by Amy McKinley
“I’ll be fine, and there is security at the hospital. I can pawn the stone then see Max. The guards will keep me safe while I’m there. Please, Hawk. I’ll be back before you even know it, and all this will go away.”
He crowded me, his pupils dilating in what looked like panic. “I’m telling you it won’t help. Not anymore. They want their pound of flesh. They’ll make you an example to your brother after they force you to give them the rest of the jewelry.”
“Ahh!” I whirled around and shoved my hair back from my face. For a few seconds, I closed my eyes, trying to regain control of my temper. “That’s never happened before, and this time will not be any different. Once they get the money, they’ll leave us alone.” I at least had to try. He didn’t know everything, nor had he been in my shoes before.
I faced him again and placed my hand flat on his chest. Dammit, he affected me. I didn’t want to do what I needed to. I softened my voice. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell Max anything about you or the rest of the team. I wouldn’t put you in any additional danger or further on their radar.”
Hawk growled and gripped my hips. “There is no way you’re walking out that door and into their hands. The stakes are even higher since they know about me and my team, Stella.”
“Nothing will happen. This is a separate issue.” Oh my God, this is killing me. I didn’t want to lie to him. I could do it. I knew I could sell the necklace in the pawnshop downstairs. I needed a hundred grand, and the piece I had was easily worth more than that. So long as I got enough money, my brother would be safe, and I would also be able to protect Hawk and the guys too. I would be back before Hawk knew I was missing. I had to try, even though the last thing I wanted to do was to hurt him or to shake the trust we had already established.
He didn’t say anything, so I dropped my forehead to his chest partly because I wanted the connection and because I didn’t want him to read anything on my face. “Okay. I understand.”
He kissed the top of my head and wrapped his arms around me. Warmth spread through me at his touch. I wanted to stay like that, but I couldn’t.
“I’m tired.” I pressed a kiss to his chest, wishing his shirt wasn’t in the way. I couldn’t look at him yet. I had to get my emotions under control. “I think I’m going to take a shower.”
“Take your time.”
His hand traced up my spine and sank into my hair. He was killing me, but I had to do what I had to do. Max was all I had left of my family, and I had to put his well-being first, even over my own needs.
Hawk tipped my head back. I closed my eyes, and his mouth brushed across mine. I opened for him, needing him. We kissed, and it was sweet and raw, but I pulled back. He let me.
I slipped from his arms and went into the bathroom. Once the water was turned on, I waited. A few minutes went by before I cracked open the door. Our room was in front of the kitchenette. There was a very slight chance I could sneak out without being seen. Leaving the shower running, I inched out of our room and to the door.
The guys were crowded around a laptop, their backs to me. It wasn’t exactly easy. I had to open the door of the suite and close it without any noise. It was my chance, and I had to take it.
I made it out of the casino without any of the guys spotting me—yet. My heart continued to protest with heightened speed. If I could get Max the money and return before they realized I was gone, I could prove to Hawk it was the right move.
The pawnshop ordeal hadn’t been fun—it killed me to part with anything of Oma’s history. But the money jammed into my jeans pocket could very well save Max’s life.
I slipped through the doors of the hospital and kept my head down. The halls smelled of antiseptic and illness. Nothing was comforting about a hospital. There was always someone moving about. I’d stopped at the patient information desk and gotten the number for Max’s room. He was on the third floor.
When the elevator doors pinged, I stepped out onto the ward, keeping my head down. A peek through my lashes showed which way his room was. I turned right and followed the arrows toward his room. The hallway forked, and I checked again, following the sign pointing to the left. Has to be down this hall.
I took a step and was jerked back. My mouth opened in a scream. A cloth slammed over my face. It was hard to breathe. I struggled, but an arm held me tightly against a body much larger than mine.
My head swam, and I took another breath through the cloth. The black dots floating in my vision multiplied.
Darkness greeted me when I awoke. My mouth felt cottony and foul, as though something had crawled in and died. It smelled of oil and gasoline. Curled in a fetal position, I was jostled around. The space felt tight and cramped. Oh shit, I’m in a trunk!
