Marc didn’t regret a moment of it. His loyalty to his boss had always come first. Without question. Without hesitation.
But he wasn’t as generous when it came to Alethea’s life. She had the heart of a Marine and the kick-ass attitude to be an honorary one, as far as he was concerned. He thought back to the men he had fought beside and lost, and closed his eyes briefly. He couldn’t lose Alethea, too.
But he also knew she wouldn’t leave, no matter what he said. She understood the risks and yet she wouldn’t leave this battleground willingly. He held her closer and breathed in her perfume.
Sophisticated.
Bold.
Just like her.
Oblivious to Marc’s inner turmoil, Alethea continued to direct Jeremy as she put him on speakerphone. “Are you able to cut off the electricity to that apartment? The one across the street?”
“I can shut off the whole building. The street, if you need it,” Jeremy answered.
“Good. Marc has men in the area. We can surround him where he is and, if we take away his eyes and ears, Marc can extricate him. But we’ll need to time this perfectly.” She met Marc’s eyes. “If Sliver has that loft rigged somehow, we’ll have to make him believe that keeping Stephan alive is his bargaining chip.”
Her eyes held the answer Marc feared. “While you . . .?”
Alethea met his eyes boldly. “I’m going to free Stephan. I’ve never met a security system I couldn’t breach.”
Except mine.
She flashed a smile at him, acknowledging that she knew exactly what he’d been thinking. “Honestly, I didn’t try that hard with yours.”
Jaw tight, Marc demanded what he knew she couldn’t promise. “You get in. Get Stephan and get out.” Then he surprised even himself by saying, “Because I won’t lose you now. I have every intention of marrying you.”
Alethea pulled back with irritation rather than the rosy, pleased flush he’d expected. “Marry? Are you seriously picking this moment to ask me?”
“Who said I’m asking? We belong together.” His smile became more confident as he said it out loud.
“No.”
His smile dimmed. “No?”
She put a hand on either hip. “This is not how you are going to propose to me. I want flowers. I want you down on your knee. All that hokey romantic stuff. And a ring. Something tasteful.”
There’s the woman I love. Tough as nails on the outside, but on the inside, wanting to be loved and cherished just as much as any other. It was a heady combination for him. She would indeed be a real partner to him in life, but she also needed him—just as much as he needed her.
Marc kissed her until the anger left her, and then teased, “How about I just toss you in my trunk, marry you quick, and make it up to you during our honeymoon?”
Before Alethea could answer, Jeremy’s voice rang out from the phone she still held in one hand. “Uh, guys? I don’t want to interrupt, but this is getting awkward. Do you want to call me back when you have a timetable?”
Back to business. Marc took the phone. “Jeremy, I may need a direct link to Sliver’s phone, in case we need to negotiate with him.” He quickly kissed Alethea’s upturned nose, then set her back from him.
He’d said what he needed to say, and although she hadn’t said yes, she’d given him an answer he could work with. “Once we do this, it has to go down fast. Sliver’s too smart to be kept off balance long. We don’t want to give him time to come up with plan B.”
Jeremy said, “I can’t imagine this failing. Not with the two of you working together. Is there anything else you need?”
Marc held out a hand to Alethea.
She placed her hand in his and wordlessly accepted the meaning behind his offer.
“I have what I need right here,” Marc said, as he raised her hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it. “And we’re going to kick some ass today.”
After they outlined a plan to Jeremy, there was no time to second-guess it. Marc radioed his men and put everyone in position to move in once the electricity was cut. Alethea would use that brief chaos to free Stephan. Jeremy sent over the specs for both buildings.
Marc gave Alethea one final, deep kiss. When they separated, she said softly, “Don’t you get killed, Marc. Don’t you dare get killed. I didn’t mean it when I said I don’t need anyone.”
He checked his watch, had Jeremy start the countdown to blackout, and said, “I’m not going anywhere. I have a proposal to plan.”
She gave him a cheeky smile. “Go big or go home.”
Jeremy interrupted their banter. “Blackout in ten minutes. Good luck guys.”
Marc hung up the phone and walked out of the alley side by side with Alethea. After she crossed the street, he signaled his men to close in and then sprinted into the other building and up the stairway to the fourth floor where, if they were correct, he’d find the only man he’d ever looked forward to killing.
Chapter Nineteen
Stephan flipped his wallet open and took out a small photo of Nicole. He remembered exactly when it had been taken. Last Christmas, at his uncle’s home. They’d been opening Christmas presents in a large group and one of his young cousins had tackled Nicole to thank her. She’d rolled back onto the couch with him, laughing. Her eyes had sparkled with so much love and laughter when she’d righted herself, that he hadn’t been able to resist snapping a photo. She’d never been more beautiful to him or more a part of his family.
He gave the photo one last look, then placed it in the pocket near his heart. I’m sorry, Nicole. You deserve a better man than I am. I brought this on us and I wish there were a way I could spare you from what I have to do.
Forgive me.
He cleared his throat and said, “Sliver, I’ve decided to take you up on your deal.”
