Mommy Under Cover

by Delores Fossen

“Do you see anything?” Tessa whispered.

  He peered out the edge of the curtain. “No.”

  The phone continued to ring, the shrill sound echoing through the otherwise silent room. Finally it stopped and, out of the corner of her eye, Tessa saw the message light begin to flash. Someone was obviously trying to contact them. Probably not her father.

  Well, maybe not.

  He did have the name of the hotel and would have tried to call if something had gone wrong.

  Or if he’d been trying to warn them.

  Oh, God.

  She didn’t even want to speculate at all the things that could have gone wrong.

  The ringing started again. Tessa tried to block it out, just in case it was a diversion meant to distract them.

  She glanced out the window, as well. Sunrise was still at least an hour away, but the streetlights allowed her to see that the sidewalks were deserted. It meant nothing, of course, because Fletcher’s men could easily be hiding.

  When the phone stopped ringing a second time, the message light continued to flash. Her instincts told her that it was important. Critical, even. But she hated to risk Riley’s and her lives on her instincts.

  “Stay put,” she whispered to Riley. Anticipating the worst and hoping for the best, she eased down to the floor and crawled toward the bed, out of direct fire if it were to come from the window.

  Still staying low, she reached up, grabbed the phone and pressed the button to retrieve the message.

  Or rather the message.

  “Pick up when the phone rings again,” the caller insisted. Tessa had no trouble recognizing that voice. It was Beatrice. Fletcher’s armed receptionist. “It’s important. Your life depends on it.”

  “Beatrice wants to talk to us,” Tessa relayed to Riley.

  He cursed, and she could see the debate he was having with himself. But the debate didn’t last long because the phone rang again. Tessa pulled the phone and its cradle onto the floor and maneuvered herself away from the nightstand. Away from the bed, too. Fortunately the cord was long enough for her to move it to her original spot near the window.

  Tessa picked up the phone, but she didn’t say anything.

  “Good morning,” Beatrice greeted. “I’ll make this quick. There are gunmen posted on the roof just above you. We have infrared equipment so we can see your every move. In case you doubt that, I can give you a summary of your activity for the past fifteen minutes.”

  Tessa looked up and heard another soft thump. A footstep, and she could almost see Beatrice smiling. “That’s not necessary.” Tessa pressed the speaker function on the phone so Riley could hear, as well. “They’re on the roof,” she relayed to Riley. “With infrared.”

  He jerked his head up and his eyes narrowed.

  “What do you want?” Tessa asked the woman.

  “I want to talk to you and Agent McDade.”

  “Right. What you really want is to try to kill us like you did at my condo.”

  “We didn’t try to kill you there. We simply tried to flush you out. It worked, too. Our orders were to follow you from your residence and to keep you under long-range surveillance so we could see who else was involved in this.”

  Oh, God. Her father. He’d walked into a trap and she’d helped to lead him there.

  “How did you find me?” Tessa asked. “How did you learn who we were?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Try,” Tessa insisted.

  “The hot-dog vendor near your headquarters building. After seeing your photo, he was able to give us your first name, and we took things from there.”

  Riley had been right. The leak hadn’t come from an agent. Of course, at the moment that didn’t give her much comfort.

  “I’m surprised your boss didn’t come with you,” Riley snarled.

  “He would have liked to do that, Agent McDade. But he couldn’t. You see, he had to establish an alibi in case I failed. We wouldn’t want the authorities to be able to link this directly to him.”

  “But he doesn’t mind you taking the heat for him.” Riley tossed the words right back at her.

  “Taking the heat is exactly what he pays me to do, and he pays me well so that I’m never tempted to betray him. Or disobey his orders.”

  Riley shifted. Just slightly. And brought up his gun to aim at the ceiling.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Agent McDade,” Beatrice warned. “Because while you’re aiming your gun at us, we have several weapons already trained on Agent Abbot. Not Glocks, either. But weapons that would eliminate her before you could even pull the trigger. One wrong move from either of you and she’ll be the one who pays first for the mistake.”

