Chapter 18
Everly lay as still as stone in the back of the van, pretending to be unconscious as she had since they’d turned off the highway and moved onto quieter, slower roads.
There had been no confirmation that STAG had received her emergency signal.
No helicopter following them overhead, or flashing lights pulling them over.
Nothing that indicated anyone had heard her at all.
Still…STAG did the impossible every day. She held onto a thin thread of hope that they could pull her out of this too.
The van slowed, then turned to the left. “Which way to the loading dock?” the driver asked.
The other man’s response was muffled as the van rattled over a metal grate, then descended. Everly braced herself to keep from rolling across the floor as they came to an abrupt stop.
Male voices, some with foreign accents, some American, carried through from outside. The rear doors of the van swung open with a groan.
“Wake up. You’re late for an important meeting,” the salesman told her, shoving her shoulder.
She blinked in the moonlight, feigning grogginess, then groaned.
That part was real, and courtesy of her throbbing skull.
He loomed over her. Everly couldn’t sneer past the gag, so she narrowed her eyes and fixed him with the meanest glare she could, then jerked her chin towards her bound feet.
The message was clear. You want me to walk? Untie me.
He fumbled in his pockets, as if it hadn’t occurred to him zip ties needed cutting, until another man muscled him out of the way.
“First kidnapping?” he laughed, slicing through the plastic band around Everly’s ankles.
He wrapped a beefy hand around her arm and hauled her out of the van.
Her ankles wobbled as she struggled to find her footing.
Ahead of her, down the concrete ramp, darkness waited.
A freight elevator sat at the bottom, its doors jammed open, gaping like a broken jaw.
One dim lightbulb glowed inside. Everly looked around, desperate for an exit, but Andropov’s goons surrounded her on all sides with nothing but empty asphalt beyond. They’d find her in an instant.
“Move!” someone demanded from behind her, shoving his foot into her back. She stumbled forward, the men behind her laughing. Bastards. She refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing her crumble. Everly forced herself to stand tall, steeling herself for what was to come, and descended the ramp.
The man who’d cut her zip tie steered her to a side door, his grip around her arm as immovable as iron.
He dragged her down a corridor that smelled of formaldehyde, lined with empty rooms and bolted doors, the other men following close behind in silence.
The overhead lights buzzed dimly, fed by a generator that sputtered somewhere in the bowels of the building.
She caught glimpses through dusty glass of metal tables, rust-streaked sinks, a whiteboard scrawled with faded chemical equations, and wondered where the hell she was.
“In here,” the man said, stopping without warning and pulling a key from his pocket. He unlocked the metal door and shoved her through. Her hip banged against one of those metal tables she’d seen, and she bit back tears.
“Mikhail doesn’t want you damaged,” he said as he followed her through the door just long enough to rip the gag from her mouth. “No one’ll hear you scream down here anyway.”
Then he was gone.
The door slammed in front of her, and the lock clicked into place.
Everly staggered back a step, breath coming in shallow bursts. The room smelled faintly of bleach and decay. No windows, no cameras. Just her…and the zip tie still cinched around her wrists.
She looked down at the metal table beside her. Rust marred its edge, but one corner looked jagged enough to try.
She angled her body and began to saw.
◆◆◆
Grant exhaled as he turned onto the winding road that led through the industrial park.
Only years of training kept him from flooring it straight to the far end, where he knew Everly had to be.
STAG was in control now, he reminded himself.
They did this shit every day. Andropov didn’t stand a chance, and soon enough he’d have Everly back in his arms. And once she was, he was never letting go.
He cut the headlights and rolled into the lot that the coordinates indicated.
The line to STAG had gone silent long ago, and silence pressed in around him, with only the low rumble of the engine to keep him company.
The parking lot was cracked and uneven, littered with trash and broken glass that glittered faintly in the moonlight.
No signs of life, no movement. But he felt it in his bones that Everly was close.
The minutes stretched out before him like hours.
Then at last, the unmistakable sound of rotor blades cut through the night air, lights blinking against the darkness as the chopper descended as Lockhart had promised.
