…
Eva wrapped her arms around the elderly scientist. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said. Quinn didn’t miss the relief in her voice, and while eliminating the weapon might be the primary objective, he knew she’d come this far because she’d promised an old man that she would save him.
Instead of a happy reunion, Felix stiffened in Eva’s embrace and shoved her away. She took a step back in shock, and it took all of Quinn’s willpower to keep from knocking the old man to the ground.
Ungrateful ass. The accusation raced through his mind, and a flicker of shame followed. But only a flicker as he reminded himself that Felix might be ungrateful, but that didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was protecting Eva, and the best way to do that was to save the scientist and get the weapon he’d been forced to construct to the authorities.
His attention zeroed in on the cylinder in Felix’s hands. The red numbers on the timer flicked on and off, but they weren’t counting down, he realized. Just a steady flash of sixty minutes. The prickles dissipated.
Still...he strode over and took the weapon. “Is this what I think it is?”
The old man’s cheeks turned pink, and he nodded. “It is.”
Eva frowned. “But how? You’ve had less than a week.”
“It was almost done when I was captured by FARC. Now, it is capable of killing millions.”
“How?” Eva asked.
“It’s a hemorrhagic fever that doesn’t require a host for transmission.”
“Meaning they’ll bleed out. Internally.” Eva paled, looking almost sick.
Quinn’s churning gut echoed her horror, but a flicker of movement caught his attention, and he shoved his revulsion aside. A camera on the end of a slender tube pushed between the rubber at the bottom of the door and the threshold. No doubt the thugs in the hallways were checking for weapons and number of people in the lab. “Do you have a back way out of here?” he asked Felix.
“It’s evil.” Felix grabbed Eva’s hand and dropped to his knees as if praying for redemption. “And I am the evil that created it. You should have left me in the jungle.”
Quinn bit back a snarky reply. Now was not the time for anger and accusations. That could some later when they were safe and the weapon was with HRS being dismantled. Handing Eva the confiscated gun, he tucked the cylinder under his arm. “Deal with him. We have to go. Now.”
Eva nodded and squatted down until she was eye to eye with Felix. “You can still do good things. This is like Colombia. If you want to stop this, if you want to see your daughter again, and if you want to save her, you have to be strong. And run.” She rested a hand on his shoulder. “Only this time, there are no caramels.”
Felix chuckled through the tears.
“Are you ready?” Eva whispered.
Felix tottered to his feet, his spine stiffer. His face determined.
Quinn offered a hand to Eva, stunned by how good she was. Better than he remembered. Better than him when it came to dealing with scared or reluctant victims. Typically, he forced them to do what he needed. Her way was a hell of a lot less traumatizing.
Felix wiped the tears away. “There is a back passage. They used it to bring me in here. To hide me from the rest of the building.”
The sudden pinging of bullets against unbreakable glass made Quinn recoil. “Where?” he shouted over the barrage.
“This way.” Felix hurried to the back of the lab. “When everyone left, I snuck in here, hoping to destroy the weapon.”
“No time for that now,” Quinn said.
Behind them, the pinging continued as the men outside tried to breach the lab. Quinn turned back, assessing the situation in seconds. Ten men. A variety of weapons ranging from AKs to M-16s sprayed the glass with bullets. It held. But for how long?
Mist started to pour from vents in the ceiling. “Hold your breath.” If the back hall was occupied, they were screwed. He flung open the door. Empty. But he knew that wouldn’t last long, either. “Go. Go. Go.”
They almost fell over one another, trying to escape the mist. Quinn slammed the door shut behind them, and his breath whooshed from his lungs.
Halls led the right, left, and straight ahead. “Which way?” he asked.
“Straight,” Felix said.
Which was probably guarded.
“Can you run?” Eva asked.
“For you and my Pauline, yes.” Felix said, his hand grasping hers. “And what about my daughter? We must find her. She is here. I saw her.”
