by Dianna Love
Geoffrey might do that for Henri, if Henri could convince Geoffrey it was for the greater cause–their relationship.
Geoffrey sure as hell wouldn’t do it for Valene.
Too many ifs to keep worrying over. The plan was good.
“Just keep telling yourself that,” she muttered.
Chapter 16
Dingo passed Tanner, sending a finger signal that all was fine. Tanner nodded, but that only meant Tanner would have questions later.
Blade broke in to inform the team, “Caddy keeps checking his watch and glancing around. Looks to me that he’s anxious to be on the move.”
Tanner replied, “Can you blame him when he doesn’t have a speaking role?”
“Roger that, cowboy.”
Nick interjected, “Everything look good up top, Ryder?”
“Roger that. Sniper cover still in place.” Ryder had been keeping tabs on the rooftop security, because for one thing he had the best view of the rooftop from where he stood at the back of the gardens, and for another, the sniper in him would force him to constantly watch Tinker’s men on the roof, whether Ryder was ordered to or not.
Fifty feet away, on the opposite side of the garden from Dingo, a man was moving around the perimeter. Side view. Pale brown hair, trimmed goatee, and a tuxedo covering a body that moved with purpose, but that nose and his chin...
Bloody hell.
Dingo’s mind locked down and all the sounds around him receded, leaving a vortex of disbelief in its wake for the third time today.
Rikker?
In the blink of an eye, the bastard disappeared. Again. Had that really been him this time, or was Dingo actually losing his mind, hallucinating about the person he’d rather be hunting? If he was truly seeing Rikker where Rikker was not, he was in serious need of the downtime Sabrina had been pushing on him.
But if that was Rikker…
He took a step toward the empty spot, determined to find out. If it was, he would hunt down that miserable piece of humanity and drag his carcass back to Josh and Sabrina before leaving tonight.
Shit. He had to tell the team about Rikker and then he had to tell Sabrina about Valene being here. That was his duty.
Dingo spoke in a whisper, for his mic only. “I just–”
Blade broke in fast, reporting, “Possible Tom showing an interest in Perdido. Nineteen, maybe twenty, five-nine, hundred and thirty, black suit, bowtie, snub nose, short brown hair, curly, fingers twitching like a smoker needing a hit.”
Tom was the code name for a stalker.
And that description fit the guy Dingo had seen smooching the young woman earlier.
The minute Dingo mentioned Rikker, the team would be distracted, choosing between who went after the stalker and who focused on Rikker...who Dingo only thought he saw.
Josh had no intel indicating Rikker was here.
Dingo hadn’t seen the spook in years.
Everyone had a doppelganger, a twin version of another person with no DNA connection.
Dammit, he’d never questioned himself like this before. Lack of sleep was shredding his mental stability.
Blade added, “Tom heading north.”
That was Dingo’s area, the lower tier of the garden.
The op always came first.
Dingo took a quick turn to step up on the main level that led into the double doors at the rear of the hotel. From here, he had a wide view of the gardens.
There was Perdido, Fontana and Daddy Warbucks, who was saying, “In closing, I want to thank you again for your generosity...”
“Disregard,” Blade amended. “Tom is leaving with parents.”
Dingo caught sight of the pimply young man following his elderly mother and father. A late-in-life baby looking miserable and lonely.
At least his parents had wanted to keep him.
Dismissing the possible stalker, Dingo took advantage of his position to scope the crowd for Rikker so that he could at least give a position when he alerted the team.
Ryder spoke as calmly as if noting the mild weather when he said, “The eagles are out of the nest.”
Dingo’s pulse took a major jump. He swung his head around and twisted to look straight up, but Ryder had the best view of the rooftop security coverage.
Where was Tinker’s guard who was supposed to be up there?
Nick sounded as if he was moving fast, maybe running when he asked, “How long?”
Ryder answered sharply. “Twenty seconds. Ten seconds too long. Still gone.”
