“Okay. I think I’ll head upstairs and start packing.”
“Make sure to lock the door, and don’t open it for anyone,” he reminded her.
“Got it.”
She took the elevator to their room, her mind on packing and the possibility that they’d find Nate before the end of the day. She didn’t notice the movement from behind her until she’d already inserted her key card.
The locks on the door beeped open at the same time a large palm landed between her shoulder blades and shoved her forward.
She stumbled into the room, landing on one knee hard enough to make her teeth chatter.
It took a moment before she was able to push from the floor and turn to face her attacker.
When she did, she looked into the face of Taras Ledebev, the man who’d attacked her and Ryan in Ryan’s apartment.
“Where’s your boyfriend?”
“He’ll be here any minute, so I’d run now if I was you.”
Taras sneered. “Not running, girlie. I’m going to pay you and your boyfriend back for killing my brother.”
Nadia glanced around the suite looking for a weapon within reach. Their breakfast dishes had been removed while they’d been out, dashing any hope of using a knife in self-defense. The only things within arm’s reach were the newspaper that had been delivered with their breakfast and the vase of yellow roses, both of which were on the credenza behind the couch.
“We had nothing to do with your brother’s death.” She hoped keeping him talking would give her time to come up with an idea.
“He just happened to die in your brother’s apartment,” Taras growled. “I’m not that stupid.”
“You’re plenty stupid if you think I killed your brother. Or that you can get away with killing me and Ryan in a hotel full of people.”
Someone pounded on the door. “Room service,” a voice boomed from the hall.
Taras turned.
The door burst open, and Ryan barreled into the room. He rammed his shoulder into Taras’s stomach. The two men crashed into the armoire. Ryan threw a punch, catching Taras in the jaw, momentarily stunning him.
Taras pulled a switchblade from his pocket. The blade snapped out.
Taras stepped forward, slashing out with the knife and missing before the two men tumbled to the ground. Taras straddled Ryan’s legs and swung the knife down toward Ryan’s face. Ryan rolled to his side, throwing Taras off-kilter. But not for long. Taras raised the knife again. Ryan gripped Taras’s wrist with both hands, the two men struggling for control.
She couldn’t just stand there and watch Ryan get stabbed.
Nadia grabbed the glass vase behind the couch. She rushed toward the struggling men and brought the vase down on the top of Taras’s head.
Taras rolled off of Ryan, dazed but conscious, and ran for the door. He sprinted into the hall as Ryan pushed up from the floor.
“Stay here,” Ryan called out as he followed Taras from the room.
Nadia stayed on the couch and rubbed her sore knee, coming down from the adrenaline high of the moments before.
Ryan was back in less than five minutes, but it seemed eons longer as she waited and wondered if Taras has gotten the jump on him again.
“He got away.” Ryan locked the door to the suite.
“Should we call the police?”
Ryan hesitated. The police would ask a lot of questions he didn’t want to answer at the moment. Reporting the intrusion would also eat up time they didn’t have. “Let’s report it to the hotel management as a simple break-in. Since nothing was taken, they’ll probably be happy to go along when we decline to make a police report. I’ll let Parsmons know when we get back to New York.”
Nadia crossed to where Ryan stood, a slight limp in her gait.
“You’re hurt.” He slid his arm around her waist.
“It’s nothing. I can walk it off. How did Taras know we were in Atlanta?” Nadia asked more to herself than him.
Lines formed in Ryan’s forehead. “He must have followed us to the airport in New York. I didn’t see anyone tailing us, but that doesn’t mean no one did.”
“What now?”
“I’ll call the front desk, and you pack. We have a plane to catch.”
It took the hotel management nearly two hours to take their statements and document the damage to the room, but they were more than happy to handle the situation in-house. The plane was fueled and ready to fly by the time Nadia and Ryan arrived at the small private airport where they’d landed the night before. Thankfully, the flight from Atlanta to Richmond was short, but it was still late afternoon by the time they arrived.
