by Dianna Love
Delano found his voice first. “A bomb?”
“Yes. You can wire it onto me.”
“A suicide bomb?”
“No, a smart bomb that will hurt him but not me.”
Delano leapt up, yanking the sheet with him. “No way. No fucking way.”
Stunned silence greeted his use of the blunt Anglo-Saxon epithet, and he took advantage of it.
“Have you forgotten the blood-bond, Ainsley? You die, I follow. It’s as simple as that. Then there will be no one left to perfect the vaccine, no matter how much blood you leave behind.” He wrapped the sheet around himself, holding it bunched at his hip with one hand. “Christ, we might as well concede to his demands if that’s your plan.”
“He’s right, Ainsley.”
Ainsley wheeled on Eli, her lip curled in a veritable snarl. “I know he’s right, dammit!” Her fierce expression crumpled, leaving raw, stomach-churning fear etched in every line of her face. “Oh, God, what are we going to do? I can’t let anything happen to them. This is all my fault.”
Guilt scored Delano’s conscience, raking its claws deep into his psyche. The two people who gave her life meaning, the people for whom she’d sacrificed everything… And now, because of him, their lives now hung in the balance. If he hadn’t hunted her down, Lucy and Devon Michaels would still be safe. Ainsley would be safe.
“I’m the one who dragged you into this, remember? It’s my fault.”
Eli snorted, crossing his arms across his powerful chest. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Janecek is the villain of this piece, make no mistake about it.” He glared at Ainsley. “None of this is your fault, Ainsley. Absolutely none of it. You just happened to be born with a funky gene. Are we clear on that?”
Before Ainsley could respond, Eli wheeled toward Delano.
“And you — you coulda been more transparent with Ainsley from the start, no question. You know my position on that, so I’ll leave it alone. But everyone in this room knows that it wouldn’t have made a tinker’s damn of a difference to the outcome. Once her eyes were opened to the predators, Ainsley could no more have turned her back on this project than I could. So if you please, a little less self-flagellating and a little more strategizing as to how we’re going to bring this motherfucker down.”
Amazed, Delano arched a brow. “Are you finished?”
“Gawd, I hope so. I just shot my word quota for the next four days.”
Delano clapped his free hand on Eli’s back. “As always, you give wise counsel. Why don’t we, er,” he looked down at the sheet he clutched over his nakedness, “compose ourselves and meet over the dining room table?”
Eli nodded. “I’ll put coffee on.”
As soon as they were alone, Delano went to Ainsley and gathered her into his arms. She shuddered, and he held her closer, absorbing her fear and dread and guilt and misery. “I’m so sorry, little one.”
She let herself lean on him a moment, then pulled back. “I’ve got to go get dressed,” she said, her voice thick with unshed tears.
“Of course.” He released her immediately, although it was the last thing he wanted to do. He wanted to hold her. He wanted to tell her what this past day had meant to him. He wanted to hear what it meant to her. He wanted the equivalent of morning-after assurances, in the evening. But this was not the time. He gave her arm a last squeeze. “I’ll see you shortly.”
When she’d left, he headed straight for the bathroom. Standing at the basin, he turned the water on. He gave it a few seconds to run cold, then cupped his hands beneath the faucet to capture the crystal-clear liquid, bent and drank deep. Then he repeated the process a half-dozen times, until the sweet, clean water had knocked the edge of his thirst. Shutting off the tap, he reached for a hand towel and swiped it across his face. Catching his own gaze in the mirror, he cursed. “Great timing, Bowen.”
He was about to go up against an enemy who was among the most powerful vampires alive.
Cursing, Delano started the shower, adjusted the water temperature and stepped under the hot spray, letting it bathe the scratches on his back with tongues of fire. Scratches that had failed to heal during his day sleep, because, God help him, he was no longer a vampire, or fast achieving that state. A fact he was going to have to keep from Ainsley and Eli, who were going to need every ounce of courage they could muster for the confrontation to come.
