Fatal Courage: Shadow Force International, Book 3 (Shadow Force International Romantic Suspense Series) (32 page)

“And unless you have a spare suit in Dan’s bedroom, you’re going to have a tough time getting me out of the country if you look like you just murdered someone.”

For a long moment, Abdel held her stare, his eyes calculating, cold. Maybe he did have a fresh suit waiting for him.

Begrudgingly, she folded herself down until she was on her knees, holding her hands up in surrender. “There. Satisfied? Now let the damn dog go.”

The corner of his right eye twitched. The slightest of movements, but it conveyed his delight in her surrender. He gripped Woodstock by the neck and dumped the dog onto the floor, the Pug hitting like a cement brick, going down on her side, but recovering as she rolled to her feet, all black tongue and wagging body.

She ran to Ruby, jumping up on her and trying to kiss her. The dog was small, but solid, and nearly knocked her over. Dan, suddenly mobilized, lunged for her, picking the mass of dog up and burying his face in the dog’s short hair.

“Get out,” Abdel ordered Dan, standing up and brushing dog hair from his lap. “Before I change my mind.”

Really? Abdel was going to let Dan go?

No way. He probably intended to shoot the poor guy in the back.

Ruby needn’t have worried. Dan sidled next to her, no longer crying, his arms still full of Woodstock. “I’m not leaving Ruby.”

Oh, jeez. Now of all times, the man had suddenly grown a backbone.

Maybe it was for the best. At least he wasn’t going to get shot in the back.

The front was still an option.

“What the fuck is wrong with this guy?” Jax demanded. “Get him out of there!”

“It’s okay,” Ruby told both Jax and Dan. “Do what the man says, Dan. I’ll be all right.”

“He’s the jerk that broke into your apartment the other night, isn’t he?” Dan shifted from one foot to another. His body was shaking with fear. “What does he want with you?”

In a split-second, Abdel’s black gun veered from Ruby to Dan, aiming at Dan’s chest. “I gave you a chance, now I have changed my mind.”

“Get out!” Ruby shouted at Dan, shoving him away.

But it was too late.

Abdel’s gun went off.

B
OOM!

Jax’s heart seized, beelining from his chest straight into the floor.

Get to her!

Bounding up the final few stairs to the third floor, he heard his own breathing in his ears. Recriminations screamed through his brain. He should have never left Ruby alone. He should have put a camera on her. He shouldn’t have been so damn far away.

Setting up shop across the street had given him an advantage, assuming like they all had that Al-Safari would be coming for Ruby after she was home. They’d stayed well back and out of sight in case the bastard was watching the place.

The damn terrorist had already been inside.

He’d outsmarted them.

Jax hated being duped. He’d always been skeptical, cynical. Yet, here he was being outmaneuvered and outplayed by a goddamn terrorist.

Again.

The sound of the gunshot had erupted in stereo, making it all the worse. He’d heard the boom in his ear bud as well as from inside the room itself as he’d hauled ass down the hall.

They couldn’t take the chance that Al-Safari was working alone, especially since he had men stationed at the new headquarters. He might have a few with him here, too. It only made sense.

Rory had told Jax and Colton to wait—give him a minute to scan the area for other mercenaries—before they rode to Ruby’s rescue.

And now she might be dead.

Because he’d listened to logic instead of his gut.

Standing just outside the door of Dan’s apartment, Zeb across from him and Colton behind him, Jax forced his heart to stop throwing itself against his ribs like a trapped gorilla wanting out. He nodded at Zeb and prepared to kick in the door.

Rory shouted in his ear, “Stand down! Stand down! I’ve detected a car bomb outside our building. Kill Al-Safari and we’re all going up in a ball of flames here!”

And shit to the tenth, what the hell did he do now?

A car bomb? A fucking car bomb outside SFI headquarters?

The place would never stand up to a car bomb. Not in the middle of the remodeling when only half of the security measures were in place. Emit, Cal, Beatrice, Rory…all of them would die.

Pressing his ear to the door, he listened, trying to gauge what was going on inside. He heard the sound of scuffling and…

“You fucking bastard. You didn’t have to shoot him.”

Ruby?

A flush of short-lived relief rushed over him. Her comm must have come off because her voice was floating through the door, not in his ear, but it was her. She was swearing and…

Pleading?

“Don’t, please, just don’t. He never did anything to you. He shouldn’t die simply because he’s my neighbor. Let me stop the bleeding. Someone will have heard the gunshot. They’ll call the police. We should go.”

He wanted to say her name, to burst inside and make sure she wasn’t injured.

But hell, he couldn’t do it. Not with the others trapped in the SFI office.

She was alive and begging for Dan’s life. He needed to believe in her, in her training. She wasn’t the Agency’s top operative for nothing.

Had
been the Agency’s top operative. He’d screwed that up royally for her, hadn’t he?

No time to worry about that now
.

“Take me,” he heard Ruby say. “Let’s go before the cops get here.”

“Fall back,” Rory said to Jax and his crew over their comms. “Now, before you get caught and Al-Safari blows us sky high.”

Goddamn it. Their only chance of getting Beatrice and her baby, Cal, and Emit out of this alive was to let the bastard go.

With Ruby.

Not going to happen
.

Jax motioned at Colton to fall back. Zeb faded into the shadows, disappearing into the vacant apartment he’d been hiding in before. Colton went back down the stairs. Jax made haste to get into Ruby’s apartment.

He was slipping inside when the door to Dan’s apartment flew open and Ruby came tripping out, her hands zip-tied in front of her. For a brief second, as she slammed into the far wall with her shoulder, her eyes met his.