I tried to move, but my hands were bound behind me. So were my ankles. The motion of the car stopped, and I slid a little from the abrupt movement. Panic welled inside me. Will they come for me now? Is it one person, or more?
What had happened? I wracked my fuzzy brain, trying to remember. I was almost to Max’s room. So close, but not close enough. I didn’t see the guards, so his room must not have been around the corner as I’d thought.
Did they do something to my brother? Is he okay? The anxiety and anticipation of what would happen next spun out of control. Sweat broke out along my hairline, but I couldn’t wipe it away. My limbs trembled.
I heard a pop, then the trunk was opened. Light flooded the interior. I shifted my head. If they were going to kill me, I would look into their eyes. Because I would come back and haunt their asses. This is so not okay.
I went with anger. The flip side to my raging emotions was tears and terror, and I couldn’t afford that.
A shadow fell over me, and I screamed. He slapped his hand over my mouth. I tried to bite him, but he cupped his palm. My eyes went wide. He was huge. And gross. Ick. He smelled as though he rarely showered. His hair was stringy and rather long. There was a big mole on his chin that his beard didn’t quite cover. It was disgusting.
“Shut up. I won’t hurt you if you keep your damn mouth closed.”
I tried to nod with his hand clasped around my mouth. His arms slid under my legs and back. He lifted me as though I weighed nothing. In the low light, I looked around. The car was a brown sedan. We were in a run-down neighborhood.
Oomph. The world spun. He’d thrown me over his shoulder. My view was restricted to dirty jeans.
The trunk slammed shut, and his legs ate up the distance. One door opened, then another. We went down a flight of stairs. It was darker there and cold.
“You got her?”
The guy carrying me grunted.
“Throw her over there.”
What? Throw? For a brief second, I was airborne. My hip and shoulder smacked into concrete. Dust billowed around me, and I inhaled it, which resulted in a coughing fit.
A foot dug into my hip then flipped me to my back. My tethered hands hurt. The plastic zip ties bit into my wrists. No… The guy who’d made me turn over was obviously strung out.
“Why am I here? Who are you?”
He snorted. “Gag her,” drugged-out guy ordered my kidnapper.
“No!” I struggled, but kidnapper guy shoved a bandana in my mouth. Then he tied another one around my face to hold it in place. It was too tight. My eyes watered. I couldn’t think about how dirty it probably was.
Once he’d finished, Drug Guy came back. There was a clang. Then I was dragged back. He grabbed under one arm and lifted me into a metal chair. It was awkward, and I started to fall. With a hard yank on my arm, he righted me. “I bet he wants you back.”
Oh, shit. This guy is using me to get to Hawk.
“Smile pretty.” He snickered and stepped back, holding up a phone.
Fuck you. I narrowed my eyes and dropped my head. I would not make it easy for him.
After only a second, pain exploded on my scalp. My head jerked back. Drug Guy’s hand fisted the hair at the top of my head. My back arched, and I tried to get purchase wi
th my bound feet to take the pressure off, but they kept slipping.
He slammed the barrel of a gun against my temple. I whimpered. I didn’t want to die.
“Listen up, bitch. You’ll sit and like it.” His nostrils flared. “If you don’t, I’ll make sure your brother hears about it. Maybe I’ll even bring him one of your fingers.”
Where’s Max? I wanted to scream at him and make him talk. I couldn’t. The gag did its job. I thrashed again.
The cold from the metal chair seeped through my clothes. I sat there. I didn’t want him to shoot me.
Mole Guy stood next to the other one. “I’ll take the picture, Rex.”
“No,” Rex snapped.
Rex. I’d heard that name before. I would have to remember to tell Hawk if I made it out alive.
The light on his phone flashed. He’d taken my picture. I sagged a little when his gaze swung to Mole Guy. “Move her after this. They’ll come here first.”
