Four men rushed through the now missing door.
He raised his gun to dispatch them, but not only did his gun fire as he’d intended but some kind of laser flowed from his fingers and immediately blew a hole in the chest of one of the men. With one man shot from his gun and another taken down by the laser, the other two men looked around with frantic urgency to see who’d shot their comrades.
At first, Colt was surprised that they looked blindly at him, and then realization came when Imani’s voice filled his ear.
“They can’t see you because your invisibility shield is on. You need to move though. Your housekeeper and cook are hiding in the kitchen, and soldiers are headed that way.”
Colt quickly dispatched the men in front of him and headed toward the kitchen. “Why aren’t you with Sarah?”
“If you bothered to pay attention to your scanner, you’d know the answer to that.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that if I have no idea how to operate anything in this damn suit?”
“Two incoming on your left flank,” Imani instructed calmly.
Colt easily took care of them.
For the next few minutes, they worked together to remove all threats in the house. However, as Colt made his way outside to assist his men, he pressed the button on his watch to deactivate the suit. As the suit receded, he also lost connection with Imani. “What the …” were the last words he heard from her before the shield was gone completely. While the new shield was an incredible weapon, he was a soldier and preferred looking his opponents directly in the eyes. He wanted them to see him coming, feel his strength, and know that the deathblow was coming, know that there was nothing they could do to stop him.
He fought alongside his men with deadly intent, never once hesitating to pull the trigger of his gun or utilize the sharp Ka-Bar blade in his palm. Unlike the last time Lippman had sent men after them, Colt didn’t allow restraint in himself or from his men. His aversion to killing fellow U.S. soldiers was ignored this time around, not only because they had been given fair warning last time but also because the men on his property now were not U.S. soldiers; they were mercenaries. And these mercenaries left no doubt that they were there to kill and retrieve their target. Colt was fine with that and fought with the same chilling lethal skill that he’d employed in combat against enemies of the United States.
A few hours later, they’d taken care of their injured and—he was angry to note—their dead. Two of his men had died today, but then Lippman had lost over twenty men. Colt made his way up the stairs to Imani. He hadn’t heard from her since he deactivated his new shield.
He came to an abrupt stop in front of a wall where he was confident a door was supposed to be. If he hadn’t seen it himself, he wouldn’t have believed the capability of her shield. He still was uncertain as to what he was looking at. He ran his palm over the surface, trying to find the doorknob. When his fingers closed over the cool aluminum, and he still couldn’t see what he was touching, he could only shake his head in amazement at her skill.
He walked into the room, not sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t to find Imani calmly typing away at her laptop.
“I can’t find Sarah,” she muttered without looking up from the screen.
Maybe she wasn’t as calm as he’d originally thought. “I’m sure she’s sulking around here somewhere,” he dismissed.
Imani looked at him then, clearly showing him that she was irritated by his dismissive attitude. “I would’ve thought so, too, if I hadn’t checked her bedroom and found her cellphone there. She doesn’t go anywhere without that phone, not even the toilet.”
“What?” Colt knew that he’d asked the question with more volume than was necessary, but worry over Sarah was clouding his mind.
“I hacked into her phone. Sarah last used it yesterday afternoon right after the wedding. Colt, she called the Pentagon.”
“What?”
“The call lasted five minutes, so she spoke to someone there.”
“Why the hell would she speak to anyone at the Pentagon?”
“I’d think it’s obvious, given our recent visitors and her convenient absence.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions,” Colt muttered. He wasn’t going to believe her defection without proof. That would mean she was responsible for the deaths of two of his men.
Imani sighed with resignation. “She had intended going over to Tony’s place for the afternoon, probably upset about us. It doesn’t seem as though she ever made it there.”
“What do you mean? Where the hell is she?” Colt started pacing.
“We have to prepare for the possibility that Lippman has her. She would never go anywhere without her phone.”
