Chapter 12
?
E lizabeth still shivered, even huddled up against Masters, as the two of them stood near the front window. When a couple vehicles drove up, they’d only been minutes behind Masters, so she realized that it had to be part of his team, but she couldn’t even begin to trust anybody at this point.
Masters kept an arm securely around her and whispered, “You’ll be fine.”
She looked up at him. “If you say so,” she muttered.
Masters watched as the man approached. Then Masters opened the front door and introduced him to Elizabeth.
This was Masters’s boss, Jasper, that he met with all the time. She smiled and nodded. “Hey.”
He gave her a concerned look. “Looks like we need to get you checked out at the hospital. That facial bruising looks pretty-darn severe.”
She gave him a flat stare and replied, “Not a big fan of hospitals.”
“Not a big fan of them myself,” Jasper replied in an unrelenting tone. “Doesn’t mean we’ll be stupid about not getting you the right care though.” She glared at him, and he smiled. “Besides, a woman named Tesla would like to meet you.”
Elizabeth frowned at that. “That’s the woman you were talking about, isn’t it?” she asked, turning to look at Masters.
He nodded. “Yes, and she’s at the hospital with her husband.”
“I don’t want to disturb her,” she stated, “and I’m certainly not going in looking like this.”
Jasper smiled. “Tesla would appreciate that even more, as she’s been to hell and back herself.”
Elizabeth frowned, but it was clear the two of them weren’t giving her any chance to argue. Then another vehicle arrived, as did a team all in white coveralls, pushing a gurney. She cast one final glance back at Gravelly, who had died on her kitchen floor, while she’d been locked up in her room. It was hard to feel any sympathy for him. Yet she wasn’t the person to wish ill on anybody.
However, she did wish that she had gotten a few licks in herself before he’d passed out. Resolutely she turned to look at Gravelly. He had paid the ultimate price, and she had to be satisfied with that. She let Masters lead her out of her house, and he carried a bag he’d packed for her. She took one last look at her house and shrugged, shaking her head.
“No matter what’s going on,” he reminded her, “just remember that the intel says your brother’s alive.”
She brightened, then looked over at him with gratitude. “The fact that you even got that much out of the gunman is pretty amazing.”
“Yet we can’t necessarily trust it.”
“I know. I know,” she said. “Don’t hold my breath, but, hey, for the first time, there’s some real hope.”
“There’s more than hope,” Masters noted, “but we have to get to him, and we have to get to him fast.”
“Meaning that we need to get there before they decide that this mess has gone too far.”
“Exactly. They can’t afford to keep him alive after this.”
She winced and nodded. “Go do what you need to do,” she said. “You can’t just sit at the hospital and keep me company.”
“I’ll leave you under guard, along with Tesla, Mason’s partner.”
Whatever he planned to do, Elizabeth figured that he wouldn’t tell her, and she also wasn’t sure if she even wanted to know. She decided that it was better to let him go do whatever he needed to do. If she saw him again, well, great, perfect. And, if he didn’t want anything to do with her after all this, that was also great. Hell no, it wasn’t great, but she would be an adult about it. Groaning at herself and her convoluted thought processes, she sat in the front seat of the car, wishing her head didn’t hurt so bad.
As if reading her thoughts, he murmured, “You let the doctors look after you, okay? They might even admit you.”
“I doubt it. I’m not that bad,” she muttered.
“You’re not that good either,” he pointed out.
She wouldn’t argue with him. It took way too much energy. By the time she got to the hospital, they had to wait to be seen, and Masters was getting antsy. She waved a hand at him and said, “Go on. I don’t know what it is that you’ve got to do, but you need to go.”
He hesitated. “I do need to go.” He looked around, and then relief washed over his face, as somebody else walked into the emergency room waiting area. He cried out, “Hale.”
The man turned and walked in their direction. Masters stepped forward and spoke to the man, and then he returned to Elizabeth and gave her a hard kiss on the lips, completely out of the blue. “I’ll be back.” With that, he was gone.
