Some shouts resounded in the hallway, and Beau peered out the peephole. “Everyone’s leaving.”
“We have to leave. What if it’s a real fire? And even if it isn’t, I’m sure security or the fire department is going to do a check of the rooms.”
Who else was going to do a check of the rooms, or more specifically, this room? “It sure is an easy way to clear out all the rooms, isn’t it?”
She patted her chest. “I have the plans with me. All anyone’s going to find in here is a bunch of disguises and some stolen jewels in the safe. He’s welcome to them. Of course, if the cops find those we’ll be in a world of trouble.”
“It’s not the cops I’m worried about.”
They joined several people in the hallway, chattering as they made their way to the stairwells.
Before one of the men swung open the stairwell door, Beau stepped in front of him. “Hold on. You should always check to see if the door’s hot first.”
He pressed his hand against the fire door and stepped back. “It’s fine.”
The man mumbled as he brushed past Beau on his way into the stairwell, “Who’s he, Fireman Bill?”
Beau met Deb’s dancing eyes above the hand covering her grin. “I’m sorry, but you are kind of bossy.”
“Someone’s gotta take charge around here.”
People thronged the stairwells, the guests on the top floors pushing and shoving to get to the bottom. Beau positioned himself behind Deb to protect her from the human onslaught.
He bent forward and whispered in her ear, “I’m glad this isn’t a real emergency.”
Hotel personnel ushered them out a side door into the chilly morning. Guests in coats hastily thrown over bathrobes or pajamas blinked in the bright light. Others warmed their hands on coffee cups from late-morning breakfasts. Businesspeople in their suits and smart coats checked in with hotel staff and then slipped into taxis to do their morning work. A group of school kids shoved and giggled while their chaperones gave them the evil eye.
Beau tensed his muscles and scanned the crowd. Had someone pulled the fire alarm to lure him and Deb out of the hotel? The man Coburn had hired as his replacement didn’t know their location if he had to stake out Herndon’s house to surprise Deb.
What about Zendaris? Maybe he figured Deb had the plans and would get a jump on her before working out a trade for Bobby. His gut rolled. He did not have a lot of confidence that Zendaris would return Bobby once he got his hands on the plans.
Zendaris didn’t want just the anti-drone plans. He wanted revenge on Prospero Team Three, and now he had the perfect opportunity to get it.
Someone shrieked and Beau reached for his weapon. He cranked his head around to see one of the schoolgirls in the shrubbery.
Deb patted his arm. “Easy, cowboy.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Neither do I. It’s freezing out here.” She hunched her shoulders, turning up the collar of the jacket she’d borrowed from him.
Beau curled his arm around her waist and felt for the plans secured in her inside pocket. “Just don’t drop these.”
“And I thought you were just trying to warm me up.”
“I can do that, too.” He wrapped both arms around her and pulled her close, the plans crinkling between them. She remained stiff in his embrace, probably not sure what it meant.
Hell, he didn’t know what it meant. His feelings for her ping-ponged between anger, understanding, admiration and pure unadulterated lust.
And something else—something much more.
With the fire trucks still parked out front, hotel security waved their arms and shouted an all-clear. The hotel guests began shuffling back into the building, heading for the elevators.
Beau steered Deb back the way they’d come. “Let’s take the stairs. It beats waiting in line for the elevator.”
They jogged up the three flights of steps and pushed through the fire door on their floor. They’d beaten most of the other guests back inside.
Beau slid the key card into the lock and pushed open the door. He stepped back to allow Deb in first.
When the door slammed, a gust of cold air greeted them. A rash of goose pimples raced up Beau’s back, but it didn’t have anything to do with the temperature.
“Deb, get down.” He reached for his weapon for the second time this morning, but this time it was no schoolgirl he confronted. And it was too late.
A man dressed like a firefighter emerged from the curtained balcony, holding a gun in front of him with two hands. “We finally meet face-to-face. Now hand over those plans.”
Chapter Fifteen
Deb felt the papers warm against her chest and held her breath. She could sense the tension vibrating from Beau’s body.
The man pointing the weapon looked familiar, even in his firefighter disguise. Damon.
Zendaris was double-crossing her. He’d had no intention of returning Bobby to her. Her rage crashed through her body in hot waves, and she clenched her fists, her nails biting into her flesh.
“Slide your weapon across the floor, Loki.” Damon aimed his gun at Deb’s head. “Or the broad gets it right now.”
Deb’s pulse jumped. Zendaris had known all along that Beau had been helping her? Was that the reason for the betrayal? Had the man she’d believed was Bobby’s savior turned into his destroyer?
Beau slid his weapon from his shoulder holster, placed it on the carpet and slid it across the floor. “Did Zendaris ever plan to return the boy?”
“Zendaris?” The man practically spat the word. “You still don’t get it, do you?”
“What don’t we get, Damon?”
The man smiled—his white teeth standing out in his brown face. “You’re good, Loki. I’d heard you were the best. But I’m better.”
Deb licked her lips. “Zendaris is not getting the plans until I get my son.”
