Running On Empty: An LCR Elite Novel

by Christy Reece

  She whirled to see who might need help and was pleased to see that both suits were lying flat-out on the floor, and the three smelly beasts who had abducted them were now huddled in their own corner, looking dazed and whipped. The children and women had found refuge with each other. Mrs. Denton had her arms wrapped around all three children. Her companion, Cecile Poole, stood outside the small group with an odd look on her face.

  Sabrina checked again just to make sure that all threats had been contained. Pleased that it had gone down so well and her uneasiness had been unfounded, she turned back to the family, noting out of the corner of her eye that Riley reached over to place her hand on the nanny, probably to reassure her.

  No one saw it coming. Cecile turned, a large knife gripped in her hand. With a roar of outrage, she slashed toward Riley, and then, her eyes wild and glazed with fury, she targeted Marsha Denton.

  Aidan tackled the woman before she could reach Marsha, slamming her to the floor. Justin made a grab for Riley. Sabrina threw herself toward Cecile, who was fighting Aidan like a maniac.

  What the hell?

  Riley blinked up at Justin. He had the strangest expression on his face. He rarely looked at her with any kind of emotion anymore. That was for the best. Can’t afford to get attached to what you can’t have.

  “Well, now,” Justin said in the low, slow drawl that she loved. “That was a close call. Looks like you’re going to need a little more training.”

  His tone was insulting as always, but his expression said something else. She frowned up at him, surprised at the effort it took to keep her eyes focused. “Justin?”

  “Don’t quit on me now, Riley. You hear me?”

  Riley. He never called her by her first name.

  She heard a growling curse and felt him pressing his hands against her stomach. An odd ache thudded in her gut. Not pain exactly. Just odd. Coldness seeped through her bones. She’d felt like this once before. When she had misbehaved and had been punished. But no, he wasn’t anywhere around. He couldn’t find her…couldn’t hurt her anymore. So why this feeling of cold fear?

  “Dammit, Riley. Did you hear me?”

  That’s right. Justin was here. He couldn’t know how she felt about him. Gotta keep stuff like that to yourself, Riley. If he knew, he wouldn’t want her as his partner. He couldn’t find out.

  So sleepy. Her eyes drooped closed.

  “No, dammit, Riley, no. Keep your eyes open and on me. You hear me?”

  Feeling loopy and a little silly, she raised her hand to caress his cheek, vaguely wondering why her fingers were wet. “Such a tyrant,” she mumbled. “Can’t figure out why I like you so much.”

  She heard him say her name again…this time even more urgently. With a sigh of longing, she carried the sound of his voice into the darkness.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  LCR Headquarters

  Declan sat in the conference room with Angela and Jake. What the young hacker had been able to uncover in just a few days astounded him. He now had access to all old records going back to when the Agency first began. Much of it was encrypted, and Angela was working on breaking the code, but what he had seen so far was nothing short of phenomenal.

  Angela had also uncovered the file of every EDJE employee from the lowest clerk to Albert Marks himself. So far he’d gone through a quarter of them and as of yet, not one red flag.

  “Do you think anyone at EDJE would be willing to work with us?” Angela asked.

  “Probably not. I can probably get a couple of guys who used to work there. They might be able to help.”

  “You trust them?” Mallory asked.

  “Within limits.”

  “Why don’t you contact one of them, meet him in a neutral place?”

  He could do that. Maybe use the apartment that he and Sabrina had stayed in before they’d gone to her house. No way would he take anyone, trust or no trust, to her home. She’d been smart to keep it off the books with no one knowing about it. Endangering her was the last thing he wanted.

  Angela pointed to an employee record on her display. “These areas here have been redacted. If I can find their code for redactions, I can reveal the full record. Anything—passwords, code words—would be helpful. I can—”

  Both Jake’s and Angela’s cell phones chimed alarms. The two operatives looked at each other and in unison rose to their feet. “We have to go,” Angela said.

  An ominous feeling zipped up Declan’s spine. “What’s wrong?”

  “One of our operatives is down.”

  He hadn’t heard from Sabrina since she’d left. He told himself that there were probably dozens of ops going on at one time. The chances of the operative who was down being Sabrina were low.

  “What’s the protocol?”

  “We’ll wait to hear from Noah, but for now we’re on alert. We’ll head into his office and wait until—”

  McCall shoved open the door. “I’m headed to Caracas. We’ve got two injured, one serious. I’ll alert you as soon as I know something.” He gave Declan a hard look. “Steele, you’re with me.”

  Feeling as though he was wading through quicksand, Declan followed McCall out of the room. The LCR leader wanted him to come along? That could mean only one thing—Sabrina had been hurt.

  Caracas

  Sabrina sat in the uncomfortable chair in the waiting room. The pain in her side throbbed like a bad toothache, but compared to Riley’s injury, it was barely a scratch. Why oh why hadn’t they seen it coming? Cecile Poole, the nanny, had apparently helped set up the entire scenario. Marsha Denton was supposed to die. Once the ransom was paid, the children and Cecile would be saved...returned. The kidnapping had been inspired by nothing more than old-fashioned jealousy. The nanny had wanted Andrew Denton and his children for herself. With Marsha out of the way, Cecile had believed her path would have been clear.

