I watched her roll her eyes and a prickle of fondness tried to push out of my heart. I squashed it down. This child was clever. Trying to find my weak spots, trying to manipulate me.
“You know what?” I said. “Fine. I am just trying to explain that the man could have been in an accident if we let him drive.”
“You said you weren’t trying to explain.”
Grr … I could strangle this kid. “Well, I am now.”
“Whatevs.” She looked out the window, saw where we were, and then looked at me.
Our exit was coming up. I think she knew it, but I wasn’t even going to ask her. It was freaky how she knew so many things and I was scared to find out if she was right. Who wouldn’t be unnerved with a child telepath?
“Yes,” I retorted as I made a right and took the exit. “I’ll finally be free and clear of you.”
“You don’t care why Nikolai wants me?”
“It is probably for your telepathic abilities. People like you are a myth and the man loves his brain puzzles.”
“You said you’d never let anyone else experiment on us.”
The base of my skull itched. This past hour, I’d been debating whether I really wanted to take Olivia to Nikolai. She was better off with the scientist who could help her with her abilities, though I did feel guilty about scaring my daughter at Cassie’s.
My daughter?
No, she was more like a devil’s spawn. The devil being Alex. Nikolai was right. That Spetsnaz only wanted to look good to his general.
Getting off the interstate exit, we came into the Wildwood neighborhood in Buckhead. It was an expensive zip code, but it was a good mix of new construction and vintage bungalows. We drove along Brookview before turning right on Beaverbrook. I slowed the Camry to a crawl. It was still early morning, maybe right after five. Utility posts lined the streets and some of the houses had their porch lights on, but there were no street lamps. I didn’t even look at the house number, I just knew that the all-brick, one-story house ahead was our destination. If a person were standing directly in front of the house, a cluster of mid-sized evergreens blocked the view into the residence. I decided to park there instead of going up the driveway. Annoyance edged my consciousness or maybe it was my conscience trying to surface. Suddenly, I wasn’t feeling right about the whole thing.
Ignoring the incessant itching at the base of my skull, I got out of the car and nodded to Olivia to do the same. I grabbed my duffel from the back and slammed the door. There was thumping coming from the trunk.
“Are you going to let him out?” Olivia asked.
“Hell no,” I muttered. I rounded to the back of the vehicle and opened the trunk and checked on my hostage. The man was gagged, bound, and blindfolded. “If you don’t stay quiet, I will have to take you inside with me. I plan to let you go after I find another car, but those people I’m meeting? They will kill you. They won’t want any witnesses. Am I clear?”
He nodded vigorously.
“Quiet as a mouse.”
Again, he nodded.
I slammed the trunk closed and lifted my chin for Olivia to head up the driveway. The lawn and shrubs appeared to be well-maintained. No overgrowth that would call attention to the house. It simply blended into the rest of the neighborhood. Just like most of the houses, the stoop lights were on. Before we got to the top steps, the door opened. A burly man stood there glaring at us under bushy brows. He was bald and sported a goatee and looked like one of those bodybuilders whose shoulders were proportionately too wide and muscular for their head.
His gaze moved from me to Olivia. “Zorin is expecting you.”
29
Gray Room Kate
The house had a basement. A passerby wouldn’t know this because shrubs covered the windows that peeked above ground. I peered down the rickety steps lit by the lone bulb above the door. This was no horror movie cliché of evil lurking in dark and dank corners because fluorescent lights illuminated the level below ground. I went ahead of Olivia, reminding her to watch her step. Bald Man brought up the rear. The musty smell of an old house competed with the sharp odor of bleach and the chemical fragrance of dryer sheets.
When we reached the bottom of the steps my nose also picked up the fumes from burning metal.
“Go right.” Bald Man ordered.
Of course, I glanced left first and saw two men seated soldering some electronic stuff. Off to their side were several blocks wrapped in orange plastic. Explosives.