Ainsley managed to stay in her chair out of sheer willpower. They’d been going over different scenarios and what-ifs and contingencies for hours now, and she was ready to scream.
No, she wanted to hit something, to lash out. She wanted to tear this room apart. She wanted to hurl her coffee mug against the wall, overturn the table, smash the stupid speakerphone that refused to ring.
She glanced at Delano, and felt some of the desperate edge come off. Poor Del. He didn’t look to be in much better shape than she was. Not that he looked bad; she’d come to believe he was incapable of that. But he looked … what? More vulnerable, maybe. Suddenly, she wanted to circle the table and put her arms around him right where he sat, holding him as tightly as he’d asked her to do last night.
He looked up and caught her eye.
Tell me again that it’s going to be all right.
Instead of replying to her silent plea, he reached across the table and covered her hand with his, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
Of course. He wanted her to conserve her psychic energy. He’d been right about that. Her mental exhaustion in the wee small hours before dawn had been profound. When Delano sent her a sleep suggestion, it had been lights out. She couldn’t remember the last time she slept so soundly, even with the help of a sleep aid.
The speakerphone rang, jolting everyone visibly.
Delano stabbed a button. “Bowen.”
“So curt.” Janecek’s voice filled the dining room, but there was a great deal of background noise, a rhythmic whup-whupping. “And after I’ve come all this way to see you.”
Eli muted the phone. “Chopper,” he said, then depressed the mute button again.
“I’m touched,” Delano drawled.
“It doesn’t look like it from up here,” shouted Janecek over the beating of the helicopter’s blades. “It looks like you’ve got a SWAT team up here ready to take us out on your command.”
Ainsley’s stomach churned. He was here, in a helicopter, hovering close enough to see the guard posted on the roof!
On cue, Eli’s radio erupted with a report from the roof of an incoming aircraft, potentially hostile. He stabbed the mute button on the phone, then depressed the transmit button on his radio. “Roger that, B-Team. Hold your fire. Repeat, hold your fire. There are hostages on board that helo. Over.”
When Eli’s radio had crackled a “Roger that”, Delano took the mute off again.
“You expected us to roll out the red carpet, perhaps?”
“What I expect,” he said, “is a little respect for my cargo.”
Unable to stand it a moment longer, Ainsley jumped up. “Goddamn you, you monster, they better be all right!”
“Ah, Ms. Crawford. Good of you to confirm your presence. Because without you, this delightful duo would be of no use to me, save perhaps as an appetizer. They’re neither one of them very big.”
Ainsley gasped, but Delano pushed into her mind with a faint but firm command not to rise to the bait. Digging her nails into her palms, she forced herself to sink back into her chair. His eyes thanked her, and he turned his attention back to the phone.
“Come on, Radak. Skip the theatrics and get straight to the point.”
“Okay, Delano. Here’s my point.”
Screams erupted, and the rotor blades became suddenly louder.
Eli’s radio burst to life again with the voice of a team member Ainsley had met a handful of times. “Jesus, he’s dangling someone out of the chopper! And not over the roof, either. Over the street. Jesus, fuck! It’s a kid. Just a kid.”
Ainsley leapt to her feet again,
wanting to crawl through the telephone to get at the bastard. “You hurt that child and I’ll kill you!”
“Tell Delano to withdraw his forces from the roof, Ms. Crawford, and nothing will happen to the child. Then you and me and Daddy Dearest can sit down and talk trade.”
Eli stabbed the mute button. “We can call ’em down, but have them arrayed just inside the doors to the roof. If it starts to go sideways up there, they can be back out on the roof in seconds.”
Delano released the mute. “We’ll meet your demand. Just haul that kid back in.”
The noise of the rotors dipped again, making the sobs of mother and child all the more audible. Oh, Devon, Lucy, I’m so sorry.
“Okay, she’s safely inside again,” came Janecek’s voice. “Your turn.”
Eli gave the order for his men to retreat, this time not bothering with the mute button. However, he did mute the phone to relay the order for them to hang just inside the stairwell, close to the roof’s door.
