She’d made an enormous mistake. But there was no fixing it now. Only waiting. Heinrich would come for her. It was simply a matter of time.
Part of her wanted him to come. Then this toxic thing between them could be over. One of them would come out victorious, while the other one…well, at least it would be over.
Sam considered confessing everything to Ash when he got back. He’d be really pissed about the fire, but he’d get over it. She was still alive after all. That had to stand for something. If—no, when—Heinrich came for her, she could make Ash promise to look after Rose and the other ladies. He’d do it. Because he was an honorable man. No matter how he viewed himself.
“Just tell him.” She massaged her temples. “He isn’t any scarier than Viktor Heinrich.” The pain in her head increased. “Why do you care what he thinks anyway?”
An incessant knock pounded on her door. She shot to her feet, heart racing, and looked through the peephole. Celia stood on the other side, grief etched on her pale face.
Sam threw open the door and rushed onto the porch. The older woman looked like she might collapse, so Sam grabbed hold of her shoulders. “What is it?”
“Rose.” Celia’s fist clutched at her chest as she gasped for air. Sam dragged the older woman to a seat on her porch. “He’s got Rose. He took her.” Celia closed her eyes as tears streamed down her cheeks.
All thoughts about Ash evaporated. Her eyes glazed over. Her ears couldn’t hear any sound but Celia’s cries. Her mind couldn’t process anything but what Celia said. He’s got Rose. He took her.
This was her worst nightmare come to life. Heinrich didn’t come for Sam. Instead he’d hit her where it would hurt most. He’d taken her father from her, and now he was going to take her grandmother. “Where are they?” Sam shook the woman’s shoulders when it seemed she wouldn’t speak. “Celia! Where?”
She held out a note. “I stopped by to watch Jerry Springer with her…” The older woman wiped her tears as her shoulders bounced with each sob. “The door was propped open, so I let myself in.” She heaved a deep breath and sniffled. “This was on her recliner.”
Sam opened the folded piece of paper, noticing the beautiful script, as if the sender had taken all the time and care in the world to write the missive.
Just an insurance policy.
Once the deal is over at the port, I’ll bring her back unharmed. If you interfere, I’ll bring her back in pieces.
Your choice, apple.
V.H.
Sam reread the note twice before dragging her gaze back to Celia. The older woman still gasped for air, clutching hard at her chest.
“What…are we…going…to…do?” she asked through sobs.
“We aren’t going to do anything,” Sam said. “I’m going to the port.” Heinrich had told her exactly where to find him. He was taunting her. Tempting her.
Celia’s eyes cleared, and her head snapped to attention. “But he’ll kill you.”
“He’s going to kill me anyway. I…I provoked him. He took her because he knows I’ll come after her. It’s me he wants. I have to go.”
“But, Sam—”
“Stay here. And promise me you won’t tell the others. I can’t let anyone else get hurt.” Sam pinned the older woman with a firm stare. “Celia, promise me.”
Celia looked as though she might argue, but then her features relaxed. “All right. But at least take some ammunition.”
Sam nodded, though she had a different idea about weapons this time. No more playing cop. This time she’d face Heinrich with some real firepower.
Even if she couldn’t save herself, Sam was going to make sure her grandmother survived. She had to. Viktor Heinrich wasn’t going to take anyone else from her. She’d kill him long before he even thought about it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ash and Luke found themselves at Ropewalk Tavern for a few beers. They sat at a table in the corner, out of earshot of others. Ash figured Luke suggested going out for a reason, so he didn’t argue. Probably had news Ash wouldn’t like, so it was better they were out in public where he couldn’t make too much of a scene. At home he would break something important. Like his fist in the refrigerator. Or his foot through the front door.
“It’s just…after Buenos Aires…after Lorena—”
“Don’t start on that shit again,” Luke said, popping the top off his beer. “Let it go, man. The longer you—”
“Let it go?” Ash leaned across the high-top table and said in a low voice, “I killed a kid, Luke. How can I let that go? Do you know what it’s like to live with that shit on your conscience every day?”
