Page 14

CHAPTER 13

Shadow stood on the balcony, arms crossed and hair blowing in the breeze. She looked out over the city below.

Buildings, short and tall. Construction crews and cranes. Cars driving this way and that, their owners oblivious to the trail of violence a United States senator had brought to their city.

Oh, the exploding SUV had made the news. Of that, she was certain. But thanks to her father’s influence and political connections—as well as her expert computer hacking skills—her face and name, the team’s, and her father’s company would not be mentioned on TV, social media, or anywhere else.

Rafe Owens is nothing if not thorough.

Shadow sighed, her mind recounting all she’d done to help with the cause.

For starters, once she’d downloaded the hospital security footage to use for her facial rec software, she’d uploaded an irreversible virus into the files to prevent anyone else from gaining access after the fact. After that, it was a matter of giving the program time to do its thing until they got a positive ID on Reiner.

She sucked in a breath as memories of how she’d spent that time rolled over her in waves. Sex with Slade had been…she didn’t even have the words for what it was.

Amazing. Incredible. Mind-blowing. Unforgettable.

In bed. The shower. Both times had been all those things and more. Shadow had a feeling it didn’t matter how many times she slept with the former SEAL. The truth was, she’d never get her fill.

But then he’d left her behind, cutting her out of the most important fight of her life. And she was stuck here, being babysat by her father with nothing to do but wait.

“You do know he’s only trying to protect you.”

Shadow looked to her left as her father came to a stop at her side. His gaze scanned the city below.

“I should be with them.”

“You are exactly where you need to be.”

“Bullshit.” She turned to fully face him. “I need to be out there, Dad. I wanted to be the one looking into Andrew Reiner’s beady eyes when he admits Stanton hired him to kill me. I’ve earned that much, don’t you think?”

“It’s not about what you’ve earned, sweetheart.” Her father brought his intelligent stare to hers. “It’s about making sure those bastards don’t get another chance to hurt you.”

“Are you saying you don’t trust the team’s abilities to keep me safe?”

Emotion filled the powerful man’s gaze. “I trust those four men with my life and yours. But you’re not just Tac Ops’ overwatch. You’re my daughter. My flesh and blood. And you’re the only family I have left. So no.” He gave a shake of his head. “When it comes to you and your safety, I’m not sure I trust anyone completely.”

“Not even Slade?” she challenged, knowing full well he wouldn’t have locked her away in a cabin in the wood with the man if he didn’t trust him.

“Mr. Garrison is the team leader,” her father countered. “It only makes sense that he would be the one I’d ask to serve as your bodyguard.”

That was such a cop-out answer, and the man damn well knew it.

Knowing the debate was going nowhere, Shadow turned and walked back inside the apartment. Okay, so she may have stormed a bit, but dammit, she was mad .

This whole thing started because of the time and effort she’d put into trying to link Stanton to her mother’s death. While it may have admittedly gone off the rails far sooner than she’d expected—mainly because Stanton had clearly recognized her without her having realized it when she’d been stalking him in Ohio—but still.

She was my mom. I’m the one who watched her die. I’m the one who sat in that house, crying and terrified that the man who’d done it would come back and kill me, too.

The bastard may have let her live that night, but Shadow knew to her soul that he was the one behind the recent attempts on her life. And the only reason he’d want her dead now was if he was afraid of the world learning the truth about who and what he really was.

And that meant she couldn’t give up. Not now. Not until he was either rotting in prison or buried six feet under.

I’ll take six feet under for a thousand, please.

“I understand your frustration with having to stay behind.” Her father joined her in the kitchen. “Trust me, I’d enjoy a few minutes with that bastard Reiner, myself.”

“It’s your team, remember?” Shadow opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. “You’re the boss. You can do whatever you want.”

“You’re right. I am, and I can.” There was a slight bite in her father’s tone. “And what I wanted more than revenge was to be here, with you. To see you with my own eyes, and to know that you were safe.”

Shadow’s watery gaze lifted to his from the across the island. “He killed her, Dad. Stanton killed Mom, and now he’s tried to kill me.”

“I know.”

“We have to stop him.”

“And we will. But what I can’t do…” His voice thickened before he gave a quick clearing of his throat. “What I won’t do is let my anger and grief for what happened to your mother all those years ago put you in harm’s way.”

