It looked as if a bomb had gone off. Papers littered the floor. Glass shattered across countertops. A wall unit had been ripped off the wall and smashed to the floor. Every cabinet was open and nothing remained untouched.
“What happened?” Her voice mirrored the horrified look on her face.
“Sabotage.”
“All those criminal cases. Everything is in jeopardy now.” She took a pen off the floor and picked up the edge of some paperwork. A ripped evidence envelope lay beneath it.
He mentally calculated the loss and realized she wasn’t exaggerating.
“There are chain-of-custody issues now. Cross-contamination problems. Defense attorneys will question all of our testing and rip our conclusions to shreds. None of it will withstand scrutiny.” She groaned. “Cases will fall apart.”
Every word she said was correct. The concerns she voiced weren’t frivolous, but Caleb needed her focused. The magnitude of this disaster was one she’d have to work through another time. She and a team of forensic experts, and even then the results would be devastating.
“What do you need from in here?” he asked.
She plopped down on a stool and wheeled it over to a computer. The screen had a huge hole in it. She flicked the switch a few times, but it wouldn’t turn on.
“Try another.” He tried to sound calm as he made the suggestion.
When she started tapping on the keyboard, he glanced at his watch. The heat imprints for the security guards showed them one floor up as Adam indicated and working from opposite directions. What worried him was the faint shadow in the room next door. It showed up out of nowhere and wasn’t very strong. It was either a false read or someone in trouble.
“Adam?”
“I see it. I’ll use the security cameras to do a visual check.”
At the sound of Adam’s voice in their ears, Avery’s head popped up. She frowned but didn’t argue when Caleb motioned for her to continue working. Their minutes of freedom were ticking down and now they had an unknown next door and potential hostiles nearby.
“I don’t see anything, but the heat signature isn’t moving,” Adam said.
“Is it possible someone could be sleeping in the office next door?” Caleb asked her.
She didn’t stop working. “It’s a temperature-controlled room with refrigerator compartments. There’s no furniture in there, except maybe a stool.”
Adrenaline pumped through Caleb. He could feel it race around every part of his body. “Hurry up.”
“I can’t.” The paleness of her face could be described only as bleak.
“What does that mean?”
“It’s not here. Nothing is here. My files are all gone.”
The worst-case scenario was coming true. “Adam, can we do something from here to make it easier for you to get in the computer system?”
“I already tried. I could get into the security section because it’s hooked in with the electrical and there’s a dial-out function in case of an emergency. The case files are coded and encrypted.”
Caleb shook his head over Adam’s unusual chattiness. “And?”
“Doesn’t matter anyway. If Avery’s directory is gone, it could be erased from the system entirely. Someone with the knowledge to wipe her out should be smart enough not to leave much of a trail, but I’ll check. Meanwhile, get out of there and back to the warehouse.”
Sounded like a smart plan to Caleb. “Right.”
Avery didn’t move from the chair. “We can’t.”
“Well, you’d better do something because those supposed security guys are headed down the stairs and toward your position.”
Caleb caught the anxiety pouring through Adam’s voice and the phrasing he used. A check of the blueprint on his watch told him why. “Pretty strategic, don’t you think?”
She stood up and grabbed Caleb’s arm to see the small monitor. The frown had only deepened when she raised her head again. “What am I missing?”
“These guys move in tandem, taking room by room. It’s like they’ve been trained and are launching a strategic assault.”
She nodded. “Against me.”
“Or something they think you have.” He took one last look around the lab. The extent of the destruction kept the alarm bells ringing in his head. “We need to go.”
She increased her grip on his arm when he tried to move. “We have to check next door first.”
“No.”
“Someone could be hurt.”
“We’ll call the police as soon as we’re safe.”
“We can sit here, waste time and argue, or you can just agree with me.”
“Avery.”
“I’m not backing down on this, Caleb.”
He remembered that trait all too well. “Fine. When I later say ‘I told you so,’ you can explain to Luke how we ended up in a hospital.”
Caleb tightened his hold on his weapon. With Adam as his eyes, Caleb normally felt pretty secure in his ability to get out of a rough spot. But he had Avery to worry about. This wasn’t about him dodging a bullet. It was about making sure she got into Zach’s waiting car in exactly the same condition as she was now. Caleb didn’t care what happened to him, but he suddenly cared very much about what happened to her.
They slipped out of the lab and stared down the hallway. He couldn’t hear anything except the whirl of the fans above his head and the breathing thundering in his head. He covered her as she opened the door to the room next door. When she slid inside, he followed and closed the door behind them without a sound.
She stopped in the middle of the room and turned around in a circle. Her bewilderment crashed into him. He couldn’t blame her. There was nothing in there, just an empty room with some shelves and four steel doors to refrigerator compartments.
“I don’t see anyone,” she whispered.
He walked over to the area where a body should be. There was a large metal door with the usual security protections. “This is the right corner. Must be inside here.”
She slid her card through the reader, but the light didn’t turn green.
Caleb couldn’t worry about colors. He was busy keeping an eye on his watch and the men he knew were in the building and crowding in closer. They were at the other end of the hall and moving in fast. “We’re running out of time.”
