Chapter 31
“On to logistics,” Lucas announced. “You, Duke, Yates, and Terry take Peyton to the eagle’s nest. I’m taking Constance and Jordy with me to convince the three stooges to talk.”
I nodded, wanting to question them myself, but I knew staying by Peyton’s side was infinitely important. “I want Pete on protection as well.”
Lucas scratched the back of his neck. “I don’t know.”
“I do. He needs it, and I need him.”
“Okay. It’s your team. Call me when you reach the nest.”
“I’ll need the location,” I reminded him.
“Follow Yates.”
Before we’d reentered the house, Lucas had decided the eagle’s nest was the code name for the new safehouse location. And he’d only discussed it with Yates, of all people.
Lucas was paranoid that the bad guys could have planted bugs in my house, and we couldn’t afford a security lapse. The Strangler had taken us by surprise with this direct attack, and we wouldn’t underestimate him again.
I drew my weapon when the front door creaked open.
Terry, who’d been out front, escorted Detective O’Connor inside.
O’Connor’s eyes widened. “What the hell happened here?”
Lucas pointed at the hole in the wall. “Your Strangler hired some local thugs to break in and try to snatch Leighton.”
His mouth dropped open. “Try?”
Terry left to return to his station out front.
Lucas nodded toward the other room. “She’s fine.”
“Good. I need to talk to her.”
“Not now,” I said. “She’s been through a lot.”
“It’s obviously too dangerous in this city. I can put her under police protection back in Boston.” O’Connor started that way.
I blocked his path. “No. She’s staying here, under our protection.”
“She’s an important witness, and you don’t seem to be doing a very good job of keeping her safe.”
Lucas grabbed my arm before I could decide whether I wanted to slug him or not. “She’s more than a witness to us.” He took the words right out of my mouth. “We’re relocating her to a more secure location.”
“Where?” O’Connor demanded. In his city, he was probably used to getting what he wanted, but his demand didn’t mean squat here.
“More secure,” I answered. This dipshit only saw her as a useful tool, a witness to help his career.
“I need to interview her again, so when you get her situated, contact me so I can finish up. Then I’ll be out of your hair.”
I nodded, meaning only to acknowledge his request. I liked the idea of having him going back to Boston and leaving Peyton alone.
“He’s not happy,” Lucas noted when O’Connor turned around and left.
I shrugged. “Tough shit. If he’d done his job and caught the Strangler before this, he wouldn’t have to put up with us.”
Lucas nodded, and we joined the others.
“How’s the headache?” Lucas asked Jordy and Pete.
He stretched his shoulders and winced. “It’s improving, but it’s still there.”
Pete shrugged and answered like the tough guy he was. “No issue, boss.” For a SEAL, pain was merely part of the job, just like our motto, The only easy day was yesterday.
“Do we know what it was?” Terry asked.
Lucas shook his head. “Some unknown incapacitating gas. Winston has the bottle and will get it analyzed. Now, time to move out. Jordy, I don’t want to underestimate this guy again, so let’s get a drone in the air.”
“Sure,” Jordy agreed. “But I don’t have a lot of battery left on the one in the car.”
“Maybe Rob can help,” Yates offered.
“No, I got it,” Jordy said quickly.
Duke raised a brow, and I felt the same way.
“Then you guys get moving,” Lucas said. “I don’t want to give this guy any more time to track us.”
“Where to?” Terry asked.
“Maintain OPSEC. Follow Yates.”
Terry’s face fell. “Copy that.” He didn’t like being left out of the loop. None of us did, but he knew better than to question Lucas’s directive.
I pointed at the big SEAL. “Duke, you’re with me, Terry, and Peyton.” I wanted all the firepower I could get in my car.
“I call shotgun,” Duke replied.
But Terry’s face changed completely when Yates threw him a key fob. “You follow in my car. I’m riding with Zane.”
“The Aston?” Yates had arrived in a literal James Bond car, an Aston Martin Vanquish, one of the few cars that could keep up with our Porsche Cayennes.
I doubted it had any of the armor Joe had added to ours, but the Cayennes also didn’t cost as much as a house, and weren’t decked out in butter-soft leather, or a V-12 that sang like an angel.
I drove away from the house with Yates, Peyton in the back and Duke up front, and then stated the obvious. “Now I’m going to need an address.”
“First stop, One Century Drive,” Yates said.
“Stopping is not a good idea,” Duke pointed out. “We should go straight to the safehouse.”
Yates stood his ground. “Trust me, cousin. I know what I’m doing.” Mentioning the blood connection was probably the only reason Duke didn’t continue to fight him.
“Any signs of a tail?” I asked Jordy over the phone as we approached our destination.
