Killian
The light is off outside Lisa Channing’s office. And I’m not responsible for dismantling it like I did last time when I wanted to get Faith out of here. That thought seeps the first drops of ice into my bloodstream as I walk down the hallway.
Still…panic is counterproductive. There could be a perfect explanation for the light being off and Faith still being inside.
Yeah, right. She may have calmed down about Lisa Channing, but I’m willing to bet she’d rather walk the soulless corridors than spend an unnecessary minute with Lisa.
I knock and throw open the door without really waiting for a response. Lisa Channing is sitting behind her desk, typing up notes.
Her eyes widen when she sees me. “Killian! Is everything okay?”
My frantic gaze darts around the office. My gut grows colder when I don’t spot Faith. “Where is she?” I ask.
She frowns. “Miss Carson?”
“Yes. Where is she?”
“We finished our session forty-five minutes ago. She left to go and find you.”
No. God, no!
I rush to Lisa’s desk and scoop up her phone. My finger shakes as I punch in the number. “This is Killian Knight. Is Miss Carson upstairs? Okay. I need you to lock down the building. Right now. Yes. This. Is. A. Code. Fucking. Five!”
I slam down the phone as an alarm starts to blare. Then I pick it up again and redial. “Mitch, Faith is not here…Yeah, she could still be in the building. Or she could be gone. She finished her session forty-five minutes ago.” Mitch swears, and that uncharacteristic sound drives a knife deeper into my gut. “I hope to God I’m overreacting, but I need you and Linc to search the area. I’ll call back in ten minutes.”
I end the call and round on Lisa.
Her eyes are wide. “What’s a code five?” she asks.
“It mean the woman I love is in danger. And if anything happens to her, I swear to fucking God—”
She cowers back from me, and I realize I’m yelling. I clench my fists and force myself to calm down. “I’m sorry. But I need you to tell me exactly what she said to you before she left and who she left with.”
“We just…I told her the session was over and asked if she wanted me to get someone to escort her. She refused and said she would come up and find you herself.”
“Did Scarsdale fetch her?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t go to the door.”
I close my eyes for a second. “I need your computer.”
She glances over at the monitor. “The work is confidential—”
“I’m not interested in reading your patients’ files. And I wasn’t really asking,” I snap as I head for her desk. Thankfully, she vacates her chair and moves out of my way. “I want to find Faith before the asshole who has her gets farther away.”
I snatch the phone as I jump behind the desk. The moment the call is answered, I snap, “Get me the surveillance feed for Lisa Channing’s office. Inside and outside.”
She gasps, but I ignore her. The shocking discovery that the Fallhurst Institute has her sessions under surveillance is for others to deal with. My main focus is finding Faith.
“No, send it to her workstation,” I respond to the analyst’s question. The feed pops through ten seconds later. Another minute later and I have a face. I turn the monitor toward Lisa. “Who is that?” I demand.
She stares at the man Faith is talking to and shakes her head. “I don’t know.” I drag the monitor back and tap out the code I need to snatch the information. It takes three minutes, but each second feels like a lifetime. When I’m done, I jump up and race for the door.
“Killian?”
I glance over my shoulder as I pull the door open. “What?” I demand through clenched teeth.
“I…hope you find her.”
I don’t respond. I just turn around and race down the hallway.
Hope has no place here. Only the solid reality of Faith back in my arms will suffice. I can’t lose her. Not when I only just found her again. Every day since that moment in the park in New York City, I’ve looked at her and asked myself how I managed to get through the past four years. The simple truth is that I don’t know how.
But what I do know now, what blazes a searing path through my soul, is that, this time, if I lose her, I won’t make it.
* * *
My rational brain tells me to return to level seventeen, where all the cool, supersecret gadgets that I’m helping the government use to spy on our enemies are located. But my gut propels me to reception, and specifically the box where our cell phones are kept while we’re in the building. I snatch Faith’s and mine, collect the other gadgets I never leave home without, and head outside.