Nick ordered, “Lock down the elevators. I’m heading up the east stairwell.”
Josh broke in from where he kept eyes on them through the webcams. “Copy that. Elevators now inoperable.”
The only place they’d been forbidden to access was the roof since Warbucks’s men had said no.
Dingo swung back around and in the next second he took in the entire garden scene, mapping everyone’s position as if they were on an oval-shaped clock face.
Daddy Warbucks, Perdido and Fontana stood at the center of the clock, Dingo was at the six, Tanner closer to the celebrities with his three o’clock position, Ryder was at noon and was walking toward Blade who was ten feet off the raised stage.
Dingo rushed forward, but life often changed in a matter of seconds, as it did now.
Fontana and Perdido leaned toward Daddy Warbucks as if to hear a secret.
Blade could be heard ordering one of Warbuck’s bodyguards, “Your topside guard is gone. Get on that stage and–”
One of the in-house security guards near Tanner shouted, “Gun!” drawing everyone’s attention to the left where a guy was backing up with a weapon pointed at the stage.
A rifle report blasted at almost the same instant the back half of Fontana’s head exploded.
A second shot followed, taking down the guy waving the gun.
Nick cursed, “East entrance to the roof is locked.”
Dingo could hear Nick grunting as he slammed up against the door, then the pop of Nick shooting the lock.
Screaming and shouting erupted. People raced in all directions, unsure where to go for safety.
Bodyguards dove to protect the bodies they were still responsible for, but every Slye agent would be headed to their respective positions that had been assigned in case an attempt was made on Perdido.
Dingo raced for the doors to the hotel, catching sight of Tanner and Ryder moving to cover any escape route through the garden. Running ten steps behind Dingo, Blade had been assigned to cover the front entrance in case White Hawk picked up someone leaving that way and had to follow.
They all knew the layout of the hotel.
Nick continued, “I’m on the roof. One guard down. The other missing. West exit is unlocked but door blocked.”
Inside the marble and glass lobby, Dingo plowed through frantic guests crying and yelling, running in all directions. When he reached the stairs meant to be a fire exit, Dingo reported, “I’m at the west stairs, heading up.”
They all knew it was him since this was Dingo’s pre-assigned position.
Nick replied, “I’m backtracking to back you up.”
Dingo acknowledged Nick, then stopped to quiet his breathing before drawing his Sig and taking the steps, but nothing would slow the pace of his body mainlining adrenaline. He started upstairs quickly, treading silently with senses tuned to red alert as he sorted through what had already happened, planning for what might happen next. Stairwells like this were every agent’s nightmare place to get caught in a firefight.
The person behind this hit had used the gun in the crowd as a distraction to give his sniper an exit strategy.
One of Warbucks’s men had made the hit.
What was the exit strategy?
And why hadn’t Dingo seen the guy in the lobby first? The shooter was ahead of Nick coming down, and wouldn’t have risked the elevator, not with Warbucks’s men aware of the extra security. But they thought Nick and his team were here only to watch for a sta
lker.
On the second landing, a sharp metallic smell singed the air.
Blood.
As Dingo turned to step up, he saw a hand dangling at the landing of the midway point to level five. Moving faster, he did a visual sweep of the stairwell for threats, then came face to face with the dead eyes of a man dressed in the dark blue suit of Tinker’s security, and with a case that probably held a dismantled rifle.
A double tap to the head had killed him, but instead of being in the forehead, the two shots were through the eyes.
Dingo called out, “Body in west stairwell looks to be our shooter.”
Nick said, “Heading up those stairs now.”
Footsteps pounded up toward him now that there was no reason to be quiet. When Nick reached Dingo and the body, he frowned. “What the hell?”
Dingo stepped over the body to stand on the opposite side of the landing so they could both study the body and watch each other’s backs. “Have no idea, mate.” He noticed something odd on the dead man’s neck, and squatted down, using the muzzle of his Sig to turn the guy’s head, exposing a scarred marking. “He’s got that Orion Hunter tat.”