Calder lifted one shoulder. “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Collateral damage. Did it suck that it happened? Hell yeah. But there’s nothing you could’ve done.”
“I gave the fucking orders to go in.” Blood vessels strained under Ash’s skin. Seeing Calder again brought all his demons back to the surface.
Luke propped a forearm on the table and leaned over it. “And we fucking followed you.” His voice might have sounded calm, but his tight expression said he was anything but. “We followed you, Ash. Jesus. We’d do it again if it came down to it.”
Ash started at the words. “What are you saying?”
“We fucked up. All of us. That boy died because we couldn’t protect him.”
“Luke—”
“No.” He dropped his beer bottle down with the thud. “This shit’s not yours to bear. We went in as a team; we came out as a team. Simple as that.”
“Came out, shit,” Ash huffed. “Do you hear yourself, Luke? The only thing I remember after that mission is losing my team and my best friend. We weren’t a team. Not after that.”
“That’s because no one could stand to be around you, you son of a bitch. All self-loathing and pitiful. Taking full blame for everything that happened. Lorena was a bitch. You found out too late. Get over it.” He picked up his menu, blocking his face from Ash’s view. “They got any good grub around here? I’m starving.”
Ash’s fist tightened around the bottle, his knuckles screaming from the strain. “You’re a huge dick, you know that, Calder?”
The menu dropped, revealing one side of Luke’s mouth lifted. “One of my best qualities I’m told.”
Just like old times. Ash allowed himself a small smile, then contemplated his friend’s unannounced visit. “The others send you to smooth things over?”
Luke shrugged before opening the menu again. “They knew you’d be less likely to rip my head off.”
Ash threw his head back and laughed. “Was I that bad?”
“A little more than an ass, just shy of a douche. We contemplated shooting you out of your misery.”
The corner of Ash’s mouth twitched. “It’s a wonder you didn’t.”
“Tyke wanted to,” he said, face still buried behind the menu. “But Reese said it’d involve too much paperwork. And you know how much he hates unnecessary paperwork.”
Ash smiled over his teammate’s notorious OCD need to follow protocol.
Luke lowered the menu to the table and signaled with a flick of his wrist to the waiter.
A college-aged guy approached with notepad and pen in hand. Luke ordered wings, potato skins, chili, and fries. Ash went with a burger.
Once the guy walked away to put their order in, Ash rubbed a hand down his face. His chest seemed lighter. That weight he’d been carrying around for the last year from the humiliation and guilt seemed to have evaporated. “Thanks, man. For coming. For setting me straight.”
Never one for the touchy-feely, Luke nodded his response. Great with women in his bed, but shit with real feelings. “Enough about you,” he said. “I want to talk about Samantha. Think she’s a good idea given your track record?”
“You really wanna go there after the conversation we just had?” Ash sent him a lethal look. “Jesus, Luke. You know—”
“Hey, man.” Luke raised his arms in defense. “Relax. No need
to rehash old scars. I’m just saying. Watch yourself.”
“Watch myself? What the hell do you think I’ve been doing over the last month? Shit. You think I wanted this to happen? You think I didn’t try to stop it?” Ash closed his eyes and massaged his screaming temples. “She’s…” A muscle tightened in his jaw. “She’s hard to ignore.”
Luke grinned. “I noticed. Slammed a door in your face—I like her already.”
Ash cracked an eye open, smiling. “Well, to be fair, I slammed one in hers first.”
“Really?” Luke’s eyes brightened. “I just met her, and I can imagine the shit-storm that brought on.”
They both chuckled.
The waiter came back with a full tray of food. After asking if they needed anything else, he turned and left.
Luke picked up a wing and took a bite, and spoke between chews. “So why are you here talking about her instead of back at your place inside of her?”
Ash groaned. “It’s complicated.”
