Midnight Action (33 page)

Cate had yet to walk through that gate, and Nik was growing more and more frightened as each minute ticked by. The look in Dietrich’s eyes had been unmistakable—the man was seriously willing to sacrifice Catarina’s life if she chose to remain with Morgan.

Swallowing his fear, he checked his phone and saw the same words as before flashing on the screen. Private number.

“It’s him.” He gestured to Dietrich, who approached with brisk strides.

“Let’s hope the son of a bitch has decided to see reason,” Dietrich muttered. “Put it on speakerphone.”

As Nik touched the screen, Dietrich promptly leaned closer and said, “Have you reconsidered your stance about my granddaughter’s living arrangements?”

There was a beat, before a familiar female voice wafted out of the speaker.

“Grandpa?”

Dietrich’s shoulders tightened. “Catarina?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Are you all right?” her grandfather demanded. “Are they treating you well?”

“Of course. I’m not a prisoner here.” An edge had crept into her tone, but it quickly softened. “It was my choice to come here.” There was a pause. “And it’s my choice to leave.”

Nik sucked in a breath.

Beside him, Dietrich gave a pleased nod. “I knew you’d see the error of your ways.”

Another wobbly breath shuddered over the line. “But before I do that, I need you to promise me something.”

Dietrich narrowed his dark eyes. “What is it?”

“You have to send those mercenaries away. I mean it, Grandpa. Please don’t attack this house. Promise me you won’t harm anyone in it.”

He looked annoyed. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“Fine. Then go ahead and blow us all up. I’d rather die with Morgan and his team than have their deaths on my conscience.”

Nik didn’t miss the flicker of hesitation that crossed Dietrich’s expression. He held his breath, praying that the other man reconsidered, that he wouldn’t sacrifice his granddaughter as he’d threatened to do.

“Please, Grandpa,” Cate pleaded, sounding so much like Ariana that it broke Nik’s heart. “Send those men away. I’ll come out and get in the car, and we’ll drive to the airport and go home. Morgan has promised not to come after me.”

“He spent years looking for you. Do you honestly expect me to believe he’ll willingly let you go?”

“He doesn’t have a choice,” she said firmly. “He might be my father, but I don’t know him. We don’t have a relationship, or a history, or even all that much in common. I’m choosing to go home with you, Grandpa, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself knowing that my decision to run away got other people killed.”

Dietrich sounded skeptical. “Morgan really agreed to let you go without a fight?”

“He’d rather see me alive than dead, even if it means me going back to you.” When her grandfather hesitated again, Cate stubbornly went on. “I won’t come out until Morgan’s security guard confirms that the soldiers you hired are gone. Once that happens, I’ll walk out on my own two feet and come home.”

Dietrich’s answering silence seemed endless.

Nik’s pulse raced as he waited for the other man to make a decision, but the longer he remained quiet, the more discouraged Nik felt.

And then, to his surprise, Dietrich clucked in agreement. “Fine, we’ll do it your way, Catarina. I’ll call off the men.”

Her relief was unmistakable. “Thank you. I’ll call you back in five minutes to make sure it’s done.”

After she’d disconnected, Dietrich swiftly reached for the radio tucked into the waistband of his black trousers. He clicked it on, and, as Nik stared in amazement, ordered the Serbs to retreat.

“What are you doing?” Nik demanded.

Dietrich held up a finger to silence him as he continued to address the leader of the mercenary team. “But don’t go too far, Ivan,” he finished. “I want you and your men out of sight, far enough that none of the cameras pick you up. The moment I give you the signal, you’re to move in on the compound.”

He shut off the radio with an evil smile.

“You promised Cate you weren’t going to attack,” Nik said slowly.

“Nikolaus, please. Do you truly think I’m about to take orders from a seventeen-year-old girl?” His lips curled in a sneer. “James Morgan is going to die tonight. I’m getting Ariana’s daughter back, and then I’m killing the man who ruined my daughter’s life.”

Despite the guilt he felt about lying to Cate, Nik didn’t challenge his boss. He might not have been on board with the original strategy, the one that could have resulted in Cate’s death, but he wholly supported this latest plan.

James Morgan deserved to die for what he’d done to their family.

