“Jake, why don’t you come with us?” Xander asked, now standing near the door.
Alexa immediately looked up, her eyes wide. “Wait. What?”
“He can back me up.” Xander looked to Randall as if he were asking permission.
“Up to you, man.” Randall unsnapped the Glock from his side and placed it in his palm, offering it up to Jake. “I know you remember how to use one from that stunt you pulled in Montana.”
Jake was staring at the gleaming black metal in Randall’s hand, and then he looked over at Jason for a brief moment. Alexa knew exactly what had crossed his mind—did he not trust himself with a gun in the same room as Jason? Would he want to take revenge for Alexa into his own hands?
No—she knew his heart. He wouldn’t really kill someone in cold blood, would he? Even if the thought had crossed her mind about every other day of the week since Jason had been arrested.
“I don’t think you need Jake with you,” Alexa rasped. She stood, bracing her palms against the table.
“He needs to get back in the game. Things might get ugly soon, and I need to make sure he can hold his own.” While Xander had a point, she didn’t like it. And she also didn’t see how watching Jason upload malware would get Jake all that comfortable with missions again.
“I understand, but isn’t there—”
Xander held up his hand, and Alexa fell silent. There was a glimmer of something in Xander’s eyes. It wasn’t fear, but . . . he wanted Jake to come. Maybe it was Xander that didn’t trust himself alone with Jason. He’d lost a friend the day Jason had sabotaged their mission, seven and half years ago.
“I’m good, Alexa. I can babysit this piece of shit.” Jake’s voice was laced with a bitter iciness to it.
She didn’t know what to say, and she knew none of this was her call anyway. “Be careful, the both of you.”
“What—no well wishes for me, love?” Jason had the damn nerve to wink at her.
“Fuck you,” she responded without hesitation.
Her gaze flickered to the gun Jake was holding in his hand. He looked over at her, his mouth tight and jaw locked. He gave her a slight nod, his brows drawn together, and her heart sank as he turned his back. This was why she’d never been able to date an agent—the not knowing if he’d come back alive. Her teammates who’d died had families . . . and had left behind widows and fatherless children.
Once they left, she swallowed back the lick of fear that blew across her skin like a cold chill as she studied the image of the men on her computer. They became a blur before her as they walked down the hall to Reza’s room.
Don’t kill him. Don’t do it. But his body was on fire, his fingers trembled at his sides, dying to destroy the man who had inflicted so much pain on Alexa. He should have had the death penalty for what he’d done . . . although, now that Jake thought of it, the U.K. may not even have a death penalty.
“You good?” Xander asked as they made their way into the stairwell.
“Could be better.” Jake glared at Jason’s back.
“Agreed,” Xander said as they reached the sixth floor.
When they entered Reza’s suite, Xander gestured to one of the doors off the main room. “I’ll go get the computer. Keep an eye on him, will ya?”
“Of course.” Jake reached for the gun tucked beneath his shirt and held it tight, but kept his arm hanging loose at his side. He didn’t think Jason would make a move, but as the guy was a scumbag criminal, there were no guarantees of good behavior.
“How is she?” Jason sank on the couch and pressed his palms to his thighs. “As feisty in bed as I remember?”
Jason was just trying to rattle him, and Jake had to try to stay calm. They needed the son of a bitch, after all. For now.
“Shut your fucking mouth,” Jake bit out—that was about as close to calm as he’d get.
“You don’t even have the balls to try and come at me, do ya? I read your file earlier today. You’ve lost your mind, so it seems.” Jason tapped at the side of his skull.
Jake wondered what information MI6 was keeping on him and why the hell they would let Jason look at it. Of course, Jason’s skill as a hacker gave him access to whatever he desired.
“Do you even remember how to shoot that thing?” Jason tipped his chin up, his eyes on Jake’s Glock.
Jake raised the weapon in front of him, extending his arm and cocking his head. His breathing was more controlled than it should be for someone who couldn’t actually remember having ever shot a man.
