Shane Read online

  He raised his eyebrows at that. “That’s a dangerous game.”

  “Ha!” she said. “I’ve been living in danger lately.”

  “You have, indeed,” he said. “So, if you want to pick that up where you just stopped, maybe we can wait until it’s … until we have a little more time.”

  “Absolutely,” she said, with a smile. “Just maybe we should, … ah, … discuss it?”

  “I’m not sure discussing is the right thing to do here,” he said, studying her with that intense gaze. “Just remember. You opened that door.”

  She smiled. “I don’t regret it either.”

  “Good to know,” he said. “Neither do I.” And, with that, he was gone.

  She settled back and smiled at the doorway.

  The nurse walked in and said, “Wow, there’s a smile.”

  “It is, indeed,” she said. “Change is in the air.”

  “Good change?”

  “I think it must be,” Shelly said, “because it feels right.”

  “Well, that’s often a good sign,” the nurse said.

  Shelly looked at her and asked, “Any chance I can visit the new mom?”

  She looked at her in surprise and said, “You know what? Maybe. But let me see how she feels about it.”

  “Perfect,” she said, “you go ahead, and I’ll make my way down there.”

  “I won’t have time to get back in the meantime,” the nurse said, protesting.

  “Oh, I’m not moving very quickly just now, so you’ll have plenty of time,” she said. The nurse disappeared. And Shelly got to her feet where she put on the slippers and grabbed the little housecoat they had given her, and slowly and steadily made her way down the hallway several doors from her.

  When the nurse came out, she smiled. “As it turns out, she would love to meet you.”

  With a broad smile, Shelly opened the door and stepped inside. “Hi, Aleah,” she said, winking at the nurse and stepping forward. “I’m Shelly.”

  Aleah looked up, smiled, and said, “You are Shane’s girlfriend.”

  “I am, indeed,” she said, liking the sound of that. She knew it was a bit presumptuous of her, but, hey, she was nothing if not a person willing to grab the reins and go for it. She took a detour to check on the baby, smiling to see the little angel asleep. “Isn’t she perfect? You make pretty babies.”

  Aleah choked up, tears in her eyes, nodding.

  Shelly slowly moved to the other side of Aleah’s bed and settled in the visitor’s chair, wincing as the movement jarred her forehead.

  “Are you okay?” Aleah asked, looking worried.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Just, you know, that whole stitches in the head thing.” She bent her head down, so Aleah could see them.

  “Ouch, that’s awful. And your poor hair.”

  At the reference to her hair, she winced. “And I was trying so hard not to even think about the hair,” she said, “and now you’ll send me running to the mirror to take a look and to see how bad it is.”

  Aleah burst out laughing.

  Smiling, Shelly asked, “So how are you doing, Aleah? You’ve had a pretty rough time of it.”

  “I have,” she said, “but I’m very happy to say that stage of my life is over.”

  “Have you had any thoughts about what you want to do now?”

  “I was thinking about relocating to the US or England, but, now that I think about it, the UK would be more suited to me,” she said. “So I’m hoping I can get that to happen legally.”

  “I’m guessing that these guys can help arrange something for you,” she said, “or at least get you started in the right direction.”

  “I’m not sure that governments of either country would want anything to do with me because of my father,” she said.

  “I guess the issue would be whether your father would be coming to visit.”

  “No way,” she said, “he crossed the line, and we can’t go back.”

  “Which is why the US would probably allow you to come to the States, but they would want to set a trap for him,” she said.

  Aleah stared at her, with that deep fathomless gaze, then shrugged and nodded. “I was wondering about that myself.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “This is a hard way to start motherhood.”

  “But,” she said, with a gentle smile toward the little baby beside her, “at least I got to start it.”

  “That’s very true,” Shelly replied. “I hate to ask or seem like I’m prying, but what’s the deal with the baby’s father?”

  “He’s off on a military deployment in the US Navy,” she said. “I don’t even know where he is or if he even knows any of what has happened to me for the last six months. He may think I just ditched him.”

  “Oh, gosh, that’s terrible,” Shelly said. “Listen. If you give me his name, maybe we can find a way to contact him.”

  Aleah looked at her with hope. “Do you think that’s possible?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, “but surely somebody’s got to tell him that he’s a dad at least.”

  Aleah smiled. “I don’t think he knew anything about that either. The whole thing might be just too much of a shock.”

  “Did he love you?”

  “Yes,” Aleah said. “We were to get married before he left, but they moved up his departure date, and we couldn’t get it arranged fast enough.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “That’s terrible.”

  “It would be fine, I think, if I could actually connect with him and explain.”

  “Well, give me his name and any information you have about where he might be stationed,” she said, “and I’ll see what I can find out.” With that, Aleah grabbed a napkin off the bedside table, and, using a pen that the nurse had left behind, she quickly wrote down the information. Holding it out, she smiled and said, “Thank you, Shelly. It means a lot that you’re even willing to try.”

  “Hey, when you’ve got a precious little bundle, like this one,” she said, “you do whatever you can.”

