by Rebecca York
When he turned, he found Elena watching him.
“We’re staying here?” she asked.
“Yeah. There are three bedrooms upstairs, each with its own bath. The one to the right of the stairs is for female guests.”
“Okay.”
He watched her look around.
“Isn’t it expensive to keep this place vacant?”
“It’s part of the cost of doing business.”
“You mean this belongs to S&D?”
“No. Rockfort Security. Sometimes we need privacy—and security.”
When she nodded, he said, “Give me the cell phone. The one you think has the information Blake stole.”
“Okay,” she said in a low voice. Turning slightly, she unbuttoned the top button of her blouse, and he wondered if she was trying to get his mind on another track. But she was only retrieving the cell phone from where she’d said she put it. She reached inside her bra, pulled out the instrument, and held it out in her hand.
He took the phone from her, feeling the warmth of the plastic that had been next to her skin. Conscious that her gaze was fixed on him, he stepped to the kitchen counter and turned on a fluorescent light so he could see what he was doing. Using a knife, he pried the back off the phone and examined the inner workings. Carefully, he took out the SIM card and held it up.
“This could be nothing more than an ordinary card,” he said.
“I know. But I think the clues Arnold gave me argue that it’s something else.”
“Let’s hope so.”
He looked around the room, evaluating his options. “I’m going to put this in a safe place.”
“Where?”
He waited a beat before saying, “I think it’s better if I don’t tell you.”
She swallowed hard. “Maybe that’s right.”
He clicked the case back on the phone and shoved the knife back into a kitchen drawer.
“Be right back.”
When she nodded, he went to the basement stairs. Of course, a basement was an unusual feature on the Eastern Shore, but Rockfort had found a house with one.
After turning on the light, he descended and looked back the way he’d come. Elena was nowhere in sight, and unless she had some kind of reverse periscope, she wasn’t going to see what he was doing.
He walked to the tool bench. There was a small gap where one of the table legs was attached to the top, and he shoved the card into the space, then used a screwdriver head to push it far enough in so that it was invisible. If you didn’t know it was there, you wouldn’t be able to find it. After replacing the screwdriver, he returned to the first floor to find Elena standing where he’d left her, looking lost and uncertain.
He’d been intent on taking care of the evidence. Now he suddenly thought of everything that had happened to her during the past few hours and had to fight the impulse to reach for her and fold her into his arms. She looked like she needed holding, but he thought that was a bad idea, considering the passion that had flared between them when he’d kissed her in the car after their dinner together.
As he’d held her then, he’d thought about asking if he could come inside with her. If he had, he would have bumped into her brother waiting for her. That thought helped him keep his objectivity. And also brought up another point. What if he’d confronted the brother earlier? Could the last few violent hours have been avoided? Would he have known by looking at Alesandro that something bad was about to go down? Or would he have simply thought that the brother was being hostile to a guy who wanted to sleep with his sister?
He tried to dismiss that last thought and return to the subject of violence. He was used to it, but Elena wasn’t. And because he wanted to help her cope with her recent ordeal, he said, “You should drink something.”
“You mean liquor?”
“I was thinking water. We both should.”
He opened the refrigerator, took out two bottles, and handed her one. He unscrewed the top from the other and lifted the bottle to his lips, drinking deeply.
She did the same.
“Now what?” she asked.
“I’m going to contact Rockfort Security and tell them what happened.”
“Okay.”
He considered it a good sign that she agreed.
“Do you think your brother is still at your apartment?” he asked.
“No.” She gulped. “After I double-crossed him, he would try to get away before those men caught up with him.”
“You didn’t double-cross him.”
“That’s how he thinks of it.”
“He asked you to get involved in something unsavory, and you realized you couldn’t go through with it.”
She clenched her fists at her sides. “I should have come to you first instead of going to the S&D building.”
“Why didn’t you?”
She unclenched her fists, then clenched them again. “Family loyalty. And…I didn’t know if I could trust you.”
“Because?”
She lowered her head, and the posture made him reach for her. When he pulled her into his arms, she melted against him, and he pulled her close. It felt good to hold her, like the two of them were in this together—and they could get out of it together. Family loyalty had gotten her into a mess. She could have flat-out refused, but she hadn’t done that. It made him wonder what it would be like to have someone so totally committed to him that they’d do anything he asked.
“You’re a tough guy. And ruthless, like the soldiers back home.”
“That’s how you see me?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I have a tough exterior,” he muttered and was glad she didn’t ask him what he was really like. Did he actually know? Or had the past year changed him into someone he didn’t recognize? Instead of revealing anything more than he wanted to, he said, “We could both use some rest.”
“Yes,” she murmured.
