Alec’s lungs felt leaden, and the weight of his responsibilities suffocated him. As the edges of civilization appeared through the misty rain, he pulled out his training and forced all but the mission ahead from his mind. He had to stay focused. To screw up now could cost lives. His. Daniel’s. Erin’s.
A lightning pulse of fear skittered through him at that possibility, and he swore to do anything he must to protect Erin.
Stick to the agreement, Lafitte had said.
But he couldn’t make that pledge. Because Erin’s life and the life of her unborn child came first.
God help him. Sometime over the course of the past weeks, his priorities had changed.
* * *
After scoping out the Tchoupitoulas Street address from Lafitte’s notes and confirming that the location was some type of warehouse, Alec parked the rental car in an abandoned lot a few blocks away.
Wearing her new set of dark blue sweats, Erin followed Alec along the riverfront, back toward the warehouse. Alec had changed into the long-sleeved black shirt and jeans he’d bought himself at their first stop on the outskirts of New Orleans. On his back, he toted a pack filled with all types of electronic gadgets, tools, tape and wires. Supplies to rig the warehouse with listening devices and tiny hidden cameras, he’d explained. But it was the bulge at the small of Alec’s back that made Erin shiver.
His gun. At a gun shop, Alec had bought several more magazines of ammunition for his weapon and hidden a knife under the leg of his jeans. Both indicative of the violence he expected tonight. Erin shuddered and quickened her step to catch up to him, tucking herself close to him as a chill wind buffeted them.
With a brief glance in her direction, Alec slid his hand around hers and laced their fingers, anchoring her close to his side. The gesture was so unexpected, so sweet, that fresh tears burned Erin’s eyes. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision and tried not to think of herself and Alec as an elderly couple, still in love and holding hands after decades spent together. She swiped at the drips of cold rain pelting her face and steeled herself against the grip of pain in her chest.
When they reached the warehouse, they found the door locked. Within moments, though, her superhero lover had gotten them past the flimsy security measure and, leading with his pistol, guided her inside the dim building.
“Stay here while I check it out,” he whispered.
Erin rubbed the goose bumps on her arms and nodded. Despite the mild New Orleans temperatures, she couldn’t buff away the chill that settled in her bones, in her heart. A cold sense of foreboding drilled her as she watched Alec sweep the warehouse with his weapon drawn, his flashlight skirting over row upon row of luxury boats stored in dry dock.
The cavernous building held a musty stench, and her every thudding heartbeat seemed to echo hollowly from the brick and steel construction. Tarp-draped yachts hung suspended or were shelved on moveable racks, one on top of another, row after row, from the damp concrete floor to the ceiling some sixty feet above. Watery daylight filtered in from a row of ventilation windows near the roofline. Dust motes danced in the thin light, and the hulking watercrafts cast black shadows in the recesses of the huge storage facility.
A large empty space had been left at the center of the warehouse, presumably to accommodate the movement of the forklift parked across the floor. A small steel desk and chair sat to the side of the door, and cockroaches scuttled out of sight when she swung the beam of her flashlight over the floor.
“All clear.”
Erin gasped when Alec appeared from behind a concrete support pillar.
She pressed a hand over her runaway heartbeat. “Now what?”
He narrowed a concerned look on her, and she straightened her shoulders and raised her chin. She had to get a grip on herself, keep her head and do everything she could to help Alec, not hinder him. She glanced at the weapon he’d tucked back into the waist of his jeans and reminded herself of the stakes.
“I’m okay. I can do this. I want to help,” she said, her voice much steadier than her nerves at the moment. She had to stay calm and think clearly. She could not get in Alec’s way.
He gave her a reluctant nod. “All right. We’re gonna wire the place. Get the pack.”
When she handed him the backpack, she noted that his stern, all-business expression was in place. Grim. Taut. So far removed from the warm and generous lover she’d discovered recently that her pulse quickened.
The day had barely begun, and already she felt the man she’d fallen in love with slipping away.
