The blunt rhythm of rotor blades echoed nearer and nearer. Those better be the Guardians.
The man straightened his suit and speared Nate with a calculating stare. “Nathan Reece?”
“You got it,” Nate said. “I’ll make this quick. I want Sylvie and that’s non-negotiable.”
“That’s quite a demand, Mr. Reece, seeing you’re outnumbered.”
And just like an old Tarantino movie, gangsters dressed in black emerged simultaneously from the other vehicles. Weapons were not drawn, but they were visible either on the waistband or shoulder holster.
“Speak to me, Gabe,” Nate muttered into comms, tension stiffening his spine. Judging from the alert stance of Travis and Porter, they were ready for a firefight.
“I’ve got Yoshida in sight,” Gabe answered.
Thank Christ.
It was at that time Yoshida paid attention to the approaching chopper, expression turning wary.
“I’ve got a sniper trained on your head,” Nate said. “I don’t want this to get bloody. All I want is Sylvie. You have to make a decision now—”
Vehicles passed by their standoff, passengers curious.
“—your whole convoy is under surveillance,” Nate added. “But it’s still off the grid from conventional law enforcement—”
“And unconventional is?” Daichi arched a brow.
“Us,” Porter answered. “We could take you down, bury your entire crew never to be heard from again.”
“We only have minutes before the police get involved,” Nate said. “I’m sure one of those drivers who’ve passed us has already called 911.”
“How can you take care of Sylvie if it was this easy to snatch her from your house?”
That statement burned through Nate’s veins like acid. He made a tactical error by underestimating Hiroshi and her father.
“It didn’t take me long to track you,” he replied. “I’m not letting you take her.”
“I’m her father.”
“And her mother wants her back. I want her back. Sylvie is mine now, let’s be clear about that,” Nate spoke through gritted teeth.
Yoshida motioned for his men to stand down and crossed the road to stand in front of Nate. “Do you swear on your life, you will do everything to protect my daughter?”
“My life belongs to her because it’s nothing without her,” Nate said with conviction. “I will do anything for your daughter, Mr. Yoshida.”
“You love her.”
Nate cleared his throat. “I beg your pardon, sir, but I want her to hear it from me first.”
“Damn, Reece,” Gabe crackled through comms. “Wrap up this soap opera. Loudoun County police has been notified.”
“Shit,” Nate muttered. He nodded to the vehicles in front of him and addressed Daichi. “You need to go.”
Nate crossed the road with Sylvie’s father, ignoring the cursing from his side of this standoff, hoping everyone else had his back. His main focus right now was getting a visual on Sylvie because any further delay would make him lose his fucking mind.
When the passenger door opened, Nate’s apprehension morphed into fury when he took in Sylvie’s glazed eyes and sluggish movements. And blood?
“Nate,” she whispered.
“What the fuck did you do to her?” Nate growled. The anger inside him was about to detonate. “Where are you hurt, babe?”
“Not mine . . . the blood.”
Slightly appeased, he reached in and carefully lifted her.
“We had to administer a mild tranquilizer,” Daichi replied with no remorse. “She’s coming out of it and will be back to normal in an hour.” As if that sounded any better. These damned mafia types.
“Nate,” Sylvie repeated, her eyes lit up with what only could be described as elation.
His heart felt the same way. All through this ordeal he felt an elemental part of him had been ripped away, and now, with Sylvie in his arms he felt whole. “I got you, babe.”
He felt the older man’s eyes on him, the expression on his face one of fatherly approval.
“Until we meet again, Nathan San,” Daichi said. “Next time, I hope it will be under better circumstances.”
Nate nodded, and without another word, carried Sylvie to Travis’s SUV, loath to let her go even for a second. Porter got into the backseat to stay with her as Nate closed the door. He strode back to his bike and watched the ACS contingent pull away in their vehicles. Sighing heavily, he revved up his engine and got on the road, heading back to his house.
