Shane Read online

  Chapter 6

  Shelly had heard part of the conversation but was still struggling to process some of it. “I’ll fly to London with you?”

  “Yeah. Otherwise you’re staying here in a safe house,” he said, his tone brooking no argument.

  She just shook her head in bewilderment. “But I’m safe now,” she said. “You’ll go off and rescue this woman and save your sister, which, … oh, my God, how the hell is Priscilla handling this now?” she asked, worried. “I’m so worried about the kids.”

  “She’s a lawyer. I’m sure she’s calm and controlled at the moment. But, like anybody, it’s her children and her husband at risk with her,” Shane said. “Nice diversion by the way. Now back to the matter at hand. We can’t take any chances of them grabbing you again.”

  “A safe house?”

  “A safe house under guard,” he said affirmatively.

  “And if I go to London with you?”

  “Then you’ll be with me at all times, except for when I’m off doing an op.”

  She stared at him, warring with the two options, but there was really no choice. “All right, I’m coming with you then,” she said.

  He nodded. “I figured that would be your choice. We leave for the airport in forty minutes. Get up and get showered. Breakfast will be delivered any minute.”

  She slowly pushed back the blankets and sat up, still brushing the grogginess of sleep from her eyes, as she headed for the shower. “London? Wow.” Well, there were worse things. She thought about the woman he was supposed to rescue, and her heart went out to the poor soul. Yet, at the same time, eleven people had been killed as a trial run, and she had absolutely no doubt that this guy was planning on taking care of Shane and Diesel and her at the end of the day.

  But, if he would do that and kill her regardless, Shelly didn’t think a safe house would be safer than being with these two. She trusted them, and, right now, she didn’t trust many people, particularly not after the experience of getting into that cab. Showered, dressed, and back out in the main room, she quickly packed up her overnight bag and stared at it sorrowfully. “I guess there’s no time for a side trip to pick up more clothes, is there?”

  “In your dreams,” he said cheerfully. “Wander around in your underwear. I don’t care.”

  She snorted at that. “Yeah, you wouldn’t have a problem with that at all, would you?” she said, shaking her head. “Not happening.”

  “Bedsheets work,” Diesel said unhelpfully, with a wicked grin.

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Maybe in London I can shop.” They just looked at her, then looked at each other and didn’t say anything, which she took to mean, No way in hell was that happening. She groaned and said, “You could have warned me.”

  “We didn’t know beforehand,” he said, and a tap on the door stopped the conversation. He immediately motioned for her to step back. Eyes wide, she hid behind the corner, as Diesel walked to the front door.

  “Who’s there?” he called out.

  “Room service.”

  He opened the door slightly, checking out who was there to ensure it truly was room service, then opened the door wider. “I’ll take the trolley from here.” Diesel tipped the guy, shut the door, and pushed the trolley farther inside.

  She lifted her nose, appreciating the smell of bacon. “Bacon is always a good choice,” she murmured.

  “It is,” Shane said. “Come and eat.” He lifted up the bottom tray, which held a big coffee server, and set it on the table.

  Once served, they sat down, and she quickly demolished her food. “Okay, that was a good start,” she said. “I have to admit that you shocked me with the change in plans.”

  “You need to be adaptable,” he said. “You chose to come with us, then you need to be prepared to do as we tell you, without arguments and questions. We can answer your questions eventually, but, in the moment, you just need to do as you’re told.”

  She looked at him, smiled, and said, “I’ll only do it because I know that you love me.”

  Putting down his fork, he gripped her fingers. “You know that,” he said. “So when you don’t like what I tell you, remember what’s behind it.”

  She grinned and snagged the last piece of toast off the plate. “I’ll remember.” He looked down at the plate, then back at her in mock outrage. She shrugged and took a big bite of it. “Hey, you took more bacon than me,” she said.

  “I’m bigger than you,” he said reasonably.

  “Sure,” she said, “but you don’t want to be sitting on that long flight with me cranky and hungry.”

  “Oh, God, you’re right about that,” he said. “You’re the worst.” He pushed his chair back and said, “I need to check in for more information,” he said. “Then we’re leaving in five.” He walked over, snagged his phone, and stepped out on a small balcony. There he proceeded to tap his phone, with text messages presumably.

  She looked at Diesel. “Are you two working out? Like, as partners, I mean. Are you okay to work with him?”

  The corner of his lips kicked up into a grin. “Always,” he said. “I trust him.”

  “Oh, I do too,” she said. “I just can’t say that I’ve ever been in a scenario like this.”

  “Not a problem,” he said. “But, seriously, you’ve got to listen to what we say and just do it without argument.”

  “Why does everybody keep saying that?” She wrinkled her nose at him. “I get that I probably seem a little more argumentative than other people,” she said cautiously, “but I do know when to be quiet.”

  “I was in that cab,” he said. “I saw your attempt to be quiet.”

  She burst out laughing at that. “Hey, the guy was trying to kidnap us. After the hostage situation, what did you expect me to do?”

