by Dani Pettrey
His shoes, shirt, and belt were flung over a rickety metal chair, leaving him only in his trousers.
A man he didn’t recognize entered the room, strode to a small table about ten feet from Declan, and unrolled a leather case. The flash of steel instruments caught Declan’s eye as he swung to the right.
Thank you, Lord, they didn’t take Tanner.
“Agent Declan Grey,” the man said, his voice muffled.
He got a better look as the man approached—tall, slender, black hair sprinkled with gray, deep caramel-colored skin. One of Ebeid’s men? If so, it was the first time he’d seen him. Which made sense, as Ebeid wouldn’t want to send someone Declan could easily tie back to him or the Institute, if they were not planning to kill him—or if the Lord provided a means of escape.
The man held a six-inch serrated blade in his left hand. “I see you are no stranger to pain.” He took a moment to assess Declan’s scars. “That could delay our time frame,” he said to one of the guards. “I can already see this one’s willpower is strong.”
Wrong. Not willpower—his confidence in God. In His power. The Lord’s disciples had faced insurmountable and at times excruciatingly painful odds—having been hunted, imprisoned, and tortured, but God gave them the strength to endure with grace. God might not choose to alleviate the pain he was about to suffer, but Declan trusted God would give him His strength to endure it.
“Now, let’s begin with what you know,” the man said.
“What I know about what?” Declan wasn’t giving up anything.
“So you are going to prolong the inevitable? Then let’s dive right in.” The man sliced Declan’s upper chest.
Unwilling to give the man the satisfaction, Declan bit back the urge to grunt in pain.
Please, Father, give me dignity, strength, and endurance for what lies ahead.
Luke stood at a grimy window of the warehouse. He’d followed one of Ebeid’s men there and found them holding Declan. Malcolm would say it wasn’t his job to intervene, but he was done listening to Malcolm. He was doing what was right—and that meant saving his friend. Or at least the man who had been his friend through his entire childhood.
Crouching low, he made his way along the side of the building, adrenaline burning his limbs.
He found a patched opening in one of the broken windows and quietly pulling back the cardboard, looked inside.
They had begun their torture. He needed to move fast.
Declan grunted back the pain. They could punch and slice him all night, but he wasn’t talking.
Movement near a window caught his eye.
Luke?
Luke held a finger to his lips, and Declan forced his focus back to the man before him.
Within a minute one of the guards slumped to the ground on the outer edge of his peripheral vision. Mustering all the strength he could, Declan waited until the man approached with a new instrument of pain and swung upward, knocking the man to the ground. Luke opened fire, and Declan pulled up to his feet, working to untie the bonds that held him. After a moment, he dropped to the floor and staggered to his feet. The world swam for a minute, but Declan shook it off.
Luke tossed him a gun, and he joined the fight.
Soon only he and Luke remained standing, and he’d only gotten off a couple shots. What had his childhood friend become?
“Ebeid’s men?” Declan asked.
Luke nodded as he searched the bodies.
“I need to call this in. We need a full team on this. And Griff, of course.”
“I understand,” Luke said, rifling through the last man’s wallet. “Can’t believe he was stupid enough to keep this on him, though the ID is definitely fake. Make your call,” he said, lifting his chin. “Just don’t mention me.”
“What?”
“Just say some unknown man showed up and then disappeared.”
“Seriously? You think they’re going to buy that?”
“Do what you have to do, but if you bring my name into this, you’ll blow years of casework, not to mention further endanger the country we love.”
“So you do work for our country?”
Luke looked at him like it should have been completely obvious. “Of course.”
“Which agency?”
“I could tell you,” he said, climbing back up to the window where he’d come in. “But . . .” He smiled. “You know the rest.” And then he was gone.
Declan shook his head. Great. He sighed, surveying the bodies around him. How am I going to explain this?
Tanner’s heart raced as the nurses wheeled her gurney into an ER room.
She fought them in an attempt to stand.
“Tanner, you have to let them treat you,” Finley said. “Griff, Jason, and the local precincts are searching for Declan, along with the Bureau’s agents. Trust me, they’ll find him, but it’ll do neither of you any good if you ignore a possibly serious head injury.”
“I want to help search.” She couldn’t just lie in a hospital bed when the man she loved was in extreme danger.
“He wouldn’t want you to endanger your health,” Finley countered.
Finley was right, but Tanner didn’t have to like it, or agree.
“Listen to the woman,” Avery said as she entered.
“Let me guess—Griffin sent you both to make sure I stay put?” Tanner asked.
“And me,” Kate said, popping around the privacy curtain.
“I appreciate your concern, but you all should be out there looking for Declan, not babysitting me.”
“We’re here to make sure you’re all right too,” Kate said, and she held up her laptop. “I can help just as easily from here.”
Tanner struggled to sit up, but her swirling head knocked her back against the thin hospital pillow.
Frustration blistered inside, sending hot tears streaking down her cheeks. “What if they don’t find him?” Her lip quivered. “What if they’re too late?”
Finley grasped her IV-free hand, and Avery moved to sit by her other side.
