by J. D. Tyler
No one at the maid’s cart.
Once he was sure it was clear Jones slipped into the stairwell.
“What’s happening?” Bricker’s voice sounded in a loud whisper from the room.
“Hush, Adrian,” Zoe’s much quieter voice hissed behind them.
Dammit. Bricker was becoming not just a pain in the ass, but a liability. If the guy didn’t shut up, Luke would kill him himself, Zoe’s undercover operation be damned.
Abby’s hand settled on his and he looked up to see the corners of her eyes crinkled in mirth and she shook her head. No, he couldn’t kill him.
The woman was so good at reading his thoughts and easing his moods. He’d never wanted a partner before her and now he didn’t know what he’d do without her, both in his professional and personal lives. The primitive need to protect her rose and filled his chest. Slowly, he inhaled and tamed the slight panic. She was safe and he’d damn well do whatever it took to keep her that way.
He leaned in close and whispered to her. “When Jones signals the all clear, you run right to the stairwell. I’ll send the kids and Smith over. Then Zoe and her PITA.”
Worry replaced the brief humor from the moment before in her eyes. “You’re not coming?”
He wanted to pull her into his arms, kiss her and promise everything was going to be okay, but this was neither the place, nor time. And one thing he knew about Abigail Prudence Whitson, she didn’t like false promises. So he’d give her the only one he could right now. Turning his hand beneath hers, he squeezed it. “I’ll be right behind them with Castello. I promise.”
A moment later, Jones emerged from the stairwell. He pointed upwards and then shook his head. Then downwards and nodded.
Something was going on up the stairwell, but the coast was clear below.
“Go,” Luke said, giving Abby the all-clear.
Crouching, she dashed down the corridor, keeping low as she went past the next ballroom just like Jones had.
He blinked a moment. Somewhere along the line, she’d ditched her stiletto heels for a pair of men’s black sneakers—probably one of the dead bad guys’. Smart woman. She knew she’d need to be more mobile.
She slipped into the stairwell. Jones signaled for the next group to head across.
All three waiters and Smith shot down the hallway, mimicking Abby’s maneuvers, then slipped into the stairwell with her.
Jones, looking up the connecting hallway, held up his hand to stop anyone else from coming.
Luke inhaled deeply, forcing his heart to slow. The urge to run to be at Abby’s side making his nerves itch.
A moment later, which felt like a lifetime, Jones signaled the all clear.
Next went Zoe and Bricker. She kept the lightweight in front and to the right of her, making herself a target and keeping her bodyguard cover in place.
A hand landed on Luke’s shoulder.
“Go, kid,” Castello said. Since the time Castello came into the Edgars’ family fold to help protect Luke’s sister-in-law, Katie, there had never been a question the big guy had his back, same as he had the marshal’s.
Without another thought Luke sprinted across the space and ducked into the nook beside Jones. He signaled the FBI agent to stay for Castello, then slipped through the door into the stairwell. Smith was half-way down the first staircase with his weapon drawn at anything approaching from below. The others were lined up behind him, pressed against the wall, with Abby keeping watch for trouble above them.
And dammit, there was another body on the landing just above them—hotel security, it looked like.
“I’ll keep watch,” he said, trying to move between her and the bodies.
She shook her head and refused to move. “I’ve got this.”
The weight of her decision sat on his chest. He wanted to protect her from the memories, but she was right, the image of the dead man was already catalogued in her mind with no way to erase it.
With no way to protect her, he moved down to take the point from Smith.
The door behind them opened Jones slipped in. Castello was right behind him, carrying…a mop?
Luke gave him a what-the-fuck look.
“Maid’s cart.” Frank just shrugged, turned and slid the mop stick into the door handle, preventing anyone from easily entering the stairwell from the corridor.
“Abby,” Luke said and pointed to the spot directly behind him.
She gave him a narrow-eyed look, but didn’t complain, just took her position just behind his right shoulder. He didn’t care if she liked it or not, he needed to concentrate and having her beside him would help him focus on what was ahead, not worrying about her.
“No talking,” he whispered, fixing a long look at Bricker, who pressed his lips together like a petulant child, but nodded.
Above them, they could hear distant gunfire and shouting. He needed to get them out of this stairwell as fast as possible.
With both hands on his weapon in front of him, Luke started down the stairs, the sound of sneakers following behind him. At the landing he turned and went down the second set of stairs to the first floor, lobby-level door.
Holding up a hand to stop everyone behind him, he leaned in and looked through the safety glass to see if anyone was there. From what he could see there were two more hotel staff down—another security guard and someone who might work in the check-in area. He couldn’t tell if they were dead or just injured. He couldn’t take the chance to go see, not if he wanted to get his group, especially Abby, to safety.
“What was on that level?” he whispered to her.
“The main entrance, bar, concierge, check-in and gift shop. Business center.” She laid a hand on his shoulder. “We might be able to get a message out the business center if there’s a land line.”
