Chapter 35
The lack of guards at the warehouse doors spoke volumes to Cullen. For one, the perimeter was most likely monitored by surveillance equipment. Which meant the Saints would see them coming.
Second, they didn’t care who came in, because once inside, the Saints didn’t intend to allow anyone to leave.
The absence of guards kept them low profile. The dockworkers would take notice of men standing in the doorways. The Saints had thought of everything.
Cullen wanted to meet whoever ran the faction. He was either extremely smart, or he had a group he trusted explicitly that gave him advice. Either way, the individual was a foe that kept Cullen on his toes.
There had been few of those. In any other situation, he’d welcome such an adversary. Now, all he wanted was to kill the son of a bitch who had murdered his aunt and uncle, taken his father hostage, and tried to kill Mia.
“What are you thinking?” Mia asked, breaking into his thoughts.
“If they don’t already know we’re here, they will as soon as we walk to the door.”
Kate leaned forward. “There’s a side entrance. To the left.”
Mia turned sideways in the seat toward him. “I’ll take the front. You go to the side.”
“All right.” He was really going to have to work on this feeling of having to be beside her to protect her all the time.
She was more than capable of taking care of herself. Why then did he believe he was the only one who could safeguard her? Each time he thought of her facing the Saints alone, it twisted his gut.
Perhaps it was the sound of crunching metal and the feeling of helplessness as they’d rolled down the mountain. It wasn’t an emotion he wanted to repeat ever again. His nature demanded that he exact his vengeance.
A knock on Mia’s window had them all jerking their attention to the right. She lowered the glass an inch and peered outside.
A big, burly man with a long, dark beard and beady eyes looked inside the vehicle. “You have business here?”
Cullen gave a nod. “Is that a problem?”
“Seen some odd things this past month. You Feds? You have the look of Feds.”
“What odd things?” Cullen asked, ignoring the question.
The man crossed his arms over his wide chest. “Expensive vehicles rolling up all hours of the day and night. Men in uniforms I don’t recognize. And I heard a few speaking what sounded like Russian.”
“We appreciate the information,” Mia said.
The man’s gaze shifted to her. “I wouldn’t go in there.”
That got Cullen’s attention. “Why?”
“The last man who went in didn’t come out.”
“We’ve got this,” Cullen told him. “Though I’d suggest you and everyone else steer clear the rest of the night.”
The man walked away without another word as he pulled out a walkie-talkie and began speaking.
Kate sighed. “The two of you are going to be outnumbered.”
“How many of them did you see?” Mia asked.
“About thirty.”
Cullen caught Mia’s gaze. “You go to the front. As they begin questioning you, I’ll sneak in the side.”
“I don’t know where they kept Orrin,” Kate said. “The room I treated him in was on the second level. They locked me in a space on the first floor.”
“We have a lot of ground to cover,” Mia said.
Cullen took her hand when she started to open the door. “If they detain you, don’t fight. I’ll find you.”
“We’ve got the Saints to deal with as well as searching for Orrin. I’ll be fine.”
“How long do you think it’ll take them to realize who you are? They’re after you.”
She shrugged, her black eyes gazing into his. “We set out to hunt these jerks, and we’ve found them. Luck has also given us the very place your father is. Don’t pass this up.”
“I’m not leaving without you.”
“I don’t intend to be left behind.”
He’d learned that it was pointless to argue with her. So he smiled in response, and silently vowed to make sure she left the warehouse in the same condition as she walked in.
“Be safe,” she said.
He put his hand on the back of her neck and pulled her forward as he leaned toward her. Their lips met, and he kissed her deeply. Reluctantly, he released her.
“Don’t get hurt,” he warned.
She touched his face, a soft smile lifting her lips. “The same goes for you.”
He wanted to tell her . . . what? What did he want to say? He wasn’t even sure. He was still coming to grips with the idea that he wasn’t nearly finished with her.
And he was beginning to suspect that he never would be.
There wasn’t a woman alive who could hold a candle to her. She outshone them all—in every way.
If he found his father inside, would she leave? Would that be the end of whatever this was between them? He didn’t want that.
“Let’s go find some Saints,” she said.
He watched as she got out of the car and started toward the warehouse.
Kate shifted in the backseat. “If you want her, tell her. Life is too short.”
He briefly looked at the doctor. “Stay here. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
Cullen exited the SUV and started running, making a wide path around the warehouse to reach the side entrance. He looked at Mia often. She walked with sure steps, as if there were nothing in the world that frightened her.
He’d been like that once. Right up until he met her. Now she was his Achilles heel. There wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for her.
Surprisingly, he felt comfortable with that knowledge.
He kept to the shadows when he could find them. Letting his gaze search the side of the warehouse, he looked for cameras.
In the distance, he heard the sound of cranes and the boom as containers were stacked. No dockworkers were near the warehouse, leaving the area almost ghostly quiet. He’d have to be careful about whatever noises he made.