“This doesn’t make sense. The door should open.”
“And we should be out of here. One more time then we go.”
He watched her rub her badge on his pants and then move closer to the panel. Something crunched under her foot. Keeping his gun aimed at the door, Caleb bent down and grabbed the piece of plastic sticking out from under a metal rolling tray. A badge.
“It’s Damon’s.” Her hands shook as she turned it over.
“Don’t borrow trouble. We don’t know he’s hurt.”
“Get out of there,” Adam said in a break from protocol. The aberration signaled to Caleb just how much trouble Adam thought they were in.
She ran her hand over the door. “Damon is in here. I can feel it.”
The men were just a few doors down now. They weren’t talking to each other. Weren’t making any noise at all. No security guards Caleb knew moved like this. These two had the skills of a tact team. Synchronized and stealthy. And deadly.
“He must have changed the code to match his card.” She straightened out the bent card and then closed her eyes for a second. “Please have that be the case.”
When she slid Damon’s badge through for the third time, the green light finally switched on. Caleb blocked her from opening the door. He put a finger over his mouth and tried to cover the door to the room, her and whatever loomed in the enclosed space. Danger could fly at them from two angles now.
After motioning for her to squat down in the corner between a shelf and the refrigerator door, he eased it open just an inch. When nothing happened, nothing flew out and the room stayed quiet, he pulled harder and looked inside. There in the five-by-five room, among the glass
-front cases filled with vials and boxes, were two bodies. Both motionless and piled in a stack, lying in a pool of blood. He recognized a security uniform on one and a lab coat on the other.
Before he could warn Avery about their find, the glass window next to the room’s main door exploded. The staccato thump of bullets hitting against the walls drowned out the sound of her scream. Glass sprayed and the walls shook. Dust kicked up as the ceiling tiles fell. It was a shower of paper and equipment as he grabbed her arm and dragged her inside the enclosed space, tucking her safely behind him.
He felt the thumping impact each time a shot hit the metal door he used as a shield. The steady rain of shots came from the hallway. As fast as it started the echo of gunfire stopped. Aiming his weapon, he vowed to take out anyone who came one foot into their crowded space. With the door open only a sliver, he waited for the men to break into the room and start a second round.
Behind him he could hear Avery shuffling. She talked softly to Damon. Caleb had no idea if the other man was alive. He couldn’t worry about that. Not while he waited for commandos to shoot their way inside. There was only one way in and one way out.
“Check.” He said the word as soft as possible to let Adam know they were okay.
The hallway lights blinked off, bathing the room in complete darkness. She gasped and grabbed the back of Caleb’s shirt.
He could feel her nerves jumping. “Adam?”
“Not me.” Adam whispered the comment but Caleb picked it up. These guys were serious and hell-bent on wiping out any witnesses.
“Override and turn them back on in five.” Caleb mouthed the words, keeping his tone so low that it was barely audible even to his own ears.
The attackers were on the move. He could sense them as much as hear them. When footsteps crunched, he knew they had breached the outer office and time was almost up. He began the countdown, hoping Adam had heard his whispered plea. The lights flickered just as Caleb got to number one. All around them equipment whirred to life. Both men froze for a split second, which was all the time Caleb needed. He stood up and fired twice, not bothering to wound. No way was he risking they’d be saved by protective vests.
One shot to each forehead and they dropped backward, sprawled and unmoving.
Caleb shoved the door open to survey the damage and check for any sign of life.
Nothing.
He blew out a long breath, trying to drag enough oxygen into his lungs. It took Caleb another second to realize Avery had never let go of his shirt and Adam was screaming in their ears.
“We’re okay,” Caleb said before Adam brought the walls down trying to find them.
“I can’t believe…” Her voice shook as hard as her body. Her fingers trembled, knocking her knuckles against his back.
Reality came roaring back. This was his life, not hers. She’d held it together, helped him. There was so much he didn’t understand about why she showed up and what happened after they broke up, but he admired her rock-hard determination. When everything fell apart around her, she held it together. In that moment, their history didn’t matter.
He turned and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close. The immediate warmth of her body next to his relaxed him. He hadn’t forgotten the soft scent of flowers in her hair or how good she felt cuddled against him.
Knowing it was stupid, he leaned down and placed a quick kiss on her lips. Once his lips met her soft mouth, the temptation to linger and relearn the taste of her grabbed him, but he pushed it out of his head. This was about providing comfort only. About giving them a moment to celebrate being alive.
The touch was over before it started, but that didn’t stop her eyes from growing huge in surprise. “Caleb?”
“What about your assistant?” he asked, dreading the answer.
She shook her head but didn’t say anything as she swallowed several times. The sad resignation on her face nearly broke him. His eyes searched hers before wandering lower. The only thing he saw was her kissable mouth.
“Caleb?” Adam’s voice didn’t sound any steadier than Avery’s.
The spell broke. Caleb reluctantly separated their bodies, letting air pass between them as he tried to push the idea of kissing her out of his head.
Her hands remained wrapped in the front of his shirt. “Caleb, please.”
He loosened her grip and set her away from him. “No.”
