Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“We got a hit on our assassin. Anthony Lamond,” Jessica announced when Liam and Emily rejoined the team twenty minutes later. “He arrived at the Dulles airport the same day our team rescued Elaina.”
“Who is he?” Liam asked as Jessica broadcasted her screen onto the opposite wall, showcasing two men. She also had Jared and Don on Skype so they could see her screen.
Emily zeroed in on the man on the right, the same man whose blood had soaked her floor.
“He’s the guy I killed.” She pointed to the screen as she sat, and Liam joined her and reached beneath the table, locking their hands together.
“Anthony was Italian Special Forces before he went AWOL seven years ago. He has a brother. Mickey Lamond. They’re both on Interpol’s wanted list for the abduction and ransom of three high-ranking officials, as well as four assassinations.
” Jessica zoomed in on Mickey. “I think they took the job together.”
“Any CCTV footage get a hit on Anthony’s brother, Mickey, being in town?” Liam asked.
“No, but that doesn’t mean he’s not in D.C.,” she answered.
“The brothers always work together. They probably travel separately under aliases to avoid detection,” Harper noted. “Mickey would be pissed his brother died, which is why he wanted Emily delivered along with Elaina.”
“So, it’s gotta be him, right? Mickey has Becky,” Don said over the line, anger piercing his tone.
Don looked horrible. The stress lines on his forehead had tripled. Bags beneath his green eyes. She couldn’t begin to imagine what he was going through. She even forgave him for holding a gun to her head and trying to take her. Love could make a person do crazy things, she supposed.
“Mickey’s our best bet right now,” Jessica said. “If it’s him who has Becky, when we text him at the agreed upon time I’ll try and ping his phone to get a location.”
“You can’t do that now?” Emily asked.
“He must’ve removed the battery from his phone to remain off the networks,” she answered. “But when Don sends him the video of Elaina as evidence he has her, it should give us enough time to pinpoint his position.”
“And if that doesn’t work?” Don asked.
“We have a few ideas,” Jessica said.
“We’ve been scouring through all the CCTV footage around Emily’s apartment to trace Anthony’s prior steps, plus examining the cameras near Dryden’s place,” Harper explained. “I located three suspicious vehicles, and I’m in the process of tracking their whereabouts.”
“Wow. You guys are incredible.” Emily peered at Don on the screen. The man needed good news and soon. They all did. “What about the agent on the task force? Any luck finding him?”
Liam let go of her hand and began working at the tension in his neck again.
“Not a him,” Asher said.
“Patty?” Emily asked in surprise.
FBI Director Mendez had introduced Emily to everyone on the CIA and FBI joint task force when Dryden brought her onto the case, and Patty was the only woman on the team, and she was from the CIA.
“Patty invited me out for drinks last Monday after we met,” she explained, “but I said no, I’d been too . . .” Too hungover from Vegas. Too married. Too out of it.
Had it really been only a week since she and Liam had tied the knot?
“You didn’t tell her about Vegas, did you?” Liam asked as if forgetting not everyone in earshot knew what he’d be talking about.
“No, of course not.” Her voice was a near whisper, and she was fairly certain red streaks now advanced up her neck and to her cheeks. She glanced at the computer screen where Jared appeared now instead of Don. “I thought you said you hand-picked everyone for your team?”
“I did,” Jared said a little defensively. “Patty’s been working on catching Carballo for years. She must’ve picked up chatter about the abduction before my asset told me about it, and maybe she thought if we grabbed Elaina, the buyer might offer her the same deal.”
“She probably didn’t expect it’d become open season for assassins to come after Elaina with Carballo out of the picture,” Harper proposed.
“But our traitor has to be Patty. She used an alias to fly to Belize, and we have her on camera checking into the same hotel Anthony Lamond happened to be staying at.”
“And then shortly after that trip, Anthony Lamond showed up in D.C. on the day we rescued Elaina,” Knox pointed out. “No way is that a coincidence, especially with Anthony trying to kill Emily.”
“Why would Patty do it?” Emily pushed back from the table, the sting of such betrayal sickening.
“Money’s a strong motivator. It makes people do stupid things.” Jared briefly bowed his head. “She made me think it was my idea to assign her to the case, but she must’ve manipulated me somehow.”
“Isn’t that a special skill you guys learn at your spook’s academy?” Knox asked.
“This isn’t Hogwarts, man,” Jared responded flippantly.
A tiny smile met the edges of Knox’s lips. “Hog-what?”
“Anyway.” Jessica dragged out the word as if trying to clear a sudden bout of tension rising in the room. It was obvious Liam and his people had some sort of beef with the CIA.
“CIA Director Rutherford dispatched a team to pick up Patty,” Harper said. “If she knows something about our buyer we’ll find out.”
“Can’t she tell us where Mickey Lamond is?” Emily asked.
“Patty’s been trained to defeat lie detectors and withstand interrogation. It’ll take some time to break her,” Jared answered.
“And time is something we don’t have.” Don’s face filled the display screen again. “She’s going to pay for this, but first we need Becky back.”
