by Dale Mayer
He shook his head. “No way to get used to that,” he called back. He could hear the muffled snort from the inside of the bathroom, and grinned.
He pulled out his phone to check for messages, wondering if he should say anything to Jarrod about his sister being attacked. But Jarrod was on a mission, out of touch. Still, if Jarrod did get it, that would be fine. At least he’d be in the loop. Making a sudden decision he pulled up his buddy’s number and sent him a text.
Sister was attacked. She’s okay. We’re on it.
Instantly a response came flying back.
WTF? Make sure you get the asshole.
Rhodes laughed.
I already did. At least two of them.
Is she really okay? Are you standing guard? I know how much she means to you. It was impossible to miss.
Rhodes winced at that last line of text. Was it really that obvious? The attraction had always been strong. It was easy to walk away when she was a gangly teenager—completely out of bounds. But now those had changed, and the markers moved. Nothing was stopping them from having a relationship except that sense that she was still out of bounds. She was the sister of one of his best friends. Really, he thought, he should get a goddamn reward for being a good guy here. He hadn’t made a move. And he knew a lot of guys would have.
She’s also your sister, Rhodes texted. I’ve always honored that.
Don’t be stupid. Sienna has the right to make her own mistakes and go after what she wants. If that happens to be you, then welcome to the family, at least temporarily. If it isn’t you, sorry. But there is one constant here. If you go after her and hurt her, I’m coming after you.
At least after that text was a small happy face to let Rhodes know that, although Jarrod wouldn’t take kindly to Rhodes hurting his sister, there was at least some understanding of relationships. He loved the double standard though, where it was okay for Sienna to hurt him, but if he were to turn around and hurt her, well, he’d have to answer to Jarrod. Still, if Rhodes had a little sister, he’d be the same way. Now, as he thought of the damn good men he worked with, he realized a little sister of his would be damn lucky to be with any one of those guys. Not one of them took a relationship lightly, nor would any deliberately hurt a woman, and never would they hit one. There was something to be said about knowing your buddies would take you to task if you even considered abusing anybody.
The door opened behind him, and he spun around. Sienna took the first step forward, and Rhodes gave her a helping hand. Whether she had been pinching her cheeks or was just feeling better, the color had returned to her skin, and she stood strong.
“You’re looking better.”
“I feel better too.” She walked slowly to the bed and sat down on the edge. “Can we leave now?”
“Let me find a doctor,” he said. “See if we can get him to sign off on you leaving.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Let me rephrase that. I’m leaving. Are you coming with me?”
He stopped and stared. “You really don’t like authority, do you?”
“I find when you phrase a question the wrong way, it gives people the option to do the wrong thing,” she said. “I’m not an emergency. I’m taking up a bed. I’m no longer unconscious, and I’m feeling much better. Yes, I have a head wound, but with careful behavior and someplace quiet to rest, we both know I’ll feel better. And I don’t want to be here. I was kidnapped once. Let’s not give them an opportunity to get me again.” She turned and studied the room. “I’m covered in blood, and I don’t see my purse. Any idea if I came in with my personal effects?”
“Your purse came with you.”
“Oh, good. The damn cards would’ve been such a pain to replace. You think we’d come to the point where we have chip IDs under the skin or something.”
He laughed and reached under the bed, pulling out a plastic bag. He upended it on the bed. “These are your personal effects.”
She grabbed her purse and pulled out her hairbrush. She checked that her wallet and its contents were there and slung the whole thing over her shoulder, brushing her hair quickly, which just snagged on the dried blood there. “Let’s go.” And she walked past him out to the reception area.
There she handed over her insurance card and waited while the paperwork was completed. When she turned around, paperwork and receipts in hand, he held out his, offering support. Instead of putting her arm through his, she slipped her hand into his and laced their fingers.
“Can we go home now?”
“Police station first if you’re up to it.”
She nodded. “Make it fast.”
It was fast but still took over an hour. As he helped her back to the truck, he found the DA’s laptop he’d stashed there the night before. Shit. “Robert, she’s out of the hospital but pretty woozy. And I found your laptop in the truck. I missed it earlier.”
“Can you bring it back before you leave?”
“Yes, we can do that much.” He walked around, got in the driver’s side and started the engine. “The DA wants me to drop off their laptop. Then we’re free to go.”
“Perfect.” And as if washing her hands of the whole issue, she curled up in the far side and laid her head against the glass. Then she closed her eyes.
He wanted to rush back to the hospital. He understood her point about not staying there, but she didn’t look like she was strong enough to have left either. The walk outside had been enough to finish her. “You want to stay in town or are you up for the long drive home?”
“I’ll sleep along the way,” she said. “That’s exactly what I need right now.”
It was pretty hard to argue with that. He pulled in the front of the DA’s building and said, “I don’t want to leave you out here alone.”
She opened her eyes and turned to look at the building, then over at him. With a heavy sigh she nodded. “No, I can’t say I want to be alone either right now. But getting up there to the DA’s office, … well, that’s looking like a little bit too much work.”
