by Arianna Hart
“Mac? Is that you?”
“Shhh, yes it’s me.”
“Is the coast clear?” she whispered.
“For now. Stay put and I’ll get you as soon as I get free. Where are you?”
The ventilation shaft high overhead shuddered and squeaked as the grille swung open. “I’m up here.”
“How the hell did you get up there?” Mac’s wrists started to burn from the friction. They’d bleed before long.
“I climbed up the boxes and crawled in. Sort of.”
Mac closed his eyes. The knot of fear in his gut grew bigger. “Never mind, I don’t want to know after all. Can you get out of the building through there?”
“Yes and no. The ducts just go straight over the rooms here, and I can get in the room next door, but I’d still have to get past the guys at the bottom of the stairs. There’s an office underneath the room you’re in. I heard people talking in there before I climbed up here.”
“No one’s there now, they’re all searching for you. What’s left of them, anyway.”
“How many are out there?”
Mac heard more shuffling and thumping from above. What was she doing in there? “I don’t know. There were four guarding the doors, and two more guarding Carlos and Nadowny. I think I saw a few more hanging around. So probably twelve tops.”
“So, what if we do a bait and switch?”
“We aren’t going to do anything. You’re going to hightail it out of here. Your brothers have things in place, they’re just waiting to know you’re safe.” Hopefully they caught that on the tape and could stop worrying.
A white shoe poked out from the shaft, then another. Caitlyn’s feet flailed around in the air until they hit one of the boxes that had been shoved near the vent.
“For the love of God!” Mac didn’t know whether to close his eyes and block out the image or keep them open in case she fell. “Over towards me more. You’re on the very edge of the box. Be careful! Christ! That box isn’t on there all that well.”
His heart lurched in his throat with every slip of her foot. Mac aged ten years in the time it took for her to find stable footing.
“Heck, this was much easier than getting in.”
“Uh huh.” Mac held back a groan as the stack of boxes wobbled too and fro with every step Caitlyn took
“There. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” She jumped off the last box and brushed dust off her hands before running over to him. Her face was filthy with dirt marring her porcelain skin, and a bruise bloomed along her left cheek. He’d get the bastard back for that.
“Hold on, I’ll see if I can untie the knots. I wish they hadn’t taken my trauma shears, those would’ve come in handy right about now.” She shook her arms out as if she was in pain.
“Are you okay?”
“A few bumps and bruises, and I’ll probably have a black eye for a while, but other than that I’m doing fine. Ask me again tomorrow when all the muscles I’ve abused today start to ache.”
Mac just hoped they’d be alive tomorrow.
Caitlyn leaned down and kissed him lightly on the lips before scooting around and going to work on the ropes that held him tight.
“What was that for?”
“For luck, because I missed you, and because I didn’t want you to come and risk your life, but you did anyway.”
“I’d risk anything for you. Anything.” Her hands stilled for a minute, and Mac wished he could see her face.
“Part of me is doing the Cha Cha right now, and the other part of me is saying you’d put your life on the line for a perfect stranger too. That’s just the type of person you are.”
“Bullshit.”
“Oh? Did you have a relationship with any of the babies in the hospital? Or their mothers?”
“That was different. That was my job at the time.”
“And this isn’t? Face it Mac, you’re a hero, it’s in your blood.”
“Whatever. Right now I’m more worried about your blood and keeping it inside you. We need a plan to get you out of here.”
“I have a plan, if I can ever get these darn knots untied. You stretched them so tightly I can’t get a grip on them.”
“If I create a distraction, do you think you could slip out of here and make your way to the nearest police station or fire house?” Mac asked, trying to relax his wrists and not pull the ropes even tighter.
“Sure, but why don’t we wait and do it together?”
“Because I need to know you’re safe while I go after Nadowny.”
“Hold on, I think I’ve got some wiggle room, keep your hands relaxed,” Caitlyn said, ignoring him. “There. Got it.”
Mac felt the ropes drop from his wrists and the painful prickling of circulation returning to his hands. He shook them out and rolled his shoulders to ease some of the strain the position had given him.
“Here, let me help.” Caitlyn took one hand and rubbed it briskly between her own. The tingling heat was excruciatingly painful, but passed quickly.
“Thanks,” Mac said when both hands were back in working order.
“Always on the job, what can I say?”
“Say you’ll get the hell out of here.” Mac looked into her whiskey brown eyes and knew he couldn’t live with himself if something happened to her.
“I have a better idea. Why don’t we do a bait and switch? I’ll act as bait and let them chase me in here. You knock them out as they come through the door.”
“No.” Just the thought of those goons chasing after her with guns made his knees weak.
“Do you have a better plan?” she asked, hands on her hips.
“Yes, I go after them and you get out of here.”
“That’s a great idea, except for one thing. How are you going to get out of the room? The door’s locked, and the only way out is through the ventilation ducts. You have to take the shaft to another room that isn’t locked to get out. Think you can do it?”
“Sure, if you can do it, I can.”
“I don’t have a half healed bullet hole in my side.”