  Because of an evil, jealous woman, Riley might die.

  Aidan and Justin had handled their worry in different ways. Aidan acted calm and confident, as if he didn’t for a moment believe Riley would die. She imagined his attitude would be helpful in any situation. Believing the worst wasn’t helpful.

  Justin, on the other hand, had an almost opposite reaction. He had been gentle and careful with Riley. They’d been miles away from any kind of medical facility. While Aidan notified the authorities and arranged for the hostages to be returned to their home, Sabrina had driven like a crazed lunatic to the closest hospital. And Justin had worked to save his partner’s life. Talking to her, urging her to stay awake, promising her she was fine, and telling her he was going to kick her ass as soon as she was well enough to take him on. He had tried to bandage the deep wound in Riley’s stomach, but there’d been so much blood it had been useless.

  Sabrina had actually thought Riley would die on the way to the hospital. No one could stay alive after losing that much blood. Somehow, Riley had. But for how long?

  Once Justin had relinquished his partner to the doctors and nurses who’d met them at the door, he had lost it. One broken chair, a shattered window, and two bloodied fists later, he had managed to calm down.

  For the past five hours, Justin had been standing as close to the surgery doors as possible. She had a feeling he was trying to stare through those doors and will Riley to stay alive.

  Sabrina had always been intrigued by how the two operatives worked so well together yet didn’t seem to like each other. Compared to her and Aidan, who teased each other mercilessly, these two acted as if they barely knew the other existed. But when they were on an op, they moved as if they shared the same thought processes. If nothing else, this event had shown that feelings definitely existed.

  The sound of running feet caught her attention, drawing her to her feet. Noah and Declan burst through the doors. Noah gave her a sweeping glance as if to reassure himself she was fine.

  “I’m okay.”

  He acknowledged her words with a nod and went straight to Justin.

  “Are y
ou all right?” Declan asked.

  She saw the concern on his face and, despite the circumstances, relished that it was there. What would he do if she threw herself into his arms? She made herself stand still. “I’m fine.”

  “You have blood on your shirt.”

  She glanced down. “Most of it is Riley’s.”

  “Some of it’s yours?”

  “I tried to get the knife away from the woman. Aidan had her pinned down, and I thought she was contained. She got a slice of me.”

  “How bad?”

  “A few stitches. No biggie.”

  She could tell he wanted to say more but instead asked, “How’s Riley?”

  “We don’t know yet. She’s been in surgery for over five hours.” And then because she knew he would understand, she blew out a shaky breath. “I’ve never seen that much blood, Declan. She had to have lost more than half her blood before we could get her here.”

  “Come here.”

  The gruff gentleness in his voice was dearly familiar. Even though she told herself she didn’t need this and it certainly meant nothing to him, she went into his arms anyway. As they closed around her, Sabrina closed her eyes with a sigh. Okay, she had lied to herself. She did need this.

  A door squeaked open, and all eyes went to a short, thin man in green scrubs with a tired and serious look on his face. Noah and Justin met him at the door. Sabrina, Declan, and Aidan gathered behind them.

  “You’re Ms. Ingram’s family?”

  “Yes, we are,” Noah answered. “How is she?”

  “She’s no longer bleeding internally but she’s lost a tremendous amount of blood. We should know within the next forty-eight hours. She’s young, in excellent health, so that’s in her favor.”

  “Can we see her?” Justin asked.

  “She’s in recovery, then she’ll head to ICU. If she wakes, it won’t be for several more hours. It would be best if you wait until tomorrow to see her.”

  The doctor turned and walked away, leaving the ominous words “if she wakes” hanging in the air.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Alexandria, Virginia

  Declan took a long draw off his beer and eyed the man who sat on the sofa across from him. Jackson Sands had once been a trusted friend and co-worker. To be sitting in a living room in a civilized manner having a cold one together felt surreal. The normal, everyday stuff still seemed off-kilter and strange.

  Since Declan’s rescue, Jackson had checked in with him two or three times a week. The man’s concern had been appreciated but hard to take. Having no one interested in his wellbeing for so long, Declan had been resistant to his interest.

  He’d invited Jackson to the LCR apartment. He and Sabrina had yet to return to her house. He had wanted her to be close to those she trusted while she healed. And Sabrina had wanted to stay nearby for Riley’s sake. The young operative had been transferred to the LCR medical facility and was making great strides in her recovery. Still, probably because of all the uncertainty in her own life, Sabrina had said she wanted to be completely sure of Riley’s good prognosis before she went home.

  “So, are you ready to let me help you find the bastards who did this to you?”

  One thing Declan always appreciated about Jackson—he didn’t beat around the bush.

  When Jackson and his team had rescued him, Declan hadn’t taken much notice of the man, but now that he had, he swore the guy hadn’t aged a bit from the first time they’d met almost fifteen years before. A little over six feet tall, skin bronzed from the sun, dark brown hair with a few glints of gold, and a face that Declan had been told made women fall at his feet.

  “You have any ideas?” Declan asked.

  “Several. You’ve made a lot of enemies along the way. Assassinating evil men has a way of pissing off other evil men.”

