Chapter Seventeen
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They never should have held the damned conference here in the first place.
Gavin stood grimly beside his twin and the rest of the team in the security room, watching the incredible scenes unfolding in the few blocks surrounding the conference center on the video monitors. Despite the city’s and organizer’s security implementations, all hell was breaking loose outside.
The cops were on the verge of losing control, and the protesters were gaining ground, their numbers swelling. If they breached that line of riot cops, only two more security barriers stood between them and the hotel and conference center.
“We’re going to security plan Charlie,” Ryder announced to the silent room. “The Feds have teams moving in, with reinforcements on the way. Sniper teams are giving live intel from their positions.”
“What about the National Guard?” Gavin asked. Some of the guys in Crimson Point were Air National Guard PJs. If activated, they might fly rescue and extraction missions.
“The governor has alerted them. Members have been called to base.”
“Locate and secure your VIPs at the hotel and escort them to the safe room here,” Callum told them. “We’ll coordinate with on-site security and RV with you.”
Copy that. It was go time.
Tris exchanged a look with him before they turned and quickly left the room with the other CPS personal protection team members. Government security contractors were responsible for the overall security of the conference site. Gavin’s team was responsible for the VIPs under their charge.
“This shit’s gonna be ugly if they breach the external perimeter,” he muttered as they ran for the emergency exit protected by guards carrying semi-auto rifles. These guys weren’t fucking around.
“Oh, yeah,” Tris answered, right beside him. “You hear from Deck?”
“Nope.” Decker was somewhere onsite with another element from CPS, but not involved with VIP personal security.
And now Gavin was worried about Autumn and Carly too. He’d left Autumn a message but hadn’t heard back from her yet. He just hoped they were safe inside their hotel and would stay there.
He dialed his VIP as he ran. “Where are you?” he said the moment the man answered.
“In my room. Why?”
“Security situation outside is deteriorating rapidly. We’re evacuating everyone into the conference center immediately. I’m on my way to you now, ETA four minutes. Be ready to move when I get there.”
The man cursed. “Is that absolutely nec—”
“Be ready.” Yeah, it was fucking necessary.
“All right, understood.”
He and Tris reached the entrance to the hotel, also manned by heavily armed guards. They tore up the stairwell together, their rapid footsteps echoing off the concrete walls.
The hallway was thankfully almost empty when they got to their floor. Gavin ran to his VIP’s room while Tris rushed to his and rapped sharply on the door. “It’s me. You ready?”
The door opened only a moment later. The sixty-something diplomat looked a little rattled as he came out with his briefcase, shrugging into his suit jacket, his tie undone around his neck. “Yes.”
“This way. Stay close.”
“Okay. What’s happening outside?”
Chaos. “The protesters have set fires and are attacking the police.”
“Oh, shit.”
Gavin didn’t answer. There was no threat here, only an urgency to get this man into the more secure conference center as quickly as possible. Tristan and his VIP were a short way ahead of them up the hall.
They quickly hustled their charges down the stairs to the lower emergency exit, pausing at the door to check with Callum in the control room. “Tris and I have our VIPs at exit delta. We clear to move into location bravo?”
“Affirmative,” Callum answered.
He nodded to alert Tris. “Let’s go.” He hit the release bar.
Tris swept past him with his own VIP. Gavin followed a moment later, grabbing his VIP’s right shoulder with his left hand and grasping the man’s belt with his right in a two-handed body-control technique. Maneuvering his VIP with two hands from behind gave him the advantage of control, but would hamper him if he needed to draw his weapon, leaving the VIP exposed to threats from the front. Hopefully it wouldn’t be an issue.
The corridor was empty, but he remained on high alert, rushing the man through the tunnel to the conference center entrance. Tris paused at the far door to check in with Callum. “Clear,” he called back to Gavin.
A moving mass of people greeted them on the other side. Gavin immediately swiveled, grasping his VIP’s arm to bring the man behind him. He moved through the crowd quickly, his height and size giving him an advantage as he followed his twin while watching for any threats.
They moved fast, muscling their way through knots of people when necessary while ignoring the angry retorts, concerned only with getting the men into the safe room on the second floor.
