by Alexa Davis
"Yo, Mando!" she hollered. "Do the special with carnitas! But make sure they're fresh! I don't want any of that stuff that's been sitting around all day!"
"You got it!" he yelled back.
"That'll keep him back there for a while," she grinned as she grabbed a couple of menus and went to take care of the new customers who'd walked in.
"Ryan?" I said quietly.
"Yeah," he looked up and I felt my resolve waver.
"We can do this right?"
"No doubt whatsoever," he said as he held my gaze and made my heart pound for the hundredth time in just a matter of hours. "We can do this and beat Baines."
"All right, if you're sure," I said returning to my program.
"It's all going to be just fine, Echo," Ryan said as he reached across the table and rested his hand on mine.
At that moment, I would have followed him to the ends of the earth.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ryan
After we'd eaten, I began laying out the finer points of the break in. I knew that the likelihood of this turning violent was a remote possibility, but I didn't want to be unprepared if that's how things went down. I needed to be able to protect my partners if it came to that.
I also knew from looking at the blue prints of the TriCorp labs that it was highly likely that the labs would all have to be broken into if Echo couldn't figure out how to bypass the security codes on the doors. If there was one thing a SEAL knew, it was demolition, but I wasn't sure where I was going to find the explosives I needed in order to do the job. I knew that C-4s would be perfect because I could slip it into the small spaces under the door and do what we needed to do to open the door without causing a fire or possibly killing us all. It would be a controlled explosion, but I needed to get my hands on some of it without triggering an investigation.
"Cece, this is probably a long shot, but do you know anyone who can get their hands on some C-4?" I asked.
"Sounds familiar, but I'm not sure," she said as her phone buzzed. She looked at the screen briefly then turned back to me. "What is it?"
"Explosives," I whispered.
"Ah, okay, yeah, I think I know a guy," she smiled as she tapped away at her screen.
"Jesus! Don't fucking text that shit!" I said grabbing her arm. She wrenched it away and gave me a dirty look.
"How stupid do you think I am?" she said impatiently. "I'm talking to my van guy and making sure he'll be here on time. Then I'll call my other guy."
"Sorry," I said. "Can't be too careful, you know."
"Believe me, I know," she said rolling her eyes making me chuckle. "Anything else you need?"
"Firepower," I said quietly looking over at Echo.
"Don't look at me, I'm not hearing any of this," she said without taking her eyes off the screen. "My job is to program and get the key, you guys are the demolition experts."
"Gotcha," I said as I turned my attention back to Cece. "Can you get me a semi?"
"Just one?" she said raising an eyebrow.
"Well, we're not going to let her have one," I said tilting my head in Echo's direction.
"Good point," she nodded. "But you need back up just in case things go bad."
"Then two," I said. "And back up magazines."
"Got it," she nodded as she quickly dialed a number and said, "Broadway bodega. Twenty."
"Go with you?" I asked as my phone buzzed with an incoming call. I looked at the screen and saw it was Commander Donnelly, and remembered, too late, that I hadn't checked in with him like I'd promised. The call went to voicemail as I vowed to call him back after we'd finalized our plans.
"Nah, I got it," she shook her head. "Don't want to scare the guy off by making him think I have a boyfriend who's a badass."
"No worries there," Echo said dryly as she continued typing.
"Hey, don't disrespect me!" I said grudgingly causing her to look up and grin. I inhaled sharply as she focused her laser blue eyes on me for a few moments. For a moment, I wanted more than anything to pull her up out of her chair and kiss her so deeply that she'd simply say yes to all the rest of what was running around in my head.
"Wouldn't dream of it, SEAL," she said as she tapped one key hard and fast for a few seconds.
"Okay, I'd love to stay and break up this lover's quarrel, but I need to get over to meet my guy," Cece said as she grabbed her phone and stuffed it into her back pocket. "Be back in a flash with supplies."
"Be careful, Cece," Echo said.
"Don't stress, chica," she grinned as she headed for the door hollering, "Mando, running an errand, back in fifteen!"
I heard a shouted protest come from the kitchen, but Cece was already out the door by the time I understood what Mando had said to his sister. I looked at Echo who was frowning at her computer screen as she typed and said, "Move back upstairs to work?"
"No, I get better Wi-Fi reception down here," she replied. "I'll stay."
"Okay, I need to go up and work on mapping out the timeline so that we can go over it when Cece gets back," I said. "When she gets back, come find me so we can go over it and make sure we're all on the same page."
"Will do, boss," she said giving me a half ass salute as she kept one hand on the keyboard.
"Your salute is the sloppiest thing I've ever seen, lady," I laughed.
"So sue me once we're done," she grinned. "Or don't, I mean, you'll be a billionaire after that so you won't need my unemployment checks."
"Oh, that reminds me!" I said remembering Eva's money. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the envelope she'd given me. "Here, take this for rent."
"Hey, I was just kidding," she said shaking her head and waving the envelope away. "I got a pretty good severance check and I'll find another job once we've taken care of this mess."
"No, seriously," I said. "Just do me a favor and take it."
"Why? So you'll feel less guilty about commandeering my apartment and my friends?" she grinned.