  “Well, we were in the process of handling it,” he said, “but then you got in the way, and we couldn’t do what we were trying to do.”

  She stopped, stared at him, and said, “Oh. I didn’t even think about that.”

  “Which is exactly why you need to do what we tell you to do.”

  She shrugged and said, “Well, I’ll try.”

  He rolled his eyes at her.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she said. “If you’ve been around Shane for any amount of time, you would know perfectly well what I’m like,” she said.

  “He doesn’t talk about you,” he said quietly.

  She looked at him and smiled “No, I guess not. We’ve always kept this relationship pretty private. I can’t remember anybody else I might have told,” she said. “That’s the problem with trying to figure out who might have spread the word about how tight we are. Good thing we know about the origin of this mess now. Although finding out about me is a little confusing.”

  “It doesn’t necessarily have to be anybody you guys told. It could be where you have been seen together or something like that. Particularly since your friendship is long and enduring. Think about anything that could still be on the internet.”

  She stared at him thoughtfully. “In that case,” she said, “there are probably dozens and dozens of photos of us. We went to various celebrations, concerts, expos.” She shrugged. “We’re friends.”

  “Exactly. And you’ve shown up together, time and time again, right?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, even when he had girlfriends, I’d be there,” she said. “Or, if I had boyfriends, sometimes he’d be there too. We’re friends.”

  “Exactly. So think about that. If someone was trying to find somebody in his life worth kidnapping …”

  “But only as a test,” she said, shaking her fork at him. “His sister was the leverage.”

  “Well, it’s both. That was his test, and now they’ve got leverage.”

  “It would be a good idea, you know, if you guys would grab this woman and keep her as leverage, so Shane can get his sister’s family back.”

  “Well, that’s plan B,” he said, standing up. “Plan A is to get his family back first,”
he said. “Believe me. This guy won’t get his daughter back without us getting Shane’s family back first.”

  “I’m glad to hear you say that,” she said. “I really like Prissy.”

  “You’re probably the only one I know who’s even met them.”

  “And again,” she said, “as much as by accident, just because we’ve been friends for a long time.”

  “Has it really been since kindergarten?”

  “Yes, actually it has. Some years we were closer than other times, but yes.”

  “Hard to imagine that you knew him before he went in the navy.”

  “Yes, when I was like sixteen, we spent a lot of time together,” she said. “Prissy is a couple years older. She’s a bit more straitlaced than he is. But then he was a wild card.”

  “Got it,” he said with a smile.

  “Come on. Let’s go,” Shane said, stepping back inside the room.

  She looked up in surprise. Shane already stood at the doorway, waiting for them. She hopped up, took one last gulp of her coffee, and swallowed it. “Wow,” she said, “I was hoping for another cup.”

  “Maybe at the airport,” Shane said.

  She nodded, grabbed her bag and her sweater, and said, “Okay, I’m ready.”

  He smiled and said, “Let’s hope so,” and led the way outside.

  She was surprised when they didn’t go down the stairwell or the normal elevator. They went down another elevator, set off all by itself, which was darker inside. “Where are we?” she murmured.

  “Service elevator,” he said. As soon as they stepped out in an underground parking area at a dark corner, he grabbed her arm and tugged her back.

  “You could always walk behind me.” She sighed, and, pulling her arm away, said, “You do know that this is the modern-day, and women no longer have to walk behind their partner.”

  He said, “From this second forward, you will definitely be without the right to vote, argue, or disobey. Otherwise I’m not taking you. You’ll be under guard at a safe house. So you better decide right here and now.” His voice was hard.

  She gently patted his back and said, “I’m right here—behind you.”

  He reached back, and she grabbed his hand and let him lead her toward a black car with smoked windows. He quickly settled her into the back, as Diesel got in the driver’s seat. Shane sat in the front passenger side, so she had the whole back seat to herself.

  She didn’t really recognize this persona of his but certainly understood where he was coming from. She settled back for the trip to the airport. They didn’t even enter through the normal doors but ended up using some godforsaken back entrance. She passed all kinds of carts and a few people, but most of them didn’t look like they were travelers. But suddenly they were through inspections and walking toward the plane. “How did you bypass everybody like that?”

  “We didn’t bypass anything,” he said, “but whenever you have law enforcement heading out or carrying passengers,” he said, “you always move through a different set of security measures.”

  “Am I a prisoner now?”

  “No, but the weapons we’re carrying,” he said, “are definitely part of it.”

  “You got permission to carry these?”

  “Most are in the checked luggage,” he said, “but we have permission for one each on board.”

  “Jesus,” she said, “does that make you an air marshal or something?”

  “No, but you can bet they know that Diesel and I are here,” he said. “Only nobody is allowed to say a word.”

  “Interesting,” she murmured. As it was, they found their seats, and they were in the center section instead of at the front or at the back, and she was in the middle, between the two of them. She figured that’s just the way it would be from now on. “Is it okay if I sleep on this flight?”

  “Yeah, sleep all you want,” he said, “Diesel and I will be working.”