It was an agonizing five-minute wait before the phone rang again, and when it did, Nik wasted no time answering. This time he didn’t bother with speakerphone; he just brought it to his ear and eagerly welcomed the sound of Cate’s voice.

“Is it done?” she asked.

He had to smile. “You mean you’re not checking the security monitors as we speak?”

She paused. “You got me, Nik. I can see that the men are gone.”

“Good. So you know we’ve held up our end of the bargain. Can you see us on the monitor as well?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” he said again. “We’re driving down to the front gate. You’re going to walk out slowly, and if you’re not there in ten minutes, your grandfather will have no choice but to call the men back. And you’ll walk out alone, Cate. If we see Morgan or any of his soldiers anywhere near you, we’ll be forced to open fire.” He swallowed. “Please don’t make us open fire.”

“I’ll be alone,” she said tersely.

The phone clicked in his ear. She’d hung up on him.

A moment later, Nik got behind the wheel of the covered Jeep, Dietrich slid in beside him, and they were pulling away from the fence.

The four-by-four vehicle easily maneuvered through the hillside, wheels bouncing when they reached the bumpy dirt road that wound around the compound. They followed the narrow road all the way to its end, where it turned into a gravel-littered path that stopped in front of the commanding wrought-iron gate. The first of three gates, in fact, but Nik didn’t attempt to drive any farther. Each gate seemed to require a code, and Cate hadn’t provided it for them.

He put the car in park and hopped out, hurrying toward the front of the gate as he raised his binoculars to his eyes to study the house up ahead.

His heart jumped when he saw the front door open.

A second later Cate stepped onto the porch.

She was three hundred yards away. The binoculars didn’t zoom in that far, but he was still able to get a vague look at her. Her hair was braided, and she wore jeans and a light blue sweatshirt. Her hands were in her pockets, her shoulders slumped as she descended the wide porch steps. He could see the discouragement in her body language.

She didn’t want to do this, and a part of him didn’t even blame her, especially when he thought of all those men hiding in the jungle, waiting to strike the moment Cate was safely in her grandfather’s arms.

“She’ll be punished for leaving us,” Dietrich murmured.

Nik swung his head in surprise. “Punished how?”

“I don’t know yet.” The older man rolled his eyes when he saw Nik’s stricken face. “Relax, Nikolaus. I would never hurt her. But I will find a way to make it clear that she’s never to disobey me again.”

Gulping, Nik turned his attention back to Cate. It was too dark to make out her expression, and it didn’t help that her head was down so he couldn’t see her eyes. Her pace was reluctant but brisk, and Nik had to wonder whether this was a trap. Would James Morgan truly allow this to happen?

But at the same time, Morgan had to have heard the grim confidence in Dietrich’s tone. The man would not have hesitated to kill Cate right along with everyone else in the house, and Morgan must have known that.

Perhaps he was a better man than Nik had thought, if he was willing to give up his daughter in order to keep her safe.

Anger jolted through him when he realized he was actually empathizing with James Morgan of all people. No, the man didn’t deserve an ounce of empathy. He was losing Cate because she didn’t want to be with him. Because she’d chosen to leave him and come back to Nik.

He
was her true father, the only father she would ever need.

As he watched through the binoculars, Cate stopped at the first gate and punched a code in the key panel. When the gate slid open with a loud grinding noise, she walked through it and continued toward the second one. She halted again, input another code, and again began to walk.

The closer she got, the more anxious Nik felt. He couldn’t help but remember what he’d done to her in the maze, and he didn’t know how to even begin gaining her forgiveness.

But she was willing to come home. That was a start, at least.

“Good girl,” Dietrich murmured as Cate approached the third gate.

Her head was still down, her blond braid shining in the moonlight. She entered another code into the electronic keypad, and the final gate creaked open.

She strode past it, stopping when she was ten feet from the two men.

When she looked up, Nik recoiled in horror.

Because it wasn’t Cate.

An exquisitely beautiful face peered back at him. The blonde from the party, he realized. The woman who’d accompanied Morgan to the estate.

A faint smile crossed her lips as her hand slid out of her pocket.

And that was when he saw the gun.

•   •   •

“Where’s Noelle?” Jim glanced around the underground garage at the end of the tunnel and took in the scene before him.

Two Humvees, stocked with gear and supplies.

Kane opening the back door so the three Labrador retrievers could jump into the backseat.