Grant threw open the door and raced toward his team, praying they weren’t too late.
Taylor hopped out first, and Grant greeted him with a quick salute as the others fanned out around him. “Any updates?”
“She’s for sure in the old CDC annex up ahead. Her signal’s been static for close to an hour, outside the loading dock. Ten bucks says they’re in the basement.”
Someone handed Grant his gear, and he suited up quickly, the weight of it grounding him a bit. This was where the calm usually slipped over him–but not this time, not completely. Not with Everly’s life on the line.
He turned back to his captain. “Ready, sir.”
Taylor nodded. “We go on foot from here. Entry through the west side. Less cover, but the shortest route to the loading dock that leads into the basement.” He looked at the men gathered around him, his voice quiet. “We stay low, move fast. Let’s show these assholes who they’re messing with.”
◆◆◆
“Mrs. Holland. How lovely to finally make your acquaintance.” Mikhail Andropov stood before her, much broader, heavier, and older than his half-brother, his dark tone belying his polite words.
“What do you want from me? I already gave Andrei the files.” Everly’s mouth was sore from the gag. She wasn’t sure how long they’d kept her in the old lab, but it hadn’t been long enough for her body to feel better. Or to free her wrists.
“Ah, yes,” Andropov said, nodding once. “You gave him something , didn’t you?” He took a step closer. “But not enough.”
He sighed, all pretense slipping away. “My idiot brother has created entirely too much trouble these last few months. But so have you.” He frowned. “If you had just cooperated with us from the start, sent the information the first time we asked, none of this would have happened.”
Every second she kept him talking bought more time for STAG to find her.
She half-listened to him, eyes scouting the room for an escape route.
No windows. A man at each door, pistols in hand, watching her like they were waiting for an excuse to use them.
Her pulse beat hard in her throat. She was outnumbered, outgunned, and running out of time.
“So yes,” Andropov continued. “Andrei is a fool. But your little public handoff has brought the full weight of the United States down on my back.” His lips curled in a sneer. “So now, you will repay me for the trouble you’ve caused.”
Her gut twisted as his eyes turned cold and calculating.
“I have buyers overseas. Men with deep pockets and filthy appetites. Even used goods still fetch a decent price.” He spat at her feet.
“It’ll be enough to fund me until I can relocate, get your government off my back.
And of course, the files you so graciously provided will be sold to the highest bidder right alongside you. ”
“I owe you nothing.” Her voice barely held steady, and her knees threatened to buckle, but she stayed upright. She would not fold. But dread pooled low in her belly, slick and heavy, warning her that the worst was still to come.
“You owe me everything ,” he hissed. “My business was finally on the cusp of greatness, do you understand? You handed me information worth a fortune. And then what? You had a change of heart? Decided to play the good little patriot and hand Dropov Kommercheskiy over to your government?”
Everly lifted her chin. Let him think her a criminal, then. “Maybe I just got tired of being used by cowards who hide behind threats.”
Mikhail’s eyes narrowed. “Cowards?” he echoed, voice low and dangerous. “No, detka . The coward is the one who runs to her boyfriend and lets him fight her battles.”
Before she could speak again, his hand cracked across her cheek, setting her ear ringing. Her head snapped to the side, a cry catching in her throat as a fresh wave of pain exploded through her skull.
Tears welled in her eyes, her thin thread of hope rapidly fraying. Please, please let STAG be on the way.
“I can give you money,” she stammered. “My husband’s life insurance paid generously.” It wasn’t entirely untrue, although she had invested most of it. But if it bought her time, she’d lie her ass off.
Mikhail laughed, cold and humorless. “I don’t want your cash, you little whore.” He made a show of walking around her in a slow circle, looking Everly over as if she were a cut of meat, and he the butcher. “But since you’re feeling so generous, there is something else you can give me.”
Bile rose in her throat, and the edges of the room seemed to blur, her pulse an uneven drumbeat in her ears. “No. Please, no–”
Mikhail turned his attention elsewhere. “Dimitri. Take her to my office and make sure the door is locked. I don’t want to be disturbed.”
