“Turn off the GPS on that phone and bring it with you,” Joel said.
“Got it. Did the same on the attacker’s phone earlier.” Pax blew out a long breath. “Okay, Joel. How much time do we have?”
“Minutes only.”
She tried to think about what she needed. Clothes and some paperwork. She had some cash in her checkbook...oh, and her actual checkbook. Not that there was much in there. “I have to pack a bag.”
Pax spared her another glance as he checked the lamp shades and behind a picture frame on the wall of the family room. “Not necessary.”
“Maybe to you, but—”
Pax held the mic closer to his ear. “What’s Connor’s ETA?”
“Almost there. He’s breaking away from a conversation with the coroner and should be on the line any second.”
Her stomach rolled. Actually disconnected and did a full flip. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
He stepped in front of her. “I made you a promise, and I plan to keep it.”
“To join me for breakfast?”
“Oh, that’s absolutely happening as soon as I can manage it, but I meant about your safety.” His palm cupped her cheek. “You’re going to be fine.”
Before she could answer or even close her eyes and hope he would finally lean in and give her that kiss he’d been promising, Joel broke in on the line. “The guy’s really working the lock downstairs. I’d be ready for company any second.”
Pax dropped the box on the couch and then reached for his gun. “Resourceful, isn’t he?”
Violence wasn’t her thing. After a disgruntled employee of her father’s kidnapped her all those years ago and demanded her father return a retirement account, she stayed away from scary movies and anything with a lot of bloodshed. The sight of either brought the memories rushing back.
Evan Klinger didn’t follow through with the quick death he promised, but the twinges of fear never really went away. She could feel his breath brush over her ear and smell the alcohol on his breath.
And after law enforcement burst in, she could see nothing but Klinger’s head as it exploded from the rounds of gunfire. The paper said he “went down in a hail of bullets.” If she closed her eyes the headline screamed across her senses.
Despite everything she’d gone through that weekend long ago, or maybe because of it, she always thought she’d be the last person to pull a trigger. Now she knew differently. She’d already used one end as a weapon. She wouldn’t hesitate to use the fatal end, either.
“Shoot him if you have to,” she said.
“I like her style.” She could hear the smile in Joel’s voice as he said the words.
“You stay here.” Pax talked right over her when she started to argue. “I’m not going to worry about where you’re standing during a shoot-out. Understand?”
“That goes both ways.” The idea of him getting hurt nearly doubled her over. She thought about his leg and a guilt-edged sadness filled her. If she were the reason for another injury, if he sacrificed his life for hers... Her mind closed down at the thought.
Pax held up his gun. “You forget I have the upper hand.”
She could think of a couple of advantages he had over every man she’d ever known. “You mean Secret Weapon Joel?”
He laughed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Pax pressed his finger against the door. “The peephole. I can see the bad guys coming.”
“I wish I were as positive about this as you are.”
“Go stand at the entrance to the bedroom. Listen to Joel and do not come out unless I tell you it’s okay.” When she tried to protest, he put a finger over her lips. “I need you here, safe and where I can sort of see you. Anything else will distract me and put us both in danger. Now, I’ll ask again. Do you understand?”
She nodded because she didn’t trust her voice to speak.
His thumb brushed across her bottom lip before his hand dropped. After one last smile he turned back to the door and she headed to the wall separating the bedroom hallway from the rest of the space. She could hear him whispering but didn’t know what he was saying. For some reason the comm in her ear went deathly silent.
Pax stopped at the door. “Joel?”
A quiet buzz filled the line. Pax glanced at her and she shook her head. She couldn’t pick up anything and from the way all emotion wiped clear of his face, she guessed he couldn’t, either.
He pointed toward the kitchen. Since he seemed to know something she didn’t, and whatever it was had his face flushing and his eyes snapping with fury, she followed his direction. She bent down and made a determined rush for the island that separated the kitchen from the rest of the apartment.
Peeking from behind it, she saw him hold out his hand and press it palm down, which she took as a signal for her to drop. She did, scraping her knee as she went. Her butt hit the floor and she shifted to her knees before glancing up again. She hugged the corner and watched.
He stood next to the door rather than right behind it. From that spot there was no way he could see out the peephole. She didn’t understand how he could even turn the knob from that awkward position.
He motioned for her to bend down even lower and cover her head. She was about to do that when he reached over and flicked the knob.
The door flew open and bounced against the opposite wall. Gunfire boomed a second later. A rapid succession of five shots had plaster kicking up. The wood on the door splintered and a glass shattered somewhere off to her right. She stayed tucked but peeked up in time to see Pax shift around the corner of the open doorway. One shot and a series of thuds. Then silence.
He darted out of the room and footsteps echoed on the landing. She couldn’t wait one more second to see what happened. She got up, slipping around the outside of the room and sticking to the walls. When she looked out the door, she saw Pax bending over a still body sprawled at the top of the stairs. Blood splattered against the wall and spread in a dark circle on the downed guy’s forehead.
