Wyn Security Page 27

  Grabbing toast off her plate—because now she needed something to calm her upset insides—she stood. “Ready?”

  “Winter texted me. They might’ve gotten some intel we can use.”

  Great. The sooner they got going on that information, assuming it was good, the quicker the threat against her would be eliminated and the sooner she could leave. She didn’t know where she’d go, but there had to be someplace where she could find the elusive white picket fence.

  Chapter Six

  Felix kept his eyes on the road. Damn, if this hadn’t been a confusing morning. He’d woken up to a beautiful angel on his chest, looking up at him like he was her air.

  Then he’d remembered the last twenty-four hours. And the five years before that.

  The divorce was a good idea. But did she have to agree so fast to his one condition? Apparently so. She hadn’t even thought about it. Especially after the night they’d just shared. It was his own fault for calling her bluff—what had he expected? Arabella beg to stay married? What they had wasn’t a marriage. They hadn’t been in the same country in years, let alone the same city.

  The showdown between Winter and Arabella was going to be a tense one to watch—Winter was flaming pissed, and Arabella wasn’t all that remorseful. Felix had spoken with Winter briefly, and she’d said that Bahman was cooperating, which was the good news. The bad news was that Bahman had reached out to his contacts in Darek’s web and found out Darek really was gunning for Arabella, and he wanted his laptop full of information back no matter the consequences.

  A large pop coincided with the Hummer swerving right when they were a block out from the bridge. Shit. He’d seen enough combat to know when his tire had been shot.

  He held the steering wheel tightly and glanced in his side mirror. A scope reflected off the top of a building they’d just passed. “Behind us.”

  She already had her gun in hand and turned in her seat to try to get a location on the shooter. Fucking perfect. Now the vehicle he loved was getting shot to hell.

  “Top left. I see him.” Her window was open, and she started to swivel out of it to shoot back.

  “Don’t. He’ll have backup.” The last thing he needed was her getting ripped to shreds by a bullet.

  The windows in the Hummer were small, so at least they were fairly safe until they had to get out of the vehicle. If he were to have set up the ambush, he’d have more than one sniper at the ready.

  “We need cover then, unless you think we can make it.” She righted herself in the seat.

  The Wyn Security office was on the other side of the shipping island.

  Plink. Another tire burst, and this time the hit men sprayed his doors. He stepped on the gas, veering left then right to avoid the bullets, and drove straight for an abandoned warehouse.

  “Hold on.” He glanced at Arabella in time to see her brace herself.

  He drove the Hummer straight through an old, white, tin garage door. The crash was more loud than destructive—to his vehicle anyway. The garage door was demolished and the assault team would definitely know where they were.

  They were out of their seats in a hurry, unloading the arsenal in the back. As much as they could carry, at least.

  “Did you recognize them?”

  “Too far away.” She grabbed for the shotgun and slung it around her arm and then holstered another 9mm. “I told you Darek was coming.”

  “You want to do this right now?” Felix stuffed clips into his jacket and pants pockets and made sure to take the sniper rifle with him. In a scenario where they had to negotiate, he could cover Arabella and vice versa. Hopefully, these people wouldn’t expect them to be armed this well.

  They had to move. Now. The building they just crashed into looked to be a towing and car repair shop—or had been once upon a time. They needed to get to the roof. A ground floor with a wide open hole to look through and not enough hiding spaces meant they needed a tactical advantage.

  “Is there access from there?” He pointed to a ceiling corner of the shop that had a small catwalk halfway up.

  She scanned the room. “I don’t see another option.” She started for the ladder without looking back.

  He jacked the hammer back on the rifle to put a bullet in the chamber and followed. This was the completely wrong time to be thinking about her ass, but, shit, she looked good climbing up a ladder in cargo pants. Add the action, and she was one hot, dangerous woman. Talk about a fucking turn on.

  She stopped on the second level and covered him while he boogied up. She wasted no time going up to the ceiling once he was on the platform. No guns or heads were sticking out of the hole he’d created in the side of the building yet, but he was in a shoot-now, ask-questions-later kind of mood. He heard a creak. When he looked up, all he saw were Arabella’s legs. After she pulled herself up, she leaned back down, gun in hand to cover him.

  The building wasn’t large, but it covered enough space to give them a good angle. The original attack had come from a rooftop to their two o’clock, but he had yet to pinpoint the angle of the second burst.

  They stayed crouched and picked the spot with the best vantage—he had his rifle out and scanned the rooftops while she watched the streets.

  “It’s too quiet,” she whispered.

  “They’re regrouping.”

  “Maybe they only wanted to intimidate—this was their way of saying hello.”

  “They did too much homework, and who knows how long they were set up waiting for us.” He reached for his phone to call Winter. No signal. “Do you have a signal?”

  He sighted down the scope of his M24, going rooftop by rooftop while he waited for her to check her phone.

  “Nope.” She put her palm to her forehead to shade her eyes. “I bet they’re using a jammer. These guys are trained, Felix.”

  “Then it’s a good thing we are too.”

  She chuckled with a hint of deviousness. “That it is.”

