“Bullshit, Ethan. You knew the minute you brought me here you were signing my death warrant.”
Wincing, he started to speak again but Abdul bit out, “Get out of here, alkalb la qimatan laha.” With a parting grimace toward Dani, Ethan walked out of the house, jogging to her jeep, her keys in his hand.”
“Sit,” ordered Abdul.
Eyeing him defiantly, she watched as he pulled out a long, curved knife. “Have you ever seen what a janbiya can do? Slicing off the skin of an infidel would be nothing to me.”
Licking her lips as her chest heaved while she sucked in air, she dutifully sat down in the hard-backed chair. Abdul slipped behind her, securing her tightly with tape.
Oh, Jesus help me. Somehow let Chad find out where to find me. She watched in horror as Abdul began placing plastic bags of white powder in her lap and taping them to her as well. Glancing down, she noticed the pendant. The tracer! I forgot the tracer. Chad will know where I am…if he realizes I’m gone in time to look for me.”
“Do you know what this is?” Abdul asked.
“TATP,” she replied, her voice barely above a whisper.
Chuckling, he said, “Yes. But it has another name…one that I am particularly fond of. It is called the Mother of Satan.”
Chapter 29
“So the goddamn ATF and FBI have an undercover sting operation going and have the balls to ask us to help investigate without putting us in the know?” Jude bit out.
“It sucks, but having been undercover before, you gotta keep a lid on it,” Cam explained, although his face had the same irritated expression as his fellow Saints.
“So what about the recruits we investigated?” Bart asked.
“According to Roscoe, everything we’ve done was legit. It was only the undercover agents that we did not know about. They could not obtain the detonation info that we got, so your efforts were necessary,” Mitch replied.
“And our investigations into the materials they’re using,” Blaise growled. “Fuckin’ hell, did we do it all?”
Jack looked around the table at his men, all angry, and in his opinion, rightfully so. Before he could speak, Mitch looked off screen. “Guys, hang on. Roscoe knows that I’m telling you and he’s come to the FBI regional office. Let me get him up here.”
A minute later and with some minor jostling of the conference cameras, Roscoe appeared alongside Mitch.
“Gentlemen, I understand that you’re pissed, but we have no time to go into the intricacies of undercover work. Right now, we’ve got a bigger problem on our hands. We’ve located the local cell’s house that has been busy with TATP. We’ve been watching them, wanting to find out what they’re doing. We’ve got someone on the inside. He’s sent a signal that something’s up. He can’t tell us and we’ve got no fuckin’ idea right now.”
“You’ve got a man there and don’t have cameras or audio on the inside?” Marc asked, throwing his hands up in irritation.
Roscoe grimaced, replying, “They move around and for fuck’s sake, they’re not stupid! They’ve got ways to detect recording devices. These terrorists have money…organization…and determination. It’s been a two-year process to place a man on the inside.”
“So all you can tell us right now is that your agent at that house says it’s been compromised? What does that mean?” Blaise asked.
“We don’t know. We’ve got visual that a man and woman went inside and the man was the only one to come out so far. I assume they’ll be on the move soon. But with the TATP inside, we can’t just send someone in.”
“This is one of the reasons I had to leave the agency,” Chad said under his breath to Monty, sitting next to him. “Too many cock-ups.”
“Tell me about it,” Monty agreed. “FBI was the same way. The fuckin’ right hand had no clue what the left hand was doing.”
“Fazan Darzi is your man inside, right?” Luke asked.
Roscoe looked shocked for a second, then covered it well. “What makes you say that?”
Mitch jumped in. “I told them!”
“If Jahfar isn’t working with the terrorists and the only person we know him to have had communication with is Fazan, then it stands to reason they work together,” Luke added.
Roscoe, tight-lipped, nodded. “Yes, Fazan is our man inside and as soon as he can, he’ll report in and let us know what’s going on.”