“I need to call Tony. She might still have gone there and just forgotten her phone.” Colt knew he was grasping at straws, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. To admit to losing his own ward under his watch was an unbearable thought. He was her guardian for Christ’s sake!
Imani nodded her agreement, although she didn’t look convinced or hopeful. “Let’s call Tony to be sure.”
However, when Colt tried calling Tony, he didn’t answer the phone.
Impatient and growing angrier by the moment, Colt climbed onto his motorcycle. He really shouldn’t have been surprised when Imani climbed on the bike behind him. He didn’t bother trying to tell her to go back into the house. Noting that she was wearing a watch like the one he had on, he was content that she would be safe enough.
They arrived at Tony’s estate in less than ten minutes. At first, Tony’s staff tried to tell him that he wasn’t in, but Colt wasn’t buying it.
“I don’t have any problem waiting on him.” Colt leaned against the wall nonchalantly as though he didn’t have a care in the world.
“You were always an asshole, you know that?” Tony drawled as he came into view.
“Yeah, that’s one of my enduring qualities.” Colt smirked. “Where the hell is Sarah?”
“She doesn’t want to see you.”
“Too damn bad. Tell her to get the hell out here.”
“Look, Colt—”
Colt didn’t wait for Tony to finish. He pushed him out of the way and forced himself into the house. “Sarah!” Colt yelled.
“Perhaps you…” Tony tried to reason with him.
Colt again ignored him. “Sarah, get out here before I beat your boyfriend to a pulp,” he bellowed.
“Don’t you dare touch him.” Sarah ran into the foyer. It was obvious she’d been standing there the entire time.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing coming here without telling us and without your damn phone?” By the end of the sentence, Colt was outright yelling.
“You didn’t tell me you were screwing my roommate!”
Imani gasped.
Colt couldn’t believe the venom in Sarah’s voice. Until yesterday, this was her best friend. “What’s the matter with you? She’s my wife, not your damn roommate.”
“Your wife?!?! Your fuckin’ wife?!?! Why don’t you ask your wife how she plotted to get you to marry her? She tells you some damn sob story and you fall for it like an idiot.”
“What are you talking about, Sarah? I never…” Imani started.
“Don’t say anything to me! You’re dead to me! Don’t fuckin’ say anything to me!”
“Sarah, mind your damn manners!”
“What, daddy? You want me to call her mama now?”
“Hell no!”
Colt almost laughed at Imani’s incredulous outrage. However, the anger emanating from his ward was no laughing matter. “I think you’re forgetting who you’re speaking to,” Colt told her a calm voice. When he was feeling anything but calm. “First of all, don’t ever raise your damn voice to me, and second, don’t raise it to my wife.” He was almost growling by the time he got to the last part of that sentence.
“What’re you gonna do to me, huh?” Sara
h sneered. “Are you going to beat me into liking your little gold-digger? Are you gonna kick me out of the house? Are you gonna disown me?” She was screaming hysterically now. “What the hell do you think you can possibly do to me that will hurt as much as you’ve hurt me already?”
Colt wasn’t at all impressed by her tears. He shook his head in dismay at the reckless, spoiled little girl he’d raised.
“How could you possibly think that I manipulated Colt into marrying me?” Imani stared at Sarah as though seeing her for the first time. “Are you crazy?”
“I don’t think it. I know you married him to get your slutty hands on our money.” Sarah’s voice rose higher with each ugly word.
“I don’t even know who you are,” Imani whispered. Her voice was hoarse with emotion.
Sarah either didn’t hear her or simply didn’t care that Imani was now visibly upset. “You came here, saw what he had, and just had to try your hand, right?” Sarah’s question was a taunt, and it was clear that she wasn’t expecting an answer. “That’s what people like you do, isn’t it?
Imani gasped.
“That’s enough, Sarah!” Colt pulled Imani against him, wanting nothing more than to shield her from further hurt.
“I’m not done, Colt.”