Ryan gave his name at the check-in counter at the chain hotel where he’d had Shawn make them reservations.
The clerk punched several keys on the computer in front of him.
“Mr. West, welcome.” The clerk beamed. “Your room is ready, and your companions have already checked in.”
“Companions?”
The clerk’s smile dimmed but held. “Yes. Mr. Shawn West and another gentleman. Mr. West asked me to tell you he is in room 4123 just a couple doors down from you.”
Ryan barely stopped long enough to drop their bags off in their suite before he hustled them to Shawn’s room.
Shawn opened the door with a grin.
“What are you doing here?” Ryan frowned across the threshold at his brother.
“Hello to you too. You want to come in so you can lay into me out of earshot of the whole hotel?”
Shawn stepped back, opening the door to the room wider.
Nadia smiled as she walked past him into the room. “Hi, Shawn. Hi, Gideon.”
Gideon nodded from his seat at the table in the hotel room.
Shawn strode back to the table and sat, leaving Ryan to close the door to the suite. “So what are you two doing here?”
Shawn’s brows lowered. “Helping you. I got an address for Jamal Fredricks. A PI I’ve worked with before is there now with eyes on the place. He hasn’t spotted Nate, but if he’s got a job, he may not be home yet,” Shawn said.
“What’s this?” Nadia asked, pointing to the map spread out on the table in front of Gideon and Shawn.
“An aerial map of Nate’s neighborhood,” Shawn answered.
“Good.” Ryan’s tone was grudging. “We’re on a tight timeline, but I want to know as much as possible about what we are going into. If Nate is smart, he’s got himself some protection. I don’t want any of our guys getting shot trying to bring him home.”
“Nate wouldn’t have a gun,” Nadia said, drawing the men’s attention to her. Their parents had kept a close eye on them, but both she and Nate had lost friends to the epidemic of gun violence plaguing New York in the 1980s and ’90s. “He hates guns.” A tremor slivered through her at the memory of holding a gun on the intruder in Ryan’s apartment. “We both do.”
Shawn met her gaze. “People do things they’d never think of doing when they’re in the kind of trouble your brother is in.”
Shawn’s statement hung in the air for a long moment. Nadia glared, but Shawn held her gaze, seemingly unaffected.
“Let’s focus here.” Ryan sat at the table next to Gideon, while Shawn went back to studying the map of Nate’s neighborhood and planning how to approach Nate.
Nadia joined the three men but held her tongue as Ryan, Shawn and Gideon talked through possible scenarios for getting Nate to return to the city, from Nate willingly coming back with them to the need to remove him forcibly. She didn’t like the idea of physically making Nate return to New York. It wasn’t lost on her that some of the plan Bs they discussed technically amounted to kidnapping her brother, but there didn’t seem to be much else she could do if Nate wouldn’t come willingly.
And then what?
“What happens once we get Nate ba
ck to New York?”
Getting Nate back to New York wouldn’t end this nightmare. They’d still have to deal with Smith, and she wasn’t about to just hand Nate over like a lamb to slaughter.
One gigantic problem at a time.
Ryan shared a look with the men at the table.
“The safest thing for you would be for us to turn him over to Smith,” Gideon said emotionlessly.
Nadia pushed her palms against the table. “No.”
“The alternatives?” Ryan said, sending Gideon a look that would have made other men shrink.
Gideon’s expression didn’t change. “We can try to work out a deal with Smith that ensures your and Nate’s safety. Or go to the cops and set up a sting.”
“I don’t see Smith being willing to negotiate, not that we could trust his word, anyway,” Shawn said. “But Nate has made him look bad, not to mention cost him millions of dollars. Smith needs to make an example of him.”
“Okay, so we take option two.” Nadia speared Ryan with a look.
“Going to the cops won’t be easy either.” Ryan shook his head. “Parsmons isn’t sold on all the incidents being connected, and we haven’t exactly kept him in the loop. We’d lose a lot of time just bringing him up to date and getting him on board.”
