by Cindy Skaggs
Stills briefed him as they walked through the tunnels to the command post. “With his picture all over the Internet and news, Ryder’s a hindrance. He’s staying back. He can run comms and cameras, keep everyone in the loop and maintain security here at the manor. Fowler and I are going in midday on Saturday to recon. He’ll find himself a sniper’s roost and hunker down. I’ll maintain surveillance around the science building until showtime.”
They climbed the steps from the basement into the barn. Looked more like an indoor used car lot with the finance office looking down from above. “What time is the meet?”
“Debi made contact last night.”
She’d called using a VoIP that Craft buried too deep to trace. “She told me.”
Stills gave him a look as they climbed the stairs to the command post, but whatever he was thinking, he kept to himself. “She’s meeting her friend at a coffee shop off campus at seven. Since you’ve met the target, your ass stays in the vehicle.”
“I don’t like that plan.”
“I wouldn’t either, which is why you can maintain visual contact while listening to audio.”
“We’re going to have her wired?”
“According to Craft, he’s got that covered along with a tracker so you don’t lose her when she rides to campus.”
Rose crossed his arms. “When she leaves the coffee shop, she rides to campus with me. They can meet back on campus.”
“We thought of that, but we don’t want Allyson to intentionally or unintentionally broadcast her plans. If Debi stays with her, she keeps her off the phone, but you’ll have eyes and ears on your girl the whole time she’s in public.”
“But once she’s in the lab, I lose visibility.”
“You’ll still have audio.” Stills tapped a mouse to wake up the computer equipment. Once everything was awake, he continued. “The last science class ends at six.”
“They have class on Saturday?”
“Graduate students mainly. If they follow protocol, campus security clears the building and locks it within the hour.”
“We need someone inside the building before they lock it down.”
“Already ahead of you. Craft will enter earlier in the day as a student. Evade campus security so he’s inside the building when they close it up. Otherwise, the science building should be empty by the time Debi convinces her friend to let her use the lab. Craft downloaded blueprints last night. Let’s take a look.”
Rose memorized the layout while thinking about holes in the plan. The rest of the team filtered into the command post in groups of two or three. The minute Debi breached the door, Rose knew. He sensed her more than anything. Her hair was up in a silky black ponytail and her face freshly scrubbed and makeup free. She was wearing her own clothes now, jeans and a button-down shirt. Her arm was still up in the sling. “You don’t need to wear it now except at night.” She needed to regain her strength.
Ryder paused as he walked through. “She’ll need to wear it the night of the meet. Build sympathy.”
Debi wiggled the fingers sticking out of the sling. “Feeling sympathetic, Rosebud?”
“Not even close.” He felt trapped. Something in his gut wanted to lock her down, while his mind acknowledged that she was the only one who could get in the lab and run the tests. “Why don’t we use Dr. Branson’s lab?”
“He doesn’t have the equipment I need, and if he sends it to an outside lab, they won’t know what they’re looking for.”
“Plus an outside lab takes time,” Ryder pointed out. “And once the samples leave our possession, we lose control. They could get lost or misdirected.”
“Or Echo could intercept.”
Which led them right back to the plan that was giving him heartburn.
Craft moved next to Rose with one hand in his pocket and another around a cup of coffee, looking too damned relaxed for a man about to break into a research lab. “There are cameras at every entry point.” He pointed to four access points, one on each side of the building. “This half of the building consists of classrooms and staff offices. This half.” He pointed to a largely blank area on the blueprints. “This is the research laboratory.”
“Labs, plural.” Debi crossed the room. “Labs are broken down by type and research project. There are firewalls between the classrooms and the labs. No exterior windows in the lab and no secondary access point. There’s a security access point here.” She gestured to a spot and Craft made notes on the computer, generating displays as she pointed things out. “It’s keycard access here, followed by a keypad here.”
“Is there a camera at the access point?” Ryder asked.
“If there is, it doesn’t link to campus security,” Craft answered.
“Assume there is.” Debi shrugged off their incredulous looks. “Research is a highly competitive and cutthroat business. Assume there’s security higher than the campus cops.”
“Can you make up a keycard?” Rose asked Craft.
“I’m good, brother, but I’m not a miracle worker.”
“I might be able to help you out,” Camy said from a seat near the door.
“Hell no. Your ass is staying here.” One woman in peril was enough. He wasn’t letting his sister head into trouble. “And how do you know how to break into a secure access area?”
“At some point, we should probably talk about that,” Camy answered. “But do you really want to do this here and now?”
“No.” Fuck. They were back to Debi headed into a secure lab without backup.
Craft cleared his throat. “I can try to lift a keycard off a staff member if the opportunity presents itself earlier in the day, but I wouldn’t count on it.”
“Then how do I get into the lab?” Rose asked.
“You don’t.”
“You’re telling me that once Debi passes through here.” Rose stabbed at the display of the security access point. “That she’s on her own?”
“Echo doesn’t have a clue we need access to a lab.” Debi stepped around to Rose’s other side. She rubbed a hand over his arm as if to soothe him. “If they did, they still wouldn’t be able to gain access. The security system is designed to keep people out. That includes Echo.”