The salesman stepped out of the shadows and caught her arms in a vise grip. She cried out against the pain, trying to twist away, desperate to break the zip tie around her wrists, but he held tight and dragged her down the dimly lit hallway.
“Stupid bitch,” he grunted, shoving her through another doorway. “Heavier than you look.”
Footsteps echoed down the hall, and then Mikhail was there, his hand already on his pants and unmistakable lust glazing his eyes. “Get out of here, you dogs!” he ordered, not even bothering to glance back at the guards who hovered behind him. “Back to your posts.”
They obediently hurried away, and Dimitri made to leave with them. Mikhail stopped him with an outstretched hand. “Stay,” he commanded with a look that turned Everly’s stomach. “Watch. Consider it your reward.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks, raw and hot, as reality struck her like a blow: this was it. Grant didn’t know where she was. STAG wasn’t coming. Mikhail would take what he wanted, and then she’d disappear into whatever nightmare he had planned.
No, a small voice inside her whispered.
Grant’s voice.
Don’t let them win so easily. Don’t go down without a fight. Let them see your claws.
Dimitri yanked at her again. “My uncle isn’t gentle.
I’ll enjoy watching you bleed,” he hissed in her ear, his breath hot and sour.
He pinned her in place, his body flush against hers while Mikhail undid his belt buckle and zipper.
She almost gagged as Dimitri’s own erection pressed into her back, and she strained against him with everything she had, panic and fury surging through her in equal measure.
Then she struck, slamming her heel into his instep with all the force she could muster. Dimitri howled in pain, his grip on her faltering. She seized the brief moment of distraction and pulled her arms free, slamming them against her back and snapping the weakened zip tie.
Dimitri lunged for her again, but Everly was faster. She pivoted and slammed her elbow into his face, sending blood spurting from his nose. He screamed and brought his hands up, and Everly twisted again to yank his pistol from its holster.
Andropov advanced on her, but she stood, gun raised even as her hands trembled. Just as Grant had taught her. Let the son of a bitch come, and get what he deserved.
“ Pizda, ” he snarled. “I am going to fucking kill you !”
She blew out a breath, both eyes open, and fired, just as the room plunged into darkness.
◆◆◆
STAG burst through the doors just as Chilstrom cut the generator. Grant swept the room with his night vision goggles, adrenaline pumping through his veins.
The first thing he saw was Mikhail Andropov, pants undone, charging towards Everly. Then a gunshot cracked through the dark. Andropov jerked as the bullet hit, a dark blot blooming on his chest.
He staggered, and Grant raised his own weapon and fired, the second round hitting just beneath the first. The son of a bitch dropped hard, dead weight hitting the floor in a pool of blood.
“Target down,” Grant said into his mic, switching on the light built into his helmet and flipping his NVGs up and out of the way.
Another man cowered on the floor, arms raised and begging for mercy through the blood that streamed down his face. A dark stain spread across the front of his khakis. Grant didn’t even slow down, leaving him for his teammates to handle as he raced towards Everly.
She stood rooted to the spot, her eyes wide and unfocused and her face bone-white.
“Ev, baby.” The words caught in his throat as he pulled her into his arms, checking her over for injuries even as he held her.
He found none, and relief crashed over him, sweeping away the dark fears he’d carried all night.
He hadn’t been too late .
“Grant?” she shielded her eyes against the bright light. He felt her knees buckle, but held her upright. “You came for me.”
“Always.” He held her a little tighter. “I’ll always make it back to you.”
Everly’s gaze remained fixed on Andropov’s body, Walker now checking for a pulse. “Is he…is he dead?” She trembled against him.
Andropov was almost certainly dead, but he wasn’t about to tell her that right now. “It doesn’t matter, babe. What matters is that you’re safe now. I’ve got you.”
“Grant. You saved me,” she whispered, her breath growing uneven.
“No, baby.” He cupped his hand against her cheek. “You saved yourself.”
She smiled faintly up at him, reaching for his face–and then her eyes rolled back in her head as she collapsed in his arms.