“Did you call the police?”
“No, I wanted to find you. I was going to call the police if you didn’t show up. But look, here you are.”
Jag thought about breaking the window anyway to get his hands on the man. He didn’t call the police because he was hoping to get a story out of this. Hersch and his men had taken Odie. Her life was in danger and this little puke had done nothing.
Where was she? Jag looked up the street, wishing he knew. Not knowing would cost him too much time.
He turned back to the reporter. “You better hope she’s okay. If anything happens to her, I’m coming after you.”
The man’s eyes widened a little and he looked from Jag’s clenched fists to his face again. “I know where they took her.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
The reporter didn’t answer. A story. He wanted a damn story.
Jag pulled his gun free and raised it, ready to bash the window.
“They took her to Defense Initiatives.”
“How do you know that?”
“I was standing on the sidewalk when they paid the taxi cab driver to give them his car. One of them told the new driver of the cab to take her to DI. I’m assuming that means Defense Initiatives.”
“They didn’t see you?”
“I had my camera. I pretended to take pictures and not notice. They didn’t bother me.”
“Thanks.” Jag started back toward the rental.
“Hey, wait!” The reporter got out of his car and stood on the sidewalk. “What about my interview?”
Jag kept going.
“What does Defense Initiatives have to do with Frasier Darby and Colonel Roth?” the reporter yelled.
Jag reached the rental.
“Do you want me to call the cops now?” the reporter yelled again.
Jag didn’t care what he did. He had to get to Odie, fast. He got into the rental. Calan slammed the passenger door shut.
“He’s awfully eager to splash you and Odie all over the news.”
“It would be a boring story.”
“I’m not so sure about that. You both work for Cullen McQueen, who’s still in the covert ops business, breaking international laws and pissing off foreign diplomats who know it’s the U.S. government in disguise when someone newsworthy ends up assassinated.”
“You pay too much attention to the media.” Jag drove fast down the street, blowing a stop light on the way.
“You going to marry her?”
Jag swung a glance over to Calan, startled.
“That’s what I thought,” Calan said.
Was it that obvious that he wanted her? Not to marry, it was physical with her. Now. What if he continued to see her after this was over and they went back to Roaring Creek?
Did he want that? He didn’t see how it would work. He’d go on other assignments and be gone for months at a time. She’d remember why she swore off special ops men and that would be the end of that.
Why put himself through the agony?
Because she might be worth fighting for…
He’d never met a woman who made him strive to work so hard to get her. She wasn’t like his ex, not at all. She was someone he could be with permanently. But could he put his heart that far out for her? He trusted her on a professional level, but on a personal one? She might be honest and forthcoming, but would she let herself love him?
Did he love her?
He was afraid he was starting to. Odie was tough. Nothing brought her down. She was beautiful and smart. But he had to protect himself. He had to be sure she felt the same and wouldn’t go running once she got in too deep.
“You’re still thinking about it, aren’t you?”
“You’ve had your fun. Let’s focus on what needs to be done here.”
“I am focused. Are you?”
Jag glanced over at him again. Calan was right. “I am now.” No more thinking about a future with Odie. If he was going to save her he had to stop getting distracted.
Hersch’s man gripped Odie’s arm and dragged her out of the car. He was wiry and tall but very strong. He had white hair and looked to be in his early fifties. His light blue eyes were creepy and lined by deep, sagging wrinkles. He wasn’t aging well and course white hair peeked out from the top button of his shirt. She thought about fighting him, but the driver was already out of the cab, aiming a pistol at her head. He was shorter than the hairy one, and more muscular. Younger, too, with dark brown hair that hadn’t begun to gray yet.
“Bring her,” Hersch ordered.
His man yanked her into a walk beside him. The driver followed. They were at Defense Initiatives, heading toward the loading dock and shipping entrance. Inside, they brought her through the shipping area and turned left where the building opened to a sea of cubicles. Forced to walk along the outer edge of the cubicles, they reached the far corner where double doors were secured by a keypad. Hersch entered a code and the lock released to allow them in.
Odie looked back over her shoulder as the doors closed and the lock clicked back into place. If anyone were able to find her, they’d have a hard time getting past that.
The man holding her jerked her. “Get moving.”
She stumbled and faced forward. They were in a small warehouse. There were crates stacked in the middle and not all the florescent lights were on, so it was dim. There was a single rolling service door that opened to what must be the loading dock she and Jag had passed on their way in to the shipping area.
The man holding her shoved her. She tripped and regained her balance, but ran into a crate.
“Have a seat,” the man said. She sat on the crate and looked from him to his two henchmen.
“We’ll have a little conversation while we wait,” Hersch spoke this time.
What was he waiting for?
“The first thing you’re going to tell me is what you took from my office.”
“Nothing.” It didn’t matter if he knew, other than the risk of him killing her in a fit of rage. She’d already sent everything to Cullen.
“I have you on recording entering and leaving my shipping room. You used a visitor badge. Now, I suggest you start talking.”
“What are you waiting for? Or should I ask who?”