*****
She felt more like herself every minute the car drew closer to the house. Paralyzed and yet aware of one’s surroundings was one state Sylvie never wanted to find herself again. What was her father thinking? It would have been better to have just knocked her out. Sylvie fidgeted a bit and wiggled her toes. Yep, almost back to normal. A little tingly and thirsty.
As if reading her thoughts, the admiral leaned over with a newly opened water bottle. “Water?”
She nodded as Porter held the mouth of the bottle to her eager lips.
“Easy,” he said. “Your throat muscles might not be fully engaged yet and—”
She started choking. The admiral sighed.
“What did they give me?” Sylvie croaked.
“My guess? It’s Parakleptis. It’s a targeted tranquilizer known to momentarily paralyze your extremities, and yet allow your respiratory system to work. Your senses are muddled though, and you noticed you haven’t choked on your saliva, but you were incapable of speech.”
“Freaky . . .”
“It’s used in PsyOps to mess with a subject’s head. Apparently, it has reached the arsenal of the criminal underworld.”
Sylvie looked out the window and saw Nate passing their SUV on his bike, looking briefly at her before settling in front of their vehicle.
“I’ve never seen Nate lose control like today,” Porter said quietly. “He was able to rein it back in, but he’s probably blaming himself for your abduction. I’m not sure how he’s going to react. Judging from how Travis and Gabe reacted whenever their women were at risk, he may become a tad overprotective after this.”
“You mean more than he already is today?” Sylvie’s eyes widened. “And he shouldn’t blame himself. He’s been cleaning up my messes one after the other. I don’t know how he can stand it.”
“Sylvie, there’s something you need to accept about our boys in general. That includes all of them—Nate, Travis, and Gabe. They are tenacious. They don’t know the meaning of the word ‘quit.’ None of them would have survived their SEAL or CIA training if they didn’t have the mettle to do so. There’s a saying with the SEALs—the only easy day was yesterday. That’s the kind of man you have.”
“I understand,” Sylvie whispered.
“Whatever happens, go easy on him, okay? He’ll snap out of it when he comes to grips with what happened. This is a big security breach considering Nate co-owns BSI. To allow this to happen on his watch and to the most important person in his life, it’s gonna screw with his head for a while.”
Sylvie rubbed her temple. Her heart was already breaking for what Nate was going through, but she was not going to bail on him or think she was bad for him. They were going to fix this together. He was going to see he did the best he could given the circumstances. Her father would have gotten to her one way or another and other people might have gotten hurt. The only casualty this time was Hiroshi, and Sylvie couldn’t find it inside herself to be remorseful of his death. Yes. She did carry her father’s ruthlessness within her.
The minute their vehicle drove up to the entrance of the house, Nate opened the door to her side. His face was pinched, and the words Porter said came to mind. Fingers brushed the hair away from her face. “You okay? Want me to carry you?”
“I can walk. Porter said it’s best if I’m mobile, walk off the drug.”
Nate’s answer was a jerky nod and a clenching of his jaw. He stood aside, arms around her, helping
her step from the vehicle. “We’re getting you straight to the shower. I want that bastard’s blood washed off you.” His voice was a harsh rasp beside her. The admiral wasn’t kidding when he said her man was going to feel it for a while.
No sooner was she in Nate’s arms when she was ripped from them. Nana and her mother were bawling as they surrounded her, hugging her, pinching her cheeks the way they used to when she was a little girl. She was immediately whisked into the bedroom. The shower turned on, her clothes were stripped, and she was soon under a comforting spray of hot water.
“I can clean myself,” Sylvie protested as her grandma stepped into the shower with her. Good thing the shower was huge.
“Child, please,” Nana said, her voice hoarse. “Let us scrub that man’s filth away.” A sob escaped her throat. “When I saw his head explode and you’d fallen with him, I thought the bullet hit you too. For one second, I thought I lost you.” Nana wiped moisture from her eyes. Whether it was the shower or tears, Sylvie didn’t know. “That second felt like an eternity.” She sniffed. “Now, hush and let me wash you.”
