Chapter 32
SHAWN
We sat in Jason’s hotel room, going over satellite images into the dead of night, L asleep on top of the covers of the nearby bed.
We’d seen a figure leave the house and return a few hours later, nothing more than a grainy dot on the images, but another good sign.
Even if Kara wasn’t in the house, someone was.
Someone we could question when we stormed the place tomorrow.
Jason and Ethan refused to move until the video call was over. Ethan was convinced this was a trap. “More information,” he said, “equals better operation.”
Like his trite saying was supposed to comfort me.
“We need to get some sleep,” Jason said, looking as exhausted as I felt. “If you’re coming with us tomorrow, you need to do this. You can barely stand.”
I didn’t take orders, but I’d let my brother believe I would tonight. I nodded and shuffled to my hotel room across the hall, shutting the door behind me.
The cold water I splashed on my face helped a little with my exhaustion. I’d give it ten minutes before I went downstairs, slipped behind the wheel of my Audi, and drove to the house myself.
No, ten minutes was too long. Who knew what could happen to her in those ten minutes? Five minutes. Five minutes was better.
I paced a circle in the tiny room. If I sat, I’d feel the urge to lie down, and if I did that, I’d be done for. I hadn’t really slept since the bombs went off, so only my worry and anger were keeping me going.
I checked the peephole on my hotel door and saw the hallway was clear, but when I opened the door, a huge rock of a man fell into the room. My brother had been sitting on the floor with his back against the door, guarding it.
He hauled himself up and glared at me. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
“Get out of my way.” He knew exactly where I was going. “I can’t wait here.”
“You can, and you will.”
My brother’s broad shoulders were square to me, his stance wide and ready for a fight, a scowl on his face.
He’d perfected the dark, authoritative look our mother gave, even when he’d been living in America for most of his life.
I was taller, but it was the only advantage I held over my younger brother.
He was bigger, faster, and better at physical confrontation.
But I was coming apart; couldn’t he see that? He reached out, latching a hand on the back of my neck so he could pull his face close.
“Because of him, I almost lost the woman I love. I am not going to lose my brother to him. Get the fuck back in your room, or I’ll put you there.”
The intense look in the dark brown eyes said he would do it. This was the logical, smart thing to do, but that part of me died when the first picture of Kara had appeared on my phone. Mine, Juric had said.
No, Kara wasn’t his. No one owned her.
I blinked my bleary eyes at Jason.
“I’d like to stay with my wife tonight.” He released his hold and stepped back. “Can I trust you to stay put?”
“Yes,” I lied.
His eyes narrowed. “Okay. I’ll sleep in the hall.”
Two of Ethan’s men arrived in the morning with black duffel bags of supplies. Guns, tear gas, bulletproof vests. My last stop before leaving Munich had been to the bank. Jason had told me to get all the cash I could get my hands on without raising suspicion.
I couldn’t tell who these men worked for. Fletcher wasn’t CIA because he was British. Tony sounded American, but he operated differently than Ethan. He wasn’t into the details and seemed excited about the raid, like maybe he was an adrenaline junkie. Was he a mercenary?
Both men took my money without hesitation.
The wait took forever and the clock was a fucking liar. Twenty minutes took an hour and a half. At five minutes to nine, L went into the hotel room Jason and I had stripped to look as generic as possible. We didn’t want Juric to have the slightest idea we were in Trier and potentially close.
Her kiss to Jason had been ferocious, her hands clasped on top of his that rested on her belly.
All of us men stood in my room, huddled around my laptop since it had the largest screen. We waited in total silence, tense. The computer in L’s room was mirrored here, the application running full screen. In the corner, the small box showed L waiting, her face blank.
Whatever emotions she was feeling, she’d shoved them down so her expression was controlled and maintained.
A dialogue box popped up on the screen, announcing a guest wanted to join the call. L’s shoulders rose as she took a deep breath, then the cursor slid over to click “Accept.”
I had expected it to be Juric. It wasn’t.
L put a hand over her mouth to stifle a cry.
I’d never had so many emotions at once. Overwhelming relief at seeing her. Concern for her wellbeing. Fury at the man who’d put her in that state.
Kara’s eyes were dark and sunken like she was exhausted, her skin pale.
There was the bruise on the left side of her face.
Faint scratches on her arms led down to the ugly red marks on her wrists.
Chaffing from the handcuffs she was wearing.
