Watch Over Me

by Lucy Monroe

  “We’re not going to risk the Vega Cartel getting him out of the country. We’ll move in as soon as we get a window of opportunity. And if we don’t get one, I’ll make it.”

  “I believe you.”

  Lana watched the blinking dot that represented Casey move slowly on the GPS map. He and his kidnappers were still headed south of L.A. but had taken a turn eastward, toward the desert. That scared her. The population thinned out that way.

  No one would see Casey dragged from the car. Or worse.

  Claire Adams was working on Lana’s computer while simultaneously talking into her Bluetooth headset and updating someone, probably both Mykola and Brett Adams, as to Casey’s location. “I’m patching the GPS locator through to you now, Brett. Tell me when you have it on-screen.”

  Claire did some more typing and clicking, and then said, “Good,” into the phone.

  She met Lana’s gaze over her shoulder. “They’re directly linked now.”

  “That’s good, right?”

  Claire nodded. “They’re going to get him back.”

  “They have to. He shouldn’t be hurt. Casey didn’t do anything wrong.” Just saying it wouldn’t change anything. Lana knew that. But the words tumbled out anyway.

  “Myk’s a good agent and my gorgeous hubby is no slouch. Remind me later to tell you about the time he saved my life.”

  Lana wanted to share the other woman’s certainty. Only no one had ever saved her. She’d had to do it herself and the cost had been enormous. She had to believe it would be different for her assistant.

  “He can’t help them. But they won’t believe him. They’ll hurt him to make him try.”

  “We won’t give those lowlifes the chance.” This time it was Collins who spoke. He’d stayed behind with Lana and Claire when Myk left.

  He was under strict instructions not to let anyone into the lab. Not even Frank.

  “Maybe you should have gone with them. They already took Casey.” Lana’s gaze skittered around the lab as if he would suddenly appear. She could only wish. “They won’t be coming back for me.”

  “We aren’t taking that chance.” Collins could look almost as scary as Mykola.

  She found that strangely comforting. “Are the other members of Brett’s security team like you?”

  “No way.” He smiled. “I’m the charming one. The rest are a bunch of degenerates with hides tougher than titanium.”

  “I’ll be sure and tell Sammi you said so,” Claire threatened.

  Collins actually looked a little worried. “That she is the exception should go without saying.”

  “I hope, for your sake, she agrees with you,” Claire teased and then tensed. “They’ve stopped.” She listed off an address.

  “Does that sound familiar to you?” Collins asked Lana.

  She shook her head. She didn’t know of any research facilities in that area, but then the cartel wasn’t likely to advertise one if they had it.

  “I’m looking it up right now,” Claire said. Whether to them or into the phone, Lana couldn’t tell. “Good news.”

  “What?”

  “It’s not an airfield.”

  “What is it, though?” Lana asked, not feeling appreciably heartened.

  “A warehouse.”

  Collins frowned.

  “How far are Mykola and Brett from Casey?” Lana asked, not liking the frown on Collins’s face.

  “They’re about fifteen minutes behind at this point.”

  So much could happen in fifteen minutes. Images flashed through Lana’s mind. Mental pictures she so didn’t want to experience right now. Memories of pain she could not bear to think of Casey going through.

  She heard an odd sound, like the whimpering of a trapped animal. She couldn’t think where it might be coming from.

  A hand landed on her shoulder. “Maybe you should sit down for a little while, Dr. Ericson.”

  Her gaze flicked up to Collins. “I…Sit down?”

  “Yeah. I think that would be a good idea.”

  “There are chairs. In my office. I don’t go there much. But I can’t see the monitor from in there.”

  “Don’t you have the program on your office system?” Claire asked without looking away from the screen which she had split into two windows. One showed the GPS map and the other kept changing, like Claire was clicking through web pages.

  “Yes. Maybe. I think so.” Lana fought the thoughts trying to take over her mind, trying to remember if she’d put the GPS locator program on both systems.

