The Salvation of Vengeance (Wanted Men #2) (36 page)

No, they weren’t, he thought as a volcanic eruption scrambled his insides. If Caleb didn’t make it out alive, this house would be shrouded in grief. They had to get this done. “You know where they are?” he asked Vincente just as Charlie came trotting down the hallway. He went right over and hopped up, as if trying to climb Nika.

Maks answered as V bent and scooped the dog up. “From what little I can see, it looks like the place we’ve been watching.” He took his phone out, but before he could dial, Gabriel was cursing.

“Abel said you had him and Jerod squatting on a porn site in an abandoned building. Was this what they were talking about?”

Maks looked at him all
what-the-fuck-did-you-do
? “
Had
them?”

“I pulled them off last night to come with me and Vincente. They said they’d call someone else in.” He texted Jerod as he talked, asking him who they’d gotten to replace them. “Fuck, Kirov, why didn’t you let me in on that?” He looked at his phone when a reply came in. “Okay. Tricky and Danny O.” He texted them, and no reply was forthcoming. “Fuck.”

“Listen, that was my bad. Seriously. I should have let you know. I’ve been distracted.” For once, Maksim appeared to be sincere. “I’m going down to see if I can get a visual of the place from an outside source.” He moved fast.

Vincente was talking quietly to Nika. She kept nodding and petting Charlie too quickly in the same spot on his back. The dog didn’t seem to mind.

“But what can we do right now?” she said. “The longer Kevin has him—We can’t leave him there, Vincente.”

“We won’t. We’ll see what Maks finds in the area and then head over ourselves.”

“Why don’t I call Kevin?” Nika pulled out of V’s arms and started pacing. “I’ll call him and tell him I’ll meet him.”

“No.” Vincente’s response was instant and adamant, but Nika kept talking.

“He’ll leave to meet me and you guys can get Caleb out of there.” She stopped moving and looked from V to him. “Gabriel? Isn’t that a good idea? It’s kind of easy, right?”

She sounded so desperate, he wanted to agree, but he couldn’t. “It’s never easy, Nika,” Gabriel supplied. “Not when you’re dealing with a guy like Nollan. What if he booby-traps the place or does something to Caleb before he leaves?”

“But it’s
me
he wants!” Her voice was shrill in its insistence. “I
know
him. He won’t be thinking about Caleb after I agree to come to him.”

“You’re not going to him, Red. So get the fucking thought out of your head.” Vincente’s tone brooked no argument.

She looked up at him when he appeared in front of her. And then she looked over at Gabriel and then Eva. She wilted. “Fine,” she said, her tone hard rather than defeated. “Then please go down and see what’s taking Maksim so long so you guys can get over there.”

Gabriel looked closely at the redhead before turning to his wife. “Will you girls be okay for a minute?”

Eva nodded and drew herself up, giving him a clear view of that inner strength he so loved. “Yes. Go. I’ve got her, Vincente. Go.” She went to take Nika’s hand, but her friend hesitated.

She and Vincente looked at each other for a suspended moment, and then Nika stood on her toes and kissed him. “Thank you.”

V opened his mouth to respond, but Nika was already turning away and being led into the main room by Eva. They settled close together on the sofa, Charlie between them. Vincente looked torn between staying and going.

“I’ll come back up and let you know what we find,” Gabriel offered.

V shook his head. “No. I’ll come with. We need to nail this fuck once and for all.”

They went down to command central with Gabriel praying that was even still possible. Really, who knew when that picture had been taken?

For all they knew, Nika’s brother was already gone.

CHAPTER 22

Gabriel and Vincente walked toward the basement stairs as thoughts raced through Nika’s mind. Kevin had her brother. He would kill Caleb if he didn’t get what he wanted: her. Simple answer? Give herself up. But no one would help her do that. As usual, she was going to have to do this herself. She’d sacrificed almost an entire year of her life for her brother, and now it looked as if she would have to do so once more. Because she was going to meet Kevin and get Caleb away from him before that bastard could hurt him even more than he probably already had.

She knew Vincente and Gabriel and the rest of the crew were capable men. But she didn’t trust that they’d do everything they could to save Caleb the way she would. If given the choice of killing Kevin or saving Caleb’s life, even if it meant Kevin getting away, she didn’t trust that Caleb would win that contest.

She’d seen how Vincente reacted to her injuries at Kevin’s hands.