The man who’d raised her the very best way he knew how rounded the island’s edge. Her father came to a stop inches from where she stood.

“Your mother was my whole world, Alice.” He used her given name. “And then she gave me you, and that world was forever changed. I was devastated when I got the call that your mother was gone.” Unshed tears filled the man’s sincere gaze. “My heart felt as though it had been ripped right out of my chest. She was my soul mate. My other half.” Her father swallowed hard. “I didn’t know how to live the rest of my life without her. Part of me didn’t want to even try. But I had to go on because I had you. And you needed me then, more than ever before.”

“Dad…”

“Raising you has been my greatest accomplishment, sweet girl. I may have made a lot of mistakes along the way, but you are the very best part of me. So you can be upset at me if you want, but if anything were to ever happen to you…” His typically strong voice cracked. “That’s the one thing I don’t think I’d be able to survive.”

Well, crap.

Shadow took a step forward, feeling like the most ungrateful daughter on the face of the planet. Suddenly wanting nothing more than to wrap her arms around the best dad a girl could ever have, she took a step forward and lifted her arms. But just as she moved, the apartment’s landline phone began to ring, taking both her and her father off guard.

“Do you think it’s them?” she asked, referring to the team.

But her father shook his head as he walked out of the kitchen to the living room end table where the phone sat waiting. “They’d call my cell.” He reached down and tapped a button, putting the call on speaker so they both could hear. “Yes?”

“Mr. Cavanagh?” A young man’s voice came through the speaker.

“This is he.”

Shadow immediately recognized the alias as one her father had used during his days with MI6. Apparently, he’d also used it when signing the apartment’s lease so the space would be safe from anyone trying to find the person or persons hiding out under the team’s protection.

It’s me. That person is me.

“Mr. Cavanagh, this is Darren from building security. I just wanted to let you know the fire department sent over a couple of guys to check out that gas leak you reported. They’re on their way up to your apartment now.”

“Gas leak?” Shadow didn’t bother keeping her voice low.

Her father frowned as he let the other man know, “I’m afraid there’s been some mistake. No one here reported a gas leak.”

A slight pause ensued as Darren presumably processed the information he’d just been given. “Really?” The young man sounded genuinely surprised. “That’s weird because those guys seemed quite sure that you were the one who called nine-one-one.”

“Well, they were wrong. Like I said, no one here called anyone about a?—”

The door to the apartment didn’t just bust open then. The entire thing was blown right off its damn hinges.

What followed took less than a handful of minutes to transpire.

Shadow screamed in surprise, her hair whipping around her head as her eyes flew to where the door used to stand tall. A black cannister she recognized instantly was thrown deep inside the apartment.

The flash bang rolled, smoke billowing up from its top as her father yelled out for her to take cover.

“Get down!” His deep voice bellowed as he bolted in her direction.

A second later, the device detonated with a blinding flash of light and a deafening bang .

Shadow turned away on reflex as her father did the same. She looked back in time to see a man dressed all in black sucker punch her father in the face.

“Dad!”

Feeling disoriented, she tried going to him, but a set of meaty arms wrapped around her from behind.

No!

The sound of glass shattering and fists hitting flesh traveled through the ringing still present in her ears. Panic didn’t just settle in, it took over in an instant. But then Shadow remembered her training. While it was true, she wasn’t as strong or skilled as Slade and the others, her father had made sure she at least knew some basic self-defense moves.

She stomped a sneakered heel as hard as she could down onto one set of her attacker’s booted toes. Thankfully, they weren’t protected with steel, and the guy behind her cried out in pain.

His hold on her loosened, and she took full advantage, bringing both of her arms up in one quick move. The strategy worked, lifting the man’s arms enough to give her room to slip her body free from his grasp. Shadow spun around, kicked the man in the gut, inwardly smiling when he lost his footing and fell back on his ass.

She turned to see her father engaged in a serious battle of hand-to-hand combat. A gun went flying out of his assailant’s hand, sliding across the tiled floor not far from where she stood.

Having stupidly left her own pistol on the nightstand upstairs, Shadow raced for the deadly weapon that had come to a rest a few feet away.

She bent down, her fingers touching the gun’s cool metal. But just as she started to curl her fingers around it, the same boot she’d stomped on kicked the pistol free from her hand.

