Under Fire

by Scarlett Cole

  The phone clicked silent.

  “I should have gotten security for my mom. I’ve got to…”

  Six turned to her. “You aren’t seriously thinking of going, Lou?” His head had been filled with other options, but none of them involved her getting in that car. The idea of her anywhere other than in his sight freaked the shit out of him.

  “It’s not like I have a lot of choice,” she said, her eyes focused on the phone.

  “We need eyes in the sky,” Buddha said. “No one ever looks up. We can follow the vehicle that way. Let me see how quick I can be airborne.” He grabbed his phone and stepped out of the room.

  “He’s not going to do anything to me until he has the formula,” Louisa said. She placed her hand on his shoulder. It felt tiny as she dug into his muscles. “And you’ll get me before then. I know you will.”

  Cabe coughed. “What she’s saying makes sense, Six. We can track the shit out of her. Put a vest on her. The question is where would they take her?”

  “Aiden told us Vasilii is distracted by a property he’s buying. Could it be there?” Louisa offered.

  It was a crapshoot. They could take her anywhere. Wait. The photo of her mom. “Lite,” he said, turning to the resident tech guy. “If he just bought the property, there’d be a listing, right?”

  Lite’s face brightened with a smile. “If it was a public sale. But even if it’s somewhere else, I got you. Louisa, can you send me the photo from Vasilii?”

  Louisa listened as he spelled out his email address, then forwarded the photograph to him. “What are you going to do?”

  “Use an image-matching app. See if we can’t get a fix on where your mom is through what’s in the background of the picture.” Lite typed away on his laptop furiously. The energy level in the room was rising as people hurried around, falling into old military habits.

  “I called some of the guys to come over and give us a hand. Play decoy, watch the pickup. They’re going to expect us to follow Lou. So we should leave now. Get out ahead of them. Let the driver think we all stayed behind.”

  Louisa moved closer to him and he slipped his arm around her, even though they didn’t have much time.

  “I’m out, man,” Buddha said as he pushed the door open. “Buddy of mine runs the helicopter school north of Serra Mesa. I’ll be there in ten, up in fifteen. He’s getting it ready for me now.” Buddha grabbed Lou from him and hugged her. “Avoid looking up for me,” he said. “It kind of ruins the element of surprise. You’ll hear me. Most people don’t look up anymore when they hear a helicopter or plane because they are so commonplace. But I’ll be there, and I’m really good. See these hands?” he asked.

  Louisa nodded.

  “Good. Well, you’re safe in them. I promise.” Buddha saluted her and jogged out of the room.

  Six let out a breath. “Give me your right shoe,” he said as Louisa watched Buddha leave.

  “Is this for the tracker? And are you guys always that cocky?” she asked, putting her phone down to unlace her sneakers.

  “Yes, and yes,” he said with a wink. He hurried to the cupboard, grabbed a pack of something from one of the shelves, and threw the pack at Bailey. “Set her up, Bailey.”

  Bailey ripped it open and held out what looked like an insole for a shoe.

  “It may look like a sole, but it’s got a GPS tracker in it. If anything were to happen to you, if they take you for any reason, they’ll pat you down and probably take your phone and anything else they think looks suspicious. But rarely do they take your shoes,” Bailey said, sliding it in her sneaker. He messed around on his laptop for a little while, and then handed her shoe back to her.

  “Reassuring thought,” she said. “I seem to recall someone else telling me the same thing on a beach once.”

  Despite all the activity going on around them, Six smiled. Their walk on the sand felt like an age ago, but was probably the day he’d begun to fall for her.

  “Get ready to move out, guys,” Mac said.

  “I don’t like this,” Six said minutes later as he fixed the bulletproof vest on Louisa’s shoulders. What were they thinking, letting Louisa go off alone to Vasilii? Once they were en route, he was going to call his contact at the CIA. Hell, they should call in every brother, active or not, to circle the perimeter. But Vasilii had refused point-blank to tell her where her mother was.

  “It’s okay,” Louisa said, looking up at him through those dark eyelashes. “I have faith in you to keep me safe, even though you should be lying down in bed.”

  “It’s just a scratch,” he said, pulling on the front of her vest to make sure it was secure. The vest didn’t seem like enough protection. Parts of her were exposed. No matter how many times Mac had reminded him that they wanted to take Louisa alive, no matter how much intel they’d already gained about the lab, it didn’t seem like enough.

  “It was a gunshot wound.” She took his wrists in her hands and stilled them. “I’m going to be fine. At least, I hope I am. You and your men will make sure nothing happens. There is no way this is going to stop until they have the formula. We can’t let them get that, Six. It’s too important. Even if it came down to Mom or me, even.”

  Six tilted his head from left to right, loosening the muscles. Going in tight was stupid, but he couldn’t relax. “We could just go somewhere else. I don’t give a shit about Ivan Popov or his grandfather, and please, don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t even give a shit about your mom or the medicine you are trying to create.” He placed his hands on Louisa’s cheeks. Why did she have to look so fucking perfect and fragile today of all days. “You are the only thing that matters to me. None of that other stuff. We could get a flight out of here today and disappear.”

