Shane Read online

  With the two of them listening, they moved forward quietly. As they came up to an open doorway, they saw two apparent guardsmen, sitting, drinking coffee, with a TV show playing on the desk in front of them.

  As one of the men got up to refill his coffee, the other one twisted around in his chair, his back to them. Shane and Diesel took advantage of that opportunity and dashed by the doorway and headed down the hallway to see just what these guards were supposedly guarding.

  As Shane and Diesel came to the first room, they found a bunch of supplies—including bags, boxes, and some duffel bags with weapons, but no sign of the woman.

  They headed to the next room, and this one was locked. Shane quickly unlocked it, and, with a quick dash, the two entered with guns ready. This looked like a small apartment and was more like what Shane expected. Especially considering the woman had been here for six months. As they went inside, they locked the door and quickly scanned through what appeared to be a living room and kitchen. When they came to another room, he saw a woman sleeping. He motioned to Diesel, and, keeping the lights off, he walked in and checked that she wasn’t under guard. Slipping to the side of the bed, he immediately clasped a hand over her mouth. She woke with a jerk, and she stared at him in horror. As she tried to fight, he eased down and whispered, “We’re here to rescue you.”

  She stared at him, sagging back in the bed, and then he discovered one more complication they didn’t need. From the size of her belly, she was at least seven months’ pregnant, maybe even full-term. He looked to Diesel to see him staring at this new development himself. The last thing they needed was a woman who couldn’t move, at least not quickly, and she certainly couldn’t climb, like they needed her to, for the hole they’d blown through. He sighed, helping her sit up, and asked, “How far along are you?”

  “Eight-plus months,” she said. “Who are you?”

  “We’re both Americans,” he said. “Your father sent us.”

  She stared at him in shock. “Are you sure?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Yes. Why?”

  She shook her head. “Because it’s been so long, I didn’t think he cared.”

  “Well, he’s been trying to get somebody to do the job.”

  “And that’s you, I suppose.”

  Her voice was calm, as if she’d already thought through the worst that could happen and had made her peace with it. “How long have you been here?”

  “Here in this place? A couple months,” she said. “I was moved from another location. Actually it was a ship. I was kept for a long time in a small room. Then they brought me here. I think it was just too hard for them to look after me.”

  “And who is your father?”

  She named the same guy they’d been dealing with. He nodded. “Yes, that’s who arranged this.”

  “You don’t appear to be very happy about it.”

  “I’m not. He kidnapped a close friend of mine and wiped out her entire department as a test to see if I could rescue her well enough that he would trust me to rescue you,” he said in a hard voice. “Now he currently has my sister, her husband, and her children, all held hostage while I rescue you.”

  She gasped in horror, and then she shuddered, her eyes closed. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “That’s him. Dear old Dad.”

  “Do you have much of a relationship with him?” he asked, as he helped her up, checking to see how mobile she was.

  “I did at one time,” she said, “but I planned to marry somebody he didn’t approve of, and that set us back.”

  “And since then?”

  “They killed my friend, when I was kidnapped,” she said softly. “It doesn’t matter what I feel about my father right now,” she said. “If I can get out of this, save my child, avenge my friend, and get back to my fiancé,” she said, “I’ll be more than thankful for dear old Dad’s assistance.”

  “Anybody else in your family?”

  “No,” she said, “just the two of us.”

  “Is he as bad as he appears?”

  “Absolutely,” she said. “He’s a drug runner. A job I don’t agree with. A career I tried to get him to stop, which was the end of our conversations for the longest time,” she said. “But, at the moment, he has apparently come to my rescue, so I feel wrong saying anything negative about him.”

  “Families are complicated that way, aren’t they?” he said.

  She gave a brittle laugh. “What about the guards out there?” she asked. “Did you kill them?”

  “No,” he said, “I was hoping not to.”

  “You’ll have to,” she said. “The boss here will kill them anyway.”

  “Have you met him? Do you know what’s going on?”

  “He’s trying to force my father to do something. I don’t know what. But my father doesn’t take kindly to people forcing him to do things,” she said. “I’m just a pawn caught in the middle.”

  “Well, you’re in England, in case you didn’t know,” he said, “and, with any luck, we can get you out of here.”

  “I hope it’s not down to luck,” she said. “I don’t feel like my life has had any of that lately.”

  “Did these guys here kill your friend?”

  “No. They are just hired guns. The man who kidnapped me is someone I know very well. He came to talk to me.” She stopped speaking to collect herself.

  “What happened?” Shane asked, as he went around the room and pulled out clothing for her. She just added the streetwear over her gown, dressing as quickly as she could in the darkness, given her condition.

  “He came to talk to me. He wanted me to go with him. I refused. My friend stood up for me, and, before I knew it, they were in an argument. Just like that, my kidnapper pulled out a handgun and shot my friend in the head. The kidnapper didn’t know I was pregnant,” she murmured. “The bottom line is that he needed me to get my father to do something.”