“It hasn’t slowed me down so far,” Mac lied. Just the thought of climbing into the shaft and crawling around in such a confined space made his side ache.
“Fine, why don’t you climb up and try it? If you can get up there you can help me in and I’ll be on my way. But if you can’t, I’ll slip out, unlock the door and we’ll try my plan. Deal?”
“Deal.” Mac would get into that damn shaft if it killed him.
Chapter Twenty-one
Caitlyn watched Mac struggle to hide the pain he was in as he climbed up the stack of boxes to the ventilation shaft. If anyone could will his body to do things it wasn’t physically ready to do, it was Mac. Her heart lurched every time he winced in pain, but still he continued on.
Damn it. Why did he have to be so stubborn? Why couldn’t he let her help him? Okay, to be fair, she didn’t have any experience with this sort of thing. But still, her plan would work if he could get over his protective streak.
Mac had made his way to the top of the pile and was balancing precariously under the grille. Her first trip up would have been a lot easier if the boxes had been that close to the vent.
Yeah, she should have asked the goons to come and move the boxes a little closer to help her escape.
“Shit!” Mac swore a blue streak and clutched at his side. While she’d been lost in thought he’d reached inside the shaft and tried to pull himself higher. Obviously, he was unsuccessful.
“Ready to give up yet?” she called up cheerfully.
“I just need to catch my breath. You stay close to that heating vent and see if you can see what’s going on below.”
She bit her tongue and didn’t tell him what he could do with his orders. Maybe if she was looking through the grate on the floor she wouldn’t be panicking with every sway of the boxes. What the hell was in them anyway?
The vent on the floor was old and rusty, like everything else in the building. She scrunche
d down next to it and twisted her head this way and that to see if she could see anyone. Supposedly the mayor and his crew were looking for her, but she didn’t see anyone. Maybe they were out on the streets with everyone else?
Caitlyn fretted about her brothers. What was going on out there? Had their plan worked? She’d gotten in touch with a lot of the off duty nurses who said they’d spread the word, but had they done it soon enough? She bit her lip again, then winced in pain. Her face still throbbed from the punch and she had a goose egg on the back of her head from where she’d been hit in the car.
Cripes, they were the walking wounded. Mac’s side was still sore, her head was sore, how the hell were they going to get out of here?
Another stream of curses came from above and Caitlyn turned to see what caused this one. Mac’s face was ashen from pain. He couldn’t get inside the shaft without pulling himself up with his arms, which pulled on his abdominal muscles and probably hurt like a bitch.
He climbed down slowly, the boxes swaying with his steps. Caitlyn didn’t say anything, just watched his face for clues to what he was thinking. Sweat dotted his forehead and his eyes looked almost glassy with the pain he was in. Stupid man. Did he have to almost pass out before he would admit defeat?
Apparently.
“Well?” she asked finally.
“Fine. You’re right, is that what you wanted to hear?”
“No, but it’ll do for now.” She stood and dusted off her hands. “So, we’ll try it my way?”
“With one exception. You open the door and I’ll go after them. I want you out of here.”
“Mac, think clearly for a minute. You have to stop looking at me like a female and start thinking of me as a partner. There is no way you can do this alone.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched and Caitlyn knew he must be grinding his teeth. Tough noogies. He had to face reality, and that was he couldn’t do it alone.
“I don’t want you to get hurt. I—I can’t tell you what I went through knowing the mayor had you here. It about killed me thinking about you locked up and hurting.”
Caitlyn’s heart did a slow tumble in her chest. He might not realize it yet, but his feelings went a lot deeper than just a quick roll in the sack. Too bad they weren’t exactly in a position to explore this new development. She’d make sure they lived long enough to have this conversation again.
“Oh, Mac. I know what you mean.” She reached out for him, then pulled her hand back. She had to be tough. “But we have to get out of here, and we have to stop the mayor and Carlos before they destroy everything. I don’t know why they’re doing this, but I won’t let hundreds of innocent people get killed because you’re afraid of what will happen to me. And I won’t let you do it either.”
Mac spun and kicked the chair he’d been tied to, sending it flying across the room. “I hate this!” His eyes were fierce.
“You don’t have to like it, you just have to do it. Now suck it up. I’m going up there. I’ll knock on the door twice before I open it so don’t hit me when I come in.”
“You’re outta here the first chance we get. Understand that now. As soon as you unlock that door, I’m calling in the troops. Then I’m going after the mayor and Carlos by myself. And you can go to your brother’s house and stay put.”
Yeah, like that was going to happen. She wasn’t leaving him alone if they got out of here. Not if, when they got out of here.
“Fine,” she lied. She’d fight that battle after they got out of the room.
Mac ground his teeth in suppressed fury as Caitlyn disappeared from view. The pain in his side had died down to a dull ache, but there was no way he’d be able to get into that shaft. Even if he could have pulled himself up, he’d probably have gotten stuck in the bend. He was just too big to go crawling around ventilation shafts.
