and impatience, Travis adjusted the feed. He checked it again, then gave Lucas a satisfied nod and they both left the room.
They were halfway down the hallway toward the stairs when Lucas spoke again. “I’d heard you were good. Nice to know I heard right.”
Travis wasn’t surprised that the lieutenant had ran his credentials. It’d be stupid to bring a man onto his team without a thorough vetting.
“After I checked your service record, I talked to your former teammates. Looked at the details of your medical discharge.”
Travis frowned.
“Some would say going that deep was pretty damned invasive.”
“Would you say that?”
Travis took the time to dig beneath the remark and remember that the guy was looking out for his sister. The insult was still there, but understanding made him shrug.
“Family comes first, man,” was all he said.
“I heard that somewhere,” Lucas muttered as they reached the end of Rodriguez’s hallway. Travis held his silence until they shut the door of the apartment Montoya had commandeered for them across from Rodriguez’s. “But this was for something else.”
“If not out of concern for your sister, why’d you run me?” he asked as soon as the door closed. He figured that was a more relevant question than asking what the hell was wrong with their family.
“I’m interested in plans now that you’re out of the military.”
“I’ve got a hammock on the beach waiting.” Travis checked his watch. Montoya’s wishes or not, he was going after Lila in three minutes.
“You’re going to get bored swinging on a hammock,” Lucas stated, his green eyes narrowed in concentration. “You need a challenge. Something that will maximize your skills and talents.”
“Medical discharge,” Travis reminded him. No point in expanding, since those words said it all.
“Irrelevant,” Lucas dismissed.
That got his attention. “What are you talking about?”
“We’ll discuss it after,” Lucas said, glancing at his monitor. For a brief second, worry as intense as Travis’s showed in his eyes. Then, in a blink, it was gone. “But I’ve got another question.”
“About the op?”
“Nope. I figure you’ve got that covered. I’m just along for the ride.”
Another test? Travis added punching Lucas in the face to his list of things to do after Lila was safe.
“Fine. What’s the question?”
His hands hooked in the pockets of his jeans, Lucas arched one brow and rocked back on his heels.
“I’ve got a pretty good handle on your prospects. But let’s just clarify what your intentions are regarding my little sister.”
Sure he hadn’t heard that correctly, Travis asked, “I beg your pardon?”
“You and my sister. What’re your plans there?”
Shit. He had heard Lucas right. Travis blew out a long breath and gave serous thought to jumping in front of the bad guys. It’d be easier to take a bullet than face that particular question. Mostly because he had no idea what the answer was.
“Wha
t’s this?” he asked, hedging. “Are you standing in for your father?”
“Hell, no.” Lucas sneered. “If he actually deigned to show interest in Lila’s personal life, he wouldn’t even give you a glance. You’re not worthy.”
“You say that like it’s a good thing.”
“If he thought you were worthy, I’d be doing my damnedest to run you off.” Lucas angled his head to check out the window. “No way I want some uptight, pretentious ass with more money than skills for a brother-in-law.”
A frisson of terror did a greasy dance down Travis’s spine. Brother-in-law? Was the guy crazy?
First, no matter what Lucas thought, he had no prospects. He was a destitute-by-Adrian-standards, broken-down former SEAL.
Second, he had no career, no home, no actual clue what to do with his future. And as much as he appreciated Lila’s career and independence, he’d never go into a relationship unless it was as an equal.
And third, people getting married should be in love. He wasn’t...
Travis rubbed both hands over his face, realizing he couldn’t deny his feelings for the sexy little blonde. But that didn’t mean she felt the same. And even if she did, love didn’t make up for the rest of it.
No. No matter how appealing the idea might be somewhere in his heart, he would never be Lieutenant Lucas Adrian’s brother-in-law.
But he couldn’t tell the guy that.
So he did the only thing possible.
He focused on the op.
And on getting Lila out alive.
Nothing else mattered.
* * *
“Well, well.” Dory shut off her cell phone as she stepped into the kitchen and gave Lila a look that sparked with fury. “Looks like you really are trouble.”
Her heart shaking so hard in her chest, she was surprised it didn’t just fall out. Lila tried to bluff.
“How is that possible?” She shook her hands, the table rattling against the grimy linoleum tiles. “I’ve been right here.”
“Turns out you’re a big deal,” Dory said, scowling. She checked her phone again, thumb scrolling fast before she gave Lila an assessing look. “Or should I say, your family is.”
Lila’s heart jumped. They knew who she was now. Was that good? Ransom meant they’d keep her alive. Alive and listening to her father crow I told you so was better than dead.
“So you’re going to ask for ransom?”
“Garcia is. He’s all sorts of excited.” Dory rolled her eyes. “He actually thinks he can hold you here without anyone figuring it out, extort a whole pile of money from your family without them tracking down who’s behind it, and then make the switch without getting caught.”
Relief surged through Lila in such a rush it left her dizzy. She’d face a lifetime of her father saying I told you so if it meant getting out of this alive.
Then she got a good look at Dory’s face.
“You don’t seem to have much confidence in Garcia’s plan.”
“The guy is an idiot. There’s no way he’s not going to get caught.”
Her mind racing, Lila waited for more. But Dory was focused on whatever she was typing on her phone. She typed, swiped, muttered and typed some more. Finally, she tucked it into the front pocket of her jeans and gave Lila a smile.
“Sorry about that,” the bartender said with that way-too-friendly-for-a-criminal smile. “I had a few arrangements to make.”