  “Yeah,” he said, “same as the friend of mine and the same as my sister. We’re all just pawns, apparently.” At that, he asked, “Do you have shoes?”

  “Yes,” she said, “but I can’t put them on.”

  “Why not?” he asked, staring at her in confusion.

  She smiled and said, “I can’t reach my feet.”

  Diesel made a light snort, then quickly bent down, found her shoes, and slipped them on. After he’d tied them up firmly, he asked, “Is there anything here that you need?”

  “No,” she said, “I just need to get out of here safe and sound with my baby.”

  “The belly is bit of a complication we hadn’t counted on,” Shane admitted.

  “Why is that?”

  “I needed you to climb up a bit of a wall and exit through a hole, but I don’t think it’ll be big enough.”

  “Ah.” She nodded.

  “We’ll just have to work around it,” he said. “Are you ready to go?” She nodded. “Come on then. How mobile are you? Do you need any medication or anything like that?”

  “No,” she said, “and don’t you worry about me being mobile,” she said. “You show me a door out of here, and I’ll make sure I’m out.”

  He nodded, and, leading her back toward the two guards, he held up a finger to his mouth and whispered, “The guards are in there, watching TV.”

  “They never come down my way anyhow.”

  “But we still have to get past their door,” he said. She nodded. And although he’d locked the apartment behind them, he didn’t trust that these guys wouldn’t go check on her, even though she said that they didn’t. What he really needed was to make sure that the guards had no clue what had happened. As he neared their break room and watched, one of the men got up and said, “What the hell happened to the popcorn anyway?”

  “It’s over in the cupboard,” he said. “I told you that I moved it. We ran out of space.”

  “It’s not a bad job, when you get to sit here and eat popcorn all evening,” he said, patting his belly. “Although I’ll get fat.”

  �
��You already are fat,” the other guy said. That set the first man off in raucous laughter. He turned and started digging in the cupboard. “I can’t see shit in here.”

  “I told you. It’s down in the bottom.”

  He crouched at the bottom cabinet, and the second guy got up and joined him.

  That was the movement they needed. With Diesel leading the way, and Shane taking up the rear, they quickly swept the pregnant woman across the open doorway. It occurred to Shane that he’d forgotten to ask for her name.

  He heard the two men, still wrangling about popcorn behind them. After that, it was a simple case of leading the way back to the basement again. It was all too easy though. Something nagged Shane in the back of his mind, so he pulled up to Diesel and said, “I don’t like this.”

  “Good,” he said, “because neither do I.”

  The woman looked at them. “My name is Aleah, by the way, and what is it you don’t like?”

  “It’s been far too easy. There was no need for all this preamble to this main event, if stealing you back was this simple.”

  “Well, I know a lot of the building is booby-trapped,” she said. “So I think the point was to get us out without killing me.”

  “Booby-trapped how?”

  “All the exits and the doors,” she said, “even the windows.”

  “Which is fine since we entered through a wall,” he said. “But getting you back out again? I don’t know. I’m not so sure that’s doable.”

  “I can climb,” she said, a desperate note in her voice.

  “I’m not sure you can,” he said. Swearing to himself, he quickly retraced their steps back to the loading bay area, where they had first entered the building. He looked at it and said, “If we could even get out one of those doors …”

  “Those are bound to be booby-trapped too,” Diesel said.

  Shane walked over with his flashlight, quickly checked, and swore. “Wires are everywhere here,” he said.

  “Like I said, booby-trapped,” Aleah stated.

  “And, once it sets off one, it’ll set off the others.” Shane turned to look at Diesel and asked, “Any ideas?” Diesel looked up at the hole that they had made, looked down at her, and said, “Nope,” he said, “but we need to come up with something fast.”

  Chapter 8

  Shelly woke and sat up with a start. A stranger was in the room, over by the table. She looked at the man in question and asked, “Who are you?”

  “My name is Larry,” he said quietly. “Shane and Diesel left me in charge.”

  “How are they?” she asked, pushing back the covers and realizing that somebody, likely Diesel, had thrown a blanket over the top of her.

  “No word yet,” he said.

  She winced. “How long have they been gone?”

  “Over three hours.” He studied her quietly and said, “If you want, we can order up some coffee. If you think you can go back to sleep, that would be for the best.”

  “What time is it? Three o’clock in the morning?”

  “After four actually,” he said.

  “When are they due back?”

  “Anytime,” he said. “That just means there are probably complications.”

  “Crap.”

  “One of the things that you learn about this business,” he said, “is that there are always complications.”

  “So it’s all about pivoting and adjusting as needed.” She hopped up, went into the bathroom, and splashed some cold water on her face, wishing she would have woken up later. But now that she knew, she didn’t think there was any hope at all of her going back to sleep. As a matter of fact, as she checked her watch, it was a quarter to five. Back in the room, she sat down and said, “My name is Shelly. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you too,” he said, with a ghost of a smile.

  She studied that smile and said, “Shane warned you that I would be difficult, didn’t he?”

  “He said you might be a tad upset that they left without telling you.”