  “You are so right,” she said. “Even though she’s just hours old, I would do anything for her. It’s strange, you know? All those months when I was pregnant, it didn’t seem real. I was always terrified that something would happen, and I’d lose her. Especially when I was stuck with those men, and I had literally no one else.”

  “Did they ever … abuse you or anything like that?”

  “No. It was always there, as an implied threat, lording over me, but they never got that far,” she said. “I was never really sure what would happen when things inevitably went south. I knew I couldn’t count on them to protect me or my baby.”

  “Well, from what I’ve heard, it’s unlikely that either of them are alive to care at this point,” Shelly said.

  “I know I should feel bad about that on some level,” Aleah said, “but I can’t even begin to find that kind of emotion. All I want to focus on is my daughter and somehow creating a new life for the two of us. Hopefully with Renault.”

  “That sounds like a perfect plan to me,” Shelly said. “Life is short as it is, and we’ve both been through horrific scenarios. We are lucky to have even survived. Whoever would have thought that I’d get kidnapped twice in the same week?”

  At that, Aleah’s eyes opened wide. “Were you in that telecom building that got blown up by my father?”

  “If you mean the one that he had shot up, yes,” she said. “I’m the only person from my workgroup who survived.”

  “Shane got you out of there, didn’t he?”

  “He did,” Shelly said gently. “And I won’t take it kindly if anything goes wrong, and he gets hurts too.”

  “I know,” Aleah replied. “I’d feel bad as well. He’s gone to so much effort to save me, a complete stranger, and my baby, and I don’t want anything to happen to him either.”

  “Well, let’s just keep positive thoughts, and hopefully nothing will.” She looked at the sleepy mom and said, “Looks
like you are due for a rest again. I’ll head back to my room, but it was really nice meeting you and your precious daughter.”

  Shane was in his room onboard the naval ship, on the laptop, working side by side with Diesel, when a message from Gavin came up in the chat window.

  No more messages from either party.

  Decisions?

  Your call, Shane.

  “Let’s take out both of those assholes,” he said out loud, then typed a similar message in the chat box.

  Agreed, Gavin replied.

  We need their locations so we can make a plan.

  I’m afraid we’ll have to draw them out, Gavin said.

  Shane took a long deep breath. I don’t want to use the women as bait.

  They already are.

  They don’t have to stay that way, Shane argued.

  Better answer?

  Shane looked at Diesel. “Gavin’s asking if we have a better solution than using the women as bait.”

  Diesel immediately winced.

  “I know, right? It goes against everything I believe in,” Shane said.

  “The thing is, they already are bait, and both men will come after them,” he said. “Really, the best thing we can do is set up something to catch both father and kidnapper at the same time.”

  “Doesn’t that make the women bait?”

  “I think it’s all about the motivation behind it,” Diesel said.

  “Still sounds like they’re bait,” Shane said bluntly.

  “We’ll protect them,” Diesel said. “That’s already a given. In this case, it means that we’ll have to do our utmost to protect them and to set a trap, knowing that neither of these men will ever let it go.”

  “We could slip the women out and hide them somewhere else.”

  “We could, but we also know there’s a good chance that both of these men have the connections to find out where they are.”

  “That’s true,” Shane said. “Shelly’s guard from MI6 was a good example of that. I nearly got her killed by protecting her.”

  “Exactly,” Diesel said. “So the question is this. What can we do to minimize the risk to them, keep them secure, and set a trap at the same time?”

  “I won’t do it if they don’t know full well what’s happening and the risks they are taking.”

  “They’ll know full well because they already do. These are smart women, and believe me, they are already aware that these guys just won’t stop. Trust me. They already know,” Diesel said.

  Hopping to his feet, Shane said, “I’ll go talk to them.”

  “You do that,” Diesel said. “I don’t like it either, but I think it’s the fastest and most direct way to resolve this thing for good.”

  “I want to take them both out.”

  “You won’t get any argument out of me for that. We’ve got one wanted for the murder of eleven innocents that we know of just this week, and the other one held a pregnant woman for six months. And the way it’s looking now, they both may have been complicit in taking your family captive.”

  “That’s the other thing,” he said. “We need to find my sister.”

  Just then came a beep, signaling a new message on the chat.

  Family possibly located. Gavin went on to mention a block of warehouse buildings.

  What did you find? Shane typed.

  Finally found them on the cameras. A link was the next thing to populate the chat screen. Pictures of an SUV pulling up in front of a big warehouse. It was hard to identify his brother-in-law for certain, but there was no doubting his sister, who was a tall, slim fiery redhead. She carried one of their kids and had the other by the hand. As Shane watched, they disappeared out of the view of the camera, but this was the best lead they’d gotten.

  Address?

  Still in San Diego, near a warehouse wharf.

  Unaware of the ongoing chat, Diesel continued their conversation. “I wouldn’t give Shelly and Aleah too many ideas or specific concerns to think about at the moment,” he warned. “They both have some serious healing to do.”

  Shane nodded, clearly distant now, as he watched the screen for a response, his mind spinning in a totally different direction. “Gavin thinks he’s found my family.”