“What’s wrong?” Xander asked.
Jake glanced up as Xander entered the room, laptop in his hand. “Nothing,” Jake finally said while lowering the weapon.
“We don’t have much time.” Xander handed the laptop to Jason.
Jake crossed the room and went to the window, which had a view of his hotel across the way. He rubbed the butt of the gun against his forehead.
This situation seemed eerily familiar.
A black curtain of darkness appeared behind his eyes as memories tugged at the corners of his mind. He resisted, gritting down on his teeth and keeping his eyes open as he took in shallow breaths. He narrowed his focus to the street down below.
It wasn’t the time or the place for a memory hangover.
Jake must have been standing in a daze for longer than he realized. Before he had fully recovered, Jason’s voice sounded behind him: “I’m done.”
It was the first time Jason had said anything that gave Jake a sense of relief.
“You’re sure Reza won’t detect—”
“Trust me, I know what I’m doing,” Jason interrupted.
Jake turned to face the two men. Xander’s back was stiff as he glared at Jason.
“Sure . . .” Xander drawled and started to reach for the laptop, but his hand went to his ear as his brows pulled tight together. “Say that again.”
Jake took a step closer to Xander. Worry crawled across Xander’s face.
“Shit.” Xander pulled his sidearm from his holster and extended his arm. “Did you help them?” He aimed his gun at Jason, and Jake followed suit, even though he had no idea what the hell was going on.
“What are you talking about?” Jason rose from behind the desk and lifted his hands, palms up.
Xander came around to the side of the desk and jerked his chin up. His arm moved like lightning, bringing the gun closer to Jason’s temple. “You know what I’m talking about.” Xander’s jaw locked tight as his gaze narrowed.
Jake stepped to Xander’s side and pointed his gun at Jason as well. If Xander was upset, clearly he had a reason to be. And if his anger was directed toward Jason, Jake was more than willing to get on board.
“Shit, mate. I don’t have a bloody clue what you’re talking about. You guys brought me here. I did what you asked, now back the hell off.” Jason took a step back and pivoted to face Xander full-on. The gun was no longer at his temple, but right in the center of his forehead.
Xander was absolutely still for a moment, but before Xander could make another move, the lights flickered off, and the room was swept by darkness.
“Fuck. You there?” Xander cursed under his breath. “We lost comms.”
Jake tried to adjust to the dark room, which was lit only by lights from the streetlamps outside and the soft glow coming from the windows of the hotel across the street.
“Now I know you did this.” Xander surged toward Jason, pushing him back until he was against the wall.
Jake focused his eyes on the two figures, and moved to press his forearm against Jason’s throat. He cocked his gun and found Jason’s cheek—pressing the nozzle there.
“Are you working with Anarchy, dammit? Did they get to you somehow?” Xander asked.
“How the hell would that be possible? Drop your guns,” Jason pleaded.
Instead, Jake shifted his gun to Jason’s mouth. He’d ram it down the man’s throat if he had to.
“Shit!” Xander yelled. “Get down.” A pin-sized red
light speared the room and landed just over Jake’s shoulder on the wall.
Jake dropped to the floor, dragging the son of a bitch, Jason, down with him as a bullet shattered the glass and tore at the wall.
Jason was cowered next to Jake with his hands over his head. The big guy wasn’t as tough without a computer in his hands.
“We need to get out of here,” Xander said.
But Jake couldn’t move.
“Jake!” Xander shouted. “Come on, man.”
Jake’s eyes shut—he was unable to do a damn thing.
Memories surrounded him. All he knew were the blinding moments of his past.
“Semper Fi! Ooh Rah, brother.”
Enemy fire.
IEDs.
Quantico.
Tombstones.
. . . Alexa.
Loud, screeching noises grated against his skull as the gun slipped from his hand. He pressed his hands to his temples, trying to work through the memories that drilled from one side of his skull to the other.
