by Barb Han
Dash’s pulse was through the roof as he tapped his toe, waiting for the elevator to reach its destination. This wasn’t the time to review his mistakes, but the critical one—and the reason he blamed himself for Raina’s abduction—was that they’d stayed in the building too long. He should have kept her on the move. He’d fallen into a false sense of security.
“On fourteen. Doors opening.” A few seconds passed. “Clear.”
The minute the bell dinged, Dash surveyed the landing and immediately located Liam. Back to back, they moved down the long hallway.
A door opened as they moved past it. A startled-looking jogger seemed to change her mind.
“Federal agent,” Dash said quietly.
She retreated instantly.
They listened for any sounds of struggle. Nothing. There were eight apartments on each floor in this tower, four on each side. Liam and Dash moved down the hallway methodically, listening carefully at each door.
The perp had to know they would be on the floor by now. The thought Raina could already be dead wasn’t something Dash could accept. It was in that moment he realized how deep his feelings were for her. The thought of anything happening to her was more than a gut punch—it threatened to rip his heart to shreds.
When this was over and she was safe—and that was the only outcome he could consider—he intended to see if she felt the same way, if there was any chance they could be together on any terms. Layla would come around. She had to.
At the last set of doors, Liam got a hit. They switched positions so that Dash faced the door. He fired off a text with the address to Miguel with a request for help. The cavalry would arrive in a matter of minutes. But would it be too late for Raina? Was she even in the room?
Heart pounding, chest threatening to crack open, he used his police-raid knock.
“Federal agents, open up,” Dash said in his loud authoritative voice.
The music that had been thumping from apartment 1407 came to a grinding halt. Anyone who was home on this floor was probably glued to their peephole right now, which didn’t matter as long as they stayed inside where they’d be safe.
Dash fired off three more of those wall-shaking knocks.
“Open the door right now.”
“I’m willing to negotiate,” came the voice he recognized as Alec’s. He couldn’t possibly have pulled off tricking Liam on his own, which meant there were at least two people on the other side of the door. Three, counting Raina.
Dash wasn’t a hostage negotiator, so he texted Miguel. “How about you come out here and we’ll talk.”
“No, thank you,” came the muffled response. Alec?
“Send out your hostage.” Dash figured he was dealing with an amateur, and that would work to his advantage. He might as well go ahead and ask for what he wanted straight out of the gate.
“Sorry. Not happening,” Alec said. He cleared his throat. He was trying to mask his uncertainty by sounding commanding.
“I need to verify the hostage is alive,” Dash said.
“She is.”
“Your word isn’t good enough, Alec.” Dash needed Alec to realize he knew exactly who he was speaking to. “I need proof. Let her speak to me.”
“She can’t right now.”
“Then we have nothing to talk about. But I’ll tell you this...” Dash had to make a bold move so Alec would be certain he wasn’t going to walk out of here unless Dash said so. “In about five minutes, this block will be surrounded by Seattle PD. Around the same time, this building will be crawling with federal agents. There will be more law enforcement on this floor than bees around a hive. So, we can do this your way, which will lead to you being taken by force into custody, or we can do this my way, which will lead to your peaceful arrest. Either way, you’re going to jail.”
“Not an option.” Alec’s voice was a bit shakier now.
“What did you think was going to happen, Alec?”
“I want safe passage out of the building, or I’ll kill her.” He was trying to force confidence. This was the first real sign that Raina was alive. In boxing terms, Dash had Alec against the ropes.
“Kill her and you have no bargaining tool. That wouldn’t just be reckless, it would be stupid,” Dash reasoned.
There were a few beats of silence before a fist slammed against the other side of the door.
“Who is in there with you, Alec?” Dash asked.
“That’s not your concern.”
Dash’s cell indicated a text had come through. The message was from Miguel.
Sending up a chopper.
“Time is ticking, Alec. The longer I stand here, the hungrier I get. Do you know what that means?”
“I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do. Because when I get hungry, I’m a son of a bitch to deal with. And that means I’ll rip this door down with my bare hands if I have to,” Dash said.
More of that silence.
Another text came through.
Building maintenance is on the way up.
The elevator dinged.
“Guess what else, Alec?” Dash continued. “Maintenance is stepping off the elevator now. He has a key on his key ring that will open the door. If you’re seen as cooperating, the jury might go lighter on your sentence.”
The guy didn’t realize it yet, but he’d already lost.
Dash just wished he knew who else was on the other side of the door with him. Was it motorcycle guy?
“Three minutes have passed. That means Seattle’s finest is closing in,” Dash warned. “Open up before it gets worse.”
A few tense seconds passed before the dead-bolt lock clicked. The door opened a crack, and footsteps could be heard backing away. Not a good sign.
Dash’s heart was in his throat. He glanced at Liam, who gave him a look of solidarity.
Dash wasn’t lying. Agents would swarm the building soon. Seattle PD was setting up a perimeter. The only thing he’d fudged was the timing.