Deep concern etched her forehead, but controlled confidence shone in her gaze. It only took that split-second for him to know she had this. She knew what she was doing and knew that he was going to back her up.

He gave her a nod, putting all the silent encouragement he could into it, letting her know she was right—he wasn’t letting her down. He had her back and he would damn sure not let Al-Safari hurt her.

He may have put a little something extra into his look as well. Something that he hoped conveyed how he felt about her. How much he…

Oh, hell.
I love you.

As if she read his mind, her face softened a bit. A tiny twitch at the corner of her mouth told him she got his message.

The dog, Woodstock, was barking like crazy and Al-Safari was swearing in his native language. Ruby’s gaze cut right, signaling Jax that the terrorist was about to emerge.

Jax raised his gun.

One shot and he could take the bastard out, Ruby’s orders about leaving the man alive be damned.

But he saw her shaking her head, tiny movements so she didn’t call Al-Safari’s attention to her, but letting Jax know that she didn’t want him to intervene. Not yet.

She had a plan.

And she wasn’t putting Beatrice and the others in any more danger than they already were.

Both frustration and pride bloomed in his chest. Ruby was the consummate spy, no matter what was on the line. She knew taking out Al-Safari wouldn’t only kill any chance she had at finding out all the facts about his and Izala’s intricate plans, but it might also seal the fate of those back at SFI headquarters.

He lowered his weapon and pulled back, a second before Al-Safari emerged.

He closed the door to Ruby’s apartment, mentally cursing every bone in his body. As a SEAL, he’d been trained to never believe in a no-win situation. There was always a way around, under, or through any circumstance, he simply needed to figure it out.

The familiar burn of anger turned his stomach to acid. He hated Al-Safari, hated himself for letting this low-life, scum-sucking SOB get the drop on him.

The thin door muffled the shuffle of footsteps in the hallway. “I need clothes, toiletries,” Ruby said. Her voice was strong and the violent red haze in front of Jax’s eyes cleared a bit. “Let me stop at my place and grab a few things.”

The terrorist laughed, a sharp sound that pierced the air. “You still consider me easily duped. You’ll touch nothing in your apartment, Agent McKellen.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Jax heard Ruby stop outside the door and his intuition wavered between hiding just in case she got Al-Safari to go along with her, and needing to be this close to her, hear what she was saying. “I’m not going to try anything. You’ve proven you’re a worthy adversary and I agreed to go along peacefully, but I need my things.”

“You won’t be needing your things where I am taking you.”

“You don’t understand.” Her voice was thick with earnestness. “I’m…”

“We do not have time for this. The jet is waiting. Move.”

A jet. He was going to fly her out of the country on a private plane.

In Jax’s ear, Rory spoke up. “Contacting O’Hare and Midway now for flight plans filed by private aircraft.”

Jax heard a slight struggle, as if Al-Safari had grabbed Ruby and she was resisting.

Every cell in Jax’s body reacted, urging him to throw open the door and riddle the terrorist with bullets.

Ruby’s voice rose. “I’m having my period, you idiot. I need my goddamn tampons.”

A heavy silence fell. No struggle, no arguing, as if the two had squared off against each other just outside the door.

Jax almost snickered.

Al-Safari no doubt didn’t one hundred percent believe her. On the other hand, if she were telling the truth…

“Unless, of course,” Ruby continued, “you want me to bleed all over your fancy leather seats in the jet.”

One, two, three heartbeats of dead quiet passed. Al-Safari, like any male, didn’t want to talk menstruation, but had to analyze the risk of going without tampons.

Nothing changed, but Jax took one step back from the door, then two. He’d swear on a Bible, the terrorist was about to give in.

Once again amazed at Ruby’s resourcefulness, he slipped silently into her bedroom, past the bed, and into the bathroom. Prayed.

The click of the apartment door was loud as Ruby burst in.

She’d won the skirmish. Al-Safari had given in.

All Jax had to do was stay concealed until Ruby was ready to take the bastard down.

He slid behind the bathroom door, concealing himself.

Chapter Twenty-two

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R
UBY
M
OVED
T
HROUGH
the apartment quickly, Al-Safari on her heels. Where was Jax? There weren’t a lot of places to hide, especially for someone his size.

Dan was still alive; someone, hopefully Zeb, had called an ambulance and was sneaking into Dan’s apartment to administer first aid.

She stopped outside her bedroom and held up her bound wrists. “Untie me. I’ll just be a moment.”

“The ties stay on and you will stay in my sight.”

She gave him an indignant look. “You can’t be serious. I have to go to the bathroom and
change my tampon
. I can’t do that with my hands cuffed and you watching me, you perv.”

His right eye twitched. At her detailed description or at the derogatory label? She could get more descriptive if necessary, dig a little deeper into the uncomfortable zone. No man alive liked to have anything to do with a menstruating woman, and certainly no Middle Eastern male she’d ever met.

“I know what you are trying to do and I will not play your game.”

“Is that what this is?” She moved closer, invading his personal space, even though his gun was pointed at her. “You think I would jeopardize my friends’ lives to save my own life? How many men do you have watching them? Two? Three? A hundred? How many men do you have here, helping you? One, I’m guessing. He’s downstairs with the car running, isn’t he? So you know what I think? I think you’re scared that this washed-up CIA operative is going to get the jump on you and kick your ass. That’s why you won’t let me go to the bathroom by myself.”

His free hand reached into his pocket, flipped out a small knife, and sliced through the ties in one easy movement. “If you go for a weapon, I will kill you.”

The plastic zip tie fell to the floor. “And my friends. I get it. Like I said, I would never jeopardize their lives to save my own. You have nothing to worry about.”