He eased away from her, wondering if the situation was going to look better in the morning. He didn’t think so, but maybe Max or Jack could do some investigating in Rockville and find out who had come after the brother.
“I don’t suppose you know who demanded that your brother send you over to S&D on that unfortunate mission,” he said.
“No.”
“And Alesandro’s probably not going to tell you.”
“Maybe he doesn’t even know who’s really behind it.”
“That’s possible,” he conceded, wondering if it could be true.
He had just downed another swallow of water when an alarm started to ring and he knew the situation had just gotten a whole lot worse.
“Shit.”
He’d brought Elena here because he thought it was safe—at least for the time being. Apparently he’d been wrong. Hopefully not dead wrong.
Chapter 15
Turning, Shane charged into the safe-house office and looked at the monitor.
Elena followed him. “What’s happening?”
“We’ve got company.”
“How?”
He kept his gaze fixed on her. “I’d like to know. Did you have something on you that would lead them to us?”
“No,” she said in a shaky voice, then more firmly, “No. I mean, what would it be?”
Scenarios spun through his mind as he strode to the control panel and clicked off the alarm, then crossed the room and did the same with the lamps he’d turned on, plunging the room into darkness. It sure hadn’t taken long for the bad guys to arrive. It looked like they’d come down from Rockville right behind him and Elena. A nasty thought struck him. What if the thugs had put a transponder on his car—just in case? If he managed to get Elena out of town, they’d know exactly where the two of them had gone. That scenario made as much sense as anything else.
The kitchen held a lot m
ore than food preparation equipment and dishes. He hurried back and took a pair of night-vision goggles from a drawer. With them in hand, he killed the lights, then crossed the darkened room to the side of the window. When he looked out, he could see men coming up from the road, slipping through the tall grass and shrubbery, and silently advancing on the house.
“I see five men out there.”
She closed her hand over his arm. “This is my fault. Let me help.”
“It’s not your fault,” he answered automatically.
“It is. And maybe I can get us out of it.”
“How? You’re not going to give them that SIM card.”
“No.” Her alternative suggestion came so fast that he knew she’d been trying to come up with a plan.
“I could go out and pretend to surrender. While they’re focused on me, you could circle around in back of them.”
He thought about the dangerous plan for a couple of seconds. If he didn’t care about her, it was a reasonable approach. Instead, he said, “No.”
“Why not?”
“You could get killed or captured.”
“I could anyway.”
He gave a harsh laugh. “Yeah. But you’ve got a better chance of getting away if you stick with me.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Get out the back and head for the river.” He looked at her purse. “Leave that here.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know how those guys got here. They didn’t follow directly behind us. I was checking for a tail, but your brother could have put a transponder in your purse. Was he alone with it at any time?”
“When I was changing my clothes.” She swallowed hard and laid the pocketbook on the counter. “I wasn’t thinking about anything like that.”
He went back and took a remote controller from the drawer where he’d gotten the goggles. At the side window again, he noted the position of the invaders, then pointed the device toward the front yard and pushed several buttons. Along the driveway and across the lawn, small explosions erupted.
“Surprise,” he muttered as he saw rocks and dirt fly into the air, along with one of the men who had been too close to one of the detonation points. He came down hard, while the other invaders ducked for cover in the tall grass and shrubbery.
Shane didn’t wait to find out how many of the bad guys he’d put out of commission. At this point, his goal was to slow them down enough to give himself and Elena a little more time to get the hell out of there.
He pulled his gun as he hustled her to the back of the house. There was no back door as such, but a large window had been designed to serve the same purpose. He looked out, sweeping the gun in a semicircle, not sure if any of the thugs had circled the house. In the moonlight, he saw no one.
“Looks like we’re okay, but wait until I make sure it’s safe,” he whispered as he pulled up the sash. He exited quickly, waiting for a bullet to slam into him, but apparently nobody had covered this side of the house, perhaps because there was no back door. After dropping a couple of feet to the ground, he turned and motioned for her to follow. Elena climbed out, wavering on her feet as she hit the ground. He caught her in his arms and steadied her.
He moved to the corner of the house, then pushed the buttons on the controller again—creating more explosions in the yard, this time on the back side of the property. He didn’t shoot because that would alert the men that he and Elena were out of the house.
As he waited for rocks and dirt to stop falling, he heard cursing, then low voices discussing what to do. The men didn’t know if he had more charges planted and where they were. In fact, there weren’t any more hidden land mines between them and the invaders.
While the invaders were regrouping, he led Elena down the path to the dock.
There was another gate where the pier met the land. He opened it, then closed it behind them as she followed him down the dock to a waiting speedboat.
He ushered her across the gap between the dock and the boat. “Get down.”
