Eden grimaced and ran her fingers through her tangled hair, then gave up. “Carlson’s an asshole, no doubt. He got us the hell out of dodge when we were in trouble though; why would he do that if he wanted to serve us up to Maduro?”
“On the other hand, Becker’s reputation with the IMF is pristine, the work he’s done for different countries has been unbelievable. I thought he came from money, so I don’t know why he would be trying to siphon off more.”
“Okay, you told me what your head is telling you. What’s your gut saying?” Asher was looking at her encouragingly. It was clear he really wanted to know what she thought.
“They’re both dirty as fuck. I don’t know why. But as soon as I saw that note from Suzanne, it clicked. Gerta’s not in on it, and it’s scaring the hell out of me that Leland’s up in that office with them. Not so much Becker, he won’t get his hands dirty, but Carlson? He’ll kill him.”
Asher nodded.
“You got that, Kane?”
“Got it.”
“What have you managed to find out?” Asher asked.
“Nomad Security is as clean as everybody in the industry thought.”
Eden opened her mouth to protest, and Asher held up his hand.
“But,” Kane continued. “Now that we did a deeper check, it turns out that Phil Carlson retired in New Mexico seven years ago. Supposedly, he came out of retirement for this gig, but it wasn’t him. Phil’s still in New Mexico and this guy, whoever the hell he is, has taken his place. He could be working with Becker, he could be a plant for Maduro, or he could be freelance. Don’t know yet. But Eden, your gut was right.”
“And Becker?” she asked.
“He comes from old, old, old money. The kind that’s been helped along by profiteering on every single war since the Dutch War of Independence, and right now his nephew is being investigated for having ties to the blood diamond trade.”
Eden looked at Ash. They were in perfect accord.
“The bastard. The absolute bastard. He’s using his knowledge on the IMF to figure out how to line his pockets.”
I am not going to cry. And if I am, it’s because I’m angry, not because I’m disillusioned.
“Get the fuck out of there,” Kane told Asher.
“I’m going to get Eden out. Then I’ll work on getting the rest out.”
“Bad plan. I’m staying.”
“Going black for a minute,” Asher said.
“Don’t—” Kane was shut off before he could finish.
Chapter 10
The sheen of tears in Eden’s eyes had damn near gutted him.
“Eden?”
“I’m staying,” she said fiercely. “You need my help.”
“Talk to me. We have thirty seconds, then you can be Wonder Woman, I promise.”
He couldn’t help himself, his fingers brushed at the soft, delicate skin of her tearstained cheek. “Just tell me, Baby.”
“People are starving, dying, being butchered. He was supposed to be their savior, but he’s profiting? He’s trying to make these conflicts last longer so he can make money?” There was such anguish in her green eyes.
Her hand whipped up and grabbed his. Her grip was strong. “Promise me we’ll get him. We’ll make him pay. Promise me we won’t ever let him do this again.”
Asher grinned slowly. She was like a diamond, so many facets that glittered brilliantly, they tantalized the imagination. Here he was in the middle of one of the worst ops of his life, because so many civilians were depending on them, and he’d found an extraordinary woman. How was that possible? Was he just reeling from Xavier’s death and looking for some kind of unique closeness to fill the void left by his big brother? Or was it something like what Kane and Cullen had found with their women?
“Do you promise, Asher? Do you promise me?” Her voice trembled.
He brought their clasped hands up to her cheek and pulled out his index finger so he could trace her trembling lower lip.
“It would take a man forever to figure you out, wouldn’t it?”
“What?” she blinked up at him. Confused.
“I promise, he’s going down.”
She gave a relieved smile. “Thank you.”
“You didn’t have to ask, Honey.”
Eden blinked slowly and then her eyes were dry. “Turn on your radio, I’m done with my meltdown. We’ve got civilians to rescue and bad guys to catch.”
Asher flipped the switch on his mic.