* * *
“Check one, two,” Alec muttered under his breath, then checked the tiny digital recorder’s reception.
Check one, two, his voice echoed from the device.
“Okay, that’s it. We’re set.” He nestled the wire-size microphone back in its hiding place by the light switch. “Now we wait.”
“Wait where?” Erin asked, scooping up electrical tape and stowing it in Alec’s backpack.
He turned his eyes toward the rafters. “Up there. C’mon.”
Taking the pack from her, he grabbed her hand and started climbing a small set of narrow stairs to the first level catwalk. Erin followed, her heart in her throat as they traversed the steel grate and climbed to the next level. And the next. Higher and higher they climbed, while her anxiety mounted. When they reached the last level of catwalks, Erin prayed they were finished climbing. But they weren’t.
Setting down the backpack, Alec grabbed the steel cable supporting one of the suspended yachts and leaped onto the deck.
“Alec?” she called when he disappeared inside the cabin.
“Wait there.”
She did, her hands clammy and her breath shallow and fast as she peered down from the shaky catwalk to the floor five levels below.
When he reappeared, Alec had two nylon rope coils slung over his shoulder and a mesh strap with carabiners attached in his hand. Much like the equipment she’d used when she’d gone rappelling with Bradley. She shuddered. “Alec? What—”
“Backup. Not that anything will happen, but…just in case.” He jumped back across and the catwalk swayed and shimmied when he landed.
Erin gasped and grabbed for the thin railing. “Backup for what?”
He didn’t answer. With deft hands, he lashed the straps, carabiners and rope together and held the contraption out for her. “Step in the loops.”
Her stomach clinched. She recognized the harness configuration. A diaper sling, Bradley had called it. “We’re…rappelling?”
He glanced up and crooked his mouth sideways. “No, sweetcakes. Backup, remember?”
“But—”
“I won’t let you get hurt, Erin. I promise.”
His promise reverberated in her chest, low and full of conviction.
“Step in the loops,” he repeated.
Bracing one hand on his shoulder, she slipped her feet through the harness, and he connected the strap around her waist. Knotting one end of the rope through the carabiners at her hips, he tossed the other end of the rope over one of the steel rafter beams at the end of the catwalk.
“Where’s your backup safety line?” she asked as Alec stepped to the edge of the iron-mesh platform where they stood.
He shrugged. “I work without a net.” Then, before she could argue the point, he sprang across the four-foot gap to the I-beam support girder.
Once across, he looped and secured the rope and turned back toward her.
“C’mon. You can do it. Just like we jumped the rocks in that mountain stream.”
A hysterical laugh bubbled up from her dry throat. “Need I remind you my dubious rock-jumping skills almost got you killed?”
A tiny grin cracked his stony facade. Warmth filled his eyes, and he stretched his hand farther out to coax her. “You can do it, Erin. Have faith in yourself. I do.”
Have faith? She might not trust herself and her jumping skills, but she trusted implicitly the large, calloused hand he offered—the same
hand that had intimately touched her, the same hand that had lovingly stroked her belly while Alec whispered words of affection to her baby, the same hand that had comforted her and calmed her fears numerous times in the past weeks. She trusted Alec with her life, with her heart, with her soul.
Extending her hand, she grasped his wrist, and with a giant leap, she launched herself across the empty drop to the floor.
Alec reeled her in close and steadied her on the narrow steel girder.
Instinctively she grabbed his waist, clinging as she shifted her weight to catch her balance.
“See?” He gave her mouth a resounding kiss. “I knew you could do it.”
They continued jumping from one girder to the next, climbing, looping her safety line on the next support beam, until they were perched on the highest rafter in a dark corner of the warehouse. The juncture of joists and crossbeams and the steel plate to which they were all riveted made a tiny landing just big enough for the two of them to sit, hip to hip, their backs against the warehouse wall.
Alec knocked away a spiderweb and wrinkled his nose as he flicked the web off his fingers. He muttered something derogatory about spiders under his breath.
