Page 47 of Guarding Grace (Hawk Security #2)

Grace

Marku returned with a grin on his face. “They’ll make the trade, but first I make them wait by demanding money.”

“Why wait?” Kim asked. “You and your partner are already late delivering what I ordered.”

Partner?

He strode to me and lifted a few strands of my hair. “Waiting makes them more frantic to make the trade. I make them wonder what is happening to their woman.”

I tried to swat his hand away, but Goron’s grip was too strong.

Marku smirked. “They value you, and I can see why.”

“Fuck you.” I spat and got him on the chin.

He backed away, laughing. “I bet I could make you like being fucked by a real man.”

Yuck . If he got anywhere near me, I’d yank his balls off and swallow them. I spat again, but it didn’t reach him.

Quicker than a snake, he stepped forward and slapped me.

My head snapped to the side, my face stung, and I tasted blood. When I opened my eyes again, focusing on him was a struggle.

“Once was interesting, but any more…” He pulled a knife. “And I make your face not so pretty.”

I sneered at him. “You are messing with the wrong people. ”

“Enough,” Kim shouted. “I want what I paid for.”

Marku wheeled on him. “Quiet. Without us, you would have nothing.”

The anger pumping off Kim was palpable.

“Nobody else in our business would work with you. You know that. Only we had the contacts you needed. You’ll get the delivery, and nobody will ever know what it was.”

“I will not tolerate failure.” Kim stabbed with an angry finger before stomping off. “You will both pay.”

“Put them in the room,” Marku ordered with a wave of his hand.

Goron shoved me to the wall. “Stay.” He whipped out a knife and cut Marci free. Then he grabbed us both and pushed us toward a doorway with a padlock on it.

Marci walked with a severe limp.

After they forced us into the room, I heard the lock snap shut. The good news was the lock meant we’d have a warning before Marku or one of his thugs came in. The bad news was there was no way to reach the lock and attempt to pick it.

“Did you hear what he said?” Marci sobbed.

I pulled her into an embrace and rubbed her back. “He’s a blowhard. We’re not letting anything happen to you.”

“We?”

“Terry and the guys are looking for us right now. When they arrive, that bastard is going to learn a very difficult lesson.”

“Zane too?” Her Zane interest hadn’t diminished one bit.

“Zane too,” I assured her. Recalling Terry’s advice that anything could be a useful weapon, I added, “I’m going to see what we have here.”

Reluctantly, she let me go.

A mattress with dubious stains lay in the corner. Above it, a set of handcuffs attached by a chain to an eyebolt in the wall was a haunting reminder of the fate that befell the women Marku captured. Two ratty chairs were farther in the room, and a metal cabinet.

“You’re hurt?”

“I tried to run, and I twisted my ankle.”

From the look of the swelling, she’d probably sprained it.

I examined the chairs. They were metal, but I couldn’t see a way I could get a piece loose to use as a bat, and the chairs were too heavy for me to swing as a weapon.

Terry could probably heave one across the room and take a bad guy out, but no way was I capable of something like that.

The cabinet contained piles of shop towels.

Then, behind one pile, I found a spray canister of carburetor cleaner.

In the movies, the underdog could use a can of hairspray and a lighter to make a flamethrower.

This was close, but we didn’t have a way of making a flame.

Still, I took the canister and closed the cabinet.

“We should sit.” It was time for a frank talk.

She sat in one chair.

I settled into the other and took her hand. This was going to be hard. “If I get a chance, I’m going to attack and make a run for it.”

“Do you think we can make it outside?”

“You need to stay put.” With her ankle the way it was, she couldn’t possibly keep up.

“But—”

I squeezed her hand. “I’ll come back for you. You know that, right?”

She nodded with tears in her eyes.

“Trust me. It’ll be safer for you this way. Their anger will be directed at me.” The truth was that in their minds, they needed me to get their hands on the stupid case the Korean wanted. If I ran, they had to catch me.

Marci fidgeted. If she stayed put, she had value to them. If she ran, she was expendable, and they wouldn’t hesitate to shoot.

Looking down at my footwear, I was damned glad I’d chosen these heeled boots instead of the cute stilettos that had called to me. These weren’t as good as my Nikes, but I could run without breaking an ankle.

Marci bounced her knees. “What now?”

“We sit and wait.” Sitting in the chair gave me the best chance of hiding the canister from view until it was time. I moved the writing pen from my pocket to the chair and sat on it. That way I wouldn’t grab the wrong one from my shirt pocket when he was close enough to attack.

Terry

I waited in my office, giving Jordy the space I had been ordered to give him. I finished another lap around my desk and sat down to reread the news article on the computer screen for the millionth time.

“Don’t worry,” Duke said from across the hall.

I ignored him. I didn’t do waiting very well. I didn’t do waiting at even a first-grade level.

He was back from his morning bodyguard gig for some Hollywood starlet—or wannabe-starlet, it wasn’t clear to me which—and he’d told me to not worry at least ten times. It wasn’t helping .

I got to the end of the story with the picture of four cute little balls of white fur and stood for another lap around my desk. What the hell was the big deal about a polar bear giving birth to quadruplets?

Standing, I started another lap. Every circuit of my desk and reread of the article took up another minute and twenty seconds of the time I had to wait before I could rescue my woman.

“Jordy will find her,” Duke said. “And we’ll get her back.” He’d been through something similar when Serena was taken, and he wouldn’t admit it now, but the not-knowing had torn him up the same as it was doing to me.

“I’ve got it,” Jordy yelled from down the hall.

I raced down to his room, even beating Lucas there. It was go time.

He zoomed the screen in on a large building not far from where she’d left the taxi. “We were wrong. She never switched rides. She walked.” He’d superimposed a dotted line that ran down the street the taxi had taken and then to this building.

“Jordy,” Lucas said. “Get a drone in the air and brief us on the way. Let’s gear up, guys.” He caught Constance’s glare. “And ladies.”

We all double-timed to the armory.

“Light kit today, no long, quiet,” Lucas said as he opened his locker. “We don’t know how many soldiers Marku has with him, and like the late, great John Wooden said, ‘ Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. ’”

No long meant handguns, no rifles. I grabbed two extra mags for my SIG. Quiet meant adding my Sabre stun gun, zip ties, and duct tape to my loadout. The stun gun and hand-to-hand attacks would make it a silent takedown rather than going in kinetic. Our handguns would be a last resort.

Constance nodded my way and pocketed her Sabre as well.

Light kit meant we’d go in with light Kevlar vests hidden under jackets instead of full body armor, and no helmets. The less-military look made it easier to sneak up on the bad guys, and also made it less likely we would scare a civilian who would get anxious and call the cops.

A minute later, we were all assembled in the garage.

Lucas laid a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll get her back.” He turned to the group. “Constance, you’re with Terry. Duke, you’re with me, and Zane, you’re with Winston.”

Constance quickly popped the trunk of my Cayenne and threw her kit in the back. I added mine.

We completed a comms check and drove out with Lucas in the lead.

“Guess what’s in the building?” Jordy asked once we were underway.

“Dammit, Jordy,” Lucas complained. “I don’t want to fucking guess. ”

“Okay already, Mr. Grumpy,” Jordy said. Being Lucas’s brother, he got away with that shit.

“It’s a Marku-owned automotive used-parts warehouse taking the output of their wrecking yards, and the website says they’re shut down this week and next, so no customers will be there.

I’m sending you what we have for the layout. ”

“The drone?” Lucas asked.

“Overhead soon,” Jordy responded.

Constance looked over at me. “Don’t worry. We’ll get them both.”

I shook my head. Everyone was telling me to not worry, but it wasn’t helping.