“Would it kill you to knock?” Megan frowned at him.
At the sight of her pink pouting lips, Dimitri was momentarily derailed. It felt like an eternity since he’d had a taste of her and even though he knew it was best to keep it that way, he still couldn’t help but suffer withdrawal symptoms every time he saw her.
“What do you want?” Rachel demanded, bringing him back to the issue at hand.
“You’re needed in the conference room.” He noted Julia’s face turning beetroot red. Definitely guilt. Interesting.
“There isn’t a meeting scheduled.” Rachel stood tall in her spiked heels and tailored suit. She folded her arms and tapped her red talons on the grey sleeve of her jacket.
He wasn’t intimidated. “Scheduled or not, there’s still a meeting. Hop to it, ladies.” He flung the door wide and gestured for them to leave.
Elle gave him a sunny smile, Rachel tried to incinerate his head with her glare, Julia couldn’t look at him and Megan frowned.
“You’re up to something,” she said as she came level with him.
“Funny, I was thinking exactly the same thing about you.”
She gave him a cute little growl and stomped after the rest of them. Dimitri cast his eyes around the empty office. There was no time to search the place, but his sixth sense, honed from years with the US army rangers, was screaming at him that there was trouble ahead. He hoped to hell it wasn’t the sort of trouble that got them all killed.
“Bloody meetings,” Megan grumbled as they filed into the conference room. “All we do is hold meetings. I’m seriously over being a mercenary. It’s boring.”
“Amen, sister,” Elle said as she plopped down into a chair.
“Can we hurry this along?” Rachel’s icy voice demanded. “We have things to do.”
“All in good time,” Joe told her. “We have a little PowerPoint presentation for you. Shouldn’t take too long.”
“Joe?” Julia’s voice trembled and Megan willed her not to give the game away. “I wasn’t told about a meeting. I don’t have anything on file for this presentation.”
“I’m running the media today, Julia.” Joe’s voice was firm. A tone he never, ever used with Julia. It set off alarm bells. “You sit down and pay attention.”
Julia ducked her head and grabbed a seat, far from Joe and close to the wall. Megan watched Joe as he in turn studied Julia. Something was definitely up. When she saw the guys share a speaking look her stomach flipped. They were on to them. She was sure of it. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and sent a text to Rachel and Elle. Not to Julia, the woman didn’t have anything even resembling a poker face.
The text said: They’re suspicious. Do NOT leave Julia alone with them!!!
She didn’t have to add anything else. They all knew who would cave under pressure. She caught a subtle nod from each of the women.
The lights went out and Joe’s baritone filled the room. “We thought, seeing as the op is less than twenty four hours away, that it would do us all good to have a reminder of what we’re dealing with.”
A photo flashed on the screen. It showed a beaming blonde woman in her graduation gown. “This is Becky Marshall. She graduated from Florida U with a degree in childhood education. She went missing while she was backpacking through Eastern Europe with her cousin. She turned up three months later when German authorities raided an illegal brothel on their eastern border. This is what she looked like when they found her.”
Another photo appeared on the screen and Megan felt the blood drain from her face. Julia gasped. Elle swore. The woman on the screen was a shadow of the beaming blonde. She was naked, bloody, broken and bruised. Someone had cut words into her stomach. Her eyes were glassy.
“She was alive.” Joe’s tone was deadly. “If you can believe it. She was drugged out of her mind and the hospital didn’t think she’d had a decent meal in weeks. She’d been raped repeatedly. Beaten. Cut.”
Megan heard a soft sob coming from Julia and her fists clenched. “What’s the point of this, Joe?”
Joe carried on as if she hadn’t said a word. “The brothel was owned by Rudi Abramovich. The only reason we know this is because the authorities were lucky during the raid and managed to detain someone high up in the organisation.” The screen flashed to show a man hanging in a cell. “He killed himself after mentioning Rudi’s name. There wasn’t enough evidence to pin it to Rudi after that. Charges were never laid. But then, you need to catch the bastard in the right country to charge him with anything.”