Despite their uncomfortable perch, Erin managed to catnap through the tedious afternoon of waiting and muscles cramping. The long hours stretched into the evening, until darkness engulfed the warehouse. Alec did his best to massage the ache from her limbs and fill the time with whispered conversation.
No matter how fatigue and tension wore on her, Erin refused to complain. She savored every moment of huddling on their high perch together, knowing the minutes could be her last with Alec.
“Promise me that no matter what happens tonight, you’ll stay right here. You’ll stay hidden. Stay safe. No matter what.”
She couldn’t speak. Apprehension clogged her throat, and fear for Alec’s life left her mouth dry.
His eyes blazed, and he gripped her shoulder, gave her a shake. “Promise me, Erin. Or I’m getting you out of here now.”
She had no doubt he’d make good his threat and stash her in some obscure hotel or office building. But doing so might blow his chance to be in place when things went down at this warehouse. To witness whatever it was Daniel wanted Alec to monitor.
She bobbed her head once. Erin had sworn not be an inconvenience to Alec on this mission. If she couldn’t help, then she’d fade into the background and stay out of the way.
But her answer didn’t soften the intensity in his eyes. “If something happens to me,” he growled, and she stiffened, swallowed a whimper of fear, “promise me you’ll stay safe. When the danger’s passed, go home. Go back to Cherry Creek and make a home for your baby. Be happy. Be strong. Don’t waste a minute on second thoughts or regrets. Forget about me and move on with your life.”
Her eyes watered, and she shook her head. “I can’t promise that, Alec. I don’t want to forget you. I never could.”
His face darkened. “Erin, listen to me… .”
She touched his lips to quiet him, and he sucked in a sharp breath. “No. I can’t change the way I feel, Alec. I don’t want to try. I—”
The thud of a car door closing outside echoed through the warehouse, stealing her breath. Stealing her chance to say anything more. They had company.
Chapter 15
Alec snatched the flashlight from Erin and shut it off. Darkness swallowed them.
He gave her fingers a final squeeze, then dropped her hand and shifted soundlessly away from her to watch and listen.
The warehouse door opened with a creak, and a man in a trench coat walked inside, leading with a handgun and sweeping the room with the beam of his flashlight. After a moment of investigating the scene, he flipped on the overhead light, and a bright glow flooded the warehouse. The man backed toward the door, then called outside. “No one’s here yet, Senator. It’s secure.”
Senator? Alec glanced over his shoulder to Erin. Her eyes were wide and anxious.
Is it White? she mouthed.
An older man in a suit strode boldly to the center of the warehouse, as if he owned the place. A concrete support beam blocked Alec’s view. He needed to move to a more central location if he wanted a clear line of sight.
Below him, the older man shifted restlessly and glanced around, his manner tense and edgy.
Alec squinted to get a better visual of the man’s face. He turned back to Erin and nodded. Aiming a finger at her and drilling her with a no-nonsense look, he reiterated silently, Stay here. Stay hidden.
Without waiting for a response, Alec eased out on a crossbeam, staying low, moving quietly. Carefully, he inched across the expanse of the warehouse, over the heads of the senator and the half-dozen men who’d accompanied him, until he reached a center support. Hiding behind the concrete pillar, he had a bird’s-eye view of the room. From the looks of the goons surrounding the senator, Alec surmised the men were private hired guns. Not Secret Service.
The senator paced, checking his watch. “Why aren’t they here? I said 2:00 a.m.”
“Perhaps you should wait in the car, sir,” Trench Coat said.
“No, I want to be here when they arrive. Get this business done and get out of here,” Senator White countered. “Did Grimshaw brief you about the terms tonight?”
“He said we don’t give up anything until you have your daughter. When Ramirez releases Nicole to you, unharmed, only then do you give him what he wants.”
Ramirez. Alec’s senses slammed into overdrive. So there was a connection between the senator from Louisiana and the rebel Colombian general and the senator’s daughter. Just as Daniel’s sketch alluded.