Elizabeth watched Masters leave, then stared at the newcomer.
He smiled at her. “Hey, I’ve seen a face like that before too.”
“On another person, I presume,” she replied in a half-joking manner.
“Oh, I’ve given out a few faces like that,” he noted cheerfully, “but I’ve also taken in my fair share of them too.”
She nodded. “Did you get put on babysitting duty?”
He burst out laughing. “It’s not babysitting duty, as much as safeguarding someone important.”
Her eyebrows shot up at that, and she shook her head. “Okay, so that’s a mixed message. I think you’d better go get that clarified.”
“Don’t need to,” Hale stated, with a smile. “Absolutely don’t need to.”
She wasn’t sure what he was grinning about, so she added, “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea.”
“Oh, I’ve already got the right idea,” he stated. “You might not be totally on board yet, but you will be.”
“And why is that?” she asked, confused.
Maybe it was her headache. Maybe it was something else. She didn’t know, but the grin on his face was way too much to deal with. He just continued to smile at her and then nodded, as a nurse shuffled them to a curtained-off area. A doctor walked in shortly thereafter. Hale whispered, “We’ll talk about that later.”
The doctor took one look at her face, then frowned, and started ordering a bunch of tests.
She groaned as she realized she would be here for hours and hours, but Hale just patted her hand and reminded her, “That’s why we’re here. We want to confirm that you are taken care of and that you don’t have any lasting effects from this.”
“You mean, outside of never wanting to be alone in a house again, never wanting to be the first to walk into a house, being afraid of every unlit room that I can’t see into, and, well, I could go on and on.”
“You could,” Hale agreed. “As time goes on, you won’t get any less worried, but you’ll be less reactive about it.”
She pondered that, as the doctor went through his physical checks, and then she was run from room to room, fulfilling all the tests that needed to be done. By the time the doctor returned to go over the results with her, he was a whole lot happier.
“No lasting brain damage,” he shared, “so that’s all good.”
She thought of a couple comments she could have made to him but figured that nobody wanted to hear from her.
Then he went on and on about there being a fair bit of broken facial bones, blah-blah-blah . “But ultimately you’ll be fine. What you need most right now is rest.” He looked over at Hale and frowned.
Hale nodded. “Yeah, she’s connected.”
“ Great . How many other people will you send me tonight?” he asked in exasperation.
“Hopefully nobody else, but I can’t guarantee that.”
The doctor shook his head. He studied her face again for a long time and added, “I don’t like that your nasal passages, your airways, are damaged and swollen already. It won’t require surgery,” he shared, “but I am concerned about that swelling getting worse, and you having significant trouble breathing, so I want to keep you here overnight.”
And, with that, she groaned. When he glared at her, she smiled. “Thank you very much for looking after me.”
He appeared appeased at that, but shot Hale a look.
Hale grinned. “None of us like being stuck in the hospital.”
“I know, but it would be good if you people would try it once in a while.”
“Right,” Hale replied cheerfully.
And, with that, the doctor wrote something else on his notepad and disappeared.
She looked over at Hale. “What was that all about?”
“He’s used to patching up a bunch of us,” Hale explained. “Not to worry, as you’re in the best of hands.”
“If you say so… I wasn’t sure when he mentioned broken bones.”
“It seems you’ve got broken bones around your nose, but, since everything is in the right position, they’ll splint it to make sure it heals in the correct way. And, because of that damage, he wants to keep you overnight to make sure that any increase in swelling doesn’t compromise your breathing.”
She winced at that thought. “Right.”
“So, we will take the prudent route,” Hale noted, with a smile, “and keep you here.”
“I wasn’t aware I had an option.”
“You don’t really, but we like to make you think you do.” She rolled her eyes at that, and he laughed. “You might as well get used to it. None of the guys in our world are any easier to get along with.”
She frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“I know you don’t,” Hale said, with a chuckle, “but you will.”
