20. Lee
20
LEE
“ I count at least five guards patrolling,” Harris whispered, peering through a pair of high-powered binoculars. “Their pattern is set and easy to discern. I’d bet they’re hired thugs with no specialized training or particular loyalty to their boss.”
I peered through the scarred and pitted spotting scope Chance had brought with him, the same scope I brought home when I left the Rangers. One of the few items that had survived the pipe bomb. Lying on my stomach, I scanned the sprawling mansion in the valley below, thirty miles from where I’d woken up by myself after the jump. I’d spent the last sixteen hours imagining Katrin or her men hurting Viktoria. In my blackest moments, I’d pictured myself finding her dead. I’d almost said, “fuck it” and charged after her myself. Waiting for my brother’s flights, then twiddling my thumbs while Chance met with his SEAL buddy, and then spending what felt like an eternity casing the property had worn me raw.
“I agree,” Chance said, from his prone spot beside me. “Their body language shows they’re relying on their guns to stop any threat.”
Full darkness had descended half an hour ago, making it harder for me to see, but I roved the spotting scope over the guards as we trudged along the back of the property. Judging by the way they held their machine guns and rifles, I agreed with my brothers’ assessments.
Fitting the brand new, state-of-the-art comm device into my ear, I turned it on. “Testing.”
Brady, Chance’s SEAL pal, had come through with the goods on almost no notice, but gear this good came with a price. Between Chance, Harris, Brady, and me, we had what we needed to infiltrate the mansion, grab Viktoria, and rendezvous with Brady—comm devices, weapons (including tranq guns, since no one wanted to end up with murder charges), ammunition, and body armor. In return, Brady had insisted on participating in the mission. He understood my need to keep my promise, but I wasn’t going to let Chance risk his neck without me. I appreciated the man had skills, but at the moment, I only trusted my brothers, so we’d compromised. Brady would handle the transportation—getting us in and out—plus monitoring the police frequencies and running backup if needed.
Harris, Chance, and Brady each confirmed their comms were working.
“Let’s do this.” I rose to a crouch and pulled the tranq gun from its side holster. Dressed all in black, me and my brothers hustled down the hillside and slipped through the split-rail fence encircling the property. Not once had we seen a window light up on this side of the house, so we’d chosen this as our entry point. I hoped our luck held out, and we didn’t find ourselves lit up like Christmas trees.
We zigzagged our way across the lawn, using the elegant landscaping to dodge and duck the guards, shadowing ourselves behind fountains, hedges, and whispering willows. I knelt by the deck between the pool and the house. Harris and Chance filed in behind me.
We crept along the deck, silent, single-file. I poked my head up, and?—
“Down,” Chance hissed. I ducked back down, flat to the deck. A guard strolled by, lazy and inattentive, along the other side of the pool, then back up the lawn again and out of sight.
I rose and hurried along the back wall until I reached a dark room with no one inside. Big French doors opened onto the deck. I holstered my gun and whipped out my lockpicks. The flimsy single bolt took me no time to crack. My brothers flanked me, watching for guards. I oiled the door’s hinges and eased it open, then slipped into the dark room, which turned out to be a library. Harris and Chance crossed the threshold and closed the door behind them.
Moving to the back of the couch to stay out of the guards’ line of sight, I pulled out my phone. Well, Harris’s phone. The cheap burner I had bought didn’t have the bandwidth to handle the app that would give me a detailed reading on Viktoria’s GPS tracker, but Harris’s was up for the job, so we’d swapped. I strained to see the display, dimmed to its lowest level to keep from alerting the guards. A red dot blinked on the detailed map. It would’ve been cool if it’d showed the house’s floor plan, but it didn’t, so I had to make do with extrapolating whether I was getting hot or cold based on my coordinates in relation to the red dot.
“That way,” I whispered, nodding left as I palmed my tranq gun.
A large black shape tromped into the library, freezing me and my brothers in place. The guard jolted as if startled, then dropped in a noisy heap. Chance lowered his tranq gun, and Harris vaulted over the couch to hide the guard behind the door.
Hustling down the brightly lit hallway, I stopped when we reached another room. “She’s in here. Or her tracker is.” My instincts said the door wouldn’t be unlocked if Viktoria was inside. Or if she was, I’d find her not breathing. But when I tried the handle, it turned with ease.
Using the stacking technique—a single file line with each person breaking off in a left, right direction as we entered—we streamed into a windowless bedroom. A panic room, apparently—though it looked as if some changes had recently been made. The locks from the inside had been disabled, and a new deadbolt had been added to the outside of the door. Instead of a safe room, it had been transformed into a prison. A beautiful cell.