“Asher, you do that again, and it goes in your file.” Max was pissed off. “You got me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Suzanne is on the way with Rafa to the hospital. Raiden, Cullen, and Nic are at the opening, coming back in. The plan is back in place, Ezio is hitting the lights in two minutes. He’s going to rappel over the side of the balustrade to take the people in Señora Azua’s office by surprise. When the rest of the team comes through the blast hole, they’ll clear out the people on the lobby floor—that includes guards and civilians. You’ll join them.”
“I can help gather everybody,” Eden chimed in.
Asher and Max said ‘No’ simultaneously.
“Yes,” she ground out. She stood up from where she’d been slumped against the side of the desk. “How many stupid-ass rescue operations go FUBAR because some civilian panics and doesn’t do what they’re told? I’m thinking a whole hell of a lot. The people know me, plus I’m a woman, I can help. Trust me, you don’t know Sharon Foster, she has a hissy fit if she gets a run in her hose. The lights going out are going to send her into orbit.”
“I said no, Eden.” Asher was proud of how calm his voice was.
He watched her give him a considering look and sigh. “Fine, but if things start falling to shit, and you find out you need me with a screamy-meemy-Sharon, are you going to ask for my help?”
Asher looked up at the ceiling, then down at her determined green eyes. “I promise to adapt to changing circumstances.”
She grinned at him.
“That’s all I can ask for.”
He pulled a small flashlight out of his pack and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Let’s go.”
They were in the stairway when the lights went out and the red emergency light came on. It was dim, but Asher wasn’t surprised in the least that Eden was surefooted, even in her little kitten heels. He hadn’t even needed to tell her to put them back on, she’d known to do it as soon as he’d explained they were going to go through a hole in the gate that he’d blown through.
“My team will be coming through the gate at the northeast. They’ll let themselves in through the maintenance door at the east wall lobby, near the elevators.”
Asher continued. “Our headcount is seventeen. Ten civilians, counting you. Two Nomad Security, five bank guards, one of which is Torres. Ezio’s up on the mezzanine; he’s going to keep eyes on the people in the office and also pinpoint the whereabouts of the others on the lobby floor. That will allow Cullen, Raiden, and Nic to gather them up and take them to safety.”
“I wanna believe, please know I want to believe,” she whispered. “But I’m a cynical bitch who always plans for the worst.”
“Planning for the worst is what we do too. That’s the reason I’m not taking you directly to safety, just in case you’re right and we do need you. But I sure as hell am hoping for the best.”
He quietly opened the door to the lobby near the women’s restroom and ushered her through it.
She was silent as a mouse. He looked down. She’d taken off her shoes again. Yep, her brother trained her well.
“What happened?!” a woman was screaming in English. “Are they going to kill us?”
Asher kept his flashlight on, night vision goggles wouldn’t work since light was still coming through the windows. “To the left, we’re avoiding Suzanne’s office.” He whispered the words directly into her ear. She nodded.
“Be quiet,” another woman said in Spanish. The situation was going to hell, fast.
/> “What are you saying?” the woman screamed back at her in English. She had a British accent.
“I take it that’s Sharon?” Asher whispered.
Eden nodded.
“You need to calm down, Señorita.” A man entered the fray. Sharon continued to shout. Obviously, his soothing was having no effect, as she continued to yell in fear.
Asher pinpointed where the conversation was coming from—one of the cubicles near the men’s restrooms. “Ezio, do you have eyes on this?” he asked into his mic.
“Yeah, they closed the office door as soon as the lights went out. I’m looking over the balustrade and I’ve got eyes on the screamer. She’s surrounded by a suit, a guard, and another woman.”
“Ezio, how many in the office?” Asher demanded to know.
“It’s changed since my last report. Still the doughboy, then there’s Heinrich, Carlson and Kaito. The woman and Leland left as soon as the lights went out and the screaming started. The muffin man is squeezed himself under the desk, babbling in French, I think.”