“No, heifer, you’re done.” Imani stepped away from Colt and moved closer to Sarah. “I get that you’re pissed. But you don’t get to talk to me like that. Friend or not, you talk shit to me again, I’ll wipe the fuckin’ floor with your ass.” Imani kept going, closing the distance between them.
“Imani…” Colt’s voice was laced with warning and caution.
Ignoring his command, Imani knew her emotions were completely shot, and it seemed impossible to stop. She was shaking so hard in reaction her legs were barely supporting her weight. “You don’t like that Colt and I are married. I get it, and if I were you, I wouldn’t like it either. You still don’t get a pass to call me a slut or spew that racist crap!”
“I’m not afraid of you!” Sarah tried to close the remaining space between her and Imani.
“I don’t want you afraid of me! I just want you to stop acting like a petulant child!”
Sarah laughed mockingly. “And I just want you to get your ghetto ass out of my house!”
“Ghetto?!?!” Imani launched at her.
Colt grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back against him. “Sarah, did you call the Pentagon?”
“Yes, and so what if I did?”
“Who the hell are you?” Colt looked at her as though he’d never seen her. “Two of my men died today because you made that call.”
“That should have been your slut of a wife!”
Imani bristled under the pure venom Sarah was spewing. “Let go of me, Colt,” she hissed.
“Let her come, Colt. Let’s see who you married,” Sarah taunted and started toward them. “Ghetto rat!”
Tony, who’d been silent until now, grabbed Sarah around the waist and held her back. “Enough,” he told Sarah quietly.
“But she—”
“I said, enough.” Tony turned Sarah so she was facing him. “She’s your best friend, remember that?”
“She’s nothing to me! She’s nothing, period!”
“Bitch, I—”
“Stop,” Colt demanded with absolute authority and tightened his arms around Imani to ensure she understood he had had enough.
“I’ll stop when she’s no longer in my face, in my house, and in our life!” Sarah screamed and burst into tears.
Colt released Imani and went to his ward. He held her as she cried wrenching, loud sobs.
The fight went out of Imani then. She hadn’t anticipated that she could hurt this badly over Sarah’s obvious hatred. And then this. Colt leaving her to comfort Sarah was the nail. The hurt was bone deep. There was no strength left in her limbs, and it took enormous effort to take the short steps out the front door. She was acting on autopilot now and erected an armor around her heart. She couldn’t take on anymore.
She was conscious of the sounds and sights in the background as she moved toward Colt’s motorcycle: Colt whispering soothingly to Sarah, Sarah’s sobs, Tony looking on helplessly, and people moving around, going about their normal day on a ranch. She was aware of it all happening, but then she was numb in her responses. It was happening as if it were somewhere far away or happening to someone else and she was simply an observer in the background.
There was almost a crack in her armor when she found herself in front of Colt’s motorcycle, staring at it as though it would somehow transport her away from there without her having to know how to ride the thing. She hated that she had to depend on Colt one last time to take her back to his house to get her things. The Austin sun beat down on her head with an almost skin-melting heat. When Colt finally came out of the house and jumped on the bike, she was almost ready to pass out from the record-setting high temperature.
He climbed onto the bike without uttering a word to her. From the expression on his face, she had no idea if he was happy, sad, or indifferent to the recent confrontation. She was dying to find out, but then she was terrified to see more proof that he would support Sarah over her.
If Colt noticed her disquiet, he didn’t let on. In fact, he barely waited for her to climb onto the bike before he roared away from Tony’s house in silence.
Unlike when they’d driven up to the house with her plastered against Colt’s back to anchor her on the bike, she held on to only his shirt and refused to wrap her arms around him. Despite the heat from the scorching sun and the jacket she wore to ride the bike, she felt chilled to the bone. It was a numbing cold that had her clenching her teeth to stop their chattering.
