by Gennita Low
Don’t think. She had to get them out of there. There was one big problem coming up—how to get out of the compound without being killed. Dilaver and his men would be searching for them. The advantage was that they wouldn’t know yet that there were just two of them. The disadvantage was…the same. The two of them against possibly a dozen or more men. It was small comfort to know that the grenades probably took out a bunch of them and that most of the thugs were still at the other kafenas at this time of the night.
The fire was a good distraction, but she doubted that would stop them from looking, especially if she had shot Dilaver in that room. She hoped that she had. That scumbag deserved to die, but she had been aiming at blobs of heat seen with her goggles, so she couldn’t be sure. Her main concern had been to get at Hawk, so when she had knocked at the door, she had gone in with the focused intent of looking for only one familiar figure before she started shooting.
Once she had both her goggles and gas mask on, she had had to locate Hawk without actually being able to see him. As luck would have it, he was lying on the floor, being kicked by one of Dilaver’s thugs. That was the perfect place to be when CS gas was released. She’d committed the spot to memory before throwing in the canister of gas.
She heard Hawk’s sharp intake of breath above her and wished she could carry him over her shoulders. She had to smile at the image. Somehow, short of being knocked unconscious again, she didn’t think he would actually allow that. She couldn’t describe the relief and joy that had engulfed her at the sight of him, still fighting his captors.
Now her job was to keep him alive. No, it was more than a job. She looked into the darkness below. Life was so strange. Why did she have to be hanging in midair and being chased by gangsters when she realized that she was in love?
She jumped the last five feet and immediately readied her weapon, looking for signs of Dilaver’s men. She could hear shouts from somewhere not too far away. She heard Hawk’s landing behind her and another sharp intake of breath, but he was reaching for her duffel bag already, pulling out the Uzi and some other weapons she had in there. He reloaded the Uzi as she scanned the area.
“Ready,” he whispered.
“Okay, we keep running that way, no matter what,” she said. “There’s a bush there and a ditch grating in the wall behind there. That’s the target.”
“Ten-four.”
They rounded the corner. Dilaver’s men had turned on all their car lights and there was no way Amber and Hawk could sprint across the grounds without being spotted.
“I have one more grenade left,” Amber said.
“Let me have it, since you’re the leading the way. I’ll use it once when they get closer.”
“All right. Here. Ready?”
“Affirmative. Go!”
Amber took off. She heard shouts and the crack of weapons. Bullets zinged through the air past them. She ducked behind as many trees as she could.
“There!” she heard someone yell. “Get in the car and go after them! Keep the headlights on them!”
But she was heading for the bushes, not the driveway, and their pursuers would have to go on foot as soon as they caught up to where she and Hawk would be. She reached the wall that surrounded the compound and looked for the shrubbery she had marked. There was a metal grate behind it that covered the storm drain leading out of the property. She turned to find Hawk not too far behind. As soon as he saw the wall, he turned and heaved the grenade at their pursuers. A loud initial blast silenced the firing weapons.
“Right through here, Hot Stuff,” Amber said, moving the heavy grate with both hands.
“You know, I now fully appreciate all the trouble you took to see me that first time,” Hawk said as he helped her.
His breathing was uneven and Amber frowned. She had seen him run for miles when he was exploring the alleys with her. He must really be injured. “Not too far now,” she said, although they still had to hike to her parked car.
They jumped into the storm drain and he took up a lot of the space. He turned and, to her surprise, kissed her hard on the lips. “Couldn’t resist,” he said. “Not after watching your butt wiggle inches from my face.”
“You’re one crazy man,” Amber said, shaking her head. They were far from being safe and he still wanted to banter. The crazier thing was, she felt perfectly safe with him, for no apparent reason. “Come on, Hot Stuff, before they realize we aren’t coming out from behind the bushes.”