Nikolai Zorin walked up to us. He was a slender man, with dark hair that stuck up in all directions as if he’d constantly raked his fingers in it. If he wasn’t pale with bloodshot eyes, I would say he had handsome features. His black spectacles actually suited him.
“Kate, so glad you could make it.” Nikolai spoke in halting English. His grin brightened his face which was marked with lines of weariness.
I shrugged. “Here’s Olivia.”
“You’ve grown so much since I last saw you.”
“When did you leave Dream Catcher?” I asked.
“About a year ago,” he replied. “I would have stopped them from putting the spindle in her. She’s too young.”
“Is that why it has no effect on her?” We moved further into his side of the room. There was a whiteboard with a detailed map of Atlanta attached with magnetic pins.
“No. The spindle isn’t advanced enough to work on a telepath … yet.” He glanced at Olivia in a strangely fond manner, like she was his prized creation. Nikolai probably had a hand in the selection of her telepath gene pool. “That’s why I need you here, Olivia. You and I, we can do great things.”
“Like what?” Olivia asked.
“With a single brain spindle, you can command all others.”
Olivia looked at me warily; I stared back at her. I was about to say she could already do that, sort of. And again, something stopped me from ratting her out.
Oblivious to our silent exchange, Nikolai waved at the whiteboard. “Today is the day you will have your vengeance, Kate.”
“It was my wedding day yesterday.”
Nikolai’s brows drew together. “Your wedding day? To Montgomery? I heard he was interested in you.” A sympathetic expression crossed his face. “I wished I got to you sooner and spared you this.”
Unexpected pain lanced through my chest, stifling words in my throat. “I …”
“Are you okay, Kate?” Nikolai frowned. I noticed Bald Man take a step toward us.
Taking a deep breath, I stated my next words with conviction. “I bludgeoned him on the head twice, probably killed him. At a minimum, I put him in a coma.” Olivia looked close to tears, and, for the first time, I saw hatred for me in her eyes. Unable to hold her condemning gaze, I focused on Zorin. “He deserved it. He killed Piper.” I tried to find my earlier rage but it was missing.
Olivia let out a sob. Her little fists clenched at her sides.
“You’ll have to work on her.” I glanced at my daughter in disdain as I fought my growing duality. A cold sweat formed on my brow. “She’s grown attached to Montgomery.”
“Children are malleable,” Nikolai replied, unconcerned.
“I’m right here,” Olivia fumed.
“I see you got your sass back,” I said dryly. Anxious to get the plan moving and not wanting to have to dwell on my conflicted emotions, I turned to the whiteboard.
“I picked the perfect target for you,” the scientist said as he waved his arm to the whiteboard.
I couldn’t argue that his target was poetic. Chrysalis. Butterfly.
Ironic, in some way, the remaining Enhanced Soldiers were butterflies with clipped wings. We’d been made for beauty and superior strength, but once we lost our strength, we’d lost our value in the eyes of the agency and the country we had served.
“You want me to disrupt it?” I deduced, judging from the activity going on at the other side of the room.
“In a manner of speaking.” He played my game of euphemistic words. Walki
ng over to a table on which a black camera bag lay, Nikolai ran his hands over it and the press badge beside it. “You’re going in as a photojournalist. Your ticket is behind your press badge.”
Bald Man approached us.
“They’re ready to put the package in the bag,” he said.
“Kate, I believe you’ve met Hassan Petrov.”
“Interesting name.” It explained his coloring. Extremely dark hair where he had it. His sharp features and piercing eyes hinted of Middle Eastern heritage. “I’ve seen you before.” By the fountain at the mall.
He returned my comment with a barely there smile.
“He’ll be accompanying you to the event.”
I raised a brow. “You don’t trust me?”
“He can get you there more quickly and drop you off.”
Made sense. “How do I get out? Or am I equipped with a self-destruct button?”