As soon as they arrived back at the house, she jumped off the bike and ran into the house. Colt didn’t call out or try to stop her. In fact, a quick look back told her that he’d remained on the bike even after she entered the house. Still working on autopilot, Imani entered the room she’d been using as an office since she’d gotten there and started packing her gear. She had no intention of taking any of it with her, but she’d have everything packed, ready to be picked up later by her company. She only needed to shut down access to every machine in the house and transfer everything she’d been working on to the hidden lab she’d built years ago. Anyone trying to gain access to her work would be disappointed. No, it wasn’t necessary for her to take anything with her other than her laptop.
Less than five minutes after entering the house, she was back outside again with her backpack and climbed into the Ferrari she’d driven before. Knowing that she should always be prepared to move quickly and have a quick getaway strategy, she had hideaways all over the world. All locations were fully equipped with her needs, which negated any need for her to have to pack clothes or any such mundane items when on the run.
Leaving her husband less than twenty-four hours after their marriage wasn’t ideal, but it was necessary for her. She would take anything, do anything to fight for her man, but she couldn’t take him not loving her enough to defend her from prejudice or such derogatory comments from Sarah. There was no way for her to fight against that. How could he believe she was after his money? When had she ever expressed any interest in his wallet?
It was all so unfair.
She’d been driving for almost an hour on I-20 East when the Ferrari was suddenly surrounded by four black Escalades. She couldn’t see inside the vehicles, nor could she move the Ferrari without plowing through the larger SUVs surrounding the car. She looked at the device she had on, and then she made up her mind to face her demons. It was time. Lippman had no idea who he was trying to catch. Let’s give him what he thinks he wants. I will be his worse fuckin’ nightmare.
Chapter Fifteen
Colt stared at Mark, his head of security, as though he’d lost his mind. “You saw my wife leave in the Ferrari hours ago and you only now thought to tell me? Worse yet, you didn’t stop her from leaving?�
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“We didn’t know that she wasn’t supposed to leave,” Mark answered hesitantly as Colt stood and looked down at him.
Colt was several inches taller and broader in the chest than the other man. “Armed men intent on taking my wife were in this house and on this property this morning. And you didn’t think to stop my wife from leaving alone? Didn’t think to send a detail with her?”
Mark paled. “We can track the Ferrari.” He swallowed hard, clearly nervous about Colt’s escalating temper.
“Patch the location into my mobile as soon as you get it.” Colt stalked across his office to the door. “And Mark, when I get back, you and I are going to have a little chat about how my wife is to be protected going forward,” he told him in a hard voice. Mark had been with him long enough to know that any promised talk or instruction from the colonel on how to do his duty would be painful. So, Mark wasn’t surprised to get a hard fist to the face seconds later.
“If even a hair on her head is hurt, it will be your ass.” Colt went into his bedroom where he kept a concealed room for his weapons: guns, handheld grenades, knives, and his shield. He was hoping that all he would find was a pissed-off wife once the car was located, but if that asshole Lippman touched her, Colt was going to put a bullet in that bastard once and for all.
They tracked the car to a hotel parking lot in Orlando, Florida.
After taking his jet to the airport in Orlando, Colt flew his helicopter to the rooftop of the hotel. Neither Imani nor anyone fitting her description had checked in. Within an hour of his arrival at the hotel, he had viewed the surveillance camera footage and watched the two men park his Ferrari sans Imani in the parking lot. Those men were familiar to him.
Lippman had his wife, and Colt couldn’t allow himself to react or feel fear for her. He intended doing whatever was required to get her back safely. Worried that it was already late in the day and would soon be dark, he headed for his private airstrip. Once on his plane, he needed a location. Knowing that Lippman wouldn’t be so stupid as to take Imani to Langley, he activated the new shield. He’d known that Imani was unhappy with him, and he hadn’t wanted her to know that he was tracking her. Now that he knew she was taken against her will, all bets were off. Imani had assured him that once the shield was activated, he would be able to locate her and she, him. He had no idea how the technology worked, but he hoped like hell that it did what it was supposed to this time.
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