Sounding gleeful, Sliver answered, “Excellent. I knew you would. You win this way.”
“Yes. I do. But I have one condition.”
“You don’t get to make conditions,” Sliver protested angrily. “I’m in control here.”
“Kurtis, we’ve worked together for a long time. You know how much I hate Dominic. But you also know that I need a guarantee that this will be clean. I won’t make a phone call unless you clear this building of people. Tell them it’s a gas leak.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because, just like me, you don’t want witnesses. The more people involved, the more risk there is that the truth will come out. You kill them, you bring unwanted attention to both of us. Get rid of them and I’ll make sure Dominic comes alone. You won’t have to blow up the building. You can bide your time and pick him off with a sniper shot if you want. Clean. Or drug him and take him somewhere else to dispose of him. I don’t care. But if you think I’m going to let this become an FBI investigation that lands me in prison, you’re insane.”
There was a long pause, then Sliver asked, “How do I know I can trust you to follow through if I clear the building?”
Stephan chose his words carefully. “You were right. I never stopped hating Dominic. My life will be better without him. My only regret is that you’ll be the one who gets to kill him.”
After another long pause, Sliver said, “I’ve just sent a message via the gas company’s computer to the woman downstairs. Gas leak, just as you said. Immediate evacuation necessary.”
Stephan heard the phone ring downstairs. Followed by a rustling, then a door slamming. Stephan watched from the window to ensure that she did indeed leave the building with her child. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw both enter a taxi moments later.
His relief was short-lived. “Now, make the call,” Sliver demanded.
Stephan put a hand over the photo in his pocket and said, “Go to hell.”
“But you said . . .”
Stephan laughed in triumph. “How can someone be so smart and remain so gullible? Dominic is my family and, to an Andrade, family is everything. I would never give him to you.”
Wit
h a voice that held a hint of desperation, Sliver threatened, “You think I won’t press the button? You think I won’t blow you up? You’re wrong. If you won’t make the call, you’re worthless to me. At least I can enjoy watching you die.”
“Do it, you coward. If killing me gives Dominic a heads-up on where you are, then I die happy. Your plan for revenge has gotten sloppy, my friend. How does it feel to know that you won’t live much longer than I will?”
Chapter Twenty
Jeremy’s phone call drained all color from Dominic’s face. He looked across the room at his sister, who was sitting stiffly on the edge of a chair, watching him. Her expression turned hopeful when their eyes met.
I can’t tell her what’s really happening. I swore I would never be the reason she cried again.
Abby was at his side in a flash. “Who was that?”
Even though he wanted to, he couldn’t lie to her. “Jeremy.”
“What did he say?” She grabbed his arm desperately.
Dominic pulled her to him and just held her for a moment. Not since the birth of Judy had he felt so unsure of what to do. Stephan was wrong; Kurtis was not his fault. I did this to my family. I let my anger divide us and gave Sliver the advantage. “Jeremy is working with Alethea and Marc as we speak. They found Stephan. Sliver has him.”
Nicole stood up and swayed. “What do you mean, Sliver has Stephan? Has him how? Has him where? Is he hurt?”
They were past sugarcoating the events. “Somehow Sliver locked Stephan in his loft apartment. Stephan ordered his men to fall back. Alethea and Marc think that means Sliver rigged the building to explode.”
Abby wrapped her arms around Dominic’s waist and hugged him tightly. The shiver he felt pass through her tore at him.
It should be me in that loft.
With tears in her eyes, Abby asked, “What does this guy want?”
Dominic looked down and tucked a stray hair tenderly behind one of her ears. God, I love this woman. I know she won’t want to hear what I have to say, and I hope she forgives me. “Me. He wasn’t expecting Stephan to show up.”
Nicole rushed to her brother’s side. “If he doesn’t want him, he’ll let him go, right?”
Dominic shook his head slowly.
Abby sensed a change in Dominic. She searched his face for confirmation of what she knew was coming. “Don’t go, Dominic. Marc is already there. He won’t let anything happen to Stephan.”
Dominic slowly released Abby. “You know I have to do this,” he said softly. “Jake, I need your helicopter.”
Abby covered her face with both hands and started to cry.
Jake shook his head. “This is what he wants you to do, Dom. He wants to lure you out. This is a game to him.”
Very gently, Dominic took Abby’s hands in his and leaned down to kiss her wet cheek. “Abby, you came into my life and made me a better man. I know what’s important now. I can’t sit here while a member of my family is in danger.” He turned and touched his sister’s shoulder softly. “You will have your wedding day, Nicole. I’ll make sure of it. And your husband will be my brother.”
Nicole threw herself in her brother’s arms and sobbed.
Fresh tears streamed down Abby’s cheeks, but she met Dominic’s eyes and nodded. She gripped her hands in front of her. “You get this guy, Dom, and you make sure he can never hurt us again.”
Lil didn’t try to stop Jake when he went to stand beside his business partner. Instead, she took her sister’s hand in one of her own and Nicole’s hand in her other. She said, “They aren’t going in alone. Alethea is there and I’ve never seen her fail.”