The photo changed again. This one was taken in a hospital. The woman was sitting on a gurney. Her face wasn’t in the photo. Her torso was covered in bruises, some old, some new. There were small circular scars on her breasts. “Those marks are cigar burns. Rudi thought it was a good punishment for his wife after she didn’t smile at his associates during dinner.”
“That’s Hope?” Elle whispered.
“Yeah.” Joe sounded tight, like he was about to roar. “That’s Hope. Those photos were taken in the hospital after we got her out of Romania.”
Julia’s sobs became more strangled. Megan stood up and blocked the projection with her body. “Enough, Joe. What’s this all about?”
The lights came on, making everyone blink hard for a few seconds. When their vision adjusted it was to see Dimitri and Joe standing shoulder to shoulder, arms folded, staring at them.
“This is about making sure you realise what’s at stake here,” Joe said. “We know you’re scheming something. Whatever it is, you’d better think again. We can’t take any risks. This man,” he spat the word, “gets off on hurting women. He doesn’t see them as people, they’re possessions, objects to do what he wants with. He tortures, rapes, kills. He’s done it personally and he sanctions it when the people who work for him do it.” He took a step towards Megan. “This isn’t a game. Nobody’s playing here. This is dangerous. You, especially, are in danger.”
“Don’t you think we know that?” Megan snapped at him. “We read the report just like you did. We saw the photos. Heard the taped testimonies of women who survived. Don’t you think it would have more of an impact on us than it did on you? Look around you, Joe. We are women. We know the fear of being hurt. Of being raped. Of being taken. It’s a fear you can’t understand because you don’t live with it every single bloody day.”
She threw up her hands in exasperation as she turned her back on him.
“I don’t think—” he started, but Elle stood and glared at him.
“No, you don’t think,” she said. “Neither of you do. Look at the two of you. You’re huge, over six feet of solid muscle and attitude. You walk out of here at night and it never even occurs to you that someone would look at you and think you’d make a great victim. You’ve never been on a date where the guy won’t take no for an answer. You’ve never had someone you trust turn on you just because they know you can’t fight back.”
Rachel stood. “You’ve never been out for an evening and taken a drink someone has tampered with and then lived with the gap in your memory and the possibilities of what might have happened during it.”
Julia sobbed again. “You’ve never cowered because you knew that even if you hit back it wouldn’t make an impact.”
“Jules.” Joe’s voice sounded strangled. He took a step towards Julia, but she turned her face to the wall and he looked as though he’d taken a blow.
Megan took a deep shuddering breath full of fury. “You two are doing what you do best, I get it. You’re knights in shining armour, desperate to ride to the rescue. You’re big, you’re bad and you can be terrifying. But one thing you will never be is a woman at the mercy of a man. To answer your question, we’re taking this very seriously. We’re taking it very personally. And we will make sure that this man pays for what he’s done.” She sneered at them. “Even if we have to deal with you two idiots to get the job done.”
She looked at the other, equally furious women. Elle had her arms around a sobbin
g Julia.
“We’re out of here,” Megan said to them.
“My place,” Rachel said. “We need a night without testosterone stupidity.”
“Amen, sister,” Elle said.
“We’ll be back in the morning. Maybe you should spend tonight thinking about how insulting your little slideshow was and how bloody arrogant you were to think it was a good idea.” Megan gave them one last disgusted look before following her friends. As she left she heard Dimitri’s voice.
“That didn’t go as planned,” he said.
“No kidding, Einstein,” Joe said. “I think we may have made things worse.”
Megan rolled her eyes. She was dealing with idiots.
Chapter Sixteen
Dimitri wished he had a hangover. But instead of spending the night getting lost in a bottle, after the spectacular failure in the conference room, he’d spent it going over the details of the op. In between stressing, double-checking and worrying, he’d managed to grab a couple of hours sleep. He’d done more complex jobs on less, but he still felt like hell.
