Running the Risk

by Lea Griffith

  King stopped in the hallway, raising his rifle to his shoulder and shooting once. “Three down.”

  They moved to the door, not encountering any more fire. King took the stairs, followed by Ella and Chase. She noticed the pall first, normal for the cells, and yet…not.

  Then the smell.

  Someone had died very badly and very recently. The smell of death permeated the air, and Ella’s skin chilled. Please, not Anna Beth Caine.

  She waited for King to give the all clear signal, and then she moved to the first cell. She threw it open and was both relieved and horrified by what met her eyes.

  She heard King in her ear, heard Jude and Brody both calling her name, but she was suddenly, irrevocably in the midst of her memories and pain. Everything seemed to fade around her except for the tableau before her.

  The chains.

  The dirt floor.

  The darkness.

  Anton Segorski hung suspended from the same bolt in the ceiling Ella once had. He’d been tortured and ultimately disemboweled. Stuffed into the enormous cut in his stomach was money—hundred-dollar bills, a lot of them.

  “Ella?” Jude called over the comm unit.

  “I’m good,” she whispered and swallowed hard. It took another few seconds, but she got it together.

  “Goddamn, who does something like that?” Chase said around a gag.

  “Dresden,” Ella said succinctly. “He knew I was coming. This is for me.”

  She turned and checked the other cells quickly. Nothing. “He’s got something planned,” she said and ran toward the step.

  “Banning!” King called out. “Stop.”

  She didn’t. Segorski had been a resource for Dresden. A way to get the Russian prime minister in Dresden’s pocket. Then Segorski had turned on Dresden and paid the price. His presence in that cell was meant as a warning for Ella.

  She had to get to Jude. “Jude, what’s your location?”

  King grabbed her arm, and Ella turned on him. “We have to find Jude,” she demanded.

  “All we’re going to find is a bullet if you don’t slow down,” King told her furiously. “Get your shit together, Banning.”

  “Jude, what’s your location?”

  Static met her ears.

  “Brody, what’s your location?” she tried.

  Nothing.

  “He’s got them,” Ella said, fear climbing up her throat.

  “Team leader? Brody and Keeper found Anna Beth Caine. They handed her off to Rook and Knight and are headed across the property to head Dresden off. Knight and Rook are en route to your location. Brody says Dresden is moving and has men surrounding him,” Vivi informed their team leader.

  “Goddamn it,” Chase bit out. “We cannot let him get away.”

  “Why don’t we have comm?” King asked.

  “Don’t know, could be interference. If you don’t hurry, we’ll lose everything and I’ll be blind,” Vivi reported. “Head to the back of the property. The airfield is about a mile from the house. You need to move now.”

  Ella took off after King and Chase. She ran as the cold seeped under her overalls, past her vest, and deep under her skin. Terror shook her core as she searched the large expanse of lawn for Jude. He was her every thought. She couldn’t lose him.

  She could see Rook and Knight settled into a depression about three hundred yards from the tree line. The trees formed a natural barrier around the edge of the property and were about a half-mile thick from the road to the lawn. A small plane was parked another four hundred yards or so past them, obviously ready for takeoff.

  Men ran toward them from the woods, surrounding the plane. So that’s where his men had been—pulled back, waiting for this moment. As one, they went to their knees and began firing.

  Ella dodged, zigzagging her steps and knowing sheer luck prevented a bullet from finding her body. She kept her eyes on her target, that depression where her teammates were, and noticed a woman in between them cowering, her body shivering. Ella reached the depression and went to her knees beside the woman, unzipping her blue coveralls, pulling the material down, and unstrapping her bulletproof vest.

  “Is she hurt?” she asked Rook.

  “No,” he answered and settled down to reload his weapon. Both he and Knight were firing, but Ella couldn’t tell if they were even making a dent in the wall of men surrounding the plane. Chase dove into the slight depression and asked for a sitrep.

  “FUBAR,” Knight replied.

  Chase nodded, wedged into position, and began firing.

  “Here,” Ella told Anna Beth Caine.

