ASHFORD (Gray Wolf Security #5)

by Glenna Sinclair

  I did this. Mina didn’t.

  Or was that just my heart talking?

  Was she here because Dimitri sent her? Would she go back to him when all was said and done, no matter what the final result? Did she love him?

  I think that was what really frightened me. The possibility that she didn’t return the feelings I’d never declared. That I would lose her and Ford. That I would never have the life I so desperately wanted.

  Had she betrayed me? Had she used me?

  I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. There were too many unanswered questions.

  My cell rang, and I thought for a minute that I might ignore it. But I knew it was Emily. She’d been running background on Avdonin and the men known to be loyal to him, hoping to generate arrest warrants for one or two of them so she’d have a reason to interrogate them. Maybe, if she got the right one in the station, she’d get the information she needed to at least figure out what Avdonin was planning next.

  “Hey, Em,” I said. “What’ve you got?”

  “I’ve got an old weapons charge on one of Avdonin’s lieutenants. I’m headed to his place right now with a couple of uniforms.”

  “Good. Do you think he’ll talk?”

  “Don’t know. I had a conversation with a friend in narcotics. He says they’ve been watching Avdonin for months, but they haven’t seen any indication that he’s interested in any sort of domestic operation. He thinks your information is bad.”

  “It’s not.”

  “It would really help me if you’d tell me where you’re getting it.”

  I couldn’t do that. If I told Emily it came from Mina, she’d haul Mina down to the station to get her statement on record. I couldn’t protect her there, and I wouldn’t put it past Avdonin to have people there who could hurt her.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Emily sighed. “I’m telling you, Ash, we have to do this right. If we don’t—”

  There was a sudden sound and then gunfire.

  “Emily?”

  She didn’t answer me, but I heard the vaguest of moans. And then more gunfire.

  Emily was in trouble.

  I ran around the house, calling her name over the phone connection. Just as I jumped into my SUV, the phone went dead.

  I immediately put a call through to Jack Warren.

  “I think your wife is in trouble.”

  ***

  I got to the hospital behind the ambulance. I’d spent far too much time at hospitals lately.

  They were lifting her out of the ambulance when I rushed up. Jack was pale, as he climbed out of the ambulance beside his wife. He was holding her hand, the dazed look of a man in shock on his face. There was blood, more blood than there should have been, splattered over his shirt. I followed them inside, holding Jack back when they took Emily into the trauma room.

  “We need you to fill out the paperwork, Mr. Warren,” a nurse said, holding out a clipboard to him. Jack wouldn’t even acknowledge her, let alone accept the papers.

  I took them and led him to a chair in the waiting room. We sat there, side by side, for a long few minutes. Jack got the call over the radio just a few seconds after I called him. We arrived at the scene at almost the same moment. Emily’s car was lying on its side, the driver’s side door riddled with bullets. She’d been lucky that she was accompanied by a couple of uniforms who were quick to act. They were able to return fire, chasing the gunmen away. If they hadn’t, we’d probably be at the morgue instead of the hospital.

  “They shot her five times,” Jack said.

  “I know.”

  “Five times. If one of those bullets had been in her head, or if she hadn’t had that vest on…”

  “I know.”

  Jack looked at me, his eyes clear and focused for the first time since all this began.

  “This cartel. They’re after you and your people?”

  “Yes.”

  He nodded, his eyes dropping to the paperwork resting on my knee. He slipped it from my hands.

  “Kill them.” I did something of a double take, not sure I’d heard him right. And then he repeated himself. “Kill them.”

  ***

  I drove around for a long time, almost daring them to come after me. I understood Jack’s anger, but I couldn’t just indulge in a turf war in the middle of Los Angeles. If we did this, it had to be well planned. It’d been almost four years since I’d last planned an operation on the scale this one would have to be. And I only had three, maybe four, bodies to go with me.

  But this had to end. It was too much, this bullshit. The third time we mixed with this cartel had to be the charm, right? We had to end it this time.

  Somehow I found myself pulling into the parking lot outside the hospital where Rose was recovering from surgery. I tapped on her door, once again hit like a punch to the gut when I saw her. She tried to smile, but the swelling was even worse today.

  “How’s it going, beautiful?” I asked, bending low to kiss her forehead.

  She groaned, her voice slurred by swelling and pain medication.

  “Okay?” she asked.

  “Everything’s fine.”

  She studied my face with her one good eye. “No lie.”

  I pulled up a chair and sat beside her, tugging her hand into mine.

  “Things are getting out of control. We think we know who did this to you, but fixing it is going to be complicated.”

  “No fix.”

  I kissed the back of her hand. “I can’t let someone hurt you and not do something about it.”

  “No fix.”

  I ran my hand over hers, squeezing her fingers lightly. “They shot Emily.”

  Tears filled Rose’s eye.

  “She’s going to survive,” I quickly added. “She was wearing a bulletproof vest. They hit her arm twice and her knee and upper thigh. She’ll be on crutches for a while, but the doctors said she’d make a full recovery.”

  Rose blinked, then she focused on me with an intensity that was unmistakable.

