Sal hadn’t wanted to hear it then. No more than he wanted to think about it now.
He had wanted to lash out but held himself back. He had to do the same thing now, just thinking of Josh’s reaction. Hearing the man’s voice in his head.
“Take a breath and calm down, dude.” He’d even stood partly in front of Dakota. Defending her from Sal’s frustration. The dog had barked.
Realizing that they’d had no choice but to ask him to stand down. He’d crossed a line. Become the aggressor.
Sal turned and leaned his hips against the counter. When would the coffee pot be done? “Anything on the license plate?”
Talia’s fingers stilled, hovering over the keys. She looked over. “Not yet.”
The whole team was on this, Josh and Dakota at their desks and working the problem. Dakota was on the phone. Talia continued typing away at her desk. Niall had gone with Haley to the hospital so the homeless man could get seen to, and they could ask him some questions about what had happened. Even Victoria was out conferring with her sources.
The whole team was on this. Yes, he was repeating that to himself, but he would lose it if he didn’t keep reminding himself that they were capable—of all the things they’d achieved as a team. What they’d accomplished. Most of the time it had been against all odds.
Somehow. Some way. They were going to get answers.
Sal blew out a breath and tried to figure out why that didn’t make him feel better. Because his tendency was to leave, to go it alone to get a problem figured out? He was the one who went undercover and worked the case from the inside. But he couldn’t do that this time. Just like he couldn’t hit the streets without a lead.
He walked to the window and stared at the mountains on the horizon. He reached out to the faith his father had instilled in him. Took a moment and prayed.
Allyson had faith, but she also believed in herself and her own abilities. They both had things they needed to grow in. Stuff God wanted to talk to them about. He hadn’t been able to do anything except encourage her. She’d mentioned her dad getting away to pray at his cabin. It was something Sal wanted to do.
Location didn’t matter all that much when it came to prayer, but it was definitely easier to listen without the distraction of people and noise.
“The vehicle is registered to Kennowich’s company.”
Sal strode to Talia’s desk. “So he’s not even hiding his involvement.”
“Or he doesn’t think he will get caught.” Dakota replaced her phone’s handset on the base at her desk. “Like he’s above the law.”
Josh leaned back in his chair, tapping his pen on the desk. “I’m kind of starting to hate this guy.”
“Wow.” Sal shook his head. “It’s brazen, but at least now we know for sure who we’re looking for.” He turned back to Talia. “So where is the van now?”
Talia didn’t answer. Her computer speakers chimed with a new notification. “Victoria just got a warrant for the security guy’s phone.”
“Peter Tines?”
Talia nodded. “Now we can dig into his entire life, not to mention track where he is.” She typed the whole time she talked. “Right now it’s switched off. But when it turns back on, I’ll let you know.”
Sal didn’t want to hear that. The last thing he wanted was to have to wait longer. He was itching to go after Allyson. But they all knew that. He didn’t need to say it.
He was halfway to the door before he even realized he’d moved.
“Incoming,” Dakota called out.
He spun to her just as the door opened. It was Allyson’s boss and a couple of coworkers from her team. Daulton, Carl and… Sal had forgotten the third guy’s name.
“Where is she?”
“What happened?”
Sal explained everything, including what Talia had just told him.
“That was a dumb idea, putting them at risk like that.”
Sal folded his arms across his chest. “We had it covered.”
“Obviously.” Carl made a face. Not happy. “So this is all about her friend that she found?”
Sal nodded. Carl should join the club.
Allyson’s boss blew out a breath. “We just came from the FFL robbery. That’s two now, which means it’s a pattern. A string of break ins.”
Carl took up the explanation. “We’ve got some tire treads from a different vehicle leaving the area, but we figured it likely won’t pan out to a vehicle distinct enough to locate it.”
“You still have to work it.”
Carl nodded.
“We’re finding Allyson and Vanessa.” Sal motioned to his team. “All of us are on this.”
Daulton said, “And you’ll let the ATF know if you require additional resources?”
“Will do.”
If there was a breach involved in getting them back, the ATF would absolutely be able to help. Their SWAT-type team was skilled at breaching houses.
“I’ll put our tactical team on standby. They’re still in the area from the operation to get Yewell at the warehouse.”
“Thanks. We’d appreciate that.”
“If this goes on more than a couple of days, they’ll probably all make their way home.”
Sal knew their tactical teams were spread all over. If needed, the Washington ATF personnel would be joined by agents from Alaska all the way down to California.
Daulton continued, “We’ll do everything we can to help.”
“That’s right,” Carl said. “If you’re working to get Allyson back, then we want to help.”
“We can use you.” Plus Sal wasn’t above accepting help from wherever they could get it. Especially when it was high-quality, trained help. But mostly, because it was Ally. He needed her back. Safe. First they had to find her, though. Which would prove to be more of a problem with every hour that passed.
The longer it took to find her, the lower the chance they had of getting her back.
“I’ll confirm with Victoria, just so it goes through official channels.” Her boss held out his hand and Sal shook it.
