Ultimate Risk (R.I.S.C. Book 6)

by Anna Blakely

  “You know”—she gave Trevor a feigned scowl—“it’s really annoying how sensible you are all the time.”

  The handsome man smiled. “What can I say? It’s a gift.”

  Coop rolled his eyes. “So, what now?”

  Mac lifted her chin. “I’m going to my uncle’s house.”

  “Not by yourself, you’re not.”

  “Actually, I am.” When Coop opened his mouth to argue, she stopped him. “Let me rephrase. I’m going inside by myself. You two can follow from a distance. You know the code to the gate, so you can sneak onto the property unseen, but I need to go in by myself.”

  “Mac.”

  “Just hear me out, okay?” She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “This isn’t me being stubborn or pigheaded. If we want our guy to make a move, he’s not going to do it with you two nipping at my heels. Besides...” She licked her lips. “I’d really like a few minutes to say goodbye to old ghosts, and I need to be able to do that alone.”

  Coop looked like he wanted to argue, but Trevor didn’t give him the chance.

  “She has a point.”

  Coop looked over at their teammate. “Seriously, man. Positive and agreeable?”

  Trevor held up his hands. “Hey, man. I’m only agreeable when I agree with something. In this case, I agree with Mac. If our target is watching her, they’re not going to do shit while we’re around. There’s a set of coms in the car we can use. That way, she can holler for help if she needs it.”

  “I don’t know.” Coop’s stare became uneasy. “I saw pictures of Moretti’s house when I was looking him up. It’s pretty big, and if she gets into trouble—”

  “I won’t hesitate to use my weapon,” she assured him. “Or, if I can’t, I’ll call for backup immediately. Come on, Coop.” She tightened her hold again. “This is no different than any other undercover op.”

  “You know that isn’t true.” He squeezed her hand back.

  Trevor put a hand to Coop’s shoulder. “I think we need to trust her on this one.”

  A muscle in his handsome jaw twitched. “Fine. We’ll do it your way. But so help me, something happens—”

  “I’ll be fine.” Mac put a hand to his chest. “I promise.”

  Minutes later, Mac was turning into the familiar drive. She put the car in park as she reached the closed gate and sat there, staring up at the beautiful house of horrors.

  It was ridiculous how sick she felt simply from being on the property again. This wasn’t like when she was younger. Her uncle was gone, and she didn’t see any other cars.

  Plus she had a gun and her training backing her up.

  That’s not all you have.

  The tiny voice was right. She had Coop and Trevor. They weren’t just part of her team. They were part of her family.

  “You okay, Mac?”

  Coop’s voice hit her ear, and Mac realized she’d been staring for a full minute. Blinking away the bad memories, she rolled down her window and entered the code. “Yeah. I’m good.”

  When the gate began to open, she slowly rolled the car forward, parking directly in front of the home’s elaborate entrance. With the keys in hand, she walked up to the large, double doors and lifted her trembling hand to insert the key.

  She’d read once that the sense of smell was one of the strongest triggers for memory a person had. In that moment, she knew this to be true.

  Smelling the familiar scent of stained wood and dirty money, Mac forced herself to take steady breaths as she made her way across the marble tiles. Like the rest of the house, the entryway had always seemed so cold and uninviting.

  Probably a purposeful touch designed by her coldhearted uncle.

  For the first few minutes inside, she simply walked around, going from room to room as a way of facing those demons she’d mentioned earlier. As suspected, the house appeared to be empty, which allowed Mac the ability to take her time and move at her own pace.

  Everything looked and felt the same. It was almost as if time had stood still, almost like the world had stopped for the house and everything in it as it waited for her return.

  “We’re in.” Coop spoke through the com. “Front’s clear. Checking the perimeter.”

  “Copy that,” she responded. “So far, the house is clear. Heading upstairs now.”

  “We’re here if you need us.”

  Mac smiled as she made her way down the upstairs hallway and into her old room. With a turn of the knob, she opened the door, a sense of unsettling nostalgia hitting her as she realized it looked exactly as it had the day she left.