“Not to mention completely lose control of the situation after we bring in the cops,” Shawn chimed in.
“The NYPD can’t mount an operation like this as fast as we can, and there’s the little matter of them leaking like that strainer to the press.” Gideon studied the documents on the table. “I’ve got a friend at the FBI’s New York office. I’ve worked with her before, and I’m sure I could convince her to let us in on the op.”
Gideon looked up when his statement was met with silence. “What?”
“I’m shocked to hear you refer to someone as a friend,” Ryan teased.
“I’m shocked his friend is a woman. The perpetual scowling and grunting usually scares them off,” Shawn said.
Nadia concentrated on the map on the table so Gideon couldn’t see her smile. Despite the serious nature of the conversation, it was nice to have a moment of levity.
Gideon didn’t appear to share her sentiment. His scowl deepened. “Do you want me to call her or not?”
“Yes,” Nadia answered quickly before Ryan or Shawn could say something that might jeopardize her best chance for getting Nate out of this mess safely. “Thank you, Gideon.”
She thought she saw Gideon’s scowl soften for a fraction of a second, but before she could be sure, he grunted and ducked his head.
Ryan and the guys packed up the map and other documents they’d been studying.
“Everyone ready?” Ryan looked at each of them.
Shawn and Gideon nodded and grunted respectively.
Nadia swiped sweaty hands over her thighs. “Ready.”
Shawn and Gideon started for the door.
Ryan stepped in front of Nadia and ran his hands up and down her forearms. “You sure you want to go along? Even if everything goes as best it could, it’s bound to be emotional for you.”
She went up on her toes and laid a soft kiss on his lips. “I have to do this. I’ll be okay.”
Ryan pulled her closer, his kiss hard and demanding. After a minute, the conspicuous throat clearing from the hall had them pulling apart, but not before they were both breathless. “This is all going to be over soon. Don’t worry.”
Chapter Sixteen
It was dark when Ryan parked the rental they’d picked up at the airport behind a black Nissan Sentra. Ryan and Shawn got out of the car, leaving Gideon to watch over Nadia.
A tall African American man with wraparound aviators unfolded himself from the driver’s side of the Sentra as Shawn and Ryan approached.
Shawn had given them all the lowdown on Jeremiah Griffin on the flight to Richmond. The ex-cop turned private investigator was selective about which cases he took but owed Shawn a favor. For several hours, he’d been watching the small bungalow that Nate rented.
“A man matching your subject’s description went into the house at 6:28. Looks to be watching television in the front room just off the door,” Jeremiah said without preamble.
Ryan glanced at his watch. It was 8:57. Nate had been home for almost two and a half hours, long enough to settle in and relax.
“How do you want to play this?” Shawn asked.
Two pairs of eyes turned to Ryan. “We don’t have a phone number for him, so we’ll have to knock.”
“And if he doesn’t open the door?” Jeremiah said.
Ryan raised an eyebrow. “You’re not a cop anymore, right?”
Jeremiah smiled wryly. “That’s what they tell me.”
Ryan sent Jeremiah and Shawn to cover the back while he climbed the front steps of the house. He had his gun out of its holster, but he held it down by his side so any nosy neighbors wouldn’t notice it.
He knocked on the door. “Nate, it’s Ryan West. Nadia sent me. Open up.”
The curtain at the front window fluttered. Several moments passed with no further movement.
“I’m not very inconspicuous out here on your porch,” Ryan called out. “Why don’t you let me in? We can talk.”
“How do I know Nadia really sent you?” Nate called from the other side of the door.
Ryan shook his head. If he’d been one of Smith’s men, Nate would be dead by now, his voice giving away his location within the house.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and sent a text to Gideon. Moments later, Nadia and Gideon stepped from the car.
“Look out your window,” Ryan called.
The curtain fluttered again.
“This could be a trick. You could have kidnapped her. How do I know you aren’t using her to get me to open the door? Then you’ll kill us both.”