“Ah!” Shadow cried out when she felt the cracking of bone.

Pain exploded as her pinky finger was forced into an unnatural angle. The nauseating burn radiated up into her hand and wrist, and beyond.

Son of a ? —

The man in black swung his foot toward her midsection next, his boot slamming into her stomach and ribs with such force, she flew over and onto her back.

“Alice!” her father called out her name.

She coughed and gasped, fire igniting in her ribs as her lungs tried and failed to find air. Shadow tried her best to ignore the pain. To roll over onto her side and push herself up to her feet.

But just as she thought she might actually succeed, that same boot landed a vicious blow to the side of her head.

She fell back, her already injured head bouncing off the room’s unforgiving tile. Her mouth became filled with the metallic taste of blood.

With a barely conscious groan, Shadow turned her head and spit out as much of her own blood as she could. It was only then that she realized she hadn’t heard her father say anything more.

Her blurred gaze looked over to where he lay on the floor. His eyes were closed, and he was no longer moving.

At first, she feared the worst had happened, and he was dead. But then she saw the man next to him stand up with an empty syringe grasped tightly in his hand.

Oh, God!

Shadow felt a sharp sting, and she immediately knew what had happened. The asshole she’d been fighting had just injected her with the same drug they’d given her dad.

Whatever it was, it worked impressively fast, and within seconds, the world around her began to fade. The last thing Shadow saw was her father’s still, unmoving face. The last thing she felt was regret.

I’m…sorry…Slade.

The thought whispered its way through her muddled mind half a second before the drugs fully took effect. When they did, any pain and fear she’d felt earlier vanished…just like everything else.

* * *

Slade sat in the parked SUV, watching the house across the street. Andrew Reiner and his wife lived in one of Charlotte’s upscale neighborhoods. It wasn’t gated, but even if it were, he wouldn’t have cared.

Thanks to a quick social media search Falcon had done on the drive over, they’d quickly confirmed Reiner’s wife wasn’t at home, but rather out of the country for work. According to her latest post, made only a few hours prior to their arrival, Mrs. Reiner—who worked for a major marketing firm—was in Hong Kong until next week.

It still amazed him how freely people volunteered such information. Especially on platforms so easily accessible and easy to hack. In this case, however, the information proved quite useful.

With her out of the way, and since the couple had no children, the chances of an innocent getting in the crossfire were slim to non-existent.

“You sure you don’t want me to call Shadow?” Apollo asked from the passenger seat. “We could have her hack into Reiner’s security system, so he isn’t alerted when we go inside.”

“I’m not worried about him calling the cops.” Slade kept his eyes on the two-story brick colonial home. “What’s he going to say? That four of the five people he almost killed with a bomb he set have broken into his house?”

“The man does have a point,” Bones chimed.

Slade met the medic’s gaze from the rearview mirror and gave him a nod.

“Okay, boys.” Falcon spoke up next. “We ready to do this, or what?”

To go face-to-face with the man who tried to take Shadow away from him forever? Oh, yeah. He was more than fucking ready.

“Still going with the shock and awe approach, Dig?” Apollo looked at him for the answer.

Slade nodded in the affirmative before opening his door. It was broad daylight, and there was a good chance any number of their neighbors were watching from their windows.

He didn’t care.

When they got to the home’s quaint front stoop, Slade pulled the small breaching device he’d picked up from the office before making their way here. The low-NEQ assault IED disrupter. Compact and lightweight, the device fit in the palm of his hand.

As a SEAL, and then later as Tac-Ops’ demolitions expert, he’d used ones just like it in the field dozens of times. Working quickly, he placed the device on the interior portion of the doorjamb, next to the gold-colored deadbolt.

He stepped to the side and made sure his team was out of the way. And then…

The device was ignited, and the door burst open with a small blast. Pulling their pistols from their waistbands, Slade and the others entered the home as if they were S.W.A.T. going in for a raid.

Room-by-room, the four operatives efficiently cleared the house with Bones and Falcon taking the second floor. Slade went left, checking the home’s formal living room and den while Apollo went right.

After his teammate cleared the dining room and kitchen, they regrouped near the home’s expansive mudroom and half-bath.