“Hopefully the plan works so we can catch Mickey,” Jared said in a steady tone. “And preferably alive.”
“Mickey has Becky tied to a chair in an abandoned warehouse three klicks from the Potomac,” Wyatt said over the line. “We’re looking for the best angle to get a clean shot.”
“That’s a good copy,” Jessica answered, her eyes focused on a computer screen in front of her.
Emily was grateful Liam’s team had let her stay in the room during Echo Team’s operation; she wouldn’t have been able to wait alone in that small bedroom, which was more like a prison cell.
Liam squeezed her hand beneath the table, offering his support.
His free hand was curled into a fist atop the table, and he took slow and measured breaths.
He wanted to be with Echo Team, didn’t he? To be part of the action.
Knox. Asher. Jessica. Harper. They all had the same looks on their faces. The same clench of their jaws. Barely blinking.
Liam and Emily sat across the table from the rest of his team, and as much as Liam probably wanted to be on their side, he chose to sit with her. To comfort her.
“This is Echo Three. I have eyes on the target, TOC, but I don’t have a shot. What about you, Five?”
TOC? She forgot the meaning of that acronym. She’d watched the show SEAL Security, which Luke’s wife was the lead writer for, and she remembered hearing that term. The command center or something?
She was used to reading reports by the FBI, CIA, and other three-letter agencies while working for the criminal division at the AG’s office, but she never crossed paths with the Navy.
“This is Five. I don’t have a clear view either.”
“Echo One? What about you?” Asher asked.
“Mickey keeps circling Becky’s chair,” Echo One, Wyatt, answered. “I don’t want to—”
“I’ve got the shot!” Jared said, and a loud snap followed before anyone could respond.
Jessica and Asher exchanged a concerned look, and she was on her feet in a split second. “Echo One, come in. What’s your status?”
“This is One. Mickey Lamond is down. Repeat. Mickey Lamond is down.”
Emily’s hand swept to her chest, and she sucked in a deep breath. Was it really over? That fast?
“And Becky?” Jessica’s eyes pinned to the ceiling as she waited for an answer.
“She’s fine,” Wyatt said, and a chorus of thank fucks left the lips of the teammates across from her in the room.
“I had no choice but to take a kill shot,” Jared said. “Sorry.”
“You were supposed to stay in the van with Don.” Jessica’s shoulders shrank a touch. “But thank you.”
Asher was on his feet next to Jessica, his palms on the table. The guy didn’t look like someone you wanted to mess with. Well, no one on the team did, but Asher was . . . a bit intimidating. “Now we can’t question the son of a bitch,” he mumbled.
“We already know Patty hired him. He probably wouldn’t have known anything beyond that,” Jared responded.
Jessica shifted her dark-rimmed glasses up to pinch the bridge of her nose. “Yeah, okay. Call it in, Jared. I want my people gone before the Feds roll up.”
Emily pulled her hand free from Liam’s and left the table.
She hurried out of the room, on the verge of puking.
After arriving in the connecting bathroom to her bedroom, she turned on the faucet and leaned forward. Her stomach shook, but nothing came out.
“Just breathe.” Liam pulled her hair away from her face.
She met his eyes in the mirror then cupped the running water and splashed it onto her face.
He kept hold of her hair and rubbed the center of her back in an up-and-down motion with his other.
“How do you do this all the time?” She turned off the sink and braced the counter with both palms. “That one minute aged me five years.”
He let go of her hair and went around to her side, perching his hip against the vanity. “It’s easier when you’re with the team. Even I get heart palpitations when I’m on the other end like this. I don’t like being helpless.”
“But you’re not. You helped save her. You and your people worked so fast, and you somehow found her. She’s alive because of you all.”
She turned into him, and he brought his forehead to hers and rested it there. She held on to his arms so she didn’t wobble. “You should get some rest,” he whispered.
“What about you?” she asked once they were back in the bedroom. “How long has it been since you’ve slept?” She kicked off her Nikes and toed them under the twin bed.
“I’m used to this.” He shut the bedroom door and turned to face her.
“No one should be used to going without sleep.” She sat on the bed, wondering if he’d sit with her. She didn’t want to be alone, but would it be selfish of her to keep him from his team any longer?
He casually shrugged. “I can stay with you until you’re asleep?”
Her lip went between her teeth as she considered his words. She couldn’t get her voice to work, so she nodded and shifted to her back before rolling to her side atop the covers.
The weight of the twin bed shifted when he joined her.
He draped his arm over her side, pulling her close against his chest, and she relaxed into his warmth and closed her eyes.
She could get used to falling asleep and waking up in this man’s arms.
Then again, maybe being close to him was actually dangerous because this moment wasn’t about lust or desire . . . which had been her safe go-to rationalization for her feelings up until now. What she was feeling right now was so much more.
“Liam?”
“Yes?” he whispered near her ear, his breath tickling her there.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For marrying me.”
He stiffened against her.
“I mean—if you hadn’t . . . I’d probably be dead.”