Sal asked him, “How is your guy who got hurt at the warehouse?”
“He’s—”
Alarm bells started ringing. The office security system.
Sal yelled, “Down! Everyone down!”
They all hit the floor. And waited. Nothing. He lifted up from behind his cover to see what was going on.
A drone hovered outside the window. Gun mounted on top.
Aimed right at them.
“There’s a—”
The drone opened fire.
Chapter 12
Allyson was tired of waiting, all alone in that room. Had it been long enough? Minutes or hours, she wasn’t sure. But what she did know was that it had been dark, and now it wasn’t. Maybe she didn’t care anymore if she’d waited long enough for the team to find her. She just wanted to get out of there, preferably before he came back.
Was Peter Tines going to come back? What was he waiting for? Allyson wasn’t sure she wanted to hang around and chance finding out. It would likely hurt as much as their previous conversation had.
Despite the questions, trying to get her to tell him what exactly the feds knew, she couldn’t help wonder what he had been waiting for.
Now she was the one waiting.
What was she waiting for? Allyson gritted her teeth and stood. Breath hissed from between her lips as pain rolled through her head. Her face throbbed. Her ribs…
She squeezed her eyes shut for a second and sucked air in through her nose. Stifling air. There was no breeze, and the window had been boarded shut.
Allyson moved toward the door, making no noise with her work shoes. She stood to the side of the door and just listened for another minute. Was she really going to try this? Mostly she figured she had no other choice, considering she wasn’t going to sit around waiting for rescue anymore. It probably wasn’t coming, anyway. There came a time when everyone had to stand up and take control of their own
life.
Metaphorically and literally.
She also had to figure out a way to get free of these plastic ties. If she’d been awake when they bound her, she’d have made sure to turn her wrists inward. From there it would have been pretty easy to slam her hands toward her body, pulling them apart with the width of her hips. Snap. The ties would be off. It would hurt when the skin broke around the wrists, but she’d done it before and knew it would’ve worked. Unfortunately, whoever tied her up had stacked her wrists one on top of the other.
Which meant she had some ability to use her hands, but not a whole lot. And unless someone cut her free, it wasn’t likely she would be able to break the thin plastic.
Allyson used one hand to twist the handle, praying it didn’t squeak. And that no one was on the other side to hear.
She peered out the door and looked both ways. She had no idea how long it had been since Peter left. And he hadn’t gone to Vanessa’s room—at least Allyson hadn’t heard anymore screaming.
The hallway was long. More so than a regular family home. Though she figured this was a house.
A sharp snick preceded a door down the hall. Ally shoved her door almost closed again. She left a tiny gap so she could look out. Peter Tines exited another room and walked in the direction away from her, tucking his shirt in as he went.
Was that the room where Vanessa was being held? Allyson wanted to vomit at the implications of him leaving and redressing himself. She prayed for Vanessa, praying that she hadn’t been hurt in that way; that since he’d ripped his undershirt earlier, maybe he’d just been changing in there. She also had to thank the Lord that Peter hadn’t violated her.
Maybe Vanessa wasn’t even here anymore.
But there was only one way to find that out. So Allyson let herself out of the room and wandered as silently as she could over to the other room. She twisted the handle with her other hand this time.
And hissed out at the pain. She winced. Had she sprained her wrist somehow?
She moved into the room and saw Vanessa also righting her clothing. Her face was not happy.
“Oh, honey.”
Vanessa glanced over at her. It took a second for her to realize that Allyson was there. Then she started to cry. Before she could crumple to the floor, Ally walked over to her. She took in the rumpled single top sheet on a bare mattress and the state of her friend’s clothes and hair. It was clear what had happened here.
Allyson hugged her for a while. It was on the tip of her tongue to say, “It’s okay,” when it very much wasn’t. And maybe it wouldn’t ever be after something like this. What was she supposed to do, or say, now? They had to get away from these men and this house.
Vanessa pulled back and said, “How did you get out?”
“They didn’t tie me to the chair. Just this.” She lifted her hands. “And the door wasn’t locked.”
Vanessa nodded.
“You’re not even tied up.” Allyson wandered to the window and looked out at the morning sky. The sun was rising, but not up yet. “We need to at least try and get out of here.”
“What’s out there?”
“Nothing but trees.” She didn’t recognize the landscape. “We must be out in the middle of nowhere.” She turned back and saw Vanessa shiver.
“How are we going to get out of the house?”
“I don’t know, but we have to try right?”
“Where will we go outside? We could die out in the middle of nowhere.”
They certainly weren’t dressed for hiking. The temperature was probably low, given it was morning and the high temperature for the day wouldn’t be for hours yet. “We won’t get anywhere if we don’t at least try. I refuse to give up. Ever.”
After all, if she quit then she wouldn’t be the woman she wanted to be. The brave, strong female ATF agent she had trained to be, and the woman of faith her father had taught her to be.
They were both there because of what Vanessa knew about Kennowich’s plan. And because they’d needed a way to get the flash drive back. It had to be a big deal of some kind, a transaction. Vanessa hadn’t yet explained what it was, and they hadn’t been able to have that conversation.