  “You don’t mean that. I doubt you’ve ever backed down from a fight in your life.” She turned and pressed her lips to his palm.

  She was right. Of course she was right. She was always fucking right. And hopefully it would be that way for at least the next twenty years.

  “I haven’t. But for you, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

  “There is so much more at stake here than me, and you know it.”

  He did. It was the only reason he hadn’t bundled her into his truck and driven away east, back to where he’d be protected by his old team for a while as they figured out what to do next. For the first time in his military life, he was conflicted, torn between his sense of duty and his love for Louisa.

  A series of loud bangs came from outside the dorm area and Six flinched.

  “It’s just the rest of your team getting ready,” she said, and wrapped her hands around his waist. “But at some point, you’re going to have to unpack what makes you react that way and deal with it.”

  Six nodded, letting her comfort him as much as he hoped he was comforting her. He’d realized the same thing. No matter how hard he tried, it wasn’t going to go away on its own.

  He pressed his lips to hers in the hope that she would understand that they were telling her everything he couldn’t.

  “We gotta go, guys,” Cabe shouted.

  Six pulled away and tugged on his body armor. He hated wearing the fucker as it constricted his breathing, but the people they were up against had already proven that they would shoot to kill every person who stood between them and Louisa. There was no fucking way he was going down and leaving her unaided. He loaded up his primary and secondary weapon systems and as many magazines as he could fit on the fucking thing. He packed in a couple of charges. There was no way of knowing where this property was or what it looked like yet, but he’d have no issue blowing the fucking doors off, literally, to get Lou out.

  Shit. He needed to focus on the mission. Not her.

  “Did you know Sar-i Sang in the Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan contains one of the most famous lapis lazuli mines in the world?” he asked her. “It’s been mined for over six thousand years.” He wanted to hold her hand but didn’t.

  Cabe looked over and raised an
eyebrow at him, and Six shook his head subtly. No, he wasn’t going to tell her what had happened while they were there. But he needed to get a lid on his emotions. He’d seen so many jewelry and boxes made of lapis while he was there, and it was a beautifully carved box made of lapis that he imagined now as he tucked his feelings for Lou inside it. He needed to stop thinking about her and start thinking about them, the ones who dared to do her harm.

  “I didn’t know that,” she said. “See. You taught me something new.”

  For the briefest of moments, he stopped loading his vest to hold her hand and she grabbed it, her fingers icy cold against his. “We’re going to teach each other all kinds of new things when this is over, Lou. I know we’re stuck in the middle of some seriously fucked-up shit, but this will always be the period in our lives when we started dating. It’s meant to be the period in our lives when we can’t take our eyes off each other and the only thing we can think about is the quickest way to get from where we are to being naked on any kind of surface, which is never far from my mind.”

  Louisa smiled as he’d intended.

  “I mean it, Lou. When this is all over, we’re holing up somewhere, my place or yours, I really don’t give a shit, and we’re getting in bed and staying there for at least forty-eight hours so I can make a concerted effort to thoroughly take care of every single part of you.” He brushed his lips against hers, but after the briefest moment, as much as it hurt more than a thousand paper cuts against his heart, he stepped away, let go of her hand, and returned to his weapons. He could soothe her, hold her, warm her later. Now, his primary objective was to keep her safe while they rescued her mom and took down those who’d harm Lou.

  Cabe threw him his com equipment, and he slotted it into place on his left ear. He checked his pockets. Multi-tool. Shears. A breaching tool. Extra rounds. A couple of flash-crash. Double-ended flex cuffs so he could tie people up, assuming he didn’t kill them. And his tactical gloves.

  He helped Louisa slip her sweater over her vest and took hold of her hand.

  A crackle came over the radio. “Confirmation that Buddha is airborne and has eyes on our location.”

  With Buddha in the air and Bailey staying behind to man coms, the remaining men began to pile into two trucks headed for the ranch house Lite had confirmed Vasilii had bought outside of Jamul. They could be heading to the absolute wrong location. Buddha would let them know that. They’d research the area on the drive over.

  “Is it right that military guys say I’ve got your six when they mean that they have your back?” Louisa asked as he led her to the door.

  He stopped by the doorway and looked over his shoulder at her as the double meaning in her words hit him. She looked so fucking cute in the gray hoodie, and her words were so sweet, that on any other day he would have stopped what he was doing, lifted her up, and carried her back to bed to show her just how much he had her back covered. Instead, he nodded and swallowed hard.

  Their eyes held for a moment that felt like forever.

  “Good,” she said with a nervous smile.

  * * *

  Louisa’s first thought was that she’d obviously drunk too much. Her head spun and her stomach clenched. In fact, she wasn’t entirely certain that she wasn’t going to throw up. The details were hazy. Had she and Six been out celebrating?

  She struggled to open her eyes. They burned the way the chlorine in her pool burned them if she stayed in the water for too long.

  Holding her head, Louisa tried to sit up and look around. She was on a metal-framed twin bed draped in a plastic cover in a bedroom with old pine wood furniture and an overabundance of floral fabric and lace. It most definitely wasn’t like any emergency room or hospital ward she’d seen before. Dread started to fill her. Something had happened, but she couldn’t remember what or how. Everything was muddled. She put her hands to her face. A sweet scent lingered around her. The sample. The car. Six and his team and helicopters.

