by Maddie Wade
“Yeah, I agree. I just wish Lizzie could find this kind of happiness.” He looked at the yacht in the distance as it bobbed peacefully.
“I think she will, one day. She has a lot still to deal with and process, and it takes time.”
“Do you know she’s taking Systema classes with Blake?”
Lauren arched a brow. “Blake from Eidolon?”
“Yes, she doesn’t know that I know. She wanted it kept secret.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I guess she wants to do things her way. Blake said he tried to send her to Smithy, but he refused to train her.”
“Too much guilt there.”
“I guess, which is crazy. I know I was angry, but I don’t blame him for what happened. He was as much a victim as Lizzie.”
“But he blames himself. I also think he and Lizzie might have feelings for each other. I’ve seen the way they look at each other when neither thinks the other is watching,” Lauren said.
“I don’t see how it could work between them. Surely it would be a constant reminder of what happened?”
“Or they’re the only people who can understand, so they’re perfect for each other. Either way, they need to be left alone to sort things out in their own time.”
Dane grinned. “What, no matchmaking?”
Lauren scowled in mock anger. “I don’t always interfere, just when I think someone needs it.”
Dane laughed and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her to his side and kissing her head. “You’re crazy, babe, and I fucking adore you.”
“I adore you too but watch your language in front of my babies.”
“Sorry, I fudging adore you.” He chuckled as Leah clapped and Aaron held his arms up for his mummy. “Always getting in on my action, ain’t you, son?” He kissed his son’s silky hair.
“He didn’t seem to stop you last night,” Lauren said.
“No, he certainly did not,” Dane said, then closed his eyes.
“What’re you doing?”
“Just reliving it, babe.” Dane laughed again as she slapped his abs playfully. He was about to reply when a shrill alarm sounded from his wristwatch. He pressed a button and started getting up. “We have to go. Now. Can you grab the bags?”
“What is that?”
Dane was on his way back up the beach. “It means whoever sounded it is in grave danger. In this case, Drew, Lucy, Jace, and Will.”
He turned to her and saw the fear he felt reflected in her eyes. “We need to get back to the hotel while I call Zack. In fact, leave the bags.” Lauren nodded and his phone rang in his hand. “Zack!”
“Did you get the alarm?”
“Yes, from four of them. What’s happening?”
“Not sure. We’re on our way back now and so are the rest of the team. Hang on, Liam’s calling me, I’ll call you back.”
Zack hung up and Dane buckled the kids into their seats in record time. They were ten minutes away from the hotel and they drove in silence, even Aaron and Leah seeming to sense the mood in the car. Lauren drove in case Zack called back, not wanting that conversation going to the kids on the Bluetooth car speaker.
Dane put his hand on Lauren’s leg. “It’ll be okay,” he reassured her, not knowing if he was lying. His phone rang. “Yes?”
“Armed gunmen have taken everyone in the pool bar hostage including your sister, Jace, Drew, Will, Aubrey, Jack, Zin, and Celeste. Luckily Liam and Smithy were playing tennis with Bebe and Astrid when it happened and were able to slip away without being seen.”
“Do we know if there are any casualties?” Dane asked as Lauren cast a worried look in the rear vision mirror to see if the twins were listening.
“We’ve activated the mics in the watches and Smithy’s using Will’s software to listen in. It seems the target is Princess Taamira. Her bodyguard is dead, and we’re trying to reach her brother to find out why only one of the three-man team was with her. A female hostage is dead, but that’s all we know for now.”
“Okay, we’re just pulling up down the road. Where are Ava and the kids?”
“Roz is taking them all to the beach shack for safety. Drive around towards the golf course and you’ll see us waiting.” They followed the instructions and saw police barricades cordoning off the area. He saw Zack waving as he stood with Daniel and Nate.
Dane helped Lauren from the car with the kids, leaving them in their car seats so they could quickly put them in the next vehicle.