  “No fix,” she said again. “You shot too.”

  I picked up her hand and kissed the palm. “I’ll never forgive myself for what you went through. If not for me…”

  “No you fault.” She squeezed my hand. “You save me.”

  I shook my head, the weight of everything finally collapsing the walls I’d put up. I buried my face against her mattress, fighting back the tears that desperately wanted to be shed. Everything was out of control. My people were hurting. My friends. It was my job to protect them, to make sure they survived their missions intact. This was a situation that was unpredictable. But my training taught me to factor in the unpredictable, to be prepared for any possibility. I should have seen this coming. I should have had a plan in place to protect my people should something like this happen.

  But who could be prepared for every variable?

  Rose patted my head. I stood and leaned close to kiss her forehead.

  “I’ll see you soon.”

  “Careful,” she mumbled.

  I didn’t respond.

  Chapter 29

  Mina

  I held the phone in my hands, trying to convince myself I was doing the right thing.

  If David knew I’d lifted his phone out of his pocket…all those weeks on the streets when I first arrived in Los Angeles had really paid off. But I’d never thought I would pick the pocket of someone I considered a friend.

  If my plan worked, I might save Ash and his friends. If it didn’t…I didn’t want to think about that.

  This had to end. And I had to prove to Ash that I didn’t betray him.

  I knew the number by heart. I dialed, my heart pounding.

  “Let me talk to Dimitri.”

  Chapter 30

  Ash

  Tension was palpable when I walked into the office. Kate stared me down as if she was the head cheerleader staring down the girl who dared to challenge her authority. Joss wouldn’t look at me at all. Donovan and David walked up to
me, their shoulders high and wide, tight with unasked questions and unshakable loyalty.

  “What the fuck?” Carrington demanded. “You run out of here without a word and then we get word that Detective Warren was shot? Do you know how scared everyone is?”

  I ignored him, crossing the room to my desk to find the key to the armory.

  I was a career Army man. I didn’t believe in being unprepared. When I bought this house, I installed what was essentially a very large gun safe in the basement. There was enough firepower down there to take out a dozen terrorists. Against the handguns and rifles the cartel had, we could probably take out the whole crew and then some with what was down there.

  Donovan’s eyes widened when he saw what I was doing.

  “Ash,” he said, pressing his hand to my chest.

  “Get out of my way!”

  “Don’t you think we should talk about this?”

  “They beat Rose until they were convinced she was dead. Then they rammed Emily’s car and used a machine gun to pulverize her door. What more is there to talk about?”

  “I know you’re upset. Everyone’s upset. But we can’t—”

  “Get out of my way, Donovan.”

  The room fell deadly silent. I stared at the man I considered my best friend, prepared to punch him if he didn’t move. I was doing this. If they wanted to go along, great. If not, I was still going.

  This had to end.

  I was about to say that when the sound of crying floated down the stairs to us. I knew instantly that it wasn’t Ford’s normal cry. I shoved Donovan out of my way, but not to go to the armory. There was something wrong.

  The bedroom door was partially closed. I pushed through it, rushing to the basinet. Ford’s little face was bright red, his little hands and feet flailing at an invisible enemy. I picked him up, and he continued to wail for a long moment, these funny little hiccups shaking his entire body when he finally settled down.

  It wasn’t until then that I realized Mina was gone.

  And David’s cell phone was propped up on the nightstand.

  “Is he okay?” Joss asked from the doorway.

  I took the baby to her, kissing his temple before I handed him over. I didn’t miss the look of amusement in her eye as she watched. However, my thoughts were on that cell phone.

  David’s phone had a note-taking app that he used often to make notes about his programs. It was already pulled up when I unlocked the phone—David was a smart guy, but he wasn’t smart enough to use a password harder than Ricki’s name.

  “I didn’t betray you,” the note she’d left said. “I was frightened. But I’m not anymore. You gave me strength and courage. Now it’s my turn to make things right.”

  “Oh, hell!”

  “What?”

  “They’ve got her.”

  Chapter 31

  Mina

  It wasn’t hard to slip out of the house. Everyone was so focused on something about Detective Warren that they didn’t see me when I slipped down the stairs. I went out the back door, careful not to make a sound when I closed it. From there, I just had to avoid the security guards walking the perimeter of the fence. That wasn’t hard. I’d been watching them all morning and I had the rhythm down pat.

  Dimitri hadn’t been surprised to hear from me and that surprised me a little. I thought I was a little less predictable than that. It also hadn’t taken much to convince him that he didn’t need the baby to inconvenience his plans at this point. There was no way I was going to take away Ford’s chance at a normal life. I had every confidence that Ash would take care of him if things didn’t go the way I was hoping they would.

  “Meet us on the highway behind the compound. We’ll be there in an hour.”

  That’s where I was waiting, pacing the side of the road. I told him I’d left to help him, to get information on his enemy for him. I told him that I’d be able to show him how to get into the compound.

  He believed me.

  He was a fool.

