Running on Empty (27 page)

Justin and Aidan were on their way. While everything had gone seamlessly with her and Sabrina’s abduction, their backup had encountered a minor glitch. The two operatives had been trailing the van when the vehicle they’d been traveling in suddenly stalled and refused to restart. It had taken them almost two hours to find a replacement ride. During that time, she and Sabrina had arrived at the house. Their earbuds were well hidden and hadn’t been detected by the kidnappers, so she and Sabrina had been treated to creative and colorful language as the guys worked to catch up to them.

When they arrived, the fun would begin. Hopefully, that would happen before “the boss” showed up. Even though it’d be nice to take down a few more of the creeps, LCR always put the victims first. They were here to rescue the Dentons. Catching the bad guys would always come second.

“We’re finally here,” Aidan growled. “Ingram, clear your throat if you’re okay. Then, Sabrina, you sigh.”

In response, Riley cleared her throat, catching the eye of one of the creeps in the corner. Uh oh.

A long, sorrowful sigh came from Sabrina, so loud that the guy whose attention Riley had gotten was distracted. She knew the other operative had done that on purpose.

“Heard you both loud and clear,” Aidan said. “We’re about—” 

Another growl, this one from Justin. “Ah shit. You’ve got company. Black SUV is parking in front of the house. Three guys, one armed to the teeth. Other two look like they’re headed to the Ritz for a tea party.”

Justin’s voice, even with an irritated edge, soothed Riley. Not that she would ever let him know that. After that one huge blowup their first year as partners, he rarely spoke to her unless it was regarding an op. But that was okay. As long as they could work together, he didn’t have to “like” her. She could choke that feminine part of her that wanted a different kind of attention from him. He never needed to know the truth.

“Hmm. The two suits,” Aidan mused. “Dressed damn nice for this kind of job.

“They’re coming toward the house, front entrance. As soon as everyone’s inside, we’ll join the party,” Aidan said. “Sabrina, if you get the chance, take down the guy with the gun. The other two might be armed, but looks like he’s the muscle.”

“Ingram, once Fox moves,” Aidan continued, “gather all the hostages in one corner. Kelly and I will handle the other five.”

She shot another quick glance at Sabrina, wondering what the supremely confident operative was thinking. If there was one woman she could have emulated, it would have been Sabrina Fox. As if certain of every decision, the self-possessed operative never appeared to worry or hesitate. Did she ever question herself? If so, it never showed. 

Riley knew nothing about Sabrina’s background. She must have had some incredible training before she’d arrived at LCR, since almost from the day she’d started, she had been on the most dangerous ops. It had taken Riley almost three years before Noah had put her on anything but the most-routine rescues. Admittedly, she had been untrained—probably the most untrained operative he’d ever taken on. But Noah being Noah hadn’t hesitated. Once he’d heard her story, did research on her background, he had become her champion. He had promised that no one would ever find her. 

Without Noah’s support and Samara McCall’s counseling, Riley knew without a doubt that she would have been dead.

Sabrina adjusted her body slightly…Riley recognized that she was preparing for battle. Taking an inner breath, Riley did the same thing. Hopefully within the next few minutes, these scumbags would be lying unconscious and hurting on the floor, and this family would be headed home. 

That is, if nothing else went wrong.

Sabrina mentally braced herself for what was about to happen. The hostages were acting suitably terrified and cowed. As long as they stayed out of the way, no one should get hurt. 

Even though she was prepared for the takedown, her mind kept veering to what had happened three nights ago in her apartment. She and Declan had made love. She still found that hard to comprehend. He’d gone out of his way to convince her that their marriage was over. But he had been insatiable. Tender, passionate...like the old Declan. As if nothing had changed between them. 

No, one thing had definitely changed. The words hadn’t been there. No declarations of love, no assurances of forever.

She’d left without waking him. Probably a cowardly act, but a part of her had feared that if he’d woken, he’d have been back to his coldness. After having spent a passionate night in his arms, she couldn’t have taken that detached attitude of his again. When she returned would be soon enough to find out if anything had changed. 

A movement to her left brought her eyes around. Finally, this thing was about to go down. Three men entered the house. Hmm. Aidan and Justin were right. Two of the men were snappy dressers—Brioni suits and ties, Berluti shoes, Patek wristwatches. 