“Nothing obvious, but there are a few possibles quite far back.”
It wasn’t surprising since I’d driven a straight line here on a major road.
“We’ll be making a right at Avenue of the Stars. Keep me informed.”
“Roger that.”
Yates spoke quietly into his phone. “We’ll be there shortly.”
A few minutes later, we rolled up to the entrance of the huge condo tower. None of the possible tails had followed our turn. One Century Drive was the address of the prestigious Century building, a full thirty-four floors of elegance.
Duke and I were the first ones out of the car, searching for anything out of place. When all appeared clear, I opened Peyton’s door for her.
Duke opened Yates’s door.
Yates spent a moment with the doorman and valet. “Hand over your key. They’ll park for us. I wouldn’t be worried about being followed after we switch vehicles.”
Inside, Duke grumbled when Yates hit the button for the top floor instead of a garage level.
We exited onto the roof to find a waiting helicopter, its rotor already spinning.
Yates opened his arm to the shiny Sikorsky S-76 with the name Sinclair painted on it. “They won’t be following us in this.”
Duke stopped his grumbling. “You own a helicopter?”
“My company does,” he answered.
“Wow,” Peyton exclaimed after we lifted off. “The view is amazing.”
Yates looked very pleased with himself.
“Not bad,” Terry agreed.
Duke nodded.
Unlike the military choppers we’d all ridden in, the cabin was quiet enough not to need headsets to talk.
My phone rang, and the image on the screen was a problem.
“What happened to your house?” Mom practically screamed across the airwaves.
“We had a problem,” I explained. “The people who are after Peyton attacked.”
“Is she all right?”
“Peyton is safe. We’re moving her right now.”
“There’s a hole in the wall, and shit everywhere. This is going to take forever to clean up.”
“I know, Mom.” Now I was the one with a problem. “You can’t stay at the house. It’s too dangerous.”
Peyton smirked, probably able to hear what Mom was saying.
“I have a seminar tomorrow, and the drive is too long from home,” she complained.
“I said it’s dangerous, Mom. The house is not an option.”
Yates tapped me on the shoulder. “I can put her up at the Century.”
“Do you have any idea how long it takes me to drive?” Mom asked. “And the last motel the department put me up in had bedbugs.”
“Tell her to go to the Century and ask for David, the concierge,” Yates insisted.
“Mom,” I cut her off mid-complaint. “I have a solution for you. Drive to One Century Drive. It’s a large tower. Ask for David, and he’ll set you up.”
“I don’t know,” she hedged.
Yates held out his hand to take the phone, and I handed it over.
Terry rolled his eyes.
Duke was focused out the window.
“Mrs. March, my name is Yates Sinclair. Listen to me carefully… Ask for David at the concierge desk. He will take you to my unit. You can use a spare bedroom for as many nights as you need. Now, I need to go. We’re about to land.” He handed me the phone back.
“Mom, I trust him. Do as he said. Go to the Century Tower,” I said.
“You’re flying?”
“Mom, just go there. Love you. Gotta go.” I clicked off the call as we settled onto the helipad atop another tall building near downtown.
“Welcome to the Sapphire,” Yates said.
Ever the pessimist today, Duke complained, “A freaking hotel is not a safehouse.”
Yates seemed to take the comment as a personal attack and did a good approximation of Lucas’s death stare.
“All of the last three presidents have stayed in the Presidential Suite here. It is the most secure place in the city. That’s where we will be.
” He opened the door and stepped out. It was much noisier outside.
I urged Peyton to the door, leaving no question that we were staying here whether Duke liked it or not.
“I guess it’s worth a look,” Duke grumbled.
Terry decided to poke the bear. “You’re just afraid of heights.”
“Fuck you,” Duke retorted.
“Why are you in such a cheery mood?” Terry asked while we waited for the elevator.
“I almost lost my baby brother today. Okay?”
“Yeah, that sucks,” Terry agreed.
The rest of us were quiet.
Once we’d reached the Presidential Suite, even Duke had to admit that the steel doors with keypad security were solid.
Yates pointed to the door. “There is no direct access to this suite. The only way in is to pass through that outer room where the Secret Service sets up. There are two levels of locked, bombproof doors with different combinations.”
Duke nodded. “What if they rappel down from the roof?”
“The glass is bulletproof,” Yates explained.
Peyton
While the guys discussed security measures, I wandered the expansive space. It was hard to comprehend that I was in any suite of this hotel, much less the Presidential Suite, fifty floors up with these views.
When I looked back at Zane, I couldn’t believe how lucky I gotten to have met such a man, a man whose mere presence could make me feel safe after all that had happened. The confidence he exuded was contagious.