  He didn’t want to kill these guys. He wanted to maim and interrogate them. He would not ever call asking Bahman a couple of questions last night an interrogation. That was a cover-your-ass task. If they caught some of these bastards, he’d be sure to revisit all his training in the matter.

  “Why hit us here though, if they knew we were going to the office? There are better choke points the closer we get.” He slouched down a little more against the two-foot barrier on the roof and met her eyes.

  The sparse golden highlights in her brown hair shimmered in the sun. The corners of her eyes wrinkled as she searched his. They weren’t strangers to being in a tight situation together. They were one hell of a team. And as far as he was concerned, unless a fucking enemy helicopter flew overhead all of a sudden, they had the advantage. They would be able to hold off during a firefight, if it came to that, until someone heard the noise, called the cops, and they came in sirens blazing.

  She moved her shotgun to her side and placed a second 9mm clip on the ground within reach of her left hand. She popped her head back up, but he focused on the clip. Could it be? Nah. There was no way she still had it. He was on her left side—he couldn’t see the gun in her right hand, and he hadn’t looked when they were cleaning out his weapons cache. Which gun had she pointed at him last night? That had been a Beretta. After all these years, was it possible that she’d kept the gun he’d given her as a wedding present?

  “They’re here.” She adjusted for better aim.

  He slowly moved into position and watched a very organized team in civilian clothes approach in a V formation behind a black van. This was a snatch-and-grab job. They’d get Arabella over his dead body.

  They started to fan out.

  “They’re going to try to surround the building. We have to stop that from happening.” While they were above average in the combat department, he and Arabella couldn’t physically cover all the areas at once. They had to control where they were going to fight.

  He sighted in the van and moved to the tires. He fired, hit
the driver’s side tire, quickly repositioned, and fired on the back tire. Arabella and he ducked right before the burst of bullets started whizzing over their heads. The van stopped, and the driver got out and commanded his troops in Arabic to fan out.

  “Stop them,” Felix said as he aimed at the two men advancing to the left. Felix fired a warning shot ahead of them and sparked the ground a step in front of the first guy. It was almost comical how fast baldy changed direction and hid by a rotting truck in the weed-infested parking lot. The second guy followed his lead. Those two fired back as soon as they had cover, and Felix returned the sentiment. There’d be no more ducking. Or running. If Darek wanted a fight, he was going to get one—right at his doorstep in Saudi Arabia if necessary.

  Gunshots sounded off from Arabella; she was doing something similar to keep the seven men on the ground in front of them.

  “We can’t just pin them down all day.” The irritation was clear in her voice. She always had liked taking things to the extreme. “We only need one to give us information.”

  He really didn’t want to kill anyone. Although they had been backed into a corner and their cell phones were jammed, so she had a point: scare them off or kill them all. She was also right about only needing one to get answers from—and he knew just the guy.

  He found the driver, lined up his sight with the guy’s leg, let his breath out, and shot. The leader went down with a scream and drew his team’s attention. They started to converge on him.

  “I want to talk to that one.” Felix fired at the man almost to the wounded driver and backed him away one shot at a time. “Keep the others away. They need to abandon him.”

  She kept a steady stream of shots going. “How exactly do you expect them to get away? You shot out their tires.”

  “Only two of them. They can still drive it. It’s not like they’re going to care about ruining the axles.”

  The leader was barking orders, and the men looked torn. That’s right. Leave him. As an extra incentive, Felix aimed for one of the yappiest men and shot him in the upper arm. Things were about to get serious if these guys didn’t take the hint and leave.

  The familiar zing of bullets too close for comfort buzzed his ears.

  “No fair.” Arabella spoke quietly, keeping her muzzle trained in place. “You already got to shoot the other guy.”

  “Take your pick. They need to get the hint to leave.”

  A couple of more well-placed shots, and six of the seven men piled into the van and did their best to speed away. Hopefully taking the cell signal jammer with them.

  For good measure, he placed a shot through their back window and bumper. He didn’t want them getting any ideas about circling back.

  They picked up their clips and made their way down to the ground level.

  “Good shooting,” he said as boogied down to the catwalk.

  “You, too. Really, though, we could’ve taken them all out.”

  “They’re pretty banged up. They won’t be back. That buys us time while Darek finds another team.”

  Her eyebrows raised.

  “Which is why we singled out this guy.” He held out his gun as they approached the head minion bleeding out on the ground. Felix bent down to search his pockets while getting yelled at in Arabic. “Bingo.”

  “I like the offensive approach much more.” She winked and took the phone from him.

  He needed to call Winter. Now that the van was gone, his signal was, indeed, back.

  “Where in the hell are you?” Winter answered on the first ring.

  “We were ambushed. We’re a mile up the road from the office.”

  “Holy shit. I’m coming.”

  “Is Alex there with you?”

  “Yeah.”

  Alex Dreyer was a detective with the Seattle Police Department, ex-boyfriend to Winter, and had been their link to the law on several occasions, helping them out with some gray areas so that Wyn Security stayed clear of being in the middle of police investigations. They didn’t have time for that, so Alex was a necessary ally. Alex was trustworthy and always came through—a bit of an honorary team member. Felix was going to owe the man a case of beer for all the favors he was about to ask for.