  In all these years, her uncle hadn’t changed a single thing. Her old notebook and pen were still on her nightstand where she’d left it. She used to doodle in it when she couldn’t sleep.

  Mac couldn’t believe Tony hadn’t changed it by now. The fact that he hadn’t was both creepy and confusing.

  Closing the door behind her, she headed back downstairs to the one room she came here to see. Her uncle’s office.

  Not surprising, she found the office locked. Not a problem since the set of keys Henry’d given her included a skeleton key that opened every room in the house. Mac recognized its unique shape from the times her uncle had used it in front of her.

  Still dark and ominous, the room seemed smaller than she remembered but no less scary. Deep inside, Mac understood it wasn’t the room itself that was evil. Only the happenings that had taken place here.

  Some of the events she knew about from spying and listening through the closed door. After that day at the dealership, Mac had become much more in tune with her surroundings. Watching and listening to everything she possibly could.

  She’d heard shady business deals go down with some of the local politicians and cops. Hits ordered or stays of execution, depending on the offender’s response to Tony’s threats via Luca and some of the other guys she’d seen coming and going on the property.

  The worst memory from this room, however, hadn’t been something she’d overheard by pressing an ear to the other side of the locked door. It was what had happened while she was inside the room, the night of her sixteenth birthday.

  She glanced over to her uncle’s desk, her eyes immediately landing on the silver letter opener lying in the middle of the desk. With its long, razor-sharp end and the handle’s ornate, vintage design, it should be considered a thing of beauty.

  To Mac, it was a weapon that had saved her from an unthinkable horror.

  “Brings back a lot of memories, doesn’t it?”

  On reflex, Mac pulled her gun from her waistband and spun to face the intruder.

  “Whoa. Easy there, killer.” Luca raised his hands lazily.

  Experiencing the most horrifying case of déjà vu ever, Mac kept her gun trained on him. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to get the rest of my things like you asked. Remember?”

  Coop cursed in her ear. “Mac, where are you? Who’s with you?”

  “And your things are in my uncle’s office, Luca?” She spoke to the man she was facing, answering Coop’s questions at the same time.

  “Copy you loud and clear, sweetheart,” Coop responded to her hidden message. “Trevor and I are on the backside of the property, but we’re on our way.”

  Unknowingly, Luca began talking over him. “No. I got my stuff from here yesterday after we spoke. I was at my apartment and remembered I still had a few things in the spare bedroom I was using upstairs. I wanted to come get them before you found them and tossed them out with the trash.”

  I’d like to throw you out with the trash.

  “Cut the crap, asshole. You came for the money, right? That’s why you’re really here, isn’t it?”

  “Money?” His brow furrowed as he took a step closer. “What money?”

  “Don’t come any closer.”

  He stopped. “Seriously, Abigail. Stop acting like a maniac and put the gun away.”

  “It’s Mac, you arrogant prick. You know, as in McKenna? Abigail
Moretti ceased to exist the day I left this hellhole.

  Luca smiled. “You always were a tough little cookie.” His eyes burned into hers. “All warm and sweet.” His eyes ran slowly down her body. “Good enough to eat, if memory serves me correctly.”

  “What the fuck?” Coop’s growl filled her ear.

  Mac worked to keep her gun steady as she took a step toward Luca. “How would you know? You never got the chance to find out, remember?”

  She needed Coop to hear that. Needed him to know she hadn’t given Luca what he’d so desperately tried to take. That she’d fought the bastard off and got away.

  “Oh, I remember getting a taste,” Luca continued taunting her. “All sweet with innocence. Salty with fear.”

  “And I still remember what it felt like to jab that letter opener into your flesh. To feel your muscle tearing while I twisted its blade as far as it would go.” Mac stepped even closer. “Most of all, I remember how satisfying it was to walk away with your blood on my hands while your screams fell from your pathetic lips.”