Roscoe stopped talking as he took a call, his face changing as he listened. Disconnecting, he looked straight into the camera and said, “Chad—a jeep registered to Danielle Turner was seen at the house we have under surveillance. She was positively identified as going in, but not coming out. The person leaving in her vehicle was Ethan Petit of MES.”
Chad stood quickly, his chair tipping back, slamming onto the floor. “They’ve got Dani?”
“I’m sorry, but it appears so—”
Mitch interrupted, saying, “Jack, my office is on it. We’re going to coordinate with ATF to get there.”
“Fuck that!” Chad roared. “ATF’s fucked this whole thing up and now those bastards have Dani in a house with fuckin’ explosives.”
Roscoe said, “You don’t know where to go and I’m not giving you that information.”
“Don’t need it, asshole,” Chad said. Turning to Luke, he barked, “Pull her up on your monitor. She’s got a chip in her necklace.”
The other Saints stood in solidarity. Jack looked at Mitch and said, “My guys will be there…you can count on that.”
“You cannot go charging in,” Roscoe pleaded. “I’ll have bomb squad members at the location. Everything’s going to have to be played by the book, or these bastards’ll get away.”
Slamming his hand down on the table, Chad roared, “I don’t give a fuck about them right now. I’m going in to get Dani.”
“If you’re not careful, you’ll end up just like your former partner. Adam wouldn’t listen either.”
With those words, the silence in the room entombed them. Chad’s mind blanked for a moment as he tried to reconcile what Roscoe’s words meant. “You…Adam? What the fuck did you mean by that?”
Mitch was looking at Roscoe, his face mirroring the Saints’ disbelief. Roscoe growled, “We don’t have time for this!”
“What did you mean?” Chad asked, with deadly calm.
“Adam came across evidence after he jokingly set up a fake account on a dating site. He came to me. We used him to keep an undercover profile to find out what he could. He dug. Deep. Then he became afraid that Muhammad Hakim was on to him and he didn’t want anything to blow back on his wife. He backed off with us, but he still kept notes—that he did not turn in to me. They must have figured out he knew something and eliminated him when he walked into a trap.”
“He was a hero and you let his wife think he was working with terrorists? You goddamn fucker!”
Mitch, interrupting the escalating argument, said, “Get to the location and we’ll meet you there.”
Signing off, Jack nodded to the Saints. “Men, suit up. Luke, let’s get the van ready.”
Chad stood for a moment, his legs refusing to carry him anywhere. Feeling a hand on his shoulder, he turned. Marc stood behind him, his sympathetic expression hitting Chad in the gut.
“Let’s go, man. Let’s get your girls.”
Girls…Dani and the baby. Hell yeah, I’m going to get my girls, Chad vowed, his face set in anger.
*
Dani sat perfectly still as the duct tape wrapped around her ankles and knees. With her hands taped behind her, she was afraid to move with the TATP in her lap. Her chest heaved as her breaths came in pants, but she forced herself to slow her breathing in order to keep her movements to a minimum.
Abdul finished and smiled down at her. “Good, good. Stay very still, woman, while we finish what we need to do.” He stood, then looked back down and smiled. “It’s fitting, you know. You will die the same way your husband did. He tried to be a hero and look where it got him.”
She lifte
d her gaze, piercing him with her hate. “Adam? What about Adam?”
“He tried to find out what we were doing. Tried to play at being undercover. He wasn’t very good at it and paid the ultimate price.”
“Adam…was—”
He interrupted her as he walked out of the room and out of her sight.
Adam? Adam was a hero? Not a…
A trickle of sweat slid down the side of her face as she looked around, desperate for anything to use. Nothing. Oh, my God…I’m going to die here.
One of the other men came back into the room, picking up a box near her. As he leaned over, he whispered so softly, she almost was not sure she heard him. “I’m trying to help.”
Her eyes darted over to him, watching the expression on his face. He mouthed, ATF. Eyes widening, her chest heaved again before she reminded herself to stay calm. Glancing down at the explosives in her lap, she bit the inside of her cheek to still the trembling.