Abby hugged Lil and looked up at the ceiling. “I swear if no one dies today I am going to hug that woman until it gets embarrassingly awkward.”
Dominic was suddenly all business. “Marc said they have the ground covered. I want to be in the air in case Sliver has an upward escape planned. We’ll land on the roof.”
Jake instructed one of the security men to relay a radio message to his pilot. “Are we taking anyone with us?”
Dominic named his elite team. They’d traveled with him around the globe and could be trusted with any situation that developed.
“Should we call the police for backup?” Jake asked.
Adrenaline rushed in and Dominic smiled. “No. When we catch this guy—and we will—he’s not going to prison. Not an American one, anyway.”
Poised just outside of street camera range, Alethea waited. Hopefully their plan would completely blind Sliver, but she couldn’t count on that. In the event that it didn’t, she would still have a limited window in which to move in while he was distracted by the surprise.
She’d joked with Marc that she was smarter than Sliver, but the last four minutes of waiting had been long enough for her to run a hundred worst-case scenarios through her head. What if he had a generator? What if he wasn’t in the building she’d sent Marc to? What if basing her decisions on her instincts was foolhardy? They had no hard evidence of his exact location. She’d risked Marc’s life as well as her own on a hunch.
She let out a long, calming breath.
Focus.
Focus on what you can control.
She checked her watch.
Two minutes until blackout.
A woman and a child came out of the building and hailed a taxi. The woman looked worriedly back at the building.
Is her exit a coincidence?
Had Sliver sent her out? Had Stephan? Why would they clear the building?
This is bad.
A quick flash of her life before her eyes brought her some pleasure and some shame. She glanced up at the clear sky above.
I haven’t lived a perfect life.
I’m not always kind.
I tend to think my way is the only way.
If my life ends today, let it be for something. Help me beat this bastard.
She grimaced.
Sorry about the profanity.
Although, I’m sure your shockability has been tested by worse.
Anyway, if you can hear me, take care of Marc. He’s a good man. Ideally, the one I’ll marry and have kids with. I know, me with kids. Shocking, right? Well, it’s your fault for giving women damn internal biological clocks.
She almost swore again, but caught herself.
No offense meant regarding the clock thing.
Listen, I’m not good at this, but I’d like to think you wouldn’t show me all I could have just to take it away.
I’ll make you a deal.
I’ll stop reading erotica on the Internet if you let us all live through this.
Shit, I probably shouldn’t have admitted I do that.
And what happens if I break that promise? I’m right in the middle of a series.
Stop. This isn’t helping.
Note to self: Never pray under pressure.
She looked down at her watch again.
Thirty seconds.
One last glance upward.
Let’s keep this simple.
I’ll try to be a better person, and you do whatever you can today.
We’ll figure the rest out later.
Her phone beeped softly and she took off across the street. She looked up at the window and saw Stephan. Or more importantly, he saw her. He tried to wave her away. She whipped her wig off, never so happy to have signature red hair.
The revelation of her identity didn’t stop his frantic waving. He was pounding on the window, then bringing his hands together and outward repeatedly in a mime of an explosion. She nodded that she understood, then pointed to herself, then him.
He shook his head and banged on the window again. The sound of his pounding ended only when she entered the main lobby of the building. The lights were out. A security man at the front desk was trying to make a phone call, then put down the phone in frustration and picked up his cell phone instead. Alethea leaned over the desk, gave him a flirty smile, and grabbed his phone.
“What the hell??
?? he said, standing aggressively.
Her expression instantly turned serious. “Something sick is about to go down. Whatever they are paying you to work here is not worth it. I’m taking your phone as a favor. They can trace shit like this. If they know where you are, you won’t get out of here alive.”
A betraying sheen of sweat on the guard’s forehead reflected the dim light coming through the entrance. “They? Is this about the guys who were here earlier? I let them upstairs, but they didn’t really give me a choice.”
“I’m not allowed to tell you more than that. This is a classified operation, but it’s going bad—and fast. You can stay and die or run now. You decide.” She held out his phone. “Want it back?”
He shook his head.
“Don’t say a word to anyone. Right now you’re off the radar. I’ll tell them that you saw nothing. But if you call the police or tell anyone about today, you won’t live to tell the story twice. They have people who clean up messes like that. You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
Reality didn’t matter. People watched enough crazy crap on TV to believe even the most far-fetched scenario. Her lie would save his life, just not the way he thought. Either way, if the building blew he’d be out of it.
“Do you have any ID?” he asked, remaining skeptical a bit longer than most.
She lifted one side of her shirt and revealed her holster and gun.
He turned and ran.
Okay, that’s one man to remember not to hire.
She used his phone to contact Jeremy. “The electricity is off, but that might not be enough. Stephan definitely thinks this place is about to blow. I’m at the security station downstairs and there’s a computer.”
He asked her for some information, then said, “I’m in. What am I looking for?”
“Work orders? Something electrical in nature? If Sliver was here installing something he had to have a cover for it.”
“Got it. Trouble with a cable box on the same floor about a month ago. It required some external wiring.”