  Another low curse hit her ear before Coop said, “We’re almost there, baby. Just keep your gun on him. We’re almost there.”

  Wanting nothing more than to put a bullet between the asshole’s eyes, Mac spoke between clenched teeth. “I’m going to ask you one more time. Are you the one who sent me the pictures? Are you here for the money?”

  “Pictures?” Luca’s dark brows scrunched together. “I told you, Abig…Mac. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You’re lying.” Her hand shook as she inched closer. “Stop. Lying!”

  “Easy,” Trevor warned. “We’re coming up on the house now. Less than a minute out.”

  “I’m telling you the truth!” Luca lost some of his famous control. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “The pictures of me and my partner.” She didn’t even realize she was moving toward him again. “The threats. You’re the only one with the capability of finding out where I was. What name I was using. And you’re the only one who could’ve known I took the two mi—”

  Mac didn’t get a chance to finish, because she’d made a rookie mistake. She’d let her emotions take over, and she’d gotten too close.

  Moving too fast to anticipate, Luca swung his left arm up, shoving hers up and over. The gun went off, the deafening sound echoing off the room’s paneled walls.

  “Mac!” Both Coop and Trevor yelled for her.

  “In here!” she screamed as loudly as she could, praying they could hear which direction to go.

  Fighting back, Mac tried pointing the gun’s barrel back toward Luca, but the man was already wrapping his free hand around her throat. With all of her strength, Mac pushed back, but even with her training, the man was a formidable opponent.

  Using his size and strength to his advantage, Luca growled as he lifted her off the ground, slamming her into the built-in bookcase behind her. The solid wood shelves dug into her back, but she ignored the pain and kept on.

  With his body pressed up against hers, Luca continued holding her up like that. One meaty hand wrapped around both wrists, banging them repeatedly into the shelves to get her to release the gun. The other squeezing her throat and cutting off her airway.

  If I let go of this gun, I’m dead.

  Needing to regain control of the situation, she continued to fight as hard as she could to get loose from his grasp. It was no use.

  Despite all her strength, her arm muscles were no match for his, and with her feet off the ground and his large thighs pressed against hers, her legs were completely useless.

  So she used her head.

  Mac was much shorter than Luca, but when he’d picked her up, he’d inadvertently brought her to nearly eye-level with him. Taking full advantage, she tipped her head back as far as it would go before slamming it forward, straight into the bastard’s nose.

  The sound of bone crunching was satisfying as fuck.

  “You bitch!”

  Blood began pouring out of Luca’s nose. It ran down over his mouth and chin, soaking the front of both their shirts. Still, he kept hold of her with one hand while rearing his other fist high in the air.

  Turning her head to avoid the blow as much as possible, Mac squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the pain to come. It never did.

  She heard what sounded like an animalistic growl right before Luca’s weight was pulled off of her. Suddenly falling, Mac’s hands and knees hit the carpet with a thud, her fingers still miraculously wrapped tightly around her weapon.

  Gasping in several long, deep breaths, she looked up just in time to see Coop toss Luca down onto the floor. He straddled the other man and began pounding his face with his fists.

  “You don’t fucking touch her!” Coop yelled. His words coincided with each new blow. “Never. Fucking. Again!”

  Trevor stood at Luca’s head, his own gun trained on the bastard as he continued getting pummeled by her furious partner. Mac pushed herself to her feet, raising her gun as well.

  Luca was no longer fighting back. Not that he ever really had the chance.

  The guy was taller and broader than Coop, but just like in the field, the element of surprise had been the ultimate advantage.

  “Sean, stop.” She rested her hand on the man’s back as he lifted his fist to hit Luca again. “He’s not worth it.”

  Coop froze but didn’t take his eyes off the other man. “Are you okay?”

  She’d never heard his voice sound like that before. It was so low. So deadly.

  “Yeah.” Mac huffed out a breath. “I’m good.”