  The woman glanced at her, eyes blank, as if there was absolutely nothing going on upstairs. “Anna Beth,” Ella said firmly. “Look at me. I told you I’d come for you, right? Here I am. Put this on.”

  Her tone must have gotten through to the woman, because her gaze cleared and she reached for the vest. Ella strapped her in it. “Stay down,” she ordered.

  Ella wiggled out of the cumbersome coveralls while searching for Jude. From the opposite side of the airfield, a car pulled up and Abrafo Nadege exited. Gunfire continued to pepper the air around them.

  “Son of a bitch,” Chase whispered. “I kinda feel like we brought a knife to a gunfight.”

  “Been in worse places,” Knight warned. “Remember Syria last year?”

  “Been trying to forget,” Chase replied with a grin.

  “Where’s Dresden?” Rook questioned.

  “Vivi, I need eyes,” King demanded.

  “I’m searching,” Vivi responded in their ears.

  Ella lifted her rifle, hunting for Jude and Brody but not finding them.

  In the distance, the sound of helicopter blades splitting the winter air bounced off the low-hanging clouds.

  “Who is that?” King demanded. “Vivi, who’s in the chopper?”

  “On it, Your Highness,” she replied, her voice more harried than Ella had ever heard it.

  The helicopter swung down from the clouds, flying low over the trees and raining hellfire on Dresden’s line of men. Nadege ducked behind the car and dropped to the ground. Ella pushed Anna Beth down and began firing.

  “No clue who’s in the chopper, Your Highness, but they’re cutting Dresden’s men down,” Vivi reported.

  “Let’s move,” King ordered.

  As one, they stood and—still firing—began moving forward in the same zigzag pattern Ella had used. Knight grabbed Anna Beth Caine and put her hand on his waist. “Run with me,” he commanded her. The woman nodded and immediately did as he’d ordered. She was holding her own, considering moments ago she’d been Dresden’s prisoner.

  He hadn’t broken her, which gave Ella hope for the woman.

  Ella fired, and when her rifle ran out of bullets, she pulled her handguns from their holsters and used them. From the air, the helicopter continued to fire, and still there was no Jude or Brody.

  King, Rook, and Chase were now engaging men hand to hand. A couple of Dresden’s men were running for the woods, while others fell under the barrage of machine-gun fire from the helicopter. They simply didn’t have a place to hide from the chopper.

  The wind whipped Ella’s hair as she ducked and spun under a roundhouse punch from one of Dresden’s goons. She pulled her KA-BAR from its sheath at her boot and came up punching the blade into the man’s chest. He fell, a look of stunned disbelief his final act.

  She turned and took a fist to the shoulder before she could duck. She stumbled and shook out her arm before she grabbed her final knife from its scabbard, flipped it, and tossed it directly into the man’s throat.

  “Ella, move!”

  Jude’s voice. She turned and started to run, but an arm snuck around her throat and hauled her back against a hard body.

  “Did you really think I’d let you go, Banning?”r />
  Dresden.

  Her heart stopped, then kicked into overdrive. She went deadweight, hoping to catch him off guard, but he laughed and clamped down on her throat harder.

  “Take the shot,” she heard King call over the comm units.

  “No!” Jude protested.

  “Take the shot, Brody,” King ordered.

  Dresden lowered his head, tucking his chin between her neck and shoulder and pressing down until he knew no one had a shot without going through Ella’s head first. “Tell them to stand down,” he whispered in her ear.

  All around her, action ceased. The helicopter hovered and turned right, disappearing back over the trees.

  Ella couldn’t breathe, spots swimming in front of her eyes. But in between the spots was Jude, walking toward them, rifle held at the ready, face promising death.

  “Stop, Keeper,” Dresden called out when Jude was about fifteen feet away. The pressure on her throat eased, but a gun pressed into her temple now. “I don’t want to kill her, you know?”

  “Let her go, Dresden,” Jude said, his voice low and cajoling. He wouldn’t meet her gaze. He knew. He knew damn well this was it for Ella.