“We will,” Quinn said. “But not right now. We have to get you to safety.”
Felix stopped midstep, defiant. “They will kill her.”
Quinn didn’t begrudge him the boldness. It was his daughter’s life at stake. But he also had to play it smart. “We have what they want, so they will use her to bargain.” He held up the weapon.
But Felix remained resolute.
“I’ll find her,” Eva promised. “We’ll find her. But we can’t do anything if we’re all dead.”
“We’ll come back for Pauline. I promise you that no harm will come to her,” Quinn said.
“We promise,” Eva reiterated, but her eyes were dark with the knowledge that they were lying. It was almost assured that Pauline would be harmed. Tortured for her father’s escape. But they’d keep her alive until they had no reason to do so.
Felix broke into a trot, leading the way down the hall, but Quinn knew it wasn’t his words that convinced him. It was Eva.
They reached the end of the hall, and Quinn stopped Felix before he could open the door. The last thing he needed was the scientist getting shot. The weapon might not be counting down at the moment, and with luck it never would, but they needed him to help safely tear it apart. “They’ll be resistance on the other side. I’m first.”
Quinn cracked open the door. Three guards, dressed like the others, formed a semicircle around the opening. Thick muscles and buzz cuts beneath black ball caps made him think of clones. Just three, though. Which meant the forces were limited by the fact the building was primarily office space for people who had nothing to do with what happened in the lower floors.
But how limited?
“We have the weapon. Back off.” He cracked the door open farther and stuck his head out, weapon in hand. “I said, back off.”
They hesitated. Quinn held the weapon up. “If I drop this, it might go off. It might not. But do you want to take a chance?”
The one to his right gave a nod, and they all began a retreat, stopping at the end of the hall.
“All the way,” he said, sweat rolling down this back. Even if they did as he said, reinforcements would arrive soon, and someone, there was always someone, would take the chance that the weapon wouldn’t detonate, and Quinn’s tiny group would end up in pools of blood.
The three disappeared around the corner. He stepped out, then braced himself for a bullet. Nothing happened. In the opposite direction, an exit sign pointed down the hallway. “This way,” he said.
Eva entered the hallway, one hand on her weapon and the other holding onto Felix. She was all grit and determination.
Thank God she was on his side, he thought. He’d worked with a lot of partners, but he trusted Eva more than he thought possible. There was no doubt that she had his back, and whether it was because of their past or despite it, he didn’t know.
He just knew that when all hell broke loose, he wanted her at his side.
With Eva guarding the rear, they fled, following the signs above each turn. At the forth turn, the sign pointed to a stairway.
Home free.
Quinn quashed the thought as soon as it flickered through his mind, feeling like he’d jinxed his tiny group.
“Halt!” The command echoed in the tiled hallway.
It seemed the three men had finally grown a collective pair of balls.
Eva knelt down in the stairwell, peered around the corner, and returned fire. “Get him out,” she snapped.
He d
idn’t want to leave her, but they had to get the weapon to HRS. And as much as he wanted to guard her, he knew she didn’t need it. Not really.
He pushed Felix into motion up the stairs and followed.
…
Twelve shots later, Eva slammed the door shut behind her and ran. Ten steps, she counted as she hiked upward. Turn. Another ten. She reached the first landing and caught up to Felix and Quinn.
“Hit anyone?” Quinn asked, taking point.
“I don’t think so, but I gave them something to think about. Maybe bought us a minute or two.” That was being generous.
“I’ll take it,” he replied, his focus on the stairwell ahead of them.
He trusted her to protect them, she realized. A far cry from the man who kept coming to her rescue.
And a welcome change from the man who’d abandoned her for getting knifed.
Maybe, just maybe, he was starting to believe she was capable of taking care of herself.
They passed a door stenciled B3. Three more levels. Not much for her, but Felix was another matter. The overhead light gave his skin a gray appearance, but unlike in Colombia, there was no chopper waiting to whisk them away.
