Seeking PAVAD

by Calle J. Brookes

  Not to mention Shannon.

  Everyone had heard her. Knew that at the moment the call had been made, she was still alive.

  And they all had recognized the sounds of a struggle.

  She’d called Ezra by name. Wanting him to come to her. To help. She’d trusted him to come for her. She hadn’t said where she was or asked him to come. She’d known he was.

  That kind of trust from a woman could be terrifying.

  That had to be burning the other man alive.

  “It’s been confirmed.” Jac said quietly. She wore her headset and held the one weapon that she so very rarely had to use—a sniper rifle. Her father had taught her how to use it when she’d been too damned young to understand what it was used for. “Al’s agreed to come to her parents’ house with supplies. If Sefton sees her, he may just think she’s supposed to be here. She arrived five minutes ago and drove by. There’s movement in the house up the street. She confirmed it appeared to be a white man matching Sefton’s description. Djorn called the realtor. There shouldn’t be anyone in that house right now. They have had no scheduled showings all week.”

  “Then everyone needs to get into place.” Max looked at the man who would be taking the biggest risk by far. “You need to wear a vest.”

  “He’ll recognize it.”

  “Not this one,” Jac said. She handed Ezra a box. “It’s new. Thinner. Special design, still in prototype at Barratt-Handley down in Texas. Kyra has a contact who works for the company—or owns it. Something. I’m not sure. It’s not approved yet, but it’s a start. Almost unrecognizable.”

  Ezra took it and made quick work of slipping it on. “If he wants me dead, he’ll be able to do that. But I need you guys to help me get her out of there before he gets the chance.”

  Max felt for him. He did. To know the woman you loved was in danger and you couldn’t stop it was something no man wanted to experience. Or no woman. Love knew no bounds that way.

  Ezra was holding up far better than Max would have in the same boat. “Hey, Hahn. No matter what, we have your back. And we’re going to get both of you out of there safely. No matter what.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY

  CHAS ROCKED SHANNON until she had caught her breath and wasn’t shaking quite so badly. He had only been able to subdue her by cutting off her air for a little while. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her too much. He’d probably been too cautious. She was far too angry now.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I had to. I couldn’t have him finding you and taking you away again.”

  “I can’t...breathe.” Her hands were on her chest, and she leaned forward, trying to pull air into her lungs.

  Tears were streaming down her cheeks.

  Every gasp she took tore through his heart. This was not what he’d wanted. “I know. But you can’t try to escape like that. You have to stay where I put you. If you don’t, they’ll find you.”

  “That’s the point.” She shot him a glare, her hand on her neck now. “I want my friends to find me. I want Ezra to. He won’t stop until he does.”

  “That’s a lie.”

  “Oh?”

  “He won’t find you. He can’t. That’ll ruin everything.”

  “For you, maybe. Not for me. I want him to find me. I love him. Not you. Why can’t you understand that?” She pulled herself to her feet and faced off against him.

  He stared at her. She was fighting him. Such a fighter. Like Amelia had been. It was just going to take her time to see that he was better for her than a man like Ezra. Chas knew how he looked compared to Ezra at first glance. Men like him always appeared invisible next to those like Ezra. But she would see. Just like Amelia had.

  Chas stood, absurdly pleased with how their first day together were going. “Shannon, I...love you.”

  She wouldn’t understand how that was possible, of course. It defied logic, that he would love her when they had spoken so little. But he did. He would make her see.

  Someday. For now, he just had to keep her safe, whether it angered her or not.

  He wrestled her to the ground, enjoying the feel of her pressed against him. She was spirited, gave as good as she got. When he finally had both of her hands secured—and he doubted he’d have succeeded if he hadn’t already sedated her earlier—he pulled away.

  She bit at him.

  Then she kicked, narrowly missing his privates. “No!”

  She screamed—a shrill, long call for help that nearly burst his eardrums—right into his face.

  Chas jumped at her, covering her mouth again. He pulled her closer, ignoring the knees she shot at him and the curses she uttered behind his hand. “If you make too much noise, I’ll have to cover your mouth with the tape. I don’t want to do that. Do you understand? I need time to think, to figure out how to get us past the FBI crews down the road. If you don’t cooperate, I’ll have to shoot at that house again. The one with all the children. Or that pretty blond woman whose parents live there. I know she’s FBI, married to one of those look-alikes. And I know you know her. She’s out there. Did you know that? Hanging out laundry again. I didn’t know women still did that. I saw her do it last week, too. Nod your head if you understand what I’m saying.”

  Big brown eyes stared into his with horror.

  Chas felt like the lowest form of scum. He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I’m sorry. So sorry I have to do this to you. I didn’t know how else to get you away from him. We have to stop him, or he’ll end up haunting me, too. Just like Amelia.”

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE

  MAX STUDIED THE house as best he could without being obvious about it. Jac was busy running all the angles, checking every position possible for what she was going to have to do.

  It wasn’t going to be easy—for any of them. “You see anything?”

  “Movement. A man matching Sefton’s description just walked by the window. I hope he doesn’t recognize us, Max.”