  “I don’t want to kill her, Keeper,” Dresden said as he began moving backward, pulling Ella with him. “But I will.”

  The plane was only yards away. If he got her on it, she was dead.

  “Take the shot, Brody,” Ella said softly.

  “Shut your mouth, Banning,” Dresden demanded, and though his words were spoken softly, they were loud in Ella’s ears.

  “Don’t,” Jude pleaded. His voice was still low, but it was filled with fear now.

  One of them wasn’t making it home today. Ella accepted that and determined it would be her. She’d known this was her probable outcome, and she’d signed on anyway because keeping Jude alive was everything to her.

  “Take the goddamn shot, Brody,” she said easily, almost conversationally.

  “There is no shot. Stand down, Brody,” King ordered.

  Behind Jude, her teammates stood, weapons raised, all aimed at Horace Dresden. She saw Chase, Rook, Knight, and Anna Beth Caine. They wouldn’t leave here without her this time. She knew it. She’d be dead, but they’d take her with them this time.

  Dresden continued to move toward the plane. Jude moved as Dresden and Ella did, slow and steady, his gaze never leaving Dresden, his black eyes cataloging the man’s every move.

  “I love you, Keeper,” Ella whispered.

  Finally, his gaze met hers, and the pain in his eyes skewered her.

  Jude threw his weapon down and opened his arms. “It’s me you want, Dresden,” he growled. “Take me.”

  Ella felt Dresden’s chest rise and fall. The bastard was laughing. “Oh, I will, Keeper. No doubt, I’ll definitely be ending you, and I won’t harm a hair on your head to do it.”

  They were almost to the car that was parked beside the plane.

  “Nadege, get on the plane, will you?” Dresden queried sharply.

  “Don’t you fuckin’ move, Nadege,” Chase called out, his rifle aimed on the man.

  “You think I can’t find Dr. Moeller, Chase? You think you can hide her from me?” Dresden asked conversationally. “None of you can hide from the truth of this. I own you all.”

  “Let her go, Horace,” a small voice said from behind King.

  Dresden’s spine snapped taut, and his grip around Ella’s throat hardened. Once again, Ella’s airway was constricted, but she didn’t struggle. He still had the gun at her temple.

  “Anna Beth, you were never any good at staying where I put you,” Dresden said. “Warren? Take the shot.”

  A shot rang out, and Anna Beth cried out, her body bowing at the waist before she fell to the ground.

  “She thought I wouldn’t do it,” Dresden said at Ella’s ear. He eased the pressure on her throat. Ella knew her time was limited. “She thought I wouldn’t find her, thought I wouldn’t hurt her, just like your Keeper thinks I won’t cut you down. But neither of them realizes that I tend to get rid of the things that no longer have use to me.”

  “Who is it, Dresden?” she pushed from her aching throat.

  “You want a name, Ella? You think you deserve a name? You think you deserve something for all the hard work you’ve put in?” Dresden asked with a laugh. “Maybe you do. After all you’ve killed and maimed, and now you’ll die for it.”

  “Give me a name. Who pulls your strings?” she asked. “No way you’re the top.”

  His grip tightened, and Ella’s vision winked. “I will be,” he said.

  “Name,” she forced out.

  He shrugged. As if it was nothing to give her this information. “Okay. I’ll give you a name. You can take it to the grave with you…Ricker. William Ricker. You don’t know him, and he can’t be found. And in a few moments you’ll be too dead to do anything about it.”

  Ella had no idea who that was. None at all. But it was a place to start. She’d worked within Dresden’s clutches for a year for this single name. Relief and something else flowed through her. She’d call it disappointment. All of this for a single name.

  But maybe her team could use that name to dismantle Dresden and whoever he worked for.

  “Let her go, Dresden,” Jude called out again, taking another step forward.

  “He’s going to kill you, Horace,” Ella whispered.

  “And just like you, he’ll fail,” Dresden said with a laugh.

  She was watching Jude’s face and saw his eyes widen the split second before Dresden pushed her away. She tried to catch her balance, but the suddenness of his action had her going to her knees facing him. In slow motion, she watched him raise his weapon and fire a single shot. She fell forward, her hands bracing her fall.