Armed guards were stationed inside the center at regular intervals, and there were undercover FBI agents mixed in as well. The uniformed Feds guarding the main ballroom saw them coming and opened the double doors to the ballroom.
Gavin followed his brother in, taking in the scene with a single sweeping glance. Hundreds of people were already inside, gathered along the front of the room where the stage was, their hushed, nervous voices creating a low buzz that filled the air.
Gavin took his VIP to the far side of the room and released him. “This room is locked from the outside. No one gets in without authorization. You’ll stay here until the situation has stabilized. I’ll contact you when we get the all clear.”
The man nodded, looking a little pale. “Got it.”
Gavin met Tris in the center of the room and strode for the double doors. The new security plan called for them to assemble inside the main entrance lobby and help reinforce the interior security barricades if necessary.
He picked out Callum’s red-gold hair instantly as he stood with some of their team at the RV point. Beyond the huge, tinted glass windows along the front of the entrance, he could see the melee. On a shit-scale of one to ten, the situation outside looked about a solid nine.
People were running back and forth in confusion behind the barricades. More tactical officers were deploying. Beyond all that, he could see the mass of people moving up the street toward them all.
In the past twenty minutes, the line of riot cops had been pushed back almost a hundred yards, and the crowd kept growing. At this rate, in under thirty more minutes the cops would be up against the first security perimeter barricades.
If that was breached, Gavin and the rest of his teammates would have to wade into the fray to form a last line of defense and protect everyone inside this building.
“Listen up,” Callum said to them. “We’re going to coordinate with the teams at the internal security barrier and review the contingency plan.” He waved them all forward, nodded at the guards to let them through, and the doors opened.
An instant wall of noise assaulted them. Gavin stayed beside Tristan on the short walk to the internal perimeter barrier, his gaze on the crowd coming up the street and the line of tactical cops blocking their way only a few hundred meters away from Gavin’s team’s current position. He talked to several security contractors, getting up to speed, then stood back as they conferred with Callum and their own team leader.
He kept his attention on the mob coming their way as he waited. And his heart sunk when he saw a stream of people coming through the line of riot cops in the distance.
“Shit.” He hurried over to Callum. “The riot squad line’s been breached in at least one place.”
Callum shook his head. “They’re letting through groups of innocent bystanders mixed into the crowd. Apparently they were evacuated from their hotel and got tangled up. Incendiary device started a fire.”
Foreboding swept through him. Autumn and Carly. “Which hotel?”
Callum named the one they had been evacuated from.
He swore and rushed back to where Tris was monitoring the situation in front of them, dialing her number. “Autumn and Carly’s hotel was evacuated due to a fire. They could be out there.” He nodded at the churning mass coming up the street as he put the phone to his ear.
“Oh, Jesus,” Tris muttered, and quickly moved away to talk to someone.
Autumn’s voicemail picked up. He ended the call and shot her a text, could have sworn he heard his name from somewhere in the crowd. A second or two later, he heard it again.
“Gavin!”
His head jerked up, his gaze snapping toward the direction of the faint voice. He didn’t see anyone he recognized at first, but then through a small gap in the tightly packed crowd between the riot squad and the second security perimeter barriers, he spotted Autumn, arm waving over her head.
Seeing her trapped in the midst of that fleeing mass of innocent people triggered something deep and elemental inside him. He lunged forward without thinking, vaulted the first set of barriers and raced toward her, ignoring the shouts from his team.
He didn’t care if he’d been ordered not to leave his post. Didn’t care that he might get fired. All that mattered was reaching Autumn and Carly and getting them to safety.
The guards posted at the second set of barriers spotted him and moved together as if they were going to try and block him. “ Move ,” he yelled, waving them off before racing past them and vaulting the second barrier.
He crashed straight into the people crowded up against the barricade, twisted and shoved his way through the mass of bodies between him and Autumn. He was barely aware of the elbows and shoulders battering him, his gaze locked on Autumn as she kept disappearing and reappearing in the moving human tide.
Moments later he spotted her again, and the frantic look on her face twisted his guts into knots. By the time he reached her, his chest and back were soaked with sweat, his heart hammering. Without a word he grabbed her, locked his arms around her torso and twisted his body to take the brunt of the impacts as people repeatedly knocked into them.