Damon cursed and this time he did spit. “I’m not working for Zendaris. I’m on my own now. I’m starting my own business, and it’s going to start with those anti-drone plans.”
Deb didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. If this man got the plans from her, she’d never see Bobby again. But this was not a Zendaris double cross.
She shot a glance at Beau’s stony face.
He spoke, barely moving his lips. “You work for Zendaris.”
“I did work for Zendaris. I told you, I’m striking out on my own, and I want those plans.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, but his aim stayed steady. “Zendaris is supposed to be so brilliant, but I’m the one who watched this Prospero agent. I’m the one who discovered she’d hooked up with Loki. I’m the one who attached a GPS to the car Zendaris left for her.”
“Does Zendaris know that?” Beau was flexing his fingers.
“Why should I tell him? El jefe. He wants all his peons to call him el jefe. El pendejo is more like it.”
Beau asked, “If we have them, what do we get in exchange for the plans? Zendaris has the boy.”
Damon hoisted the gun higher. “You get her life.”
“Why don’t you just kill me now?” Deb spread her arms wide. She’d die without Bobby anyway. “That was you who tried to shoot me at the other hotel and run me down with the car, wasn’t it?”
He nodded. “I wanted you dead. I told Zendaris I could recover the plans from Dr. Herndon, but I guess he didn’t trust me. I figured with you out of the way, he’d go with plan B—me. But now that you have the plans, I’ll just take them from you.”
He’d obviously already searched the room and hadn’t found them. Deb opened her mouth to deny she had them, but Beau held up his hand.
“You killed Dr. Herndon?”
“I had to get him out of the way. I knew you two would pull some trick to make it
look like Herndon died. I had to make sure it happened.”
Deb threw her arms out to the side. “You were at that party, too?”
“Don’t feel bad. I didn’t recognize you two, either. I posed as security and then slipped some poison into those 7 and 7s he was downing faster than a sailor on leave.”
“Why didn’t you tell Zendaris about your accomplishment?” Beau asked.
“Why would I? He’d only wonder why I stepped in. The man doesn’t trust anyone.”
“If we give you the anti-drone plans now, you’ll leave? You won’t hurt Deb?”
“I don’t care about her. Prospero’s never going to get their hands on them again anyway. I already have a buyer. Give me the plans and I’ll let you both go. You’ll have to deal with Zendaris anyway.”
“The plans aren’t here.”
Deb stared at the floor.
“Where are they?” Damon narrowed his eyes.
“We left them in the car.”
As soon as the words were out of Beau’s mouth, Deb grabbed his arm. “No. We can’t give him the plans. We’ll never get Bobby back.”
“You’re more important to me than your son. I can’t lose you. I’ll handle Zendaris. I’ll figure out a way to get your son back.”
Deb’s fingertips tingled. Damn, they made a good team.
She choked out a sob.
Damon snorted. “Yeah, yeah, you’ll work it out with Zendaris. Where’s the car?”
“In the hotel parking lot.”
“If you’re lying to me, your girlfriend dies. Or maybe I’ll bag Loki and start my business with some street cred.”
“I’m not lying.” Beau pointed to the gaping door of the safe. “You’ve already searched the room. You know the plans aren’t here.”
“Then let’s get moving.” Damon waved his gun. “And don’t try anything on the way to the parking lot, or you’re both dead and I’ll find the plans myself.”
They shuffled toward the stairwell with Damon behind them. Nobody saw them, but after the fire alarm nobody would look twice at a fireman walking through the hotel with two guests.
Deb hoped Beau had a good plan up his sleeve because Damon would have to pry these papers out of her cold, dead fingers.
They crossed a corner of the lobby to reach the walkway to the parking structure, receiving only cursory glances from the few people they encountered.
Damon’s fireman getup clanked and squeaked as he lumbered behind them. Beau, in his dark jeans and dark jacket zipped up to his chin, looked like a long, lean panther beside Damon.
A long, lean, swift panther unencumbered and coiled to spring.
Yeah, Loki had a plan.
They climbed up one level and then two. Beau had left the car on the second level when they’d come back from Herndon’s house last night, but they continued to the third level. And beyond.
By the fourth level, Damon wiped sweat from his brow and growled. “Where is this damn car?”
“It’s on the roof.”
When they ascended to the top level, the wind whipped through the sparse parking lot where only a few lonely cars waited.
“Is this a joke? Your car’s not up here.” Damon grabbed Deb’s arm and pulled her toward him, so close she could smell the coffee on his breath.
“Sure it is. It’s the one on the end. Keys are in my pocket.”
Damon tightened his grip on Deb. “Pull ’em out real slow or she dies right here and now.”
Beau pulled a set of car keys from his pocket, dangling from his finger. They dropped to the ground.
“Oops.” Before asking for Damon’s approval he ducked to sweep them up.
He rose with a knife in his hand.
Deb didn’t even see him swipe at Damon, but Damon grunted and his arm loosened. She plowed into his shin with her heel and ducked from his grasp.
He roared like an injured animal, and Beau slammed his arm upward with a sickening crack. The gun dropped to the pavement, and Deb scooped it up.