The vein in Ryan’s neck pulsated. There was no doubt Nate Shelton was a coward, but the man stomped on Ryan’s last nerve. “If I’d wanted to kill you, you’d be dead, and I’d be on a plane back to New York already. Now, open the door.”
Another minute passed before the door slowly opened.
Ryan raised his gun.
Nate peeked around the door, his eyes going wide at the sight of the gun pointed at him.
“Is anyone inside with you?” Ryan asked.
“No.”
Ryan motioned to the threadbare sofa in the small living room. “Sit and don’t move.”
He moved down the hall, clearing the other rooms in the house and letting Shawn and Jeremiah in through the back door.
Ryan sat in the chair across from the couch while Shawn and Jeremiah took up strategic positions throughout the room. “Did Nadia really send you?” Nate asked.
“Yes. She’s anxious about you,” Ryan said, taking out his phone once again and texting Gideon.
Less than a minute later, the front door swung open. Nadia stepped into the house, her eyes falling on Nate the moment she entered the house.
“Nate.” His name came out on a sob.
She crossed the room, sweeping her brother into a hug before he rose from the sofa. Her shoulders shook, and she held on to him as if he might disappear if she let go.
A big part of Ryan wanted to turn away from the intimate moment between brother and sister, to give them privacy, but they didn’t have the time for the Shelton siblings to work through their relationship. They needed to convince Nate that the only solution to this mess he’d gotten himself and Nadia into was for him to come back to New York and work with the authorities to take Smith down.
Ryan rose. “I’m sorry to interrupt this moment, but we have some things to talk about.”
Nadia stepped out of Nate’s arms and surprised them all by hauling off and punching her brother in the jaw.
Ryan stepped over the small ottoman bet
ween his chair and the sofa and grabbed Nadia’s arm before she could land a second punch to Nate’s face.
“How could you do this?” she hissed. “How could you be so stupid and selfish?”
Nate rubbed his jaw. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Things just got out of control so fast.”
“Let’s all have a seat,” Ryan said, leading Nadia to the chair he’d been sitting in.
Ryan noticed she cradled the hand she’d hit Nate with.
“I’ll see if there’s ice in the fridge,” Jeremiah offered, noticing Nadia’s injury as well.
Once Nadia and Nate sat, Ryan spoke. “We got most of the story from your uncle, but I think you owe your sister an explanation.”
Nadia glared at her brother. “He owes everyone in this room an explanation. Both Ryan and I landed in the hospital because of the secrets you and Uncle Erik have been keeping.”
“Uncle Erik told me about the stuff that’s been happening. I didn’t know things would go this far.” Nate’s eyes held a plea for understanding.
Ryan examined the man in front of him. Gone was the confident, fit hotel executive that appeared in the pages of background information Ryan had on Nate. This Nate was thin, his skin sallow and saggy. The last eleven months had worn on him. Ryan couldn’t bring himself to feel sorry for the man.
“Well, they have. How did you get mixed up with Lincoln Smith?” Nadia said.
Nate swallowed hard. “You talked to Smith?”
Jeremiah returned with ice in a dishrag. Nadia took it from him with a nod of thanks.
“Smith ambushed Nadia in her office and demanded that she hand you over in forty-eight hours or else,” Ryan said.
Nate turned to his sister with wide eyes. “And you’re going to let these guys take me to him.”
The anger in Nadia’s eyes gave way to hurt. “Of course not.”
Nate dropped his head. “It was just supposed to be a small real-estate venture. But the plan just kept growing bigger. I thought I could handle it. I wanted to prove that I wasn’t just my father’s son, a small-time hotelier. But I couldn’t raise my half of the funds, not before the option expired. But I also didn’t have ten million to pay Smith back what he’d put up for the option.” Nate looked at Ryan, fear swimming in his eyes. “I know who Lincoln Smith is, and I knew he wasn’t going to just write off ten million dollars.”
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