Chapter One #2
Emily left her bag on the seat next to her, the recording device activated.
The men were speaking in hushed tones in Arabic.
Danny’s knowledge of the language was limited—just enough to get his point across during his deployments in Iraq and dealing with the foreign insurgents that had flooded into Afghanistan for an opportunity to fight the “infidels.” He made a show of playing with Emily’s fingers and gazing into her eyes while they sipped their coffees—cover for their suspicious lack of conversation so they could get as clear a recording of the men’s conversation as possible.
Emily also had some language training in Arabic as part of her job with the Trafficking in Persons Office at the US State Department.
Her shoulders stiffened, face tightening.
For good reason.
Danny’s jaw tensed. Like Emily, he’d caught the words “wife,” “daughter,” and “daughter-in-law.” Their language was careful, never mentioning specific names. But Senator Strickland was vacationing with his wife, his son and daughter-in-law, and their infant son.
And Isabella Strickland, the senator’s daughter.
Bella.
His sister Jaynie’s best friend. Tiny, blonde, and bookish, but with a quiet strength he’d always admired. He hadn’t seen her since she was seventeen. Since the night of his sister’s funeral.
After he’d—
Pressure on his fingers brought his gaze back to Emily.
Whoops. Apparently, some of his inner thoughts had plastered themselves onto his outer face. He summoned a cheesy smile that did nothing to erase the concern in Emily’s eyes.
“We cannot wait any longer.” Tabril’s voice had risen.
Danny kept his eyes on Emily, even as his peripheral vision noted Tabril glancing around, giving Danny a hard stare. Whatever Tabril said to Hariri next was too hushed to pick up before he stood and exited the cafe.
Bringing Emily’s fingers to his lips, Danny shielded his mouth. “Tango one is on the move.”
“Got him,” Caleb answered.
Hariri stood, left currency on the table, and wove his way through the crowd to the door.
“Tango two exiting the cafe,” Danny advised.
“Finn is on him.” Nathan named one of Dìleas’s European agents. “Danny, you and Emily get back to the hotel, ASAP.”
Leaning close, Danny murmured to Emily, “We’re out of here.”
He left money on the table and escorted her out of the cafe and through the crowded streets to the hotel the team was using as their command center.
Nathan met them at the door to their suite, dressed in his customary metal band T-shirt and jeans.
At six-foot-six, he was one of the few people Danny felt short around, and while Danny liked to live up to his “Surfer Dude” nickname in how he presented, Nathan’s short, spiky blond hair and facial scruff gave him an outlaw demeanor that intimidated most people.
Despite his appearance, he was an easy-going guy until someone made him angry.
Then he wasn’t.
“Hey, darlin’.” Nathan kissed his wife, his thumb brushing her cheek in a move so automatic neither of them seemed to notice, before he removed the recording device from Emily’s bag.
Danny looked away, his gaze taking in the suite’s living room with its low-profile oatmeal upholstered sofa, a light oak round coffee table, and a bentwood armchair with an amethyst cushion.
Two framed glass doors opened onto a private terrace overlooking the bay with two lounge chairs and a small table.
After taking a seat on the sofa, Nathan connected the recording device to his computer.
Danny almost made it to the armchair when there was a knock at the door.
“That would be Ryder.” Nathan’s icy blue gaze met Danny’s before returning to his laptop.
Lifting his shirt just enough to free his compact Sig, Danny moved to the door. He peered through the peephole, his shoulders relaxing at the sight of the tall man with wavy chestnut hair and electric blue eyes on the other side.
Ryder.
Nathan had been his SEAL team leader. At Dìleas, Danny worked mostly under Ryder Montague, an aristocrat and former British SAS soldier who’d served with the president of Dìleas, Lachlan Mackay.
Re-holstering his weapon, Danny opened the door.
“Mate.” Ryder greeted him with a nod as he strolled into the room wearing tailored linen trousers and a navy polo. “I just spoke with Nathalie. She said to thank you for the photo.”
Danny had been on the protection detail for Nathalie Williams, Ryder’s fiancée, back when she was president of her father’s defense firm.
Now she was enrolled in art school in London and had sent Danny one of her watercolor paintings.
He’d finally gotten it framed and had sent her a photo of the painting hanging in a place of honor in his Northern Virginia apartment.