  Riley’s gaze met hers and the indecision she thought she would see wasn’t there. In fact, there was no indecision. “Don’t move,” he told her. “And I mean it.”

  That was in direct conflict with the fight-or-flight instincts that were screaming through her. But with gunmen on the roof, fighting would almost certainly be suicide. As would an attempted escape. No, they were trapped. And as much as Tessa hated to admit it, their only choice was to surrender. Temporarily surrender, that is. Then they could look for the opportunity to escape.

  “So, here’s the deal,” Beatrice continued a moment later. “You’ll both come with me to see the doctor. He’s anxious to meet with you again, to discuss things—specifically the information you might have learned from the hidden computer files he had at the clinic. If you cooperate, we won’t assassinate Commander Abbot when he arrives. Oh, or perhaps I should say—now that he’s arrived. He’s parked at the side of the hotel and is stepping from his car.”

  “And we’re to believe you’ll let him walk if we surrender?” Tessa asked.

  “No reason not to believe me. Commander Abbot can’t trace any of this back to Fletcher. We’ve determined your father is no direct threat to us. Well, not unless you make him a threat by bringing him into this. Is that what you want?”

  Tessa didn’t trust or believe her. No surprise there. But either way, this was going to come down to a fight. If there was some chance she could leave her father out of it, or at least give him a warning that he was about to be ambushed, then the chance was worth taking.

  “Time’s up,” Beatrice said. “Don’t attempt to shoot the man who’s about to come through the window. If you do, all bets are off, and all of you, including Commander Abbot, will die.”

  Beatrice had barely spoken the last word when Tessa spotted the man on the rappel rope. He dropped lower and gave the glass a kick with the heel of his combat boot. Seconds later he burst through what was left of the glass and landed on his feet. Just inches from them.

  “Move,” the heavily armed man ordered, hitching his shoulder toward the roof. “Both of you. We’re leaving now.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The RV came to a stop.

  Finally.

  By Riley’s calculations, they’d been driving for nearly four hours. First, in the van with the blacked-out windows that had taken Tessa and him from the hotel to a rural area in northern Virginia. From there, they’d been temporarily blindfolded so they could be moved into the RV.

  Tessa and he had been searched for weapons and communication devices.

  Beatrice had taken his watch.

  And Tessa’s.

  In addition, the woman had confiscated the backup gun in his slide holster.

  Tessa and he had no way to contact headquarters, no weapons and no clue as to where Beatrice and her team of hired guns were taking them.

  So far, this plan of cooperating sucked.

  Riley made eye contact with Tessa. She was at the front of the RV, a beefy guard on each side of her. She had on her poker face, her agent’s face. No display of emotion, but Riley knew she had to be scared. Not just for her own well-being and the baby’s, but for her father’s, as well.

  There’d been no reasonable opportunity to escape. None. And, man, had he look
ed hard for such an opportunity. Four armed guards, including Beatrice, had been with them at all times. Plus, Beatrice had locked the doors of the RV. Manually. She’d slipped the key into her pocket and then moved into the passenger’s section up front.

  In other words, away from him.

  Riley figured that even with her measures, he could pick the lock. Easily. But so far, that opportunity just hadn’t come. And it wouldn’t as long as those two menacing guards were near Tessa, because a wrong move from him would only further endanger her.

  By now her father had probably assembled all available agents to track them down. At least, if Abbot were still alive he would have done that. There were no guarantees that he was. Despite Beatrice’s reassurance that Abbot would be spared, Riley knew the odds were against it.

  They were in the hands of killers.

  Reassurances and promises didn’t mean a thing.

  Beatrice exited the RV from the front and, a moment later, unlocked the door at the back. She had yet another guard with her, making a total of five. Not good odds, but Riley knew somehow, some way, they’d have to escape. No choice about that.