The red dot continued blinking, but Viktoria wasn’t there. I found the necklace and what was left of her dress piled on the floor near the bed.
“Crap.” I held the necklace up.
Harris knelt beside me. “Judging by all the security, she’s still in the house.”
“We’ll find her,” Chance said, and he clapped my back.
In what condition? I bit back the question. Please, God, let her be alive.
Click-clacking heels clipped smartly on the hardwood flooring in the hallway.
I stuffed the phone away and crowded against the mattress with my brothers, rising just enough to peer at the doorway. The footsteps didn’t slow as the unidentified woman passed by.
“Split up,” Chance instructed as he rose.
“I’m following her.” I crept out of the room in the same direction as the woman.
Harris and Chance turned left, in the opposite direction.
Keeping the tranq gun at the ready, I followed the sounds of the woman’s heels. I couldn’t be sure, but from the brief glimpse I’d caught of her face, I thought I recognized Aleta, Viktoria’s assistant, from the security file Boom had given me. It would make sense if she was involved. She’d already been feeding Viktoria’s location to Katrin. I had hoped the woman was being used, but that apparently wasn’t the case, if she was roaming here freely.
A shadow stretched across the hallway, from the corner up ahead. I jumped into the closest room and pressed my back to the wall. Edging out for a peek, I found Aleta talking in rapid Icelandic to a huge, hulking man. Her hands slashed the air, then one connected with the man’s face. His skin flushed red, and he looked ready to kill her, but instead, he pushed her to the side and stomped up the hallway.
I waited until the man disappeared from sight. “Harris, Chance,” I whispered, “one guard headed your way, and he’s pissed.”
“I found a couple in their forties in the theater room,” Harris replied grimly. “Their throats are slashed. I’m assuming they’re the rightful owners of this home.”
Well, that answered that question. I had wondered how Katrin had established a secure location so close to the crash site when she couldn’t have known exactly where the plane would go down or whether Viktoria would survive the crash.
“We’ll add murder to the list when we notify the police,” Chance chimed in. “I’ve downed two guards.”
“I took care of the one in here,” Harris responded.
I sprang into the hallway, adrenaline flooding my veins. I had to find Viktoria. If Katrin had murdered this couple in cold blood for her own convenience, what would she do to a woman she seemed to have a serious grudge against?
Aleta’s heels clicked on down the hall. I used the sound to track her like a puma with a deer, hoping to be taken to the rest of the herd?—
Katrin’s laugh rang out, just up ahead. I flowed toward her, silent as a shadow. I spotted a door with a line of light visible beneath it and cracked it open an inch. I peered into the room and found Katrin seated at the head of an oversized dining table. Aleta plopped into a seat to her right, but I only had eyes for the woman on her left.
Viktoria . The breath left my lungs.
She was dressed down in a T-shirt and baggy sweatpants. I could only assume Katrin was trying to insult her with the cheap, no-name clothing, but Viktoria had pulled off Cookie Bird. This was nothing.
Katrin lifted a glass half-full of red wine. “I’ve been thinking about your caveman, Viktoria.” She took a sip. “He’s not much of a bodyguard, but he’s gorgeous and so…raw. Uninhibited. It’s intriguing. Once I bump you off, I might hire him myself. Not to protect me. Only for fun.”
Gross. The gun squeaked in my tightening grip. The callous way she spoke about killing Viktoria had my blood boiling. “Harris, Chance, I’ve found her. Meet me in the east hall.”
“You don’t mind, do you?” Katrin sipped more wine.
“Lee wouldn’t touch you if you were the last woman on Earth,” Viktoria snapped, pushing her plate away. “He’s got far too much class and intelligence to want anything you have to offer. Sorry to break it to you, but he’s out of your league. He’s kind and he’s noble, and you’re nothing but trash.”
“I like your woman,” Chance whispered, easing to a stop beside me.
Katrin drained her glass, her expression souring. “Lock her back in her room. I’m done being hospitable. And get her father on the phone. His deadline to answer me has just moved up.”
Crap . If they returned her to the bedroom, I would be screwed. That room only had one exit, which would make it much more difficult to get her out. That meant I had a choice: make my move now or wait and hope for another opportunity. Who was I kidding? I wasn’t waiting.
“We take her now,” I announced, backing away from the door. I flattened my back to the wall. Chance crouched behind a decorative table.
“I got held up by roaming guards,” Harris said through my earpiece. “Be there in a second.”
The door swung open, and I froze. A man with a shoulder harness tromped through first, followed by Viktoria, then a man in an olive-green T-shirt brought up the rear. I waited for the door to swing shut, then I fired. The tranq burrowed into Olive Green’s back.
A second shot fired almost simultaneously, and Shoulder Harness dropped to the floor as well.
