39. Ben
The blood was coming faster now, making it harder to see which wires I was supposed to cut. I tensed my fists as I fought off another dizzy spell, then blew out a long breath as the room stabilized. I picked up the next wire.
“Hayes!” Lang yelled, startling me.
Had the guy forgotten there was an unstable man with a gun standing a few feet away from me? “Let’s stay calm,” I said.
“Hayes, drop that fucking wire or we’re going to have a problem!”
Okay, now it made sense. I’d picked up the wrong wire. I squinted and focused on the remaining connections. If my vague memory of this type of device from my basic explosives training was correct, I had three wires left to cut. Then the warning light would turn yellow, a trick to make someone inexperienced nervous enough to cut another wire, and then... Assuming we got past that, the light would turn green, the HEAT team who’d been following the burner phone’s GPS would arrive, and we’d all go home.
The rifle barrel jammed into my spine. “Devlin, buddy, what the hell?”
I risked a glance over my shoulder. He was sweating profusely, but hell, so was I. But his eyes were unfocused. Come to think of it, so were mine, but only one of us had a head injury.
“Devlin.” I did my best to radiate calm. “I need to finish this, or it’s going to end badly for us.”
“Are we good?” Lang asked in the same soothing tone.
He and Jensen had their eyes on the timer like I did. None of us liked what we saw.
Devlin backed up, but he kept the barrel pointed at me. “They’re not coming, are they? Anson said they would come to help with you, but they’re not coming.”
He finally realized he’d been duped. And I finally realized I’d been more than the lucky sucker they’d grabbed so Devlin would look like a murderer. Devlin wanted me dead. When I’d heard Savannah speaking to him earlier, I’d realized she’d found his kompromat, and it all pointed to his years-long obsession with her. What I didn’t know was whether he was aware that she loved me. I was no longer unsure about that.
There was some good news in all this. He didn’t want to kill me himself. Fair enough. Very few people in the world are cut out for wet work. Anson had used the promise of someone killing me for him to lure Devlin into helping kidnap me. That would make the second thing I’d have to do easier.
But first things first.
“Devlin.” I used a more strident tone. I didn’t have a choice. He was disappearing inside his own revenge fantasies. I needed him present. “If this blows, we both die, not just me, and you’ll never see Savannah again. Is that what you want?”
He shook his head.
“Then back the fuck up and let me work.” I wiped at the blood with my sweaty forearm and winced. “I’m going to need some antibiotics for that scratch.” I knew Bond was listening, so that was for her. I wiped my sweaty, bloody hands on my jeans and returned to the wires.
“Ready?” Lang said.
“Ready. One thing, though, to make sure I’m right about this. If I get a green light, we’re clear. But if I get a yellow light, we run like hell.”
Lang hesitated. Come on. He wasn’t on the tactical ops team, but he was cross-trained. He needed to follow my lead.
“Right.” That was Wheeler’s voice, but Devlin didn’t freak out, so I continued.
“Then I’m ready.”
Lang walked me through the next two wires. With a deep breath and another forearm wipe of my head, I took in Devlin’s exact position, figured out what he was most likely to do when I made my move, and bent to cut the last wire.
Snip.
The yellow button engaged.
“Shit!” I yelled. “It’s yellow!”
Devlin jumped, but didn’t move.
“Run!”
That roused him. He took two steps before the barrel faltered. It was my one and only chance.
I lunged and caught the barrel, twisted sideways, and slammed the hard plastic butt into the center of his face. Blood spurted from his crushed nose. But he hadn’t released the gun. He squeezed off a shot, which landed somewhere above us. I stomped my heel into the flesh of his foot, pivoted, and yanked the rifle from his grasp. I spun again and landed another hard rifle butt blow to his forehead, then, just for good measure, spun and caught him in the gut. He crumpled to the ground.
My legs turned rubbery, and my vision swam. I wasn’t going to make it out the door, but with Devlin neutralized, I could wait for my team to come get me. I pressed the gun’s release button, pulled out the cartridge and tossed it, and checked the chamber to make sure it was empty. I dropped the unloaded weapon, then checked the bomb. The second I saw the green light, my vision faded, my legs folded, and I hit the ground.
Cold water drippeddown the side of my face, startling me awake.
“Wheeler, don’t do that,” Bond said.
“Look, it worked.” My partner sounded very proud of himself.
“Sure, now you assholes show up, after I’ve done all the work.” My voice croaked. I opened my eyes, but everything was blurry. “Not you, Doc,” I said, assuming the face above me was hers.
“Good to know,” she answered. “Wheeler, try getting some of that water into his mouth.”
I got a good long drink, then tried to push myself into a seated position. Bond held me down by my shoulder.
“Stay put,” she said. “You’re leaving here on a gurney.”
I didn’t argue because I wasn’t sure I could even sit, let alone stand. “Where’s the rest of the team?”
“Other than Jensen and Lang, they’re all here,” Wheeler told me.
“What about Devlin? And shit, Taylor Stewart was here—”
“Stop, or I’m putting a medical gag on you,” Bond said.
“What the hell is that?”
“Something I just made up to make you stop talking,” she answered.
“His mouth works, but what’s wrong with his eyes?”
I recognized my sister’s voice. I held out my hand, and she squeezed it.
“His vision should recover as his concussion heals,” Bond assured her.
“I called it,” I said. “I knew I had a concussion.” No one else expressed excitement at my excellent situational awareness. “Is Savannah safe?” I asked. “Is she with Jensen and Lang? I hope she didn’t watch—”
“Not kidding about the medical gag,” Bond said. “You have a concussion. Lie still, be quiet, and wait for transport, or I’ll have to sedate you. Your teammates know how to do their jobs, and Savannah is fine.”
“Except that her stomach didn’t do well in the bird,” Mai said.
“You brought her here?” I asked.
“We had a good reason,” Mai said.
“Where is she? Can I see her? Hear her? Feel her?”
Bond sighed loudly. “Oh for fu—Bloom, can you see if Savannah feels well enough to see Hayes before I give him a medical gag and a sedative?”
A minute later, I heard her enter the cabin. I knew her footfall, and the silky touch of her skin as she took my hand, and the scent of her shampoo as she leaned over me.
I turned toward the blurry spot that was her beautiful face. “Mmm, baby, you smell good.”
“Ben, there are other people here,” Mai said.
“Sorry, I can’t see any of you.” I squinted, but the blurriness persisted. “You should probably step away if you don’t want to hear the racy stuff. Doc, I promise to lie still and speak softly.”
“I promise to use a really big needle to administer the sedative if you don’t,” Bond answered.
I heard shuffling.
“You’ve cleared the room,” Savannah said.
“About time. I thought I’d never get you alone. You’ll have to undress me and do all the work, but—”
“Wheeler’s right, you are a laugh-riot.”
“You wound me, saying the Aussie asshole’s name at a time like this.”
She wrapped both her hands around mine and kissed my bruised knuckles ever so gently. “A time like what?”
“This could be the head wound talking, and I know it’s only been three weeks, plus the summer we dated for three months.” I tried to grip her hand, but my fingers barely moved because I was using most of my energy to stay conscious.
“I think you’re straining yourself.”
“I am, but Sav, one thing, then I’ll let the paramedics take me away. Will you marry me?”
She laughed. “You nearly died three times today, and you’re thinking about a wedding?”
“A wedding, an elopement, a commitment ceremony in the apartment over my parents’ garage. Just marry me.”
“Ask me again when you don’t have a concussion.” She kissed me. “But spoiler alert, the answer will be yes.”