“I knew the two of you weren’t meant for each other, Rikki. I’m sorry I had him taken out right in front of you, but he has to be out of the picture for us to move forward.”
“Oh, he’s out of the picture.” She tapped her phone several times and sent the last of Quinn’s death pictures to David. “Am I safe now?”
“The sniper? He’s long gone.” David clicked his tongue. “Got the pictures. Once he saw McBride fall, he disassembled and took off—just in case you went ballistic and called in the authorities.”
Rikki snorted. “No chance of that. Do you think I want to talk to a bunch of cops? Once they found out Quinn’s identity, they’d call in the Navy. No, thanks. His death needs to remain a secret for as long as possible.”
“Any chance of discovery there?”
“Nobody heard the shot. There’s a bullet hole in the window, but the velocity of the bullet was such that the window didn’t shatter. McBride’s deploying in another few weeks, and I’m assuming that’s when his body will be discovered. He has no family to speak of. Nobody’s going to miss him.”
Quinn kicked her again.
“Good. There’s someone very important I want you to meet. Plenty of people have already switched to his side. He pays well and he’s loyal—unlike the Agency.”
“Y-you don’t mean who I think you mean, do you? I thought we were going out to Korea to provide information that would lead to his capture. Can’t we still do that?”
“There’s no need for it, Rikki. What he does is no different from what we were doing, but he’s supporting different countries than we are. That’s all. He’s not interested in taking down the US, but he wants us to think twice before sticking our noses in other countries’ business—countries he wants to control.”
“I’m not saying I’m in, David, but I also won’t betray you. I’m done with the Agency. Y-you were always my first loyalty anyway.”
“We could do this together, Rikki—partners. I could provide your daughter riches beyond belief, and with those riches, safety and security.”
Rikki pressed a hand to her chest. Hearing David talk about her daughter struck fear in her heart. His threats against Bella always simmered beneath the surface. “When is this meeting? Where are you, David?”
“I’m where it all began for him, Rikki. I’m in Berlin.”
Her gaze flew to Quinn’s face, and he lifted his good shoulder.
“You want me in Berlin?”
“You must have an ID that you’re using or you never would’ve made it to the US from Jamaica undetected. Besides, nobody knows you’re alive except me and Belinda. We don’t have to worry about McBride anymore.”
“What about Belinda? Did you have her…shot?”
“I did. I had no intention of killing her, or she’d be dead.” David made a strange hissing sound before speaking again. “I found out she tried to kill you, Rikki. She knew I was always in love with you. I couldn’t allow that to stand. I wanted to let her know I could get to her anytime, anywhere. And now that you and I are going to be together, we don’t have to give her another thought.”
Rikki rubbed the sick feeling in her stomach. “Who is he? Who is Vlad?”
“You’ll see.”
David spent the rest of the phone call giving her instructions for getting to Berlin, but wouldn’t give her the meeting place with Vlad.
After his precise orders, David’s voice softened. “I know you don’t love me…yet. I know you’re not on board with joining forces with the other side…yet. But I think you’re halfway there on both, aren’t you?”
“I think I’ve always been half in love with you, David.” She glanced at Quinn, but he avoided her gaze in favor of tending to his wound. “The other… I don’t know.”
“I knew it, but I hope you understand, Rikki.”
“Understand what?”
“If you don’t join forces with our friend and do a really, really good job of pretending you love me, we’ll take your daughter.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
A white-hot fury coursed through Quinn’s veins. His head felt light. Two seconds later, Rikki’s cool hand fluttered about his face.
“You passed out.” She folded a clean towel and applied pressure against his gunshot wound. “Enough of this nonsense. You need a doctor.”
Quinn blinked and squeezed his eyes. “I need to find out where David is taking you to meet Vlad. This is our chance, maybe our one and only chance.”
“You heard David. He’s not going to tell me in advance. He’s meeting me at the airport and taking me directly to the meeting. If he gets a hint that anyone has come with me or is following us, it’s over, and it could be over for Bella. I’m not going to risk that.”