“Better?” Delano asked.
“Infinitely. But before I land, I want you to tell Mr. Grayson that this handsome craft is equipped with an M60D machine gun. He’ll be familiar with it. It’s standard NATO fare, I understand, and it’ll be pointed at that door. My pilot tells me it’s rated for 550 shots per minute, as I’m sure Mr. Grayson can confirm, although I haven’t had an opportunity to personally benchmark it against those specs.”
Delano glanced at Eli, who nodded grimly.
“Okay, land that bird and we’ll talk again.” Delano leaned forward and hit the off button on the conference phone.
Ainsley’s stomach dropped sickeningly. “You hung up on him? Omigod, what have you done?”
“I’ve simply reminded him that we also have something he wants, and that he doesn’t hold all the cards.”
Ainsley was vaguely aware of Eli in the background, instructing the B-Team to move further down the stairwell and out of danger from the helo’s guns.
“But he does hold the cards.” She thumped her hand on the table. “He’s got Lucy and Devon. You just heard what he did to Devon!”
Before Delano could defend his action, Eli jumped in to do it for him. “Delano’s right,” he said, radio still gripped at the ready. “We have to try to hang on to whatever edge we can get, even if it’s psychological. And don’t forget, we have our little jack-in-the-box surprise up there.”
He referred, of course, to the commando they’d earlier stashed in Delano’s helicopter. They’d also planted a guy in the interstitial space between the first and second floors, above the security room with its banks of monitors, which would be the logical place for Janecek to take up headquarters if he gained access to the building from below. Yet another man lay in hiding in the building they’d made use of as a clinic, in case Janecek chose that location for a rendezvous. But they’d felt all along that the roof was more Janecek’s style, and he’d obliged. Still, what if Janecek sensed their man’s presence?
She felt her nails biting into her palms again, and unclenched her fists. “That’s presuming he goes undetected. You know the first thing he’s going to do is a deep scan of the roof for any kind of hidden presence. Can you be completely certain the stealth technology of the helicopter will shield him?”
“We’ve been over this before, Ainsley,” replied Delano. “Remember the way Janecek walked right up to me wearing that fireman’s turn-out suit? If Kevlar shielded a powerful vampire so completely from my senses, then I have every confidence that the helicopter’s technology will easily shield a mere man. And he’s tucked completely out of sight, if Janecek is suspicious enough to order a visual.”
Ainsley grimaced. He was out of sight, all right, lying in the coffin-like bed Delano had retired to during their daylight flight from St. Cloud. He’d be a sitting duck — no, make that a dead duck — if they were wrong about the shielding capacity of the helicopter’s highly reflective shell. “But what about—”
Delano responded to her concern before she could voice it. “Janecek won’t catch a whiff of our guy’s thoughts. That’s why we gave him the headphones. That’s why he’s been instructed to focus exclusively on the continuous incantation being relayed to him. Until and unless we interrupt that flow with other orders, he won’t be having the kind of brain wave activity that Janecek can pick up on.”
She gnawed her lower lip. “You should have let me do it. I’d feel better if I was up there. At least then I could—”
“Feel like you were doing something?” Eli sighed. “I know how you feel.”
Eli’s voice was harsh, as though he, too, wanted to be the one on the roof. Suddenly, she remembered the way he’d looked the first time she’d asked him about why he’d left the army to work for Delano. He’d said he’d found another war to fight. She’d never pursued the matter with him, but it was evidently very personal. He badly wanted to be the one to bring the monster down. What had Janecek — or someone like him — done to Eli?
“But all due respect,” Eli continued, “the man up there is a former Navy SEAL. He’ll get the job done if the opportunity is there. Besides, you and Delano have to be down here, to negotiate with Janecek. He’d know something was up if you weren’t both here for his call.”
The phone rang again.
Delano let it ring twice before picking it up. “Bowen.”
“Hang up on me again, and you’ll get one of these ladies back faster than you bargained for, but you won’t like the condition you find her in.”
