Rekindled (Titanium Security Series) (21 page)

“Sure.” Not about to argue, she stayed put while Blake got out, spoke to the officers at the barricade then jogged around the side of the building. Jordyn slid behind the wheel and Grace noted they’d both left the engine running.

Another news van pulled around the corner of the hotel, stopped only when the police blocked it. “Should I call Alex?” Grace asked, starting to feel uneasy. There was no way anyone should have known about the meeting in the first place, let alone this last minute location. Yet if there’d been time enough for someone to organize a protest, then clearly the information hadn’t been as secret as they’d thought.

“No, Blake’s already taking care of that as we speak.” Jordyn scanned the lot continuously, alert for any threats, but she was so unruffled by the turn of events that Grace relaxed. If Jordyn and Blake weren’t worried, then she shouldn’t be either.

To lighten the mood a little as they waited, she attempted some humor. “So, Blake actually lets you drive, huh?”

Jordyn smirked and kept looking out the windows. “It’s ‘cuz he knows I’m much better with all things mechanical than he is, especially if it’s got wheels.”

Grace huffed out a laugh, knowing from Alex that it wasn’t arrogance but truth that colored the woman’s words. “Glad you guys have got that even footing thing figured out early.”

Jordyn stole a quick glance back at her in surprise, her pretty blue eyes narrowing. “Why, does Alex give you a hard time about your role in your relationship?”

“No, he never makes me feel inferior or anything, if that’s what you’re asking,” she said quickly. “We’ve just both got a love affair with being in control, so it’s…interesting.” That being an understatement. Lucky for both of them, she was interested in keeping the peace enough to only dig in her heels if she felt really strongly about something. Otherwise they’d probably wind up strangling each other. Unless they were talking about control in the bedroom. Because they both got off on the power exchange there, and Grace was only too happy to give up control to him. The results were more than worth it, she remembered with a smile.

“Sounds like you’re the perfect match for him, then,” Jordyn answered with a chuckle. She put a hand to her ear and Grace knew Blake must be contacting her over the earpiece. “I copy. See you in two minutes.” She swiveled around to look at Grace. “He says everything’s locked down tight inside and the police are already pushing everyone back from the front. Your assistant’s already up there. As soon as you get inside and up to the conference room, you’ll be safe as a kitten.”

Grace breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s great.” She gathered her briefcase and shawl, covered her hair while she waited.

“Okay,” Jordyn said a minute later. “He’s coming out now.” She put the truck into gear and drove as close to the police barricade as she could. The closest access door at the back of the hotel swung open and Blake emerged, tall and strong and calm. Grace’s heart rate settled and she waited until he was almost to the vehicle before reaching for the door handle. “See you,” she said to Jordyn. “Tell Alex I said hello when you see him.”

“Will do. Good luck.”

She hopped out and slammed the door, then followed Blake to the back entrance. Or rather, he followed her, keeping her in front of him until they hit the door. Even with the vest hidden beneath her suit, it felt good to have him at her back, a man she knew Alex trusted with his own life. At the door he stopped her with an upraised hand and went through first, then ushered her inside the bottom of the stairwell.

A much shorter, muscular Caucasian man was hurrying down the concrete steps toward them, his thirty-something features set in an unreadable expression.  He wore a coiled wire leading from his earpiece to clip inside his collar. Though she didn’t recognize him that didn’t mean much because the security guys guarding the UN team had been told to stay invisible.

Blake nodded at the man in greeting, then put a hand on Grace’s upper back to urge her forward. “This is Lang, added to your detail by Alex, and he’ll be looking after you. Syrian envoy is on its way now, about ten minutes out. I’ll come up with you.” It wasn’t necessary but Grace appreciated his thoughtfulness. She was breathing a bit heavier as they reached the fourth floor, her heels not the most comfortable thing in the world to climb steps in. She followed the other man into the carpeted hallway to the conference room where more security staff in dress jackets flanked the door.

Grace paused to glance over her shoulder at Blake. “Thanks.”

