by Rebecca Deel
“I am now.” Her body trembled.
“Marcus, is she all right?” Josh demanded over the comm system.
“She’s fine, thanks to Rio.”
The medic retrieved his knife, wiped the blade on the assassin’s pants before sliding the weapon into his leg sheath. “You did the hard work, Marcus. Josh, Bianchi is down.”
One by one, the rest of the protection detail checked in. Twelve casualties and eight injured or bound and gagged including Bianchi.
“Fire department’s en route,” Alex said. “Cops won’t be far behind.”
“Josh, take Marcus and Paige to a safe location,” Eli said. “Fortress headquarters is the best place for them. Jon and I will deal with the police.”
“You can’t explain all the bodies.”
Eli chuckled. “Want to bet? We’re SEALs. People think we’re supermen.”
“Take Bianchi with you,” Jon said. “Have Nate interrogate him.”
Josh was silent a moment.
“You need to know who sent him after Paige,” the operative reminded Durango’s leader.
Marcus palmed the back of Paige’s head as though protecting her from further danger. They needed all the information they could get. Otherwise, the danger to her could resurface, and next time she might be alone.
“Alex, Quinn, head for the SUVs. Nate, rendezvous with Rio and make sure our guest doesn’t cause problems. Marcus, you and Paige stay with Rio until I meet up with you.”
After Josh’s orders were acknowledged, Rio hauled Bianchi to his feet. “Nate, quadrant B.”
“Watch yourselves. Emergency responders are on scene.”
To prevent Bianchi from raising a ruckus, Rio slapped a piece of duct tape over his mouth and shoved the hit man into motion.
“Come on,” Marcus murmured as he turned Paige to follow the others. “The sooner we get out of here, the quicker I can get you someplace warm with hot tea.”
Five minutes later, Nate emerged from the shadows and clamped a hand on Bianchi’s arm. Between him and Rio, the two frog marched the thug in a wide circle around the frantic activity at the cabin. Although the wannabe killer tried to impede their progress, the two operatives forced him to move forward.
Josh joined them and gripped Paige’s other arm. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine. Marcus, I don’t want to spend my honeymoon anywhere near a forest.”
“Sun and sand all right?”
“Perfect. The sooner the better.”
His head whipped her direction. “Are you serious?”
“Come on, Marcus,” Quinn chimed in. “You know she is. Take your woman at her word and get a marriage license.”
The other members of the protection detail chuckled.
“Quinn’s right.” Paige flashed Marcus a grin. “I am serious.”
He couldn’t believe Paige still wanted to marry him despite the danger she’d been in because of his past. “I’ll take care of the license at the first opportunity today.”
By the time they reached the SUVs, Paige stumbled every few steps and would have gone down if not for Josh and Marcus keeping her on her feet.
Josh hustled them into the back seat, then climbed behind the steering wheel. “Go,” he ordered the other two SUVs and followed them down a side road away from the cabin. He activated his Bluetooth.
Zane answered. “Talk to me.”
“It’s Josh. Durango is coming into headquarters hot. We have Vincent Bianchi. We need to interrogate him without interference from the local cops.”
“We’ll be ready for you. Maddox is already on site. Is Paige with you?”
Josh glanced in the rearview mirror. “Say hello, Paige.”
“Hi, Zane.”
“What do you need?”
“A super tall mug of hot tea, mint or chamomile. I’m freezing and I can’t stop shaking.”
Marcus tugged her tighter against his side and rubbed her arm. He turned his head to check the cargo area and saw one of those Mylar blankets the Fortress guys all carried. He wrapped Paige in the blanket and tugged her once again into his arms.
“Adrenaline dump and fatigue,” Zane said. “I have just the tea you need. I keep it on hand at Fortress headquarters for my wife.”
“You’re not going to work this early just for me.”
Zane laughed. “I’m on site as well. Maddox and I wanted to be on hand in case our operatives needed assistance.”
“How can I ever thank you?”
“Not necessary, Paige. I’m looking forward to meeting you in person. Marcus, you unscathed?”
