The Temptation (14 page)

The day dragged on and my panic grew.

My phone rang late in the afternoon. I swallowed as I stared at the caller ID screen and saw that it was a blocked call. My heart beat faster as I looked from the phone to Nick. He gave a nod.

I took a deep breath and answered. “This is Lexi.”

“Lexi, it’s me.” Rori’s breathless voice came over the phone.

“Rori?” I got to my feet. “Where are you?”

“I’m in a hotel.” Rori sounded frightened. “I’m using the hotel phone. It’s the Ridgecrest.”

“What room number?”

“It’s twenty—”

The line went dead.

“It was Rori.” Panic rose up inside me. “She’s at the Ridgecrest Hotel.” I input the information in my phone and it came back with the location. It was within walking distance of our hotel. “Got it.” I looked at Nick and showed him my phone. “Let’s go before they move her again.”

I grabbed my Glock and shoved it into the holster on my belt beneath the over shirt I was wearing.

Nick grasped me by my shoulders and kissed me hard. Something twisted inside me as the strangest feeling came over me. I don’t know why the thought came to me, but it did—what if I never saw him again?

“I love you.” I needed to say it, needed to let him know just how much I cared for him.

“I love you, Lexi.”

Our gazes met one more time and I turned and rushed for the door. At the same time I dialed Zane. Nick followed me as I opened the door, then bolted out and hurried toward the elevator.

“Did he call?” Zane asked as a way of answering after the first ring.

“No, but Rori did.” I gave him a quick summary.

“We’ll meet you there with the van,” Zane said.

“Hurry.” I shoved the phone in my pocket.

When I reached the lobby I started to run. I didn’t care that I bumped into people as I pushed my way through the crowded area.

I rushed out the revolving doors and hurried down the street. I ran all the way to the hotel. I wasn’t breathing hard but a light sheen of perspiration covered my skin from the exercise and the heat of the afternoon sun. It felt like it had been an abnormally hot day for D.C.

I stopped when I reached the hotel. I glanced back and saw Nick shouldering his way through the pedestrians.

A car with dark tinted windows pulled up to the curb beside me. Both the passenger front and rear doors opened. My focus turned to the hotel.

Strong hands grabbed me from behind.

I cried out in surprise as I was thrown into the back seat of the car that had just pulled up. I bumped my head on the doorframe, tumbled onto the seat then landed hard on the floorboard at a man’s feet. I tried to scramble to get up but the door was already shut and the man clenched my arm before I could pull the door handle.

Through the dark tinted windows I saw Nick racing toward the car but it sped away from the curb, tires squealing.

My gaze cut to the man holding my arm as I went for my Glock.

Eric Dawson.

He had a gun pointed at me.

My heart slammed in my chest as I took stock of my situation. I was in the back of a car with one of Bachmann’s men and I had no idea where we were going. I prayed Zane and Ryan had arrived with the van in time to follow.

“Hand me your weapon.” He gestured toward my Glock that was now exposed because my shirt was to the side. “Slowly.”

I eased the gun out of the holster and handed it to him.

He stuck my weapon in the back of his pants. “Get out your phone.”

I dug my phone out of my pocket and held it.

“Call your friends in the van behind us and tell them if they don’t stop following us, I’m going to kill you now,” he said calmly.

I pressed the speed dial number for Zane and held the phone to my ear.

“Lexi?” Zane said.

“If you don’t stop following their car they’re going to kill me,” I said, my own voice calm despite the pounding of my heart. “I’ll be okay.”

Dawson yanked the phone from my hand. He buzzed down the window and tossed my phone out into the street.

My heart sank but I refused to get discouraged. I’d been in some pretty bad situations and made it out on my own. I’d do it again.

“We are taking no chances.” Dawson produced a black cloth. “Turn so that your back is to me.”

He tied the blindfold on me. I heard the clank of metal and then handcuffs were snapped onto my wrists. When he finished he had me sit facing front again. Dawson then patted me down and took my credentials that had been in my back pocket.

“Now I know why you looked familiar to me in the elevator,” he said. “That red wig did nothing for you.”

I was going to say something about his pockmarked and ugly face not doing anything for anyone, but I decided to hold my tongue.