  Collins looked worried. “Let’s go find out.”

  “I can’t. What if he moves? I won’t see. Why are you worried? You think something bad is going to happen, don’t you?”

  “I think that if I let you faint and fall down and bruise something your lover is going to shoot me.”

  “My lover?”

  “Myk.”

  “Oh, yes. He, is.” She hugged herself. “He promised to get Casey back.”

  “He seems like a man who puts a lot of store in keeping his word,” Collins said, instead of reminding her that he’d been there when Mykola had made that vow.

  She knew that, it was just…her thoughts were disjointed.

  “I’ll tell you if he moves,” Claire said. “I really think you should go sit down for a minute.”

  What if sitting down put Casey at further risk? It wasn’t a rational thought, but Lana wasn’t feeling particularly rational right then.

  Collins took Lana’s arm in a gentle grip. “There. Problem solved.”

  He led her to her office.

  She sat down, only to pop back up again. “I should be doing something.”

  But there was nothing she could do.

  Only wait and pray that Mykola kept his promises better than anyone else in her life ever had.

  Myk spun the car into the warehouse parking lot. He scanned the lot for the sedan ETRD’s records had listed as Ramirez’s automobile. There was no guarantee she’d taken it to ETRD to kidnap Casey, but there was a chance. And that was worth a look around the parking lot.

  “There it is,” Brett said from beside him, pointing near one of the secondary entrances to the warehouse.

  Myk spoke into his headset. “We’ve located the kidnapper’s car.”

  Brett gave the location.

  “Roger that,” was repeated three times by the team points.

  Myk brought his restored Land Rover to a halt behind the sedan, blocking an easy escape. He and Brett were out of the car and headed toward the door as two steel-gray Escalades pulled into the lot, each SUV heading for a different entrance.

  Myk pulled on the door, but it didn’t budge. “It’s locked.”

  “Do we incapacitate the lock?” Brett asked.

  Myk asked into the headset, “Any other entrance viable?”

  He was waiting for a response when he became aware of the thwap-thwap-thwap of helicopter blades coming from the roof.

  Chapter 16

  “They’re warming up a copter. Get to the roof, whatever it takes,” Myk instructed the team through his headset as he pulled his gun and shot an arch of bullet holes into the door around the handle, separating the door from its locking mechanism.

  He turned to Brett. “With me?”

  “On three.”

  One. Two. Three. They kicked the door in together, severing the door from its handle and lock.

  Claire’s voice came over the intercom. “Building schematics show access to the roof in the south stairwell. The warehouse is three stories high. There’s a freight elevator on the east wall.”

  Brett drummed out directions to his operatives as he and Myk ran up the stairs toward the roof. “Team A, cover the elevator and the exit for the other stairwell. Team B, search the warehouse floors, starting with the ground level. Team C, you’re up on the roof with us.”

  Myk tried to remember how long a helicopter took to warm up. They had three, maybe four minutes before the copter could go airborne.
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br />   He and Brett tore up the steps. The door at the top wasn’t locked. They burst through it, dropping and rolling to opposite sides of the entrance as they came onto the roof. Myk landed in the one-knee, one-foot pose that gave him maximum maneuverability, his gun trained on the group headed toward the helicopter.

  Ramirez and another man were dragging a struggling Casey toward the helicopter.

  The redheaded scientist was doing his best to get away and swearing loud enough to be heard over the noise of the moving blades.

  Myk shouted, “Let him go.” He didn’t wait for them to comply but shot the ground at Ramirez’s feet.

  Cement chips flew up, gouging her through the polyester blend pants of her ETRD uniform.

  She yelled in pain and Casey yanked himself from her temporarily slackened grasp. Brett shot the other man holding the scientist, in the leg. He went down and Casey ran toward Myk and Brett, going straight for the stairwell and safety.

  Smart man.