“They’ll find him, honey,” Finley said.
“It’s what they do,” Avery added.
She swallowed, praying they were right.
Her cell rang as the room swirled.
Please, Lord, let it be good news. “Grab it!” she said, frantically.
“On it,” Kate said, digging through Tanner’s jacket pocket. She handed it to her.
Tanner didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”
“Hey, sweetheart. It’s me.”
She sat up, ignoring the swimming of her head. “Declan.” Oh, thank you, Lord. “Where are you?”
“A warehouse in Sparrows Point, according to the trace Tim Barrows ran off this cell.”
“Whose cell is it?”
“One of the men who took me.”
“But you’re okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“How . . . ?”
“Our friend from Houston.”
Thank you, Luke.
“How are you, honey?”
She smiled. He floored her. He’d just been kidnapped—and she hated to imagine what he might have endured before Luke showed up—but he was worried about her. “I’m fine.”
“Let me talk to your nurse.”
“She’s not here right now. Trust me, I’m fine.”
“You at GBMC?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Tim, Griff, and both teams are on their way. I already hear a helicopter circling overhead.”
She nodded, tears of relief tumbling down onto her lap.
“And, sweetheart . . . ?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you. I’m sorry for not saying so before now. But I do. I love you with all my being.”
She swallowed, her heart overflowing with joy. “I love you too.”
She’d barely hung up, and the ladies pounced.
“What happened?” Kate asked.
“Declan’s okay?” Fi
nley said.
“Are the guys with him? What about Parker? Is he okay?” Avery asked.
“Parker went too?” Tanner said.
“Of course,” Avery said. “He joined Griffin and Jason.”
“Well, Declan is alone right now. It sounds like the cavalry is just arriving.”
A few seconds later Finley’s cell rang. “It’s Griff. Probably updating me about what he knows.” She stepped out of the room to take the call, as Avery, in turn, did the same when Parker called too, leaving Tanner and Kate alone.
“What happened?” Kate asked.
Tanner bit her bottom lip. “He . . . didn’t go into detail. Just said he was okay and would be here as soon as he could.”
34
A door slammed open, and fellow agent Tim Barrows and his team flooded into the musty warehouse. Griffin, Parker, and Jason entered as ambulance sirens whirred toward them. Declan just needed to make sure the ambulance took him to GBMC, because as soon as he explained—or came as close to explaining—this mess as best he could, he was going to be at Tanner’s side, even if he had to stagger there.
She’d said she was fine, but he feared she was simply saying that to make him feel better. She’d taken a serious knock on the head.
His friends strode straight for him as agents began working the scene.
“What happened here?” Griffin asked.
Declan leaned in, lowering his voice. “I can’t tell you, not exactly.”
Griffin’s brows arched.
Declan glanced around. “Not here. Not now.”
“To say I’m intrigued is an understatement,” Parker said.
“I understand, but I need you all to trust me.”
Declan proceeded to brief Barrows while the paramedics set to work cleaning and bandaging his wounds.
“And you didn’t recognize the man who came to help you?” Barrows asked again.
“He was dressed in black. It was dim. It all happened so fast.” Which was all true. It just wasn’t the full truth. To say he was struggling with the precarious position he was in was no exaggeration, but there was a bigger game at play. He’d glimpsed enough of it to know Luke was telling the truth. There was a terrorist attack coming to U.S. soil, and according to Luke, if his presence was made public, it would destroy all the work he’d done to combat what was brewing. If keeping Luke’s identity and presence hidden from the terrorists and whomever they had on their payroll was key in stopping those attacks, Declan had no choice but to remain silent.
Griffin joined Declan in the back of the ambulance headed for GBMC, while Parker and Jason followed in Griffin’s car. Barrows and his team remained to process the crime scene. Unfortunately, all the men involved in his abduction were dead, so there’d be no questioning. But Declan believed that was part of Luke’s plan. If there were no survivors to question, it assured Ebeid and whoever else was involved that the FBI and local police hadn’t garnered any pertinent information about their plans. They were too close to catching Ebeid to spook him now.
Otherwise, Ebeid would move on, plan another attack, another location, and they’d have to start their case from scratch. It would delay Ebeid’s impending attack, sure, but what was to say they’d ever get this close to catching him again? They were playing with fire, but they had no choice. Ebeid needed to believe his plans were safe, and that he could move forward with the attack as planned. They just had to catch him before it occurred. It was going to come down to the wire. Them against Ebeid in a race that held thousands of lives in the balance.
“All right,” Griff said, moving to his side as the paramedic moved up into the passenger seat of the ambulance, shutting the door and allowing them a modicum of privacy. “Let me hear it,” he said as he balanced on his haunches, bracing himself against the gurney.
Declan prayed for guidance. Luke couldn’t be on the records, but Griffin could be trusted, as could Park. It was time for him and Tanner to stop carrying this burden alone.
He indicated for Griffin to lean in and whispered. “Luke.”
Griffin moved to jerk back, but Declan clutched his arm, keeping him pinned in place. “There’s far too much risk if that information leaves our group, and only you and Park can know.”