  Fuck. The guy used something on me in the car.

  Her heart raced as her chest tightened, making the pounding in her head worse. Louisa pressed her fingertips to her temple.

  She leaned forward, clenched her stomach, and looked down at her feet quickly. Thank God. Her sneakers were still on her feet. They never take your shoes. She remembered his words on the beach. Always keep your shoes on. You need to be able to run, should you have to. Six had been right. Which meant if the GPS that Bailey had installed in her sneaker was working, and Buddha had confirmed the location, Eagle Securities had the place surrounded.

  Her skin peeled away from the plastic mattress as she stood. Dizziness overtook her, and she threw her arm out toward the wall to gain her balance. Her limbs felt … disconnected. They weren’t doing what she told them. Sweat clung to her body, her damp T-shirt confirming that she’d been there for a while. How long, she wasn’t certain. There were shutters covering the windows, but there was a door at the other end of the room from her cot. With the way her legs were shaking, the ten yards could have been a hundred miles.

  Water.

  She could barely swallow but gave herself a few more moments to find her composure and stop the room from spinning.

  Six.

  Nothing would stop him from finding her. She knew it. She just needed to stay alive long enough for him to get to her. The words he’d said to her in the gym before they left came back to her. Operative teams have a reputation for being rapid response … not the preferred way … have time to build a foolproof plan.

  While he was close by, it might be a while until he came. Her initial thought had been to scream and yell, to overcome the fear she had of whoever was on the other side of the door and demand to know where the hell she was. But now she thought it would be better to simply pretend she was still sleeping in case anybody came by to check on her. Anything that would bide time.

  She crossed her fingers and prayed that this was Vasilii’s new home and that he and Ivan were both here.

  Louisa scanned the room, anxious to see if there was anything she could use as a weapon, but with the exception of a small bronze paperweight next to the bed, there was nothing in there. Six had said they wanted her alive, and she hoped that was true.

  She curled back up on the bed, the ache in her head dulling as she lay down, but turned so she could see the door. If someone came in, she’d study them carefully before jumping to her feet. Now was the time for her to be clever. Not reckless.

  Moments dragged by endlessly. Occasionally, a dull thud or the sound of metal banging against metal would sound in the hollow space.

  When the door finally pushed open, Ivan walked through it. A man with a gun stood behind him and yelled something in a language she assumed was Russian before slamming the door shut.

  When Ivan finally looked at her, all she could see was a broken man. Whatever had happened, Ivan wasn’t the mastermind. Or if he had been at one point, he wasn’t any longer.

  “Louisa,” he said, his voice hoarse. “I’m sorry.” Tears filled his eyes as he spoke.

  “Who are they? What do they want?” she asked quickly, her eyes flitting between the door and Ivan.

  Ivan sat down on the edge of the mattress. “They want the drug we created.”

  Aware that they wouldn’t have long before somebody came to get them both, she hurried on with her questions. “But who are they, Ivan? And what do they want it for? How did they even know about it? Are they a rival drug company?” She knew they weren’t. There was a huge difference between intercompany espionage and kidnapping. But she wanted to keep him talking. Six’s words from their day on the beach came back to her. If you’re alive, you can fight, you can think, you can even wait for someone to come get you. You’ll come back from anything they can put you through. But there is no coming back from dead. That’s as final as it gets.

  Despondently, Ivan shook his head. “If only…” he said.

  She needed more information, not abbreviated sentences. “Who are they, Ivan?”
>
  He sighed. “I screwed up. And everything got so out of hand. Vasilii arranged it to get me out of trouble. I have money problems, and he was overleveraged. Development of our drug and others was taking too long.”

  She played along, pretending like she didn’t understand. “I don’t get it. Did he think somebody else could take the research and then get there faster?” she said, her voice rising in feigned frustration. “We’d only just started animal testing. It could be years before we had the formula right and got it FDA approved.”

  Ivan looked frantically at the door and shushed her. “They don’t want the formula we hoped to create. They want the one we did. They want to weaponize it. Do you think Vasilii wants to be here?”

  Louisa sat up and ignored the way her head spun again. Nausea roiled through her like waves, and she swallowed deeply. “You still haven’t answered who they are.”

  “It’s such a mess, Lou.” His hacking sob echoed off the walls.

  All out of patience, she stood and stumbled across the room to Ivan. “First, don’t call me Lou.” Six was the only person she would allow to call her that, and the man in front of her didn’t deserve an ounce of her sympathy. The mess was Ivan’s, even if it was now bigger than he’d ever intended. “You and I are not on the same side, even though we are in the same mess. Second, pull yourself together. And third, start from the beginning. Who is behind this and what do they want?”

  Ivan started as if she had physically slapped him. As if it were a shock that she’d be so angry.

  “What?” she asked. “Don’t look so surprised. You have cost me my job, my sanity, and depending on how this all plays out, possibly my life, so stop being pathetic.”