"Is that what you think I'm doing?" I asked.
"Oh Ryan, I was just teasing," she said as she reached out and took the offered envelope. Her fingers brushed mine as she did and I felt myself growing stiff again. It annoyed me that she had the ability to arouse me with the slightest gesture, and that even if I wanted to do something about it, I couldn't be the asshole who tempted her to cheat on her boyfriend.
Just then, Mando came out of the kitchen and walked around the restaurant checking on customers and bringing us a huge basket of fresh tortilla chips and salsa. He leaned down and kissed Echo on the head and whispered something in her ear that made her turn around and smack his arm.
"You're impossible!" she laughed as she grabbed a chip and scooped up some salsa and shoved it in her mouth. She mumbled through a mouthful of chips and salsa, "I'm telling Cece when she gets back!"
"Go ahead and do it, chiquita bonita!" he laughed as he headed back into the kitchen ordering his team to get ready for the supper rush.
"Come find me when Cece gets back," I said as I headed for the door.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Echo
I sat at the back table working on the program for another half hour before Cece blew through the door wearing a huge smile and an enormous backpack.
"Hey, chica, where's the SEAL boy?" she called as she quickly walked toward me. She dropped her voice and said, "We need to get this out of here pronto."
"Gotcha," I said as I closed the laptop and followed her to the front door. "Ryan said to meet him upstairs as soon as you got back. He wants to go over the timeline for the plan."
Cece and I quickly climbed the stairs to my apartment, but halfway up and swore under my breath as I realized I'd left my bag under the table.
"I have to go back and grab my bag," I said as I handed her the laptop and ran back down the stairs. I was ten steps from the entrance to Nemo's when two huge men grabbed my arms and hauled me toward a van at the curb.
"HEL—!" I started to scream as I began kicki
ng and trying to pull my arms out of their vice like grips. One of the men wrapped a hand around my neck and shut off my air supply as the other one wrapped an arm around my waist and hustled me toward the waiting van.
There weren't many people on the street, and the few who were walking by took one look and then looked away. I silently cursed the number of times I'd done the same thing knowing that it was a New Yorker thing; an inability to believe that something terrible was happening as you were watching it happen.
Everything happened so rapidly, that I barely had time to get my wits together, but once I did, I knew I had to do something.
I turned my head to try and get a look at them as I opened my mouth to scream again. One of the men backhanded me across the face while the other grabbed a fist full of my hair and yanked my head backwards as the other one hissed in my ear.
"Shut the fuck up, you stupid bitch," one of the men said as he pushed something hard and metal against my ribs. "I've been ordered to bring you back alive, but I'm not opposed to shooting you in the kneecap if it shuts you up."
"You don't have to do this," I said trying to think about how I could signal to Ryan and Cece. "You don't have to kidnap me. I'll get my friends to give you the money you want."
"You think we want money?" one of the men laughed. "Honey, we've got money. We want favors, and bringing you in will get us some major favors."
I knew that if they got me into the van, I was a goner. So, I decided to take my chances, but as I opened my mouth to scream one more blood-curdling scream everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ryan
Cece came bounding into the apartment carrying a backpack and Echo's laptop.
"Where's Echo?" I asked as she set the laptop down.
"She had to go back into Nemo's to get her bag," she explained as she brought the backpack over to me on the couch and carefully set it down next to me. "My guy got everything you wanted."
I unzipped the bag and looked inside, then looked back up at Cece and smiled before I began unpacking it. There were two pistols with two extra magazines and underneath them were two blocks of military grade c-4 wrapped in the familiar green packaging, fuse and blast caps.
"Great job, Cece," I said as I examined the pistols and checked to make sure they were unloaded. "Have you ever fired a pistol?"
"Are you kidding me?" she said as she propped one hand on her hip and frowned.
"No, I'm serious," I said as I laid the first pistol down on the coffee table and picked up the second.
"Dude, I grew up in a family of men who love their guns," she said impatiently. "Yes, I have fired a pistol. And a rifle. And some other things that I'd rather not talk about."
"Why not?" I asked as I set the second pistol down and pulled out the explosives.
"Because it's none of your damn business," she shot back as she looked at the door and asked, "Shouldn't she be here by now?"
"Maybe she's catching up with Mando," I said dryly. "He's probably worried about his girls going out on a midnight mission."
"Yeah, he probably is," Cece said rolling her eyes. "He has a tendency to be over protective."
"Well, men get that way sometimes," I muttered as I set the bricks down and examined the blast caps.
"Yeah, and it's suffocating for us," she said sounding irritated. "You know, sometimes I wish he'd just let go and stop worrying. I can take care of myself and so can Echo."
"A little defensive?" I asked as I avoided looking at her. "So, we're not allowed to feel protective or be concerned anymore? Sheesh."
"Oh, don't get your alpha male hackles up," Cece said as she shot me a supremely irritated look. "It's just that we're not helpless little flowers, and when guys like you and Mando treat us like we are, it's unbelievably irritating. It's like we have to fight you, too."
"So what are we supposed to do?" I shot back equally irritated. "Just sit back and wait for you to call for help?"