“What did you take from me?”
She didn’t answer.
Hersch nodded at the man who’d hauled her here. He fisted his hand and swung. Ducking out of the way, she dodged his blow and sprang to her feet, kicking the side of his knee. He went down, his gun sliding across the concrete floor. It was too far away from her.
Odie pivoted, ready to fight.
The shorter man raised his pistol. Hersch stood calmly, his head angled mockingly.
The man she’d kicked climbed to his feet, anger making his eyes piercing. He favored his right leg as he went to get his gun. As he turned, he cocked the pistol and approached her, jabbing the side of her head with the gun when he reached her.
She met his furious gaze.
“Just say the word,” he said to Hersch.
Hersch palmed the air, indicating for the man to lower his gun. “Not yet, Duke. Lower the gun. Give the girl some room for air so she can talk freely.”
“I’m going to enjoy killing you.” He lowered the gun and stepped back.
If only she’d picked up a gun before going to Hersch’s office. She’d already be on her way back to the hotel.
Hersch moved closer to her. She faced him, ready to defend herself if necessary.
“I know who you are,” he said.
Had Luis spoken with him? The senator didn’t know what kinds of missions TES operated, but because of Kate he knew they were geared for counterterrorism and that they were all covert. He could do a lot of damage. Did he know she was on to him? Maybe Alice had told him…
“You may think with your fancy training that you can get away with crossing me, but you should reconsider. You aren’t armed, a surprising, if not foolish, decision on your part. You’
re outnumbered, and no one knows where you are. The wise thing to do is to answer my questions.”
“Why, so you let me go?”
His lips slithered into a contemptuous smile. “What have you discovered and who have you told?”
What would he do if she told him? Kill her and go after Cullen and Jag and anyone else associated with TES? Lots of luck with that, she wanted to tell him. He wasn’t going to let her go. He’d try to close every loose end to protect his business. But his loose ends were multiplying.
“It’s over,” she said. “You can’t win. Even if you kill me, there will be others.”
Hersch stepped in front of her and put his hand on her neck, squeezing his fingers. “What did you find and who did you tell?”
She lifted her chin, not trying to get away from his grip, just letting him know without words that she wasn’t saying anything. And she wasn’t afraid.
“You went to an internet café. So you must have sent something to someone. Who was that?”
If Luis had told him who she worked for, he already knew. Or maybe he needed more specifics. Even Luis in a panic knew better than to reveal Cullen’s identity. He didn’t stand a chance against him.
“Someone you can’t touch,” she said. “And someone who will finish what I’ve started.”
He stepped back. “Then there’s no point in talking further.”
He gave a nod to his two henchmen. The shorter one still aimed his gun at her. The taller one just smiled.
Jag got out of the rental with Calan and they walked toward the entrance of Defense Initiatives. Exterior lighting illuminated the landscaped grounds. Trees and shrubs curved in front of the building and a few cars were parked in the meagerly lit parking lot.
“Are we just going to walk right through the front door?” Calan asked.
“Yes. If she’s here like that reporter said, Hersch would have taken her somewhere secluded.” Like a basement or something. Somewhere that would be easy to clean up and hide evidence. He didn’t like the thoughts that provoked… Odie being killed. She probably thought she could defend herself on sheer will alone, and if she got a hold of a gun she’d be an opponent to reckon with. But she wasn’t skilled in operations. Her expertise was intelligence. She didn’t know how dangerous people like Hersch could be, especially when their livelihood was threatened.
They had to find her. Fast.
“It won’t be hard to disable the security guards and I doubt Hersch is expecting us this soon,” Jag said, thinking aloud.
“Right.” Calan pushed the door open and walked into the building.
A single security guard sat behind the reception desk. He looked up from his computer screen and saw them.
“We’re closed.”
“We know,” Calan said.
“Do you have an appointment?”
Thanking the universe for their luck in having to deal with only one guard, Jag didn’t waste time and went around the counter, slipping his hand under his shirt for his gun.
“Hey,” the guard said, standing up. “What are you—”
Jag raised his weapon and gave the man a hard chop on the back of the head. The man fell.
Dragging the man into the men’s bathroom near the reception counter, he joined Calan where he waited by the door leading to rest of the building.
It was quiet on the upper level. Calan walked behind Jag but on the opposite side of the hall along a six-foot wall of cubicles. Ahead, Hersch’s office door was open, as if he’d left in a hurry and forgot to turn off the lights and lock up.
Jag peered inside and swept the room with the aim of his gun. Giving Calan a nod, he resumed his careful steps toward the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs, Jag checked the shipping area with Calan covering him. It was clear. There were no sounds of struggle. No voices. No screams. The lights were turned low.
The sound of rolling wheels penetrated the silence. Jag popped his head around the entrance to the shipping area. A janitor rolled a trash container around the corner of a cubicle wall, disappearing from sight. He hadn’t seen Jag.
Jag nodded to Calan.
To the left, past a lengthy stretch of cubicle walls, were double doors secured by a coded locking mechanism.
“What’s in there?” Calan asked.