“I’m not either.” He winced as Rikki got aggressive with the pressure. “Following you is not good enough. We need to know the meeting place in advance so that we can set up.”
Once she secured the towel against his arm and finished cleaning up his blood, Rikki scrambled to her feet and closed the drapes over the glass with the bullet hole.
“Let’s get you up.” She took his arm and helped him up.
He collapsed on the sofa, clutching the pill bottles in his hand. “Can you get me some water to down these?”
She took away the bloody towels and stuffed them into plastic garbage bags. She banged through his cupboards and returned with a bottle of water and a bottle of whiskey.
“Now that’s a good idea, even at ten in the morning.”
She shook the water bottle. “This first and then a shot of whiskey just so you won’t pass out on me again.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She twisted off the water bottle cap and handed the bottle to him.
He downed a couple of antibiotics and three ibuprofens. “You need to call Ariel now.”
Rikki poured him a shot in a juice glass and thrust it at him. “Drink this first.”
“You don’t have to twist my arm.” He threw back the whiskey, and the burning down his throat made his eyes water but cleared his senses. “Ariel.”
Rikki got through to the head of the Vlad task force almost immediately, and Ariel’s smooth voice almost purred over the line. “What do you have for me, Rikki?”
“Quinn McBride is listening in.”
“I would expect that. Did David reach out to you?”
“You could say that. David hired someone to take out Quinn.”
“Since Quinn’s listening in on this call, I’m guessing the hit wasn’t successful.”
“Only because Rikki saw the laser and saved my life.” Quinn laced his fingers through Rikki’s. “Did I ever thank you for that?”
“You were in shock. I don’t hold it against you.”
Ariel sighed. “If you two are finished with your cute banter, what’s the upshot?”
Rikki explained to Ariel how they faked Quinn’s death and told her about David’s proposal.
The pause from Ariel dragged on so long, Quinn exchanged a glance with Rikki. He thought Ariel would be all over this.
Finally she spoke, her voice strained and thin. “You’re meeting with Vlad?”
“I am. I have to go through with it.”
“And we need to be there to make sure it’s the last meeting he ever has.”
“Agreed.” Quinn squeezed Rikki’s hand before releasing her. “David Dawson is never going to fall for any surveillance. We have to know in advance and we have to be ready.”
“It’s yours, Quinn, yours and your teammates’, all of them. I’m calling them all into Berlin right now, today.”
Patting his shoulder, Quinn winced. “I’m not sure how much use I’m going to be with a sniper rifle right now. That shooter missed my head, but a bullet went clean through my shoulder.”
“We have five other sniper rif
les to back you up.”
“Wait, wait.” Rikki waved her hands in the air. “This all sounds wonderful, but we can’t have six Navy SEAL snipers roaming around Berlin looking for a meeting place.”
Quinn rubbed his knuckles down Rikki’s thigh. “I’ve been thinking about this. We have Dawson’s phone number, Ariel.”
“That’s a start.”
Rikki threw up another roadblock. “If you think you’re going to put a trace on David’s phone, he’ll be way ahead of you. He’s not going to take it with him.”
Ariel said, “No, but he’ll need to communicate with Vlad, and we can track those communications.”
No wonder Ariel was leading this task force. Quinn snapped his fingers. “Exactly.”
“Again.” Rikki pushed the hair from her face and scooted to the edge of the sofa as if ready to do battle. “David and Vlad are not going to communicate in plain English or any other plain language.”
“They’ll use code.” Quinn tapped her knee. “Like the code in those emails.”
Ariel spoke up. “We’re working on those.”
“Ariel, I have a guy working them as well, and he’s getting close.”
“Berlin, huh?” Ariel’s voice had a dreamy, far-away quality and Quinn raised his eyebrows at Rikki, who shrugged.
“I know Berlin is a big city, but this meeting won’t be in a public place. Vlad would be too worried about plants among the crowd.”