“Not a scratch or bruise.”
“Excellent. What do you need?”
“Hot coffee would be nice.”
“That we have plenty of. Good and strong. Josh, we’ll be waiting. Let me know if you encounter a problem.” And he ended the call.
“Settle back and relax. We have at least an hour drive into Nashville, depending on traffic,” Josh said as he followed the other two SUVs onto I-24.
In his arms, Paige trembled and her teeth chattered. “The shaking is ticking me off,” she muttered.
“When it passes, you won’t be able to keep your eyes open.”
“Why aren’t your teeth chattering out of your head like mine?”
“My body reacts differently than yours to the adrenaline. I won’t be able to eat for a couple hours.”
“Alex is like Marcus,” Josh added. “Rio listens to his wife’s piano music. I’ll hit the gym at Fortress if we have time. We all handle adrenaline dump in different ways. Close your eyes and rest, Paige. You expended a lot of energy in that run through the woods.”
She smiled at Marcus. “May I borrow your shoulder?”
“Any time, baby.” He shifted Paige until she leaned on his chest, her head resting over his heart. The trembling slowly eased and her breathing evened out until she went boneless in his arms.
Josh glanced back. “She out?”
“Yeah.”
“You did well out there, Marcus. Would have been easy to panic when your woman was in Bianchi’s hands but you held it together. Would you have pulled the trigger?”
“In a heartbeat.”
A nod. “Rest. This isn’t over yet.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Paige walked into an office to see a buzz-cut blond behind the desk. The tall, muscular man rose to greet her and Marcus.
“Glad you escaped the woods unscathed, Paige.” He held out his hand to Paige. “Brent Maddox. I owe your boyfriend my life.”
She smiled. “The PSI teams speak highly of you. Thank you for keeping Marcus safe for the past seven years.”
A nod, then, “Great job with Bianchi, Marcus. Those hours drilling you in how to handle a crisis paid off. You and Paige come with me. Zane is waiting in the observation room.”
As they followed the Fortress CEO, Paige asked, “Do you know if my grandmother is all right?”
“Jo and the others left port with Sam and her partner. I talked to them before the ship sailed. If you want to confirm, I’ll give you Sam’s sat phone number and you can talk to your grandmother. According to Sam, the ladies are keeping Aaron Cahill on his toes.”
She could just imagine. Josh’s father must be a good sport to do this. “I’d love to talk to Gram. Thank you, Brent.”
He opened the door to a darkened room where the only light came from a computer screen. The man keying information into a laptop sat in a wheelchair. On a table beside him were two to-go cups.
The computer tech glanced up, smiled. “Marcus, good to see you.” He shook Marcus’s hand. “Introduce me to your girlfriend.”
“Paige, this is Zane Murphy, computer guru for Fortress.”
Zane handed her the larger cup. “Chamomile mint tea.”
“Exactly what I need. Thanks, Zane.”
Marcus glanced toward the large observation window and into the room beyond. “Where’s Bianchi?”
“Should be arriving so
on. Rio’s treating his knife wound. Can’t get answers from the man if he’s dead.” Zane handed him the second cup. “Sit. Might as well be comfortable while you wait.”
The tea’s scent brought a sense of comfort to Paige. “Where are the others?”
Maddox grabbed a chair and sat. “Quinn is eating. Nate’s with Rio. Josh is pounding the heavy bag in the training room. Alex is on the phone with Ivy.”
Paige wrapped her hands around the cup, savoring the warmth as the hot liquid slid down her throat. When she’d finished half of her tea, the light flickered on in the room on the other side of the window.
Zane tapped a few keys on his keyboard. “Recording is activated.”
“Bianchi won’t be able to see you in here,” Maddox said to Marcus and Paige. “This is a two-way mirror. If you don’t want to see the interrogation, I’ll have someone escort you to our breakroom. I’ll pass along the information we learn.”
Marcus covered her hand with his. “If you don’t want to watch, I’ll go to the breakroom with you. Zane can send me a copy of the interrogation.”