  “No, that’s so typical of him,” she said. “I just want him to get back safe again.”

  “We all do,” he said.

  “Any update on his family?” He shook his head, and she smiled. “Would you tell me if there was?” He shook his head again. She sighed. “You cloak-and-dagger guys are all the same.”

  “We all have responsibilities and duties, yes,” he said. “If that makes us all the same, well, maybe so.”

  She sighed. “If you don’t know anything, how will we know if something goes wrong?”

  “When the news reports hit the TV,” he said calmly.

  She stared at him in shock. “Seriously?”

  He shrugged. “Well, if the building blows up,” he said, “there’ll be a huge boom, and that’s one way to get information,” he said. “However, we’re hoping that something subtler happens.”

  “A boom,” she said faintly.

  He nodded slowly. “The entire building is wired.”

  She sucked in a breath. “I know he does bomb squad and is some sort of an explosives expert.”

  “Sometimes it’s just not worth the effort,” he said.

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning, sometimes it’s wired and cross-wired, and they don’t have time to figure it out. It doesn’t matter how much skill you have if it’s just too big of a job to manage in too short of an amount of time.”

  “So then what?” she asked. She hopped to her feet and paced. “He shouldn’t even be over here in the first place.”

  “Nope, and you can bet an awful lot of us are out there, keeping an eye on what’s going on, looking for whoever’s behind this.”

  “Well, that would be nice,” she said, “but, if the kidnapper’s been smart enough to keep her six months without the father having a chance to get her, it won’t be that simple.”

  “They likely moved her around,” he said.

  “That’s still no excuse,” she snapped.

  “No, it might not have been,” he said, with a laugh, “but that’s often how it is.”

  “Still ugly,” she said.

  “No argument there,” he said. “So what’s the decision on coffee?”

  “Coffee would be good,” she said, with a sigh, as she settled down to wait.

  “We’ll have to go out one of the doors,” Shane said.

  “Then we’re all dead,” Aleah said.

  He looked at her, shook his head, and walked to the door he had been examining. He checked out the big loading doors and the side doors. He figured the bay doors would be the easiest because they were huge. And any charges would likely have been run down along the ground. Of course, he’d seen them at the bottom of the bay doors, which should be better than wiring at the top of the bay doors, but he couldn’t tell where any of the triggers were and just how badly this would blow.

  He really liked the idea of blowing up this building though. He knew that it wasn’t fair to the two guards inside, but, hell, they’d held a woman captive for all this time anyway. As it was, it would give Shane and Diesel a little bit of time to get her safely away. He looked at Diesel, smiled, and said, “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “Probably not,” Diesel said easily, “but I’m up for it anyway.” Just then they heard … “Shit! I think the alarm’s gone off.” And, sure enough, an alarm sounded through the building.

  “We’ve got to go,” Shane said. He looked down at the wires, shook his head, and said, “Aleah, I want you to head to the far corner. I’m setting the counterblast here along the doors,” he said. “So, once the first blast goes, the entire building’ll go. We’ll have like three minutes to get out of here.”

  “Great,” she said. “Are you sure there’s no other option?”

  “Not in the time frame we’ve got,” he said, “unless you want to get locked up again.”

  “No, this is the farthest I’ve ever gotten,” she said, “so I trust you. You’ve made it here.”

  �
��And I’m making it out of here too, with you and Diesel,” he said. He quickly pulled the C-4 from his bag and set up the backfuse. As soon as it blew, he was already well out of range. He had deliberately chosen the wall that supported the garage door instead of the doors themselves. The corner of the wall blew, and he immediately saw the other charges, racing to light and explode. But Diesel was already there, urging Aleah forward.

  Kicking out the remaining rocks, Shane got them both outside, and then the gunfire started. He took one in the bulletproof vest, and a second one slammed into the wall beside him. He then heard the charges going off inside the building. Aleah was behind him, tucked behind the stairs, even as the bullets flew, but they came from a single shooter. With Diesel racing off to the side, and Shane taking cover, they were in a showdown.

  “What will you do now?” the gunman yelled. “I don’t know who the hell you are,” he said, “but you entered a game where you didn’t belong.”

  Shane stayed quiet, as he studied the scenario. Diesel came up behind somebody else off to the side, just loading up a weapon, and took him out. Good, Shane thought to himself. One down. Diesel moved quickly around to the back of the shooter, and Shane called out to the gunman. “Show yourself. Surely you’re not so weak and pathetic you just kidnap women and keep them hidden away like that,” he said.

  “You don’t know anything about it,” the guy said in a bored voice.

  “Nope, and I don’t really care to either,” he said. And he stood up.

  Immediately the guy raised his hand. “I want her over here.”

  “Yep, that makes sense to me,” he said. He reached down and held out a hand. She looked at him and shook her head. He nodded. “Trust me,” he whispered, then held her slightly behind him, as he twisted around to help her up. Bent over as he was, he fired one shot in the shooter’s leg. The guy swore and dropped to his knees. Diesel was immediately on him, holding a gun to his head.