Ash checking the clips of his weapons.

No Reilly, but he’d already gone ahead in the third Humvee with Inna, driving her to safety.

Cate was wringing her hands together, the fluorescent lighting in the tunnel emphasizing the groove of worry in her forehead.

But Noelle was nowhere to be found.

Kane slammed the Humvee door and straightened up, his eyes narrowing as he looked around. “I don’t know.” Frowning, he turned to Cate. “She was with you in the war room. She didn’t come down with you?”

Cate shook her head. She quickly averted her eyes, but not before Morgan glimpsed a telltale flicker of guilt.

He was at her side in a heartbeat. “Where is she?” he demanded.

Cate met his eyes, but didn’t say a word.

A curse flew out of his mouth as realization dawned on him. “Goddamn it! Fucking
hell
. What has she done?”

But he already knew. She’d gone out there herself. Taken it upon herself to eliminate Dietrich and Bauer before he could.

As a gust of panic blasted into his chest, he grabbed Cate’s chin, harder than he meant to. “She went after them, didn’t she?”

After a beat, his daughter nodded.

“You knew?” Uncharacteristic fear pounded inside him, making him sway on his feet. “And you didn’t say anything?”

He was gone before she could reply, sprinting off in the other direction. Every muscle in his body had seized with anger, but somehow his stiff legs managed to propel him forward. He heard footsteps behind him, felt Kane at his side, and spun around to fix the other man with an incensed glare.

“No,” he snapped. “Stick to the plan! I want you to get Cate out of here. Now, goddamn it!”

Morgan took off running again, coming to a screeching halt in front of the hatch that led upstairs. He climbed the metal ladder two rungs at a time, emerging into the large walk-in pantry and heaving himself onto the tiled floor. Someone hopped out after him, and annoyance rippled through him as he turned, expecting to find Kane.

But it was Cate, gasping for air as she jumped to her feet.

“Get back downstairs,” he ordered.

“No! I’m not letting you go out there! Noelle said she would take care of it!”

“The damned woman is going to get herself killed!” he roared.

Cate faltered. “What are you talking about it? You were planning on doing the same thing yourself!”

He gritted his teeth. “From the jungle, with the element of surprise on my side. I wasn’t going to walk out the front door, damn it! I know this jungle like the back of my hand. They wouldn’t have seen me coming.”

“She has the element of surprise too,” his daughter argued. “They won’t be expecting her.”

His spine stiffened. “Why do you say that?”

“Because they think she’s me.”

He didn’t have time to question that infuriating response. Evidently his daughter and Noelle had conspired together, but now was not the time to reprimand her. He needed her back in the tunnel, damn it. He couldn’t risk her getting hurt or slowing him down.

Fortunately, another arrival swooped in to save the day, as Ash lifted himself out of the hatch.

“Take Cate back to the tunnel,” Morgan commanded, snapping the magazine of his submachine gun into place.

The rookie nodded, already reaching for Cate’s arm. “Yes, sir.”

Morgan whirled around without another word, hearing Cate’s squeaky protest echo behind him as he ran toward the front of the house. He bumped into Bill in the hallway, nearly knocking the security man off his feet.

“I was just coming to find you!” Bill exclaimed. “We’ve got activity at the main gate.”

The two of them took off toward the entrance, while Bill continued to spit out words. “Blond female came out of the house, started walking toward the gate. We’ve got a vehicle parked out there, two men standing in front of it, both armed. I think it’s your daugh—”

“It’s not Cate,” he cut in. “It’s Noelle.”

When they reached the door, Morgan glanced at Bill. “Get Don and go down to the tunnel. I can take it from here.”

Unlike Cate, Bill didn’t argue—he dashed off immediately, leaving Morgan alone in the parlor.

Taking a deep breath, Morgan burst out the door and flew onto the front porch, unsure of what he would find. But the courtyard was empty save for the collection of vehicles parked on the gravel.

With his MP5 in hand, he raced across the yard toward the first gate at the fence, and as he hurriedly disarmed it, he cursed himself for the overly cautious approach he’d taken with this new compound. Stopping at each gate only slowed him down, and a part of him worried that a sniper would take his head off any second. But no shots came. No movement from beyond the fence. All he could hear was the thump of his Timberlands on the gravel, the steady hiss of his own breathing.