Out of the Dark (21 page)

“I know
, but first of all, slow down before you manage to kill Brody. I know you’re driving like a maniac.”

Mac lifted his foot off the accelerator. “How do you know that?”

“I know
you
.”

“How did you get Belskavia’s
help?” Mac asked as he pulled up to a stop sign. “I thought you two were arch enemies? Like Batman and the Joker.”

“No
, we just kid around. But it just so happens that dumbass Marino paid the Wholesaler in counterfeit money.”

“We su
spected that.”

“Marino
just crossed the wrong man.”

“We’re almost there. Wish me luck.”

“Keep your head, Mac. Know it’s a trap and be smart enough to do what you have to do.”

“One last thing, the Russians,” Mac asked. “Does Marino know?

“That’s your edge. He’s completely clueless.”

Mac clicked off his phone and turned to Brody. “Tony sent us some help. Russians. It seems Marino bought his nuclear weapon with
Monopoly money.”

“How stupid can that man be?” Brody replied. “But I don’t like messing with Russians. They’re so damn blood thirsty.”

“Today, at least, they’re on our side.”

“That’s a switch.” Brody checked the GPS. “We’re one block away. Turn left at the next street and the address Frank gave us is the second house on the right.”

“Let’s do a drive-by,” Mac said fighting the urge to slam on the brakes, run up to the house and start shooting. But he knew Marino hoped he’d do just that.

As they slowly passed the house, Mac saw nothing unusual. There were three cars in the driveway. Two black SUVs with dark windows, and a white Cad
illac, right out of the showroom.

The blinds were drawn, the landscape perfect and a round, flowered ornament with the word
welcome
hung on the door. From the outside nothing appeared amiss. There wasn’t a hint to what was taking place inside, and Mac wasn’t going to let his mind go there. He had to remain focused and alert. One screw up and Em could die.

Mac stopped the car after t
hey turned the corner. “Nothing

unusual,” Brody said. “You want me to hop a few fences and do some recon?”

Mac pulled from the curb and turned at the next block. Driving slowly, he found the house behind where Marino hid. It had a For Sale sign out front and looked empty. Mac turned and grinned at Brody.

Brody reared back. “That still doesn’t mean this isn’t a trap. It simply means we may get a look-see into the yard. But my guess is we’re going to see a bunch of armed men.”

Mac put the car in park, and stepped out with Brody right behind him. They eased to the side of the house and approached the gate to the back yard. Mac saw a swimming pool, several shrubs and two shade trees.

Carefully he pulled down on the lever of the entrance and opened it a few inches. Through the slats in the privacy fence Mac saw Marino’s guys armed with assault rifles. They lined the back of the house like Storm Troopers in Star Wars, except they wore blac
k. Brody had been right, the weakest area was well covered.

Quietly, Mac and Brody backed out of the yard
and got back to the pickup without being seen. “Well, that didn’t work,” Brody said. “What next?”

“I’m thinking.” Mac pulled away from the curb.

“I know you hate that Emily is in there and you don’t know what’s happening to her, but be strong, Mac. I know she is.”

“Marino is a killer.” Mac’s chest constricted. “She could be dead for all I know.”

“I don’t think he’d kill her. He’s more likely to use her to pull you in.”

“Maybe we should let that happen. I’ll wire up, you get Jake and
A.J.. I can let you know what’s happening inside so you’d know when to attack.”

“The first thing he’ll do is check you. And we don’t know when the crazy Russians are coming.”

“I don’t like the idea of Russians saving our ass.”

“Stop!” Brody shouted.

Mac braked in the middle of the street.

Brody smiled. “I have
an idea.”

***

Emily eased off the bed. She nearly screamed when her bare feet touched the rug. Looking down, she saw they were bleeding from being scraped over concrete. Her wrists burned from the zip ties and her hip was sore from being held down on the floorboard of the car by a heavy foot.

A hundred bees stung her face from
Marino’s slap. Her mouth throbbed and her lip felt like an inflated balloon.

As she managed to move around the room, Emily
looked for something to help with an escape. The room smelled stuffy and closed up. Apparently no one had been here in a while. Dust covered the furniture and there were no pictures or decorations.

She inched the curtains back from the French doors leading to the backyard only to see men walking around with weapons. No escape route there.

Turning, she looked for other avenues. She had to get out before Mac learned she’d been kidnapped and came looking for her. That’s what Marino wanted. Emily knew Mac would be walking into a trap that would get him killed.

Determined not to remain a captive, Emily went to the bathroom and pulled out the drawers hoping to find something sharp.

No such luck
.