Zack pointed towards two cars parked side by side. “Roz is waiting for the twins over there.”
“Has my father been told?”
“Colin is going with Roz to help with the kids. Mimi and David want to stay and so does Reg.”
“Fine. Let me see them off and I’ll be right there.” Dane carried the twins towards the car with Lauren beside him. He wanted to wash the fear from her face, but he couldn’t. He also knew it wasn’t fear. Lauren was torn between wanting to protect her babies and knowing she might be able to help if someone was hurt.
He handed Aaron and Leah to Roz and Kanan after kissing their heads and turned to Lauren. She was biting her lip and her bronze skin was pale. “Lauren.” He stepped and took her in his arms, pulling her tight to his body. How to offer comfort to a woman who’d already been through too much? “I’ll bring them back unharmed.”
“Just stay safe, Dane. I beg you, don’t die.” Her voice broke as she dropped her head onto his chest, and he held her tight and buried his head in her hair.
“I will, baby, I promise. We have to get married, and I have all sorts of sordid plans for you on our honeymoon.”
She lifted her head, a watery smile on her face. “Call me if I can help.”
“I will.”
“Promise?”
“I’d never lie to you, Lauren.” She nodded and kissed him lightly before getting in the car. He watched for a second as they drove away, then turned to Kanan. “Time to kick some ass.”
Kanan dropped a hand on his shoulder as they walked towards the others. “A-fucking-men.”
They reached Zack, Nate, Daniel, Liam, Smithy, Bebe, and Astrid. Smithy had a laptop balanced on the bonnet of a car, an earpiece in his ear.
“What do we know?”
“Locals have called for help from the mainland, but that won’t be here for another hour.”
“Do we know what they want?”
“Not sure yet but we think it’s a ransom demand.”
“Do we know who they are?”
Zack walked towards Smithy as the others followed. “Smithy found information on these two.” An image of two men from inside the hotel came on the screen.
“Karol Snopek is a Polish national with a long list of offences behind him, including armed robbery, assault, and there’s a warrant out for his arrest for the murder of Jan Snopek—his brother. This guy,” Zack said, pointing at the bald man, “is Leonid Ihorovych Vakulenko. He was dishonourably discharged from the Ukrainian army and is now a killer for hire. He works for the highest bidder.”
They walked a few feet away so Smithy could listen without them rambling in his ear.
“They must have flown into the Island separately to the five men we saw on the plane.”
“Yeah, their cover would never have held up if Will had run their backgrounds.”
“Do we have any weapons?”
“I have a contact who’s going to meet me with some,” Kanan answered.
“Can we get someone out to the boat to speak with the family and find out where their heads are at?”
Bebe spoke up then. “I can do that. I’ve met the Prince before, and I’m sure he’ll be willing to see me.”
Zack nodded. “So, we just need radios and a plan. Can we get a map of the area and the hotel?”
“On it,” Kanan said, having the most connections on the island. Dane watched as he got in a car and drove off at breakneck speed.
“Liam, we need you here in case the explosives on the doors can be disarmed without alerti
ng them. Can you get close enough to see?”
“I can try.”
“Do it, but don’t die.” Zack was clinical, but the sentiment was genuine. He cared about his men and women at Fortis as if they were family. He looked at Dane. “You good?”
“Perfect, just want this handled.”
Lucy might be more deadly than he was—although he’d never admit that to her—but she was his baby sister and he’d always want to protect her. But more than that, it was also Drew, Jace, Will, and all his friends in danger.
“Zack!” Smithy’s tone said something was going down. He put the mic on speaker so they could hear.
“Princess, you are going to call your brother and tell him that I want twenty million dollars transferred into this account within one hour or I will have every one of my men rape you until you are nothing but a cum slut for my men and post it on social media accounts for all the world to see. I will then slit your throat on live television. If you say anything other than that, I will kill a hostage.”
They heard shuffling and movement and then, “Make the call.”
“I will not,” came the voice of the Princess.