Mom stood by the shower and stared at them through the glass partition. Her hand over her heart, her smile was happy with a trace of bittersweet. It was the look of a mother who had endured the unknown fate of her child and was finally relieved to have her back. After a while, seemingly satisfied that she was truly okay and in the capable hands of Nana, her mother gathered her soiled clothes and quietly left the bathroom.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Sam, you followed protocol. You were right to stand down,” Nate said. The admiral and Travis were with them in his office doing a post-mortem of what transpired. “Any aggressive move on your part would have put the women in danger. If anything, this whole thing was my fault—”
“Hey,” Travis cut in. “We agreed long before there’s no pointing fingers even if it’s to oneself.”
“Fine,” Nate snapped. “I take full responsibility. Sound better? Can we fucking cut the semantics?”
Travis sighed. “I understand what you’re going through, but the purpose of each post-analysis of an event like this is to make sure this will not happen again.”
“I’d grossly underestimated the threat of Hiroshi Mori,” Nate said, instantly contrite about losing his cool. He had always been the easygoing one, and Travis was the hothead. It turned out, when your woman was in danger, control was a fragile thread. “I figured with a BOLO out on him, he’d be halfway to Canada by now, try to fix his standing with the ACS and not abducting his boss’s daughter. As for her father, was I expecting a demand to see his daughter? Sure. But to simply drug and take her? No. There was nothing in their past relationship that would indicate this. Even when Prudence Buchanan spirited Sylvie away, he did not come after them. He let them simply live their lives.”
“I think we’re still on the right track. Her father simply wanted to run interference with security because of the clear and present danger from the bomb perpetrators. If what Sylvie’s father told her is correct, then we’ve narrowed it down.”
“The admiral’s hunch was correct,” Nate said. “It seems this pharmaceutical company is desperate. We need to run down all drug companies that had a popular drug yanked from the market or recent findings indicated serious side-effects that had impacted its sales.”
“Are we looking for a particular side effect?” Sam asked.
“Most drugs out there are hard on the liver and some are known to cause cancer after long-term use,” Nate said. “Cat did some in-depth research on the use of Glutathione and we’re really surprised how popular this supplement is. She’s been able to acquire a document on the Black Plane with GDE in various concentrations; we’re talking about a miracle drug. No wonder the ACS isn’t ready to relinquish their biochemist.”
“Did Cat say who she got that document from?” Travis asked.
Nate smiled at the hint of irritation on his friend’s face. There was nothing Travis hated more than not knowing what his wife was working on, especially since she hung out on that unknown layer of the internet where criminals like gun runners, terrorists, assassins, and hackers do business.
“No. You know the whole point of the Black Plane is anonymity,” Nate said.
Travis scowled at him.
“By the way, what happened to the RevivalTrail campaign?” Sam asked. “Were you able to clear that with the FBI?”
“The feds are tracking the source of the money,” Nate said. “They’ve narrowed it down to the Cayman Islands.”
“ACS?” Travis asked.
“Doubtful. I’m certain the money was planted to raise red flags on her project,” Nate said. “I pointed that out to the feds. How convenient would it be that a tip would come the night before the money was deposited? This was never meant to shut down the campaign, just to cause glitches in Sylvie’s recovery efforts. I bet her earlier difficulties with the insurance company were also from the same entity determined to make Daichi Yoshida give up his biochemist.”
“Must be some kind of genius,” Sam said.
“Not much Cat could dig up about Toshiro Endo, but he’s almost an urban legend. There are rumors he is autistic and also Daichi’s son.”
“Does Sylvie know this?” Travis asked.
“No. But this would add another reason why Yoshida won’t give up his biochemist.”
“Damn … a daughter to sacrifice for his son. This makes me sick,” Sam muttered.
“We’re not 100 percent sure,” Nate replied.
A rap sounded on the door.
“Come in,” Nate called out.