“I want you to know that you will see your daughter again,” she said, trying to energize him with hope.
“I trust you,” he said, grabbing the rail to heave himself upward. His hands slipped on the metal, and he fell to the cement with a cry.
Dammit. “Are you okay?”
He struggled to his feet but fell back again. “My knee. I twisted it when those men made me parachute. It’s been trouble ever since.”
Below them, the screech of rusty hinges echoed through the stairwell. They were out of time, and there was no way Felix was going to make it to the lobby. Not on his own. “Quinn, he needs help.”
“Hell.” He handed Eva the bioweapon, bent down, and heaved a protesting Felix over this shoulder.
The scientist squawked again, but otherwise, didn’t struggle.
“Let’s make some time,” Quinn said and ran up the stairs, Felix bouncing against his back.
B1.
Almost there. Not that they’d be safe in the lobby, but if people were returning from watching the bomb scare, they might have some cover. She didn’t think the thugs in pursuit would shoot into a crowd, since whoever was running the show had taken extra care to remain covert.
At least she hoped they wouldn’t.
The footsteps below them sped up, as if their pursuers knew their quarry was almost free. Quinn stumbled but regained his footing. She tightened her grip and alternated between glancing over her shoulder and watching her feet so she didn’t fall.
M. Main Floor. They burst through the door and into the lobby, ready for anything and anyone. People were just beginning to return to the lobby. A small group of men in almost identical blue suits crowded around the bank of elevators.
“This way,” Quinn said, setting Felix on his feet. Still half carrying the man, he fast-walked across the lobby toward the wide, glass doors.
On the other side—freedom.
Eva held the gun close to her side, half hiding it under her shirt as she hurried toward the sunlight. Still, something didn’t feel right. She glanced back at the stairwell, but no one spilled forth.
Stop acting crazy.
Quinn and Felix reached the doors, pushing through. She followed close, adrenaline pumping through her veins and ready to do whatever it took to get her small group to safety.
“Eva!” Someone called her name from behind her.
She whirled around. Pauline stood in the center of the lobby. Eva paused on the threshold, half in, half out of the building as her attention tunneled inward on the girl.
Felix’s daughter stared at her, blue eyes anxious and unsure. Her hair was mussed, but otherwise, she looked unharmed. She must have escaped in the confusion.
Finally, they’d gotten a break.
A single shot broke the silence, and Eva drew her weapon, dropping to her knees, looking for the shooter and seeing no one.
Pauline still stood, but her mouth was open wide as she looked past Eva.
Eva whirled.
Quinn and Felix were lying on the sidewalk.
“No!” Eva screamed, not caring who heard it or what happened. Time didn’t matter. Felix and Pauline didn’t matter. Not even the bomb mattered.
Nothing mattered, other than Quinn.
She ran to him and fell to his side. “Please. Please.” She whispered the words—an incantation or a prayer, it didn’t matter. It only mattered that the words held power.
“Please be alive.”
He rolled over, groaning, “I’m okay. I’m okay. Get Felix.”
For a beat, she stared at him. She hadn’t lost everything.
“Stop crying,” Quinn said.
“I’m not,’ she said. A hot tear slide down her face. She wiped it away and scooted over to Felix.
The scientist stared up at the sky, a single hole in his forehead. Clean. Professional.
“No. Please no,” she begged. But this time, the words held no power or sway. Around them, people stared, unsure of what happened.
“Daddy?”
Eva looked upward, shielding her eyes from the sun.
Her skin the color of ash, Pauline stared down at her father. “Daddy?”
Chapter Fourteen
“You want to tell me what happened?” Tempe asked. She’d received a call from Quinn yesterday. The conversation had been brief, and when she’d learned of Felix’s death, she’d cut it even briefer since the line wasn’t secure. Instead, she’d sent a company car and brought them to the HRS office just outside of Crystal City.