However, on the floor, beside the Jacuzzi tub laid a small, cylinder shaped candle. She quickly plucked the candle up and placed it on the vanity and went looking for matches. Start a fire. Make the smoke alarm go off. Then hide behind the door. When everyone rushed inside, she’d sneak out.

In her mind it all sounded like a good idea, but she knew in her heart that it only worked in the movies. Emily continued to search for another way out. There were no windows in the bedroom. Only the French doors. The bathroom had a large opaque window, but it faced to the backyard. At the end of the bathroom was a closet.

Emily stepped inside
, looked up and smiled

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“Okay Lone Ranger,” Mac said. “What hair-brained scheme have you come up with now?”

“Well,
Kemosabi, watch and learn.”

Mac
’s emotions resembled a tornado knowing Em’s life was in Marino’s hands.

“Follow me,” Brody said,
climbing out of the vehicle. He opened the metal toolbox in the bed of his truck. Inside, Brody pulled out a zip line and hooks.

“I’m not following
.”

Brody stopped and turned to him. “Listen, we can’t blow up the place because Emily is inside. We can’t go in guns blazing either since we don’t even know what room
she’s in.”

“Okay.”

“There’s no way to get in without being seen unless...” Brody looked up. “We go housetop to housetop. And since these damn mansions are so far apart we can’t jump from roof to roof like Mary Poppins. I thought we’d rig a line and zip across.”

Now was not the time to imagine
how badly they could screw this up. There were far too many possibilities. With Em’s life in danger, the plan had to work because it was the only thing they’d come up with.

Knocking on the door was foolish because he’d never make it to the driveway befo
re Marino’s guy laid him out.

Brody was right. A
zip line was the only way since his unspoken idea of digging a tunnel would take too long.

Sweat rolled off Mac in buckets. He could
n’t remember the last time his nerves had been this strung out.

“We’ll use the house on the left,” Brody said, his gloved hands working frantically. “I don’t think anyone is home. But the closer we get to five, the less likely that becomes.”

“I know. It’s just so damn hard to concentrate when I’m not even sure Em is in there. They could have taken her somewhere else.”

“Frank said when B
runo called Marino, this house came up. It’s the only lead we have.”

Mac started the truck and steered toward the address Frank said Jake’s phone
had traced. Since the info came from the boss, Mac was confident it was legitimate. Frank hadn’t been wrong before. Jake and Brody also had his back, and they’d been on hundreds of missions before.

But now Em was involved.

What would he do if anything happened to her? Marino’s crazy mind could always come up with something diabolical, or one of his associates playing suck-up to the boss, could run with Em.

It also didn’t help that g
uilt gnawed at Mac’s conscience like a hungry dog on a bone. Inside, his gut twisted.

Brody reached over and touched his arm. “I know you
’re blaming yourself for all this, but don’t.”

Mac looked out the si
de window and blinked hard. “Yeah, I know. But if I hadn’t gone to her hotel room...”

“She’d be dead, Mac.
Bruno said that Belskavia, the Wholesaler, had sent that wild assed Russian to kill her for taking those pictures.”

“I keep wondering how this got so damn out of control.”

“Mac, we go after the meanest son-of-a-bitches in the world. When has it ever been easy?” Brody took a piece of gum from his shirt pocket and folded it in his mouth. “Would you really expect any less from Marino?”

“No, not really.”

“Then I say, let’s man-up and kill that motherfucker once and for all.”

They exchanged glances.

“We
are
good at this shit, aren’t we?”

“Damn straight.”

Wiping the sweat from his forehead and commanding his hand to still, Mac turned the corner. Thoughts of what they’d been through in the last few days made Mac’s heart hitch a beat and his jaws lock.

Quietly and unselfishly
, Em filled a void he never knew existed. He’d gone through his whole life deliberately avoiding any type of commitment.

In his own way he’d kept on the move. Never home for any length of time.
Wasn’t he always the first to volunteer for a tough assignment? Daring, risky, a tad too bold, perhaps. All the signs were there, but Mac had never taken the time to analyze his lifestyle.

In his mind, it all came down to his job. The next assignment. Being the best at what he did.

Now that Em had walked into his life, none of that mattered. Not even his job. He only wanted her safe, and in his arms.

Mac parked the truck, and took a deep breath. After hikin
g the wire onto his shoulder, he and Brody headed down that imaginary dark alley where only the brave or foolish dared to venture.

***

Emily turned the light on in the closet and reached up to pull down the attic stairs. Slowly, trying to prevent noise that would alert her captors, she held her breath and hoped no one heard. As soon as the ladder touched the carpeted floor, Emily rushed up the stairs. She wasn’t going to give herself time to talk her way out of this. Not the darkness, or the insects, or anything else that might be in there besides her.

Instead
, she’d find an exit.

