“Okay,” Alisha said, heading for the staircase. “I’ll start packing up our things.”
* * *
Two hours later, they were in a two-bedroom apartment in downtown Seattle. The location wasn’t nearly as peaceful and perfect as the house had been, but it was safer and that was the most important thing.
Alisha had stayed rather quiet since they’d left the house, not because she didn’t have things to say, but because she was exhausted and entirely torn up by guilt. If she hadn’t been arguing with Simon, maybe they’d have heard the intruders earlier. Maybe she could have stopped all the mess tonight before it had even started. Maybe…
“Alisha, feel free to make yourself comfortable here,” Rick said, his smile genuine. He seemed like a nice guy, late thirties, shorter than Simon, with blond hair and blue eyes. Typical all-American golden boy type. He and Simon had gone off together to talk shortly after they’d arrived, leaving her with Amy to get the baby changed and fed and down for the night. Usually Alisha would have balked at being forced into what was seen by some as a sexist role of childcare provider, but for some reason, tonight she found the routine comforting. She didn’t even worry about doing something wrong with Amy. She just did it, like it was natural. Maybe some good would come out of all this running and hiding after all.
“There we go, baby girl,” she said, putting Amy over her shoulder after she’d finished her bottle. “Let’s get you burped, huh? Yes, let’s do that.”
While the guys continued to huddle around Rick’s laptop at the kitchen table, Alisha wandered around the apartment, hoping to get Amy to sleep so she could put her down for the night. Walking usually did the trick. While she paced, she picked up titbits of their conversation as they discussed traffic cam footage. Apparently they’d been able to use the footage to track the car the attackers had driven, though she didn’t know the exact address yet. That was good. Then images of those thugs with their hands on Amy, carrying her down that ladder outside, was enough to make her blood freeze. If anything had happened to the baby, Alisha wouldn’t have been able to live with herself. If…
“Hey,” Simon said, catching up to her somewhere around the door to the second bedroom where they’d be sleeping tonight. “Everything okay?”
She’d been so lost in thought, she hadn’t even heard him come up beside her. “Uh, yeah. Fine. Just trying to get Amy to fall asleep.”
“Well, it looks like you succeeded.” Simon cocked his head toward the slumbering baby in her arms. “And it also looks like you’re about ready to drop where you stand.”
Alisha opened her mouth to deny it, but what was the point? Simon was right. She was beat. “Yeah. I think I’ll go bed too, if that’s all right.”
“Sure.” He followed her into the bedroom and closed the door behind them. “Rick and I are done for tonight too, so I’ll join you.” He slid off his jacket, wincing as he pulled his right side where he’d been punched. “We found the location where the thugs’ vehicle stopped tonight. Rick’s going to do some more checking and see if he can verify if the place is just a drop-off point or whether they’re actually staying there. If it turns out to be the headquarters, as I suspect, we might be able to stage a raid tomorrow some time.”
“Great,” she said, carefully placing Amy into the car seat. It would have to do as a bed for her for the night. For her part, baby Amy didn’t seem to mind, not stirring at all once Alisha got her down for the night. Poor thing was as worn out as the two of them after her ordeal, most likely. An unexpected sting of tears had Alisha blinking hard. She didn’t cry. Never. Except tonight that seemed all she wanted to do. This was all her fault.
Simon seemed to sense her inner turmoil and was by her side in a second, slipping his arms around her and drawing her close to his warm, hard chest. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe now. We’re okay. It’s all going to be okay.”
“How?” she said, mortified by her weakness but unable to stop herself from clinging to him anyway. “How is this going to be okay? Amy was almost taken. If she hadn’t cried out…would we have even noticed what was going on? She was almost lost, and if they’d gotten her, it would have been all my fault.”
“Your fault?” he murmured against the top of her head. “No way. It’s mine. I should’ve anticipated their attack and prepared better. It’s what I’m trained to do.”