“Says you.”
He burst out laughing again. “We like some fire and brimstone in our women too.”
When she stared at him, he just held up his hands. “It’s all right,” he said. “You just joined the ranks of the Keepers.”
She shook her head. “You’re not making any sense.”
But his grin was wide and infectious. “You’ll get it later.”
“Sure I will,” she muttered. She snuggled deeper under the covers, feeling a chill settle in.
He nodded. “The cold is all part and parcel of the injuries,” he explained. “So you just rest now and know I’ll be right here. We’ll get you into your hospital room soon, and you’ll be in here for tonight at least.”
She hesitated and then asked, “Is being in here safe?”
“It is safe,” he confirmed, “and we’ve doubled up the guards.”
Her eyebrows shot high at that.
He nodded. “Mason’s here. With already one attempt on his life, we will not tolerate a second,” he declared. And, with that, he smiled. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Then he turned and walked out of the room.
The whole time he was gone, all she could do was wonder what the hell he meant by the Keepers .
*
Masters walked into the department to find several of the men already gathered here, including Jasper and the often missing Lichen.
Jasper looked up and gave him a quick nod. “The address is a warehouse toward the docks,” he shared.
“Figures. That would be a standard location for these guys.”
“I still don’t understand how you figured this out,” Sam snapped, glaring at Masters. “And why the hell you can’t tell us what the goddamn address is.”
Masters just stared at him, until the other man looked away. The last thing Masters wanted to do was get into a fight over who was in the right and who was in the wrong on something like this—at least not right now. Masters was still surprised that the one gunman had dropped this clue on his way out of town.
Jasper replied, “Nobody in this room, except for me and Masters, knows the address. You are all under suspicion, until proven we can trust you.”
That had Sam cursing, but Morgan told him to shut his trap. Lichen never seemed to speak, so he looked on silently, sending frowns to Sam, then to Morgan.
Masters looked over at Jasper. “She’s got a broken nose and a few other injuries,” he shared, his tone tight. “Hale is on guard duty.”
Jasper nodded. “Good, at least we know that’s covered, and we can focus on the rest.”
Masters nodded at that. “Still doesn’t change the fact that I want to be in on this.” When Jasper hesitated, Masters added, “If it was you, you would feel the same way.”
“I just can’t have you going off half-cocked.”
“The last time I went off half-cocked was,… let me think about it,” he began in a steely voice. “Oh, wait,… never.”
Jasper chuckled. “Okay, fine. You convinced me. I’ll deal with the brass afterward.”
“Are they the ones who kept me out?” Masters asked.
Jasper nodded. “Definitely a topic of discussion.”
“All the more reason to let me in,” Masters declared.
“On that point, I agree with you,” he muttered. He looked around at the others. “Anybody here inclined to cause me trouble over that?”
The three other men looked at each other, then back at Jasper and shrugged.
“You seem to be calling the shots, so, if you get your ass kicked over this, what do I care?” Sam sneered at Masters.
That was probably the best they would get out of him.
Jasper gave him a hard look. “You have a reckoning coming,” he warned, “but I don’t have time to kick your ass right now. We gathered as much intel on Nicholas as we could today, but we’re under the gun here. So we’re pulling in as much as we can about the building and the owners. Plus I’ve got a SWAT team being pulled together,” he told the others.
“Not fast enough,” Masters muttered in frustration.
“For you, nothing will be fast enough,” Jasper conceded, “but we also know the bottom line of what’s going on here.”
“I still don’t understand how the hell we went from working on Mason’s case to working on Nicholas’s case,” Sam snapped.
“Do you have a problem with finding your missing team member?” Morgan asked, as he looked at his coworker.
“No, I don’t. I just don’t understand, one, how we missed this. We thought he was dead and didn’t have any intel to show otherwise. And, two, I don’t understand how we went so completely off the rail in our Nicholas investigation that it could connect with Mason’s case.”