  The knife was concealed in the sleeve of my sweatshirt. I found it in Ash’s closet, hidden in the back with a few other choice weapons that made me wonder about his sense of security. But, again, after all the things he’d probably seen during his service, I suppose the small cache of weapons was understandable. And it was a huge help in my plan against Dimitri. He’d come in for a kiss and I’d slip the knife out, easy as can be. Once Dimitri was dead, his men would fall into chaos and Ash would be safe.

  And, maybe, he’d trust me again.

  Worst-case scenario, Dimitri would see it coming and kill me.

  Either way, things didn’t look good for me. But Ford was safe and sound at the compound, and I had all the faith in the world that Ash would look out for him. Ash would survive this thing no matter how it went for me. And he’d be the best father Ford could hope to want. Maybe it was best for Ford that I was out of the picture. The kid didn’t need a mom who couldn’t tell the truth even to the man who was generous in taking care of them. He needed a mom who was as kind and gentle as Ash. Maybe he’d get one someday.

  Paused in my pacing to look down the road. I could see the dust of an approaching vehicle. It was time. For better or for worse…

  They pulled to a stop alongside me and tore open the side door of the van. Andre, one of Dimitri’s closest lieutenants, reached out and grabbed my arm, dragging me inside.

  “Welcome back, Mina,” he said.

  “Where’s Dimitri?”

  “You’ll see him soon enough. He’s a little busy right now.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Taking care of your new boyfriend.”

  I tried to twist around, to look Andre in the eye. “What do you mean?”

  Andre eyed me with the bitterness of a lifelong criminal. “You didn’t really think that Dimitri needed you to show him how to get onto that property, did you? We’ve been planning this for a very long time. Dimitri knows what he’s doing. You giving yourself up was just the icing on a cake that was already nearly complete.”

  “No…”

  “He’ll have his son very soon, too.”

  “No!”

  Andre shoved me into the back of the van, yanking my arms behind my back. I tried to pull away, but his grip was too hard. He had some zip ties that he easily slipped around my wrists. As he tied me up, he felt my arm and found the knife.

  “Look at this,” he said to his comrades as he held the knife up. “Planning on hurting someone, were we?”

  “No,” I said. “I was just hoping to kill Dimitri.”

  They laughed. “Like a little girl. Like you could even hurt a single hair on Dimitri’s head!”

  Andre pushed me down against the floor of the van, hard. Then he leaned close and whispered in my ear, “I’d kill you now if it were my choice. But Dimitri, he wants that pleasure for himself.”

  Chapter 32

  Ash

  “How do we know that she didn’t go willing to them?” Donovan wanted to know. “How do we know that she didn’t go to give them information on how to get onto the property?”

  “Because she doesn’t know anything about our security system,” I said, watching the feeds on David’s computers. “I never told her, and I assume none of you ever did.”

  They looked at each other, but I already knew the answer. None of them had talked to her about much more than the weather and Ford the whole time she was living here. They’d never wanted to talk to her. But now she was gone, and suddenly, they were all very interested in her.

  “Mina lied about her relationship with Dimitri Avdonin, but I don’t think she lied about anything else. Her loyalties lie with us.”

  “Then why did she go to them? Why did she leave here?” Joss asked.

  I knew why. I’d accused her of betraying me. I accused her of things I knew deep in my heart that she’d not done. However, I wasn’t going to explain myself to them. That part was between Mina and me to hash out when we got her back. Because we were going to get he
r back.

  David moved up behind me and touched the screen of one computer. I’d already seen it. They were outside the fence, trying to find a weak spot, a place where they could get in. They were being careful, not touching anything, keeping their faces turned from the security cameras. They thought they were being smart, but they had no clue just how complex our security really was.

  There was no way in hell they were getting through that fence short of hiring a magician to poof them over from the other side.

  “I’m not going to ask any of you to do this with me,” I said as I watched, never taking my eyes from the computer monitor. “This is my fight. This is my girl, my responsibility.”

  “It’s not just your fight,” Kirkland said. “Rose is part of us. So is Emily.”

  “Sorry bastards targeting the women. So cowardly,” Donovan said.

  “We’re a family,” David said, resting his hand on my shoulder.

  “We’re in it together. Have been and always will be.”

  I looked at Joss, at the tow-headed baby in her arms. “I won’t ask you to do this, Joss. You have too much to lose.”

  “So do you.”

  I wanted to argue with her. She’d already lost so much. But hadn’t we all?

  Donovan lost his best friend. Joss lost her family. Kirkland lost his first love. And David and I lost our parents. So much loss. But we were finally putting our lives back together, beginning new families, growing roses out of shit. It was our time to be happy, and I was going to be damned if I was going to let some two-bit gangster ruin it for us.

  “We do this on our terms. We take the fight to them. Tonight.”

  I looked each of them in the eye, searched for even the slightest bit of doubt. I saw hatred. I saw anger. I even saw fear. But there was no doubt.

  “Mina told me where their headquarters is. I think we could infiltrate it pretty easily.” He leaned forward and typed a few things into his computer, and new pictures suddenly appeared. “I was able to hack their security feeds. This,” he said, touching a door on one particular screen, “seems to be the best place to start.”