“We’ve got to move,” Xander urged, but Jake could barely hear him. “Fuck. We’ve got company,” Xander whispered as Jake opened his eyes at the sound of a gunshot.
Chapter Twenty-Three
A few minutes before . . .
“How are they?”
“Jason’s almost done,” Randall answered.
Thank God. Alexa hoped it would work, though. Jason was the best, but what if @Anarchy was better? She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she glared at the footage on screen, impatience burning through her as she waited for their escape.
Her burner phone began to vibrate.
It had to be MI6, but she was so high strung she forgot to deliver her code. “Yeah?”
“Alexa, shit.”
It was Sam from HQ, and his tone wasn’t exactly comforting.
“What is it?” She sat back in the rolling desk chair and tucked an arm against her chest.
“You guys need to clear out of there now. Laney’s orders.”
“We’re almost done. What’s going on, Sam?”
“We’ve been breached, Alexa. Hacked,” he said the words slowly as if giving her the chance to process it.
“What?” She was on her feet, signaling to Randall with an urgent wave of the hand her way. “Get Xander and the guys out of there now!”
Randall nodded and placed a hand over his ear as she listened to what Sam was saying.
“We traced the origin of the emails the Americans received that sent them to Italy to attack the ISIS leader, Ansari. And, Alexa, the digital fingerprint is a match for the intel we intercepted about the Anarchy attack. The intel that sent us to Munich.”
She cupped a hand to her mouth. “We were both set up? But why?” She jerked upright and to her feet.
Then everything became clear to her. Like a film had been lifted from her eyes and she could see the truth.
She couldn’t decrypt Boris Gregov’s files because there was no actual content. @Anarchy had known they were coming to Germany because they’d lured them there. She played right into Gregov’s dirty hands.
“Jesus Christ. The USB we used to download Gregov’s files . . . Shit, we downloaded the Trojan right into our servers.” She looked over at Randall as her eyes widened. “Are they out?” she whispered.
“Xander is confronting Jason—he thinks . . .”
“Tell them to get out now!” Concern darted up her spine.
“Get out of there, too, Alexa. They know everything. You might be walking right into an ambush.”
She braced a hand to the desk and looked up at Randall. Not again. Jesus, no. “Sam? Hello?” Silence.
She looked down at her phone just as the room went black.
“What the hell!” Randall yelled. “Shit. I’ve lost comms, too!”
“We need to get to them,” she cried, working her way toward Randall, fumbling in the dark.
“We’ve lost contact with Alpha and Beta teams, too,” Seth shouted.
“We’ve got to get to Xander. To Jake. They’re in trouble,” Alexa rasped as she tried to power her mobile on with no luck. “I need a gun. Get me a Goddamn gun!” Her hands were trembling, her body locked in position.
I did this. Me. I’m going to lose them.
“You’re staying here,” Randall ordered. “Seth and I will find them.”
“To hell with that. I’m coming!” she demanded.
“Alexa,” Randall warned as they found their way out of the room.
A few hotel guests were in the hall as Alexa, Randall, and Seth pressed against the wall, seeking the stairwell.
Guests were talking—trying to figure out what had happened.
“Stay close to me,” Randall ordered, but damned if she needed that right now. She didn’t care about her own life, not with her best friend in danger, along with the man who’d brought her heart back to life.
No, she couldn’t lose Jake again. She just got him back.
People scattered down the stairs, fumbling in the dark, two-by-two, helping each other down—a horde of bodies moving like shadows. Why were they trying to get out? Unless they were afraid . . .
Alexa had kept count in her head as they reached each landing until she knew they were on Reza’s floor. There, an indistinguishable babble of language sailed over her shoulders as she brushed past people, fighting against the crowd that was suddenly pushing forward faster. People were fleeing like their lives depended on it.
And then she heard the screaming and the pop-pop-pop of gunfire.