“With you, my friend, it usually is.” Luke washed down his comment with a swig of beer, then said, “So what’s the deal? She a bit hard to handle? Too wild for your type-A, anal tendencies? Give me two minutes with her, I’ll show her—”
Ash’s insides boiled, and his eyesight clouded.
Luke hid a smile behind the bottle. “Damn, you’re a possessive bastard.”
“It’s crazy, man. I just…I can’t explain it. Most of the time she makes me so nuts I want to bash my head into a wall. But then she does something that makes me want to”—Ash gave his friend a sidelong glance—“I’m sure you can figure out the rest.”
“So why haven’t you?” Luke asked, scooping a large helping of chili. “Figured out the rest, I mean.”
Ash let out a loud exhale. “You know why.”
“She’s not worth it, you know. Lorena. This power you allow her to have over you. The sooner you get that shit out of your system, the sooner you can move on. Be happy. With Samantha, if you want.”
“It’s just…shit, Luke. I thought…you know, I thought I…loved her.” The last part was muttered, but he knew Luke heard him.
“And now you can’t trust your own judgment on the next one. That it?”
He leveled Luke with a glare. “I can’t go around jumping into bed with every woman who gives me a hard-on.”
“Why not? I do.” Then Luke sobered. “I’ll put a bullet in you myself if you don’t listen to me the next time. And I’m not Lorena. I won’t miss.”
“What a relief,” Ash added wryly.
Resting his spoon in the half-empty bowl, he placed it on the side of the table, moving his plate of fries in front of him. “So, you gonna go kiss and make up? Or are you gonna continue to give yourself blue balls?”
“They hurt less than a bullet.”
“Yeah, but the recovery…” Luke closed his eyes, inhaling deeply through his nose.
“I can’t get her to look at me, let alone talk to me.”
“Does she know how you feel?”
He barked out a laugh. “Hell, I don’t know how I feel.”
Luke’s eyebrows rose.
“I can’t…I didn’t…” Another sigh. “No, I didn’t tell her.”
Luke sat up straighter and grinned. “That might be your first step. Even I know that. Chicks respond to feelings. They want to hear flowery shit you spew from your heart.”
Ash shook his head and laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.” But he knew full well Sam wasn’t the kind of woman who wanted anything spewed from his heart. She wanted honesty, so of course he’d tell her how he felt, but she wasn’t a roses and wine kind of woman. She was a go-out-and-take-charge type. Make an impression. He just had to think of a way to do it. It’d be damn hard to impress a woman like Samantha Harper.
…
Ash and Luke returned to his house a few hours later. They’d settled on his worn sofa and watched a pair of commentators analyzing the baseball game that just ended. They both had slowed up on the beers at the bar, because Luke needed to be alert for recon later that night. Heinrich was apparently more active the last few days at the compound, which confirmed the team’s assumption that he was getting ready for his shipment within the next week.
There’d been no other sightings of Davy Harper, or Jonah Michaels. The words cut right through him. He’d promised Sam if she gave the team more time, they’d tell her for sure if it was her father or not. That his team would make sure it was him before they took him down with Heinrich’s other men. But it seemed he couldn’t keep that promise. How was he going to tell her now they didn’t know where the hell her father was? And how would she react to that information?
“We’re doing what we can,” Luke said. “But that’s not our primary objective. We can’t watch Heinrich, his men, and keep an eye out for Harper, all while prepping for the raid. The team’s strapped as it is. You know that, man.”
He did know that. And it was because of him. If he had followed directions in South America, he wouldn’t be in this house. He’d be at the compound with his team, lending an extra hand.
But then you would have never met Sam.
Wow. A quick flood of heat coated his body. His heart thumped hard enough to vault out onto the floor. He shot to his feet, suddenly unable to sit still.
Luke jumped in reaction. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
“Nothing,” he said, pacing in front of the TV.