“Upstairs is clear,” Apollo announced as he and Bones made their way back down the stairs. “No sign of Reiner or evidence connecting him to the bomb.”

“It’s here.” Slade looked back at his teammate. “We just have to keep looking.”

“Uh, no offense, Dig…” Bones shot him an uncertain stare. “But this guy could’ve hired someone else to build the bomb for him. Or hell, he could’ve done his planning and constructing at a different location that couldn’t be traced back to him.”

“I don’t think so.” He shook his head, slowly walking back through the den. As he scanned the room for anything out of place, his gut was screaming at him that the evidence was here. “From what I read in Shadow’s intel on the guy, Reiner’s a mid-level agent who’s only been with the agency a couple of years. The bulk of their money seems to come from his wife’s corporate job.”

“So?”

“So, on paper, at least, this guy doesn’t feel like he’s been on the wrong side of things for very long.”

It was total conjecture, and Slade wasn’t even sure why his gut was leading him down that path. But the lack of strange activity in the guy’s finances made him think Reiner wasn’t necessarily a willing participant in Stanton’s game.

“Hey, what’s this?” Falcon ran a gloved hand over the edge of one of the room’s wooden bookshelves. “This board is different from the other shelves. And it feels loose. Almost like you could…”

They watched as their teammate pushed the board in with the palm of his hand. A soft clicking sound reached Slade’s, and a beat later, the shelf began to move.

The hell?

“Holy shit!” Bones exclaimed. “The guy’s got a secret room!”

Thinking perhaps he’d underestimated their current target, Slade went to the hidden entrance. A light flickered to life as he led his team into the shadowed space. And when he saw the pictures taped to the small room’s back wall, he instantly felt sick.

Shadow.

There were at least a dozen pictures. And she was in every single one.

“Son of a bitch.” Falcon studied them closely.

Apollo and Bones both grumbled their own string of curses beneath their breaths.

Slade understood why they were enraged by the disturbing sight. Shadow was a member of Tac-Ops, and now they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she’d been specifically targeted. So of course, these guys wanted to rip the man responsible to shreds.

But no matter how infuriated his teammates were, their rage toward Reiner didn’t hold a candle to Slade’s. Because they weren’t in love with Shadow. They hadn’t spent last night in her arms.

Slade did, and he had. And seeing the printed images of her…and even some that were zoomed out enough to also include him… That didn’t make him simply want to kill the slimy bastard.

I want to torture him slowly and without so much as an ounce of fucking mercy.

“Uh…Dig?” Apollo’s wary tone pulled Slade from his murderous thoughts. “We have a problem.” The man looked over at him before pointing to a specific image on the wall. “A big one.”

Slade walked back over to where Apollo was standing. He passed by a small table holding remnants of the same kind of explosive that had been used on his car. He looked at the picture Apollo’s index finger was still on, his heart sinking when he realized what had the other man so concerned.

The apartment.

The bastard had taken a picture of the apartment building where he and Shadow had stayed the night before. The same place where she and her father were now. And he’d left her there, thinking she was safe.

Son of a…

“The apartment’s been compromised,” he announced to the team. “We have to get back there. Now!”

Slade spun on his heels and made a beeline for the room’s hidden entrance. As he and the others rushed from the house, he pulled out his phone and called Shadow’s new number.

It rang and rang, but nobody answered. He tried again with the same disheartening results.

“Rafe’s not picking up,” Bones announced after two failed attempts to reach their boss.

Apollo added to the terrifying news by sharing, “No one’s answering the apartment’s landline, either.”

She’s okay. They have to be okay.

Slade couldn’t allow himself to think anything else. But as he and his teammates sprinted across the street to their SUV, he couldn’t help but acknowledge the ball of dread and fear growing deep in his gut.

The thought of something happening to Rafe was enough to bring him to his knees. But the thought of losing Shadow forever…

I can’t lose her now. Not like this. Not fucking ever.

And as he drove like a bat out of hell back to where he’d left her and her father, the same thought played on a loop over and over again in his head.

She’s okay.

She’s okay.

She’s okay.

Slade’s grip on the steering wheel became white-knuckled because if he was wrong…if the worst had happened, and Rafe and the woman he loved had been killed…even God wouldn’t be able to help the ones responsible for their deaths.

She’s okay.

She’s okay.

She has to be okay.