  “What’s to work on?” she asked in surprise.

  He looked at her, his lips kicking up in the corners, and he said, “We have plans to make.”

  “Well, with that heavy breakfast this morning, I’m already yawning again.”

  “That’s just because you didn’t get your extra cup of coffee,” he teased.

  “It is,” she said. “I can always get one when we’re airborne, I guess.”

  “You could,” he said, “or you can wait for a few hours and have a nap first.”

  “Maybe, I’ll see,” she said. As it was, by the time they were in the air, she felt completely exhausted. It must have been the shock and the adrenaline loss finally catching up to her. The seat belt sign hadn’t been off for five minutes, and she had curled up against Shane’s shoulder, her eyes closed, and drifted off.

  Shane was happy when Shelly finally crashed.

  Diesel looked at her and said, “I still think I’m right.”

  “You’re not,” Shane said. “I don’t want to risk losing the friendship.”

  “Taking a friendship another step forward,” Diesel said gently, “should enhance the friendship.”

  “I know, and I would be lying if I didn’t say that I hadn’t considered it over the years,” he said, “but it always comes back to the same thing. I don’t want to lose her.”

  “I get it, but I think you’re worried about that for nothing.”

  “Maybe so,” he said, “but I know, for a fact, that what we have now is worth everything.”

  “You already love her,” Diesel said.

  “Maybe,” he said. “No, of course I do. But as a friend.”

  Diesel just snorted quietly. “You keep on telling yourself that, bro.”

  “Any luck with a potential route to get into that building?”

  “No,” Diesel said. “I’m now checking several buildings away at this point.”

  “And I’m still looking for anything related to where they could be holding my sister.”

  “At this point, Shelly may well prove correct.”

  Shane glanced at the sleeping woman between them. “What point was that?”

  “She said that you’ll have to rescue this woman first, then hold her captive, until your family is released.”

  He nodded and shrugged. “You know something? Shelly’s very good at quickly grasping the salient facts,” he said. “And she’s right. The way it’s looking, unless we catch a break pretty soon, that’s probably what we’ll have to do. I was hoping for more information on finding my family because no way in hell I would be heading for London if it wouldn’t get me what I wanted eventually, which is my family back.”

  “That’s what I figured. Still, that was a pretty rough trial to test your skills.”

  “The whole thing is strange. He said I passed with flying colors. So he’s hoping that I’ll get this woman out of there.”

  “I know. We must find a way to get in and to get her out of there, then avoid an ambush that would take her away from us.”

  “I’d go underground,” Shane said, “if I thought a viable route was found there.”

  “Well, I’m into the underground city of London,” he said. “It’s a bit messy, well, a lot messy,” he said, “but it might be our only way.”

  “I think it probably is,” Shane said. “We may need a delivery truck going to one of the neighboring districts to get in, so nobody can track us. Then find a way to get as close to these buildings as we can. But I think we’ll have to drill a pathway upward to get where we want to go.”

  “Not if I can find something old in that system that will get us closer,” Diesel said. “Drilling’ll be noisy. C-4 will be noisy. Everything’ll leave a mess, and we need to ensure that we don’t leave very much in the way of tracks.”

  “We don’t want to leave any tracks on our way in,” Shane said, “but I don’t give a shit about tracks on the way out. Once we get clear of the underground city, then we need another series of ways to get the hell out of the city itself.”

  “You got any plans for
that?”

  “Yeah,” he said, “I’m thinking by sea.”

  “How will that help us?” Diesel asked, looking at him.

  “Well, for one, nobody’ll take on the US Navy for four people,” he said, “and, if we do it right, they won’t even know we’re on one of the destroyers.”

  “Still won’t save your family.”

  “Well, that doesn’t mean I can’t leave,” he said, “while I go off and do an exchange for my family.”

  “I think you might be right about a destroyer, if we can make that happen,” he said, “but I disagree about the exchange.”

  “I don’t know any other way to make the switch,” he said.

  “Your family will need to be freed back at their home or at some neutral territory, while you have proof of life on the US destroyer,” he said.

  “And that means this guy has got to trust me to release this woman.”

  “True enough,” he said. “And the handoffs are always dangerous.”

  “We can make it happen,” he said. “First, we have to get to London, and we need a game plan, preferably by the time we land.”

  On that note, the two returned to work. They were interrupted a couple times with deliveries of coffee and some food, but, by the time they landed in London, they had something of a plan together. It was still rough, and they would need a lot of equipment and some backup. But, as they headed through security and continued outside for a rental and then to their hotel, Shane felt a little bit better.

  On the other hand, the closer and closer they got to London and to their hotel, the quieter Shelly became. “Are you all right?” he asked, looking at her as they got out.

  She yawned, nodded, and said, “Yes, but the time change for transatlantic flights like this is deadly.”

  “It is, but you get to sit down and relax,” he said.

  “I can sit, but that doesn’t mean I’ll relax,” she said.

  “You might surprise yourself,” he said.

  Chapter 7