The base of the wall was very thick, constructed centuries ago, with newer walls built on top of it. A natural sound barrier, the trench was strangely quiet compared with the noise from a few minutes ago, and this time, Amber’s worry grew as she really heard Hawk’s hitched breathing as they made their way out on the other side.
She jumped up and pushed out of the drain, cautiously looking around in the darkness. It was a side street, on the west side of the compound. The two main front and back driveways were in the north and south. She knew from checking that a car driving out from inside the compound would take at least five minutes to turn into the alleyway.
“My car is down the end of the road,” she told Hawk.
“Okay. I think they’ve discovered where we went down, by the way. I can hear them behind us.”
“We have a five-minute head start if someone’s smart enough to run and get a car,” she said. Her concern grew as she watched Hawk getting out of the deep trench. She knew a healthy person would easily push off with his hands and climb out; instead, he was using his elbows.
They barely reached the other side of the street when two cars turned into the road from opposite ends, their headlights shining straight at them.
Amber looked to the left, then right. “Shit. They’re smarter than I thought,” she said. “And we’re out of grenades.”
“Where’s our target route?”
“Down that way, then a side alley.” She pointed in the direction of one of the oncoming vehicles. “Either way, we’d have to start shooting our way out of here.”
Hawk pulled at the duffel bag strapped to her. “Time for the toys, sweetheart.”
This was Hawk’s arena. Running teams, moving into position, and executing firefights. But he didn’t know how experienced Amber was. He started running back into the shadows and she followed quickly. He knew weapons could only buy them some time because Dilaver’s men would be coming from all directions once shots were fired. He deliberately placed himself in front of Amber.
He aimed at a headlight of the closest oncoming vehicle and pulled the trigger, then sweeping the weapon left to right to get both of them. The high-pitched shatter of glass mixed with the rat-tat-tat sound of machine gun fire cut through the air. He aimed lower. The smell of burning tires was immediate as the car zigzagged out of control.
Hawk turned to the other vehicle. Amber nudged his elbow. “Wait,” she yelled into his ear. “It’s signaling. Cover me from the rear!”
Before he could ask what the hell she was doing, she started running toward the oncoming car. Fuck. There was no time to think, just do as she ordered. He ran behind her, turned, and fired again at the first vehicle. It had finally come to a stop, the doors flinging open as Dilaver’s men jumped out. They ducked as Hawk started firing his weapon.
Amber had better know what she was doing because they were in the direct line of fire. Hawk became aware of the other oncoming car screeching to a halt right behind them. Someone killed the lights. Someone was shooting at Dilaver’s men, besides him.
“Am I glad to see you!” he heard Amber say.
“Got your message. Can’t miss the action. Hop in.”
It was Lily. Hawk turned to find her behind the driver’s door, using it as a shield, as she shot at their pursuers. He ran toward Amber, who had pulled open the back passenger door. She aimed and popped off a few shots before sliding inside.
Hawk went behind the door. “I’ll keep them down while you get back in,” he yelled to Lily.
“Yeah.”
Hawk pulled the trigger again and found his weapon out of ammo. “Fuck!”
Amber stuck hers out of the car. “Here, Hot Stuff. Mine’s still loaded.”
Hawk grinned. “I have something to show you later,” he promised as he turned his attention back to the thugs. He discharged a series of shots as Lily jumped back into the car. He did the same, slamming the door. “Go, go, go!”
20
Amber looked at the pile of clothing on her bed. By now Lily and Hawk would be halfway to the safe house. Lily had dropped her off so she could get her vehicle out of the alley and come back to the house. Amber would meet them later.
Hawk hadn’t liked the idea one bit, but it was the only logical thing to do. Dilaver was going to show up looking for Hawk, and Amber didn’t want them tearing the place apart. There were things there she needed to take care of first.
“Call Sun,” Hawk had ordered gruffly. “Let him show up if Dilaver drops by. Promise me, Amber.”
“All right,” Amber said. She looked at Lily. “He’s injured.”
“We’ll take care of it. You be careful,” Lily said.