He bent at the waist and made a dash for the door. His knife was in his palm, ready to take out anyone who attempted to get in his way.
No one threw open the door and stopped him. He flattened himself against the side of the warehouse and waited. A few seconds later, he softly tried the handle. As expected, it was locked.
The sound of a hand banging against a metal door echoed around him. Mia. He sent up a quick prayer for her safety. Then he waited until he heard the sound of her voice.
Though he couldn’t hear what she said, it was enough that she was talking. He jabbed his knife into the doorframe and broke the lock.
Quietly, he opened the door wide enough to squeeze through and let it close behind him. He looked around, waiting for an attack. None came.
A quick skim of the area showed metal stairs near him and farther away. Several closed doors down one side of the interior. Everything was old and rusting, what paint was left on the walls was peeling.
The warehouse was huge, but the part he was in left him claustrophobic—everything was so tight. It also left many hiding places for someone to lie in wait.
No sooner had that thought crossed his mind than he walked past a piece of large machinery. A man lunged, the tip of a knife coming close to Cullen’s eye.
Cullen raised his arm, blocking the attack while twisting away. Then he turned and came up behind the man, locking an arm around his neck.
Two quick stabs to his heart later, Cullen put the dead man back in his hiding spot. Then he continued onward.
He grinned when he heard Mia talking from somewhere in the warehouse. She seemed to be putting on a show to attract more of the men to her.
The longer he heard her without the sound of bullets, the better he felt. Whatever she was doing allowed him to check rooms without being seen. Except with each one that was empty, he became more worried. It was the tenth door that he opened that revealed where they must have kept Kate.
There were charts lying about with Orrin’s name on them. Cullen didn’t stay. The discovery only made him eager to locate his father quicker.
He turned a corner and came face-to-face with a large man with eyes as cold as death wearing a Russian military camouflage. His blond hair was kept short on the sides and longer on top.
By the way he stood, he’d been waiting on Cullen.
Cullen halted, taking in the scar on the man’s left cheek that ran from his cheekbone down to his jaw. With some it was obvious that they had seen a lot of death.
This was such a man.
He was also the type that doled out death effortlessly. Except Cullen wouldn’t go down easily.
“It took you long enough.”
That caused him to pause. Cullen eyed the soldier. “It’s a big place.”
“So it is.”
Cullen frowned. There was an accent there, it was faint, but he heard one. The only problem was that it wasn’t Russian. Just who was this man?
“Shall we get on with this then?” Cullen asked.
The man raised a brow. “So eager to die?”
“Eager to find my father.”
“You’re too late.”
No. That couldn’t be possible. Cullen couldn’t have come all this way to find Orrin dead. “Where is his body?” he demanded.
The man raised a brow. “I never said he was dead.”
“Then what. He’s gone?”
Silence met his words. Cullen’s mind raced. Mia had said two men were looking for Yuri at the hotel. Could his father and Yuri have taken off together?
He focused back on the soldier. “I can’t let any of the Saints live.”
“Good thing I’m not a Saint, then.” With that, the man pivoted and walked away.
Cullen waited a few moments to make sure he wouldn’t return, then he hurried toward Mia. He heard her long before he saw her.
She stood on the first floor, surrounded by men. Some were in uniform, some weren’t.
“Seriously?” she said. “I’ve got Girl Scout cookies to sell for my niece. Thirteen huge boxes of these cookies. Everyone on the docks buys them. Surely I can sell at least a box of Thin Mints to one of you.”
Cullen noticed how the men in uniform were eyeing the others. While the plain clothes men stared at Mia as if she were a mouse and they the cat.
“Anyone?” she asked.
“We’ll take you instead,” one of the Saints said in a Boston accent. “You’ve taken us on a merry chase only to drop right into our laps.”
Mia smiled at the man. “You really think I’d come alone?”
No sooner were the words out of her mouth, than Cullen came up behind one of the non-uniformed men and knocked him on the back of the head with the hilt of his knife. As soon as the man fell, all hell broke loose.
Mia pulled out her gun just as two men rushed her. Three quick shots, and they were dead at her feet. The uniformed men were attacking the others.
Except more of the Saints’ men came pouring out. Cullen used his knife and his gun, working his way toward Mia. The floor was littered with bodies and slick with blood.
Gunfire blasted around them, mixing with shouts of pain. He felt his shoulder pull and blood run down his side, but he paid none of it any mind.
Mia was in the mix with their enemies. The Saints were all around them, killing the Russian soldiers. When Cullen saw a break, he grabbed Mia’s hand and ran.
The corridor was narrow as they raced down it and then up a set of stairs. There were easily fifty Saints in the building. It was a hefty number to overcome.
The reality of their situation settled over Cullen like a blanket of iron that threatened to choke him.