by KD Jones
Isaac looked up at her. “Felix okay?”
“Yeah, the detectives are taking him to some safehouse that only they know of. I exchanged numbers with them so I can let them know when we have the mercs under control. Do we have any ideas on how we’re going to subdue these mercs?”
Kalen rubbed his chin. “We’ve been talking. Felix would have drawn the guys out. Since we don’t have Felix to use anymore, though, we’ll have to have someone pretend to be him.” Everyone turned to look at Isaac.
Isaac put up his hands. “Hold on now, I didn’t volunteer to be bait.”
Jade approached him smiling. “Come on, you always complain that we don’t let you participate more in all the action. This is your chance.” She took his arm and led him to the bathroom. “We’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Elsa could hear Isaac cursing up a storm. She glanced over at Kalen. “Do you think this will work?”
“We’ll pick the location and set up traps. It will work,” Kalen assured her before picking up his phone and calling the lawyer that had hired them.
Elsa went to the window and looked out at the shuttles passing and pedestrians on the sidewalk. Blade came over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “This plan will work.”
“I hope so. We’re putting a lot of stock in being able to trap the mercs. We don’t even have a count of how many there are out there.”
“Your guy is safe, and that’s the most important thing right now. We’ll get most of these mercs neutralized, and then after your guy testifies, the rest of them will quit their mission.”
“Do you think it’s that easy? Someone wants Felix dead.”
“I looked over the records and Kalen told us what he suspects.”
“What did you find?”
“Isaac pulled up the details on Felix’s estate. The bulk of it is already set to go to charity, but the life insurance policies for both Felix and his wife only have one beneficiary.”
“The cousin?”
“Yeah. One Roger Theodore Roberts is the sole beneficiary to both policies.”
“Is that enough proof?”
“We need a dead body and or a witness that Roger committed the crime.”
“Felix told me that what made him finally ask for a divorce was finding his wife having an affair with someone.”
“Did he know who the person was that she was having the affair with?”
“He didn’t get a good look at the man.”
Kalen came over to the window. Evidently he had been listening to their conversation. “What if the wife isn’t dead? Roger and the wife could be in this together to get the money.”
“Roger is broke, so he definitely needs the money,” Elsa added.
“We need to find Roger,” Blade commented.
“I can try to locate him,” Isaac said, stepping out of the bathroom.
Everyone turned and stood there silently in shock. Isaac’s normally curly brown hair had been cut very short and trim against his scalp like Felix’s and his beard had been shaved, exposing his face fully. As long as his head was tilted down, he could definitely pass for Felix. Her friends were all risking their lives to help keep Felix safe.
“Thanks for doing this,” Elsa said, and felt all sorts of inconvenient emotions well up inside of her. She pushed them down; now was definitely not the time.
“It’s our job.” Isaac shrugged.
She cleared her throat. “When and where are we setting the trap?”
“Tomorrow morning. I told the lawyer we would be bringing Felix to the authority first thing in the morning. I also told him that we would be coming via the east side.”
“So, we go in via the west instead?”
“First we’ll make sure that we have traps laid out. You and Jade will bring Isaac in the shuttle while Blade and I provide cover from a distance.”
“I don’t understand why we can’t get the authority more involved,” Jade said, leaning against the doorframe of the bathroom.
“Every time the authority has been called about Felix, attempts were made on his life. There is clearly someone in the authority feeding the mercs or the lawyer information on Felix’s whereabouts.”
Blade grunted in displeasure. “This is getting more complicated. We have a seedy lawyer, an army of mercenaries, and traitors inside the authority. I hate to say it, but we may be in over our heads on this one.”
“I agree,” Isaac said.
Elsa bit her lip. “I may be able to get us backup.”
“How?”
“My ex, Captain Ben Tripp, is in a special forces unit. They deal with mercs all the time.”
“How badly did you end things with him?”
“We’re still on friendly terms. We just didn’t work out.”
“What if he can’t get here in time?” Jade asked.
“Then we’re on our own.” She took her phone out and called the number to her ex Ben. He answered on the second ring.
“Elsa, love, how are you?”
“I need your help.”
His tone changed immediately. “Tell me what’s going on.”
She laid everything out for Ben, who listened carefully and asked good questions. The only thing she left out were her feelings for Felix, since they weren’t relevant at the moment. She got off the phone and found the others watching her intently.
“Ben’s team will be here in a few hours.”
“How many are coming?”
“Eight of them.”
Kalen looked slightly pleased. He turned to Isaac. “We need to go over the location and the traps that need to be placed.”
Elsa volunteered to watch the drone monitors while Isaac told the others how the traps should be spread out. She saw heat signatures moving and assumed those were the mercs. There had to be at least ten red dots on the screen, but she knew that wasn’t all of the mercs. Would eight more people be enough to stop this force? She hoped so.
“Alright, everyone, let’s try to get an hour of sleep. Then we’ll set up the traps while waiting for our backup to arrive,” Kalen ordered.