No. Wait. Alarms clanged in her head. Something was off. The Bracho family didn’t get involved in the day-to-day activities of kidnapping. Their business model was to hire the muscle, then sit back and reap the rewards. So why would two men wearing six-thousand-dollar suits come along on a routine job?

The guys they’d been expecting should have been only a level or two above the creeps who had nabbed them. These guys were far above that. Why would the Brachos risk coming here for a routine kidnapping? Had they been wrong? Were the culprits not the Brachos after all?

She swung her gaze to Riley again. The operative had the same confusion on her face that Sabrina felt. This was just not right.

On the surface, the Rambo wannabe was the one to watch. Armed with an AK-47 strapped to his shoulder, a pistol in a side holster, and a long, evil-looking knife in a sheath attached to his left thigh, he was a big fellow, nasty sneer on his lips, cold eyes. 

Still, the other two might be even more dangerous. 

Sabrina let things settle in her mind. All they could do was play out the scenario as planned and adjust if necessary. 

“Which one’s the wife?” one of the suits asked. 

“Dark-haired one in the corner.”

The suited men went over to the corner where Marsha Denton and her companion sat. “Your husband better come through with the money or you’ll all be killed.”

Instead of looking terrified, Marsha stared up at him with disdain gleaming in her eyes. The look of hatred was fine and understandable, but hopefully the woman would stay put and allow her rescue to take place. 

The other suited man turned to Riley, tugged at her hair. “I heard about you. You and your friend will make a nice profit for us on the open market.”

So instead of trying to ransom them, she and Riley were to be sold? Another oddity. The Brachos kept their business dealings simple and streamlined. Kidnap and ransom only. Human trafficking was not in their evil bag of tricks.

Riley had some of the best acting skills Sabrina had seen—she was a chameleon. “Please, sir, I...I don’t know why we’re here, but if you let us go, we won’t tell nobody. Will we, Dina?”

Sabrina shook her head. “We promise, mister. Just let us go.”

Instead of answering, he yanked Riley up by her hair and slammed his mouth over hers.

Son of a bitch
. Sabrina jumped up to go after the guy. A gun pressed against the back of her neck. “Move, and you get it.”

Sabrina froze. Fury and hatred gathering into a storm, she watched helplessly as the man groped her fellow operative. Dammit, until she could get behind the bastard holding the gun on her, she could do nothing but watch. Where the hell were Aidan and Justin? 

At that thought, it happened. The door burst open, and the two LCR operatives entered. Sabrina saw Justin’s eyes target Riley, who was still enclosed within the man’s arms. With a growl, he flew at the man, and as if they’d synchronized it, Riley slipped from the man’s arms, rolled away. 

Sabrina whirled, knocked the gun from the big man’s hand, then threw a kick to his stomach. While he teetered on his feet, she followed it with an uppercut to his nose. He staggered back and reached for his other gun. Sabrina caught his arm, twisted quickly until she heard a satisfying crack. He yelled a vicious curse and punched her face. Ignoring the pain, she jabbed her elbow into his stomach and followed that up with a hard, targeted kick to his groin. Then, for good measure, as he teetered unsteadily on his feet, she sent a hard, fast fist into his groin again. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he went down.

 She whirled to see who might need help and was pleased to see that both suits were lying flat-out on the floor, and the three smelly beasts who had abducted them were now huddled in their own corner, looking dazed and whipped. The children and women had found refuge with each other. Mrs. Denton had her arms wrapped around all three children. Her companion, Cecile Poole, stood outside the small group with an odd look on her face. 

Sabrina checked again just to make sure that all threats had been contained. Pleased that it had gone down so well and her uneasiness had been unfounded, she turned back to the family, noting out of the corner of her eye that Riley reached over to place her hand on the nanny, probably to reassure her. 

No one saw it coming. Cecile turned, a large knife gripped in her hand. With a roar of outrage, she slashed toward Riley, and then, her eyes wild and glazed with fury, she targeted Marsha Denton. 

Aidan tackled the woman before she could reach Marsha, slamming her to the floor. Justin made a grab for Riley. Sabrina threw herself toward Cecile, who was fighting Aidan like a maniac.