A guy in jeans and a clean white shirt emerged from the elevator. He had a ring of keys in his hands. A few seconds too late, Dash thought.
Dash shook his head and put his hand up to warn the maintenance man to stay back. He pointed toward the elevators, and Dash nodded as he stepped a foot just inside the door. No one could close it now.
With Liam behind him, Dash flattened his back against the wall and took the first step inside. “Make sure your hands are where I can see them, Alec.”
No response.
Dash’s stomach dropped.
“Alec?”
Again, nothing.
The layout of the apartment should be similar to Layla’s, so Dash risked a step inside. There was no cover in the entryway, but he had a straight line of sight all the way to the window. A chopper hovered out the window.
“Do you see that, Alec? They’re here for you,” Dash said. “A team is on its way up via the elevator and the stairs. There are no exits.”
Dash pushed a little deeper into the apartment as a drape blew toward him from the Juliet balcony, where Alec was holding an unresponsive Raina as he leaned against the rail.
One of the most basic rules of law enforcement dictated never running toward an injured person. He was trained to follow protocol for a reason, to save his life. So he had to fight every instinct he had not to charge toward Alec.
“Bring her inside,” Dash said calmly, although his heart was pounding fifty miles an hour.
“No.” There was a hysterical quality to Alec’s voice now.
“What are you going to do? Throw her over? I’m here. Cops are everywhere. You don’t want to add murder to the list of crimes. What you’ve done so far is something you can eventually walk away from. Kill her and it’s game over.” Dash’s finger hovered on the trigger. He had a clean shot, and yet he couldn’t risk Raina b
eing tossed over the edge. Despite what it looked like on TV, there was only one shot that stopped a person in their tracks. All others took a few minutes for the brain to catch up. If someone was charging at the shooter, they would continue to charge.
Dash was skilled with a gun. He wouldn’t take the risk.
“Shoot me and she dies,” Alec said, his voice a little more hysterical. He moved his right hand from around Raina’s hip, and Dash immediately saw the weapon aimed at him.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a female figure clad in all black leaped toward Alec. Her swift movements were so elegant and graceful he immediately knew who she was: Talia.
A scream ripped from her throat as Alec fired. She knocked the gun loose from Alec’s hand. Raina dropped onto the floor with a thud. Dash didn’t waste a second, he lunged toward Alec as Liam made a move for the weapon, which slid across the wood with a scraping sound.
Dash wrestled Alec to the floor and was on top of his chest, squeezing his arms at his sides with the leverage of his thighs.
Talia rolled over to them like a gator with prey in its teeth.
“Freeze, Talia,” Dash said. He aimed his weapon in her direction in time to see blood pooling on the floor where she’d stopped three feet away from him.
“She’s pathetic,” Talia growled.
“You’re bleeding.”
The thunder of footsteps sounded in the hallway. The cavalry had arrived.
“In the living room. I’m armed,” Dash shouted, unsure if this would be local PD or a member of his team.
“What did you do to her?” Dash asked Talia.
“Why should I tell you?” she asked, defiance in her tone.
“Because I’m in love with her.” There. He said it. He meant every word. “And if she’ll have me, I plan to ask her to marry me.”
A gut-wrenching cry tore from Talia’s throat. “Why? Why not me?” She balled her fists and thrust them in the air. “Why not me, Dash? Tell me.”
“The heart wants what it wants, Talia.” It was all he could say. His wanted Raina.
Talia did a back roll as a local cop stormed the room, weapon drawn. His partner came in right behind him.
“Hands in the air, Talia. Don’t give them a reason to shoot,” Dash ordered.
Talia hesitated before slowly bringing her hands up. Blood dripped from her right elbow, and her skin had paled.
“She’s shot. See that she gets medical attention.” Make no mistake about it, Dash owed her his life. Because she’d acted, he could save Raina. “This man is responsible for stealing two million dollars. He took a hostage, and he threatened a federal officer.” Dash eased his grip, twisted Alec onto his face and jerked his hands behind his back. “Read him his rights and lock him up.”
“Yes, sir,” the first officer said. The second zip-cuffed Talia as Dash practically launched himself toward Raina.
Liam was already there beside her, and he was giving her something that looked a lot like smelling salts. She wrinkled her nose and blinked her eyes. She jerked her head back and twisted up her face.
“Dash.” His name sounded like heaven on her tongue.
“I’m here.” And he had no plans to leave.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The bed was warm, the covers soft. Raina was pretty certain most people didn’t get to sleep in a room that felt more like a luxury hotel than a hospital. Dash had insisted she let him cover the bill.
She’d been in and out of sleep for a couple of hours before she finally felt awake enough to sit up on her own. The second she stirred, Dash was by her side.
“Hey,” he said. His masculine voice washed over and through her.
“Hi there.”
He stood next to her bed, the light behind him creating a halo effect around his head. He was her angel, all right.
“How are you feeling?” He covered her hand with his, and that familiar and comforting electricity jolted through her.