My heart rate spiked as he stepped closer. He yanked my head back farther, and I glared into his dark, pupil-eclipsed eyes.
Spit sprayed my face as he yelled, “You heard right—I’ve got Max by the balls! He’s nothing but a bargaining chip.” His mouth moved into a sinister grin. “So are you.”
I couldn’t move. I whimpered. He took that as a yes and released me. Tears streamed down my face. Hawk was right. I should never have left.
Chapter 24
Hawk
I grabbed Jack by his black T-shirt. “Have you seen Stella?” He didn’t flinch or pull back even though wild panic coursed through me and had to have been visible.
“Not since breakfast. I’ll check in with the other guys. Maybe they have.”
I let go of him and paced the length of the room we were all occupying. Keegan was staking out the roof of the hotel and surrounding area, mapping exit strategies. We didn’t think they were aware of our presence because only one of us had checked in. The rest of us met in the back stairway to get to the room with our heads down and hats on. We stayed off the cameras as much as possible.
The argument Stella and I had in the room played back in my head in excruciating detail. I had denied her the right to sell the jewelry, which I should not have done, but my fear for her safety had been paramount in my mind, as I knew the nature of Tridel firsthand. True to the color of her hair and what I’d learned about her personality, her temper had erupted.
I’d dropped my guard when she’d rested her forehead against my chest. She’d outwardly agreed with me that we would wait, though I was skeptical even at the time. When I’d kissed her, all I could think of was how soft her lips were and how perfectly we fit together. When she’d pulled away, wanting to take a shower, I’d put our argument behind us as resolved. That was my first mistake.
When I’d heard the shower running, I went to talk to Chris to see if he’d spoken to Rich, our contact at the CIA. The favor we’d called in with him to hold off Porch Guy’s underlings, including Billy Williams, came with strings attached. Rich had fired back a request of his own.
Actually, it was more of a demand. He wanted the head of the Tridel Corporation, David Malone. The whole situation had crossed from personal mission and into a job, one we needed to execute quickly.
She’d been in the bathroom too long. I went to check on her, and terror detonated in my gut when I found the shower empty. It had been a half an hour, so she had a major head start on us, assuming Keegan or Mike hadn’t spotted her leaving the hotel. I ran my hands through my hair, desperate for news. Someone had to have seen her.
Something caught my eye. She’d left her cell, still in its sleeve, probably because we had been too close for her to grab it off the couch. We couldn’t even track her that way. I held the burner phone up for the guys to see and noted the heightened worry reflected in their grim acknowledgment.
“We don’t know where she is!” Jack shouted as he strapped his gun on and shoved a few clips into his pockets. “Chris is going through the security cameras in the hotel to see where she exited and the direction she went.” His hand gripped my shoulder in a hard squeeze. “We’ll find her.”
Damn right, we will. I locked down my overactive imagination to focus on that thought alone. I wouldn’t allow myself to go back to the night my parents were murdered, to the possibility of Stella being beaten, or to the image of flames devouring her soft skin, stealing her beauty, the light from her eyes, her soul. No fucking way.
I relaxed my fingers around the gun I hadn’t even realized I’d pulled from its holster. After taking several deep breaths, I returned it. As Jack had done, I shoved many clips into my pockets, anticipating needing an endless supply of bullets.
Mike and Keegan burst into the room with matching expressions riddled with worry and determination. In a flurry of efficiency, we all geared up with Kevlar vests, guns, knives, extra ammo, and a grenade or two. You never know when you might need to toss a grenade into a nest of enemies for maximum damage.
“Got her,” Chris reported, and we all crowded around the screen.
Stella had wrapped her head in a scarf that knotted on the lower left side by her neck. She wore oversized glasses and—is that my shirt?
“She went into the shop in the casino. Then I picked her up leaving through the service doors.” She’d turned and headed in the direction of the hospital where her brother was.
“Call the guards. Keep her there,” Jack ordered as Keegan pressed a number on his cell.
We filed out of the room before Keegan ended the call. “She never showed.”
