Chapter Twenty-Five
came bounding into the apartment carrying a backpack and Echo's laptop.
"Where's Echo?" I asked as she set the laptop down.
"She had to go back into Nemo's to get her bag," she explained as she brought the backpack over to me on the couch and carefully set it down next to me. "My guy got everything you wanted."
I unzipped the bag and looked inside, then looked back up at Cece and smiled before I began unpacking it. There were two pistols with two extra magazines and underneath them were two blocks of military grade c-4 wrapped in the familiar green packaging, fuse and blast caps.
"Great job, Cece," I said as I examined the pistols and checked to make sure they were unloaded. "Have you ever fired a pistol?"
"Are you kidding me?" she said as she propped one hand on her hip and frowned.
"No, I'm serious," I said as I laid the first pistol down on the coffee table and picked up the second.
"Dude, I grew up in a family of men who love their guns," she said impatiently. "Yes, I have fired a pistol. And a rifle. And some other things that I'd rather not talk about."
"Why not?" I asked as I set the second pistol down and pulled out the explosives.
"Because it's none of your damn business," she shot back as she looked at the door and asked, "Shouldn't she be here by now?"
"Maybe she's catching up with Mando," I said dryly. "He's probably worried about his girls going out on a midnight mission."
"Yeah, he probably is," Cece said rolling her eyes. "He has a tendency to be over protective."
"Well, men get that way sometimes," I muttered as I set the bricks down and examined the blast caps.
"Yeah, and it's suffocating for us," she said sounding irritated. "You know, sometimes I wish he'd just let go and stop worrying. I can take care of myself and so can Echo."
"A little defensive?" I asked as I avoided looking at her. "So, we're not allowed to feel protective or be concerned anymore? Sheesh."
"Oh, don't get your alpha male hackles up," Cece said as she shot me a supremely irritated look. "It's just that we're not helpless little flowers, and when guys like you and Mando treat us like we are, it's unbelievably irritating. It's like we have to fight you, too."
"So what are we supposed to do?" I shot back equally irritated. "Just sit back and wait for you to call for help?"
"Yes," she said quietly. "Sometimes that's the best solution because often times we'll surprise you with how well we can do on our own. That's what you're afraid of, isn't it?"
"I'm not afraid of shit," I said as I wound up the fuse line and secured it with a rubber band I'd found in Echo's kitchen.
"No, of course you're not," she said crossing her arms over her chest. "I'll make sure to pass that message on to Echo when she gets here."
"Don't tell her anything," I growled before I looked up and asked, "Where is she?"
"No idea," she shrugged. "She should be up here by now."
"Then run down and see what's keeping her," I said. "You probably need to extract her from some good deed."
"Smart ass," she laughed as she headed out the door.
Two minutes later I heard her shouting from the street, "RYAN! GET DOWN HERE!"
I flew off the couch and down the stairs to the street where I found Cece gathering items that had spilled across the sidewalk when Echo had dropped her bag.
"What the hell happened?" I shouted as I turned and looked up and down the street.
"I don't know, but this is wrong," Cece said as she yelled for Mando who came rushing out seconds later.
"What the hell is going on out here?" he demanded.
"Echo's gone," Cece said as she looked at him accusingly. "Did you see what happened?"
"No, if I'd seen what had happened, I would have stopped it, Cee," he said in a brittle voice. "You think I'd have let something happen to Echo?"
"Well, you didn't see what happened, did you?" she yelled.
"Hey, hey guys, knock it off," I said stepping between them. "This isn't going to help. We don't know what happened, yet. Mando, go inside and see if anyone saw anything. Cece, come with me."
I turned and headed back up to the apartment where I flipped open the laptop and clicked on Echo's email account. There was one new message in the Inbox, so I opened it and found a message from an unknown sender that contained the message: We have her. Instructions to follow. Do not fuck this up, SEAL.
"Fuck!" I shouted as I slammed my fist on the counter.
"What's going on?" Cece asked.
"They have her," I said running a hand through my hair.
"Who has her?"
"That son of a bitch," I said as I rubbed my eyes and tried to decide whether it really was Julian who'd taken Echo and if so, how he'd linked me to her. I spilled Echo's theory and then quickly told Cece about my meeting with Baines at the club. "Why did he take her? Why not me?"
"Because she's more valuable," Cece said slowly, and then muttered, "Shit."
"What?"
"I bet they caught us on camera," she said as she paced the apartment thinking out loud. "I didn't think about it when we went in because I was focused on how to get us out of there after I'd pulled the alarm and the fire department had cleared out."
"How could you two have missed that?" I shouted. "She knew there were security cameras all over the place!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Cece waved me off as she continued speaking. "We were so hell bent on how to get in and get that new program installed, we just forgot about the cameras."
"That was a half-assed way of planning!" I shouted angrily.
"Look, SEAL, step down," she said as she stopped and stared at me. "We made a mistake, and I'm worried, too, but you yelling at me is not going to fix this or help us find Echo."
I sunk down on the couch and bent forward to take my head in my hands as I tried to calm myself. I was pissed as hell at Cece for not thinking about the cameras, and I would have been equally pissed at Echo had I not been so worried about what was happening to her.
"Ryan, she's going to be okay," Cece said quietly after a few minutes had passed. "She's smart and strong, and if we can't get to her, she'll figure out a way to free herself. I have no doubt about that, okay?"
I nodded even though I didn't believe a word of what she said. Echo was not fine. She had no idea who she was dealing with, and as I thought about it, neither did I. I was certain that Julian was behind this, though. He wanted something Echo had—or could get—and now it was clear that he would get it by any means necessary.
"We have to get into that lab before he does," I said as I sat up and looked at Cece. "Whatever it is that they want from Echo is in that lab."
"All right, then let's get to work, SEAL," Cece said with a determined look. "We've a job to do."