My phone blares as soon I step out of the sphere of scrambled signals that blanket the building. The vise around my heart clenches tighter. “Galveston.”
“This is the second time you’ve let me down, Knight. I really hope for everyone’s sake that there isn’t a third.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s safe. Did you really think you could disrupt my life and get away with it?”
“It’s really me you want. So why not come after me?”
He laughs. “There you go again, thinking I’m stupid. I really shouldn’t have let you two walk out of that party that night in Cairo. Raj was all for concluding our business before morning. I said we should wait. I regret that decision deeply.”
“This is about Faith, Galveston. No one else—”
“This is about what I say it’s about,” he interjects. “But okay, for now, let’s discuss the fate of your woman. There are so many possibilities. I can sell her to a sheikh in the Middle East. Or I know a band of brothers in a certain kingdom who will cream themselves for a woman like your Faith. For some absurd reason, they like their wares a little used. They might feed her the odd drug or two to keep her subdued, but I guarantee you she’ll rule their harem in no time. Or I can simply chop her up into little pieces and feed her to the sharks on my next trip abroad. It really is all down to you. You hold the power, Knight. How about that?”
The gadget in my hand emits a little beep. For the first time since this nightmare started, my heart beats with something other than solid dread. “Put her on the phone, Galveston.”
He hesitates long enough to drag my attention from the gadget. “I can’t.”
I don’t want to follow my thoughts down that stark road. But I need to know. “Why not?”
Again he hesitates. “I don’t want to start our relationship with lies, so I’ll come clean. She’s out cold.”
Pain and rage sucker punch me. “You hurt her?”
“It was just a little zap. She wouldn’t have come quietly. But she barely felt a thing, I assure you.”
A red haze crowds my vision, and I have to fight to stay conscious. “I’m going to kill you,” I vow in a voice I barely recognize as mine.
He chuckles. “Let’s not make such dire promises to one another. Your woman already tried once and failed. Now if I were the eye-for-an-eye type, I’d pay her back in kind.”
My grip tightens around the phone. “You already tried to kill her once, you asshole. You touch a hair on her head, and I’ll hunt you down to the ends of the earth.”
“You won’t need to go to all that trouble. My terms are simple. Seventy-five million in return for your Faith. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” I respond immediately.
“Excellent. This time, I’m going to demand a quicker turnaround. You have until six p.m. Account details will be on your phone in the next minute.”
The line goes dead, and my world turns to ash. The sound of an engine turning over finally drags me from the depths of hell. I look up as Linc screeches to a halt in the SUV. Mitch pulls up in the limo seconds later. They both exit.
“Sorry, sir. We saw no signs of her,” Mitch says.
“It’s fine. I know who has her,” I reply calmly.
They exchange glances. “This Galveston guy?” Linc asks.
I nod and hold up the gadget. “And I have her location.”
“Okay. We did find someone else though.”
“Who?”
He holds up his phone. It’s the same guy Faith was talking to outside Lisa’s office. Except now he looks very dead. “We think it’s the mole you mentioned. The gunshot wound looks self-inflicted.”
I stare at the picture for another second before I dismiss it from my mind. “We’re leaving. We’ll call the institute on the way. Get them to deal with it. And Mitch, mobilize the rest of the team. Leave one man behind at the house to look after Debbie. Get as many men as you can on the chopper. The tracker I put on Faith is still moving. Give us a call before you leave the house. I’ll give you the final location.”
I round the hood and climb into the SUV. Linc jumps into the passenger seat. I hand him the gadget, and he inputs the coordinates into the satellite navigation as I step on the gas and accelerate out of the Fallhurst Institute parking lot.
“You’re sure it’s her?” he asks after a few minutes.
I nod. “I put a tracking device in her clothes.”
He stares at the green dot for another minute. “If he sweeps her for bugs—”
“Trust me, I know,” I snap through gritted teeth. The very real possibility that I might lose the only lifeline that connects me to Faith throbs with each heartbeat.
