by Cynthia Eden
He walked around Tina. She didn’t follow him. The two agents at the holding room door tensed when they saw him approach.
“Let him in,” Mercer ordered from behind Drew.
They stepped to the side.
Drew shoved open the door. Anton Devast was seated at a small table. Both of his wrists were cuffed to the table’s legs. He lifted his head at Drew’s approach and smiled.
“Ready to make a deal with me now, Agent Lancaster?” Anton asked quietly. “I know your price.”
* * *
TINA STARED THROUGH the observation glass. Her whole body was so stiff with tension that she ached. Mercer was by her side, quiet, intense, his gaze on the scene unfolding.
“You don’t know anything about me,” Drew said to Devast. His voice was cold and empty, totally lacking feeling.
This is the agent they whispered about. The one with ice in his veins.
Anton Devast, old, frail, but with evil seeming to ooze from his pores, shook his head. “I know plenty. You’re a man who thinks that he needs to atone for the past. You try to wash the blood from your hands but you just can’t.”
As Tina watched, Drew placed his hands on the table and leaned toward Anton. “The EOD caught you. You aren’t going to blow up any more buildings. You’re not going to destroy any more lives. You walked into our trap. Followed every breadcrumb that we left for you, and now you’re trying to throw out some desperate, last-minute—”
“Mercer can’t locate your sisters, can he?” Anton’s voice was mild, but the smile on his face was satisfied. “I’m sure he said that it’s just a temporary situation. That he has agents on the ground in Mississippi, and that he will find them.” Anton shook his head. “I gave him a timeline. I told him, one woman, every three hours. There’s not a lot of time left before the first woman dies.”
Tina turned stunned eyes on Mercer. “Why didn’t you tell—?”
“We can’t negotiate with terrorists,” Mercer said flatly, but she saw the emotion in his eyes. The storm of anger. “Anton Devast is a terrorist wanted in over a dozen countries. We won’t agree to any of his demands.” He shook his head. “Especially when that demand involves killing an EOD employee.”
Me.
“I want proof of life.”
Her attention jerked back toward the glass when Drew said those five cold words.
Anton’s smile widened. “I thought you would say that. Proof is coming. Mercer will be getting a call any moment.”
Drew kept staring at the killer. “If you have them, if you hurt my sisters in any way, I will see you dead in the ground.”
One dark brow lifted as Anton stared back at him. “It was your mistake. Any pain they feel is on you. I offered you fair money. You should have taken it and walked away.” Anton gave a little shrug, as much of a shrug as his handcuffs would allow. “You could have even sent the money to the women, the way you send all the other checks to them.”
“Hell,” Mercer snapped, “that’s it.” He ran a shaking hand over his face. “That’s how he found them. He followed the money trail Lancaster left behind.”
Tina wanted to rush into that room with Drew. She wanted to help him. She’d thought the nightmare was over, but now Drew was facing the hardest fight of his life. “His sisters are all he has.” He’d tried to control the emotion when he talked about them, but his voice had broken when he referred to the “girls.” Without them, Drew would be lost.
Drew straightened to his full, imposing height as he glared down at the cuffed man. “I’m going to destroy you,” he said.
“Promises, promises,” Anton taunted. He wasn’t even sweating. Surrounded by guards. Captured by the EOD. But still smug.
“He’s calling the shots,” Tina whispered. Because he held all the power.
“I can’t negotiate,” Mercer said again.
Her gaze slid to him. Cool under fire, Mercer was sweating. As she watched him, Mercer hurriedly pulled out his phone.
“Sydney is already monitoring my phone from D.C. Any call that comes in, she’ll be able to trace it back to the source. If that bastard really does try to send proof of life, we’ll find them.”
The door opened. Drew stood there, shoulders tense. “Have you gotten a call?”
Mercer shook his head. “He’s playing with us. He knows that we have him, and he’s just trying for one last mind game.”
Tina wanted to believe that—
Mercer’s phone rang.