Turning
around, she went back down to the closet. She then locked the bathroom door, switched off the light and ran back up the attic stairs. Once there, she squatted and pulled the folding ladder up to close the opening. Coughing from all the dust, Emily struggled with a couple of 2X4s she found between the rafters. She wedged one in the brackets to prevent the door from being pulled down.

After the exertion, she sat on the attic floor panting, her palms resting on her thighs, head down as she
struggled to catch her breath. All the while she wished Mac was there. He’d know how to get them out. But he wasn’t here, and she had to move forward.

Standing
on bare feet, she prowled around, looking for light. Far off in a corner of the eave, a sliver of light guided her to a square, wooden vent. As badly as she needed out, she had to be careful and silent. Crawling over air ducts and making sure her feet stayed on the wooden beams, she managed to make it to the other side of the house.

She
prayed no one below could hear her.

With her face pressed agai
nst the slats, Emily could only see bricks on another house. She grabbed the middle board and pulled with all her strength until it gave a little. Encouraged with the small success, she braced her foot against the wall and yanked with both hands.

O
ne side gave way and she fell backwards with a palm full of splinters. Convinced she’d made enough progress to continue, she disregarded the pain and wrenched off the other end of the board. With it free, she looked out at the side of the house next door. Then her gazed plunged to the ground. A good ten-foot drop, but she would take any chance she could to get away.

Once
the other boards were removed, she had about a fourteen by fourteen inch square window. She saw the front of the house on her left and the back to her right. Not a single person in sight.

Maybe she’d get lucky.

Turning around she rolled onto her stomach and scooted her legs out of the vent. Just when she tried not to think how hard the ground would be, Marino’s men pounded on the attic door.

Knowing her
chances were slim to zero, Emily wiggled until her body was free of the attic. Frantically, she hung on the ledge.

Suddenly the sounds of tires
squealing, and guns firing filled the quiet neighborhood. Emily screamed. Men shouting
in Russian
had Marino’s men in the back rushing to the front of the house.

Emily felt she’d been suspended for hours. T
he rough wood dug into her already painful palms. One glance down and the thought of letting go jacked up her heartbeat and had her rethinking her actions.

Her slippery hands made her tighten
her grip.

Shouts came from below
. Emily closed her eyes and prayed she wouldn’t break a leg when she hit the ground.

She released her grip.

For a moment she sailed through the air... too fast. Eyes squeezed shut, and holding her breath, Emily gritted her teeth and forced her body to go limp.

An involuntary squeal split her lips.

In seconds she landed on something...
soft.

Her eyes flew open when two strong arms curled around her, and Mac pulled her to his chest. “Oh my God, you’re alive.”

“Mac, where have you been?”

“Try
ing to save you. Brody and I were about to rig a zip line when all the Russian’s came barreling down the street. Then I saw you hanging out the vent up there and decided to get here before you broke your neck.” He took her by the arms and held her away from him. “Are you okay? Did that bastard touch you?” He turned her chin. “What happened to your face? And your mouth is bleeding.”

“I’m fine. They
locked me in a bedroom.” She buried her face in his chest and drank in his scent, enjoying the safety of his muscular body.

A gunshot chewed up
the dirt next to where they stood. Mac looked up and drew his weapon in one smooth motion. He fired and the man fell out of the attic and landed at their feet with a loud thump. Neighbors must have called the police because sirens coming their way sounded in the distance.

Mac grabbed
Emily by the arm, and they sprinted through the gate leading to the backyard of the house next door. Hand in hand, they raced across the yard toward the opposite side of the house. Mac pressed his ear and said, “Brody, I caught her. How are the Russians doing?”

“They just got away.”

“Tell Jake to let it rip.”

As they dashed along
the side of the pool, Emily clutched Mac’s hand, afraid to let him go. They turned the corner. Brody had knocked out several fence slats for them to crawl through.

The front of the house
where she’d been held captive blew up, giving them the opportunity to make it to the waiting vehicle. Mac released her hand and guided her to Brody. “Take her to Falcon.” He grinned at her. “Find some shoes while you’re at it.” He stepped back “I’m going after Marino and I’ll meet you there.”

“No!
” Emily grabbed his shirt and pleaded. “Mac, let it go.” She released him and stepped back with her arms spread eagle. “Look at me. I’m safe. No harm came to me. I want you to walk away from this, Mac. For both of us.”

Determination harden
ed his jaw and gave his beautiful blue eyes a sinister look. “I can’t, Em. This ends today.” He lowered his gaze. “One way or another.”

Without another word, Mac turned and stalked toward the house
and Marino. Brody guided her out of the yard and into the pickup. Emily took one last look back. Mac had a gun in each hand edging around the corner. She blinked back the tears as they drove away.