By the time she rose, Damon was on his knees, his right arm hanging loosely at his side, Beau’s knife against his throat.
“I guess you’re not going to bag Loki.” He tipped his head at Deb. “Put the gun on him, Deb.”
“Done. Now where’s my son, you SOB?”
“I’m not—”
Beau smacked the side of his head with his fist. “Yes, you are. Where is Zendaris keeping the boy?”
“Why should I tell you that?”
“Because if you don’t, this broad is going to shoot you. Don’t forget, she’s a Prospero agent trained to kill.” Beau shrugged. “And if she won’t, I will.”
“I’m a dead man anyway if Zendaris ever finds out about my betrayal, and he will find out if I tell you where he’s stashing the kid.”
“Not—” Beau ran the tip of his blade beneath one of his fingernails “—necessarily.”
The big man licked his lips. “Whaddya mean?”
“If you tell us where the boy is, I can make arrangements for you, arrangements that will keep you out of Zendaris’s clutches.”
“How?”
“You don’t need to know how. I’m Loki. Just know I can do it.”
Deb’s mouth watered. Damn, the man was sexy when he talked like that.
Damon’s eyes shifted from the knife in Beau’s hand to the gun in hers. He swallowed and nodded once. “He’s holding the kid in a warehouse in Crosstown, out by the south end.”
Deb clenched her teeth to hold in her scream. Zendaris had promised to keep Bobby safe. Crosstown wasn’t safe. Since this whole nightmare started she’d believed only half of the stuff coming out of Zendaris’s mouth—including his claim that he’d trade Bobby for the plans.
Now she had him right where she wanted him.
“Address and layout.”
Damon gave Beau the information, and he must’ve committed it to memory since he hadn’t written down one word. When Damon was done, Beau turned to Deb. “Hand me the gun and take the keys to the car. Drive it up here and get my black bag out of the backseat.”
She left him holding Damon at gunpoint and hoped to God nobody stumbled onto the scene. They’d have a lot of explaining to do.
She wheeled the car up to the rooftop and parked, blocking the view from the stairwell in case one of the three owners of those cars came up here.
The men were still in the same position. In fact, they looked carved from stone.
She dragged Beau’s bag out of the back and unzipped it. “What do you need?”
“Rope, syringe.”
Damon’s legs bounced on the ground. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.” He handed the gun to Deb again while he secured Damon’s hands behind his back. “Now stand up and walk toward the car.
“Pop the trunk, Deb.”
“Wait.” His feet skidded to a stop. “You’re not cramming me in there.”
“Relax, Damon.” Beau pricked the needle in the back of Damon’s neck. “You won’t feel a thing.”
As Damon slumped forward and stumbled, Beau folded him into the trunk and covered him with blankets.
“What are we going to do with him?”
“Leave him for somebody to find.”
“Not the cops. He’ll be back on the streets in minutes.”
“Not the cops.” He slammed the trunk down on their captive.
“Not the FBI or CIA? He’ll talk. Zendaris can’t know about this. We have him where we want him now. We have Bobby’s location, and we can get the jump on him.”
He cupped her face in his hands. “It’s all right, Deb. Our friend will be out for hours. By the time he comes to and I place my anonymous call, our busin
ess with Zendaris will be finished.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Look—” he smoothed his thumbs across her cheeks “—Damon’s betrayal of Zendaris and his stalking of you were the best things that could’ve happened. To know where Zendaris has Bobby in advance of your meeting with him is priceless. We’ve got this.”
He landed a kiss on her mouth—the first since she’d dropped the bombshell about Bobby. It felt good. It felt like a promise.
When he released her, the cold air hit her face, snapping her back to reality. They couldn’t promise each other anything—not until they rescued Bobby.
She jerked her thumb at the car. “Where are we taking him?”
“I think it’s safe to leave him here for now.” He swept his arm across the parking lot. “Doesn’t look like a lot of people park up here.”
“Will he be warm enough in the trunk?”
His brows show up. “You’re worried about him?”
“He gave us Bobby’s location. I don’t want him to die.”
“He’s not going to die, and if he does? He may have given us Bobby’s location at gunpoint, but he didn’t seem to care what Zendaris had in store for him once you couldn’t deliver the plans. I’m not going to shed any tears if the guy dies of hypothermia.”
Beau moved the car to a location away from the stairwell and blasted the heat in the car just to make Deb happy. “If you want to come out here and start the engine every few hours to make sure he’s warm, knock yourself out.”
She clutched the phone in her pocket and dragged it out to stare at the display for the hundredth time that day. “Why hasn’t he called?”
“He’ll call when he’s ready, which is fine because we have some work to do before he calls.” He patted his chest as they descended the parking structure stairs. “You still have those plans safe and sound?”
“You were right about keeping them with us. If I’d tried to hide them in the room, Damon and the plans would be on their way to Istanbul or wherever.”
He draped his arm around her shoulders. “Did I ever tell you about a fight I had in Istanbul?”
Harlequin Intrigue November 2013 - Bundle 2 of 2 Page 37