“Let’s go over this one more time from the top,” Callum said as he stood at the front of the conference room.
There was an aerial map of Rudi’s house pinned to the rolling whiteboard at the side of the table.
“Ryan and I will take up sniper positions, here and here.” He pointed to the positions they’d scoped that covered the two main entrances to the property. Callum’s vantage point in particular gave him a good view right to the front door and behind one of the garages.
“Joe will be on the ground, here.” He pointed at the driveway two properties over from Rudi’s house. The owners were out of town and Callum had pulled strings to enable Joe to park his car there without private security blowing his cover. He was close enough to get to them should they need someone covering their backs fast.
“Dimitri and Megan will drive up to the property in the Ford Sedan we bought for that purpose.” Callum looked at everyone in turn. “The car cannot be connected to Benson Security. It has no tech in it. That’s because we know it will be searched and scanned. Most likely tagged as well. You won’t touch that car after you leave the property.” He rubbed his face. “You will also be scanned for bugs when you enter the property, that’s why you aren’t being wired for this op. It would never make it past the first checkpoint.” He pointed at the guardhouse inside the gate. “Your phones will be confiscated along with anything else that’s even remotely electronic. You’ll lose your weapons. From there on in, you’re on your own. Naked in a hostile environment.”
“I really hope you don’t mean literally naked,” Megan piped up, pulling a smile from one or two people.
Her anger from the previous day was gone and she didn’t seem to be bearing a grudge. Which was suspicious. The Megan he’d come to know was real good at bearing a grudge. He eyed her thoughtfully and earned a sunny smile. Maybe he was reading too much into the situation. Maybe. Wrenching his eyes from her, he concentrated on Callum.
“You have twenty minutes to get in, get the information and get out.” Callum studied Dimitri and Megan. Dimitri read everything he couldn’t say in his eyes. This wasn’t a good situation. They were literally walking into the lion’s den without backup or weapons. “I can’t give you more than that.”
“Why not?” Megan said. “What if it isn’t long enough to get the ring? What if Rudi keeps us waiting in the hall for the whole twenty minutes?”
Callum stared at her. “Then you leave. Twenty minutes is all you get. If you don’t succeed in that time, then we try again another way.”
“But why twenty? It doesn’t seem long enough.” Megan looked worried.
The sight melted Dimitri’s resolve to keep his distance. For some reason he hated it when Megan experienced discomfort of any kind. He reached over and covered the back of her neck with his palm. He rubbed tiny circles in her tense muscles with his thumb, gratified when the gesture seemed to comfort her.
“Twenty minutes,” Dimitri told her, “is the maximum he can give us in case we’re injured and need help. Any more than that and we might not survive a trip to the hospital. It’s also the minimum amount of time it would take Rudi’s security to fully mobilise.” Well, they could probably do it in less than twenty minutes, but they were accounting for the time it would take before the alarm was sounded.
Her beautiful blue eyes held his. “What if we’re badly injured and twenty minutes is too long?”
“Anything you can’t survive for that amount of time would kill you anyway.”
She licked her dry lips and held his gaze for a moment longer before turning back to Callum. “Got it, twenty minutes and then the cavalry storms the castle.”
“We have got to work on your metaphors,” Dimitri told her. “Cavalries don’t storm castles.”
“Yeah, correct me, because that’s the most important part of this discussion.” She frowned at him and he couldn’t help but chuckle. It felt good. It felt normal. It was reassuring. He dropped his hand back to the table in front of him, wishing he still held Megan. And calling himself all kinds of a fool for wishing it.
“Twenty minutes from the second you enter that house,” Callum said again. “You both have watches on. Use them. If we don’t see you exit on twenty, we come in, guns blazing, and get you out of there.”
Dimitri nodded. “Once inside Rudi’s office, I disable the guards while Megan uses the tech Elle gave her to copy the information on the flash drive. Then we get out of there before they wake up.”