“How many people have keycard access to the labs?”
“I have no idea. Students, researchers, professors.”
“That’s too many unknowns.”
The room fell silent at Rose’s proclamation. Ryder nodded his head. “You want to pull the plug?”
The tension building inside released. This was his team. Any one of them could call off a mission with nothing more than gut instinct. If he said he didn’t want his woman going in alone, they’d find another way. Whether she liked it or not. “Let me work on it.” Getting into impossible spaces was his specialty. “Craft, have you tapped into security cameras yet?”
Chapter Seventeen
Debi stared at the wall of photos. Team Echo. The photos looked like mug shots, except the men were in Army service uniforms, and they looked so young with their hair shaved down. Their eyes still had a light to them, or maybe that was fanciful thinking. Several of the men posted on the wall she recognized from the night in the townhouse. Baby Face Joe and his friends had sat at the bar multiple times. Their photos had little red x’s in the corner. Dead.
“I wanted to use a little skull and crossbones overlaid on the top, but I was overruled,” Camy said. “How are you hanging in there?”
Debi’s eyes kept tracking back to the red x’s representing men who had kidnapped them, threatened them, and would ultimately have killed them. They were minutes from doing the deed, and yet... “I’ve never seen anyone die.”
“These two.” Camy tapped two adjacent photos. “Ryder recognized these guys from the bluff. This is the one who shot you.”
Brown hair, brown eyes, and looking to be Camy’s age. Nothing about him screamed killer. The weight of a target settled over her chest, but no panic surfaced. Maybe the constant threat had loosene
d the potential. “How are you handling this so well?”
“First off, this place is the coolest thing ever, and access to Craft’s computers would anesthetize my shock for at least a week, but added to it, I’ve hacked my way into some dark places.”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
“Then don’t.” Camy grinned playfully. “The world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. All this...” She shrugged. “I hoped there were places like this somewhere.”
“Yo, Craft,” Rose called from the end computer. “I got it.”
Debi followed the others to see what the fuss was about.
“This is it. This is where I get in.”
The camera showed a metal door embedded in brick. It was an emergency exit. “That’s the fire exit from the lab.”
“Exactly. Inside the secure area.”
“I’m sure there’s an alarm on it.”
“Watch and learn.” Rose rewound the recording several minutes. As the video replayed, three men in white lab coats stepped out. They used a loose brick near the exit to prop the door open before lighting up cigarettes.
Memories of standing there smoking was almost like a vicarious high. She pointed to one of the three men on the video. “That’s Dr. Stevens. I don’t recognize the others.”
“Doesn’t matter who they are. It matters where they are. Craft, can you see if this triggered an alarm and how it was handled?”
Craft pulled a chair to the adjacent computer and started typing. “A silent alert was triggered and overridden remotely.”
“Good money says this kind of thing happens all the time,” Rose said.
Debi nodded agreement. “During a typical shift, we’d go out maybe four times. No telling how many other people went out at different times. Different shifts.”
Rose paused the playback. “Security has gotten used to it. Punches it off. But just in case they bring up the video, can you rig a loop of this for when I get in?”
“How are you getting in?” Debi asked. “There’s not even a doorknob.”
“I’ll get in. Craft?”
“Shouldn’t be a problem. Have to darken it to look like night. Otherwise, I can make it happen.”
“All right. I’m in.” He stood and draped an arm over Debi’s shoulders. “Let’s go get something to eat.”
“You’re mighty cheerful all the sudden.” It looked good on him, plus his arm around her in front of the others didn’t suck.
“You’re not going in alone.”
“You were worried.”
“It’s like a puzzle. How to get you what you want—inside to run tests—and still maintain security.”
“So you weren’t worried?”
“Maybe a little.” He dropped a kiss to her head.
“I have another puzzle for you.”
“What’s that?”
“Something I need. As long as I have access, I need to see if Ryder has any residual toxins in his blood from when he was dosed.”
“I’d be more than happy to draw Ryder’s blood.”
“Oh, I got it earlier.”
“Than what do you need from me?”
“Blood.”
They’d been moving toward the door, but Rose stopped. “Why?” He’d had a lifetime of people poking and prodding him and he was done.
“I need a control. Someone from the team who was dosed originally, but not since.”
“There are plenty of other suckers we can tie down and draw blood from.”
“But I’m not sleeping with them.”
“That implies past and future.”
“Why quit something we’re both so obviously good at.”
“You make it hard to say no.”
She reached up and kissed the underside of his jaw. “I try.”
Rose eased her toward the door. “Craft, you coming?”
“Can’t. Now I have to alter a video and lay the groundwork for sneaking into the surveillance footage.”
“I’ll stick around,” Camy offered.
“You.” Rose stopped in the doorway and pointed to Camy in that bossy way of his. “We’re having a come-to-Jesus meeting as soon as I get back. I want to know what you’ve been up to, because your skill set does not match the nursing degree I was told you were earning.”
Camy’s shoulders slumped and she cast a look at Debi. “One day. Is it too much to ask?”