“But we were arguing,” she countered, burying her face against his chest so her words were muffled. “If we hadn’t been arguing, you’d have heard them sooner and—”
“C’mon.” He gave her a tiny shake so she’d look up at him. His dark eyes were solemn. “Listen to me. First off, we were both arguing. And second, playing the blame game now does no good. What happened, happened. The best thing we can do now is plan for the future.”
He was right, darn it. And what was worse—standing here in his arms felt better than anything had all day. She sighed and relaxed against him, her old fears rearing their ugly heads again. “What if this is another sign that I’m not cut out to be a mother, Simon? What if I decide to keep the baby but then I make bad choices? You can’t do that with a baby.”
Simon’s low chuckle rumbled beneath her ear and he squeezed her tighter to him. “That’s why we’d have to do this as a team. When one of us did something stupid or crazy, the other would be there to balance it out. No one’s perfect. We’re all just doing the best we can here. The fact that you’re thinking about this and worrying about it right there tells me you’ll be a great mother, Alisha.”
She wasn’t completely convinced, but her brain was too tired to think about it anymore. Alisha raised her head and kissed him gently on the lips. “Thank you for saying that.”
“I meant it,” he said, kissing her back, deepening things a little until the ever-present spark between them flared to life before he pulled away. “Much as I’d like to make love to you again tonight, Doctor Cho said we should take it easy for a few days. Besides, Rick’s right on the other side of that wall and it would be weird, so…”
Alisha laughed softly and smacked his chest. Things were still unsettled, but they were better than they had been before. Plus, if they could track the attackers to a location, it might show them where Thomas Warren was being held. If so, justice could be coming sooner than she’d hoped. Right now, though, all she wanted was to be clean and then to climb between the sheets of the bed beckoning her like a siren. “I’m way too tired to anyway. Not to mention I need a shower. So yeah, you, sir, are getting none tonight.” She rummaged around in the bag she’d brought and pulled out her PJs. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m heading to the bathroom to tidy up and change, and then we can hit the sack.”
Nineteen
The next morning the trio sat in Rick’s SUV parked in a small alleyway across from an abandoned warehouse in the South Park neighbourhood of Seattle. The air smelled musty from the nearby Duwamish River and graffiti covered the walls everywhere, neon bright colours in sharp contrast to the overcast day.
Simon shifted slightly in his seat in the front next to Rick to peer at Alisha in the back. He’d wanted her to stay back at the apartment, but if she’d stayed there, Rick would have stayed with her to make sure she was protected—and Alisha hadn’t liked that idea one bit. She’d agreed that she wouldn’t get involved in the fight, but she’d wanted to be there just in case. If things went bad, she’d be able to call the police and let them know. Yes, there was no way to know for sure which officers could be trusted, but they’d just have to take their chances if push came to shove.
“I think we should change the plan,” Simon said abruptly. “I think I should go in alone. Rick can stay here with you and Amy, Alisha.”
Rick snorted. “Like hell. Buddy, you know there’s no way I’m letting you face down those guys alone, right?”
A muscle ticked near Simon’s tense jaw as he turned to his friend. He appreciated Rick having his back, but watching his six wasn’t the most important thing right now. “Then who’s go
ing to protect Alisha and Amy while we’re in there?”
“I can protect myself, Simon,” she said, narrowing her gaze on him. “I’ve already shown you that. We’ve discussed this. I know you’re not happy, but it’s the plan we agreed on. Let’s not change it now.”
“Clock’s ticking, man,” Rick said, tapping his watch. “We need to get in there before they spot us.”
Dammit. This was not how he wanted it to go down. Not at all. But Rick was right. Their monitoring had shown them the guard schedule, so he knew they had a very short window of opportunity when the guards were changing to get in there and find Thomas Warren.
Alisha was still giving him the stink in the rear-view mirror from the backseat and he caved, against his better judgement. They’d be in and out, he’d make sure of it. As long as she stayed here, in the car with the doors locked and her and Amy’s heads down, they’d be okay.