Her mind continued to ricochet, skipping through ideas and scenarios, most of which wouldn’t work. It slowed, and she examined one. She could take Eva’s car. It had a sensor installed to allow the front gates to open. She could call Kevin from the road and tell him to meet her out front of wherever he had her brother. She could then sneak around and enter through a back entrance, free Caleb, and they could take off in time for Vincente and Gabriel to arrive and do their thing—kill her husband. Eva had been muttering about an accessory Gabriel had given her along with her new car the other day. She’d asked how weird it was for a husband to gift his wife with a Smith & Wesson and had then said she’d put it in her glove box, praying she’d never have to use it. Nika could use it. If Kevin came anywhere near her, she could use that gun. She’d impressed Caleb for years with her excellent aim.
Okay.
This could work.

It had to work. This might be her only chance to end this. End Kevin. Because if he wasn’t dead, she was never going to be free of him. Something deep inside her darkened. After she set her brother free, she could go to the front of that building and meet her husband as planned. She would use that Smith & Wesson and make it so Kevin could never hurt anyone ever again.

She deserved to be the one to do this.

Only seconds had passed since she and Eva had left them and, feeling strangely calm and resolved in her new role, she watched Vincente and Gabriel disappear down the stairs. She put Charlie on the floor and took her phone from where she’d stuffed it into the waistband of her jeans after pilfering it from Vincente’s back pocket. After pressing the power on, a strangled sound escaped her throat at what she saw. Kevin’s text demanding her return and a picture of Caleb . . .

Her resolve cemented. Kevin was going to kill her brother, making everything she’d been through in the past year for nothing. She could not allow that. Would not allow it. Every minute counted, and Vincente and Gabriel were wasting them. When left in his own head, Kevin became even more dangerous. She knew that better than anyone! She also knew that he could be distracted from what he was doing to Caleb—by his fixation on her.

Eva’s gasp signaled that she’d also seen Caleb’s photo. “Oh, my God.” Her skin took on a green cast, giving Nika an idea.

“I feel sick,” she whispered, forcing her voice to sound weak as she glanced at the bar across the room. “Could you get me some milk?” Anything else she asked for was probably behind that mahogany. “Please? The acid in my stomach in eating through my throat.”

“Yes, of course. Will you be okay if I leave for a second? Do you want to come to the kitchen? Or would you rather I brought it back here?”

“Here, please. I’m good here. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, hon. I’ll be right back.” She got up and nearly tripped over Charlie as he followed her out.

Nika gave her a count of five, and then she was up and racing for the door leading to the garage. She was in her bare feet, she realized, but didn’t really care as she yanked the heavy thing open and grabbed the fat key fob under the scrolled
E
on the board next to the light switch. She knew cameras were everywhere in the house and grounds and the boys would most likely see her, so she hit the garage door opener for the Mercedes bay simultaneously. Hopefully the men would be trying to locate the warehouse Kevin was in and not watching the security cameras too closely. Unwilling to take that chance, she yanked open the car door and scrambled in as quickly as she could. She jammed the key in the ignition and turned it over.

She hadn’t spent month after month being treated like a dog, bleeding, suffering through punches and kicks and broken bones, just to lose her brother anyway. She might as well have let Kevin send him to jail. At least he’d be alive.

When the garage door finally opened fully, Nika hit the accelerator and flew down the driveway, praying Maksim didn’t have the option of overriding the sensor that would open the front gate. Or if he did, that he wouldn’t have enough time to implement it before she got through.

Less than a minute later, she was slowing the powerful machine and that massive gate was sliding back smooth and easy.

Nika drove through and hit the road. She leaned over and opened the glove box to take out a beautifully compact weapon that she placed in her lap. Caleb would have complimented Gabriel on his taste, she thought, her throat aching with unshed tears. She grabbed her cell from the passenger seat where she’d thrown it and scrolled through her contacts with a shaking hand.

This had to work.

“What the
fuck
?”

Vincente jerked away from studying what he knew were two bodies spaced about twenty feet apart in front of the building Caleb was being held in. Maks, who’d been looking at a different screen, was furiously tapping on a keyboard that sat on the end of his desk. Vincente glanced at the image that had caused the panic and saw one of the bays in the garage empty.

“Your redhead just took Eva’s car!”

Fuck!
Both his and Gabriel’s eyes went to the view of the front gate. “What are you doing?” Vincente snapped.

“Trying to override the system so she can’t get out.”

Jesus Christ.

They watched the E63 AMG power down the lane, almost hearing the growl of the Mercedes engine over Maks’s tapping. “Come on, Maks,” he muttered tightly.

The gates began to open, and a keyboard went flying just as Eva burst into the room.

“She’s gone!” she cried.