Not that the subterfuge was necessary. Harris had dropped the charges since Felix was dead and Pauline was recovered, telling everyone and anyone that Eva hadn’t been involved.
“It’s my fault,” Eva said. “Felix is dead, and it was up to me to save him.”
She stared her feet, as miserable as a wet cat, and for a moment, Tempe pitied her agent. But it wasn’t her job to coddle. Ever. “Did you pull the trigger?”
“Tempe...” Quinn said.
She didn’t miss the unspoken plea to be nice. To let Eva wallow in her own personal pity party. Taking on that much guilt was tough, but it was also foolish and could get her killed.
“Stay out of it.” She rose from the makeshift desk her East Coast counterpart had given her and paced the tiny visitor office. “If you’re so inept, why should I let you assist in running down the bastard that killed Felix and kidnapped Pauline?”
Eva remained silent. Hell, was she broken? Tempe frowned. She’d invested a lot into the agent, and she didn’t want it wasted. Besides, she liked her. They weren’t friends, but they were closer than the average director and employee.
“I promised him I would keep him safe,” Eva said, her brown eyes filling with tears.
Tempe stopped in front of her. “And I promised to stick to my diet, but I had a piece of cheesecake last night.”
“Are you comparing a man’s life to cake?” Eva’s eyes flared with anger and indignation, wiping out the sorrow.
Tempe tried not to smile at the transformation. There was the passionate agent she’d recruited from college. “What does that comedian say? ‘Cake or death?’”
Passion morphed into disgust. “What is wrong with you? A man is dead. His daughter watched him die. And you joke?” She shot to her feet, hands clenched into tight fists. “Are you going let me assist or not? If it’s not, then I have things to do.”
“Like what?”
“What do you care? I hear there’s a decent bakery around the corner. There might be cheesecake.”
Only years of experience and training kept Tempe from laughing. “That’s enough.”
“Are you going to let me assist?”
“I’ll let you know. Go.”
Quinn moved to follow, and Tempe shook her head. “Not you.”
Eva slammed t
he door behind her hard enough to rattle windows.
“Was that necessary?” he asked.
“It was,” she replied, taking a seat on the edge of the desk. “The passion for justice is still there, but that healthy coating of ‘woe is me’ had me worried.”
He leaned back on the chair until the front legs lifted off the ground. “I know. Me, too.”
“It won’t stay gone,’” Tempe said. “Think you can get her past it?”
“I can try.”
“You’ll have to. Whoever had Pauline has an interest in Eva. We might need her.”
“You can trust me.”
“Good. The thug you delivered to me wasn’t lying. They want Eva. Alive. I don’t think that has changed.” And that worried her more than she cared to admit.
“That doesn’t make sense. Why would they want her?”
“They took considerable effort to not kill her, and we can use that to our advantage. They were clever enough to kidnap a scientist and his daughter and use them to build a weapon. I can’t imagine that they’re going to throw their hands in the air and let it go. We have to find out who is behind this.”
Tempe waited for him to piece it together. The legs of his chair reconnected with the rug. “You want to use her as bait? That’s why you want me to help her?”
“That’s the plan.” Whoever was running this operation had the knowledge and money to hide their tracks. Eva was the connection in this mess. How or why, Tempe wasn’t sure, and it didn’t matter. They needed to capture whoever was behind this or she sensed they’d be dealing with them again.
“I don’t like it,” he said.
“I don’t care. It’s not about you.” He may not know it, but he was in love with Eva. She saw it in the way his eyes followed her every move. The protective way he leaned toward her when they were close. This was exactly why HRS prohibited agents from having relationships. They didn’t care who slept with whom. Sex meant nothing.
What they didn’t want was love. Connection. And the possibility of losing two agents if one were killed in the field.
But he was also the only person Eva listened to, and they didn’t have time to waste. She wanted to catch this person before he or she went to ground.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.
Risking It All for Her Boss: A Heroes for Hire novel (Entangled Ignite) Page 18