He turned again and pointed at her. “Any sign of trouble, you get out of here first and then call for help, understand?”
“Yep.” She caught the keys Rick tossed to her one-handed without looking. “If I don’t hear from you within ten minutes I call his brother-in-law,” she pointed to Rick, “and request police and fire rescue.”
“Good.” Simon forced his tense shoulders to relax and faced front again. Rick’s brother-in-law worked for emergency rescue. He’d be able to rally the help they’d need if things went sideways. He gave a curt nod. “Right. Let’s do it, then.”
He reached for the door handle, but Alisha leaned between the front seats and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, stopping him. “Good luck. See you in ten minutes.”
“Yeah.” He turned and kissed her lips hard and fast, not caring that Rick was watching them. “See you soon.”
Then they were out of the car and skirting the walls of the alley, checking both ways on the cross street before running over to the warehouse. The place looked like a dump from a distance, but up close, near the door there was a high-tech security keypad installed. Clue number one that everything wasn’t as it seemed here.
Simon put his SEAL-honed skills to use disarming the thing, and then he and Rick were inside the cavernous building. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. They took cover behind old crates stacked high and haphazardly around the space, checking for any movement, any sign of Thomas Warren.
Near the back corner in a thin shaft of weak light filtering in through a crack in the wall, they found him, badly beaten and half unconscious, slumped in a rickety metal chair that he was tied to, blood staining the front of his wrinkled dress shirt.
Rick and Simon locked eyes and fell back into the silent communication they’d used for years on missions. Rick cocked his head to the left, indicating he’d go that direction, and Simon nodded, started right, only to halt moment later at the sound of voices nearby behind yet another stack of crates.
The Andronetto brothers.
There were more voices too. Men, probably the guards Simon and Rick had been hoping to avoid. He crouched down and listened in to their conversation.
“We’re going to shake that guy and his lady friend,” Hendrix said.
Like hell. Simon straightened and moved back to where Warren was tied up, murmuring incoherently to himself in the shadows. The knots took some work but soon he had the man free. Wrapping an arm around Warren’s waist, Simon helped the weak man to his feet, then met up with Rick to get the hell out of there.
They were nearly to the door when another voice echoed though the cavernous space, one that chilled Simon’s blood. His friend Eddie. Fuck. He hadn’t wanted to believe his friend was really dirty, but there it was.
“C’mon,” Rick hissed. “We need to get him out of here now.”
“Wait,” Simon whispered, holding his finger to his lips.
“The shipment’s coming in, guys,” Eddie said to the Andronetto brothers. “Don’t worry, though. I’m working to make sure any cops in the area will be looking in the other direction.”
“Fuck.” Simon clenched his fist at his side, then hiked his head toward the door where they’d snuck in. “Let’s go.”
They’d almost made it when Warren went limp in Simon’s grasp, causing him to stumble and knock into a stack of crates. Before they could reach the exit, the sinister snick of a gun being cocked sounded behind them, followed by Eddie’s chilling voice.
“Stop right there, Simon. I’d hate to kill you, but I will.”
* * *
Shit.
Alisha glanced from the warehouse door to the timer on her phone and back again. Nine minutes, thirty-eight seconds and counting and no sign at all of Simon or Rick. The nervous tension simmering inside her notched another tick higher.
“What do you think, Amy, huh?” she crooned to the baby in the back from where she’d crawled into the front seat behind the wheel. “Should we call the brother-in-law?”
Amy gave a happy gurgle and drooled onto the front of her onesie.
“Not helpful, girlfriend.” Alisha sighed and the timer dinged. Crap. She clicked off the timer app and pulled up the contact info for Rick’s brother-in-law. She should call. That was what she’d promised Simon she’d do. But what if they couldn’t trust the brother-in-law? He wasn’t a cop, but he was a close connection. What if the corruption ran deeper than just the police?