  “Me, too.” He shifted slightly, putting his body between hers and the direction of their target. “Any viewpoints that’ll work?”

  “The treehouse in the backyard. It’ll give direct sight into the front window. If Ezra can maneuver everything into that section of the house, I can make something happen.”

  “If he can. We don’t know what we’re facing in there.”

  “No, we don’t.”

  They would have said more, but they both heard it.

  The sounds of a woman screaming.

  Jac disappeared around the back of the house.

  Max pulled out his phone. Made the call. He looked back toward where the van waited. He took off the hat he wore to go with the stupid shirt he’d borrowed.

  It was the prearranged signal.

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-TWO

  HE COULD SEE Alessandra Lorcan in her parents’ backyard—hanging up bedsheets, of all things. Right in the midst of the swanky subdivision that no doubt had rules in their home owners’ association bylaws against that very thing.

  Her brother, Malachi Brockman, one of the CCU bigwigs, had just pulled in.

  Another couple were peeking in the windows of the rental next door, arguing. Loudly. They looked like any other middle-class couple out there, but Jac’s red hair was visible a mile away, as was Max’s loud Hawaiian shirt that he’d borrowed from Cam to disguise the suit. She held a large flowery purse that was definitely not her style.

  But it worked, made her look exactly like what she was pretending to be. And it had hidden the camera equipment she’d just finished installing.

  Carrie Lorcan was in the van three blocks away, ready to monitor the camera Jac had installed on the house directly facing the one they were certain Chas was holed up in.

  He looked at Chalmers. “I’m ready.”

  “He’s a mix of so many profiles I’m not sure I can accurately predict what he’s going to do. He’s a powder keg.” Shannon’s team leader was worried. It was plain for Ezra to see. Agi
tated. Not Chalmers’s usual mode of operations. “And you’re about to walk right into it. I don’t like it.”

  “Hell, Chalmers, don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the exact same damned thing if it was Leina in there with a mad man.”

  “Which is the reason why you’re getting ready to do this. But watch yourself.”

  “I’m going in and getting her, Chalmers. She’s waiting for me.”

  The older man held up a hand. “I know you love her—rather hard to miss—but we do this as a team. It’s what PAVAD is about. Team.”

  “I know. And I’m trusting the team to help me do what I have to do.” But he wasn’t backing down. He had the best chance of ending this with Shannon safe. So, he was going to do it.

  Max took his hat off in the distance. Chalmers looked at him. “Go!”

  Ezra was already moving.

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-THREE

  MAYBE SHE’D MISJUDGED a little. She shouldn’t have pushed the jerk so hard. Shannon forced herself to take a deep breath and nod. Give him what he wanted. Buy herself some time. There were people out there looking for her.

  She didn’t doubt it.

  Alessandra Lorcan was less than four hundred feet up the road. Four houses down. Support, backup. Hope.

  And no doubt Ezra was out there searching for her right now.

  He’d figure it out. There had been witnesses to the shooting of Agent Ward. And Jac and the rest would put it all together that the killer was from Ezra’s unit.

  Ezra would know. And he would come for her.

  She tried to tell herself not to get her hopes up, that her faith in him was just misguided hope. But Shannon knew the truth.

  That man was out there looking for her. And he wouldn’t stop, and not just because he loved her.

  But because he was the kind of man she could depend on.

  Ezra was coming.

  But that didn’t mean she was going to sit around waiting for him to just get there, ride in, and rescue her.

  If she could get away from this lunatic, help and backup was literally just four hundred feet away.

  She needed to outthink the little, murderous weasel somehow. “I need to breathe. I want to sit by the window. It’s hot in here.”

  “It’s not open. I can’t trust that you—”

  “Look you got the tape, right? Not like I can stop you. I’ll sit right here. On the floor, see?” She scooted back, not only to get herself farther away from the wingnut in front of her, but to get closer to the quickest way out of there.

  She needed to get outside, then run like hell toward Al’s.

  Not too hard, right?

  Even with her hands bound, Shannon was still a heck of a runner.

  His phone rang again. She took the opportunity for what it was. Shannon looked outside.

  Straight into the eyes of the one man she’d known would be coming for her.

  Ezra.

  He was outside. And about to come in.

  Shannon looked toward the table.

  The rifle was still right there.

  All Chas had to do was grab for it.

  “I changed my mind. I don’t want to sit by the window. I want to sit on the couch.”

  Between the rifle and the door.

  Because the thought of that rifle being pointed in Ezra’s direction was the one thing she couldn’t stand.

  Chas most likely wouldn’t shoot her right away, but Ezra could be the trigger to cause Armageddon.

  And she wasn’t about to let that happen.

  “Help me onto the couch.”

  To her shock, the little weasel came right at her, hands outstretched to do exactly what she’d told him.

  A shadow passed next to the couch behind Chas. He hadn’t seen it, focused on her like he was. Shannon couldn’t let him turn.

  The next few feet on that sidewalk would be Ezra’s most exposed point. She forced herself to her feet.

  Chas stepped toward her.