  The newcomer led him out of the RV, jamming his gun into Riley’s back. Riley glanced over his shoulder to give the gun-jamming guard a nasty glare and to make sure Tessa was behind him.

  She was.

  And she was already surveying the surroundings, probably looking for an escape path.

  Unlike the RV, there were possibilities here. For one thing, it was out in the country. The massive house toward which they were being led was surrounded by formal gardens and beyond that, pasture complete with what appeared to be Thoroughbred horses. If Beatrice tried to confine them in one of the rooms in the estate, Tessa and he could perhaps leave through a window and slip into the garden. Then beyond.

  Until he had Tessa far away from here.

  For now, it was step one. A vague plan that called for equally vague action. One small opening was all Riley needed to put his plan into action.

  They followed a flagstone path toward the front of the antebellum-style house, and Riley briefly considered a drop and roll. One that involved a distraction and then ridding the guard on his right of the high-powered rifle and the 9 mm tucked into his shoulder harness.

  But again, there was Tessa to consider. And the baby. With her yards behind him, he wouldn’t be able to give her a signal. Or if he did, Tessa might not interpret that signal in time to get out of the path of what would almost certainly erupt into a gun battle.

  No.

  That was too huge of a risk.

  So, Riley kept walking. Kept looking. And he kept praying he’d be able to get her out of this alive.

  With each step he had to fight off the images of Colette’s lifeless body. But the images kept changing. He saw Tessa in her place, and it felt as if someone had clamped a tight fist around his heart.

  The front door opened as they went up the steps. No guard this time. It was Fletcher.

  The doctor smiled at Tessa.

  And that clamp around Riley’s heart became even tighter. So tight that he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to catch his breath. He fought the effects. Fought to keep a clear head and to keep his emotions in check. Because none of that would help Tessa now.

  “Welcome,” Fletcher said. But it was no greeting. The chill coming from it was of Arctic proportions. The man was obviously riled.

  Fletcher stepped back into the shadows of the massive foyer and, one by one, they all entered. Beatrice kept Tessa back, near the doorway, while Riley’s guards ushered him closer to their host.

  But not too close.

  Certainly not within reach.

  Fletcher might be unrighteously riled, but he wouldn’t want to risk Riley snapping his neck.

  “I’m afraid Beatrice lied to you,” Fletcher said, directing his comment to Tessa.

  Riley saw her blink. Her only reaction. She probably thought Fletcher had just informed her of her father’s murder. She stood stoic, and she stared Fletcher right in the eyes. “Am I supposed to be surprised about that?”

  “No. I guess not. But you might be surprised as to what she lied about.”

  “You brought us here to play twenty questions?” Riley offered.

  That earned him a scalpel-sharp glare from Fletcher. “I didn’t want to discuss files with you. Maybe you already figured that out?” Fletcher didn’t wait for either of them to answer. “Because it doesn’t matter what you found. It doesn’t even matter if you passed that information on to others. Without the computer files, you don’t have proof. And the files, I’m afraid, are gone. Destroyed.”

  Riley had expected that, but it still wasn’t a pleasant thing to hear. Or to accept. This mission had been all about finding and retrieving evidence. Without it, they wouldn’t have much of a case. Of course, that was the least of his worries now.

  Escape first.

  Then he could regroup and come after Fletcher another time.

  The difference would be that next time Tessa wouldn’t be involved. He’d see to that.

  Fletcher took several slow, calculated steps toward Tessa, yet still kept distance between them. At least ten feet. Riley wasn’t much closer, which put him out of striking range, especially since he didn’t have a weapon.

  “If you’re concerned about the lack of evidence, you could always confess,” Tessa dryly suggested to the doctor.

  Fletcher’s mouth tightened, and then he must have realized that would amuse her, so he smiled again. “All right. I confess. Among others, I killed an SIU agent. Colleen….” He made a circling motion with his left hand as if trying to recall information. “No, Colette. I forget her last name. Something ethnic, I believe. By the way, she begged me not to kill her.”