No one argued with him. Elsa could see how tired they all were. She would have given up her bed but Blade insisted that and Jade share it. Isaac slept on the sofa, Blade slept on Kalen’s bed, and Kalen pulled up a chair in front of the monitors.
She closed her eyes and wondered what Felix was doing.
Chapter 14
“Do you have any fives?”
“No.”
Felix glared at the two men sitting at the small table in the kitchen of the cabin. “With everything going on right now, I can’t believe the two of you are sitting there calmly playing cards.”
The younger of the two men, Officer Johnson, just shrugged. “This is just another day for us. We handle protective custody in our dreams.”
The older man didn’t make any expression at all. His name was Detective Ryan and he was the friend of Elsa’s boss. Other than questioning him about the events leading up to Bridgette’s supposed death, which had taken about an hour, he hadn’t said much else.
Felix had been pacing back and forth, staring out the window, jumping every time someone else’s phone beeped with messages. Disappointment filled him every time it wasn’t Elsa or someone from her team calling to check in.
“What’s taking so long?”
“They have to wait for their backup. There’s nothing else we can do but wait.”
“I feel like I should be doing something.”
Detective Ryan sat back in his chair and glared at Felix. “We’re with the authority. It’s our job to catch criminals. It goes against everything in me to sit back and let someone else risk their lives. When Vic told me that he suspected that someone in the authority was leaking information, I didn’t want to believe him, but after listening to your testimony, I have to agree. This leak is a major betrayal. I want to hunt the person down and make sure that they pay from what they’ve done. Yet here I am, babysitting you.”
; “Sorry, I’m just worried.”
“About your lady bounty hunter?” Office Johnson prompted. “She was definitely hot.”
“Don’t talk about her like that,” Felix warned him.
The officer sat up straighter, daring Felix. “What are you going to do about it, Doc?”
Tension filled the air as the two men looked each other down. Detective Ryan slammed his fist on the table, making the cards bounce. “Leave him alone, Johnson.”
“Fine. I’m going outside to check the perimeter.” Johnson stood up and stomped out of the cabin.
“Take a seat, Doc, I’ll text Kalen to see how things are going.”
Felix would have refused to sit but the last part got his attention. He took Johnson’s spot and sat down.
Detective Ryan pulled out his phone and typed slowly. God, the man was torturing him with how slowly he was typing each key. In this day and age, surely the man should have been able to do that blindfolded.
“Well?”
“What?” Detective Ryan asked him with confusion.
“Did Kalen respond back?”
“No need for him to respond back.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I need you to remain calm. Can you do that?”
Felix felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “What…”
“I noticed that Officer Johnson was using his phone a lot. Every time he got up to go to the bathroom or do a perimeter check, he would always take his phone.”
“A lot of people keep their phones on hand.”
“I read his messages, at least the last few.”
“How did you do that? You sat across from him.”
“The reflection off his glasses was pretty strong. I have enhanced vision.”
“So is Johnson the leak?”
“Yes, I believe he is.”
“Should we confront him?”
“Not right now. Right now we need to prepare.”
“Prepare for what?”
“The mercs will be coming here for you.”
He felt all the blood drain from his face. His heart started racing. Lowering his voice, he asked, “What do we do?”
“We need to lock all the doors and windows without drawing Johnson’s attention, so let’s do that quickly. Then I want you to head upstairs and find a place hide.”
They both stood up and started to lock the windows and doors. “Go,” Detective Ryan told him.
“I can’t leave you down here to take on those mercs by yourself. Give me a gun.”
Ryan shook his head. “I don’t take you for someone with a lot of experience with a gun.”
“How hard can it be? You point and shoot.”
Ryan growled. “And that attitude right there is exactly why you’re not getting a gun. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it can just as easily be taken from you and used against you. Go upstairs, find a place to hide, and don’t come out until help arrives.
“You messaged for help?”
“Yes, right before the signal out here died.”
“You think he sabotaged the signal?”
“I do. It happened during his last perimeter check, too.”
Felix headed for the stairs not like this whole thing. “Come upstairs with me.”
Detective Ryan shook his head. “No, I’m going to do what I can to stall them. Hurry, I hear him coming back. Once he knows I’m onto him, it’s going to get ugly.”
Felix reluctantly headed upstairs. There had to be something he could do to help Detective Ryan. Maybe the best thing would be for him to stay out of the way. If he tried to help, he could distract the older man and do more harm than good. He wasn’t a fighter, but damn if he was going to sit back and do nothing.
*****
Elsa paced in front of the bench where Isaac was sitting with his shoulders hunched over next to Blade. They were at a park not far from the nearest authority station. Where were the mercs?
“Elsa, you’re making me nervous,” Isaac muttered in a low voice.
She touched her earpiece communicator. “Kalen, do you see anything?”
Kalen, Jade, Ben, and his team of eight had the place surrounded. The lawyer had been called from a phone they allowed to be tracked. The plan was to sit in the park across the street and draw the mercs to them. Unfortunately, nothing was happening, and it was driving Elsa crazy with worry.