He considered her comments, then shook his head. “Too risky. If I was taking over this place, I’d want to lock down that level pretty damn quick. Too many entrances for SWAT to breach.”
“Smith,” he whispered and looked past Abby to the FBI man behind her. He pointed to the man, then the door.
The special agent nodded and came forward to take position so he could watch the hallway through the glass and the stairwell where they’d just descended.
With a move-forward motion, Luke headed down to the next level.
* * * * *
Castello’s nerves itched a like kid caught in a poison-ivy patch.
Descending backwards, he kept his weapon focused on the stairs they’d just come down, his attention split between keeping watch and wondering about all the civilians they’d just picked up.
The agents were well trained and followed Luke’s commands.
Then there was the arms dealer. Total waste of oxygen. Luke’s cousin seemed to think saving his life merited their efforts. She was right. Their mission tonight was to try and get his supplier of the SAMS. It was why Luke and Abby asked him to help out on this undercover op—totally off the books and off his boss’ radar, but then anything the Edgars needed him to do, he’d do. They were family. Hopefully, whoever Bricker’s contact was didn’t die in one of those ballrooms upstairs. Just in case they made it out, it was up to Luke, Abby and him to assure Bricker stayed alive long enough to connect with them at some other time.
Zoe.
Now there was something he hadn’t expected. A cousin to the Edgars. And a woman, at that. One that seemed to play fast and furious with the law, according to all the stories he’d heard from Luke and his siblings. Turned out she was some undercover agent. So she claimed.
What had him on edge was the possibility that one of the three waiters might not be on the up and up. One of the bad guys they’d taken out, the one that threatened Abby, had been disguised as a waiter.
There had to have been more than one.
Casting a quick glance at the trio dressed in black and white, he considered it.
Ben had been quick to want a weapon. He’d seen Luke hesitate. Probably had the same thought he did.<
br />
Trust him until you have to shoot him.
* * * * *
Luke stopped the group and motioned for Smith to scope out the next set of descending stairs. The last thing they needed was for more of the terrorists to come up on them from below. Once Smith was in position, Luke motioned Abby to guard the door. He was going to go in and scope out the surrounding area.
Logically, it should be Abby going inside. She knew the floorplans and where everything was located. However, the caveman in him, which only seemed to surface around her, wasn’t letting her go in there until he was sure no surprises waited for them. If anything happened to him, he knew Castello would get her to safety.
A quick look down the hallway to his right showed nothing but rooms with closed doors. No one moving around. He moved to his left and studied the hallway perpendicular to the other. More rooms with closed doors. Still no one.
He stilled his body and slowed his breathing, listening.
Nothing.
Which sent chills down his spine. A full-blown ball upstairs? House full of overnight guests? This was the kitchen level. It should be looking like an ant hill with the workers tripping over each other. Where the hell was everyone? More importantly, was there anyone left alive down here?
Dammit. He hated leaving anyone behind, but he had a mission to complete. Get Bricker and the others out of the building.
* * * * *
As the group moved farther down the stairs, Zoe gripped Bricker’s shoulder with one hand and her gun with the other, keeping him one step in front of her the whole way. She needed the degenerate millionaire alive and out of this building before these terrorists or Luke killed him. One scenario seemed as likely as the other.
What a clusterfuck this was.
A simple op—observe the meet and let someone else take down the thieves trying to sell SAMS to her arms dealer. No biggie, right?
Just her luck some radical group with guns decided to muck it all up.
Even though she hadn’t answered Luke’s question about who might be behind this, she was pretty sure it wasn’t anyone in Bricker’s network. Of course, they might be one of the many groups he’d supplied illegal arms to over the years.
A little guilt niggled at her conscience.
What she told Luke was the truth. In the nearly two years she’d been posing as a security specialist, she’d been slowly working her way into Bricker’s network. Finally becoming his bodyguard and gaining his confidence, she’d been able to send intel back to her handlers about both foreign and homegrown extremist groups. And she was close to identifying one of the largest arms suppliers in South America, but that wasn’t her only reason for protecting Bricker.
When her mentor went missing after infiltrating Bricker’s network as a delivery man, she’d asked for the assignment. She’d do whatever she could to find out what happened to him.
She owed him that.
Markus had saved her life in college when she’d been headed down a road of self-destruction. He’d been undercover in a biker gang terrorizing a southwestern area when she’d started dating one of the young bad boys, new to the group. Being on the edge, looking like the bad sheep her family thought she was, had been a dark thrill.
What she hadn’t known was that gang rape was part of the initiation for any girl into the group.
Markus showed up at her place right before her boyfriend was to pick her up. He’d had a tape of another girl—one he’d been too new to protect—going through the ritual. It had been brutal and graphic, but just what she’d needed to slap some sense into her. He’d managed to get her to a safe house, then put her in touch with people who eventually helped her find a new path for her life.
Movement in front of her stopped.
Luke had reached the next level landing and motioned for them to all remain where they were. Abby took a position to watch his back at the door, while one of the agents covered the stairs descending to the lowest level.