Pax slipped a gun into the back of his jeans and conducted another pat down. One more cell appeared before he pocketed it. After all the work, he looked up at her. “You okay?” He wasn’t even out of breath.
“You got him.”
“We were lucky he fell for the subterfuge.” Pax looked at her and then down at the obviously dead body. “Don’t look at him.”
“That’s kind of hard.”
Pax tapped his ear and called for Joel, but the line stayed silent. “It was him or us, Kelsey. These guys aren’t giving us options.”
“I get that.” If someone had told her this morning that she’d be dealing with dead bodies and a shoot-out in addition to the pastry inventory, she would have passed out. Somehow living through it, surviving and staying on her feet even though danger lurked in every hallway filled her with a strength and fearlessness she always wished she’d had.
Definitely some weird sort of adrenaline rush.
While Pax moved around with an almost scary level of detached efficiency, she put the puzzle pieces of the past few minutes together in her mind. “You wanted him to fire first.”
“It gave away his exact location.” Pax stood up.
She did a visual search of his body. There were no signs that one of those bullets hit him. Relieved, she sagged against the doorjamb and let her gaze linger over her apartment. It had not fared as well.
She spied a ripped sofa cushion and shards of glass from the picture frame sprayed over everything. There was a hole in her door and an odd gash in her brick wall by the television. Her perfect place of solace, the one spot she could go to relax and unwind, had been violated in a way that had her stomach dropping to her feet.
She couldn’t deal with that right now. “I’m ready to leave.”
Th
en he was there. She turned her head and his face hovered over hers. One hand balanced above her and he leaned in close. “Any chance you’re also ready for that kiss?”
“I kind of feel like I could throw up.”
He stepped back. “So, we’ll go with later on the kiss then.”
He didn’t get it. How could he, because she could barely accept it enough to talk about it. Still, she had to try. “People depend on me. I have a mortgage and a business loan. I can’t be closed, but I can’t put people in danger, either.”
“Hold up for a second and listen to me.” He rested his hands on her hips and held her still. “You still need to breathe.”
“Right.” She nodded but the whole air thing wasn’t happening.
He rubbed her arm, caressed her face. With gentle touches and a soft voice he brought her back from the brink of a full-on emotional breakdown. Her emotions whipped between fury at her brother for putting her in this position and a sick dizziness as the smell of blood and mix of sulfur hit her senses.
But when he stood there, so close, wooing her back from the edge, she grabbed on to the mental lifeline.
“We’re going to fix this and you’re going to reopen, and I’ll buy enough coffee to make up for a day or two of being closed.” His fingers trailed along the line of her chin.
Everything he said turned the thunder of terror into a soft ripple. “You’re sweet.”
“Not really.” His thumb traveled across her lips. “My point is it’s going to be okay.”
She lost herself in the sensation of his touch. “How do you know?”
“Because I’m guaranteeing it.”
“And you’re a man of your word.” It wasn’t a question, because she knew the answer.
“Exactly.”
“You may just get that kiss later after all.” She almost didn’t recognize her breathy voice, but she understood the rapid tapping of her heart.
The door at the bottom of the stairs shot open, and a man jumped into the space.
Pax shoved her behind him and aimed his gun. Tension vibrated off him and smacked against the walls of the small space. But as quickly as it came the stiffness left his shoulders. He held up his hand. “Whoa. It’s us.”
The fear clogging her senses eased, and she focused on the guy aiming the gun at them from below. Connor. He dropped his weapon, but the frown didn’t let up. “What the hell happened in here?”
Pax shifted his weight and brought her to his side. “You didn’t hear the fight?”
“My comm went cold. Couldn’t pick up anything until a second ago.” Connor gave the explanation, but Kelsey would have answered the same way.
Pax swore under his breath. “Nice work, Joel.”
“I wasn’t me.” Joel bust on the comm with the usual tapping sound in the background. “Well, it was. Sort of.”
“What does all of that mean?” Connor asked after a healthy string of profanity of his own.
“Someone was piggybacking my signal. I killed it to keep them from listening in, just in case the attackers were monitoring your positions.”
The bad news just kept coming, and Kelsey barely understood this part. “Wait a second—”
Joel rushed over top of her comment. “But whoever it was is skilled. They blocked all other signals. I had to switch to a backup to stay on you guys.”
Pax’s mouth dropped. “You waited until now to tell us all of this?”
“Hey, knowing a few minutes ago only would have made you panic.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about that answer.” She mumbled the response but Connor nodded in agreement.
“My point is, the person who crashed our party has the kind of equipment we do.”
At Joel’s comment, she opened her eyes again.
Pax glanced down at Connor. “I thought we had government-grade, top-of-the-line stuff.”
Connor was staring right at her. “Looks like there’s a big player in this thing, and your brother is getting that person’s attention.”
“Didn’t we already know that?” She glanced between Pax and Connor. “I mean, someone in the government hired you guys. Who was that, by the way?”