  And with that verbal dagger, Fletcher glanced at Riley before turning back to Tessa. “Will you beg, too?”

  Her chin came up a notch. “Not a chance. And I doubt Colette begged, either. That’s wishful thinking on your part. Or maybe you’re just delusional. I hear there are medications that’ll take care of that.”

  Despite the sarcasm, there was no emotion in her voice, but Riley felt each word slice through him like a hot stiletto. If he didn’t do something—fast— Fletcher would. The SOB would kill her. Riley would lose her and the baby the same way he’d lost Colette.

  Riley lifted his left eyebrow a fraction. A slight gesture that he hoped Tessa would notice. But if she did, she didn’t respond.

  She couldn’t.

  Because at that exact second, Fletcher turned his gun on her.

  TESSA HAD WAITED for some kind of signal from Riley and she prayed that the raised eyebrow meant she was supposed to react. If not, she would have reacted anyway because judging from the expression on Fletcher’s incensed face, he was within a second of shooting her. It no longer mattered if they were outnumbered or that they were surrounded by gunmen. To delay would mean they’d die. If they fought back, there was a chance.

  A slim one.

  But it was still better than the alternative.

  Tessa kept her attention focused on Fletcher’s trigger finger and tried not to think of her baby. Or Riley. Or her father. She tried not to think of anything but surviving this. Because if she survived, so would her baby, and perhaps Riley, as well. Right now though, they had to make it past this first critical step.

  Tessa sucked in a quick breath. Mentally counted to three. And as she saw Fletcher’s right index finger tighten over the trigger, she plunged to the floor.

  She didn’t go alone.

  On the way down, she hooked her arm around the guard to her right and gave him a quick punch in the back to knock the air of him. Using him as a human shield, she wrenched the gun from his hand.

  She aimed it at Fletcher.

  Riley moved, as well. With the attention of the guards still in her direction, he dove across the room, crashing his solid body into Beatrice. Like Tessa, he put the woman in a chokehold and came up ready to fire.


  But so did the others.

  “Decision time,” Fletcher said calmly, turning in Riley’s direction. Judging from his now calm tone, he could have been discussing the weather instead of what had turned into a showdown. “If you kill me, they’ll just kill you.”

  “I’ve made peace with my maker,” Riley responded without hesitation. “Something tells me you haven’t.”

  “But your death isn’t the big issue here, now is it? It’s hers.” He tipped his head at Tessa. “Judging from the infrared scans of the hotel, she’s your lover. As was the other agent, I believe. A pity that I should be the one who takes both of them away from you.”

  Tessa knew that had to push at least a dozen buttons for Riley. Dangerous, volatile buttons. His eyes darkened. His jaw turned to iron. She saw the pulse jump in his throat. And she half expected him to launch himself at the man who’d murdered Colette.

  But he didn’t.

  Riley got up from the floor, dragging Beatrice up with him and, without taking his gaze from Fletcher, began to make his way around the room toward her. Not angry, stalking steps, either. But the movements of a man trained for just this sort of thing.

  Since Riley was watching Fletcher, Tessa tried to keep an eye on the others. With the exception of Beatrice and the guard she was holding, the other four had their weapons trained on either Riley or her.

  Not an ideal scenario.

  There were several ways this could play out. The most obvious was a gun battle. Not her first choice since Riley and she were seriously outnumbered and were in the open with minimal cover. So that meant they had to attempt an escape so they could be in a better position to return fire. And there was no doubt in her mind that before this was over, they would have to return fire.

  She prayed they had ample opportunity to do that.

  “Let’s go,” Riley said to her when he finally reached her. He rammed his hand inside Beatrice’s jacket, retrieved some extra magazines of ammo and shoved them into his pocket.

  Tessa followed his lead, stuffing the one magazine she found on the guard into the back waist of her jeans. Still holding on to the man, she began to ease back. Not toward the front entrance that was blocked by the majority of the guards, but through the adjoining living room where there was a door leading into the gardens.