Viktoria whirled, eyes wild with panic, then they lit up when they landed on me. “Lee!” she gasped, and threw herself at me.
I caught her easily. She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me so hard, I forgot my name for a second.
“Come on,” Chance barked, grabbing my bicep. “We gotta move it. Those shots weren’t silent.”
Grabbing Viktoria’s hand, I pulled her toward the hallway. Guards ran toward us from both directions. Damn it. I had to find her a safe place before I could take care of the threat. Yanking her into the first room I came to, I found myself back in the library.
Gunfire erupted, echoing through the house. The war zone rattle of machine guns drowned out the precision cracks of the tranq guns.
Thugs raced into the room. Two dropped like stones, thanks to Chance and Harris. The lights blazed to life, and I ushered Viktoria behind a sturdy wet bar.
Chance flanked the other side of the bar, covering my back.
I shoved my backup tranq gun into Viktoria’s hand. “Just like before. It’s a last resort. Do not do anything that draws their fire.”
She gripped it like a professional. “I’m descended from Vikings. I think I’ve already proven I can handle myself.”
“I’ll say it again—” Chance chuckled. “—I really like her.”
Guards continued to pour in, and I continued to aim for them. The ones I couldn’t pick off hid behind furniture and sprayed the room with live ammo. Chance and I managed to keep them from overtaking our position. Katrin slunk in behind Aleta, who dropped like a stone at my speedy tranq shot, but I didn’t have a shot at Katrin. Harris stole in next, but he had to dodge behind a chair to keep from getting hit.
The sounds of guns reloading and emptying into the room made my ears ring. I nailed two guards creeping toward the bar.
“Cover me,” I ordered.
Harris and Chance opened fire. I raced to the back of the couch and lined Katrin in my sights. She yanked one of the guards in front of her and used the man as a shield while she moved back into a better protected spot. I tranq’d the man in the neck, just as Katrin dove for the recliner.
I whirled at a sudden thud and found Viktoria had taken out the man creeping up on me from behind.
At last, the gunfire died down and only our breathing remained. We’d taken out all the guards.
“Give it up, Katrin,” I shouted. “You’re outnumbered and outgunned.”
Viktoria stormed from behind the bar, her eyes blazing and her expression full of death.
I lurched to my feet to stop her, but before I could take a step, Katrin ripped a rapier off the display on the wall and lashed out at Viktoria.
I fired, but my gun locked open. Out of ammunition.
Viktoria jumped out of the way.
“Harris! Chance!” I snapped.
“I don’t have a clean shot,” Harris answered, moving around in an attempt to find an opening.
“Me neither,” Chance replied, standing near the bar.
“She’s mine,” Viktoria barked, running. She yanked the other rapier from the display and met Katrin’s next thrust with an elegant parry.
The swords clashed, metal sparking on metal.
“No one ends her but me,” Viktoria snarled. Katrin wailed like a banshee, face contorted with fury.
Fencing—they were fencing. I couldn’t believe it. I’d once threatened to hide behind Viktoria in a sword fight. Let her protect me for once. I’d never expected that fantasy to become reality.
The two went at it, shouting, swords flying. I struggled to follow their swift thrusts and parries, their running footsteps, their dodges and blocks. Viktoria’s hair flew around her like the Valkyrie in the movie poster as she displayed a breathtaking balance between beauty and lethal skill.
Goddamn, this woman could not be any more perfect if she tried.
In seconds, Viktoria was dominating the fight, forcing Katrin to defend herself against a blinding onslaught. They danced around the library, climbing over furniture and destroying whatever got in their way.
“Damn, Lee,” Harris breathed, awe on his face. “I like your woman, too.”
She wasn’t my woman, but I couldn’t speak at the moment to correct the assumption.
Viktoria jumped over a downed end table and slashed, striking both Katrin’s unprotected calves.
Katrin screamed and fell, clutching her bleeding legs.
Viktoria marched across the room until she stood before me. Stabbing the rapier into an oversized chair’s cushion, she stood, chest heaving, fire in her eyes. “You and I need to talk. But first…” She grabbed my face and claimed my mouth in another savage kiss.
My mind reeled. My head spun with questions, but at the same time my heart swelled with so much love I wanted to haul her off like the heathen she’d accused me of being.
She nipped my bottom lip. “You’re going to listen to me, you stubborn?—”
Harris shouted, and Chance lunged forward.
As if in slow motion, I watched Katrin roll on her back. She snatched a gun from a guard’s belt and I wrapped my arms around Viktoria, pivoting and covering as much of her as possible.
Multiple gunshots filled the room, and I bowed at the sledgehammer nailing my back. I fell to the floor like a rock.