“That’s a negative. No unusual movement at all. Ben sent a couple of his guys to the authority station to see if anyone was lingering inside the building. They reported nothing unusual.”
A slowly building feeling of uneasiness filled Elsa. This wasn’t right. The mercs had been like hunting dogs, sniffing all the nearby buildings looking for Felix. Now that he was supposedly out in the open, they were nowhere to be found. It didn’t add up.
“Something’s wrong,” she whispered.
“What?” Isaac asked lifting his head up to look at her.
“Kalen…”
“Damn, just got a text from Vic. His detective friend just put out a mayday text from the safe house. Ben, call your men back, we need to get to the safe house!”
Elsa, normally so cool and calm, tripped over her own feet and would have fallen if not for Isaac suddenly being there to catch her.
“We’ll get there in time. Your friend Ben has a helicopter waiting.”
“What if...what if we don’t get to him in time. He could die.” Elsa felt real fear for Felix. Somewhere along the line, she had stopped thinking of him as a perp and begun thinking of him as someone she could really care about. It wasn’t just their circumstances causing an adrenaline-fueled attraction, either. She had experienced many dangerous situations and never developed feelings for those she worked with. She didn’t understand it entirely yet, but she wanted the chance to explore it.
Kalen came back on the group comm line. “Everyone to the east side of the park. Ben is having the helicopter pick us up from there. The rest of his men are taking a second helicopter just a few minutes behind us.”
She said a silent prayer. God, please let Felix be okay.
Chapter 15
Felix could hear gunshots and shouting. Then something crashed downstairs. He looked around the bedroom for anything he could use as a weapon. There wasn’t much to work with. He pulled a drawer out of the top of the dresser just as the bedroom door swung open. Swinging the drawer at the hand pointing a gun at him, he knocked the gun out of the man’s hand. Then he swung again, hitting the guy in the side of the head. The man fell to the ground. Felix couldn’t stop himself from kneeling and checking for a pulse. Alive, thank God.
He leaned over and snatched up the fallen gun, throwing aside the broken remains of the drawer. Moving forward, he peeked out into the hallway. No one was there. Sounds of gunfire being exchanged downstairs let him know that Detective Ryan was still alive. Glancing around, he spotted a broken window, which the unconscious man must have used to get in. Cautiously, he moved closer to the window, intending to peer out and see what was going on. Just then, a shadow appeared on the other side of the frame, right before diving inside. Holy shit!
Jumping back, he forgot for a moment that he had a gun in his hands. The man, dressed all in black, stood up, and when he spotted Felix, started to reach for his weapon. Belatedly, Felix raised his own gun, even though his hands were trembling, and pointed it at the other man. He didn’t want to kill anybody, but he would defend himself. Taking a deep breath, he started to squeeze the trigger, but something knocked into him, forcing him to the floor.
“Stay down, Doc!”
He knew that voice. The body that had landed on top of him was Isaac. Another blur jumped over both of them and attacked the merc that had come through the window. It took him a second to realize it was Elsa and she was kicking the big guy’s ass.
“Get him to a safe location now!” Elsa yelled, not even looking over at him.
He felt Isaac’s hand on his arm dragging him to his feet. “No, we
have to help Elsa!”
“You’ll only distract her, man. Come on, let’s find somewhere to bunker down.”
It sounded like a war had broken out downstairs. “What’s happening?”
“We’ve gotten some help from Elsa’s ex and his military buddies.” Isaac took him through the master bedroom toward the bathroom. He opened the door to check it out. “Good, there’s no window. Get into the tub and stay there.”
“No way! I’m not hiding in the bathroom while everyone else is taking chances. I may not be a fighter, but I’m not a coward.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“You don’t seem like a hand-to-hand combat type of person, Doc. Do you have a weapon?” Isaac asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
Felix looked down at his empty hands. He must have dropped it when Isaac tackled him. Damn it! “Give me one of your guns.”
“Do you even know how to fire one?”
“I can figure it out.”
“Look, you with a weapon would be just as dangerous as you without one. I’ll be watching the bedroom door.”
“This is ridiculous,” Felix grumbled. Isaac was a computer geek protecting a doctor. At least Isaac had some training in how to fight. All Felix had was some self defense courses. Looking around the bathroom, he tried to identify another possible weapon. A hair brush, bottle of shampoo...nothing else.
The door to the bedroom crashed open and two men came in. Isaac moved to block the doorway. “Close and lock it, Felix.”
He was not going to let Isaac face two men while he locked himself in the bathroom. Moving forward, he stood next to Isaac, who growled in irritation. He reluctantly handed a stun gun over to him.
That was good. Felix had no problem shocking the hell out of someone. Now he just had to figure out how to get close enough that the little shocker pins would connect with the bad guys.
“Get out of our way and hand over the doctor. We might let you live.”
Isaac laughed. “Not going to happen.”
Felix wanted to glare at Isaac’s laid-back response. Also, where the hell was Isaac’s gun? He wasn’t the only one to notice Isaac didn’t have a weapon. The two men looked at Isaac, then at each other, and smiled.