I try to focus on the road and the twenty-seven miles that lie between us as Linc pulls out his phone and calls the agency with news of the dead agent’s location.
The moment he hangs up, my phone rings.
“Yes?”
“I see there’s been a development.” It’s Fionnella Smith.
“Yes. Your plan failed. Spectacularly. Your mole managed to get his fucking hands on Faith. And now Galveston has her.”
“Damn. Listen, son, I’m—”
“No. I don’t want to hear it. We tried it your way. It didn’t work. We have nothing more to discuss.” I hang up and tighten my grip around the steering wheel.
“We’ll get her back,” Linc mutters.
“Fuck yeah, we will.” We ride in silence for another couple of miles.
“They’ve stopped moving,” Linc says as he taps the coordinates into his phone.
My gaze drops to the dot. “Where is that?”
“According to the address, it’s an abandoned group of buildings that used to be attached to an old municipal airport south of the Santa Ynez Mountains. And…”
“What?” I snarl.
“It still has a functioning airstrip.”
My stomach turns liquid. But I still stomp my foot harder on the gas. The vehicle shoots forward. Linc grips the bar above his head with one hand and dials Mitch’s number with the other.
Through the roar in my ears, I hear him relay the address to Mitch and tell him we’ll be there in nineteen minutes. I shave three minutes off the time, and we roll through the barbed wire gates just before midday. I slow the vehicle to a crawl as we scan the area.
All the buildings and equipment are covered in years’ old decay. Except for the small airplane sitting at the end of the tarmac.
It hasn’t taken off yet, and the green dot is within touching distance. Twin streams of relief well through me. Only to drain away when I see the Jeep racing toward the plane.
I abandon all attempts at stealth and step on the gas. There are two large hangars and half a mile between us and the Jeep. Too far. God, she’s too far away.
In a small plane like that, Galveston could take off within seconds.
“Shit.” Linc draws his weapon but keeps it on his lap.
“If you shoot her by accident, I’ll kill you.”
He nods. “I’m aware of that, sir. This is going to be tricky though.”
I clench my jaw and milk every last ounce of horsepower from the SUV. It’s still not enough as I watch Galveston leap from the Jeep and drag Faith after him toward the plane.
Three men jump from the back and aim assault rifles at us.
“Sir,” Linc mutters.
I keep my foot on the gas.
“Sir, you need to stop.”
“They won’t shoot me. If they do, Galveston doesn’t get his money.”
“I understand. But—”
I engage the brakes at the last possible moment and screech to a halt a couple of feet from the Jeep’s bumper. Rifles cock when I throw open my door and step out.
Galveston turns with one arm across Faith’s shoulder and a gun aimed at her head.
God.
“I knew I couldn’t trust you,” he sneers.
I ignore him. My gaze rakes over Faith, the chill inside me flooding me in waves. “Baby, are you okay?”
She nods, but I see the pain in her eyes. I look closer and see the deep bruise on her temple. My fists clench at my sides.
“You’re not leaving with her, Galveston. Not today. Not ever.”
He laughs. “How the fuck are you going to stop me? You’re outnumbered, and outgunned. Transfer the money to me right now, and you can have her back. Or I put a bullet in her head.”
I hear Linc speaking softly into his phone but I keep my gaze trained forward. A minute later, he steps out too.
I take another step toward Galveston and his men. “You hurt her, and you die today. Let her go and I just might let you get on that plane and take off. Those are the only guarantees I’ll offer you.”
“Fuck you, Knight.”
I shrug. “Decide quickly; you’re running out of time.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
I nod at the fast-growing speck on the horizon, but I address the men with the assault rifles.
“Those are my guys in the chopper heading toward us. My guy Linc here has instructed them to block the runway and not allow your plane to take off. I don’t know what Galveston is paying you to help him kidnap my woman, but here’s my deal. I’ll pay each of you one hundred thousand if you drop your weapons right now and step over to my side of the party.”
The men exchange quick, startled glances. Then predictable greed lights up their features.