Anything she said after that was lost as Vincente bolted up the stairs. He sprinted up to his room, finished dressing, and was armed up to the fucking teeth in record time. He entered the garage just as Maks showed up. He was about to jump behind the wheel of his truck but was shoved aside.

“Passenger side,” the Russian ordered, stowing his CheyTac—his sniper rifle of choice—behind the seat.

Seeing no point in arguing, he went around and climbed in just as Gabriel and Quan hopped in the back.

“Eva’s getting in touch with her father. He’ll meet us there with cleanup. Shit.” By the beeps sounding behind him, Vincente could tell Gabriel was back on his phone. “Hey. I forgot to ask, is Yuri in town? Good. Eva’s going to see if Tegan can make it there, too, since she’s at work and close.”

The idea that Nika might need the MDs again had Vincente’s lip curling. He was doing his level best to keep his emotions shut off. If he allowed them in, he was done. Though he did make an exception for rage. He welcomed that motherfucker, giving it permission to sweep through him like an F-5, smoking anything soft that had ever resided within him.

Just like Sophia, Nika was gone. Only she’d left him by choice. And she’d known she was going to. He’d noted when he was putting his boots on that her phone was gone from his back pocket. That’s why she’d kissed him, thanked him, before going off with Eva. He got that now. It had been her good-bye.

Why the fuck was she doing this? He knew how to deal with men like Kevin Nollan. Did it every day. Yet she’d fucked them over and left him behind to go up against that monster on her own.

The only thing that would save her from his wrath was that Vincente understood. He’d have done the same.

He heard Gabriel give Vasily their destination’s address before hanging up. “They’ll bring Vasily’s private ambulance just in case Paynne needs it.”

He didn’t respond, knowing they were all thinking it would probably be Nika who needed it more. His vision tunneled, seeming to focus on nothing but the empty stretch of road ahead of them as the Kombat ate up the miles.

“Move faster.” His words came out stone cold with zero emotion. Already dead. Just like him.

“Don’t want the cops on our ass, V. And I don’t want to get us killed. Can’t do shit to help them if we end up wrapped around a pole.” Maksim was calm and controlled but for different reasons. He was in the zone.

Vincente was just dead. “Might be too late,” he murmured, an image of Nika broken and gone flashing into his mind. And staying there. The light in her eyes snuffed out by the man Vincente had failed to find.

Gabriel leaned into his periphery from the backseat as the snap and click of a weapon let everyone know Quan was getting ready. “She was only minutes before us, brother. And we know where we’re going. We might even make it there ahead of her. She’ll be fine.”

Empty words.

Empty chest.

Empty head.

“Only takes a second,” he whispered too quietly for anyone to hear.

Lore left the station without bothering to call in backup. His thinking was that he could head straight home afterward and fill in the report on the big, whopping nothing he was bound to find in the morning. If he dragged a team with him now, he might have to return to the precinct when he’d promised the siblings he’d meet them at their family’s deli for lunch. He’d canceled on them too often lately. Ashlyn, who’d just turned twenty-five last week, would be disappointed if he did it again. Michael, who was twenty-eight, would understand. Lore would be thirty-three at the end of the month, and he still wasn’t a big fan of disappointing his parents, who would also be waiting on him.

Besides, it was easy enough to call for backup if the need arose, which he truly didn’t think it would. Not the way shit was going with this case. Which happened to be no better than the ones the feds were now struggling with. Their redhead killer was still out there. So was the guy drugging young girls so he could film them being raped and sell the shit as rough porn.

Lore popped a TUMS as he drove out of the parking lot and headed for Crown Heights. The case with the redheads was one of those that continued to roll around in his mind. Even though he’d been officially removed from it, he had a buddy on the inside who was letting him know where they were. And every lead they’d gotten had been bullshit. The last one, apparently, from a guy claiming to have seen countless females brought in to have their pics taken against their will; the high-pitched crying and screaming had repeatedly woken him from a dead sleep. A team had surrounded the supposed house in Bushwick within hours and gone in quietly but aggressively . . . and found a fucking portrait studio for babies. Fucking neighbor hadn’t liked hearing the kids cry once they were tired of posing and had wanted the place shut down.
Asshole.

He reached over and turned the radio on. Had to get his head wrapped around his own case. They’d gotten a call from a random citizen saying they’d noticed bright lights coming on in a building no longer in use. The addy was in an area fit for an illegal operation. Hopefully this was the break he’d needed.

Lore hit the gas and wished he was more than one man. It would make his job a hell of a lot easier if there were a few more out there like him who lived with this single-minded intensity and determination to take out bastards like these sick fucks they were gunning for.