“No?”
He had to get his mind back on the job. Had to make sure that wall he’d erected two years ago stayed solid. If he allowed her to mean something again, he’d regret it.
“Adam? Call Luke. We have two innocents and two attackers down. He’s going to have to figure out who to call to clean this up.”
Chapter Eight
Avery hadn’t thrown up in a decade. She came close to ending that run twice within the last hour. Even now as she sat at the Recovery conference table drinking a soda, she wondered if she should just crawl into the bathroom and sleep there.
Caleb didn’t look any better. His hair wore the finger marks from where he’d been running his hand through it. Exhaustion edged around his eyes. During the shoot-out at the lab he’d somehow ripped the front of his shirt, making him look even rougher and more dangerous than usual.
With his elbows on the table, he traced his fingers over the smooth top. He’d been debriefed by Luke since they got back. In a flat tone, Caleb laid out what had happened and how they got through it. The brief flair of adrenaline-fueled attraction from the lab, none of it lingered now. He was no-nonsense to the point of sounding totally uninterested.
“Okay. I think I got it.” Luke stretched out in his seat with his hands behind his head. The chair leaned back to the tipping point. “Any chance these were Trevor’s men?”
Caleb nodded. “Sure moved like them.”
She’d followed every word from a distance, letting Caleb explain while she sat there and fought for control of her stomach muscles. But this part was new. “Who’s Trevor?”
The cold indifference disappeared. Caleb actually sneered at the mention of the other man’s name. “Trevor Walters, owner of Orion Industries. Multimillionaire, entrepreneur and all-around scumbag.”
The name immediately registered, but the description didn’t match anything she knew. The guy was a billionaire or close to it. Trevor Walters showed up on news shows and frequently testified on Capitol Hill.
“He’s supposed to be a legitimate businessman,” she said.
“He had his private militia swarm my house. Had to replace the hardwood floors after that one.” Luke’s chair landed back on the floor with a thump. “Trust me, calling him a scumbag is a compliment.”
Surely information like that would get out. There was no way Trevor Walters could be who they said he was and still function at the level he did…right?
“He seems so, I don’t know, stable. I swear I saw him opening an orphanage in some war-torn country.”
Caleb shot her a you’re-so-naive frown. “He’s corrupt, not stupid. He knows when and how to throw his money around to gather favors and prestige, but don’t confuse that with chivalry. He won’t hesitate to remove anyone who threatens his privileged world.”
“Caleb is right. I’ve dealt with Trevor,” Luke said. “We all have.”
They were trying so hard to convince her, when that wasn’t necessary. “I didn’t doubt what you were saying. It’s just so hard to imagine.”
“He has a significant number of men at his disposal. They’re well armed and well trained. Loyal and tough, these are not the kind of guys you can buy off or win to your side with some sweet talk. The good news is we’ve stopped a bunch of them.” Caleb’s chest didn’t puff up with pride, but it was there in his voice, in the way he sat up straight and didn’t flinch when his gaze met hers.
“Meaning you killed a bunch of them.”
He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
She didn’t judge him. The news actually gave her comfort. Working in
a lab, dealing with evidence from horrific criminal cases, she’d developed a practical view of protection. Some people had to be stopped, and from what she could tell the Recovery agents excelled at the task.
The speaker above the door beeped right before the door rolled open. Caleb reached for his weapon and Luke shifted in his seat. They didn’t need to worry. The visitor was more than welcome.
Holden came through with a swagger. “Good thing I got here when I did. Sounds like you’re giving away all our secrets.”
His amusement was contagious. For a second the weight pushing down on her lifted. Or it did until she glanced at Caleb and saw him scowling.
Holden tapped Caleb on the back of the head and then kept walking until he stood next to her chair. “Avery Walker.”
She smiled up at him. “I thought you were going to hide from me forever.”
“Never that.” Holden winked before pulling her to her feet for a hug. “Zach told me you’d thrown in with us.”
“How did Zach come to that conclusion?” Caleb asked.
“He also filled me in on a little secret you’ve been hiding. The six-foot frowning one right across the table.” Holden kept an arm around her shoulders. When Caleb flashed an obscene gesture, Holden just laughed. “Have to wonder what you ever saw in our friend here.”
Since her fizzled relationship with Caleb ended on as sour a note as possible, it was just about the last thing she wanted to talk about to a crowd. She skipped the conversation and focused on Holden. “I hear you’re an almost-engaged man.”
Holden’s broad smile faded. “No almost. I am engaged.”
Caleb laughed. “Does Mia think so?”
After a man-to-man scowl session, Holden returned to his lighthearted mood. “Admittedly, the getting-married part is taking a bit longer than I expected.”
“We’re all waiting for Mia to come to her senses,” Luke said.
Holden guided Avery back into the chair and then plunked down next to her. “Mia wants our lives to be normal first.”
From the look of the high-tech room and the number of times she’d been chased in the past two days, Avery doubted these guys knew what normal was. They thrived on danger and were at home handling guns and breaking into places they weren’t supposed to be. The only time they got twitchy, as far as she could tell, was when they were sitting around doing nothing, as they were now.
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