  “I kept a souvenir.” He peered down at the guy who was minutes away from passing out. “I need answers, but this prick needs field-medicine patching before that will happen. Then Alex can have him. Not before. If Alex needs to hang back so he doesn’t have to put my questioning techniques in an official report, I suggest he doesn’t accompany you.”

  “We’re on our way.”

  He disconnected. “Hang in there, buddy. Meds are coming.” He turned to Arabella. “Get anything?”

  She grinned and walked straight for him. His heart beat faster, his body came to life, and she was all he could see. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Her lips were hot, and she coaxed his mouth open gently with her tongue. His hand was instantly at her waist and slipped to her back to press her closer. Whatever the reason, he didn’t mind the in-the-field affection. Not one bit.

  She pulled back and palm-tapped his cheek twice. “That was fun.”

  Holy damn. That was fun. “Anything useful on the phone?”

  “No. It had been cleared.”

  “Then what are you so happy about?”

  “When Darek calls, he’ll be really surprised to hear my voice.”

  The excitement that lit up her entire face made Felix smile. She was damn adorable when she wasn’t deceiving him.

  She moved out of his grasp and bent down to check out their straggler. “I’m Arabella, your new best friend.”

  The guy spoke in Arabic, and it didn’t sound like he was trying to introduce himself. Arabella replied, her tone just as harsh. He’d forgotten how exceptional her language skills were. Last time he’d heard a count, she spoke five fluently and could get by on a handful more.

  Hopefully, she’d get something from the guy now. With by-the-book Alex on the way, it was doubtful Felix was going to be able to have the type of conversation he’d like to have with his detainee. Once the bleeder was at a hospital and not afraid of death, there was no way they were getting a location for the rest of the team or whatever this guy knew about Darek.

  She stood and crossed her arms after the guy passed out.

  “Anything?” Felix rubbed his hands together. If his Hummer tires hadn’t been shot out, they would’ve loaded the guy up and he wouldn’t have called Winter. Unlike the guys in the van, he did care about his axles.

  “Not really.”

  For someone who didn’t get much information, Arabella was sure deep in thought.

  Before he could push for what “not really” actually meant, Winter’s SUV came to a screeching halt by the van.

  “I need the kit,” he called out to her.

  Winter went to the back of her Durango as Alex approached.

  “Parsa Bahman was looking like a real win. Have you ruined that?” Alex had his hands in his pockets and a scowl for the bloody guy on the ground.

  “This’ll help. We believe this team was hired by the same guy Bahman is running from.”

  “You are one lucky SOB if that’s the case.”

  Arabella had intercepted Winter, and they were wrapping the leader’s leg to stop the bleeding. He’d lost a decent amount of blood, but Felix had been careful not to nick the femoral artery, so he didn’t feel a major rush to help the guy’s pain.

  He nodded toward Arabella. “She in the clear?”

  “I won’t be filing charges.”

  Relief swept through Felix all the way to his knees. Lock-up was an easy place for Darek’s dirty money to do a lot of talking.

  “Mr. Bahman is going to take a deal. The CIA is taking custody this afternoon.” Alex always wore nice suits—his brown blazer and navy tie today were no exception—but that did explain why his shoes were extra shiny.

  “Does he know who this team was? Anything on the price on Arabella?”


  “He didn’t know much but did give us bank accounts we are tracking down now, so if there was a payment, we’ll find it, but it might take a while. She needs to lay low. They obviously know she’s here.”

  Javed and Erfan, the bodyguards. They must have run off and made their own calls. That was the only way Darek would’ve associated Arabella with Wyn Security.

  “Bahman had two bodyguards. Have you found them?”

  “No sign of them yet.” Sirens wailed in the distance. “I called in an ambulance.”

  Felix raised a brow.

  “I know the intensity of the situation, and I clearly made the right call.” Alex nodded toward the guy, who would need more care than a first aid kit could provide.

  “I wanted time to talk to him before he went into official custody.”

  “You will. The guy won’t do you any good dead.”

  “He would’ve done a lot more for me in pain. We need to keep an eye out at hospitals; we wounded quite a few of his comrades today.”

  “Winter said you had another gift for me to give to the CIA?”

  “Yeah. But not yet.” He hadn’t seen the laptop in Arabella’s possession, and he’d checked her suitcase while she was in the shower that morning.

  “Is it going to give me a heart attack?”

  “No. It’ll probably get you an award.” The guy on the ground started to stir, drifting in and out of consciousness.

  “I like the sound of that.” Alex’s grin showed off white teeth in the rising, bright, winter sun.

  “Knew you would.”

  Felix watched Arabella try for information all the way until the ambulance doors closed. He and Arabella didn’t have a lot of leads to go off, but they needed to regroup quickly. He doubted that Arabella had been physically spotted, that Darek was just standing by to see if hired thugs could get the job done. He’d have backup and keep sending people until she was in his custody with the encrypted laptop. They needed an attack plan, and he needed to keep Arabella out of harm’s way.

  For old times’ sake.