“That’s Schlessinger. We’re going to need a crane and an éclair to get him the hell out from under there,” Eden said disgustedly.
“French?”
“Swiss, but he really only speaks French. I think I can talk him out from under the desk, and I can help with Sharon.”
“Ezio can get Sharon, I already saw him in action with Rafa’s girlfriends at the food truck. He’s a natural. She’ll be putty in his hands.”
“Okay.”
“We’ve got a problem,” Max said urgently. “Big. The jeeps are moving out to make way for the tank. Get those civilians the hell out of there, now!” Asher knew that everyone on the transmission got the message.
“Ezio, you heard your job,” Asher told his teammate.
“Yep, go charm the screamer. Easy, I’ve got this. That means I’ll be scooping up at least four civilians. Probably a guard or two by then.”
“Eden and I are going to the office. That will give us four.”
“That leaves us eight who are scattered,” Raiden said. “If we get them, then we’ll come help you and Eden.”
“Negative,” Asher answered. “There will be three of us—Leland will be a calm head helping us. You go to Ezio first.”
There was a pause. “Agreed,” Cullen and Raiden said at the same time.
Because of the slippery lobby floor, Eden fell on her ass when the first blast hit. She scrambled to get up, but Asher covered her body.
“Stay down,” he hissed.
She stilled. Another concussion hit, followed by crashing sounds and shattering glass, but Asher’s body kept her from moving.
“So now I know what a tank hit feels like,” she tried to tease. But truly she was beginning to get scared. She hated scared. Mad. Pissed. Angry. Those were acceptable feelings. Not scared. Being scared was for pussies.
She shoved at Asher’s shoulders, the part of him that wasn’t covered with Kevlar. The part that was all muscle. Okay, feeling lustful. That was one of the good feelings too.
“Let me up,” she demanded.
“They’re not done.”
“Well, we have to hurry then,” she growled up at him. Because of the dim light, she couldn’t see his eyes, but she saw his jaw tense as his teeth probably ground together. She had that effect on men.
“You’re just going to slide on your ass again. We wait.”
Another blast, this time much worse, and she felt hot, humid air hit her. Oh, holy hell. They’d blasted through the bank wall. It sounded like the entire building was shrieking in pain as parts of it collapsed.
Sharon’s shrieking had stopped between the second and third blast. Eden prayed it was because Ezio had gotten her to safety.
“Oh hell no.” Even through the cacophony of sound, Ezio’s anguished words got through to Eden. She prayed to God that he was all right. That Sharon was all right.
Asher got up and found her shoes. “Put these on.”
She did, and then he hauled her to her feet.
She looked around. Holy mother of God, there was a hole the size of a truck where the highly polished bronze doors of the entrance used to be.
“Quit staring, the tank is going to start rolling in. We’ve got to get to the office to show them the way out of here,” Asher hollered. He had to yell because there was cement, wood, and stone crashing down around the hole and the sound was tremendous.
Now that the moonlight was shining in, Eden could see better. She saw Asher whip off his night-vision goggles as she ran toward Suzanne’s office. Eden was not surprised to see men coming out. Leland was looking around, and when he spotted Asher and Eden, he grabbed at Carlson and Becker, but was only able to stop Carlson.
“Mike, go with him,” Leland said, pointing at Asher. “He can lead you to safety.”
Carlson ripped out of his grip.
“Fuck you, Hines,” Carlson said before he took off across the lobby toward the teller cages.
What the hell?
“Leland,” Asher yelled over the crumbling building. It was as if an earthquake had hit. Two of the gigantic light fixtures crashed down in the center of the lobby, glass shooting out everywhere. There was more screaming and yelling.
Eden heard people hollering in Spanish and English, trying to relay instructions. Please God, say people will get to safety.
She needed to focus—she might not like the man, but she needed to get to Maurice Schlessinger. Eden continued to run the rest of the way to the office, Asher at her side. The door was hanging off its hinges.