“We didn’t go off the rail,” Jasper corrected. “We took a side path. Mason’s case is still very much a priority, but we can’t ignore the fact that Nicholas has been held captive for four fucking months because nobody saw fit to direct his case properly.”
At that, Sam glared at him and snapped, “It’s not our fault. We were told to lay off.”
“Oh, I hear you,” Jasper snapped right back. “And that will be something I deal with very quickly after this rescue. But, in the meantime, I need to know if you’re playing some game, if you’ll just cry wolf to somebody higher up.”
“I probably should,” Sam replied, glaring at him. “You’re going against a direct rule.”
“Yep, I absolutely am, so go ahead and call whoever called you off Nicholas’s investigation,” Jasper suggested, tossing his phone to Sam. “Then we’ll have a serious look as to why you walked away from your missing coworker’s case and why you haven’t been here on overtime every fucking day and night since then, finding this poor guy. Instead you went home to your nice, cushy little world every day. Meanwhile Nicholas has been suffering, hoping that his team had his back.”
At that, Sam flushed, set Jasper’s phone on his desk, then retired back to his seat.
Morgan nodded. “We already feel bad enough.”
“Not nearly as bad as Nicholas must be feeling. So not nearly bad enough, if you ask me,” Jasper snapped. “We’ll discuss that afterward too, but, right now, I need to know if your team is on board to saving your own goddamn team member or if you’ll spit in this kettle and ruin the entire soup.”
“No, we’re there,” Morgan replied. “We are.”
“Other than my hand-picked team, I don’t believe anybody anymore,” Jasper spat, his gaze turning from one to the other. As everybody settled in, Jasper went over the plans. “We have a full Tactical Unit coming in to breach the warehouse property,” he explained, “but we need more intel, so I want two of you to go in.”
Immediately Masters stood up. “Me.” He turned to face the three traitors in their midst. “Alone.”
Jasper frowned at him.
“Don’t. Don’t even argue,” Masters muttered. “You already know I’m the best guy for the job, so I’m going in first. Where do you want me to enter, and what is it I’m looking for?”
“The usual,” Jasper replied. “I need to know how many men we are dealing with. I don’t want anybody else killed on this job.” He turned to address the others. “The bad news is that we’ll need an ambulance standing by for Nicholas. The information Masters brought in is that Nicholas is in rough shape.”
“According to the gunman, so not confirmed,” Masters added.
“At what point in time,” Sam interrupted, “are you gonna tell us about this cozy little talk you had with this gunman?”
“Maybe after we get Nicholas back and to the hospital, finally getting medical treatment,” Masters declared, turning to glare at Sam. “Until then, you don’t deserve more consideration.” And, with that, he turned back to Jasper and asked, “What’s the plan for timing?”
“We’re moving out in forty-five.”
Masters frowned and shook his head. “Let me go in now. I can relay back any intel to you.”
Jasper hesitated.
“It’s the best way. I could be in and out in less than thirty. We could have an empty warehouse, and we could have Nicholas rescued and in the hospital within forty-five minutes.”
Jasper shrugged, rubbing his forehead. “That this needs to be—”
“Surgical. I know,” he said, interrupting his friend. “I know exactly what this needs to be.” Masters turned and looked at the other guys, just wanting to say something, then shook his head. He looked back at Jasper. “Make sure you’re keeping an eye on these three too.”
Jasper nodded.
Then Masters turned and walked out. He quickly headed home, where he kept a full set of blackout gear. He didn’t have much in the way of weapons, but he could certainly access what he needed. He had his personal weapon, and that was the one he was most comfortable with. He loaded up a few extra shells, grabbed his gloves, helmet, and added the bulletproof vest. He wouldn’t be a hero in this situation, not when so much of a question remained in terms of who was on which side. He drove carefully to the dock area and parked a full mile and a half away in a mall parking lot, full of late-night shoppers.