Nikolai’s eyes hardened. “You’re not a sheep, Kate. It’s about poetic justice. The previous men were chosen because they believed themselves to be patriots. Yet I showed them how easy it was to alter their perception by simply nudging them in the right direction.”
Something nagged at me and before I could stop myself, I asked, “Is that what you’ve done to me?”
His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “You tell me.”
We stared at each other for long moments.
Hassan excused himself and took the camera bag to their crew assembling the explosives.
“So what’s the plan, exactly?”
* * *
Colt
They were ten minutes from the Wildwood district of Buckhead. Two hours behind where they needed to be. The sketch Olivia left behind depicted a typical neighborhood in Atlanta. She’d transposed the names of the streets and none of them were able to decipher the names.
But luck had been on their side. Trent had instructed his department to wave the twenty-four-hour waiting period to register missing persons and a woman came in reporting a missing boyfriend. She said he’d called her before he left a bar, but she was afraid he’d gotten into an accident because he never came home. Given the situation with Kate dumping the Suburban, this incident was immediately escalated to the sheriff.
Lucas did his magic and was able to locate the vehicle off Beaverbrook Drive. The drawing of a park where it intersected with Brookview Drive finally made sense. Not Brookdrive and Beaverview as Olivia had written. Whoever named these streets needed to be shot.
The Atlanta counter-terrorism squad (CTS) was already at the location. Their leader, Brody, was a SEAL buddy of Colt’s. Asking favors from each other was not unusual. Brody and his team were one of the first LEOs to train at TAC so they were aware of how the other operated. It took a while to pull out some of the team from their current assignment with a major event going on in Atlanta.
“You trust this Lt. Brody?” Romanov asked.
Colt, Romanov, and Murphy were in a vehicle together. Lucas was riding with Trent.
“With my life,” Colt replied, checking the right lane before switching over. “He will catch heat for keeping this under his captain’s radar and only pulled the men he could trust. This should’ve been reported to the FBI. Let’s hope the admiral can straighten this out after the fact.”
Romanov nodded. “We’re doing the right thing. Getting too many people involved can cause problems between our countries.”
Diplomacy between the two countries wasn’t at the top of his cares. He was worried that Kate and Olivia could get hurt or, worse, killed. There wasn’t enough time to brief the different agencies. Time was critical and they couldn’t afford red tape.
The only time Colt had felt this kind of fear was during his first mission as a SEAL. Would he be forced to make a difficult decision—the life of the woman he loved or the lives of many?
“Are you okay?” Murphy asked from behind them.
His eyes met the older man’s gray ones in the rearview mirror and realized he’d clenched his jaw hard.
“Fine,” he bit out.
The exit loomed before them and, with it, decisions he wasn’t ready to make.
The rendezvous point was Beaverbrook Park. It was seven thirty on Sunday morning and the park was open. Brody’s unit was in a black unmarked truck; a big white van held their surveillance equipment.
Colt pulled up behind the van, got out of the SUV, and rounded the back of his vehicle to grab his gear. He motioned for Romanov and Murphy to follow. Trent and Lucas caught up with them just as he rapped on the van’s door.
When the door swung open, Brody stood there and took in the newcomers. “It’s gonna be a tight fit in here.”
“I’ll stay behind,” Lucas volunteered.
Everyone looked at Murphy who shrugged and nodded to Romanov. “I’m just babysitting him. I’ll keep Lucas company.”
“Works for me,” Brody said and gestured for the rest to enter the van.
“What’ve you got?” Colt didn’t waste any time asking.
“The drone is reporting two men on the first floor, but there’s a basement. Our man just installed a snake camera through the basement window and there’s another man and child.”
Olivia.
“No adult female?”
Brody shook his head. “None we can tell from the heat signatures or video feed. We also think our missing boyfriend is in the trunk of the Camry parked out front.”
“Is there a way to get directly into the basement?”
“Yup. Cellar door in the backyard. That’ll be our point of entry, but we have to make sure the kid is at a safe distance when our men move to secure her.”