  Slowly, Coop got back to his feet, pulling Luca up by the front of his shirt. With his nose nearly touching Luca’s broken one, his words hissed through his clenched teeth.

  “You ever come near her again, it’ll be the last fucking thing you do.”

  “Who the hell are you?”

  Despite having gotten his ass kicked, Luca was still trying to act tough. But the strained, nasal sound of his normally deep and steady voice voided his efforts.

  “I’m the man who will do anything, anything for her. Including taking out assholes like you.”

  Luca laughed, his teeth almost pink from the blood. Using his shoulder, he wiped some from his mouth. “Better watch your back, Boy Scout. This bitch will stab you in it the first chance she gets.” Sliding a narrowed gaze her way, he added, “Although with me, she seemed partial to the thigh.”

  Having had enough of Luca’s mouth, Coop swung the man around and pushed him against the front of her uncle’s desk hard enough to make it shake. A decorative cup filled with pens tipped over, spilling its contents across the smooth wood.

  “Shut your fucking mouth, or I swear to God, I’ll—”

  “What the hell?” Trevor cut in, his eyes focusing on something outside the room’s large window. A fraction of a second later, those same eyes widened. “Get down!”

  Everything happened at once.

  Trevor dropped to the floor. Coop ducked his head, shoving Luca to the side. Glass shattered as the bullet hit, and Mac felt a sharp pain in her head before everything went black.

  7

  “Everyone okay?” Trevor asked, keeping his position low.

  With his belly still flat on the office floor, Coop turned his head toward the other man. “I’m good. Mac?” He looked to the spot where she’d been standing, his heart damn near stopping from what he saw.

  She was on her back, Marino’s body lying halfway on top of her. Neither one was moving.

  “Mac!”

  Barely able to breathe for the fear coursing through him, Coop kept himself low, covering the short distance on his hands and knees. He cringed when he realized a good portion of Marino’s head was gone.

  “He’s dead,” Coop announced to Trevor as he rolled the man’s lifeless body off of Mac’s.

  “Mac?”

  He looked down at her still form. Her eyes were closed, arms lying limp at her sides. B
ut it was the blood covering the front of her shirt that terrified him most.

  He pressed two trembling fingers against the side of her reddened neck. His lungs expelled every ounce of air in one loud puff when he felt a strong rhythm there.

  “She has a pulse.”

  “Thank God,” Trevor stayed low as he made his way over to them.

  “Mac? Baby, can you hear me?” Frantically moving his hands over Mac’s chest and lower torso, Coop searched for an entry wound. “There was only one shot, right?”

  “Yeah, but that doesn’t always mean anything.”

  The other man was right. They’d both seen bullets go through one person, only to take out another.

  “Come on, baby. Open your eyes.” He turned his desperate gaze to Trevor. “There’s a lot of blood, Trev. I can’t tell if it’s Marino’s or hers. I can’t find an entry wound, but she’s not moving.”

  Why isn’t she fucking moving?

  Panicked, Coop lifted and turned her slightly to feel along her back. “I can’t find where she’s been hit!”

  Mac groaned, her voice rough and slightly slurred. “That’s because I wasn’t hit.”

  Coop froze, praying his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him. “Mac?”

  “I’m okay.” She brought a hand to the back of her head and winced. “Must’ve hit my head when Luca fell into me.”

  For the second time in as many minutes, he blew out a huge breath of relief. Mac started to sit up, but he put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. “Stay down.” He turned to Trevor. “Stay with her while I look for the shooter.”

  “You won’t find him. I saw a glint when the sun reflected off a scope in the trees across the street.”

  “That’s where I’ll start looking.” Coop looked back down at Mac. “Check her over good and call for an ambulance.”

  “No.” She pushed his hand away. “I told you, I’m fine.”

  “You could have a concussion.”

  “I don’t, but even if I did, there’s nothing they can do for me that I can’t do for myself.”

  Despite his objections, Coop helped her to her feet. Bending over to pick up her gun, she swayed a bit when she straightened her spine.