“I want to hear what he has to say. I need to know who wants me dead.”
The door to the other room opened and Nate and Rio led Bianchi into the room, and pushed the thug into a seat facing the mirror.
“Why are Nate and Rio questioning him? Shouldn’t the others be involved now?” Didn’t seem fair. The rest of Durango must have some interrogation skills.
Zane glanced up. “Bianchi has seen their faces. We don’t want to introduce him to each member of Durango.”
“He already knows where to find them.”
“Won’t have a chance for revenge.”
Paige set her cup down on the table with a soft thud. “They plan to kill him?” Might be necessary on one of their missions in another country, but they couldn’t do that on US soil. Could they?
“Law enforcement takes a dim view of murder. However, Bianchi will be out of commission until he’s too old to be a threat.”
She frowned. Not really an answer. Probably wiser not to know for sure.
In the other room, Rio leaned one shoulder against the wall and Nate circled behind Bianchi. “Let’s talk,” he said quietly.
A snort. “You can talk all you want, but I ain’t saying squat. I want to call my lawyer.”
“Do we look like cops?” Rio asked. “You’re not talking to anybody but us.”
Bianchi frowned. “Who are you?”
“Your worst nightmare, Bianchi.” Nate laid a hand on the man’s injured shoulder that earned a pained grimace from the man. “You know how the game is played. Answer my questions, the pain stops.”
In the next moment, the skin on Paige’s nape prickled at the prisoner’s scream of pain. “What’s Nate doing?”
“Using pressure points, targeting specific nerves to cause excruciating pain without permanent damage.” Maddox laid a hand on her shoulder. “Nate is one of the best interrogators I’ve worked with. We need information, Paige. Your safety depends on it. I’m not going to stop the interrogation until we have what we need. Can you live with that knowledge?”
She thought of her precious grandmother who might become the next casualty of someone like Bianchi. Yeah, she could handle the knowledge of his temporary pain to protect the life of the woman who had raised her. Paige nodded.
When tears streamed down Bianchi’s face, Nate leaned close. “Who hired you to find Marcus Lang?”
“I can’t tell you. He’ll kill me.”
“Wrong answer.” Nate shifted his hand and the screams began again, this time higher pitched, his wails long and loud. When the noise abated to soft sobs, Nate repeated his question.
“I’m a dead man if I talk.”
“You’re dead if you don’t. You might escape the person who hired you. You have zero chance of escaping us.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Want to bet?” He moved his hand again.
“No! Please. All right, all right. Sean O’Reilly, okay? It was O’Reilly who hired me.”
“Why?”
“He wants Lang dead for killing his son.”
“Mick O’Reilly was a leg breaker for his father. He died when Lang shot him to protect himself and another man.”
“Don’t care why. It was good money.”
“Hope the price you’ll pay is worth the payoff,” Rio said.
Bianchi cast a wary glance his direction. “What do you mean?”
Nate adjusted his hold and Bianchi hissed, perspiration beading on his face. “Who sent you after Paige?”
“It was just business, man. Wasn’t personal.”
“Attacking Paige was personal to her friends and family.” His voice dropped to a growl. “Especially to the man who loves her. You’re lucky to be alive right now. He was within a split second of pulling the trigger. If you had attacked my woman, you would have suffered for days before I killed you. Marcus has a soft heart.” He leaned close to Bianchi’s ear. “I don’t. Last chance. Who sent you after Paige?”
“The land developer, Davidson.”
Shock rolled through Paige, then shifted into bone-deep fury. Slimy Davidson, the creep who was pressuring Gram to sell the B & B and orchard, had hired Bianchi to kill her? If he thought Jo would sell everything if Paige was dead, he was a fool. If anything, Jo would dig in her heels and pour herself into the work. She’d done the same when her son and daughter-in-law were killed in an accident when Paige was five, and again when she lost her husband. No, Gram wouldn’t sell because of grief or pressure from an outsider.