Dane froze, not knowing which hostage had been seized. A gunshot ricochet through the mic and Dane recoiled. He held his breath, waiting to hear more for long seconds. All he heard was shuffling and low weeping.
“Let’s try this again.” There were more sounds and a gasp, loud as if close to the mic.
“Stop.” Dane looked up at Zack as they heard Jack speak. “Take me,” Jack said, and Dane felt his chest tighten. “Leave the woman alone and use me as your hostage.”
Dane heard someone suck in a breath close to the watch’s mic. Jack wanted to swap his life for the hostage they’d pulled out, and his gut told him it was one of their group. If Princess Taamira refused again, they’d have to listen as Jack died.
“You are either very brave or very stupid.” Based on the accent, Dane guessed it was Karol Snopek speaking. “I do not care either way.” More shuffling as people were moved around.
“Make the call.”
They held their breath, silent, and Dane knew his helpless feeling was multiplied tenfold in the room. He glanced at the ever-cool Astrid and even she had an uncharacteristic look of horror on her face.
“I will call.” Dane let out a shuddering breath as relief flowed through his body.
They listened to Princess Taamira make the call, sticking without deviation to the script.
“Well done, Princess. You saved this man’s life—for now.”
Zack ran his hands through his hair, looking frustrated. “I need eyes in that fucking room now.” His tone did not allow for disagreement.
“We need someone to hack into the camera feed.”
“Yeah, but all our hackers are in that room. I can get by, but I’m not an expert,” Smithy said apologetically.
“What about Lopez?” Daniel asked, referring to the NSA analyst that worked for Eidolon.
Zack’s head snapped up. “Yes. Get him on the phone and tell him his boss’s life is at stake.”
Daniel walked away a short distance to make the call.
Astrid looked at Dane and Zack. “You know the only way into that area is from the cliff that faces the sea.”
Dane nodded. “I know, and it’s a sheer drop of over two hundred feet.”
“I can climb it,” she said with a tilt of her head.
Dane assessed her and believed it. She didn’t seem like a woman who would bullshit, not needing to bolster her abilities. “Daniel and I can make it too. If the three of us—” he was cut off by Smithy.
“Four, I can make that climb no problem.”
Dane gave him a chin lift in agreement. “If the four of us go, Zack can run the op from the ground.”
Zack seemed unsure. “I’d prefer to go in too. We have no idea yet how many men are inside or exactly how many hostages. If K can get the equipment, all five of us go in and K can run it. He has less experience with direct team assault and more knowledge on the ground in case we need it.”
Daniel walked back to the group. “Lopez is on it. He said he should have a live feed in ten minutes.”
Zack looked at them. “Let’s get down to the beach and see about getting our family out of there.”
Chapter 11
Never in all Lucy’s years as an assassin or over the years working for Fortis had she been so close to throwing up. The adrenalin would often leave her with a desire to fuck or fight, but this was different. So many people she loved were in this room: Aubrey, Will, Drew, Celeste, her partner in crime Zin, and then there was Jace.
The only man she’d ever loved, the man she lived for, who had brought her back to life when she thought her sister was dead. The man who’d helped her deal with her guilt about her mother’s death and Megan’s disappearance. He’d allowed her to forgive herself and help her heal enough to be a doting aunt to Zoey and to welcome Megan as her bridesmaid.
She’d never found herself in this situation before, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it. She knew Will would never recover from Jack’s death, should it happen. More than that, she knew Jace wouldn’t allow it to happen. He and Zin had been getting ready to move when the Princess spoke. Selfish as it was, losing him was not an option. She would rather take her chances and die with him than lose him.
It’d been fifteen minutes since the call and the kidnappers were getting antsy. She could feel it and sense it with the hushed conversations between the leader and the bold Ukrainian. She counted fifteen men in the room which seemed overkill to her, especially with bombs on the doors. But then, they’d kidnapped the daughter of the richest man in the world. He probably had an army at his disposal. These men weren’t stupid though, and they also knew by the time enough people were mobilised to stop them, they’d be long gone.