  Diesel hopped to his feet. “It’s about time we got a break,” he said. “That’s a game changer.”

  Shane looked at Diesel and said, “We need to move in, rescue them, then set a trap for these assholes.”

  “Do you think the kidnapper will be where your family is?”

  “I doubt it,” he said, “but which one has his goons on site? We’re not even positive who has them now and how this is all related. The one guy is still after something from Aleah’s father. The more leverage he has against the father, the less he’ll care about my family. I already did my job and got Aleah away.”

  “Sure, but you did too good of a job. The kidnapper’s keeping the pressure on you no matter what, so you keep Aleah from her father. That’s got to be why he tried to grab Shelly.”

  “I know,” he said. “The trouble is, with guys like this, they could have infiltrated each other’s organizations too. So, no matter what we think is going on, we’ll have to really be on our toes.”

  “Both men are a danger to Shelly and Aleah, no doubt.”

  “Poor Aleah. This will be bad for her, no matter how it goes.”

  “I hear you there,” Diesel said slowly. “We’ll only get one shot. I wonder if we can set up a handoff with a decoy.”

  “As long as we’ve got my family, yes,” he said, “but it all has to happen with precision timing.”

  Diesel gave a lopsided grin. “Good thing that is our specialty.”

  Shane groaned. “It’d be nice to have the tiniest bit of leeway for once.”

  “But that’s not the way it ever works,” Diesel said. “We just have to deal with it, and we have to deal with it now. You know the consequences if we don’t.”

  Unfortunately he did. All too well.

  Chapter 13

  Shelly was quickly ushered into a small room on the second floor of the little house, where she turned and stared at Shane. “Are you sure this is the best answer?”

  “It’s a combination of your idea and mine,” he said quietly.

  “It’s not that we’re bait,” she said, reaching up to pat his cheek. “Just quit looking at it that way.”

  He nodded. “I hear you. I do. But I really don’t like it. I’d rather have you safely tucked away, somewhere far away from here.”

  “But you have to admit that the two of us together will be a very tantalizing prospect.”

  “No doubt. We suspect that still another mole is somewhere in the kidnapper’s organization or the father’s organization, probably within MI6 again, considering the first one was there,” he said. “So, all of our attempts to keep things secret weren’t enough back then anyway.”

  “So the plan is to keep us together, to stay with us, and to presume that somebody will make a move.”

  “I’d move on that,” he said. “We’ve decided that the best way to predict their actions to get at you two is to go with the strategy we would utilize ourselves.”

  “That’s why you were hired in the first place,” she said, “because you could get the job done.”

  “Yeah, but I’m not alone,” he said, “and now that Aleah is out of that kidnap situation, and we’re hardly under heavy guard here,” he said, “somebody is likely to try again.”

  “I get that,” she said, turning to stare at her small bedroom. “Have you got her safely ensconced on the other side?”

  “Yes,” he said. “You two can share this upper apartment, with the kitchen, a little closet, bathroom, all the necessities, so you don’t need to be going anywhere else. Stay inside. Please stay on this floor.”

  “And for the baby?” she asked.

  “Yes, things are set up for the baby too.” He reached over and peered at her stitches.

  “I’m fine,” she said
crossly.

  “Well, you will be fine,” he snapped. “You’re just not quite there yet.”

  She glared at him, and he glared right back. She burst out laughing, then reached up and gave him a gentle kiss. “Hurry back.”

  “We’ll have to deal with this when I do,” he said, his gaze narrowing.

  “Nothing to deal with,” she said.

  “Sounds like you’ve changed the game.”

  “I have?” she asked in surprise. She opened her eyes wide and stared at him and said, “I think … this was always there, just maybe on the sidelines somewhere.”

  “Maybe,” he said, “but it’s been like an unwritten rule that we had between us not to get involved.”

  “Yeah, absolutely,” she said. “Do you want to change that?” He opened his mouth and closed it. She nodded. “Yeah, I jumped in and put that question to you before you could put it to me.”

  “Not fair,” he muttered.

  She burst out laughing again, walked over, and gave him a big hug. “It’s tough times right now,” she murmured.

  “It would be a whole lot less tough if you weren’t always distracting me.”

  “Distracting? I don’t think that’s the real reason,” she said.

  “You’re dancing around the issue,” he said calmly.

  “Maybe.” She nodded. “But it’s hardly the time or place.”

  “True, but it is distracting me,” he said, “and I don’t like it.” His voice turned hard, and he glared at her.

  She gave him a cheeky smile and said, “Still like to have all the answers locked down first, don’t you?”

  “Yes, and so do you,” he said with a nod. “So where are we going?”

  “Where would you like to go?” she asked.

  “No answering a question with a question,” he said. “That’s called deflection.”

  She smiled and said, “Fine. I would like to see where a romantic relationship between the two of us could go,” she admitted. “We’ve never come to this point before. We always had other people in our lives.”

  “I never looked at you that way before,” he said cautiously.

  “Didn’t you?” She frowned. “So maybe you don’t feel anything then.” She took several steps back. “Maybe this is just on my side. In which case I’ll have to sit down and take another look at that.”