“Okay. Take care of the duffel bag, Hot Stuff. We’ll need it for our vacation coming up.” What she really wanted to do was check out Hawk’s injuries for herself, but she had to do this. “Be there soon.”
“You have three hours or I’ll come looking,” Hawk had told her.
She smiled at the memory of the ferocious stare he’d given her. She had taken care of herself for so long that it made her feel giddy to see a man act so protective. Was it possible that she had only just met him? She felt as if she had known Hawk a lifetime.
The commotion outside her window interrupted her reverie. She peeked, then went out of her bedroom to look through the other window. Her little building was surrounded by cars. She could see Dilaver stepping out and giving some commands.
“Showtime,” Amber muttered.
By the time they reached her upstairs apartment, she was pulling out huge suitcases from the little closet by the stairway. She turned. Two men stood at the connecting door, weapons drawn, their eyes searching the small apartment.
“Can I help you?” she asked calmly.
The men ignored her. One of them walked to the kitchen door that led to the deck and opened it. Dilaver strode in, leaning heavily on his stick.
“The restaurant isn’t open today, Dragan,” Amber said.
“I’m not here for a meal, Amber,” Dilaver said, and nodded to his men. “We’re looking for Hawk.”
“You could have called on the phone,” she said. Her apartment was suddenly filled with men. “I’d have saved you time. He isn’t here. I thought he was with you.”
Dilaver sat down in the sofa and looked around him. “Very small place. It’s hard to hide a man in here.”
Amber raised her eyebrows. “Hide? Why would I hide a man? Are we talking about Hawk still? Because I thought you were both friends.”
“As of this morning, we’re not, my dear. He’s an informer.” Dilaver leaned on his walking stick, cocking his head. “As if you didn’t know.”
Amber shrugged. “No, I wasn’t sure. He’s a careful man, that Hawk. Doesn’t reveal much about anything.” She walked around her suitcases. “Are you really looking for him here, at my restaurant? Why would he come here to hide? This would be the first place you’d look, wouldn’t it?”
Dilaver nodded. “True, but you have been seeing him a lot lately. He couldn’t have gone far, though. He escaped not too long ago.”
Amber noticed Dilaver didn’t mention Hawk’s injury. She sat down on the arm of the sofa. “Excuse me, are you telling me that a man escaped from your compound? I find that hard to believe, Dragan.”
A grim expression finally crossed the Slav’s face. “It was a dramatic escape. He and a few others killed and injured a number of my men there.”
“So there were others involved?” Amber asked. She smiled. “Come on, now, you’re pulling my leg, aren’t you? How can anyone go into your compound without your knowing it? And then mount an escape after killing your people? I know you better than that, Dragan.”
A voice interrupted from the kitchen doorway. “You seemed awfully calm about the news that Hawk’s in danger.” A smartly dressed small middle-aged woman stood there. She surveyed the apartment. “Are you sure you know nothing about his background?”
Amber shrugged. “I knew he wasn’t telling me the whole truth, but then this is Velesta. You must not know much about this town.” She cocked her head, studying the woman curiously. “Which part of the States are you from?”
“Don’t tell her anything, Aunt Greta,” Dilaver warned from the couch. “Amber sells information. This is my aunt, Amber, and that’s all you need to know.”
Amber crossed her arms. Here was a chance to find out exactly what everyone was after. “We can make a deal. You’re after Hawk for something big. I can see that now. What does he have that you don’t?”
“And what will you do for me if I tell you?” Dilaver asked. His eyes narrowed. “Can you tell me where Hawk is?”
Amber shook her head. She gestured toward the suitcases. “I’m leaving town for a vacation very soon,” she said, “and last night was my goodbye with Hawk.” She sighed loudly. “I didn’t want it to end, but a woman has to make some tough choices.”
“A vacation with the CIVPOL chief, right?” Dilaver leaned closer. “Good choice. Your going away might help me. Hawk won’t have one more place to hide. It won’t be easy for him to get in and out of Velesta without my knowledge. I’ll have people posted at every crossroads looking for him.”