No. No. She needed to call. If Simon and Rick were trapped in there, they were counting on her to get them out. Before she could change her mind again, Alisha quickly tapped the icon to make the call.
“Seattle Dispatch. What’s the nature of emergency?”
Alisha introduced herself and told the man to send help. She stayed on the line to answer any questions he might have, even though Simon had already briefed them on the situation beforehand. She tried to stay calm, but she was practically bouncing in her seat from the excess energy building inside her. Man, she wanted to be inside that warehouse so bad, to see first-hand what was happening, know with her own eyes that Simon was safe and okay.
Bang. Bang, bang, bang.
Breath seized and heart in her throat, Alisha stared wide-eyed at the still-empty warehouse entrance. She’d covered the crime beat long enough to know the sound of bullets when she heard them. In the back seat, Amy started to fuss and Alisha reached back to comfort her. Time went from slo-mo to fast-forward.
“Ma’am, are you still there?” the dispatcher’s voice echoed in through the car.
“Yes,” Alisha shouted, louder than necessary. “I just heard gunshots. Please get someone here quickly. Please hurry.”
Simon’s in there. Simon could be hurt, killed…
Oh God. OhGodOhGodOhGod.
Sirens wailed in the distance, but they did little to calm the panic rising rapidly inside her. Amy was quiet now, watching her, waiting. She should go. She’d promised Simon she’d drive away if there was any indication of danger. But how could she leave with him in there, possibly wounded and dying? What about Amy, though? She had to protect the baby.
Fingers shaking, she jammed the keys into the ignition but didn’t drive away.
She couldn’t.
The sirens grew closer and soon several squad cars pulled up in front of the warehouse, followed in short order by an ambulance and a fire truck. Okay. They should be safe now. No need to leave. She let go of the keys without cranking the engine, taking a few more deep breaths before glancing back at Amy.
“It’s good. It’s all good now,” she said, as much for herself as for the baby.
Three figures emerged from the warehouse entrance. Simon, Rick and a third man, who was limping and covered with blood. That third man slumped and fell to the ground beneath them and her stomach dropped along with him. Oh God! Was that Amy’s father?
Unable to wait any longer, she opened the door and got out, running to the end of the alleyway and throwing her arms around Simon, who was out of breath and rumpled, with a cut on his hand and dirt on his cheek, but otherwise seemed unscathed.
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“God, I was so worried about you,” she said, burying her face in the base of his neck to inhale the scent of his soap and sweat. Good scents. Comforting scents. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
He hugged her back for a moment, then held her away. “You should’ve left, Alisha. You were supposed to get out of here before you called for help.”
“I couldn’t go. Not with you and Rick trapped inside there. I had to stay.” Alisha looked over to where two EMTs were helping Thomas Warren on the ground. “Will he be all right?”
“He’ll live,” Simon said, wiping off his face with the hem of his T-shirt. “They beat him up pretty good, though. Where’s Amy?”
“In the car,” Alisha said, as a police officer walked up to them.
“There are more men inside,” Simon said to the cop. “They kidnapped and assaulted Thomas Warren. And I think you’ll find evidence that they also smuggled and forged antique items for auction. Hendrix and Milo Andronetto are among them.”
The cop seemed taken aback by that, but Rick’s brother-in-law was there too, and he confirmed it.
“It’s true,” the brother-in-law said. “I’ve investigated their intel myself and it all checks out. I started logging the evidence already into the database at police headquarters.”
That seemed to mollify the cop, who nodded and looked at Simon again. “Sir, we’ll still need you to come down to the station for questioning.”
“Of course,” Simon said. “Can you give me a minute first?”
“Yes. I’ll wait over there,” the cop said before joining the rest of the officers taking the bad guys into custody.
Simon took Alisha’s arm and walked her back to Rick’s vehicle so they could keep an eye on Amy through the window. “Take care of the baby. Meet me at the hospital in a few hours. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done at the station.”
Guarding His Fake Family Page 12