He smiled, his teeth a startling white against his deep caramel skin tone, and his golden-hazel eyes were warm. “Anytime. Go get ‘em.”

She nodded her thanks and passed between the two security guards to enter the room. They shut the door behind her and her gaze immediately landed on David. He smiled and sighed as though in relief when he saw her, then stood to pull out a chair for her at the long rectangular table. “Good to see you,” he said. “Sleep okay last night?”

She hadn’t had much sleep at all, but couldn’t complain, especially because of the lingering twinge of soreness between her thighs that explained her current fatigue. “I got enough.” Not enough of Alex, though. She was addicted to him all over again. And right now she couldn’t afford to let her worry about him distract her. She set her briefcase down and pulled her chair in. “What’s with the zoo outside? Did you get caught in it too?”

At that David stilled and broke eye contact. “I got here early, just as the first crew showed up.”

“The Syrians are bound to be pissed about this.” She hoped that didn’t start things off on a sour note. These kinds of negotiations were always tricky at the best of times.

He winced. “I know.” He rubbed the back of his neck, seemed to weigh his words before speaking. “Listen, I need to tell you something that—”

Whatever he was about to say was cut off when the door opened and Dr. Travis walked in with the other members of the team trailing behind him. Travis smiled when he saw her. “Glad you could make it,” he said with a twinkle in his blue eyes.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she answered cheerfully. Now they just had to hope the Syrians arrived without incident and security cleared their way through that throng out front so they could get this deal done.

****

Cruising at twenty-six-thousand feet on his way down to Karachi, Alex sent off a quick text to Grace.

I’d wish you luck, but I know you won’t need it.

The media circus out front bothered him, but Ellis had assured him the security team there had things well in hand and so far none of his contacts knew how the meeting had been leaked to the media in the first place. It had his instincts tingling but there was dick-all he could do about it now. He wasn’t in charge of Grace’s safety anymore and that was all there was to it. Damn hard letting it go though.

His phone buzzed with an incoming text.

Thanks. Gonna get this deal done if it’s the last thing I do
.

Her choice of wording set off a warning buzz in his stomach.
Just the start of many great things
he corrected, pushing the sensation away. He was paranoid because of the lack of control, that was all.

Syrians arriving now. Gotta go. You be careful. Hope to see you soon. Xo

He smiled at the kiss/hug and sent one back.
Do my best. Go save the world.  Xo

Setting his phone down, he shook his head at himself. He was turning into a fucking sap, putting x’s and o’s in his texts. Looking up, he found Hunter and Gage staring at him with bemused expressions.

“You poor dumb bastard,” Hunter said, laughing at him.

Alex shot a mock glare at them both. “Whatever. Like you two are any better. Now shut up and get back to work.” He grabbed the notepad that Hunter had been scribbling on and glanced at the notes. “Locking down that port is going to be next to impossible. When we find him, we have to make sure we block off all escape routes to the water.”

“Roger that.”

They continued to go over the current intel. The Paks had officers in place right now on the ground in Karachi trying to locate where Hassani might be hiding. They’d dispatched personnel out to all the outlying airfields. This case was so high profile they had half the country out looking for the guy and officials were waving around enough reward money for his whereabouts that someone was bound to turn him in as General Sharif had done.

When Alex’s phone rang and he saw Evers’s number on call display, he expected it to be an update about the investigation. “Hey. Whatcha got?”

“Looks like the Syrian envoy’s been delayed due to the media presence at the other hotel. They’re just heading to the meeting now.”

Alex frowned, sat up straighter. “What do you mean? Ellis told me they were en route over twenty minutes ago, and Grace just texted to say the Syrians had already arrived.”

“Uh, no, they haven’t, because I’m looking at them out the front doors of my hotel right now. They’re just loading into their vehicles.”

Every drop of blood in Alex’s body froze.
Grace.

Panic grabbed him by the throat, choking his airway shut. Hunter and Gage were both staring at him, tense and alert. “Alert the security and get another team over there
now
,” he forced out. Shaking, he hung up with the sickening feeling that it was too little, too late, and just like last time there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to save her.