What the hell?

Riley blinked up at Justin. He had the strangest expression on his face. He rarely looked at her with any kind of emotion anymore. That was for the best. Can’t afford to get attached to what you can’t have. 

“Well, now,” Justin said in the low, slow drawl that she loved. “That was a close call. Looks like you’re going to need a little more training.”

His tone was insulting as always, but his expression said something else. She frowned up at him, surprised at the effort it took to keep her eyes focused. “Justin?”

“Don’t quit on me now, Riley. You hear me?” 

Riley.
He never called her by her first name. 

She heard a growling curse and felt him pressing his hands against her stomach. An odd ache thudded in her gut. Not pain exactly. Just odd. Coldness seeped through her bones. She’d felt like this once before. When she had misbehaved and had been punished. But no,
he
wasn’t anywhere around.
He
couldn’t find her…couldn’t hurt her anymore. So why this feeling of cold fear?

“Dammit, Riley. Did you hear me?”

That’s right. Justin was here. He couldn’t know how she felt about him.
Gotta keep stuff like that to yourself, Riley.
If he knew, he wouldn’t want her as his partner. He couldn’t find out. 

So sleepy. Her eyes drooped closed.

“No, dammit, Riley, no. Keep your eyes open and on me. You hear me?”

Feeling loopy and a little silly, she raised her hand to caress his cheek, vaguely wondering why her fingers were wet. “Such a tyrant,” she mumbled. “Can’t figure out why I like you so much.” 

She heard him say her name again…this time even more urgently. With a sigh of longing, she carried the sound of his voice into the darkness. 

Chapter Twenty-one

LCR Headquarters

Declan sat in the conference room with Angela and Jake. What the young hacker had been able to uncover in just a few days astounded him. He now had access to all old records going back to when the Agency first began. Much of it was encrypted, and Angela was working on breaking the code, but what he had seen so far was nothing short of phenomenal.

Angela had also uncovered the file of every EDJE employee from the lowest clerk to Albert Marks himself. So far he’d gone through a quarter of them and as of yet, not one red flag.

 “Do you think anyone at EDJE would be willing to work with us?” Angela asked. 

“Probably not. I can probably get a couple of guys who used to work there. They might be able to help.”

“You trust them?” Mallory asked. 

“Within limits.”

“Why don’t you contact one of them, meet him in a neutral place?”

He could do that. Maybe use the apartment that he and Sabrina had stayed in before they’d gone to her house. No way would he take anyone, trust or no trust, to her home. She’d been smart to keep it off the books with no one knowing about it. Endangering her was the last thing he wanted.

Angela pointed to an employee record on her display. “These areas here have been redacted. If I can find their code for redactions, I can reveal the full record. Anything—passwords, code words—would be helpful. I can—”

Both Jake’s and Angela’s cell phones chimed alarms. The two operatives looked at each other and in unison rose to their feet. “We have to go,” Angela said.

An ominous feeling zipped up Declan’s spine. “What’s wrong?”

“One of our operatives is down.”

He hadn’t heard from Sabrina since she’d left. He told himself that there were probably dozens of ops going on at one time. The chances of the operative who was down being Sabrina were low. 

“What’s the protocol?”

“We’ll wait to hear from Noah, but for now we’re on alert. We’ll head into his office and wait until—”

McCall shoved open the door. “I’m headed to Caracas. We’ve got two injured, one serious. I’ll alert you as soon as I know something.” He gave Declan a hard look. “Steele, you’re with me.”

Feeling as though he was wading through quicksand, Declan followed McCall out of the room. The LCR leader wanted him to come along? That could mean only one thing—Sabrina had been hurt. 

Caracas

Sabrina sat in the uncomfortable chair in the waiting room. The pain in her side throbbed like a bad toothache, but compared to Riley’s injury, it was barely a scratch. Why oh why hadn’t they seen it coming? Cecile Poole, the nanny, had apparently helped set up the entire scenario. Marsha Denton was supposed to die. Once the ransom was paid, the children and Cecile would be saved...returned. The kidnapping had been inspired by nothing more than old-fashioned jealousy. The nanny had wanted Andrew Denton and his children for herself. With Marsha out of the way, Cecile had believed her path would have been clear.