Drew surged forward.
Mercer stared down at his phone. Tina was close enough to see the Unknown Number message flash across the screen. Mercer put the phone to his ear.
Tina could clearly hear the scream that broke across the line.
Drew yanked the phone away from the EOD boss. He hit the speaker button and the scream seemed to echo in the room. “Who the hell is this?”
“Drew!” The scream changed into his name. “Drew, please, say that’s you! I-it’s Paige. They told me that you’re going to come and get me. Please come for me! Please!”
Drew’s gaze didn’t stray from the phone. His voice was ice-cold when he said, “When you were seven years old, what did I give you for Christmas?”
“You carved me a jewelry box. It had a...a P on it. We didn’t have any money, but you said you’d buy me jewelry for it one day—” She broke off, screaming again.
“Don’t hurt her!” Drew roared. The ice and control were gone. Only fury and fear remained in his voice.
The line went dead.
Mercer grabbed the phone from him. “Sydney was tracing. She’ll get them—”
“Not if the call wasn’t long enough.” He turned away and stared through the glass at Anton. Anton stared back, as if he could see right through the mirror.
Tina reached for Drew’s arm but he jerked away from her touch.
Her hand fisted. “We’ll get them back. Whatever we have to do—”
“The EOD doesn’t negotiate with terrorists,” Drew said. The words were growled. And they were almost word for word exactly what Mercer had said. Drew spoke those words as if repeating some long-memorized rule. Then, whispering, he said again, “The EOD doesn’t negotiate with terrorists.” His breath sawed out as he glanced toward Mercer. “Consider me out of the damn EOD.”
Drew stormed from the room.
“Sydney?” Mercer had the phone to his ear. “Tell me you got them. They gave us proof of life, and we only have an hour left before the first woman dies.”
Tina’s heart was racing. She pulled in as many deep breaths as she could. Drew was back in the interrogation room.
Anton had his smug smile in place once more. “Talked to your sister, did you?”
“Where in Louisiana?” Mercer demanded. “I need specifics, and I need them now.”
One man knew specifics. One man knew everything.
The man smiling as he taunted Drew.
Tina rushed for the door. She wasn’t going to let this happen. Not to Drew. Not to his sisters.
The agents guarding the room tensed when they saw her. But they knew she’d just been in the observation room with Mercer, and she had treated these EOD agents before. They understood she wasn’t the enemy, so she just said, “Mercer wants me in there as backup.”
They weren’t used to her lying, so they let her in.
She hurried into the interrogation room just as Anton said, “If you want them alive, then you’ll give me what I want.”
Tina squared her shoulders. “Here I am.”
Drew whirled toward her. “Tina.”
She didn’t look at his face. Right then, she couldn’t. Tina focused completely on Anton. “You wanted me, and I’m here.”
His smiled faded as his gaze raked her face. “What I want is you dead.”
Drew stepped in front of Tina, blocking her from Anton’s sight. “You aren’t getting what you want.”
“Then you don’t get to see your sisters alive again.” His voice had gone low and rough a
nd mean. “Because if you did want them back alive, you’d be bending down, taking that knife from the sheath you keep strapped to your ankle, and you’d shove it into her heart, right now.”
Tina locked her knees.
“I kill her,” Drew rasped the words. “Then how do I know you won’t still let my sisters die? I’m not a fool. I know how you operate. You turn on everyone that you can. Your only loyalty is to yourself.”
The door was shoved open again and it banged against the wall. Tina glanced over her shoulder. Mercer was there, chest heaving. His eyes blazed at her. “Out!”
Anton laughed. “Brave is she? Coming in here, getting away from you. Maybe she’s more like Marguerite than I first thought.”
Marguerite. Tina had heard that name before. Not from Mercer, but from her real father. He’d been talking to Tina’s mother once and he’d said, “Bruce won’t ever be the same. Losing Marguerite broke him.”