Galveston’s mouth drops open. “What the fuck? Don’t listen to—”
“His name is Killian Knight. You probably don’t know him, but it’ll take only a minute to look him up,” Faith adds. Then she sends me a little smile. “He’s an amazing guy.”
I nod. “I’m an amazing guy with a few dollars to play with. One hundred thousand. No questions asked. All I want is my girl back, safe and sound. Tell them, Linc.”
“Yep. He has money to burn for days. All he wants is his girl back.”
The sound of rotors approaching grows louder. “Which one of you is the pilot?” I shout.
The man to the farthest right jerks his chin at me.
“I’ll pay you double if you step over here first.”
The chopper is hovering low enough for them to see the six men on board, and the guns they’re wielding. Galveston’s men waver for another five seconds before the pilot drops his rifle. The other two follow immediately.
“You fucking sons of bitches,” Galveston snarls.
He points the gun at his pilot. Faith immediately drives her elbow into his gut. His gun goes off, but I don’t turn to see where the bullet hits because my heart stops as I watch Galveston redirect his gun toward her.
But I hear Linc’s curse and hiss of pain as I leap forward. I reach for the gun tucked into my pants. I drop to my knees, take aim, and shoot at the same time Faith pivots and knees Galveston in the balls. He doubles over and grabs at his jewels as blood erupts from his shoulder.
I’m not a fan of kicking a man when he’s down, but I barely stop myself from cheering when Faith delivers a roundhouse to his head that sends him sprawling on the tarmac. “That’s for tasing me too, you motherfucker!”
I can’t deal with the fact that he tasered her right now. If I do, I’ll probably shoot him again. I stop long enough to kick his gun halfway across the runway before I scoop her up in my arms.
“You’re safe. God, you’re safe.”
She wraps her arms around me and buries her face in my neck. One of us is shuddering. The other is shaking. I don’t care. She’s alive.
Somewhere behind us, the chopper lands. Minutes later, sirens rip through the air as local law enforcement arrives. Through it all, I clutch her harder, and she weeps against my shoulder.
“It’s over,” she mutters.
“Yes.” I sweep her into my arms and head for the chopper. We pass a couple of cops kneeling over a cuffed Galveston. His shoulder is wrapped in a thin bandage but he’s still bleeding.
There’s a little harmonious justice in knowing that Faith’s bullet in Cairo caught him in the right shoulder and mine caught him in the left. Still, I stop anyway to deliver my last piece of advice.
He glares at me as I smile.
“Congratulations, you’ve just become my pet project. I’m going to devote a considerable amount of money to make sure you stay in prison for the rest of your life. If I hear that you’re attempting to gain parole, I’ll pay a few skinheads to make sure you don’t leave prison with your balls intact.”
He pales further but keeps his mouth shut as I walk away.
“I can’t believe we nailed him,” Faith mutters.
I grip her tighter. “Believe it. He had you in his fucking clutches. That’s not something I’m going to forget quickly.”
“God, I’m sorry.”
My teeth grind against the last traces of fury riding me. “We’ll discuss proper safety protocols later. After I get you home and spend the next month holding you in my arms.”
Hers tighten around my neck as I step into the chopper. The blades start to rotate.
“Just a heads-up, baby. Linc is coming with us. He was shot.”
Distress darkens her eyes. “Oh God.”
“Galveston’s bullet grazed him but he’ll be fine. He’s already planning the many ways Mitch will wait on him while he’s recovering.”
When Linc steps into the chopper, her tears fall harder.
I hold her all the way back to Malibu. Somewhere along the way, her tears stop, but her eyes remain shadowed. She doesn’t speak when I undress her and wash her clean. The tears start again when I make love to her.
And as she falls asleep in my arms, I can’t erase the hollow feeling that I may have jumped the gun a little when I thought that our troubles were over.
Turns out they weren’t. With seven little words uttered the next morning, I’m plunged back into hell.
“I need to tell you about Cairo.”