“Fucking hell.” My heart slammed against my ribs. “They’ve got her.”
We sprinted to the stairs and then to the garage. Once there, we piled into one of the Range Rovers. In the SUV, I felt a single vibration from her cell, which I’d slipped into my pocket. I pulled her phone out and almost threw up from what I saw.
Stella sat gagged and zip-tied to a chair.
“We’ve got a bigger problem.” I showed the picture to the guys. That wasn’t all. There was a text accompanying the image: want the old crew.
There was only one person who held a grudge big enough to take Red to draw us out. Mole, Rex’s right-hand man, whose real name was Blaze. We’d mocked him at every opportunity, even calling him Mole to his face.
I knew we weren’t going to find her anywhere along the way to the hospital. As I met the gazes of my crew, I could tell we all knew where we’d have to go. Mike executed a sharp turn around the next corner, and we were on our way to where the showdown would inevitably happen: our old neighborhood.
Fury and fear warred in my body. They were using Stella as bait to act on their longtime grudge.
Jack had just gotten off the phone with Rich Stevens. We’d found a motel close to the school and our old warehouse to hole up in. True to his word, Detective Watters from our old neighborhood had cleaned the town up, at least regarding Rex’s reign. The streets weren’t desolate, and several new businesses had moved in where abandoned storefronts and factories had been. It still wasn’t a great place by any stretch, but it was better than the ghetto it was before.
We couldn’t go to the warehouse, as Jack and Mike had turned that into a teen shelter, the reason we were in San Francisco on business in the first place. We all were involved in the shelters.
God help that son of a bitch if he messes with the kids who stay there. Jack’s first priority was to have Rich station security around the warehouse, and Mike had called the staff and put them on high alert. The kids would be told some of what was going on, just enough that they would stay out of the line of fire.
Chris connected the feed to his phone so that he could access the cameras or database search he’d continued to run for any hit on Rex, Mole, or Tridel Corp. We were ready, never having divested ourselves of the arsenal strapped to our bodies.
It was just past noon. We weren’t waiting until dark, which would have been a luxury we couldn’t afford. Instead, we were going in hot. “Everyone kn
ows what to do?”
We sounded off in the affirmative to Jack’s question, which was standard after we’d settled on a plan of execution. We would surround Rex’s old haunt then storm inside. The risk of casualties was there, but if we didn’t do it that way, Stella would pay with her life. We had no idea what had become of Mole. He could have resumed whatever partnership Rex had initiated before we’d gone head-to-head on the street that night. I didn’t even want to remember what had happened. I couldn’t imagine the turmoil Jack was dealing with.
Mike parked several blocks away. We exited the vehicle then moved to the cover of the buildings nearby. On Jack’s command, we split up. With earphones and mics in place, we could apprise one another as information came in.
I took point for a direct path while everyone else fanned out, approaching the old building from different angles. We’d recognized something in the picture Mole had sent of Red—a red knit cap, one we’d all remembered as Jenni’s favorite hat, sat on a shelf in the corner. Stella was inside their old place.
The closer I got, the more focused I became. There was no way I would have been okay with covering from the rooftops. I had to be up close and personal. Keegan had offered to serve as sniper in my place, but Jack vetoed that idea. We all had to be on the ground.
Even though every one of my muscles tensed, I analyzed, processed, and reacted as I’d been trained to do. A paper coffee cup rolled across my path as I sprinted to my next point of cover on the side of a factory.
Since it was during work and school hours, there were minimal people out. The few who were got the hell out of our way.
My sights locked on the old, run-down house set between a factory and a junkyard. A lot had happened to the area, but it seemed that much remained the same. Poverty, despair, and danger clung to the time-ravaged house. Once a dump, always a dump.
We’d decided against tear gas. It wasn’t a unanimous vote, but the satellite views hadn’t shown men posted around the house. No activity in the past fifteen minutes could have indicated that there were several inside or only two, Mole and Stella. We didn’t know. We were going in blind.