Mercer grabbed Tina’s wrist. “Come on. I told you—”
We don’t negotiate with terrorists. “I have a deal,” Tina said flatly. “A deal that I want to make.”
The room got real quiet. The tension was so thick she could feel it pushing at her.
Tina tugged free of Mercer. She stepped around Drew. And she faced the nightmare in that chair. How many lives had he destroyed?
You won’t destroy any more.
“You can’t be trusted,” Tina said simply as she stared at Anton.
“Neither can he,” Anton immediately replied as his head jerked toward Mercer. “You think he’s so good? That he’s on the side of the law?” His lips thinned. “You’re losing your life, dear girl, because of him. Because of what he took from me. Your father says that he works for justice—but how was killing my Jonathan justice?”
Mercer shoved past Drew and slammed his fists into the table, sending spider-web-like cracks across the top. “That attack was meant for you! How the hell was I supposed to know you’d brought your boy into that life? You were behind the attack on Marguerite. You killed her—”
“She wasn’t meant to die!” Anton tried to surge to his feet, but the handcuffs jerked him right back down. “I was taking her. Taking your daughter. It was leverage because you were too close to finding out—”
“That you were a traitorous bastard who’d sold out not one but two countries? Yes, Anton, I figured that out!”
They were fighting over lives long lost. What about the lives still hanging in the balance? “Neither of you can be trusted,” Tina said. Her breath rushed in and out. In and out. “And we’re running out of time.”
Anton and Mercer both swung their attention back to her. She focused just on the man who was pulling the puppet strings, even while in EOD custody. “We already know the women are in Louisiana.”
His eyes narrowed.
“We’ll run the rest of the trace down soon enough.” She tried to keep all emotion from her face and eyes, just as the others had done. Maybe she was learning how to be an agent. “Tell us where they are.”
Anton glanced toward Drew. “Still haven’t gone for the knife yet... I guess you don’t care that much for your sisters after all.”
“You planned better than this.” Tina shook her head as she tried to puzzle through the nightmare. “You wouldn’t just count on Drew killing me.”
“Drew?” Anton murmured. “How intimate. I thought for sure he’d just be Agent Lancaster.”
She’d slipped up.
“Drew and Tina,” Anton continued, as if tasting their names. “Perhaps I see now why the sisters don’t matter as much. They can’t matter as much as a lover.”
“Get out,” Drew snapped. His eyes pinned Tina and then Mercer. “Both of you.” His steps were slow and certain as he advanced around the table and got close to Anton. “Turn off any video feeds. Secure the room. Leave him to me. I won’t negotiate.” He spat out the word. “I’ll make him tell me.”
“Anton has been tortured before,” Mercer said, voice grim.
“You should know,” Anton told him with a sly glance Mercer’s way. “I won’t break.”
This had to stop. “Take me. Take Drew. Take us both to the place where you have his sisters. As soon as Drew gets them...y-you can kill me.” Or, a much, much better option—we’ll find another way out of this mess by then.
Mercer grabbed Tina’s wrist once more. “You’re done here.”
No, she wasn’t. She kept talking and focusing on Anton. “You have men close by, you have to. A guy like you wouldn’t leave anything to chance.” She ignored the burn in her chest and spoke even faster as she said, “You knew Agent Lancaster wouldn’t just kill me without making sure his sisters were safe. You wanted an exchange—so here’s one. Get your men to come in. Take us to the women. Then, I’ll—”
“Die?” Anton finished.
“No,” Mercer snarled.
“I’ll trade my life for theirs,” Tina said.
Anton smiled. “I was wondering when someone would finally see reason.”
She didn’t think this man had seen reason in a very, very long time.
Anton’s lips pursed as he seemed to think about her offer. The silence and the tension stretched in the little room until—
“Mercer stays with me,” Anton finally said as he inclined his head. “Every minute. I want to see his face when he learns of your death.”
He was going to take her offer.
“You and your agent there... I’ll tell you exactly where to go. My men don’t need to take you there. They’ll just be waiting for you to arrive.”