He loved her. Jesus Christ. He loved Sam. And if he’d never gotten involved with Lorena, he would’ve never met her. What a twisted realization that was. But he didn’t care. He’d been excluded from his team and been an outcast for a year, trying to kiss up to Director Landry to get his job back. And this woman was in front of him, fulfilling him more than any job ever would.
He turned to Calder, knowing he must have had the most pathetic, lovesick grin on his face. But he didn’t care about that either. He—
“Ashland!” a woman’s voice shouted from outside. “Mr. Ashland!”
They both stiffened, their heads darting toward the door, hands instinctively going to their weapons.
No one called him by his given name. It was Ash or Cooper. Nothing else.
He dropped to the floor and crawled to the window. Luke took position on the left side of the room by the front door. Calder signaled that he’d be cover, when the voice shouted again. “Ashland! Please open up! It’s about Sam!”
Ash was on his feet in an instant, ripping the door open. Before him stood the women from the neighborhood watch, minus Sam and her grandmother.
His gaze jumped from one wrinkled face to the next. “What happened? Where’s Sam?”
Luke hung back, gazing down at the gaggle of older women with a puzzled expression.
“He took her,” Maybel spoke. “Viktor Heinrich kidnapped Rose.”
“And Sam went after him,” a short one, looking like June Cleaver in pearls, said next.
His knees threatened to give out. And based on Luke’s wide-eyed stare, Ash knew he’d turned noticeably white. Or maybe green.
The one wearing pearls held out something in her hand. “This note said he’s going to keep Rose captive until the drop.”
“That’s next week!” Ash exclaimed.
The ladies passed terrified expressions to one another.
“Can’t be,” one looking like an older Daisy Duke said. “Why keep her that long?”
True. Why would Heinrich hold on to a hostage for a week? It would be more trouble than it was worth.
That could mean only one thing: he’d moved his shipment date up. Fuck.
He glanced at Calder, and his friend’s expression said he thought the same thing. Luke reached into his pocket, yanked out his phone, and punched buttons on the keypad.
“She made me promise not to tell anyone,” June Cleaver spoke again. “But—”
“I don’t know why you listened to her.” Maybel’s words were clipped.
June’s eyebrows s
agged as red flamed in her cheeks. “She made me promise.”
Maybel grunted, waving her arm in dismissal.
His heart stopped.
His stomach dropped to the floor, which was impossible since, at the same time, he thought he was going to puke. Shit. Sam. Going after Viktor Heinrich.
Goddamn it, why didn’t she come to me? When she got that note, why didn’t she ask me for help?
He hadn’t been here. He’d hopped in the car with Luke, and they’d driven away. Even after seeing her terrified expression when that car with thumping music drove down the street, he still left her. He should’ve pressed her for information, should have made her tell him what she was so afraid of. But he didn’t.
If only he’d been here. She could’ve come to him. He would’ve helped her. She had to know that, right? He wasn’t sure. Not after the way they’d parted the last time she’d come over. He’d insulted her about not passing the police exam, which in turn insulted her confidence in their relationship. He’d seen her expression before she left. She didn’t trust him. Hell, he didn’t know if she ever had.
If anything happened to her… If Heinrich hurt her, or worse, killed her, he’d rip out Heinrich’s throat with his bare hands. Fuck getting his team back. Fuck everything. Nothing else would matter.
“We’re going to get them,” Daisy Duke said, “and we need your help.”
Ash took a step back from the force of her words. Luke’s jaw dropped open. “You need my help?”
All the women looked at each other, and then turned to him, nodding.
“And hurry,” Maybel said. “We don’t have much time.” She shot an unforgiving look to June, whose face flooded crimson as she looked away.
“Coop.” Luke stepped forward, placing his hand on Ash’s shoulder. “We gotta talk.”
His nerves were already on edge, and Luke’s solemn face sent him crashing to the ground.
“I didn’t come to smooth things over.” Calder hesitated, weighing his words. “Heinrich’s club caught fire last week. Fire department said it was arson. After what happened the last time you went, Director Landry thinks you had something to do with it—”
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