The car drove for some time. I had the feeling that they were just circling the city, making sure I was disoriented before taking me to the location where Rori was being held. They did a pretty good job of it. Maybe if we’d been in my own city I could have figured it out by familiar sounds and my knowledge of the city backward, forward, and upside down, but this was D.C., not Boston.

Finally I heard the crunch of gravel beneath tires and the car came to a stop. Moments later the rear passenger door opened. A big hand clamped onto my arm and I was jerked out of the car so hard that I stumbled into a huge man. He shoved me away from him but I managed to keep my balance.

With the blindfold on I couldn’t see, but I could hear the sound of water lapping against a shore or wharf and a ship’s horn blew in the distance. The air smelled of brine and a cool breeze off the water brushed my skin. By now daylight would be waning and it would be getting dark.

I wondered what waterfront we were at. I wasn’t sure how far we’d driven so there was no telling exactly where I was. Not yet, anyway.

The big hand grasped my upper arm and I was practically dragged forward. My shoes made soft sounds as I walked across asphalt. Then came the rusty squeak of a door and I was pushed inside of a building and concrete was beneath my feet.

Inside it smelled of rusted metal, dirt, and oil. From the feel of the air, the hollow sound of the door closing, and by the way the sound echoed throughout the area, I guessed that we were inside a warehouse. It had been a while since I’d been dragged into a warehouse to be interrogated. They appeared to be such good places for bad guys to take care of “problems” like me.

After walking a ways, I was shoved into a wooden chair hard enough that it jarred my teeth. They didn’t tie me to the chair, which surprised me, nor did they tie my ankles. They clearly discounted me because of my size against their so-called superior strength.

The sound of footsteps came my way, then the scrape of a chair and female whimpers. It had to be Rori. I tried to keep my breathing even as my heart pounded. I felt a heat lamp on me and I started to sweat.

My blindfold was yanked off and I blinked away the bright light from the lamp. I looked away from it and saw Rori in a chair across from me and she was staring at me with wide, frightened eyes. I swept my gaze over her and took quick stock. She was gagged, her hands bound behind her back, her clothes were wrinkled, her eyes red from crying, and her mascara had smeared.

She had dirt smudges on her face as well as on her fuchsia pink blouse and navy shorts, and the tail of her blouse wasn’t tucked in anymore. There were red marks around her ankles and one of the straps on her gold sandals was torn. I didn’t see any bruises, but that didn’t mean anything. I wondered how they had gotten her out of the hotel as much of a mess as she was.

“Rori, are you all right?” I asked.

She looked up at the men to either side of us—Dawson, Hans Johansen, and a bearded man I didn’t recognize. Then she looked at me again and there was confusion in her expression as well as fear.

I tried to reassure her with my gaze as I took in my surroundings using my peripheral vision. Old rusted machinery like trucks, forklifts, a pallet jack, a man lift, cranes, and an electric towing truck crowded the place, along with who knew what else. The concrete floor was filthy with old oil and dirt.

“Lexi Steele.” Bachmann’s familiar voice came from behind me and my skin crawled. He moved so that he was to my left, about halfway between Rori and me. “Finally we meet again. Though I must say you look different when you’re not wearing a wig. The blonde hair did not suit you quite as well as your own.”

“And you don’t look quite the same without your face carved up.” I regretted it as soon as I said it as his expression turned dark.

“Yet another thing you will pay for today.” He seemed to recover as his lips twisted into a semblance of a smile.

I switched to Swedish. “You said you would set my sister free if you had me and now you’ve got me. So let her go.”

His smile broadened as he responded in the same language. “I lied. I owe you no truths.”

Anger surged through me. “You are nothing but a dishonorable bastard.”

He shrugged. “Think what you may.” He returned to English. “After what you have cost me and my business ventures I owe you nothing.”

Rori’s wide eyes darted from me to Bachmann as he spoke.

He signaled to Johansen. “Remove the gag.”

Johansen roughly took off Rori’s gag and I glared at him.

“What’s going on, Lexi?” Rori’s voice was a little rusty from having been gagged. “I don’t understand.”

“Why don’t you tell your little sister what you really do?” Bachmann gave a smile that chilled me through. “She didn’t believe me. If you don’t tell her the truth then I shall have Hans show you exactly what I intend to do to your sister.”