“Better when I look at you.” She smiled. It was corny, but it elicited a devastating grin from him.
“I was hoping you’d say something like that, because I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.”
Her heart squeezed at the thought of him leaving at all.
“What happened? The last couple of hours are a blur,” she admitted. Her memories were hazy and felt more like a dream than reality.
“Alec stole the money because he was tired of being passed over for promotion. Miguel discovered his nickname was Phish, and that led to linking him to the storefront on the dark web. Alec talked Jenny into slipping a thumb drive in Layla’s computer, which stole Layla’s password. Once he learned she’d been having an affair with a married man he didn’t mind letting her take the fall for a crime she didn’t commit. Her erratic behavior gave him an easy out,” he explained.
“Who was the guy from the lobby?” she asked.
“Someone Alec planned to invest in once he got the money safely filtered through his storefront. The start-up would be a way to clean the money,” he said.
“And Sheldon?” she asked.
“He broke into the system and stole social security numbers, according to Liam. Sheldon wanted revenge. He just hadn’t decided what he was going to do with them yet. He will be prosecuted for his crime,” he said. “There’s a fine line between genius and criminal.”
Raina had seen that more than once.
“What about my mom and my apartment?” she asked.
“Both have been taken care of. Your mom is safely back at her rehab facility. She slept through most of the time she was off property. She is asking to see you,” Dash said before frowning. “Not much was salvageable in the apartment. What the fire didn’t destroy, water did.” He paused. “I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s not your fault,” she defended.
“It is Talia’s and she never would have gone after you if not for me.”
“What about Talia? In my dream, she was there.”
“I was tracking Alec, and she tailed me. Once she figured out who I was after, she saw an opportunity to get back at me through hurting Layla and then you. Alec needed you out of the picture, so she helped him but said he panicked once the plan started unraveling and news the motorcycle guy she’d hired almost killed us both. Alec and Jenny stole the money and planned to start a new life with it. Both wanted out of the firm but neither is a career criminal, so they started cracking under the pressure. Once Talia figured out what was going on, she tried to strike up a bargain. Deliver me and she would help them.”
“She must really hate me,” Raina said.
“I doubt you’re her favorite person, but that’s only because I love you.”
She blinked at him, unsure she’d just heard right. “Excuse me. What did you just say?”
“That I love you. And I do, Raina. I’ve never met anyone who makes me feel the way you do. I’ve never met anyone I couldn’t walk away from without feeling like a hole had been punched in my chest,” he admitted, and for a split second, he looked incredibly vulnerable. “So what do you think? Do you feel the same?”
Is that a real question?
“I’m deeply in love with you, Dash. I can’t imagine loving anyone more, because what we have is special. I was afraid that I couldn’t handle the thought of anything happening to you in your job. But I choose not to live in fear anymore. Being afraid has been holding me back from really being alive, and I want to give you all of me,” she said.
His response came in the form of a tender kiss.
“But there’s another person in our lives to consider. There’s no question that I feel the same way about you. But Layla’s important, and I doubt she would give her blessing.” Raina gasped because it suddenly sank in that Alec was behind bars. Was her friend in there with him? “Speaking of Layla, is she out? I can’t believe I didn’t ask about
her first. What kind of person am I?”
Just as shame nearly dragged Raina under, Layla stepped out of the shadows. “One who risks her life to save mine.”
“Layla.” Tears welled in Raina’s eyes at seeing her friend out of jail, free. “Come here.”
Layla crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.
“I can’t. Not until my brother asks the question he’s working up to ask,” Layla said, and then her face broke into a wide smile.
Dash got down on one knee at Raina’s bedside.
“Raina, I’ll never love anyone as much as I love you. What we have is special and real, and I don’t want to lose you ever again.” He paused for a beat as Raina’s heart hammered in her throat. “Would you do me the incredible honor of marrying me?”
She didn’t have to think about it for a second. All she had to do was look over at her best friend, who nodded.
“Yes, Dash. I will marry you. I’m hopelessly in love with you, and I want to start forever as a family.”
Dash pushed up enough to kiss her, soft and tender.
Layla cleared her throat. “Excuse me. I have something to say.”
She moved beside her brother, who made room for her.
“I already feel like we’re sisters, so I can’t wait to make it official,” Layla said.
“You’re already my family, Layla. We don’t need a piece of paper for that,” Raina said, then added, “But I’m marrying your hot brother.”
“Oh no. Did you just call my brother ‘hot’?” Layla laughed. Raina laughed. Dash laughed.
Raina couldn’t wait to make this family official. With Dash, she’d found her place. She’d found home.
Epilogue
Dash rolled up his wrinkled sleeves. He picked up a pen from the top of his desk and absently rolled it around his fingers. It was late, and he had a fiancée to get home to. As much as he respected Raina and Layla’s girls’ night in, he couldn’t wait to see his future bride.
He closed down his computer and pushed to standing, stretching out the muscles that were sore from sitting too long in his chair.