Chapter 23
SHAWN
My muscles refused to respond. They’d solidified into stone when the hood had descended over Kara’s head. My brewery was burning. At least one of my employees was dead. I had nothing, no control. I was fucking powerless as the men dragged Kara stumbling away.
The nothingness receded. Blinding anger and fury flooded into the empty space where I welcomed it, using it to force myself back into action.
I bolted to Jason, who’d already drawn the Glock pistol usually concealed inside his suit. His hardened expression didn’t change when it focused on me. The years of law enforcement training must have kicked in, and he came to his feet, his gaze assessing the lawn for any potential threat.
“Are you going to just stand there?” I lashed out in German. Every second Kara was out of my sight . . .
My brother’s gaze found Markus. “Take L and get out of the city,” he ordered then slammed his mouth against his wife’s in a hurried kiss.
“Ich liebe dich,” she said. “Go!”
And finally, my brother strode toward the burning trucks and the hole between them that the gunman had dragged Kara through. He didn’t say a damn thing when I kept up with him step for step. There wasn’t time for it, anyway—
A rough, strong hand grabbed at the center of my shirt and yanked me to a stop. “This could be a fucking trap,” he barked. “Stay behind me.”
He released me with a shove that was so hard it almost sat me down in the grass, but I kept my footing. Because it was dangerous going through the opening. He leveled his gun at the center and stalked toward it, vanishing in the smoke.
No gunfire sounded.
“Clear,” he shouted.
It was blisteringly hot, and the smell of burning rubber choked me.
The air was so thick I felt like I had to fight against it to move forward.
There was no point keeping my eyes open.
They were burning, and it was pitch black in the fog.
I covered my mouth with a hand to quiet the desperate urge to cough, ducked my head, and barreled through.
I came out the other side, my eyes watering and searching wildly for my brother.
There was a blur of movement heading for the parking lot. My brother’s plan was to get to his BMW as fast as possible, and I was going to have to fucking hurry or else I’d be left behind. Pavement gritted under my shoes as I skidded to a stop at the passenger door and jumped in.
Tires squealed as we flew backward out of the space and then launched forward, tearing for the main gate.
Up in the distance, two pairs of taillights streaked past the security booth. No one stopped them. The gate was wide open. One pair of lights swung right, quickly followed by the other as the gunmen left the brewery and sped off.
“Fucking drive!” I yelled over the roaring engine.
The SUV wasn’t as fast as my Audi. I wanted to lean over and slam my foot on top of his, but I suspected the pedal was already down as far as it would go. The taillights grew smaller as we neared the gate.
There was blood splattered on the open door to the small security station and a leg sticking out, as if the employee manning it had fallen. My gaze snapped back out the windshield, needing to focus on the pair of cars ahead. One of them had Kara in it.
The two cars reached the main road and turned left, speeding off and disappearing behind the line of trees.
“Shit! Shit!” Jason abruptly yelled, reverting to English as he slammed on the brakes.
He had no choice. Gray and green cars were flooding down the road toward them, their blue lights circling overhead. Bavarian State Police.
Two of the squad cars slid to a stop at an angle near the exit from the main road, barricading it as several more cars bore down on us.
My brother’s expression was sheer determination as he shifted into reverse and stomped on the accelerator.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I demanded. Why was he running from the police when they could help?
“I can pull the plates from the security cameras at Gate One, and they can get an alert out. We’ve got to get them before they dump the cars.”
The BMW jerked to a halt beside the security booth we’d passed trying to leave, and he threw it into park as I flung open my door and climbed out, both of us racing for it. The fire brigade’s siren wailed off in the distance and competed with the much louder sirens of the approaching police cars.
The dead man was face-up, a startled expression frozen on his face and blood pooled beneath him. It was another horrifying thing to add to tonight. On the hill, my brewery was a bright flame of orange, glowing light.
Kara.
Jason had no outward reaction to the body. He pulled a pen from his suit pocket, stepped carefully over the man strewn across the ground, and used the pen to enter a keystroke into the computer system, trying not to touch anything.
Tires screeched to a halt outside the booth, immediately followed by shouts for us to come out with our hands up.
“I’m the CEO,” I said, stepping out and raising my arms, “and he’s the head of security. A woman was abducted.”
“I have images of the vehicles.” Jason exited the booth, his attention squarely on the officer closest to him.
He explained the situation efficiently and professionally, and even though he wasn’t German police, perhaps there was something familiar in the authority of his voice that the officers recognized.
Sixty seconds later, one of them was radioing in the plate numbers.
While it was being done, Jason’s dark eyes locked on me.
“What’s going to happen to her,” I asked, “when they realize she’s not who she says she is?”
The expression on my brother’s face was one I hadn’t seen before and didn’t understand. Guilt? Fear?
It created a worry so great, it blotted everything else out.