“Arrangements for me?”
“Nope. I have everything I need to deal with you here already.”
“What were you arranging, then?” Lila’s eyes shot around the room, desperately searching for answers.
“I had to book a flight, transfer funds, stuff like that. I’m actually going to clear out a little early.” Yanking open a drawer, Dory grabbed a slim notebook and shoved it into her back pocket, then pulled out a gun. Lila wasn’t a weapons expert, but she knew enough to be sure that one could kill her really fast.
“But first, I need to deal with you.”
Her eyes burning with unshed tears, Lila watched as Dory checked the gun for bullets. Her gaze locked on Lila, and with a nasty half smile on her face, Dory started to aim the gun.
A scream tickling Lila’s throat, she wrenched her arms as hard as she could. Her heart exploded with terror so loud it sounded like a crash.
It wasn’t until Dory’s expression changed that Lila realized something actually had crashed in the apartment.
“What the—” Dory spun, running into the other room.
Travis?
Lila sagged, her head falling back against the table as relief poured through her with the intensity of a waterfall.
Travis was here to save her.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out in a loud blast that echoed through the room, making her ears ring. Dizzy with fear, Lila pulled with all her might against the table leg until she heard it crack, then shoved to her feet, yanking as hard as she could. The table leg splintered, the top crashing under the impetus of everything weighing it down.
She jerked her hands free of the table leg, then stepped one foot at a time through her arms so her hands were in front instead of behind her. They were still bound, but at least she had a tiny chance to defend herself this way.
She started for the door when more crashes boomed out, like someone hit a wall, then came the sound of furniture breaking. She looked around for a weapon, grabbing one of the big, sharp professional knives off the magnetic strip on the wall. Hefting it in both hands, she held the knife, point out, in front of her and angled herself against the wall next to the door.
“Everybody down.”
That was Travis’s voice.
Lila sagged with relief, but didn’t lower the knife.
Not yet.
* * *
“C’mon, Lila,” Lucas said, wrapping an arm around his sister and half carrying her as they headed out the splintered kitchen door. “Let’s get you away from this.”
“Travis—”
“He’ll be fine. I swear,” Lucas promised when she tried to yank away and go to see for herself. “He’s fine.”
Lucas guided her out of the kitchen, blocking her from the view of the still cussing Dory and her goon, a lump of a guy with a contusion on his forehead and a bruised jaw.
And Travis.
Lila strained in her brother’s arms, trying to look around his broad shoulders to see Travis. Why wasn’t he escorting her?
“I want to talk with Travis,” she insisted.
“He’s handling the takedown. Let him have this, Lila. He deserves it.”
Okay.
He did.
For so many reasons.
But she still wanted to touch him. To feel him.
To thank him.
But Lucas wouldn’t let go; he kept murmuring that she was safe. It took a couple minutes of that before Lila realized he was saying it to himself as much as to her.
By the time they reached the hotel, she was saying it, too. And, for the first time since her teens, she was laughing with her brother.
Her giddy joy faded the second they walked into the hotel lobby and she saw the suit-clad security detail. And her father.
At the sound of the doors closing, Wayne Adrian stopped midpace and turned. She felt Lucas stiffen at the same time she did.
“Hello, Father,” Lila said from the protective security of her brother’s arms. “Is this where you say, ‘I told you so’?”
His face gray, his expression more haggard than she’d ever seen, her father only shook his head.
She barely bit back a scream when he lunged. Then had to lock her knees to keep her legs from buckling from shock when he wrapped his arms around her.
It’d been a pretty crappy day, so Lila would be the first to admit that her brains might be a little scrambled. But
as far as she could remember, this was the first hug her father had ever given her. After a couple of hesitant tries, she managed to give him a half hug, half pat on the back in return.
“I really am fine,” she assured soothingly. “Everything’s okay.”
“You could have died. You would have died. If not for Lucas and the team he put together, those criminals would have killed you.”
Her spine automatically stiffening at the praise for Lucas—because of course, he was so perfect and always did everything right—Lila gritted her teeth to keep from snapping an apology for getting herself kidnapped.
Then she remembered that she had, indeed, got herself kidnapped. And that without Travis—and, of course, Lucas—she probably would be dead. So instead of putting on her bitch face—the one she always wore around her family—she rested her cheek against her father’s chest and, in another first, simply fell apart.
Saying nothing, he led her away. Lila was vaguely aware of the elevator, even more shakily aware of a large hotel room. But mostly all she knew was her father’s scent and the unfamiliar feel of his arms.
She didn’t know how long she cried, she just knew she couldn’t stop. Her breath came in jagged bursts, pain tying greasy knots in her stomach. She bawled with the abandon of a two-year-old and the ripping pain of a newly widowed bride.
She didn’t know how long she purged the fear, but by the time she’d stopped, her brother was missing and the security team was on the doors instead of huddled around her.
“Go wash your face,” her father ordered in a gruff tone, patting her on the back. “I’ll call up for some tea and crackers. That’ll settle your stomach. And your favorite meal is waiting on the plane.”
Lila gave a shaky smile of thanks before stumbling into the well-appointed bathroom. She looked at the array of toiletries laid out on the marble counter through swollen eyes, not surprised to see that he’d thought of everything. That he knew her favorite brands both soothed and amazed as Lila wet a cloth with cold water and held it over her face. It took a good twenty minutes before she was satisfied that she’d released all evidence of her meltdown, and looked good enough to apologize to Travis.