Griffin’s brows arched.
“Kate’s safety rests upon her not finding out about Luke.”
“Why?”
“Luke said if his enemies discover she’s digging into his whereabouts, or they learn he cares about her, they’ll take her out.”
“And us?”
“They’ll kill us too if Ebeid discovers our connection to Luke.”
“You’re assuming we actually matter to him,” Griffin said.
“He’s saved me twice. Why bother if he doesn’t care?”
“Twice?!”
Declan winced. “Houston.”
“I knew you were holding back something about Houston.”
“Sorry. Luke made me promise.”
“Luke? Our ‘friend’ who’s been gone for seven years? You felt the need to protect him over us?”
“No. I didn’t say anything because I believed I was protecting you all, especially Kate.”
Griffin exhaled. “It’s hard to even fathom. . . . I mean, I can’t believe you saw him, talked to him. How is he?”
“The better question is who is he? He’s not the same Luke we knew.”
“Meaning?”
“The guy’s like Jason Bourne on steroids.”
“Luke?” Griffin whispered, shock infusing his tone. “You’re kidding?”
“I’m dead serious. He’s in deep, and I have no clue which agency. It’s no wonder we haven’t been able to find a service record for him. Whatever agency he works for must have him ranked at a highly classified level—or completely off the books.”
“Off the books, as in black ops?”
“I pray not, but . . .” At this point it wouldn’t surprise him. He had no idea who Luke had become.
Tanner’s hospital door slid open, and the privacy curtain pulled back to reveal Declan. His shirt hung open, his chest covered with bandages and scars—scars she’d first seen when she’d stitched him up and had gotten so sidetracked by his tattoo and rippling muscles. That day seemed a lifetime ago, but in reality, it had only been a matter of days.
So much had happened, so much had changed, and while most of what had occurred had been terrifying, the rest was the best thing that ever happened to her. Declan was the best thing that had ever happened to her, and she hadn’t stopped thanking God since he’d uttered those three words. Declan Grey loved her.
He knelt at her side. “Hey, sweetheart.” He brushed the hair gently from her bandaged forehead and placed a soft kiss to the side of it. “How are you, really?”
“You’re covered in bandages, and you’re asking how I am?” The man was crazy.
“Why don’t we give these two some privacy?” Avery stood and collected her things.
“Good idea.” Finley followed Avery’s lead.
“You okay, Grey?” Kate asked.
He looked at Tanner and smiled. “I am now.”
Everyone disappeared, leaving them alone, and Tanner couldn’t have been more grateful. It wouldn’t be long before a nurse or doctor appeared for another exam, but she’d treasure the brief moments they could steal. She had Declan back, and he loved her. She wished she could say they’d come through the worst of it, but she feared the worst was waiting right around the bend.
Luke listened in to the surveillance equipment he’d placed on Dr. Khaled Ebeid’s cell phone. To this point, the man had been careful and hadn’t provided much concrete information about his plans, but Luke wasn’t giving up.
“What?” Ebeid asked, enraged when notified of the failed abduction.
“They’re all dead.”
“Any signs of torture?”
“No. Double taps. One to the center mass, one to the head.”
“On all of them?”
“Yes.”
/>
Ebeid exhaled. “At least they didn’t have time to give anything up. We can move forward as planned. Only we don’t know what they learned from Grey.”
“No, sir.”
There was a long pause.
“We’ve worked too hard for this to stop now. Everything’s in order?”
“Just waiting for Stallings to arrange for the trawlers. Otherwise, we’re set.”
“And the transport?”
“Happening on schedule.”
The call disconnected, and Luke sat back, his head resting against the paneled wall of his motel room. The day after tomorrow whatever they planned for Baltimore was going down—and that was when the transport was scheduled. The distraction attack, which he prayed Declan would figure out, no doubt would occur slightly before or at the same moment. He hated the thought of a disaster occurring so close to home—or what had at one time been his home. Now that he was back, he craved for it to be again. But could someone like him really go back to a normal life?
Now was not the time to ponder what would happen after. He had to focus and make sure there was an after, that Ebeid and his men didn’t succeed on either level—the transport or the diversion attack.
Luke shook his head. Who would have thought that Declan Grey would be working the other thread of this investigation?
Please, Father, let Declan discover the location of the distraction attack. Help to reveal what Ebeid has planned. There are so many lives hanging in the balance.
Intel pointed to it being local, and they had confirmation weapons had been transported in, but that was the extent of their knowledge. He couldn’t personally shift any more attention to that detail though. He had to focus on intercepting the transport—otherwise what might be a thousand lives lost could easily turn into millions.
Flipping on the TV, he turned to the news channel, anxious to see how the raid had been reported, what was being shared with the media, and praying his name didn’t come up. Declan had promised, but how could he expect anyone to keep their promises after what he’d done? After all the promises he’d broken?
He pulled Kate’s creased picture from his inner shirt pocket and smoothed it out. She’d been so beautiful in college. It was hard to believe she was even more beautiful now.