“Precisely.” White marched back to the center of the room and checked his watch again. “Your job is to make sure our bait doesn’t show himself too soon.”
Bait? Was this an unofficial prisoner exchange? Had Senator White been bypassing government protocol for finding his daughter by dealing directly with terrorists?
Alec checked the corner rafter to make sure Erin was still out of sight. She’d sidled forward to watch the events below but was still protected by the concrete support. Erin met his gaze with a worried look, then shifted back into the shadows.
“What if LeCroix doesn’t show?” Trench Coat asked.
Alec’s pulse spiked. Daniel.
“He’ll show,” White said, and chortled smugly. “He’s been tracking Ramirez for months. He’d never pass up an opportunity to net a fish this big. Besides, LeCroix thinks when this deal is done that he’ll have his life back, that he’ll have nabbed the man who put a bounty on his head.”
The senator’s adviser grunted. “He doesn’t know that was you?”
Senator White pivoted slowly toward Trench Coat. “You think he’d have been working with me these past months if he knew the truth?”
A chill slithered over Alec’s skin. Lafitte had been working with the senator?
Trench Coat shook his head. “I don’t like it. It just seems too easy. You get Nicole back, while LeCroix and Ramirez each think you’re turning one over to the other. They scrap it out and the strongest and smartest survives to—”
White swung around to face his adviser. “No one survives! Once I leave with Nicole, you and your men take care of both Ramirez and LeCroix. Ramirez dies for what he’s put my daughter through, and LeCroix…because he’s a loose end.”
Adrenaline pumping, Alec prayed his recording equipment was picking up this wealth of information.
“What about LeCroix’s partner? Kincaid?” Trench Coat’s question snapped Alec’s attention back to the discussion at ground level.
Senator White scoffed. “Kincaid is no longer a factor. By now he’s gator food.”
Fury and loathing flashed hot in Alec’s blood knowing this man had put Erin’s life in jeopardy in an attempt to kill him.
“He was hiding in the bayou?”
White nodded. “LeCroix helped us set a trap for him.”
Across the warehouse, Erin gaspe
d. In the hushed darkness, her sharply inhaled breath resonated like cannon fire.
Alec tensed, divided his gaze. Erin covered her mouth with both hands and shrank back into the shadow of the I-beam.
“Who’s there?” The senator raised his head, scanned the rafters and suspended yachts. “You said the place was secure!”
Acid roiled in Alec’s gut. He couldn’t blame Erin for her reaction. If not for his training, he’d probably have had a similar, gut-level response to Daniel’s betrayal.
“Search the place. Every last damn boat!” The senator swept an arm in a wide, angry arc.
Alec’s muscles torqued tighter. Even a basic search of the premises would give Erin’s location away. He’d been trained to hide anywhere, to become invisible. But Erin was vulnerable.
A niggle of uncharacteristic panic and foreboding grabbed him by the throat. Breathing became difficult. He’d die before he let anything happen to her. He had to stop the search. White had to think he’d found the source of the noise they’d heard.
Hoisting himself with the nylon rope, Alec rose from his hiding place. He tied the rope to the main joist and secured his grip. With a leap, he swung across to an I-beam one level below.
Pulling his SIG-Sauer from the small of his back, Alec eased out of the shadows and aimed his weapon on the traitorous senator. “Senator White, I believe you’re looking for me?”
* * *
Erin bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. The metallic tang mixed with the bitter fear that rose in her throat. What was Alec doing? He’d be killed!
Senator White spun around and angled his head toward the rafter where Alec stood. The man’s bodyguards whipped their weapons up, taking aim.
Erin swallowed a whimper and strained to listen to the unfolding scene over the thundering pulse in her ears.
With a raised hand, the senator warned his men to hold their fire. “Who’s there?”
Nimbly, Alec slid down the nylon rope as far as it reached, then dropped the final ten feet. He landed smoothly, weapon ready. Poised and balanced. Like a cat.
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