“The forest.” Ariel’s voice rose with excitement. “The Grunewald forest is in Berlin.”
Rikki scrunched up her nose. “I suppose that would be a good place for him. They would notice any people wandering around, wouldn’t they? I know there are some schlosses there that attract tourists, but it’s a big forest. Why did that come to mind, Ariel?”
She coughed. “Seems like it would work for him, but we need to do our research. When do you leave, Rikki?”
“I have a flight out tomorrow, and the meeting is the following day.”
“That’s not much time, but I can get Quinn’s sniper team into Berlin tonight. I think Alexei Ivanov is still in LA. Miguel Estrada is in San Diego at Coronado. Josh Elliott is already back in Europe, as is Slade Gallagher, and Austin Foley is in the Middle East. I’ll get them moving today, military transport.”
“Whew.” Quinn raised his eyes to the ceiling. “You’re way ahead of me.”
Ariel cut him off. “The number. Rikki, give me Dawson’s number. We have to start intercepting now and hope we’re not already too late.”
When they finished their plans with Ariel and ended the call, Quinn drummed his fingers on the coffee table. “She’s a dynamo for sure. Why is she so invested in bringing down Vlad, and what made her think of the Grunewald forest?”
“It’s her job.” Rikki bounded up from the sofa. “I’m going to check in with Mom, and then I’m going to pack. You’d better start thinking about a disguise to get out of this apartment house in case it’s being watched.”
“Don’t worry about me. I have a way out of here, and nobody ever has to know I left.” He reached for his phone. “I need to get on Chan and tell him to expedite the decoding.”
After sending a message to Chan, Quinn got on his own laptop and brought up Dawson’s email exchanges with Vlad—he had to have been communicating with Vlad and Dawson had childishly given Vlad his own villain’s name from his book. Hubris was one quality that usually brought people down, and Dawson was no different. He couldn’t really believe that Rikki would fall in love with him, and yet here he was, making plans.
A sudden, piercing pain gripped Quinn’s shoulder, and he grabbed it. He hoped he wasn’t suffering from the same delusions as David Dawson.
Rikki charged in from the back rooms. “Bella’s doing fine. Mom says there’s a twenty-four-hour watch on their place by some tough dudes from Montego Bay. Nobody’s going to get to her.” She held up her phone. “And I just got off the phone with Ariel again. She’s sending a doc around for a house call. I have his number. Maybe you can sneak him in.”
“Better yet. We’re sneaking out of here, or at least I am. You go out the regular way in case someone’s watching my place.”
“Where are we going?”
“I have a buddy who manages a hotel just off Rue Royale. I did him a…favor once and he lets me have a suite at the hotel whenever I want.”
“The Fourth of July weekend is coming up. Is he going to have anything available?”
“He usually has a high-end suite up for grabs that they use for upgrades. I’m calling in my chips.”
* * *
TWO HOURS LATER, Quinn had sneaked out of his apartment through the basement and into a penthouse suite overlooking the French Quarter, and Rikki had followed him out the front door of his apartment and assured him nobody had followed her.
She stood next to him on the balcony, resting her head against his good shoulder. “This is going to work, Quinn.”
“I have a backup plan in case we can’t get your location in advance.”
She folded her arms on the railing of the balcony and bent forward, surveying the street. “Shoot—or maybe I shouldn’t be telling a sniper to shoot.”
His lips twisted as he pointed to his bum shoulder. “I don’t know when I’ll be able to hoist my rifle again.”
“There will be five other ones there to do the job, but what’s the backup?”
“You’re CIA, or you were. You must know about the internal GPS.”
She dipped her head. “You mean the one that’s swallowed?”
“That’s the one. It’s undetectable if they scan and search you, but we’ll have your location.”
“I can do that. I will do that, but it might be too late once I’m there. Vlad probably has lookouts. Hell, he’s a sniper himself, isn’t he?”