Nick crouched down. “What’s on his wrist?”
Dingo reached over and picked up the sleeved arm, easing it back to see something that should only be in his nightmares. He worked to keep his breathing steady and his voice even as he told Nick, “It’s a Satanic design wrapped around three letters.”
“What are the letters?”
“S. G. C.” Dingo swallowed then added, “That stands for Satan’s Garden Club.”
“Shit,” Nick murmured then raised his voice. “We thought the Orion Hunters were tracking information down on SGC to kick them out of Orion territory, like a gang war.”
“Nope.” Dingo stared at evidence that the two groups were working together.
Valene had been exposed to both groups.
Was she in danger? Or was she somehow connected to all this?
It was time to climb off the fence and choose a side.
Chapter 17
“Get my team out of there now, Barry!” Sabrina ordered her contact for this government clusterfuck-of-a job. “We had a deal. I send my people in undercover and you guaranteed me access. Fontana got hit and that might not have happened if my people had been on the roof. You assured me I could yank my agents out fast if I had to, well news flash–I need them. Now!”
“Give me a break, Sabrina. I had no control over Tinker’s guards. He’s got political friends in places you can’t imagine and they don’t want him crossed.”
“I don’t care. I’ve got a few friends of my own. Trust me when I say you won’t like which way shit rolls down hill if I’m pushed to call them. Get. My. Team. Released. My next call will be to someone who can do it, but it won’t be pretty.” She thumbed the end button on her cell phone as hard as she could.
It just didn’t have the same effect as slamming a receiver down on a landline phone.
She strode across the conference room in the basement of their safe house in LA and stood over Josh, who was monitoring the four video feeds from ... wait a minute. “What happened to number two camera at the event?”
“Lost it right before everything went down. I did everything I could to bring it up, so I’m thinking it’s a glitch in the camera itself.”
“Dingo’s cameras don’t have glitches,” she argued, but not with Josh. Just thinking out loud.
Sabrina’s cell phone buzzed. She looked at the caller ID on the display. “Be right back.”
Not waiting on him to reply, she walked across the conference room and entered the private office she used when on site then closed the door before answering. “Did you hear about the hit on Fontana?”
“I more than heard about it. I have something to show you and you’re going to have to make a choice about where you stand after you see it.”
Chapter 18
“You didn’t get the scroll, Perdido?” Rikker had waited for her to be dropped off at home before he inserted into the estate she’d built on her smoking looks, sex and manipulation.
The perfect mix for politics.
Her nostrils flared when she turned a black gaze on him. “I did what I could. Did you miss that I was almost killed tonight? One hair closer and it would have been me instead of Fontana. You tell your boss I am not pleased with any of this.”
Rikker could imagine the eye roll the General would give her in reply. And, just to be clear, the General was not Rikker’s boss, but since the General thought he held sway over Rikker, there was no reason to let him or this bitch think differently.
Not yet.
Making himself at home, he stepped over to her private bar and lifted a bottle of whiskey with his gloved hands, pouring two fingers into a crystal glass.
A bar in her bedroom? Was it too much trouble to walk to another room for a drink?
Guess so.
He turned to her, swishing the drink in his glass. “I’m here for the scroll. You made a deal. You haven’t delivered. That means my boss won’t fulfill his end either.”
“What?” She went into a tirade of cursing fluently in her native South American language. When the noise died down, she said, “What about the assassin?”
Rikker took a last sip of his drink and dropped a piece of paper on her bar. “He’ll come for you and he won’t miss this time. He’s your problem.”
“The General can’t leave me exposed like this.”
“Apparently he can, unless you want a dossier released on you to the press.”
That took the red rage out of her cheeks and washed the crazy from her eyes.