But she opened the door and slowly got out. He opened the extended cab, pulled out the laptop, then locked the doors. He stepped beside her and said, “Grab my arm. We’ll take the elevator straight up.”
They walked inside and headed for the elevator. By the time they got to the DA’s office, she was looking a little on the weaker side yet again. But as soon as they walked in the office and people stared at her, her back stiffened, and her grip on his arm tightened. She had grit. He loved that.
Robert rushed over. “How are you feeling? I am so sorry we got you involved in this.”
“It wasn’t exactly the highlight of my day,” she said with a wan smile. “But you couldn’t have known they would come after me either.”
They walked into the office where Rhodes set down the laptop near the box of documents. “Everything she found is still there, and of course, traceable. And the paperwork I delivered earlier.”
The DA shook their hands and said, “Much appreciated. I’m so sorry about what happened though.” He offered them a chair. “Do you want a quick cup of coffee? Can I get you anything?”
He was going to refuse but Sienna said, “A cup of coffee would be nice.”
He looked at her and saw she was determined to make this as normal a visit as possible. Besides, the caffeine would be good. Neither of them had had a cup in the last few hours.
The DA spoke to somebody just outside the room. He directed them to the chairs in the boardroom around the long table. They discussed the case for several minutes over coffee.
“With the information we have from the young kidnappers, we can trace the people who hired them.” He was effusive in his thanks. “I’m just so sorry this has come at the price it has.”
Silently Rhodes agreed. But sometimes shit happened. What could you do but reach for the toilet paper?
Chapter 10
As much as she hated to admit it, she was feeling the effects of her kidnapping. She didn’t know how long she’d be
en in the hospital, but when she checked the time and saw it was almost four o’clock in the afternoon, she realized just how much longer the day would still get.
But she’d been honest when she said she was likely to sleep most of the way. She was also getting hungry. Maybe that was a good sign. Although she was afraid if she ate anything, it would come right back up.
They had a second cup of coffee and continued going over some of the information they found. She also learned the kids who kidnapped her had made a deal with the DA. She didn’t have a problem with that. She was more concerned about getting the people above them. What she didn’t want was to have anybody coming after her again.
It was thirty minutes in when the DA stood up and said, “We’re very grateful to you, Sienna. I’ll let you be on your way. The office is closing in a few minutes too.”
An alarm ripped through the building.
She quickly put her cup down and stood. Her hand went to her head as the sudden movement brought on the pounding inside again. “What the hell is that?” she asked. She reached out for Rhodes immediately and found his arm wrapping around her, holding her close.
He looked at the DA and said in a hard voice, “What does the alarm mean?”
The DA’s expression showed shock, bewilderment. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before, but it’s a lockdown.”
“Lockdown?” she asked in a faint voice. “As in we can’t leave?”
He nodded. His hand immediately went to the phone. Picking it up, he put in a call to security. There was a short exchange. “Security said they’ve had a viable threat called in from one of the other offices. They apologize, but lockdown mode is necessary until I can verify what’s happening.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if we were all allowed to leave first?” she asked. The last place she wanted to be was here.
But Rhodes made it very clear. “The only reason they wouldn’t let us leave is if they’re afraid this person would escape with the crowd.” His voice fell off as he considered the implication. He looked at the DA, then back outside. “Call security back and see if this person is holding anybody hostage in the building.”
The DA immediately picked up the phone again and called security. “This is the DA. I want more details. Specifically, I want to know exactly what the threat is right now.”
He stood rigid; his voice never changed, but his gaze immediately zinged to Rhodes. “One gunman or two?”
After a few more harsh words, he hung up the phone. “Two gunmen were seen on the floor below us. Security was called by somebody who saw them on the elevator. The lower three floors have been emptied of employees. Only our security guards are left. We’re on the fifth floor. The gunmen were seen on the fourth. No sign of them now. Plus, there’s been no contact with or from them.”
Sienna slowly sat back down. “Is it me they’re after?” She waved her hand at the box of materials on the table. “Or the information you have?”
“Both prisoners, the kids, were taken downtown to lockup earlier. They left maybe an hour ago. But we did it on the sly. Just in case …” the DA said. “If that’s who they’re after, they are out of luck. If, however, they are after me, or even you two, … then it’s not so good for us.”
She glanced at Rhodes. “Are you armed?”
He shook his head. “I have weapons locked in the truck.”
“He wouldn’t have been allowed to bring them into the building,” Robert said. “Our security system wouldn’t let him pass through the metal detector if he’d been armed.”
“Well, it didn’t work then, did it?” she snapped. “Apparently we have two gunmen inside downstairs, while the good guys aren’t allowed to carry weapons to defend themselves.” She leaned her head back and rubbed her face gently. “I knew we shouldn’t have come inside.”
There wasn’t much anybody could say to her. Rhodes reached his hand down and grasped hers. “It’ll be fine.”
She opened her eyes and stared at him. “How the hell can you say that?”
“Because I’m getting you out of here.” He looked at the DA. “Both of you, you’re targets.” He glanced at the box of paperwork and laptop. “Do you have a place to lock that up safely?”