“You know I’m her favorite bodyguard,” he teased Ryder. Another one of his colleagues so in love he could barely see straight.
Good thing it wasn’t contagious.
“You’re just in time, amigo.” Nathan said to Ryder. He cued up the recording and hit play.
When it ended, everyone in the room wore the same rigid expression.
“They plan to kill Senator Strickland and his son and take the women as hostages.” Emily voiced what they’d all heard, her cheeks flushed with anger.
The same rage iced Danny’s veins. Bella and her family were in immediate danger. And this wasn’t the first time she’d been collateral damage because of her father’s career.
“We need to evacuate the Stricklands now,” he gritted out. “Their conversation is coded but the urgency behind it isn’t. I think they plan to make their move tonight.”
If it was the last thing he did, he’d make sure Bella didn’t fall into terrorist hands.
He owed her that much.
Nathan reached for Emily’s hand. “Get on the phone with your father. Tell him we have our confirmation and we move this afternoon.” The two shared a long look, probably remembering their own close call with death at the hands of a Parisian crime lord.
Admiral Dane and Senator Strickland had a prearranged conversation that would alert the senator if he and his family were in danger and what arrangements were being made to secure their safety.
Ryder was already on his phone. “I can have the helicopter ready in one hour. Tell the admiral to instruct Senator Strickland to have the yacht they rented prepared to receive the family at eighteen hundred for a dinner cruise. The activity at the harbor should keep our kidnappers distracted.”
Nathan pulled up a satellite image of the Stricklands’ rental villa. The team mapped out their entry and exit strategies.
Emily’s phone rang. Her brow furrowed as she glanced at the screen. “It’s my dad.”
She connected the call and put it on speakerphone. “I was about to call you. You need to tell Uncle G about the dinner reservations. We’re making them for early this evening.”
Code for there’s danger, and the team’s moving forward with an evac plan as soon as possible.
“I can’t get ahold of him.” Admiral Dane’s voice was terse. “He appears to have gone out of town and took a couple of fishing buddies with him.”
Shit. Danny’s heart sped up. Neither Senator Strickland nor his security detail was responding to the admiral’s attempts to reach them.
“Nathan, tell Finn to head to the senator’s villa,” Ryder said, “and have Caleb stay on Tabril’s tail.”
He gestured to Danny. “You’re with me. Nathan will run the comms.”
Snatching the duffel he’d left in the suite earlier, Danny hurried into the bathroom.
He ditched the tropical shirt and shorts and donned a white T-shirt and khaki mission pants, then strapped on a tactical vest and covered it with a heather-gray, lightweight polyester hoodie.
He pulled out extra magazines for his Sig, shoving them into his pants pocket, and hustled to join Ryder, who’d also suited up.
The SUV they’d rented at the Paros airport ate up the distance to the villa as fast as Danny dared without drawing the attention of the Greek traffic police. He sent up a prayer of thanks every time he whipped around a blind curve and didn’t find a pedestrian, a moped, or a goat in his path.
Ryder’s phone rang. He put it on speaker. “Finn. Report.”
“I’m at the villa.”
The hair on the back of Danny’s neck lifted at the grim note in Finn’s voice.
“The senator’s security detail is dead. Family’s missing.”
“Bloody Hell,” Ryder swore.
“I found the housekeeper cowering in the kitchen. She said four men came and took the family away in a white van.”
“They moved fast. Secure the site.” Ryder hung up with Finn and called Nathan. “The Stricklands have been taken.”
“I know,” Nathan replied. “Caleb just called. A white van pulled up to the marina and four men got out with the Stricklands. They’re boarding the yacht, along with Tabril. I’m heading to the marina. Tell Danny to get his ass back here. We’re going to have to do a hostage rescue from the water.”
“We’re on our way.”
Danny hit the brakes and reversed course on the narrow road, flooring it back to the village.
“Try not to get us killed getting there.” Ryder’s delivery was dry, in keeping with his stoic personality, but Danny picked up the concern hovering beneath the words.
He let off the gas. Just a touch. For the first time in a very long time, his heart raced. Not with the intoxicating adrenaline boost he usually got when a mission went sideways.
With fear.
Hang on, Bella.
He’d failed her once already.
He wouldn’t fail her now.