She glanced at the peach coloured watch Will had been updating so that, at a glance, they looked less like smartwatches and more like a regular cheap watch.
She needed to get as much information to Zack as she could. There was no way in hell he was waiting this out. He’d have something planned, and the best thing she could do was pass him as much information as she could. She looked at Drew who was holding on tight to Mara’s hand, offering support.
“Luce?” Jace spoke in her head as if sensing her unrest.
“We need to get info to Zack.”
“I know, but how when they’re demanding silence?”
“We need a distraction.”
“Luce...”
She could hear the tone of caution in his voice. “Jace, we both know they’re not letting us out of here. If they pay the ransom we die, and if they don’t, we die. I’d rather die and give Zack and Dane the chance to save us than sit here and wait.”
She saw the struggle on his face from across the room. He knew she was right, but she also knew it was tearing him in two. It was heart-breaking to watch him come to the same conclusion, his grief was palpable. The connection they shared was more than just love, it was ineffable.
“They’ll come up over the cliff face, so we need to let him know about any threats in that area.”
“Okay.”
“Luce, I love you.”
“I love you, too—always. Where you go, I go.”
If that meant they died together, then she was sad for all the things they’d never get to have. Sorry for her family who had been through so much already but Jace was her whole world. She was about to start whispering the information Zack would need into the mic when Jace began to sing.
“Fifteen bottles of beer on the bar, fifteen bottles of beer. You take one down, you pass it around, fourteen bottles of beer on the bar.” Lucy watched as the leader with the scar spun towards Jace, moving quickly towards him and staring with hate-filled eyes.
“Shut up!” He pulled his arm back to punch Jace when Zin began to sing as well. The same song but now down to fourteen bottles of beer on the bar. The man hit Jace, who was smiling
. His head flew back as blood poured from his mouth, but he smiled through bloody teeth.
He was causing a distraction so she could get info to Zack. She hated that he was putting his life on the line to keep attention away from her, but she owed it to these people and her friends to step up. Lifting her arm closer so it looked like she was holding her neck in fear, she spoke.
“Fifteen men, armed, automatics. Bombs on doors. Bar area near the pool is rigged. The perimeter has tripwires but doesn’t look rigged.” She went silent as one of the men moved closer to her and prayed it was enough. Jace gave her a desperate look that made her freeze. He never told her not to do something. He respected her, knew she needed to be his equal, and never asked her to change. But now he was begging her not to do any more.
He and Zin were dragged towards the middle and shoved face down next to Jack.
“Please, Luce…please. Just wait. I can’t bear the thought of them hurting you.” Tears filled her eyes, making the back of her throat burn with unshed tears. She blinked, determined not to let them fall, and slowly nodded. She would give him what he needed, even if it went against every instinct she had.
* * *
Dane looked up at the cliff face, his hand shielding his eyes from the sun’s glare. “This’ll be fun!”
Daniel was standing beside him, assessing the rock face. “Yeah, there’s a few bucket holds but mainly undercut grabs. Will Astrid have the strength for those?”
Dane studied the woman wearing black sports leggings and a vest. An undercut hold needed a hell of a lot of bicep strength to pull it off, and this climb was going to be soloing on sight, risky without practice. “I don’t know but I’m sure as fuck not going to be the one to suggest it. Anyway, she looks like a woman who knows her own weaknesses.”
“True,” Daniel agreed.
It would be much easier for them with their years of experience, and especially for Daniel with his new-found strength. Even Smithy, who still had residual effects from the drugs he’d been given, would find this climb easier than most people.
Kanan had arrived on the beach minutes after them with a truckload of rifles and handguns, as well as K-bar knives and holsters. He also had, by some spy magic, managed to get all-black combat trousers with long-sleeved, skin-tight shirts. Zack had explained the plan to Kanan who agreed, and they were now in position.