  Myk was going to tell him he approved. Later. Right now, he was going to keep his own ass from getting shot off. Ramirez had a gun and the bitch knew how to use it. Myk rolled toward the entrance to the stairway, shooting toward Ramirez and the helicopter the whole time. Brett was doing a damn fine job of keeping the injured man pinned in place with directed fire.

  Ramirez jumped into the helicopter and it started rising. The injured man tried to get to the lifting helicopter, but no way was he going to make it. Just to make sure, Myk shot at the helicopter, encouraging a faster liftoff. He wasn’t about to shoot it down and deal with that red tape, but he’d settle for a perp to interrogate.

  No surprise, his bullets bounced right off the obviously armored chopper designed to look like a civilian copter.

  A gunman from inside the chopper targeted his downed comrade through a small hole in the window. A bullet went through the window, shattering the bullet-resistant glass, and slammed into the thug’s shoulder, followed closely by the report of an armor-piercing sniper rifle.

  The chopper went up and away in a rapid defensive retreat.

  Trusting Brett’s team to cover him, Myk rushed to the downed perp.

  He was moaning and whining about his pain in Spanish. Myk ripped the perp’s pant leg at the tear and gave the wound a cursory examination.

  He shook his head and bit out in Spanish, “Stop your whining. It’s a flesh wound. You’ll live. For now.”

  The man spat at him. “Pig cop. Get me a doctor.”

  “You wish I was a cop, asshole.” Myk grabbed the wounded man’s shoulder and yanked him to his feet. “Let’s go.”

  He met Brett and the rest of his team at the door to the roof. “Nice aim.”

  Brett nodded and then turned to Team C. “Police the casings. I want this roof pristine before the local law enforcement shows up.”

  “Will do, boss.” Then the team got to work.

  Brett grabbed the perp’s other arm. “Let’s go. Claire told Lana Casey’s okay, but the doc is going to need to see for herself before she comes down off the ledge.”

  “She has a history.” And had no doubt gone through emotional hell waiting to hear if they succeeded in rescuing Casey.

  “Elle briefed us.”

  Myk nodded. Nothing else needed to be said. He was glad Brett was the kind of man who understood that.

  Casey was waiting at the top of the stairs.

  Brett frowned. “I told you to wait on the ground floor.”

  “I wanted to make sure Myk was okay. He’s my friend.”

  Well, hell.

  Myk left the perp to Brett and grabbed Casey’s shoulder. “I’m golden.”

  “Okay. Good. I’m golden, too. Because of you guys. They were going to take me to Mexico. And probably South America after that. I would have…It would have been…I…”

  “I know. Let’s go.”

  Casey nodded and then winced, his hand going up to gingerly touch the back of his head.

  “You okay, kid?”

  “He,” Casey said with a jerk of his shoulder in the wounded perp’s direction, “hit me on the back of the head. Knocked me out. I woke up in the trunk of a car.”

  Casey was vibrating and Myk wanted to get him out of there.

  “You good to walk?”

  “Yeah. I think so.”

  “Try for me.”

  “I will, Myk.” The younger man looked so sincere Myk figured he’d make it.

  They took the elevator for Casey’s sake and by the time they reached the parking lot, the SUVs from the rest of Brett’s team were gone.

  “One of the units will come back to pick up the cleanup team. Claire will monitor the LLEO’s radio transmissions and direct our guys to a clean meet,” Brett said, referring to local law enforcement.

  “You work outside the law a lot?” Myk asked, impressed and a little envious.

  “When we have to.”

  He got that. Had wished more than once on his last assignment he’d had that kind of leeway.

  “You’ve got a base of operations here?” Myk didn’t want to take the perp back to ETRD.

  He didn’t want the perp on the company’s surveillance videos because he wasn’t filing a full report to Whitmore just yet. He’d played it by the book on his last job and two children and their mother had lost their lives because of it.

  He was never losing another innocent to protocol.

  “We’ve got a house on the beach.”

  The house turned out to be an isolated fortress on a steep cliff overlooking the ocean.

  “How the hell did you get access to this place?” Myk demanded of Brett as they drove through the security gate.