She sat on a couch, dressed in black pants and a simple gray shirt that matched her weary eyes.
Despite all this, I could see she wasn’t broken.
Far from it. She had fight and fire beneath her whipped facade.
“Hey,” Kara said as soon as she saw her sister’s reaction. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”
“Oh, God,” L choked out.
“What about you?” Kara asked. “Is everything okay with you?”
I knew what she was asking, that she meant the baby. They’d positioned the camera angled up on L and had her seated, so it wasn’t obvious she was pregnant.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” L’s voice went cold. “Where is he?”
“I’m here,” Juric said, coming into frame.
He sat beside Kara on the couch, right beside her, and I wanted to reach through the screen and rip out his fucking throat. For putting his hands on Kara. For everything he’d put my brother and sister-in-law through. For what had happened to my company.
His ugly blue eyes needed to shut forever.
“Motherfucker.” Jason’s posture stiffened, like his entire body had seized with rage.
“You look different than the last time I saw you.” L’s voice was emotionless, as Jason had explained was best. Her ability to keep herself controlled was impressive, given her overwhelming hatred for the man sitting beside her sister.
“Yeah. You do, too,” Juric said casually.
“Please don’t hurt her.”
“I’m not going to.”
She didn’t look like she trusted that for a fraction of a second. “What do you want? What can I do to get you to let her go?”
“Stand up.”
She hesitated. “You want me to stand up?”
“Yes.” The bastard was annoyed that he had to repeat himself. “Pick up the camera and show me there’s no one else in the room.”
She scooped up the laptop, and the camera went on a chaotic journey around the room. She did so good hiding it until she returned to her chair, and her belly was visible as she sat.
“No,” Jason gasped.
What was Juric going to do when he realized? Would he take it out on Kara?
“Satisfied?” L asked, her voice flat.
He didn’t answer right away, but otherwise there was no reaction. “I am.”
“Tell me what you want. To work out a trade?”
Ethan put a hand on Jason’s shoulder and kept him in place. He’d been none too pleased with his wife’s suggestion, even if it were a lie.
But Juric smiled and shook his head. “You don’t have anything I want.”
“I . . . don’t understand.” There was a tremor in her voice.
“I was going to make you and the marshal suffer and then kill you for what you’ve done to me.”
Kara’s eyes went wide, and her chest rose and fell with her rapid breathing.
“I thought I couldn’t let you live, even if I wanted to,” he continued. “But now I have Kara. I won’t hurt her. I’ll keep her safe, and in return,” he said it like he was making a huge concession, “I’ll let you and the marshal go.”
Staying emotionless wasn’t possible for her anymore. Her face twisted with horror. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“She belongs to me. If you try to come between us, I’ll kill you.”
“No,” Kara gasped.
“Yes,” he said, turning to her. “Yes.”
“You can’t have her.” L’s expression went dark with fury. “She’s not yours. She’s—”
“Shawn Dunn’s?” The cold, blue eyes snapped back to the camera. “Yeah, she told me all about him in the shower.”
Kara’s face flushed bright red and her handcuffed hands flew up to cradle her face. “He drugged me, but nothing happened.”
Juric smirked. “Liar.”
I couldn’t get to the door. There were hands stopping me, some on my arms, and others on the back of my shirt, strangling me as I fought against their hold. Someone muttered for me to be quiet as Jason pleaded for me to stay calm.
L’s voice echoed through the speakers of the laptop. “Ryan, please. I’ll do whatever you want.”
“You fed me to the CIA.” Anger made his voice rise in pitch and volume. “You don’t want me, and I don’t fucking want you.”
His face took a horrifying dark cast, revealing the monster he was, and true fear swept through me like a river of ice. This monster had Kara. He wanted to keep her. And, Schei?e, if our plan failed, we might lose her forever.
I wasn’t mentally prepared to handle that idea, and suddenly all the air vanished from the room.
You will not let that happen, I promised myself. You will do fucking anything to get her back.
The anger in Juric began to fade. “We go our separate ways,” he said, calmer. “If anyone comes after us? I’ll have to kill her, and no one wants that. Do you understand?”
L didn’t say anything. She just stared and stared at the camera.
“Answer me, Laurel,” he ordered. “Otherwise, you won’t get to say goodbye.”
Her eyes filled with dread, and it was heartbreaking. “I . . . understand.”
“You’ve got one minute.” He stood and disappeared from the screen—