Her friend had tears in her eyes. Allyson wanted to help her but there was going to be a chance to sit and take time to process the emotions later. Right now they had to get moving.
Allyson moved to the door. “Come on. We can’t stay here.”
Who cared about a flash drive when they needed to get somewhere safe. And quickly.
Together they worked their way down the hall to the stairs. Allyson descended first so she would meet any attacker before Vanessa, listening intently for any sound. At the bottom she could see a door.
They stepped off the bottom step. Allyson could hear a voice talking low in another room. She tugged Vanessa to the back door and eased it open. When she didn’t see anyone outside, she stepped through. Vanessa moved, looking behind her toward the voice, and clipped the frame.
She let out a small cry.
Before Allyson could react, someone called out, “Hey!”
She tightened her grip on Vanessa’s hand. “Run!”
They tore down the driveway and onto the grass. She had to get to cover and put distance between them and the men now in pursuit. They could go for a phone, maybe at a neighbor’s house, or in one of the cars parked in the drive. The cars were a risky option, considering they’d need keys as well.
The urge to get out of there and reach safety fueled her aching muscles. Then they could work on what was next.
They ran far enough that they couldn’t hear their pursuers anymore. No sound but their own sharp breath, nothing around them but trees.
They slowed to a lumbering walk.
“What are we going to do?” Vanessa’s voice was high pitched, full of complaint and fear. That didn’t help Ally figure out what they were supposed to do.
“Aren’t we supposed to follow a river?”
They were really in the middle of nowhere now. “Do you see one?”
“No, but isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when you’re lost in the woods?”
“For now we just need to keep moving. Then we can worry about getting to a road and flagging down a ride.”
. . .
When glass didn’t shatter, Sal started to move. His leg didn’t like being in this position. As he shifted, he saw one of the ATF agents move to stand. “Get down!”
Bullets slammed against the window.
The agent frowned. “The glass isn’t breaking.”
Sal glanced over the top of the desk. “Talia, turn off the sirens!”
A second later the noise quit. It was like sudden hearing loss. The drone hung in the air outside. Gun mounted on top, firing semi-automatic bursts. Three rounds each. The glass was cloudy now. Circles of impact overlapped each other as that muted rat-tat continued.
Sal stood up, then. He was still nervous, and he should be considering there was a gun pointed at them, firing rounds—even though the glass was doing a fine job of keeping the bullets from hitting them. Dakota’s head came into view for a second. Josh lifted up. “Not yet.”
She disappeared again, and Josh met Sal’s gaze over the desktops. He looked equally as confused. It seemed no one had known about the glass.
“Victoria.”
Sal half expected glass to start flying at any moment. That the window wouldn’t hold, and they would be sitting ducks with nothing but air between them and the barrel firing rounds. Sal turned to the ATF agents. “You guys good?”
Daulton lifted up to survey the scene. His intent gaze that of a man who’d seen a lot, and had just realized he was still capable of being surprised.
“Talia, you okay?” She’d turned off the sirens, but he hadn’t seen her face yet. She lifted up above her desk. He caught her gaze with his. “Good?”
She nodded.
Daulton, the ATF group supervisor stood. “You guys have bulletproof windows?”
&nb
sp; “I seriously had no idea.” Maybe that made him sound dense to not know, but it was also true.
He’d been in the hospital those first few days when the team relocated from Portland to Seattle, so he hadn’t been present for any remodeling. He’d been busy recovering from being shot in the leg during Niall’s thing at the college.
He had actually escaped relatively unscathed, which was no small thing given that they managed to take down Yewell and his Secret Service assistant director accomplice. Well, at least in the grand scheme of things. Still, those old injuries weighed on him. Most had only happened in the past few months. Barely time to recover in between.
Dakota stood then. “Victoria had it put in when we set up the office here. I thought it was weird then. Now I think I’m going to get her a gift card.”
One by one, they all stood.
The ATF agent whose name he didn’t know stared at the window, shaking his head.
Talia shrugged, standing but also typing on her keyboard. “We got the idea from a house we uh…visited.”
Sal shot her a look. He’d heard about the hacker locking them inside that smart house. He hadn’t been there; he’d been with Yewell at the time, getting into his operation with the help of an undercover ATF agent. They told him all about it only recently because they’d been trying to distract him from thinking about Allyson being missing with no leads to get her back. He hadn’t been reassured, hearing about a time when they’d been trapped with no way out.
Talia muttered, “Great.” Then louder, she said, “Someone from the accounting firm upstairs just called 9-1-1. We’ll have visitors soon.”
Dakota turned to look at her. Talia glanced between them. “You guys should get out of here. I’ll take care of it.”
Yes, law enforcement was on the same side as them. Talia would tell the responding officers the truth about who they were and what they did here. It wasn’t a secret. But they also didn’t want the whole team—or all of them who were there right now—tied up answering questions.
Josh pulled open a drawer and pulled out a dog leash. “Who is it that got dispatched to the office?”
Fourth Day Page 10