“Where’s Carly?” he shouted.
“She’s missing.”
He looked at her sharply. Took in the tear tracks on her cheeks, the stark terror and grief in her eyes.
A group of people plowed into them from the left before he could answer her, knocking them sideways. He grunted, barely kept his footing but managed to keep hold of Autumn.
She was saying something to him urgently, but he couldn’t hear her over the combined chaos of the crowd and the roars of the protesters closing in on the cops standing in formation behind them. He did a quick scan around them, couldn’t see Carly anywhere and made a snap decision.
They couldn’t stay here. He needed to get Autumn inside where it was safe and find out what the hell had happened so he could help find Carly.
He spun Autumn around in front of him, applied the same two-handed technique he’d used on his VIP and steered her toward the far edge of the street where the crowd was thinnest. The guards at the external perimeter let them approach, helped him get her over the line of concrete barriers.
“Hurry,” he urged her, propelling her forward. If Carly was lost out here by herself, every moment counted.
He lifted Autumn over the second set of barriers, didn’t stop to look for his brother or the others, and rushed toward the guards manning the front of the hotel, who let them inside. The doors shut behind them, instantly blocking out most of the noise.
He maneuvered her behind a concrete pillar at the right side of the entrance and swung her back around to face him. “What happened?”
“There was a fire,” she gasped out, shaking and pale, that haunted look in her eyes fueling another rush of adrenaline. “I couldn’t get to her. A coworker was supposed to bring her outside, but they got separated. I couldn’t f-find her. I—”
He tapped his earpiece. “Tris, I’m taking Autumn to the ballroom. Get your ass there now. Carly’s missing.”
“On my way,” his twin answered. “Be there in two minutes.”
Gavin glanced back outside, determined they had only a few minutes more than that before the line of riot cops might be breached. He grabbed Autumn’s upper arm, started for the ballroom.
She dug in her heels. “No, I need to—”
“It’s not safe here. If they get past that line of cops, the first barrier will be breached a minute or two after that. I’m taking you to a safe room. You’ll stay there while Tris and I go look for Carly.”
“No, I—”
“You have to stay here so I know you’re safe. You can’t go back out there.” He hurried her down the corridor and up the carpeted steps to the ballroom doors.
Just as he was about to nod at the guards guarding the room to open the doors, Autumn put on the brakes and spun to face him, grabbing the front of his shirt with both hands, hard enough that he heard stitches pop. “You have to find her.”
“I will. Don’t worry.”
She swallowed, staring up at him with fear-drenched eyes. “God, I didn’t want to tell you like this.”
He looked past her at the guards, waved for them to open the ballroom doors. “Tell me what?”
“She’s yours.”
His gaze jerked to hers. He stared at her in silence, his brain taking in that stricken look on her face as it tried to compute the words and what they meant. And when her meaning became clear, everything around them funneled out.
“What?” His voice was low. Deadly.
“I just found out the day we flew here. That’s what I’ve been upset about—”
“What the fuck?” It wasn’t possible. They’d used protection.
She winced, shook her head. “I didn’t know, I swear, but it’s true—”
“Hey,” Tris called from behind them.
Gavin glanced over his shoulder, reeling, struggling to accept what he’d just been told. He found his voice. “Carly’s still out there somewhere. They got separated outside their hotel.”
Tris’s gaze shot to Autumn, his expression taut. “Where was the last place someone saw her?”
“Exiting the front of the hotel.” She looked up at Gavin.
He jerked her hands from his shirt, turned her by the shoulders and gave her a push toward the guards at the door. “Go. Go ,” he repeated when she opened her mouth to argue. “I’ll find her.”
He couldn’t look at her, couldn’t think straight right now, but there was a completely new level of urgency and fear spreading through his gut as he faced his twin while removing his weapon holster. Carrying it into the mess outside was just asking for trouble. He had to leave it behind.
Tris mirrored his actions.
Carly was out there alone, and they had to get to her. Nothing else mattered. “Ready?”
“Yeah.”
Without a word he left Autumn standing there and took off running back down the stairs with Tris hard on his heels.