“Painting a target on our backs and leaving Claire hanging in the wind,” Megan said.
“One thing at a time, Buffy. First we get the info, then we swoop in for the kill.”
“Yeah, right,” she muttered. “We swoop in months from now.”
“Okay.” Callum ignored the dig. “We ready to head out?”
There was a round of nods as one by one, people left the room. Dimitri watched as the women wished Megan luck and Julia gave her a shy hug. The strange actions made him realise more than ever that Megan, in fact none of the women, were trained for this sort of thing. They didn’t know what to expect. They didn’t know how to react. And Dimitri knew it was far too late to worry if they were asking too much of them.
They headed down to the garage at the back of the house as the rest of the team left to get into position. The meeting was scheduled for noon and they had plenty of time to get to the house. Megan was wearing faded jeans that were ripped at the knees. As agreed, her face was makeup free and her hair was rumpled as though she hadn’t been able to fix it. The T-shirt she wore had a hole ripped in it and a black smudge. The intent was to look like they’d been on the road for a couple of days and there had been a struggle when he’d taken her.
“Give me a minute,” Megan said, heading for the bathroom.
“We’re on a schedule here,” Dimitri shouted after her.
“I’ll be right back.”
Dimitri closed his eyes and mentally went over the plan. He had no doubt he’d be able to subdue the guards inside Rudi’s office, or that he’d be able to knock Rudi out so Megan could duplicate the information on the ring. What worried him was getting out without setting off alarms. The timing was a problem. They’d need to work fast. Otherwise the security team would discover their boss unresponsive and the house would be locked down tight. He rubbed his temples. So much could go wrong. If Megan got hurt…No, he couldn’t think like that. The question wasn’t whether she could take care of herself or not, it was whether she’d follow orders or go all maverick on his ass.
“I’m ready.”
Dimitri opened his eyes and promptly forgot to breathe. His jaw opened and closed a couple of times before words came out. “What the hell?”
Megan stood in front of him, her hand on her cocked hip, her eyes gleaming. She wore a red mini dress that fit like a second skin. It left nothing to the imagination. Her hair was tied in a high ponytail. Her lips were painted red, h
er eyes were outlined in black. Her only jewellery was a black wristwatch and an oversized ring in the shape of a black rose. Her feet were clad in mile-high black pumps.
“What the hell?” he said again, because his brain was fried.
Her smile was slow, wide and full of evil intent. “The girls and I decided this outfit would cause more of a distraction than the poor, victimised woman outfit.”
His eyes snapped away from tracing her curves. “Is this what you were planning in the office yesterday?”
“You’ll never know.” She sashayed towards him. “Because instead of asking politely, you decided to educate us. Shame the only thing we learned was just how arrogant you guys are.” She smiled at him. “Let’s go or we’ll be late. Wouldn’t want to keep Rudi waiting, now would we?”
She climbed into the car. So much for not going maverick on him. At least the worst she’d done was change clothes. He could cope with that. It would be fine. He hoped.
It took all of Dimitri’s self-control to focus on getting the car out of the garage and into traffic. He kept getting distracted by the steaming hot blonde sitting beside him. Rudi’s house wasn’t that far from their office as the crow flies, but with London’s roads and heavy traffic it would take time to get there. As he drove, his brain rushed over the plan, trying to see where her new look would ruin things. Apart from questions about why she was in such a great state, he couldn’t think of any problems. In fact, it might even work in his favour. He could tell Rudi he cleaned up the merchandise for the meeting. Yeah, that would make him look good. He relaxed. Slightly.
It took a few minutes for him to realise Megan wasn’t talking, which wasn’t normal. She sat quietly beside him, clutching her stomach and looking nervous. Dimitri did a double take—Megan never looked nervous. It suddenly occurred to him that she may have been hiding her anxiety about the op. He should have talked to her about it. It was normal to feel anxious the first time, even for a trained operative.
Reckless (Benson's Boys Book 1) Page 12