  “Wolf designed it as a vacation home for a friend.”

  The private, winding road led to a huge house of what looked like white stucco, but Myk would bet his last paycheck was damn near impenetrable cement. It soared toward the sky in impressive beauty.

  “Rich friend.”

  “Yes.”

  “Mercenaries make a lot, do they?”

  “We did. And we survived to enjoy what we earned. We had a lot of compatriots that weren’t so lucky.”

  “Obviously, this guy was one of the lucky ones.”

  “I never said he was a former merc.”

  “You didn’t say he wasn’t, either.”

  “True.”

  They pulled up to the house and got out. They were pulling the wounded cartel henchman from the back of Myk’s Land Rover when Lana’s car came screeching up the drive.

  Collins was driving and he’d barely stopped when Lana hurtled from the car and started running for them. Myk couldn’t tell if she was headed for him or for Casey.

  It didn’t matter, because Casey threw himself at her. “Thank you. I can’t believe you Lojacked me, but thank you!”

  “You kept forgetting your cell phone.”

  “A lot of good it would have done me. Ramirez knew about the GPS locator in it.”

  “She didn’t know about your watch, though.” Lana’s pale face had a smug cast to it. “No one is kidnapping my assistant and getting away with it.”

  Cursing in Spanish had Lana’s head snapping up and around.

  She glared at the wounded perp. “What is he doing here?”

  “Answering a few questions.” Myk ushered her and Casey toward the front door. “Let’s get inside. I want Brett’s field medic to take a look at Casey’s head.”

  “Casey’s head? What’s the matter with your head?” she demanded of Casey as they crossed the threshold into a spacious marble foyer.

  It had a fountain that fed an indoor pond with tropical plants surrounding it. Very aesthetically pleasing, but it would also make good cover for someone who knew their way around the house.

  Myk answered Lana’s question when it looked like Casey wasn’t going to. “Whiney-boy back there knocked Casey out with a blow to the back of his head.”

  “How did you know he knocked me out?” Casey demanded. “I didn’t tell you.�
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  “An educated guess. I was right, wasn’t I?”

  “Yes.” Casey glared at Myk. “I didn’t want her to worry.”

  Myk sighed. “Too late.”

  “He hit you? Knocked you out?” Lana’s voice rose with each word.

  Surprising him and Casey, who gasped, she jerked away from both of them, then spun around and marched back to the fake security guard.

  “You spineless bottom-feeder!” She punched him right in the stomach.

  The perp oofed and then screeched when she followed the punch up with a kick to his shin.

  No one else moved. Or spoke.

  Myk was in shock, but pleasantly so.

  “What are you all staring at?” she demanded.

  “I thought you were a pacifist,” Myk said, doing his best not let his budding humor show.

  “I kicked the uninjured leg.”

  That did it. He laughed.

  She glared.

  Brett whistled. “Damn, Myk, I think the doc might be a keeper.”

  Myk just shook his head. “Where’s your medic?”

  “Here.” A man who looked like a soldier and too young to be a medic stepped forward. “I’ve got an examining room set up here on the first floor.” He turned, clearly expecting Casey to follow.

  Showing his good sense, the recently kidnapped scientist did just that. Lana started to trail after them, but Myk snagged an arm around her waist and pulled her back. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “To make sure he’s okay.”

  “He’s fine. He’s in good hands, and doc?”

  She turned to look at him.

  “Give him some space.”

  “I just want to make sure he’s not seriously injured.”

  “Give it a minute, then we’ll go check on him. Okay?”

  “But…”

  “He needs a chance to assimilate stuff a little.” Myk wouldn’t be surprised if Casey needed a chance to let off steam through some tears. It was a natural reaction after what the younger man had been through, but Myk figured Casey wouldn’t want to cry in front of his boss.

  The perp yelled. “Hey, what about me? I just gave him a little tap. I got shot. I know my rights. You got to let me see a doctor.”