Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Your people have arranged for a swap.” The harsh grit of his voice plucked Eva out of her daze.
He grabbed her off the cement floor she’d been curled up on, and held her by the arm as he forced her to move.
Once outside, the daylight pierced her eyes, and she dropped her lids closed.
She swallowed the last drop of fear swirling around inside of her as he tossed her into the trunk as if she were trash.
She wasn’t sure how long she’d been on the floor in that room—maybe three hours. She’d already sped through her gamut of emotions at hyper speed while waiting for the masked man to reappear.
Anger had paralyzed each of her limbs at first, before sadness had spilled like a rush of hot water over her skin. And now, she didn’t know what to think or feel.
Her masked abductor hadn’t said a word to her after he’d unceremoniously chucked her into the dark room before slamming the door. She’d screamed against the tape, tears had smattered her skin, and the memories of her past had blanketed her mind.
Memories from childhood, mostly: the moments she’d said goodbye to when she’d closed the door on her old life. A flicker of regret had started to burn in the pit of her stomach as she had lain on the damp floor.
The memories gnawed at her: from the first time she’d seen her mother win an Oscar, to her sister’s big audition for a major Paramount film—to the time her dad had let her yell Cut! on set of one of his movies at age seven.
And then her mind circled back to last week. She’d spent the last hour trying to understand her feelings for a man she barely knew, and how it was possible to have such emotions so fast.
She had cut through Luke’s impenetrable walls and found the beautiful soul he’d been keeping shielded from the world, but after all of this was said and done, what would happen?
Her eyes opened at the feel of the car rolling to a stop maybe ten minutes later.
She broke her quiet resignation and screamed, a desperate attempt with the tape on her lips, sounding more like a pair of screeching brakes.
Her shoulders relaxed and the back of her throat squeezed as the anticipation of what was to come rose to the surface, and so, she stopped yelling.
A door opened and closed.
A few heavy steps progressed closer to her, and then her captor opened the trunk. “Ready?”
She nodded, and he reached between her ankles and cut the zip tie.
He held on to her elbow and helped her out.
Once on her feet, she adjusted her gaze, close to tears yet again as she eagerly searched for Luke while being escorted to the front of the car.
A bright yellow sports car appeared in the distance, with an SUV following behind it. The sea served as a backdrop to her rescuers.
The man kept his arm looped around hers, holding her tight against him. He glanced to the left then right, and she surveyed his gaze.
He had masked men crouched on higher ground. Rifles in position and aimed toward the road. Four men in total that she could see.
Would Luke be able to spot them from his vantage point? Maybe not until they got closer, and by then, it could be too late.
But Luke was a SEAL—he would prepare for every scenario, she tried to reassure herself.
The man reached behind his back. With a gun in hand now, he rested it against his chest with the muzzle fixated toward her chin.
Liquid welled in her eyes again, but she fought to hold her ground and not wilt to her feet.
Luke’s Lamborghini slowed a hundred feet away before stopping. Even at such a distance, she could see Luke’s eyes right on her, and not up above at the snipers. She was throwing him off, wasn’t she? Was she leading him to his potential death?
Luke exited the vehicle, and a man she didn’t recognize remained in the passenger seat.
Asher, Knox, and Owen stepped out of the SUV behind Luke’s car and positioned themselves alongside Luke with rifles in hand. The guys looked up, noting the snipers in the wings, and directed their weapons toward the masked men.
Luke held his palms up as he started to walk.
Each step closer had her heart breaking into shards.
“I need to verify the intel before I hand her over, and clearly you’ve noticed my men”—the man tipped his chin to the left and right—“waiting in case shit goes south.”
“Get me the boxes,” Luke said, already halfway to her. His gaze drifted to the snipers in waiting before drawing her back in with his blues. “You okay?” He mouthed the question as if the man holding her couldn’t read lips.
She tightened her lids closed and mustered a nod and a quick prayer before looking at him again.
“Don’t come any closer,” the man said once Luke was within ten feet.
Luke halted, but a dark shadow of anger brushed across his face. “Four boxes of hard copies. No electronic files.”
“I’m aware of Yilmaz’s recordkeeping,” the man said.
“Guessing you don’t work for al Jawali, given your lack of an accent. Friends of Reggie, huh?” Luke said, his voice deepening a couple dozen octaves.
Eva’s shoulders shrank at the sight of Asher and Knox carrying the boxes toward her.
“I’m friends with whoever writes the biggest check,” the guy answered dryly.
“Mercenary? Former Spec Ops?” Luke asked, as the guys dropped the boxes before the man, and both looked at Eva when the cardboard boxes thudded against the ground.
“Doesn’t matter, brother. All that matters is we both walk away with what we want, right?” His fingers curled tighter around her bicep.
“You can let her go then,” Luke demanded.
Her captor jerked his head to the left, and two men stood, guns still in hand as they came down to the road.
One of the masked men popped the top lid off one of the boxes and reached inside. He thumbed through some of the pages, closed the lid, and began doing the same with the rest of the boxes.
“Where’s Malik?” her abductor asked while waiting for his asshole colleague to verify the documents—documents Eva knew Luke couldn’t possibly hand over, so he had to have a plan.
“Dead,” Luke said.
“Saves me the trouble.” The guy snickered.
“Looks good, boss.” The masked sniper lifted one of the boxes and placed it in the trunk where she’d been previously stashed.
“If I find out you made any copies,” the guy in charge started, “I’ll hunt this bitch down like a deer and keyhole her. You got it? And then, I’ll come for you.”
Luke’s jaw set in a hard line, and Eva hoped to hell he wouldn’t lose his temper.
He was a SEAL, she reminded herself, yet again; he’d keep it together.
“You have my word. Now, you have what you want. Let her go.” Luke’s low, almost too calm voice, had a chill creeping up the back of her neck.
“My men will be waiting until I’m a safe distance. So, if you don’t want to risk a shoot-out, I suggest you don’t follow,” the guy answered.
She gasped when he shoved her in Luke’s direction.
Luke swallowed the distance between them in three quick strides and wrapped his arms around her before pulling her behind him to shield her.
She wanted to be relieved, but it wasn’t over yet.
When she watched the man drive in the other direction a moment later, she lifted her gaze to the snipers who still had their guns trained on them. But, Asher and the other guys had their weapons positioned on the masked men, as well.
Luke reached for a gun he had tucked at his back. He held it tight as he walked them backward, keeping his eyes on the snipers.
“She comes with me,” he hollered to the guy in the Lamborghini she didn’t recognize.
The man locked eyes with her before stepping out and heading to the SUV behind the sports car.
Once they were in the Lamborghini, Luke set his gun on his lap and removed the tape from her lips.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” he said, his voice hoarse as he slipped a blade between the zip ties at her wrists and tears cascaded over her cheeks. He cupped her face between his palms, and she braced his forearms. “Are you sure you’re okay?” The emotion caught in his throat.
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
He swallowed as his pupils constricted, and he let out a deep breath. “We need to get out of here.”
She glanced out the windows at the snipers who remained in position. “You shouldn’t have done this for me.” She shook her head as the wheels screeched, the smell of burning rubber flitting to her nose as he made a quick U-turn.
“You wanted to stay with that asshole?”
“The safe, though. The intel . . .”
“It’ll be okay. Don’t worry.”
“You always get your guy, huh?” She swiped at her tears, a touch of relief settling inside her with the snipers out of sight.
“I already got him,” he said in a calm voice. “He just doesn’t know it yet.”