Donning a yellow windbreaker, he covered up anything that didn’t make him look like a completely innocent shopper. When he headed to the back alley, he ditched the bright yellow jacket and moved quickly toward the warehouse. When he approached from the side and could see it up ahead, he sent a quick message to Jasper to confirm Masters had arrived. He assessed the warehouse from the outside carefully, listening for any voices, any sounds, traffic, anything at all. But there was nothing. It was dead. He winced at the term because the last thing he wanted was to find Elizabeth’s brother dead. That would be the end none of them wanted.
As he sat here, studying the situation, a vehicle exited the warehouse and drove casually away. He snagged what he could from the license plate and sent them to Jasper. The metal bay doors closed behind the vehicle, and, with any luck, just one guard was on duty, and only one. He moved smoothly to the warehouse, but everything appeared to be locked up tight.
He checked for security cameras. One was at the front entrance, nothing on the side, and one at the back, where the loading area was. However, he found a window ever-so-slightly ajar. With that window open, the security system couldn’t be properly activated—or else no sensor was on the window itself.
After a quick check with his fingers, he couldn’t find a sensor. So, taking a chance, he slowly pushed open the window. When no alarms went off, he smiled and jumped in through the window. Inside, he sent an updated text to Jasper and slowly moved through the warehouse, floor by floor. By the time he’d gone all the way up and back down, he only had the basement left to search. He shook his head. Everybody did evil shit like this in the basement.
He’d already sent an all clear except for the basement back to Jasper. By now, Jasper and a full team were collecting somewhere nearby. As Masters slid quietly down the stairs, he noted an unnatural stillness. He froze, knowing that this floor was not unoccupied. It was most definitely occupied, but Masters didn’t know how many to expect and whether they knew that he was already here. He slid into the shadows and stayed for a long minute, as he waited and assessed the place.
Up ahead, he heard mechanical voices, but he wasn’t close enough to hear the words. He listened some more and then crept forward ever-so-slightly. He got about four feet ahead, when he realized the noises came from a TV. It could just be there for the guards. Or was this just extra noise to help ease a long night ahead? He wasn’t sure, but it made him even more wary.
As he crept even closer to the TV room, he heard the words better and recognized the sound of some game show. He didn’t understand why anybody watched those, but he knew they were popular all around. As he studied the area, he thought he heard a bang up ahead. He slipped back into the shadows and waited. When nothing else came, he moved forward again. And again came another bang .
He stayed where he was, waiting, but it seemed to be a door slamming, although it might have been a door opening, then slamming shut just from the wind. It was hard to say, but every sound seemed to echo. Shifting a little more, he crept a little closer. No way to see into the TV room, unless he looked through the window in the door, and that was taking a chance. Still, he needed to know.
If that was where the guards were, Masters could take them out right now. He slipped ever closer, peered in through the small window in the door, and saw the TV, a small kitchenette, and living space but no guard. Yet one jacket was on the back of a chair, and a solo coffee cup remained on the table. He slipped down into the darkness of the hallway and waited. At least one guard was on duty, but there should have been more. However, if only one, Masters would take his chances and be grateful. The fact was, no way they would have left a prisoner with only one guard on him, unless they thought that it was completely safe, completely secure, and that nobody could tell anything about what was going on here.
Masters couldn’t take that chance and had to make sure. He needed to share the most intel possible with Jasper, in the time allotted to him.
As he continued down the hallway, he came to one of four closed doors, with absolutely no markings on the outside, no way to know what was on the inside. Just four solid doors. If he opened one of these doors, somebody could be behind it, his gun in hand and his finger on the trigger. If Masters opened a door that triggered an alarm, it would be all over. If he opened a door, and the guard was there, that would also completely halt everything Masters was doing.
Masters hesitated, waiting a moment, then, hearing a toilet flush, he stood on the hinged side of the door. It opened, and a guard came out, turning right for him. The guard stopped, surprise on his face. Masters swung, hard and sure, and the guard didn’t even see it coming. He dropped the man where he stood. The guy was huge. By the time Masters dragged his prisoner back into the washroom and shut the door behind him, he was sweating.