I closed my eyes for a moment before I looked at Rori. “I work for the government.”

She frowned. “Interpreting, right?”

Bachmann laughed. “She is such the innocent.” He gestured from me to her. “Go on.”

“I work for a secret government agency.” I narrowed my eyes at Bachmann. “We take down swine like these guys and put them away.”

Johansen punched me in the face.

My head snapped to the side and I tasted blood from my teeth cutting into the inside of my mouth. My focus went in and out and my eyes watered.

I vaguely realized that Rori had screamed. “Don’t hurt her,” she begged. “Please don’t hurt Lexi.”

“Not only was she instrumental in ruining my business and my life, but she has other things to pay for.” Bachmann raised his hand and flexed it as if he could barely move it. “Your bitch of a sister is responsible for my hand being shattered and I blame her for this.” He gestured to his face. “I had to have reconstructive surgery after she distracted me and a little Chinese bitch hit me in the face with a glass vase.” He touched his ear that was partly missing. “And she took a part of this.”

I remembered that moment so clearly. The girl had saved my life.

Bachmann glared at me as he continued. “I’m going to make your death even more painful due to your having ruined another one of my operations. There are people in power in your government who will pay for what you have done.”

“Like the Chief of Staff,” I said. “You got to him, too. Who else have you corrupted?”

Surprise flickered across Bachmann’s face. “You are even smarter than I’ve given you credit for.” Then he glanced at Rori. “A shame to kill someone so bright as your sister.” He looked at me again. “But I will take great pleasure in it.”

“No.” Rori sobbed. “Please, no.”

“I’m sorry, Rori.” I pleaded for her to understand with my eyes. “I never thought that anything like this would ever happen. I never thought you or anyone else in our family would ever be harmed.”

I looked at Bachmann. “We were betrayed by the head of our own agency, our own Special Agent in Charge.”

“Very good.” Bachmann smiled. “Yes, thanks to the now dead former head of the NSA, Eckstrom, Charles Carter was the one who gave me your name when I wanted to know who was responsible for what you have done.” He narrowed his gaze. “The one responsible for ruining my life. I lost everything because of you and those you work with. I was told that you were the one in charge of the entire operation.”

Nick had headed the team with me, but Bachmann didn’t need to know that.

“The only thing I regret,” I said, “is that I didn’t kill you the first time we met.”

Bachmann gave Johansen a nod and the bastard hit me in the face again. Stars sparked behind my eyes. Rori screamed. This time when Johansen hit me he split my lip and blood flowed from my nose and over my lips.

Tears were rolling down Rori’s face. “Please stop.”

Bachmann laughed as he squatted next to Rori and patted her knee as if he might be fond of her. “This is just the beginning.”

Chapter 21

Nick

Anger, frustration, and fear for Lexi balled up inside Nick’s gut as he drove the black SUV in the direction of the signals given out by Lexi’s transmitter.

They followed the tracking signal and found themselves driving in loops around the D.C. area. Finally the signal headed outside of the area. It continued on and on until it reached a waterfront and came to a stop.

Nick and Lexi’s brothers were quarter of a mile away when they pulled the vehicles over. They’d go in the rest of the way on foot. They’d worn their utility belts with their holstered weapons along with extra ammo and other devices they might need.

He couldn’t lose her. From the beginning he’d somehow fallen for the hardheaded pain in the ass. He’d kept it to himself until he couldn’t any longer.

Her rejection had hit him hard but he supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d left Boston and moved to Arizona for Kristen’s sake, not because of Lexi’s rejection. He’d always intended to come back. He figured that giving her some space and time to think about what he’d said would allow her to realize how much she loved him in return. She’d just been so damned hardheaded.

He couldn’t lose her now. Couldn’t lose her ever.

It was dark, which would benefit them as they went in on foot. Their black clothing would help them blend in under the cover of darkness.

The three of them slipped silently through the night. Nick had been a Navy SEAL, Ryan in the Marines, and Zane had been in the Secret Service before becoming RED special agents. They were all exceptionally well trained, as Lexi was. Nick wouldn’t have been surprised if she made it out of this whole damned mess on her own. But there was no way he was going to take chances with her life or her sister’s.