As she crouched in the rocking craft, he untied the mooring line, then moved to the front of the vessel and pressed the starter. The motor sprang to life, and they pulled away from the pier. But more shots came from the bank and also from out on the water.
Too bad. Apparently the attackers had been ready for an escape attempt from the rear of the property and had gotten at least one boat into position before mounting the attack on the safe house.
“We can’t get away,” Elena gasped as she saw the other boat closing on them with more speed than their own craft could muster.
“Can you swim?” Shane asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay, then. We’re going into the water,” he said. “Head for the left shoreline, where we came from.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll head the boat across the river. If we’re lucky, they’ll think we kept going, crashed into the bank, and got out on that side.”
He slowed the boat’s speed. “Go.”
Without any argument, she did as he asked, sliding over the side into the water. As soon as she was off the craft, he increased the speed again, heading for the far shore. When he was halfway across the river, he bailed out, hitting the water hard as the boat continued its wild ride through the dark water. Hopefully it wasn’t going to crash into anyone out for a midnight cruise.
Clear of the boat, he dove and swam underwater for several yards, then came up and struck out for the shore opposite where the boat had been headed.
He could hear more than one group of searchers in the water, circling around and shouting to each other. One craft followed the speedboat and the other stayed in position near where he’d gone over the side, ready to shoot if the men spotted him.
Diving again, he continued for the shore where they’d come from. When he surfaced, he didn’t see Elena, and he couldn’t call out to her. Maybe he wasn’t going to find her.
That thought make his chest tighten painfully. After taking Arnold Blake’s phone out of his pocket and dropping it toward the bottom in the river, he kept swimming toward the bank, following the same method of keeping mostly underwater. Finally his feet touched the muddy bottom, and he crouched low as he waded ashore.
***
Elena had learned to swim at the neighborhood pool when she was in grade school. It was another skill she’d thought of as “American.” But now she was thankful she’d insisted on lessons.
She ducked below the surface, striking out for the shore where they’d come from. When she needed air, she surfaced, looking around for the men who had come after them. It seemed like the chase had passed her by, but she was still cautious as she made for the edge of the river. When her feet finally touched the bottom, she crouched low, staying near the surface of the water, moving along the shoreline, and wondering where Shane was going to come up. Teeth gritted, she struggled to stay calm.
But that was difficult when she considered Shane’s dangerous maneuver. And the men chasing them. Men who had shown they would shoot first and ask questions later.
When her brother had come to her, he’d said he was in trouble. At the time, she hadn’t really understood how much trouble. She’d thought he might be exaggerating his predicament. Now she knew that the truth was far worse than she could have imagined. Alesandro was in a terrible spot, and she had to figure out how to help him—without betraying Shane. She’d put him in the middle of her problems, and she had to help him break free. Or them, actually, because she couldn’t kid herself. She was way out of her league.
***
Frustrated, Shane searched the water’s edge. Elena had bailed out first. Hopefully she had already reached the shore, but which way would she go? Downstream made sense because it was easier to move in that direction, and he didn’t think she’d head back toward the safe house that had o
nly offered the illusion of safety.
“Good move coming down here,” he muttered to himself. He’d thought that putting distance between them and S&D would buy them some time. It hadn’t, and now they were in the river.
He looked back, seeing the boats in the water searching for him and Elena. Sometimes he still heard voices, but not close enough for him to make out what they were saying.
Trying to get out of their range, he kept heading downstream, keeping to the shoreline. Sometimes it was reinforced with barriers of large rocks to hold the soil in place. And sometimes there were marshy areas with cattails and other reeds.
Then he heard a low-pitched voice coming from a patch of marsh. He stopped short, turning in that direction.
“Shane.”
His name floated toward him from out of the reeds.
“Elena,” he answered, relief flooding through him as he changed directions and sloshed toward her. When she came out of the foliage, looking bedraggled but unharmed, he reached her and folded her in his arms. The air was mild, but he felt her shivering and stroked his hands up and down her back, trying to reassure her.
She’d done what he’d asked without question. And to tell the truth, he hadn’t known how it was going to come out. He kept his hold on her.
“Are you all right?” they both asked.
“Yes,” they both answered.
“I was worried about you,” she murmured.
“Same.”
“What are we going to do?” she whispered.
He eased away from her and looked around. “We can’t spend the night in the water.”
“Is it safe to get out? Won’t they come down the shore looking for us?”
“First, the explosions and the firefight at the safe house would have attracted attention. There are probably police all over the area now. Which means the bad guys will get out of here. And if they do stay on the river, they’ll find that the shore is lined with multimillion-dollar estates. They’d have to come onto private property to follow us. And if they did, they’d probably get shot.”