The door opened and Prudence stuck her head in. “I just want to let you all know Sylvie is fine. Nana is taking care of her.” She looked apologetically at Nate. “Sorry we dragged her away from you. We were just so wor—”
Nate smiled reassuringly at Sylvie’s mom. “No apologies, Pru. We were all highly strung. You’re her mother. Of course you were worried. Does she need anything?” Did she ask for me?
“She should be out in the kitchen in ten minutes. I think she’s hungry.”
“I sent Taylor and Kato to get some pizza,” Porter said. “The Guardians are casing the neighborhood, and I believe Gabe has one stationed outside Nate’s house watching for any suspicious elements . . . the last thing we want is to terrorize a pizza delivery guy.”
Nate chuckled. “I think we don’t need more police activity in this house.” He looked at Sam. “They didn’t ask for surveillance feeds?”
“They did, but I already offloaded them to a backup disk and wiped out the footage on the main security system. I told them Yoshida’s men made me erase them. They believed me.”
“Good man. I presume Daichi’s men cleaned up Hiroshi’s mess convincingly?”
“They did, given how fast it was done. The police did say they were going to follow up with you. There could be more questions now that Sylvie is back.”
“Well, I’ll leave you all to business, then,” Pru said, backing out the door and closing it behind her.
“Nana and Ms. Buchanan were very cooperative,” Sam said, staring at the closed door. “I think they knew getting the law involved at that point wasn’t the best idea, especially when dealing with the Asian mafia.”
It really wasn’t.
They were wrapping up their post-analysis when Nate’s phone rang. It was from one of the Guardians who was stationed outside.
“Reece.”
“Looks like the DEA is at your door.”
Shit.
The doorbell rang.
*****
Sylvie was just walking into the kitchen area with Nana when the doorbell rang. Both of them stiffened and her eyes flew to the alarm panel. It was armed. Before she could say anything to Nana, Nate strode out of his office, his face a mask of controlled fury and irritation. Her man punched the code to the alarm and yanked the door open.
Sylvie gasped when she recognized Cade. He was with a fierce-looking man who looked like
he stepped out from a motorcycle club—the one percent kind, not the weekend road warrior type.
“My word,” Nana breathed.
Nate was flanked impressively by Travis and Sam, the admiral hung back, observing.
“You two have the balls to show up here unannounced?” Nate growled without preamble.
“And you had the audacity to go after Daichi Yoshida and let him go when you know he’s on my department’s most wanted list?” the big bald tattooed guy with Cade shot back.
“Your agenda is not mine,” Nate replied. “My goal is to secure my woman, not hand over Daichi Yoshida to you.”
“I can hold you for obstruction.”
“Threats, Lassiter. Same ones you made to me from day one,” Nate replied. “I’m just wondering why you haven’t done anything about the leak of those photos from the DEA.”
“It’s not exactly our priority—”
“Not your priority that an innocent woman nearly got killed?” Nate snarled.
Lassiter sneered. “I wouldn’t call Ms. Yoshida innocent in all this. We know she transported—”
Nate lunged for the bald guy, but Sam and Travis managed to hold him back. Porter stepped in front of the three to face Lassiter. “Drake Lassiter, right?”
The bald guy frowned. “And who might you be, old man?”
The admiral was standing in profile to Sylvie, and even if he was a couple of inches shorter than Drake Lassiter and Cade Bowen, he didn’t seem intimidated and maintained a very strong presence.
“Admiral Benjamin Porter. I’m an adviser to BSI,” Porter replied casually. “The DEA administrator—your boss—happens to be a good friend of mine.”
“Fuck!” Cade bowed his head to the side.
“It is in your best interest you find out who leaked those photos to ACS. That means you have another person on your team undermining your authority or having a different agenda,” Porter continued. “Unless this person is functioning with your full knowledge.”
Lassiter’s eyes narrowed into slits. “I’ll ignore your last statement, but if there’s something you know about a rat in my department, I’d appreciate the intel.”
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