“Damn it, man,” he muttered to himself. “Definitely time to lay off the McDonald’s.”
He silently raced to the next door, listened at it, and, hearing nothing, quickly opened it and found the room empty. He went to the next one, which was empty as well, then the next one, which was locked. He stared at it and tapped on it ever-so-lightly. He heard the slightest of movements. He pulled his lockpick set from his back pocket and very quickly had the door open and stepped inside. There on a bed lay a man, his face almost unrecognizable from the beatings he’d sustained.
Masters raced to his bedside and whispered, “Nicholas? Your sister wants you to bring ice cream.”
The guy’s eyes lit up, and he nodded ever-so-slightly.
“Okay, good. I’m here alone, but the team’s coming. How many guards are here?”
Nicholas whispered, “Usually four.”
“I saw a vehicle leave,” he muttered, “and I’ve taken out one.”
Nicholas appeared to consider that but obviously was struggling, either with information or he just didn’t know.
“Hang on,” Masters whispered, hearing another set of footsteps. He quickly stepped out of the room and went across to the washroom. The first guard was still here, still unconscious. Masters stepped inside and closed and locked the door and waited. A moment later, somebody banged on the door.
“Get the hell out of there, Gunter. I told you before, stop taking so goddamn long. Other people have to take a shit too.” Then grumbling, he headed down the hallway.
Smiling, Masters opened the door ever-so-slightly, then stepped into the hallway, seeing the other man disappear ahead of him into the TV room. He had a split second to decide whether he’d take on the second guard in the TV room or just take Nicholas and make a run for it. Deciding to take out the second guard, Masters raced to the TV room.
As he stepped inside, a metal barrel landed against his forehead, and a gravelly voice muttered, “Don’t move, asshole.”
Masters froze, then shifted so he could see the face of the man beside him.
The second guard grinned. “Yeah, it’s always a good idea to face your maker, but no pleading for your life, please. I don’t give a shit.”
“Got it,” Masters replied, with a nod. “Seems like you and your buddies are all the same.”
“Damn right. It’s the paycheck. You have to earn one somehow.”
While he was still talking, Masters drew from his martial arts skills and dropped him where he stood.
He stared down at the second guard, even as he picked up the guard’s gun. “You might have to earn a paycheck somehow, but you should do an equally good job to keep it. Somehow I think you are gonna get terminated.” Masters gathered the first guard from the bathroom and put him with his buddy in the TV room. After tying both up to separate chairs, he covered the window on the door with newsprint, then locked the TV room door from the outside with one of the keys found on the guards.
Masters hurried back to Nicholas, confirming he was still alive. “Can you walk?”
Nicholas, his voice raspy and harsh, said, “Not sure. Don’t think so.”
“Right, I got you,” Masters replied. “I’ve already sent a message to the team. I’ll take you out of here, and if we’re lucky—”
“No, I’m,… I’m not sure that—”
“If we’re lucky, we’ll get the hell out of here. If not, I’ll stash you somewhere, but I’ll come back. You got that?”
Nicholas nodded. “Thanks, man.”
“Don’t thank me. Better thank your sister.”
“Is Elizabeth okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. She even tried to sue the military to get answers.”
A smile, the first that he’d seen out of Nicholas, revealed a hint of the strong and handsome man who Nicholas was, despite months of starvation and torture. He had a great smile, even with some of his teeth missing. “She’s good people,” he whispered, clearly in pain.
“I know, and I should tell you that I’ve got designs on her myself.”
“What?”
Masters chuckled. “Don’t worry. We’ll deal with that later. In the meantime, no easy way to get you out of here. I’ve got to just pack you and run, and it’ll hurt like hell.”
The other man paled and nodded, but Masters quickly scooped him up in a fireman’s lift over his shoulder, and, taking one last look around, raced back the way he’d come.