Ainsley’s anguished gaze flew to Delano’s. See? You angered him!
That’s good, he countered silently. If we don’t get him off balance, he won’t make a mistake. And if he makes no mistakes, we’re screwed.
“So sorry,” he said aloud, “I didn’t realize you needed me to hold your hand for the landing.”
“Ah, but you did your share of hand-holding in your time, didn’t you, Delano? Not to mention a little hand shackling.”
Delano sighed, and Ainsley noticed a tic start under his left eye.
“You were a child, Radak. An abomination, to be sure, but a child nevertheless. I tried to protect you from your own appetites. Unchecked by an immature value system, you would have wreaked horrific destruction, and then you would have died. For while you knew how to feed, you lacked the necessary survival skills.”
“Ah, my father, my savior.”
Delano rubbed a hand across his forehead, and Ainsley realized he was wiping away perspiration. What? She’d never seen him do that before. So much for the superior vampiric biology he’d tried to explain to her. She’d wager his system was dumping plenty of stress hormones right now.
“Once more, I am not your father. But I did try to protect you. I thought if I could supervise your adolescence, you’d eventually develop the maturity to handle yourself responsibly. I was wrong.”
“You were a fool, Delano. Now enough of this. You and Nurse Crawford will come up to the roof. Delano, you will come forward first. When you reach my pilot, who will be standing by the aircraft, I will release the child. When Nurse Crawford is assured of the child’s safety, then she will come forward. When we’ve secured her, I’ll let the woman go.”
Delano laughed grimly. “You’re a brave man, Radak, to propose taking me first.”
“Ah, but if I don’t take you first, I can’t be assured of taking you at all. I know you, Delano. You’re the big-picture guy. You’re invested in the greater good. Ms. Crawford, on the other hand, is invested in the safety of her loved ones. Besides which, we’re more than prepared to handle the likes of you.”
“Give us a moment.” Delano stabbed the mute button and turned to Eli. “What are you thinking?”
“The report from our security cams says we’ve got three people to worry about — the pilot, another unidentified man, probably a co-pilot, and Janecek. Janecek is in the back, keeping the kid close, which keeps the mother docile. The co-pilot is manning the big gun.”
“Lovely,” Delano muttered.
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“I say we comply with his demand, but activate our jack-in-the-box. He’s the best sniper I’ve got. When the chopper door opens to let the kid out, we let our man take a shot. Meanwhile, you take the pilot out.”
“And I’ll dart out and grab Devon,” Ainsley volunteered.
“No way,” both men said in unison.
She lifted her chin. “Someone has to scoop her up. We can’t leave her there while gunfire is possibly being exchanged.”
“Ainsley, honey, you can’t come outside that door. If we’re both out there on the roof at the same time, all they have to do is open up on us with that machine gun. Then they won’t have to let anyone go.”
“But—”
“No buts. If you’ll remember, I move a little faster than you. I can take the pilot out, scoop up the kid and get back inside before you could even reach her.”
Well, that was hard to argue. He was capable of moving faster than her eyes could track him. But the plan had one flaw — a gigantic one.
“Okay, you’re much faster than me, so that makes sense. But do you really think Janecek is just going to stand in the doorway and give you that free shot? Even if he’s satisfied there’s no one up there to worry about, he’s not going to expose himself. He’s got far too much respect for you as an opponent to do that. He’ll get the co-pilot to do it.”
“That’s exactly what we’re counting on,” Delano said. “The co-pilot is the one we need to take out of commission. If our man on the roof can disable him, and if I handle the pilot, that’ll leave Janecek stranded. I’m pretty sure he can’t pilot that thing himself. It’s not his style to do anything for himself that an underling can do for him.”
Ainsley paled. “Okay, so he’ll be stranded, but he’ll also be extremely pissed. And he’ll still have a hostage and some serious fire power.”
“Once he appreciates he’s stranded, his hand will be forced. Guns or no guns, he’ll have to negotiate with us for his own survival.”
“What do you mean?”