****

Her team was ready. Grace and the others sat around the conference room table as they awaited the Syrian delegation. She kept her hands folded atop her notepad as she waited for them to arrive. Moments later the door opened and a group of middle-aged Middle Eastern looking men in suits entered, special security ID tags pinned to their right breast pockets. Someone closed the door to give them privacy.

She stood with her team and offered a smile as the introductions were made, a part of her wondering why she didn’t recognize any of them. Had they changed the delegates since she’d last seen the list? The five Syrians shook hands with Dr. Travis and she held out her hand to the first man. A tiny flicker of unease threaded up her spine at the intensity of the man’s gaze as his hand closed around hers. His grip was dry and firm but something in the way he stared at her turned the disquiet into a warning tingle in her brain.

Her smile faltered.

Before she could pull her hand free the strong fingers tightened and tugged her toward him. Caught off balance, she let out a squeak and threw out a hand to catch herself on his shoulder just as the unmistakable roar of gunfire exploded out in the hallway. She was aware of the sudden swell of panic, the shouts and struggles from the other members of the team as the man raised a hand and plunged something sharp into the side of her neck.

A needle.

He stared down at her with dark, satisfied eyes as she crumpled against him, then everything went black.

Alex couldn’t stop pacing the length of the plane’s small cabin. For more than ten minutes now he’d been in an agony of suspense. All he knew was that there’d been a massive attack on the fourth floor of the hotel where Grace was and that there were many casualties. He was trapped, helpless to do anything as he waited for word.

No matter how much he wanted to order the plane turned back to Islamabad, he couldn’t. They were three-quarters of the way to Karachi already, and much as it killed him, the U.S. government valued Hassani’s capture more than the lives of Grace and her teammates. For now, all he could do was pray his gut was wrong. That Grace wasn’t dying right now, lying there bleeding out on the floor of the conference room.

Except his gut was rarely wrong.

Hunter and Gage were going over some maps together near the cockpit. They looked over at him every so often but didn’t say anything and gave him a wide berth, probably aware that he was on the verge of losing it. Alex ignored them and the two security personnel at the back of the twenty-seater who sat on either side of the prisoner, and kept pacing. He didn’t dare stop moving. If he sat down he’d explode.

When his phone finally rang, nearly fifteen agonizing minutes after the first news of the attack, he answered part way through the first ring. “Is she okay?” he blurted to Evers, aware and not giving a shit that his voice was rough. He didn’t worry about the prisoner overhearing. Even without the earmuffs and hood blocking out light and sound, Alex was too far away from him to be overheard above the jet’s engines. Alex had brought him on a hunch that it might be beneficial to the plan. Now the man might prove to be the only bargaining power Alex had left.

“Fuck, man, I’m sorry. She’s gone.”

Alex shot out a hand and gripped the back of the seat next to him to keep from falling as he squeezed his eyes shut. A crushing numbness filled his chest. Images of how he’d found her lying, bleeding to death on that stretcher in Mombasa, flashed through his mind. The way her eyes had focused on him when he’d raced over and grabbed her cold, blood-stained hands, the plea and the terror in her voice as she begged him to stay.
Don’t leave me.
But he had, and he hadn’t been there for her this time either. Jesus.

He sucked in a ragged breath, swallowed a sob clawing its way up his tight throat. He couldn’t take this. Didn’t want to hear how she’d been killed, yet couldn’t bear not knowing the details of what—

“The whole team is gone. They took all of them.”

Alex blinked, forced himself to inhale. Wait.
Took
. Not took
out
. He swallowed back the bile rising in his throat as a painful bubble of hope swelled in his chest cavity. “She’s alive?” he croaked, his voice sounding far away, as though it was coming from the other end of a long tunnel.

“Yeah, looks that way, for now at least. We found syringes loaded with sedatives on the floor. Hit squad posed as the Syrian envoy, took out the security personnel. Only one guy survived—the Brit, Lang—but he took a bad shot through the pelvis and couldn’t give us much intel. They’re prepping him for surgery over at the hospital now.”