  “True. Having enemies within my own agency is a little disconcerting.”

  “But not unexpected. The Agency doesn’t exactly hire choirboys.”

  “No, but we try to bring in those who are loyal, with a strong sense of patriotism. Selling out one of your own isn’t exactly the type of behavior I’d expect.”

  “You’ve grown soft. Takes all kinds of assholes.”

  Soft wasn’t the description Declan would give himself. Before his capture, he had been as jaded as any covert ops agent. And now, after what he’d been through, he had about as much faith in his fellow man as he had in the Easter Bunny.

  “I’m glad you found Sabrina,” Jackson went on. “Bet she was as surprised as hell.”

  Declan gave a noncommittal grunt but inwardly winced. He hadn’t told his friend what an ass he’d been, not relishing the idea of confessing that he’d abducted Sabrina with the intent of killing her. Not exactly his finest hour.

  “Never seen two people more in love than you two.”

  Again, Declan made no comment. At one time, there had been no doubt of his feelings. But that was then—when he’d had something still inside him. With only bitterness remaining, he had nothing left to give. What woman, especially someone as warm and caring as Sabrina, would want a hollow shell for a husband?

  “She had a rough time of it,” Jackson said.

  “Were you around when it happened?”

  Regret darkened his eyes. “No. I was on an op in Yemen. Didn’t hear about it until I got back a week later. I only heard it secondhand. Didn’t even know what hospital she was in.”

  “Hospital?”

  “She didn’t tell you she was hurt in the blast?”

  “She told me cuts and bruises. Made it sound like it wasn’t a big deal.”

  Jackson shrugged. “Again, this is only secondhand, but I heard she was unconscious for a few days. Severe concussion, broke some bones.”

  A cement-like weight settled in Declan’s gut. Why had Sabrina downplayed her injuries? Why hadn’t she told him how badly she’d been hurt? Because, asshole, you acted as if you didn’t give a damn.

  “I finally got to talk to her a couple of weeks later. Just a phone call, but damn…never heard her sound so lifeless. She took what was left of your body…well, the body she thought was yours, to Scotland for burial. I got the impression she wished she had died, too.”

  “Why do you say that?” He didn’t need to ask that question but, perhaps as self-punishment, did it anyway.

  “She was searching through the remains, trying to find you.” Jackson swallowed and continued, “Found an arm. Thought it was yours. Had a wedding ring just like yours. No one had any doubts that you were dead.”

  Unable to just sit and listen, Declan stood and wandered over to the window. Pushing aside the horror Sabrina had endured, he said, “Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make everyone believe I was.”

  “Yeah, they did. I worried about her…told her she needed to be careful since they tried to kill her, too.”

  Jackson was right. Ever since Declan had gotten back, it’d been all about him. He had wanted to find the traitor. Sabrina had kept insisting they’d both been hurt, and he had assumed it was because their relationship had been destroyed. But it was a helluva lot more than that.

  “I haven’t seen her since she left the Agency,” Jackson was saying. “Hell, I don’t even know who she works for.”

  Though LCR was a known organization, the identities of its operatives weren’t public knowledge. That, along with Sabrina’s natural reticence to share personal information, ensured that no one outside a few knew of her activities or whereabouts.

  The other man had paused, most likely thinking that Declan was going to reveal Sabrina’s occupation. Since that wasn’t going to happen, Declan changed the subject. “You have any issues…close calls of your own?”

  Jackson snorted. “I’ve always got a couple of people gunning for me, but it has more to do with pissed-off small-time criminals these days.”

  “So what does your security company do besides rescue wayward EDJE agents?”

  “Almost anything we can get our hands on.
Bodyguard, security services for celebs, and high-target businessmen. I’ve got four full-time employees, two part-time. If you hire us, I’ll guarantee we’ll do everything we can to find the assholes.”

  “Thanks. But I don’t—”

  The apartment door swung open, and Sabrina walked in. The instant she saw Jackson, her eyes lit up. They met in the middle of the room and gave each other a warm hug.

  Seeing the delight in her eyes and the smile curving her beautiful mouth helped dissolve some of the heaviness inside Declan. There was just something about Sabrina’s smile that made life seem better.

  “I was thrilled when Declan told me you were coming over,” she said. “I wanted to thank you personally for what you did. If you hadn’t gotten the tip on his whereabouts and followed your instincts, he’d still be there.”

  “It was my pleasure. I wished I could have let you know, but I couldn’t find you.”

  She grimaced. “You know me. Staying in touch is not one of my strong points.”

  Jackson glanced over at Declan. “Guess it was a shock to see his ugly mug again.”

  She laughed as Jackson had intended. It didn’t surprise Declan that she didn’t tell his friend the circumstances of their reunion. That wasn’t her way.

  She went over to the sofa and dropped onto it. “Declan tells me you have your own security business now. I was surprised when I heard you left the Agency.”

  “Without Declan making it interesting and fun, things got boring.” He shrugged, and his eyes shadowed slightly. “Agency just wasn’t the same anymore. Too much politics. Got to the point you had to fill out a requisition before you could get a flipping toothpick.”