Alexa, Randall, and Seth waited as the throng of people pressed past them to exit the floor. There was no way they could fight through the doorway when it was filled with such panic and chaos.
Alexa’s fingers itched with anticipation. She needed to get to Jake and Xander. Her heart was ground to ashes, pumping hard in her chest, obliterating her rationality. Were they too late? The second there was a lull in the crowd, they rushed through the door. Alexa forced herself to draw up a map of the hotel in her mind, which she had memorized to make sense of the surveillance cameras.
The gunfire had ceased before they’d entered the hall, which seemed empty as far as she could tell. But that didn’t mean they were alone. Someone could be waiting and watching in the dark, using night vision goggles while she was blinded by the darkness. She could be two seconds from losing her life, but she couldn’t think like that. She needed to get to her team.
“To the right,” she directed as a hard metal object slapped against her palm. She secured the gun in one hand as her fingers glided along the wall. Reza’s room was the fifth down from the lift. “Follow me.”
When her hands touched the lift, she began to count.
“Should be the next door,” she whispered. “Here.” She paused in front of the door.
There was a hand on her back, gently nudging her out of the way. She could just recognize Randall’s profile—he was taller and broader than Seth.
But then the door began to open.
Even in the dark, Alexa recognized Xander.
Her heart leaped from her chest as she lunged at him, tossing her arms around his shoulders. “Oh, God!”
“We were attacked. We need to find him,” Xander mumbled as he stepped back from her.
“Find who?” Alexa asked.
“Jason,” came Jake’s voice.
“Jake!” Her entire body quivered with relief. A burst of oxygen shot through her, and she could breathe again. Xander and Jake were both alive. Her team had survived.
She wanted to go to Jake, to fit herself tight into his arms and lose herself in his safety, but she checked the impulse. There were more important things to do.
“They took that son of a bitch, Jason,” Xander said. “Shot the room up and grabbed him, then got out through that damn connecting door—the one I used earlier.”
“Who?” Randall asked. “Jesus, we probably let the son of bitches right past us in the hallway.”
“And Jaso
n didn’t make a Goddamn peep,” Alexa noted.
“I don’t know who—I couldn’t see a thing. There were two guys from what I could tell,” Xander answered. “Does anything work? I lost you on comms soon after you told me to get out.”
“No. They killed our mobiles, too,” Seth answered.
“We have to get Jason back.” Xander started to move down the dark hall as if he knew where he was going, determination propelling him forward.
Alexa hooked her arm around Jake’s, and he flinched. She softly let him go. “Are you okay?” she whispered.
“Fuck no,” Jake said.
Stupid question.
“We need to split up. Where were Reza and Gregov before we lost power?” Xander stopped walking and faced her, a figure in the dark.
“As far as we know, they were where they were supposed to be. Gregov was in his room, and Reza was at the casino,” she answered.
“Try and find Beta team—they were just outside the hotel and in the lobby when this all went down. Let’s rendezvous at the Columbus monument at Rambla in thirty minutes,” Xander instructed.
“That works,” Randall answered.
“Jake, you stick with Alexa, okay?” Xander stepped in front of Jake. “You have ammo?”
“I’m good,” Jake answered, and Alexa could sense something different about him. She wasn’t sure how she knew it, especially given their current shit situation and the fact that she couldn’t even make out his facial expressions, but nevertheless, she could feel it. The man was cold.
But he’d just been in a shoot-out—could she blame him?
“You think Jason was working with Anarchy somehow?” Alexa asked Xander.
“I don’t know, but we need to get him back.”
“Randall, Seth, can you guys update Xander on what we found out?” she asked.
“Will do,” Seth said.
“See you in thirty, and be careful.” Xander’s hand found her shoulder in the dark and gave it a squeeze. If she could see his face, she knew there’d be worry behind his eyes.
She turned around when she realized Jake wasn’t on the move. “Jake?” She went to him. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Surviving the Fall (Hidden Truths Book 4) Page 19