Jag heard his sarcasm. He thought the same. That must be where Hersch had taken Odie. If she was here.
Please, make her be here and all right.
“It’s probably a storage area or a warehouse, “he whispered. “There’s a service door next to the shipping door in the back of the building. Let’s see if we can get in that way.”
Calan followed him back through the shipping area, to the back doors. Opening one, he saw a rolling steel service door.
Headlights made him stop.
“We have company.”
Jag recognized the car from Kate’s funeral. “It’s Senator Raybourne.”
Letting the door shut, he and Calan waited, each on opposing sides of the double door shipping entry. Hearing the overhead door slide open, Jag opened the door in time to see the senator walk inside. It was dark except for a single outdoor light above the shipping door. But that light faded to shadows at the rolling door. Leading Calan, Jag held his gun up and put his back against the building at the warehouse entrance. A quick look revealed it was full of stacked crates.
Raybourne disappeared around a group of them. Jag and Calan slipped inside just as the rolling door began to close.
Odie saw where the tall man went to press a button to close the rolling door. There was her way out. If she could only get there.
Spotting Luis emerge from around a group of crates, she met his eyes. He saw her and quickly turned to Hersch.
“This has gone on long enough,” he said.
“It’s about time you got here,” Hersch said, ignoring him.
“This is out of control,” Luis persisted, coming to a stop beside him. “It stops here.”
“It’s too late for that. Dharr is expecting this shipment on Friday. I’m going to see that it gets there.”
“You’re a fool if you think you can pull this off now.”
“You’re only just now coming to that realization?” Odie asked.
He turned somber eyes on her. “You were always so tenacious. I had to keep a close eye on you. And I had a feeling it would only be a matter of time before you stuck your nose where it didn’t belong.”
“You mean after you murdered my father?” she spat. “Your friend?”
“I regretted that, too. You have no idea. It wasn’t easy for me. Sage knew about Hersch’s dealings with Dharr, but it was your father who discovered someone in the government was helping him. I couldn’t let him piece it together. He would have, too.”
“Yes, he would have.” So much anger toiled around in her core she had to force her composure to remain stoic. “First Sage, then my father. And Kate.” It was appalling. “How could you?”
“You don’t understand.”
“You’re right. It’s hard to understand how an old family friend could murder everyone close to him.”
“I didn’t murder anyone. A lot of this is out of my hands.” He glanced at Hersch. “It always has been.”
So Hersch had made most of those calls? He’d ordered the murders? She knew from the emails she’d read that he’d at least allowed Kate’s.
“You went along with it.”
“I have an equal stake in this.”
“How many people do you think you can kill to keep your secret? Me? Everyone at TES?” she scoffed. “You can’t kill everyone. Eventually you’re going to get caught.”
“What did you send to him?” Luis asked, and she didn’t miss how he carefully left out Cullen’s name.
“Everything. This is over, Luis. You’re finished.” She faced Hersch. “And so are you.”
The tall man pressed his pistol against her temple.
“Wait.” Hersch held his hand up. And to Odie he
asked, “How did you find out about me?”
How could she answer that without revealing TES’s inner workings. She couldn’t. So instead, she looked at Luis.
“Calan Friese was there when Sage’s mission failed,” Odie said.
His eyes narrowed a fraction.
“He knew someone let the details of the mission leak to Dharr, who arranged the ambush. He thought it was my father, thanks to your clever setup, but then you tried to set him up the same way, only this time with Frasier Darby’s forged letter.”
“Calan?” He looked stunned.
“It’s time to stop, Luis. You won’t get away with taking bribes from Hersch anymore. I sent proof to someone you can’t overpower. By now the right people at Army Special Operations Command know what you’ve done.” She sent Hersch a smug look.
“Kill her,” he said.
Odie stepped back from the tall man and his raised weapon.
“No!” Luis shouted. He sprang at the tall man, plowing into him and taking them both to the concrete floor. The gun went off. Odie stepped on the tall man’s wrist and bent to pry the gun from his hand.
More gunfire made her flinch. She stayed crouched and saw the shorter henchman fall lifeless to the floor. She searched for the gunman and spotted Jag emerge from around the group of crates.
Her heart swelled with love. He’d had her covered the whole time.
Hersch backed up as Calan and Jag neared. He put his hands up. He wasn’t armed.
Odie straightened as Luis rose to his feet. She aimed the pistol she held down at the tall man, who glowered up at her.
Luis went to the shorter henchman and bent to pick up the gun still in his lifeless hand.
Calan swung his gun toward him. Luis faced them and looked at Odie.
“I’m so sorry,” he said.
Sorry hardly cut it.
“When I found out Sage was on to me, I thought I was finished then. I didn’t want him to die. But Hersch…” He turned a resentful gaze to that man.
“I did what you didn’t have the stomach to do. If I hadn’t we’d have lost everything.”
“We.” Luis grunted a derisive laugh. “It was never about we. I begged you not to kill Kate.”
“You were only too eager to stop Edward.”
Special Ops Affair Page 16