No, more like waiting for them to walk into a trap, but Tina stayed quiet. He was talking, and that was what she’d wanted him to do.
“They’re hidden in a Mardi Gras float graveyard in New Orleans.” He rattled off the address easily, almost as if it didn’t matter. “You’ll find it near the river. Get down there, and only you two go in. The place is wired, and if more agents show, my men have orders to detonate. They’ll kill the women in an instant.”
Tina forced herself to speak through numb lips. “We can’t get down there fast enough. The time you gave us—”
He laughed. “Bring me a phone. Mercer’s phone will do nicely. I’ll tell the men to keep them alive, until you get there.”
We can’t believe anything he says.
“Remember, dear, only you and your agent Lancaster are to go in. Try to send in any cops or other agents first and you’ll watch the world explode.”
* * *
DREW DRAGGED TINA out of the interrogation room. His hold was too hard, too rough, but he couldn’t let her go.
He pushed her into the first empty office that he found. His glare made sure no one followed them inside. He slammed the door. Rounded on her. “What the hell are you doing?”
Her cheeks were flushed. Her eyes glittered up at him. “Saving your family.”
“By sacrificing yourself?” He wanted to shake her. He wanted to kill Anton Devast.
“I’m not going to die.” She said the words with total confidence. “We just bought time, and we’ll be able to figure this out.”
Oh, damn it, that trust again. She had to stop seeing him through rose-colored glasses. See me for what I am. “We go in that building, we find them—and we are going to face off against at least a dozen of Anton’s men. They aren’t just going to let me grab my sisters and walk away. They’re going to try to take you.”
“That’s why we will have backup. Anton said that other agents couldn’t go in first. They can be there, though, waiting for the perfect moment to attack—”
She didn’t understand. Tina hadn’t lived her life, day in and day out, with evil. She wasn’t getting the way that men like Anton Devast operated. “The minute we walk in that door, he could order the explosion. End us all in one instant. Backup won’t do any good then. There will only be pieces left of us.”
Tina flinched.
I’m hurting her. He immediately dropped his hold. Stepped back.
/>
“It’s not much of a plan,” Tina said, voice soft. “But it’s the only one I had. Now we know where your sisters are. We have their location. We can get them out.”
And all I have to do is trade your life for theirs.
“You’re not even his daughter.” He’d go back in there. Tell Devast the truth—
“That doesn’t matter anymore.” Then she laughed, and it was a bitter sound, so unlike anything he’d ever heard from Tina. “Actually, maybe the lie is the only thing that does matter at this point. Because if Anton thought I wasn’t Mercer’s real daughter, then your sisters would be dead. He wants us in New Orleans. He wants us in that building, and as long as we are still alive—we have a chance.”
He hated this. “I don’t want you at risk.”
She walked toward him and closed the space he’d created. Tina touched his cheek. Her fingers were light against that rough scar. She’d never minded his scars.
I can’t let her die.
But he couldn’t stand aside and let his sisters suffer.
“We won’t go in unarmed. We’ll get hooked up to EOD surveillance. Mercer and his men can watch our every step. Sharpshooters can be placed around the building.” She was speaking so quickly now, her words tumbled together. “They can learn the locations of Anton’s men from us. They can give us backup. We can do this.”
He pulled her against his body. Put his mouth on hers. Kissed her—hard and deep and desperately.
She was trying to be so confident, but she was wrong. He’d been on so many missions that had gone to hell without warning. You couldn’t predict every moment. Could never plan for every contingency.
They were taking the bait Anton offered, but were both of them coming out alive?
It was a long shot.
“I trust you,” Tina whispered against his mouth. “We can do this.”
She shouldn’t trust him. Drew put his forehead against hers. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t.”
No, he wouldn’t let her die.
But I still might lose her.
The door opened behind her. Mercer stood there, filling the doorway. “This is a suicide mission.” His voice was grim. The lines on his face were deeper than Drew had ever seen them.