“Why?” Rio asked. “What purpose would her death serve?”
“He figured the old lady would sell if she had nobody to pass the legacy to.”
“Anyone else involved?”
“Only one person is paying me.”
“That’s not what he asked.” Nate hit another pressure point.
Bianchi gasped and the blood drained from his face. “Stop, please.”
“Talk.”
“No one else is paying me. I swear.”
“Who else knew?” Nate pressed.
“Parks. Don’t know their first names, man. I don’t know those small-town hicks. An old one and a middle-aged man. That help?”
“Did you kill the kid at the center?”
Bianchi tried to jerk away from Nate’s hold and yelped when the operative clamped down on his shoulder.
“Answer the question.”
“Yeah, I did. You satisfied?”
“Not even close. Why did you kill Van Wilder?”
“He and his buddies saw me with Davidson and Parks. They could identify me and O’Reilly don’t like loose ends.”
“You tried to kill Dalton Reagan in the Croft woods?”
“Would have succeeded if it hadn’t been for the preacher. I tried to finish the job at the hospital, but there were cops and private security everywhere.”
Nate glanced up at the window, waited.
Maddox leaned over and pushed the intercom button on the wall. “Black site.”
Rio and Nate pulled Bianchi to his feet over his loud protests and curses, and escorted him from the room.
“What does that mean?” Paige asked. “What’s a black site?”
“Bianchi will be taken to a site off the grid. No communication with the outside world. He needs to be incommunicado for now. When we have the O’Reilly situation handled, we’ll make other arrangements for him.” He looked at Zane. “Send a copy of the interview to Blackhawk. Make sure you blur Rio and Nate’s faces and voices. He’ll know members of Durango did the interrogation, but doesn’t need to have proof of it.”
A few key strokes, then, “Done.”
“Contact Josh and Alex. Have them meet me in my office. We have plans to make.”
“Plans?” Marcus looked from Zane to Maddox.
“We have a mob kingpin to take down.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Marcus stared at Brent Maddox. “This
isn’t a government-sanctioned mission.”
“When has that stopped me from doing what’s necessary? I can’t let this continue. You gave up everything to save my life. It’s time I repaid the favor.”
“I don’t want you to do this. It’s too dangerous for you and your operatives. O’Reilly’s men are ruthless. Someone will get hurt.”
“Someone will get hurt all right,” Zane muttered. “But it won’t be us.”
“You have two choices, Marcus.” Maddox pinned him in place with a hard look. “Go along with my plan or I’ll relocate you again with a new name and a new life. I don’t want to use the second option. If my plan works, you’ll be free to live your life however you choose without wondering when O’Reilly will put a bullet in your head. As evidenced by Bianchi’s appearance in Otter Creek, unexpected things happen. You followed my rules and still your safety was compromised by pure accident. It’s a matter of time before O’Reilly or one of his pet assassins catches up with you again.”
Marcus grimaced. “You’re right. If I relocate, I’m still at risk. Worse, Paige and Jo are in danger whether they’re with me or not.” Did Paige realize if he requested a new identity, she would be forced into hiding with him? No question in his mind that the love of his life would volunteer to go with him into another place of exile. Jo, however, was in her seventies. By the time the mess with Sean O’Reilly was settled or he died, Jo would probably be gone. He couldn’t ask that of Paige. Letting go of his own family had devastated him. Jo was the only family Paige had left. If Marcus relocated, he would lose her.
Soft hands cupped his cheek and turned his face toward her. “It’s time to end this, Marcus.”
His heart stopped, then restarted on a painful lurch. “Paige?” And he’d thought losing Chelsea was painful. He prayed for strength to do what was right for Paige. She deserved better than what he could offer her. Would she wait for him to be free from his past?
Maddox stood. “I’ll be in my office awaiting your decision,” he murmured and signaled Zane. The two men left the observation room.
After the door closed behind them, Paige leaned forward and kissed Marcus, her touch as light as gossamer wings. She drew back. “I want you to give Brent permission to handle the problem with O’Reilly.”