"Yes," she said quietly. "Sometimes that's the best solution because often times we'll surprise you with how well we can do on our own. That's what you're afraid of, isn't it?"
"I'm not afraid of shit," I said as I wound up the fuse line and secured it with a rubber band I'd found in Echo's kitchen.
"No, of course you're not," she said crossing her arms over her chest. "I'll make sure to pass that message on to Echo when she gets here."
"Don't tell her anything," I growled before I looked up and asked, "Where is she?"
"No idea," she shrugged. "She should be up here by now."
"Then run down and see what's keeping her," I said. "You probably need to extract her from some good deed."
"Smart ass," she laughed as she headed out the door.
Two minutes later I heard her shouting from the street, "RYAN! GET DOWN HERE!"
I flew off the couch and down the stairs to the street where I found Cece gathering items that had spilled across the sidewalk when Echo had dropped her bag.
"What the hell happened?" I shouted as I turned and looked up and down the street.
"I don't know, but this is wrong," Cece said as she yelled for Mando who came rushing out seconds later.
"What the hell is going on out here?" he demanded.
"Echo's gone," Cece said as she looked at him accusingly. "Did you see what happened?"
"No, if I'd seen what had happened, I would have stopped it, Cee," he said in a brittle voice. "You think I'd have let something happen to Echo?"
"Well, you didn't see what happened, did you?" she yelled.
"Hey, hey guys, knock it off," I said stepping between them. "This isn't going to help. We don't know what happened, yet. Mando, go inside and see if anyone saw anything. Cece, come with me."
I turned and headed back up to the apartment where I flipped open the laptop and clicked on Echo's email account. There was one new message in the Inbox, so I opened it and found a message from an unknown sender that contained the message: We have her. Instructions to follow. Do not fuck this up, SEAL.
"Fuck!" I shouted as I slammed my fist on the counter.
"What's going on?" Cece asked.
"They have her," I said running a hand through my hair.
"Who has her?"
"That son of a bitch," I said as I rubbed my eyes and tried to decide whether it really was Julian who'd taken Echo and if so, how he'd linked me to her. I spilled Echo's theory and then quickly told Cece about my meeting with Baines at the club. "Why did he take her? Why not me?"
"Because she's more valuable," Cece said slowly, and then muttered, "Shit."
"What?"
"I bet they caught us on camera," she said as she paced the apartment thinking out loud. "I didn't think about it when we went in because I was focused on how to get us out of there after I'd pulled the alarm and the fire department had cleared out."
"How could you two have missed that?" I shouted. "She knew there were security cameras all over the place!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Cece waved me off as she continued speaking. "We were so hell bent on how to get in and get that new program installed, we just forgot about the cameras."
"That was a half-assed way of planning!" I shouted angrily.
"Look, SEAL, step down," she said as she stopped and stared at me. "We made a mistake, and I'm worried, too, but you yelling at me is not going to fix this or help us find Echo."
I sunk down on the couch and bent forward to take my head in my hands as I tried to calm myself. I was pissed as hell at Cece for not thinking about the cameras, and I would have been equally pissed at Echo had I not been so worried about what was happening to her.
"Ryan, she's going to be okay," Cece said quietly after a few minutes had passed. "She's smart and strong, and if we can't get to her, she'll figure out a way to free herself. I have no doubt about that, okay?"
I nodded even though I didn't believe a word of what she said. Echo was not fine. She had no idea who she was dealing with, and as I thought about it, neither did I. I
was certain that Julian was behind this, though. He wanted something Echo had—or could get—and now it was clear that he would get it by any means necessary.
"We have to get into that lab before he does," I said as I sat up and looked at Cece. "Whatever it is that they want from Echo is in that lab."
"All right, then let's get to work, SEAL," Cece said with a determined look. "We've a job to do."
Chapter Twenty-Six
Echo
I didn't know how long I'd been out or where I was when I started to come around. I felt a dull aching sensation in the back of my head. As I raised my arm to assess the damage caused by the blow I'd received, I found that I was strapped to the surface I was laying on.
As I slowly opened my eyes, I began trying to assess my surroundings. The room was dark, but not pitch black. It was more like a movie theater with the lights dimmed during the previews. There was the glow of something green, or was it blue, coming from the corner behind me. I tried to sit up and turn around to get my bearings, but quickly realized that in addition to the one that ran around my mid section and held my arms down, there were straps around my shoulders, chest and legs securing me to the surface.
"Oh crap," I muttered as I turned my head to try and get a sense of where I was. I winced as the spot that had been hit rolled across the hard surface of what I realized was some sort of stainless steel as I caught a glimpse of the shiny metal in my peripheral vision.
I lay back on the table and looked up at the ceiling wondering who had abducted me and cursing myself for not staying with Cece, then cursing myself for not having any idea that someone would want to kidnap me.
"What the hell is going on?" I said out loud to test my voice.
"Shut the hell up," came the gruff reply. "If I want to hear from you, I'll ask a question. Otherwise, keep your lips zipped, got it?"
"Huh?" I said startled by the response. I looked around trying to figure out where the voice was coming from as I asked, "Who are you? Where am I? Why are you holding me?"