“Let me go first. It’s not stable,” Asher said. Both of the windows were blown out. The bookcase had been torn from the wall and was teetering on top of one of the leather chairs. But the desk was solid.
“Maurice,” Eden called out. “Come out from under the desk. We can get you to safety.”
Nothing.
“Maurice,” she called louder.
Asher crouched down to look under the desk. “He’s dead.”
“But the desk should have protected him,” Eden protested. She tried to shove past Asher so she could see for herself, but he blocked her. That didn’t stop her from seeing an ever-widening pool of blood.
“What happened?” she asked in horror.
“A piece of glass got him in the jugular. He didn’t have a chance.” Asher stood up. “Come on, we’ve got to go.”
Eden looked down at her shoes. They were bloody. She couldn’t help taking a quick step backwards.
Dammit. Maurice didn’t deserve this. Nobody deserved this.
Eden clamped her teeth together hard, so she wouldn’t whimper.
Asher grabbed her hand. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
She finally noticed that more dust was falling down on them, and that there was a loud rumbling that was getting noticeably louder. “What’s that?”
“The tank, it’s coming in.”
Eden found herself rooted to the floor, looking down at the blood on her shoes. Asher grabbed her arm and hauled her out of the office. It was just what she needed to kick-start her into gear.
“Status,” he yelled into his mic.
She heard the answer as it came through on Asher’s radio’s speaker.
“They’ve found eight. They’re slotting them out of the northeast hole right now.”
“Who’s missing?” Eden questioned.
“Gerta, Becker and Carlson, they don’t know who the other four are. They’ll take a headcount when they’re on the other side of the gate.”
Eden did a quick headcount in her mind. Schlessinger would be one of the four.
“We’ve got to find the other three.”
“If we find them on the way to getting you safe, then fine,” Asher said as he looked to his right toward the stairs near the elevator. It was one of the exit points. It had taken a direct hit from one of the tank shells. That was out.
“There’s only one other exit from the building,” Asher yelled. “We
need to move.” He changed from gripping her to putting his arm around her waist. As soon as her wet shoe hit the highly polished floor, she understood why. Once again, she would have ended up on her ass.
The rumble was no longer a rumble, it was a roar. She looked behind her and saw the tank cross the threshold into the bank lobby.
I’m not going to scream. I’m not scared. I’m mad.
Maybe if she said that often enough, she’d believe it.
“Meet me at the Northwest corner of the gate,” Asher yelled into his mic.
Her shoes crunched as she stepped on shattered glass. It was from the remains of one of the many huge pendant lights that had fallen from the ceiling. She couldn’t believe how mangled the beautiful fixtures were—and that’s when she saw a severed leg. It was lying three feet away from the oval bottom of the light. No body. Just a leg.
“There,” she pointed as she gagged. Asher turned his head.
“Fuck.” He squeezed her hand. “Stay here. And this time, do as I say.”
This time she was more than happy to. Her vomiting was just going to slow them down.
When he came back, he said, “Bank employee.” He grabbed her hand and continued toward the stairs, next to the women’s bathroom.
“Goddammit.” Asher sounded pissed.
It was hard to see, even in the moonlight, what had him so mad. Then Eden spotted it—part of the wall was blasted. It must have happened during the tank’s attack. The bathroom was exposed, sinks were hanging at odd angles. The door to the stairs was also blown open and Eden could see that the door to the outside was blocked by a huge beam.
“Maybe we can crawl over it,” she suggested hopefully.
That’s when she heard it. Commands in Spanish. The secret police were entering the building.
“We’ve got to try,” Asher said grimly.
Chapter 11
He had to get her to safety. He had to. Never again was someone he cared about going to die on his watch.
He should never have let her try to help with the coward under the desk. Asher shoved harder at the beam, trying to lift it out of the way so he could get to the safety bar and open the goddamn door.
Her Chosen Protector: Navy SEAL Romance (Night Storm Book 3) Page 10