  “Chas! I want you to tell me everything. Every plan you’ve made and everything you’ve done that makes you think I love you. Can you do that? I deserve to know. Tell me.”

  She deliberately stepped toward the man who had taken her.

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FOUR

  EZRA BIT BACK a curse. They had managed to get someone to the side window and now had a small mic and an additional camera slipped into the house, in the kitchen. The quality wasn’t the greatest, but the agents in the van had patched him in to the direct feed on audio.

  He heard every word.

  “Tell me, Chas. Why? Why Jaynice and the Lorcans and Agent Ward?” Shannon demanded on the audio. Her tone was more forceful than he was used to. Harder. Not like her at all.

  “For the money.” Chas’s voice rose a bit. Turned petulant and wheedling, like he was wanting her to understand. To forgive him or give him permission.

  “She needs to dial down,” Chalmers voice came over the lines next. “She’s pushing him too hard. If he’s an intimacy-seeking stalker perceiving she’s rejecting him, he may turn on her.”

  “I don’t understand,” Shannon said. “Help me understand again, please. Why do you hate Ez so much?”

  “He was there! He was there, and he did nothing to stop them from killing Amelia. I lost her, and I lost my son. I won’t lose you!”

  “Not only is he intimacy-seeking, he’s also revenge-seeking. It explains a few things,” Chalmers said. “You’ll be a major trigger the instant you walk in. You need to hit the ground fast.”

  Ezra jerked his head up, knowing the cameras would catch the movement.

  He needed to get inside.

  Fast.

  Ezra knew how to get inside a locked building. And he had the tools to do it. He and Cam often took turns breaking into various locks while riding the jet after various cases.

  Paige indulged them, often watching the games, and sometimes challenged them both. She was damned fast with certain kinds of locks. His boss was also one hell of a pickpocket. He’d learned a lot from her.

  But it was her lockpicking skills that she’d taught him that were going to come in handy the most.

  It took him far longer than it should have. As he worked, he had to listen to Chas rage against him and Geoff and Nils and people Ezra didn’t even know.

  Shannon’s voice over the earpiece kept him focused on what he had to do.

  The door clicked open.

  Ezra stepped in, his hands raised in front of him.

  ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE

  “I have nothing to stop you from killing me, Chas.”

  “Ez!” Shannon yanked against the weasel’s hold. They were too close to the rifle. If Chas stretched, he could grab it and take Ezra down right before her eyes. “He’s going to kill you!”

  “I know. But he’s going to let you go first.” Ezra’s eyes met hers briefly. Shannon couldn’t look away. “He doesn’t have a problem with you. His problem is with me. Why would he make you pay for what he thinks I did?”

  “I don’t know, because maybe he’s a damned, stupid lunatic? A weasly one, at that. He killed Geoff. And shot Jaynice. He said... He said that someone with a grudge hired him to target the bureau. He was just...it was just coincidence that he recognized you. I think it has something to do with the abduction before. There are more of them out there.” She fought every instinct telling her to bite and claw and just do anything to keep Sefton from hurting Ezra again. She forced herself to think. “Where’s your vest?”

  “Chas and I both know he can kill me whether I have my vest on or not. Don’t we, Chas? We’ve played out this scenario a thousand times before.”

  “You’re in a talkative mood, Ez. What’s up with that?” The little weasel had her by the back of her neck. It was the roughest he’d been with her yet. He jerked her closer, and then her greatest fear was realized. Chas was close enough to grab the rifle. Shannon felt the cold of the barrel against her skin. “Want to negotiate or something?”

  “There wi
ll be no negotiating. The FBI is on its way. But I wanted a chance to talk to you first.”

  Shannon knew better than that. She pictured one or two possible scenarios. What she hoped was happening was that Ezra was the distraction, buying whoever else was out there the time to get her and Ezra both out of this. It made the most sense.

  Ezra wasn’t reckless. He wouldn’t do something stupid to get to her. He was calm and steady and safe in that way.

  Dependable and trustworthy.

  He’d be there when she needed him.

  Each and every time.

  Or...he really was crazy, and he had come to get her alone.

  In which case, it was anyone’s guess how this was going to end up. The guy behind her was so much smaller than Ezra. But he had the gun. And it was pointed right at her. Ezra wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize her.

  Ezra turned, just slightly.

  The earpiece in his ear blended in with the black of his hair. It had grown a bit since their abduction, and he hadn’t had it cut since then.

  How Ezra felt was right there in his eyes. Neither one of them were the kind to profess undying love for one another in the midst of a life-or-death situation. She got that. And she wasn’t about to distract him by telling him how she felt.

  But she wanted to tell him.

  Just in case. She wanted to tell him that she loved him just as much as Leina loved Ken or Kyra loved Cam. Or Sin loved his wife, or Al loved her husband, or any of the couples she knew.

  But she didn’t.

  Instead, she forced herself to pull in a deep breath and remember the one thing this bozo holding her probably didn’t even realize in his weird, obsessive delusions.

  He was petting her arm, as if he wanted to reassure her.

  She might be small and female and weaker than he was—but she was a fighter. Not the sweet, little, simpering weenie he apparently thought she was.