“Calm down. The General had a secondary plan in case you did not deliver. You have four days left to deliver the scroll. If not, the General has a way for you to make amends, but I’ve seen his makeup tests and I don’t think you’ll pass.”
She would do as told with no argument or it would be her last argument. Perdido was a narcissistic bitch who took care of número uno first.
He took her silence to mean they had an understanding.
Setting the glass down, he walked out.
Chapter 19
Dingo trudged behind Nick into the meeting room at the safe house where no one was happy. Least of all Dingo.
Sabrina had ordered him to return.
Ordered.
Dingo had texted back to say he might run a little behind, maybe an hour, which should have gotten him a “be careful and stay in touch,” not a curt reply that unless he could explain why he had to be late he was expected to return just like everyone else.
Yes, Sabrina led the teams and everyone needed to debrief after that goat rope security detail, but Dingo had wanted to follow Tinker’s entourage when he left.
And, to be honest, Dingo wanted to make sure Valene was okay. He hadn’t seen her when the shooting went down and just wanted a minute to be sure she got out of the interrogations and went straight home to sit tight until he got there.
Orion Hunters were involved.
So was Satan’s Garden Club.
All right here in LA. Coincidence? Not likely.
Valene had still been inside a private room at the hotel, being questioned when Sabrina sent out her get-the-hell-back-here-ASAP text. It hadn’t been those exact words, but the phone had practically steamed from that message.
Of course, if Sabrina had known Valene was on site, Sabrina would have gone from zero-to-pissed in seconds.
Or maybe that was the problem.
Sabrina had seen Valene on the video feeds.
If so, Sabrina would have made the leap that Dingo had wanted to stay to see Valene out of purely personal reasons.
Dingo paused next to Josh, who stood from where he’d been monitoring the video feeds from the event. He handed Josh two fingerprint samples he’d pulled off the killer and did a double take at video two. “Where’s the feed for number two?”
Josh said, “Lost it.”
“Before or a
fter the hit?”
“Right before.”
“Is that what has her jacked up?” Dingo asked, not needing to clarify that he meant Sabrina.
“Maybe. She’s got something crawling up her spine and won’t say.”
If she wouldn’t tell Josh then it probably didn’t have to do specifically with Dingo.
Everything is not all about you, dumbshit.
Dingo dropped onto a seat on the opposite side of the big conference table from the door, glad to sit down for a moment even if he hadn’t wanted to come back. The room smelled of frustrated agents who had been working for hours on end.
Sabrina stepped in from her adjoining suite and moved toward the head of the table.
She liked her privacy no matter where she was.
He understood. They’d been packed into bedrooms like tuna into cans as kids back at the orphanage. He and Josh were the same way. The three of them would hunker down in tight quarters for as long as it took if they were on a mission, but the minute they returned, everybody went to whatever they called home.
For Dingo, that was a company apartment since he kept nothing more than the few changes of clothes he could fit in a small duffel, which allowed him to use any place for home.
Sabrina’s gaze slid over to Ryder as he found a chair on Dingo’s left, then it skipped Dingo completely and jumped to Josh, who took a spot at the end of the table on Dingo’s right. That must have suited her because she glanced over to Tanner sitting across from Dingo, Nick who was standing up, then Blade and White Hawk sitting between Tanner and Sabrina.
But she’d avoided any eye contact with Dingo.
Maybe he’d been right all along about what had her on edge. Either way, he was going to have a talk with her after this.
Just the two of them.
But Sabrina had to let him deal with his own life. She thought she could save him from himself, keep him from making another mistake with Valene, but she had it wrong.
Dingo still believed Valene had done nothing wrong beyond being too enthusiastic when it came to life in general.
If not for the danger it put her in, he loved that about her. But now she might have put herself in trouble by her association with Charlie, and Dingo had to get her out of it. Once he did, he’d have to thank Sabrina for alerting him to Charlie. Then he’d remind her that the end does not always justify the means.