“It really sounds like he has something very important that you want,” Amber said. “Now I’m really curious. Is this information going to make me a lot of money?”
“Miss Hutchens,” Greta cut in, still standing in the doorway. “I deal with information myself. In fact, I can give you all kinds of classified information to sell that will make you a very wealthy woman. Now, if you can locate Hawk for us, maybe we can do some business. But there’s a time limit. Hawk won’t be of use to me after the seventeenth of this month.”
Amber noticed Greta said “me” and not “us.” “Why the specific time?” she asked.
“Some information will just be old news after a certain deadline, Miss Hutchens. Now, do we have a deal?”
Amber looked at her watch. “We have a deal, but Brad—that’s Chief Sun, if you don’t know who that is—will be here very soon to pick me up. I don’t think he’ll be too happy to see all your cars around my place, Dragan.”
“I’m not so happy with him, either. He raided my kafena this morning. One of these days, my dear, you’ll find another one of your boyfriends gone.”
“Then they will send another one and this time he might not be someone I can get close to, Dragan.” Amber glanced at Greta. “I like the sound of the word ‘classified.’ You’re either American or have lived there a long time. I’m guessing you’re privy to so much information because you’re either married to a diplomat or you’re working inside. Someone like me can’t run a café forever, so please explain to Dragan here how our line of work progresses.”
“She certainly does sound more concerned about this chief than Hawk,” Greta said to Dilaver. She nodded at him, a satisfied expression on her face. “All right, tell her about the bomb and the decoy.”
He refused the painkillers. Where the hell was Amber? She was late.
“What time is it?” Hawk asked. He scowled from the bed. “Can I get up now?”
“It’s five minutes since you last asked, and no, you can’t get up till Amber’s here,” Lily said. She sat at the far end of the room, by the door, with a gun pointed at him. “Be good, will you?”
“I’ve eaten. I’ve subjected myself to being prodded by women who don’t really know me. And you took a shot at me and I haven’t retaliated.” He scowled at the dark-haired woman. She had really used that weapon when he had tried t
o get out of the house. “Haven’t I been good enough?”
“Obviously not, or I wouldn’t have had to use this,” Lily said, waving her gun. “You just sit there and rest up. How am I going to explain to Amber where you are when she shows up and you’ve gone off?”
That had been his plan after sitting there at the safe house for a while. He just couldn’t wait any longer. What if Dilaver…? He didn’t want to imagine what Dilaver might do to Amber.
“She’s okay, Hawk,” Lily said quietly. “Brad was going over there to pick her up for their vacation, remember? Dilaver wouldn’t hurt her.”
“How can you be sure?” Hawk challenged.
“Not so calm and cool about not killing the scumbag now that he has someone of yours, are you, Mr. McMillan?” Lily asked softly.
Hawk became still. “Meaning?”
Lily leaned back, resting one arm on the back of the chair. “You know what I mean. You and Brad. Both of you wouldn’t take down Dilaver when he wasn’t hurting someone you know. Look at you now. You look like hamburger meat, yet you want to go after him and his men. Brad, too. He took off like a maniac the moment he heard that Amber might be in danger from Dilaver.”
If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought Lily was jealous. But surely not of Brad and Amber? “That’s what happens when a friend’s in trouble, Lily,” Hawk said, eyeing her closely. She appeared relaxed, as if she were trying to distract him with conversation. “Wouldn’t you take off after Dilaver if he had Amber?”
Lily smiled. “Are you trying to get me all defensive about my friendship with Amber?”
“Not at all. But I notice you still haven’t answered my question.”
She looked at him seriously for a moment. “For me, it all depends on the situation,” she said. “I mean, sometimes you have choices to make, you know. I love Amber very much, but what if one of the girls is in trouble at the same time? I can’t be at two places at the same time, can I?”