“That’s the problem, but it’s better than nothing. Even if we miss Vlad, we might be able to go in and get Dawson.”
“Don’t miss Vlad.” She dug her fingernails into his arm. “Whatever you do, whatever happens to me, don’t let Vlad get away.”
He cradled her jaw in his palm. “Do you think nailing Vlad is more important to me than you are? I’m not risking your life to get Vlad—and I’m not going to let anyone else do it, either.”
She turned her head to kiss his hand. “You know we’ll never be safe as long as he’s alive. He has a personal vendetta against you guys. That’s probably how David knew where you lived in New Orleans. Vlad may be distracted now because you’ve disrupted his plans so many times, but he’ll come back at you and the others again and again.”
“Let him.” Quinn spread out his arms and faced the Mississippi, feeling invincible—until an ache claimed his shoulder.
“It’s not just you, tough guy.” She traced the outline of his bandage. “You have Bella now. You told me Miguel has a little boy, and Josh’s girlfriend has a son. Austin Foley’s girlfriend is not going to live on his parents’ ranch forever, and Slade’s new love puts herself in danger all over the world. And if you think that crazy, intense Russian, Alexei Ivanov is ever going to give up on Vlad, you’re as crazy as he is. It has to end now—in Berlin, where according to David it all started for Vlad.”
“Point taken. I shouldn’t have updated you on all my teammates.” Quinn scratched his jaw. “Dawson did say that, didn’t he?”
“What?”
“That it all began in Berlin for Vlad.”
“Y-yes.” She dropped her lashes and shifted away from him.
“I’d heard that when Ariel was with the CIA, she spent time in Berlin.”
“I think so.” Rikki pointed across the rooftops to the river. “Are those barges always there?”
“Not usually. They’re getting ready for the fireworks.” He cocked his head at her, and she pushed herself off the balcony and spun around to the room.
“The doctor should be here soon.”
Quinn wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead and followed her back into the air-conditioned room.
Ten minutes later the doc showed up, and he must’ve come from Ariel’s special list, but Rikki still made herself scarce.
Dr. Smith, as he called himself, peeled back the homemade bandage from Quinn’s shoulder and slipped his glasses to the edge of his nose. “Clean gunshot wound right there. You’re lucky.”
With very little further conversation, the doctor thoroughly cleaned the wound, replaced the bandage with something more secure, and gave Quinn a new bottle of antibiotics and some painkillers.
Dr. Smith shook the bottle of painkillers. “These will make you sleepy, so you might want to stick with the ibuprofen.”
Quinn picked up a sling and dangled it from his fingertips. “And this?”
“You’ll want to hold your arm still and pressed against your body. That will help, but your shoulder is going to be stiff as hell if it isn’t already.”
Quinn rolled his shoulder back in a test and winced. “It’s getting there.”
“That’s all I got for you.” The doc snapped his black medical bag closed. “Take the antibiotics as prescribed. In the unlikely event the wound starts to fester, you’ll need additional treatment. If you’re still here, that’ll probably be me, but I have a feeling—” Dr. Smith shot a glance at Rikki’s bag in the corner “—you won’t be here much longer.”
Quinn got up and extended his hand. “I hope you mean I won’t be in New Orleans much longer and not on this Earth.”
The doctor chuckled. “With you guys, it’s always a crapshoot.”
When Dr. Smith left, Rikki sauntered in from the back bedroom. “Everything okay? You gonna live?”
“According to the cheerful doctor Ariel sent, that’s debatable.”
“What?” Rikki flew to his side and grabbed his hand.
“I’m kidding. He was referring to something other than the bullet hole in my shoulder. That’s going to be just fine.” He kissed the inside of her wrist. “How about you? Are you just fine with all this?”
“I’ve been fine with all this for almost ten years. It’s my job, Quinn. I can handle David Dawson and Vlad.”
Kick A** Heroines Box Set: The UltimatumFatal AffairAfter the DarkBulletproof SEAL (The Guardian) Page 107