“I’m not sure how you know all that, but yes,” Connor said. “Someone at the Department of Defense called us in.”
Pax piped up. “And now we know why.”
Maybe they did. She didn’t. “We do?”
“Your brother didn’t just take some information. It’s very possible he’s planning on selling it.” Connor put his gun away. “If so, this game just got a whole lot more dangerous.”
With the way her body started shutting down, every inch falling into a fatigue-hued exhaustion, she doubted she’d be on her feet much longer even if she skipped asking. So she went ahead and asked. “Why?”
“Honestly?” Joel’s deep voice cut through the sudden silence. “Because Sean’s playmates won’t stop until they kill him.”
Chapter Ten
It was almost midnight when Bryce rubbed his blurry eyes and read the last line in the stacks of compiled information about Sean Moore. For a twenty-something, there seemed to be a lot of paperwork on the kid. No wonder his security clearance took longer than expected.
Probably also had something to do with attending three colleges, getting kicked out of two and having a father who’d spent time in jail for bilking people. The same father who had two children from two different wives, and both wives were dead.
It was quite a life story.
Sean’s mother died in a car accident when Sean hit nineteen and the sister, well...Bryce still couldn’t figure out where she fit in. There wasn’t so much as a photo with them together. She lost her mother to cancer and then her father did a family-restart and Sean was the result.
Now it looked as if he’d been the wrong kid to hire, but he’d possessed very specific math skills described as “off the charts” by more than one reference. Human resources pushed for him to be added to the team, something about him being a near-perfect candidate in terms of aptitude.
Bryce did a cursory sign-off because the idea of a loner who needed a second chance sounded like a familiar story. It appealed to him as a way to breed loyalty. His uncle had once given him a similar chance, and Bryce ran with it. Clearly, history did not repeat itself with Sean.
Lesson learned.
Bryce lifted his head and rubbed his aching neck. The stiffness had traveled over his shoulders and down to his lower back. But he couldn’t let up. Sean was a loose end Bryce needed tied up.
Being in a position where someone like Dan had the upper hand made Bryce furious. His business plan centered on using Dan’s history to Kingston’s benefit and otherwise ignoring the man. Having it work any other way was absolutely unacceptable.
Bryce shook his head, and a single light shining in the area just outside of his office door caught his attention. The floor was dark but Glenn hadn’t gone home. Since he hadn’t made a noise in over thirty minutes, Bryce wondered if the younger man had dropped off.
Bryce eyed the empty coffee carafe before his gaze went to the computer screen. The photos had stopped flipping by, meaning the program had found a match.
He pulled his chair up tight against his desk, hearing the wheels creak underneath him as he read the information on the screen, limited as it was.
Paxton Weeks. That was it. A name, a photo and a black bar marked Confidential.
Bryce fell back in his plush chair. He felt nothing except the rush of air moving in and out as his breathing picked up its pace.
The notation could indicate many things, but it did suggest Sean and his sister weren’t regular citizens scrambling to get by. This Paxton Weeks character was highly connected, which meant Sean knew powerful people. Potentially dangerous people.
/> People who could ruin Kingston without providing Bryce an opportunity to salvage anything.
The game had just changed. Dan and Sean were no longer Bryce’s biggest headaches. This Paxton Weeks guy was.
* * *
PAX SAT AT the conference room table back at team headquarters. He’d showered and changed and managed to chug back two cups of coffee. Not that he needed the caffeine. Adrenaline powered him now. That and painkillers. If he took one more tablet he might kill some brain cells along with the residual thumping in his leg.
The idea turned out to be more of a temptation than Pax expected. Something about Kelsey being in danger kept him on edge. Even now he wanted to grab her up and take her far from there until all signs of trouble disappeared.
She sat across from him, tapping her fingernails on the box they’d picked up at her house and staring at it while she chomped on her bottom lip. With her damp hair pulled up in a ponytail and her face scrubbed clean, she swiveled her chair from side to side.
The outfit she’d put on was giving him fits. The V-neck shirt looked about a size too big. It kept falling off her shoulder, revealing a thin strip of a bra strap. She even managed to make oversized navy sweatpants look sexy.
The woman was killing the last hold on his control. To get his mind back on the job, he focused on Connor. The leader paced the space behind Kelsey’s chair.
“Where’s Ben?” Pax asked.
Kelsey edged her nail along the seam of the box. “I’m starting to think this guy doesn’t exist. I hear about this Ben person but have never seen him. Call me skeptical.”
The joking comment helped Pax find his first smile in hours. “He’ll love knowing you think he’s fictional.”
“At least she thinks about him. That’s something,” Joel said and then turned back to the computer when Pax glared.
“Ben is at the hospital.” Connor continued his trek over the carpet as he stared at his feet and drank his coffee. “He’s had trouble.”
Joel’s head shot up again. “What does that mean?”
“Someone came after the comatose bad guy, which suggests whoever paid him to kidnap Kelsey doesn’t want him waking up and talking.”
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