Friday night, Debi tracked Rose down to his room. He was at his desk, making notes in his ever-present notebook. With finesse, she wrapped the latex tourniquet around his bicep before he looked up. He tossed the pen to the pad. “You’re supposed to ask.”
“I did.”
“I didn’t say yes.”
“Quit being a wuss.” Fowler leaned against the doorframe.
His eyebrows lifted. She’d surprised him. “You brought backup.”
“I warned you not to bet against me.”
“Fowler can bleed just as well as I can,” he insisted.
“The day I got shot, you shoved him up against the wall.”
“Stills?”
“You punched him.”
“I haven’t laid a hand on Craft.”
“That I know of. We’re building good will here, so it’s your turn to take one for the team.” Debi unrolled her supplies on the desk. “Fowler can draw blood if you don’t want me to. He trained on goats, so I’m sure he’s good.” Although the last guy Fowler collected blood from was now dead. No way was Fowler getting anywhere near her with a needle. “The choice is yours. Fowler or me?”
“I trained Fowler.”
She pulled her hands away from the supplies. “Fair enough.”
Rose shook Fowler off. “Go ahead, sweetheart. This dumbass would enjoy drawing blood a little too much.”
Not giving him time to change his mind, Debi swabbed the area and slid the needle into a vein and watched the blood spurt into the vial. Somehow once it filled a collection tube, blood no longer turned her stomach. Now it was just an interesting liquid to study.
“Didn’t feel a thing.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
She slipped the tourniquet off as she slid the needle free. “Fowler, do you mind putting this with the rest.”
“I live to serve.” He took her used supplies and the blood collection tube. “Let me know if you need more blood. I’d be happy to tie him down on that torture device downstairs.”
“You’ll be the first to know.”
The door clicked closed as Fowler left.
“You’re a good stick,” he said, a compliment to her skills.
“So are you.”
“I’ve never drawn your blood.”
“Wasn’t talking about needles.” Debi leaned back against the door, but her smile turned sad. “You’ve been avoiding me. Worried about tomorrow?”
“No. We all know our jobs.”
The assessment in his gaze strengthened her pulse. Not for the first time, Debi wished for a dose of his fearlessness. She’d lived with panic for too long. “Then why are you edgy?”
“You know I don’t have a future.”
The way he said it, accepted it, knew it to the soul, added more layers. He was warning her off. One more way to protect. She pushed off the door. “Silly man.” His whiskers bristled against the tip of her finger. Unshaven he looked a little less military, a little less civilized. “I’m not looking for a future.” But he was. She saw it in his eyes, in the need cascading off him. He was the kind of man who planned to settle down with one woman. The Army interfered with the life he’d planned from the moment he’d slept with his first girlfriend. She knew his type. “We’re both caught in the same messy trap. Let’s take it one day at a time.”
“Is that what you want?”
Debi had tried not to think about what she wanted since the day she’d gotten kicked out of the lab, but where she’d once hungered for vengeance, she now longed for peace. Getting shot had cured her uncertainty, the dissatisfaction with her life. She
didn’t want mindless sex and forgetfulness. She wanted Rose. “I’m no prize.” It seemed only fair to warn him. “I don’t want you to put me on a shelf for some mystical future. We have right now.” She braced a hand on the back of his chair and straddled his lap.
He widened her thighs so she sank against his growing erection. “As it happens, I have time right now.”
“What did you have in mind?”
He leaned forward to drop kisses along her collarbone, nipping and licking and long wet kisses before biting down on her neck. Not enough to leave a mark, but enough to zip desire straight to her sex.
“Keep that up and we’re not making it to the bed.”
“Right here is good.” Releasing the clasp on her bra, he bowed her back over his large hands and leaned in to feast on her breasts through the soft cotton of her shirt. With deliberate care, he teased around her nipples until they were so hard they hurt, and then he wet the material around them and blew. The cool breath tingled over her chest and neck.
Her hands grasped his broad shoulders and hair brushed the desk. The position forced the juncture of her thighs against his groin. Delicious, slow torture. He settling in like he enjoyed working one breast and then the other, alternating until she grew damp and needy. She tilted her hips to increase the friction of fabric between her legs.
“Does this hurt your shoulder?” he asked around her nipple.
“What shoulder?” Flames engulfed her body wherever he touched and places he had yet to touch.
“Good.” He righted her briefly to pull the shirt and bra off, and then he leaned her back, this time his lips against bare flesh. “I can never get enough.”
Truth echoed in his words. There was no room for awkwardness or insecurity when he so sincerely loved giving her pleasure, but she wanted the same, wanted her hands on all those delicious muscles. Wanted to see and taste and touch. “Your turn. Take off the shirt.”
He reached back with one hand and stripped it over his head. Flames erupted in the air around them, or maybe that was her libido.
“That was sexy as hell.” As was his toned flesh. Where the other night they’d been in a hurry, tonight she wanted a chance to explore. She ran her hands along his shoulders, appreciating the definition and strength hidden behind muscles bulky enough to make her mouth water. Salty. He tasted like salt and man. Her caress continued down his arms while her mouth wandered his neck and chest. His pec jumped under her kiss, so she explored what appeared to be a sensitive body part. She gave in to temptation and drew his nipple into her mouth.