Snap out of it! He couldn’t sit here and wallow in self-pity. He had to be ready when Caitlyn opened the door. He also needed a weapon. Mac searched the room for anything he could use to knock someone out. A crow bar lay in a pile of dust partially hidden by some boxes. That would work nicely. He swung it a few times, getting a feel for how much mobility he had with his aching side. Not bad.
Where was Caitlyn now? How many rooms was she going to have to get into to find one with an unlocked door? Mac paced the room slapping the bar into his palm lightly. How many men were still here? Had Liam had a chance to get the reserves into place?
So many questions and not one damn answer. Where was Caitlyn? What if she got hurt getting down? She could be lying unconscious or in pain on the floor of another room and he’d never know. Mac growled in frustration.
What had happened to his objectivity? His distance? He’d been in situations more dire than this and never fretted like an old woman. Christ, this sucked. He paced some more.
If she took much longer, he’d use the crow bar to hack his way out of the room. This waiting sucked. It suddenly occurred to him that this was what spouses went through while their loved ones were on assignment.
God. How did they stand it? Year after year, the waiting and not knowing if they were dead or alive. No wonder the divorce rate among agents was so high.
Was that a knock?
Mac hustled over to the door and strained his ears. He saw the handle wiggle.
“Mac, I can’t pick the lock. It’s more complicated then the ones Tom taught me to pick.”
Tom taught her how to pick locks? He’d have to ask his partner about that one.
“What type of lock is it? I didn’t get a good look at it when they brought me in.” Idiot. He had been so worried about Caitlyn, he hadn’t paid attention to the door.”
“I don’t know. It’s not a dead bolt, but more complicated than a bathroom lock.”
“What do you have for tools?”
“I scrounged some screwdrivers from another room. I’m using the smallest one to try and tweak the tumblers.”
“We don’t have time for that. This is what I want you to do. See if you can unscrew the handle itself. Then you should be able to get at the insides and either unlock it or poke the mechanism out.”
“Okay, I’ll try.”
Mac looked at the handle on his side of the door. It was an old lock, so his plan should work. Should.
Sweat dripped down his back as he unconsciously counted the seconds ticking away. How long could she fumble with the lock before someone came up to investigate? How much time did they have to screw around before their luck ran out?
“There.” Her whisper came seconds before the handle fell off in his hand.
Mac pulled the door open and crept out into the hallway. Caitlyn’s face was dirty and her shirt had a tear in it, but her eyes twinkled with the success of her mission.
“Let’s get out of sight quickly. I don’t want them spotting us before we’re ready.” Mac pulled her behind him and they crept down the stairs.
The warehouse was deserted. Where was everyone? Weren’t they supposed to be searching for Caitlyn? What the hell was going on?
“I’m going to call in reinforcements.” Screw her plan, he just wanted her safe. There weren’t that many men around now. The guys Liam had lined up should be able to take them out and get Caitlyn to safety. He dragged her behind a box and pushed her down. “Liam, send them in.”
“Who are you talking to?” Caitlyn asked, looking around.
“Don’t worry about it.”
Minutes dragged by like hours and no one came. Could the battery in the tap be dead? Maybe they ran into trouble. Mac had to figure they were on their own.
“Nothing’s happening,” Caitlyn said, stretching her legs.
“No shit. Looks like we’re on our own.”
“Then I guess we’ll have to go with my plan. We can’t wait around here forever. We’re going to get caught eventually. Don’t you think it’s better to go after them with a plan than just wait here to get caught?”
No, he didn’t, but he was running out of options. He had to get ou
t there and find the mayor and he couldn’t do that if he was worried about Caitlyn. “Fine,” he growled.
“You don’t have to sound so pissy about it.” Caitlyn stood and followed him deeper into the warehouse.
They found a nook where Mac could lie in wait. Divide and conquer. “I don’t know where everyone is. You might want to start near the bays first. Don’t get too close, let them see you, then run like hell. Try to keep as many boxes between you and them as you can so they can’t get a straight shot at you.” It was damn hard to hit a moving target, but he didn’t want to take the chance one of the gun-toting goons would get lucky.
“Okay, I’ll let them see me and chase me and you’ll pop them.” She turned to go, but Mac stopped her with a hand on her wrist.
“Don’t be a hero. If there’s a chance for you to get out, take it.”
“Don’t worry about me, just be ready to pop them as I come running by.” She gave him a peck on the lips and slipped quietly away.
Yeah, right. He’d stop worrying about her when he stopped breathing.
How long would it take for Caitlyn to locate one of the guards? Even if they were all off searching for her, the guards at the bay should still be in place. If she could pull them away, Mac could get his hands on a weapon too.
He gripped the crow bar tightly. It would feel good to take some action instead of waiting. Straining his ears to catch the slightest sound, Mac crouched low in his hiding place and tried to focus on one step at a time. After they stopped the remaining men here, he’d find Nadowny and Carlos.
The sound of shouting and running feet came quicker than he expected and he waited for his target. Caitlyn tore around the corner and ducked behind him. Mac’s muscles tensed in anticipation as the bandana wrapped head came into range.
One quick strike with the crow bar and the thug dropped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.