  “Two birds, one stone,” Dresden said.

  His words brought her head up. There was a smile on his face.

  It was gone a split second later as a hole formed in the center of his forehead.

  He crumpled to the ground. Dead.

  Just like that, Horace Dresden was dead.

  Jude called her name, his tone agonized, and all Ella wanted to do was comfort him. He was safe. Dresden was dead, and Jude was alive.

  She brought her hand to her side and pulled it away as Jude went to his knees beside her. In her ear, she heard rapid-fire commands from King, and she heard that damn helicopter making a return trip.

  Who was in that damn thing?

  “Ella!” Jude demanded.

  “Jude?” she said, a cough rumbling up from her core, pain spreading through her body like fire. There was blood on her hands. A lot of it. Jude pulled her into his lap, and the pain of his movements stole her breath.

  She recognized this for what it was. Her ending. “I love you. Be safe.”

  “Hold on, Ella. You hold on for me!” Jude demanded.

  She couldn’t hold on. Everything faded but the pain. She needed to breathe—God! Why was it so hard to breathe?

  “Love you,” she pushed out again. Drowning must feel like this, she thought.

  “Don’t, baby,” Jude said, and he was there, holding her now. How could she not feel him? She was so cold and needed his warmth. “Don’t leave me.”

  She tried to reach for him but couldn’t make her arms work. So she smiled, and Jude threw back his head and screamed at the sky.

  He was alive. That’s all that mattered. One more thing though.

  “Wi…Ricker…”

  “What?” Jude asked, wiping her face, his own tortured.

  She swallowed around her tongue. “Tell the Piper…William Ricker.”

  She dropped her arms and stared at the sky. It was done. Ella was done.

  A last look at Jude, and then her world winked black.

  Chapter 23

  Jude picked h
er up and ran. His teammates formed a barrier, but Nadege was on the plane and Dresden’s men—the ones who hadn’t fallen to Endgame—were fleeing. The plane’s engines screamed and it took off, fleeing the destruction Dresden had wrought.

  The military helicopter that had peppered Dresden and his men with artillery shots made another appearance, but it was too late.

  “Piper sent the cavalry,” Vivi said over their earpieces. “She’s going to land it, Endgame. Get Ella and your asses on board.”

  “Is that Loretta Bernstein?” Rook asked in disbelief.

  Jude heard him but didn’t give a shit if it was the pope. He had to get Ella somewhere safe.

  “Put her down, Keeper,” Brody demanded. “We’ve got to look at her. She’s losing a lot of blood.”

  Jude could feel it running down his arms. But put her down? He wouldn’t do it.

  “Keeper!” King yelled. “Put Ella down, now. That’s an order, soldier.”

  Fuck his orders. Jude glanced down and saw her pale face lolling against his chest.

  “She needs help, man. Put her down!” Brody yelled this time. It was his voice, so broken and grating, that finally got through to Jude.

  He lowered Ella to the ground and stood. “Help her,” he demanded of the woman, Anna Beth Caine.

  Her gaze was glassy, she was only half-dressed, her clothing having been torn either during her captivity or the run from Dresden’s house, and she wore Ella’s vest. The vest that could have saved Ella’s life. The vest that had indeed saved Anna Beth’s.

  The woman shook her head. “I-I-I can’t,” she cried out, and it seemed to be a plea.

  Jude leaned down in her face. “Help. Her. Now.”

  “Keeper, goddamn it, stop this shit,” Brody demanded, his broken voice no longer moving Jude.

  Suddenly, the woman shuddered and seemed to come back to herself. She lowered beside Ella and began checking the gaping wound in Ella’s lower chest. Knight handed her a first-aid kit, and she took it cautiously as if it were a snake about to bite her.

  “Hurry up,” he said, his voice cold and brooking no argument.

  Jude glanced behind Brody and saw the helicopter landing. Wind whipped all around him as he stood over his woman, protecting her from the goddamn air because he hadn’t been able to protect her from Dresden’s bullet.