Mohammad walked back into the room, his dark eyes sharply assessing. “Leave her,” he ordered to Fazan. “Go help the others and then take the van to the next location.”
“I can stay here, if you like,” Fazan offered. “I’ll make the sacrifice and stay here to make sure everything goes as planned.”
Mohammad eyed him for a long minute, then a slow smile spread across his face. “You seem taken with the woman.”
“No, I just thought—”
“Your job is not to think. Your job is to follow orders.”
Fazan nodded as he stood, flashing a look of regret Dani’s way. He walked out of the room slowly as her mind scrambled for a new hope.
*
By the time the Saints arrived at the entrance to the subdivision, their way was blocked. The ATF and FBI had cordoned off the area. Roscoe met them as they charged toward him.
“Got the residents out of the house next door and my guys are still in the other house at the end of the cul-de-sac. That’s how we knew what was going on. She’s still inside, but it looks like they are on the move. We hope to detain them as they leave without letting them tip off one of their remote incendiary devices.”
“They go to another house, they’ll blow this one or set it up to blow,” Chad said. He looked over to one of his former ATF buddies that was suiting up. Walking to him, he asked, “What are your orders?”
“Get in close. Send in the robot, see what we can find out. If there’s a hostage inside, we’ve got to then work on eliminating the risk first.” The man looked at him in curiosity before asking, “What’s got you here?”
“There is a hostage inside…my woman…carrying my baby,” he managed to choke out.
“Damn, I’m sorry, man.” Looking around, he said, “I’ll keep you informed.”
“You won’t have to,” Chad added. “I’ll be inside before you can make it that far.”
The agent’s eyes were wide as he shook his head, but Chad had already turned and walked away. The Saints moved away from the crowd of ATF agents and were huddled by their van. Luke was on the inside with his bank of monitors and computers.
“What’s the plan?” Jack asked Chad, turning the mission over to him.
“I’m circling around and checking it out from behind. I’m going in when we’ve determined there are no outside triggers.” He noted the incredulous expressions, then explained. “If she goes, then I go too. Either we both get out or we both die…but I’m not living without her.”
He felt Marc’s hand on his shoulder, squeezing the emotion when words would not suffice. “We got your back, man. Tell us what you need.”
“If the task force is going to wait here to grab whoever comes out, then let me know what they say. I’m heading to the back of the property.” He already had his earpiece in and his Kevlar on. Securing his weapons in his holsters, he looked up, seeing Marc and Blaise doing the same. He did not need to ask. They were going too.
“Luke, when we move in close and determine if there are no outside trip wires, I’ll snake in the camera. You monitor it from here and let me know what you see.”
The three men eyed the others before jogging down the road in the opposite direction. Roscoe saw them leave and marched over to Jack. Glancing into the fully equipped van, he halted for a moment before turning on the Saints.
“You cannot interfere with my operation,” he barked. “Chad’s a civilian now and not part of this.”
“Got a private citizen going after his woman. Don’t see that you’re gonna stop him,” Jack growled back.
Roscoe’s tirade was interrupted when the call came through that a van and an SUV had left the house. He turned and continued barking orders to his men. As the two vehicles came into sight, they were rushed by the combined task force agents. The two vehicles were surrounded with guns pointing directly to them.
Jude, Bart, and Cam took the opportunity to follow Chad’s group that had now circled to the back of the house, to provide support and continued intel.
Jack and Monty headed over to the halted convoy, watching as the men were hauled out. Mohammad’s face was stone as one of the men in the van held a weapon against his head. That man yelled to Roscoe, “I’ve got his phone! He can’t call in the detonation, but the hostage is inside.”
The agents rushed to secure Mohammad, Abdul, Habib, and the two others with them. Fazan stepped outside, chest heaving as he looked at Roscoe. “I tried to get her out, but couldn’t. She’s taped to a chair in the front room. TATP is taped to her lap. There are no outside trips. Nothing in the house but her.”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Jack relayed the intel to Chad and the other Saints.
Mohammad glared at Fazan, saying, “You whoreson traitor. You’re worse than the ones we fight. You were one of us.”