Robert hopped to his feet, walked to the side filing cabinets and opened the bottom one. They put the laptop in and pulled the paper out of the box, filling the drawer. He locked it up, pocketed the keys and left the empty box with the lid on the table.
With Rhodes ushering them both toward the door, they quickly moved through the series of offices.
Sienna glanced around as she walked. “It looks like most of the people have left already.”
“The offices closed a few minutes ago.”
“So maybe the gunmen wanted that to be the case.”
They shouldn’t have stayed for coffee.
Still it was too damn late. Like so much of her life. She couldn’t believe she was in this situation. Talk about going from shit to shit. Still, she trusted Rhodes. He’d saved her once; she figured he’d do it again.
Although that was a lot of pressure to put on one man. And no matter how good anybody was at any point in time, everyone’s luck ran out sometime.
*
This was not the end of the day he’d planned. It wasn’t even the afternoon he’d hoped for. They should’ve just left. In fact, she should’ve stayed in the vehicle and he could’ve come back down after delivering the box. But the world was full of should haves. Now they were stuck in the building with gunmen. And no way in hell those men weren’t after either Sienna, Robert, or both.
He wished he had his weapons though. He’d already have these two gunmen taken out. And Sienna’s safety was primary. He needed a weapon, which meant he had to take one off the gunmen. He opened the door to the hallway, calling back to Robert in a low whisper, “How many exits are there?”
“There’s the stairs and a service elevator. Plus, the three main ones.”
“Where’s the service one?”
“We can’t access it from here. Have to go to the floor below. This was an add-on to be a rooftop deck and God only knows, a garden, I guess. They decided to close it in for offices. So the service elevator only goes to the fourth.”
Rhodes turned and looked at him. “We have to take the stairs or the elevator down one floor so we can grab the service one?”
Robert nodded.
That was the stupidest of all stupid ideas. But Rhodes had certainly heard a lot worse. Development projects had construction issues, all covered up in a pretty layer of drywall and paint.
“Is it safe to leave?” Sienna asked behind him.
“The one thing you can count on is if they’re looking for you, they’ll go room by room. If we stay here, they would eventually find us.”
“I vote for escape,” Robert said.
“I do too.” Sienna added, “I have no intention of sitting here like livestock going to the slaughter. If they want a piece of me, then they’ll have to fight for it.”
As much as he liked her attitude, she didn’t have enough in her right now to make good on any threat.
“If there’s only two, they can’t cover all the elevators and stairs. If we get a chance to see just one, I’ll take him out and grab his weapon. That’ll even the odds somewhat. The intention is to take the stairs down as far as we can go. You ready?” He turned and looked at both of them. When he got a nod from each, he opened the door to the hall wider and slipped out. Quietly he motioned to the stairwell to the left. He raced toward it and pushed open the door. They were right behind him.
No sound came from below. He was taking a risk, but they had very few options. Moving as silently as they could, the three made it down one set of stairs. Still nobody. Rather than trying for an elevator, considering that Sienna was still strong enough to keep going down the other three flights, he moved them forward, and on they went down to the third, the second, and the first.
Something inside him said it was way too da
mn easy. At the main floor, he paused and looked through the glass window in the door, where he saw one of the security guards holding a weapon on the rest, who would normally be the last to leave after completing a full sweep of the building.
Shit. This was an inside job. Robert caught a glance at what was outside the window too. His gaze widened, and he shook his head. Rhodes immediately placed his finger to his lips and motioned them to continue down to the parking garage level. They had to get somewhere they could hide.
At least in the garage there would be vehicles. There was only one more floor. He was careful as he peered through the door window. He couldn’t see anybody. Taking a chance, he pulled it ajar slightly. No alarms went off.
He pulled it fully open and motioned the other two out ahead of him. They immediately raced to the first vehicle and crouched down beside it. He didn’t see anyone standing guard, so he joined them. He didn’t know how the underground system here worked, but there must be some kind of an open gate to enter and exit through. But they had to get there first. In the background, he heard something that made his blood chill.
“Did that door just open?” someone yelled too damn close by.
From the opposite side, on his right, came the answer.
“I didn’t see anybody come out.”
From the left again came someone speaking. “You’re supposed to stand there, keeping an eye out, making sure nobody escaped.”
“I was, remember? Then he sent me over to check out the ramp. Make sure nobody walked in or out.” The man’s voice was frustrated. “I can’t watch everything. What the hell are you doing?”
There was only silence to Rhodes’s left.
And Rhodes knew the man was on the move. He motioned for the others to stay low against the vehicle. He peered around the back of the car, his ear cocked, listening hard. He could hear footsteps approaching. Desperate to keep the gunman away from Sienna and Robert, he raced around the car to intercept him.
“What the—”
One solid blow to the throat and the gunman crumpled to his knees. Rhodes caught him as he pitched forward and slowly lowered the man to the ground. Rhodes pulled the semiautomatic weapon off his shoulder and slipped it over his own.