Bricker turned to her, his mouth open to speak.
With a glare that said she’d shoot him if he made a sound, she gripped his shoulder so her nails dug into him.
Thankfully, he chose that moment to exercise some common sense and clamped his mouth closed.
One thing about tonight’s fiasco, she’d proved her suspicions about the jet-setting arms dealer were correct. While he was willing to make money brokering deals with terrorists and criminal gangs, anyone who could provide the funds to purchase his illegally gotten weapons, causing the deaths of thousands was all a game to him. Put in a life-and-death situation like this, the man was a useless pansy.
Not like Markus.
Luke stepped back through the door and was whispering quietly with his girlfriend.
And not like the men in her family. The kind who were willing to put their lives on the line to protect those they loved. She glanced at the group of waiters between Bricker and Abby. Even innocents could depend on men like Luke and Markus.
* * * * *
Assured that, for the moment, they were safe down here, Luke slipped back into the stairwell.
The relief in Abby’s face made the spot in his chest that she’d filled do a flip. Would he ever get used to his safety being important to her?
He hoped not.
Leaning in, he pulled her close. “What’s down here besides the kitchen?” he whispered.
She pointed to the right. “The kitchen is that way. Some freezers, supply rooms and storage.” Then she leaned in and looked to her right through the window. “Up that hall is the laundry. Beyond it is the employee locker rooms and break room. There’s an exit out of the break room. It leads out into an alley that connects to 16th Street.”
“Good.” He motioned Jones to join them. “You and Abby go in and secure the hallways. We’ll be right behind you.”
Jones slipped in, but Luke stopped Abby before she could follow. “No unnecessary risk, babe.” When she nodded, he gave her a quick, hard kiss then opened the door for her to slip inside.
CHAPTER FIVE
All he had to do was get them into the employee break room then make his move.
Men of the Red Mantle were stationed inside. Methan was no fool. He’d been thorough in his assessment of possible entry sites for the infidels in the government’s security forces. The small exit in that room would be like honey to the bear, making them think they could sneak up on the Red Mantle from such an insignificant point.
Now they’d take out some of the problem makers from the inside, as well.
He fought to hide his grin. Best to keep them thinking he was on their side. But the joy he had knowing he’d be able to do something special to further their cause was hard to contain. Especially since he’d bungled getting down to the sub-basement in time to get his out of his monkey suit and grab his weapons.
When the shooting started, he’d ducked into the Michelangelo room, hoping to connect with Pohl’s men, only to find them already taken down. His friend Davis apparently killed by the tall bitch with the gun.
She would be the first one he’d see punished.
* * * * *
Crouching near the juncture of the main hall way and the one leading to the locker rooms and employee break room, Abby studied the area in front of her, trying to keep her heart rate at a steady pace just like she learned back in her training days.
“What are you looking at?” Luke said from just over her shoulder, his warm breath in her ear and on her neck, sending heat through her and easing her fear faster than her training could.
“For a hotel so easily breached by terrorists, it certainly has a high amount of security pads on the doors to the storage rooms down here.” She nodded towards the doors down the right side of the hallway, which had black electrical boxes and keypads hanging loose. “All of which seem to have been disabled.”
“What are those rooms?”
“The right side is kitchen storage, table and banquet supplies, towels and linens.” She pointed to the left side
. “The first room is the laundry and its keypad has been disabled, too. Next comes the men’s locker room, women’s locker room and then the employee break room. Looks like their keypads are still intact.”
“Why do you think that is?”
She thought a moment, quickly scanning the floor plans in her head once more. “Not sure. Maybe whoever’s behind this stored gear in there? Or they wanted employees to feel safe going to the break room?”
“Right where we’re headed.”
She looked over her shoulder at him. “Why did they disable all these keypads? It made the rooms impossible to enter now.”
“That would be the point. No one could hide there. One less spot for them to protect should our people gain entrance to the hotel. It also funnels attackers in the direction they want them to move.”
“Like in the direction of the break room with its exit to the alley.” Now she understood the worry that lined his face, and the tension in him and Castello.
Luke laid his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it, and stared into her eyes. “I want you to stay back here with Zoe until we’ve secured the room.”
She opened her mouth to protest and he squeezed her shoulder again.
He leaned in closer to whisper for her ears only. “I know you’ll protect my back and I don’t know what lies ahead. Okay?”
“You think they may have a trap up there?” Suddenly, she didn’t want him to go first, to be the hero who always stepped up when needed. The man she’d come to love for his honor as much as anything else. She’d learned quickly that the Edgars family had more than its fair share of honor, both in the men and women.
“I’d be a fool not to. Once we’re sure it’s all clear, you bring Zoe, Bricker and Cassie up.”
“You be careful.”
“You know it.” He winked at her with that playboy charmer smile, then turned to the others. “Jones, you keep watch on our rear. Castello, Smith, Ben and Travis, you come with me.”