Fazan walked up to the man, now in handcuffs. “I was never one of you.” Turning, he walked away.
Jack and Monty, done with the events outside the house, ran to the van, pulling themselves in. Driving around the barricade while the agents were busy with their arrests and processing, they stopped three houses away from where the other Saints were approaching.
Chad, armed with the information from Fazan, approached the house. Carefully stepping onto the front porch, he peered into the window, his heart stopping at the sight. Dani was not just taped, but almost mummified to a chair with duct tape. A lump was in her lap, taped to her as well.
“Dani!” he yelled, “Don’t move. Stay very still. I’m coming in the front door.”
Dani’s teary eyes jumped to the window, stunned to see Chad standing so close. Still processing his appearance, she heard the front door lock jiggling. The doorknob turned and she saw Marc swinging the door open gently.
Suddenly, Chad was in front of her. His large body, bulked with the Kevlar vest, filled the doorframe. Her gazed jumped to the window where she saw ATF agents in full ABS gear in the yard.
“Why aren’t you suited? Why are you here?” she whispered as he approached her. “Please don’t sacrifice yourself for me.”
Squatting in front of her, his eyes captured hers. “Nowhere else I’d rather be than with you…in this world…or another.” He watched as her chin quivered, a silent tear sliding down her cheek. “But don’t worry, babe. We’ll be together in this world for a long time.”
Luke, busy in the van, spoke to the other Saints. “He’s gonna need oil…something like WD-40.” Cam ran to the neighbor’s abandoned house and broke into their garage. Coming out, he brought two bottles of oil, hustling them over to Marc, who met him at the bottom of the porch steps.
“Babe, I want you to keep your eyes on me,” Chad ordered gently. “I’m going to cut away the tape from your body as best as I can. Then I’ll work on the package taped to you. Do you know what it is exactly?”
“I’m sure it’s TATP,” she whispered. “They left, but one of them was—”
“We know. The task force captured them and it was Fazan who was on the inside as undercover.”
“Ethan
Petit brought me here—”
“They’re picking him up too, babe. Now shush and let me work.”
Dani sucked in her lips, continuing to still their quivering. Her eyes roved over the man squatting in front of her. His dark hair, mussed from his hands moving through it. His face, masculine and youthful, now a study in concentration. Focusing on him, she remembered the first time she saw him when he and Adam walked over. The first time she knew she had fallen for him. Burying the old hurt of his leaving and the many mistakes she made after that, she forced her thoughts back to when he showed up at Adam’s funeral…holding her hand during the service. My hand in his always felt like…home.
Chad focused all his attention on the careful slicing of his knife through the tape. First around her ankles, then pants. Thank God she’s wearing pants or the tape would be attached to her bare legs. He left her thighs for the moment, not wanting to jostle the package in her lap. He moved to the back of the chair, swiping the back of his hand over the sweat dropping off his brow. Slicing the tape at the back of the chair, she was now free of the seat, although he ordered her to stay as still as if she were still taped to it.
Squatting in front of her again, he held her gaze. “You know I need to get oil onto the TATP to stabilize it as much as possible. As soon as I can do that, I’m getting you out of here and the ATF can take care of the house. Got that?”
A barely perceptible nod was his answer.
“Okay, tell me how they taped the explosive.”
Forcing her mind back to her former agent days, Dani meticulously divulged the steps. “They taped me first then taped the TATP to my lap. It’s in a plastic bag, laid on my taped lap with tape put over it.”
“Good, good. That’s the first break we’ve got. That means that if I can get the tape off of you, then the package comes off with it. The trick will be to move slowly.”
He stood and moved to the door where Marc handed him the oil. Looking at the road full of emergency vehicles he cast his eyes to the ATF agent in full ABS gear.
The agent walked to the porch, standing at the bottom of the steps. He called to Marc, saying, “Let me take your place, man. I can be of more help to Chad right now.”
Sacrifice Love: Saints Protection & Investigations Page 25