“You need extra muscle?”
“You and the sheriff can be backup.” Brody looked at Romanov. “No offense, man, but I don’t know you.”
Romanov merely grunted his acceptance.
Brody narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me, but who are you again?”
Trent chuckled. “No one. You’re better not knowing.”
“Then what the fuck is he doing in my van?” Brody growled, glaring at Colt.
“He’s the girl’s father,” Trent replied.
“I thought she was your kid,” his friend said.
“Jumping the gun, Montgomery?” Romanov mocked. “I haven’t signed anything yet.”
“Let’s not get into this here,” Colt said. “The girl is important to me. End of story.”
“And the woman?” Brody asked. “She’s really your wife?”
“Yes. Jesus Christ,” Colt said, exasperated. “How soon can we go?”
His friend held up a finger, turned away from them, and spoke to a man on the field through comms. Brody was nodding vigorously and when he ended the transmission he looked at them.
“Go time in ten. Gear up.”
30
Colt
Colt was dying to get in there, but he let Brody take the lead. They didn’t have the advantage of a nighttime cover. What worked to their advantage was the thick shrubbery and mature trees that concealed their approach.
Signs of life were scarce at that hour on a Sunday morning. Three CTS agents and Trent approached the house from the front, while Brody and two of his men, plus Colt, came in from the back.
From the feed, Olivia was sitting in one corner of the basement, while a man who Romanov confirmed as Nikolai Zorin worked on some equipment at the other. What was more concerning was what was pinned on the whiteboard—a map of Atlanta.
Dread settled in his gut as Colt started to lose hope that he could get to Kate before the authorities did. Once they’d verified the threat, Brody would have no choice but to call this in. Even Trent couldn’t argue with him.
They were in communication with the forward assault team to coordinate their breach. They decided against using stun grenades because of the possibility of explosives and other materials that may ignite from the concussive blast.
As they reached the cellar door, two CTS agents cut the chain holding the cellar doors with
a bolt cutter and quietly pulled it off. When the positions of Olivia and Zorin remained unchanged, Brody counted down from three.
At one, they lifted the doors open, letting them crash on their hinges.
Gun drawn, Brody flew down the steps with Colt right behind him. He went directly to secure Olivia.
“Freeze,” Brody yelled. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”
Gunshots erupted from above them and footsteps thundered on the floorboards, but all Colt saw was Olivia under a table. Tucked in a fetal position with her arms over her head, she was in her pink polka-dot pajamas and slippers.
When he lowered his gun, she glanced up at him. Colt wasn’t sure if the child would recognize him through his tactical goggles, but she did. Her face broke into a smile, relief and tears in her eyes, as she scrambled from her cover and jumped into his arms.
“Colt! I knew you’d come!” she bawled as he crushed her tightly against him. The clutch of her small arms and the faint scent of baby powder in his nose quieted the anxiety in his heart to a degree. Now, he needed to get her mother back.
“You okay?”
“We need to get to Mama,” she stated seriously.
“Working on it,” he replied gruffly.
He turned to see Brody studying the whiteboard. A CTS agent from above gave the all clear. Nikolai was being handcuffed and forced into a chair in front of the map.
Colt lowered Olivia and walked over to the table she’d hidden under and studied the items on it. It left no doubt what was being built.
Trent appeared by his side. “Holy fuck.”
Pivoting sharply, Colt strode to where Brody and his men were studying the whiteboard diagram and various notes and pictures pinned on it.
“What is it?”
Brody brought up a web page on his phone to compare it to what was in front of them. “It’s the Butterfly Foundation Marathon route.”
* * *
Nikolai refused to cooperate and kept his mouth shut.
Zorin’s lone surviving accomplice was of no help either. The other was killed in the shootout on the first floor. These men were dedicated to their cause, whatever the fuck it was, because Colt couldn’t see a man’s dedication to his brother justifying the murder of innocents.
Unexpected Vows Page 23