CHAPTER TWELVE
SHE’S STILL NOT answering her cell.”
Dalton cursed, this close to slamming his phone on the dash of Holden’s rental SUV as his friend steered through the relatively light traffic on highway 101. They were making good time, but not nearly as fast as Dalton would have preferred, especially when every instinct he had was telling him something was wrong.
He and Kimber had planned to spend the day hanging around the apartment, making cookies and watching cartoons with Emma. Then Henry Carpenter had called asking her to come into work. Kimber had reluctantly agreed, promising Dalton and Emma she’d be back as fast as she could.
That was four hours ago. After leaving half a dozen voice and text messages, Dalton was worried…and kicking himself for letting Kimber go on her own.
That’s why he’d called Holden and Wes and asked them to delay their return flight to San Diego, at least long enough to drive him over to JASCO to check on Kimber. Then he called Jessica and Matt and asked them to come over to babysit Emma. Thankfully, they hadn’t asked too many questions.
“Maybe she’s still in that meeting with the head of security and has her phone turned off,” Wes said from one of the back seats. “Or maybe the meeting started getting into classified info and she had to leave her phone outside the room.”
Dalton knew his friend was trying to help, but he wasn’t in the mood to be placated. “Kimber doesn’t have a security clearance, so there’s no way they’d pull her into a classified conversation. And I don’t care what they were talking about, there’s no way in hell this meeting with Henry could have lasted four hours unless something went wrong.”
Holden glanced at him as he changed lanes and passed a long line of vehicles. “I get that you’re worried because Kimber hasn’t answered her phone, but what are you afraid is going on?”
Dalton knew Holden thought he was overreacting. But his buddy hadn’t called him on it. Instead, he did everything he could to get them to JASCO as fast as possible because he knew Dalton wasn’t going to be able to relax until he confirmed for himself that Kimber was okay.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But the fact that JASCO’s head of security wanted to talk to her has me concerned. What if they decided to have her charged with breaking and entering, or burglary, or espionage…or whatever the hell they think she did? She could be in jail right now with no way to contact me, her parents, or anyone.”
“Even if that was the case—which it isn’t—there’s no way she’d ever get convicted,” Wes said firmly. “There’s no jury in the world that would find her guilty of anything.”
Dalton hoped that was true, but even so, getting arrested meant Kimber would spend time behind bars, and he didn’t like that idea. It would devastate Emma…and him.
That was when he realized how far and how hard he’d fallen for Kimber again. He didn’t want to be separated from her for even a day.
Coming face to face with the reality that he wanted Kimber in his life full time again was an epiphany. Yeah, he and Holden had talked about that very subject the other day, but it had seemed almost academic at that point. Like something he and Kimber needed to straighten out between themselves at some point. He’d almost mentioned it that morning after they’d made love while they were lying in each other’s arm watching the sun peek in the window. But Emma had run in and jumped on the bed.
Dammit. He should have told Kimber how he felt right then, even if Emma heard. Their little girl should be part of the conversation since she was so intricately interwoven in their relationship. But he’d chickened out, and now he couldn’t shake the feeling he might have missed his chance.
Dalton did his best to keep his concern in check, but when they reached the front gate of JASCO and found the guard shack empty, his heart started to thump harder.
Shit.
“Okay, now I’m starting to worry too,” Holden said as Wes jumped out to check the shack for foul play.
Wes came back a few moments later. “There’s no indication of trouble.”
“Open the gate,” Dalton said. “We’re going in there to look around.”
They’d already broken in once, he thought as Wes hit the switch. Doing it a second time wouldn’t get them into any more trouble.
They found Kimber’s Mini Cooper in the same space she’d parked in the first day she’d brought him there to recon the place. A quick check of the hood told him the vehicle was cool to the touch. She hadn’t left since getting there. Willingly, at least.
Dalton led the way to the front door. The lobby was empty and there wasn’t a guard at the front desk. Holden moved behind it.
“Security cameras are off,” he said.
Dalton wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but he knew it couldn’t be good.
The knot in his gut only got worse when they headed down the hallway toward Kimber’s part of the company’s cubicle farm and smelled gunpowder in the air.
“Shit, somebody’s been shooting in here recently,” Wes murmured, glancing left and right as if he thought the shooter was going to pop out from behind the next dividing wall.
Dalton sure as hell hoped not because none of them were carrying guns. He kicked himself for not asking Holden to get them weapons. But short of a few staplers and freshly sharpened pencils, there was nothing in the office they could use to defend themselves.
His heart pounded worse than it had on any mission he’d ever been on. The fear was so intense he almost didn’t want to keep moving, terrified of what he might find. What if Henry had gotten fired over the break-in and decided to take Kimber with him before he shot himself?
Dalton forced himself to stop thinking like that. It would just drive him insane and not help the situation at all. He was going to find Kimber alive, tell her exactly how he felt, then they were going to figure out a way to make this relationship work.
He was beginning to think they might have to search the entire building before they figured out what the hell was going on, but then Wes shoved open a big metal door that led into the warehouse and they found four bodies lying motionless on the floor.
Dalton’s heart stopped for half a second before he realized that all four bodies were male.
Wes raced over to see if any of the men were still alive, while Holden took out his cell phone and called 911 even as he walked down the center aisle of the warehouse.
“Kimber, it’s me!” Dalton called out.
Maybe she was hiding somewhere among the shelves and equipment. But there was no answer.
“There’s an open roll-up door in the back. It looks like whoever did this left,” Holden said as he came back. “Cops are on the way.”
A few feet away, Wes turned over the first body. Dalton immediately recognized the Asian man as one of the kidnappers from the warehouse when they’d rescued Emma. The man had a small automatic pistol in his rigid grasp, like he’d been in the middle of a gunfight when he’d been hit. There was a bloody hole in the middle of the man’s shirt. Someone had put a bullet through his heart. One shot…one kill.
“This one is carrying a Defense Security Services badge,” Holden said, checking the pockets of another man. “What the hell would this guy be here for? Don’t they do security clearance investigations?”
Wes looking up from the third guy. “He’s carrying the same badge. Looks like somebody shot him in the back. Guy never even knew it was coming.”
Dalton was pretty sure the DSS also conducted high-priority courier missions, like handling the movement of classified material. Maybe they’d been there to take possession of the classified computer chips the Chinese had wanted. He could definitely see the federal government getting twitchy and transferring them to a more secure location. He didn’t bother mentioning it to Wes and Holden, more concerned about seeing if the last man was still alive.
He rolled the last man over onto his back, expecting to find another DSS agent. He was shocked when he saw Henry Carpenter gazing up at him, pain in his eyes.
“Shit, he’s alive,” Dalton muttered.
Despite, the bullet holes in his lower chest and upper stomach, the man was still conscious. But Dalton wasn’t sure how much longer he’d stay that way.
“Henry, can you hear me?” he asked, pulling open the man’s shirt to see how bad the wounds were.
Wes knelt down on the other side of Henry to help. Unfortunately, neither of them were trained combat medics, so all he and Wes could do was put pressure on the wounds until EMS showed up.
“Kimber,” Henry whispered hoarsely.
Dalton wanted to tell the man to be quiet and conserve his strength, but the truth was, there wasn’t time for that. They needed to get any info out of Henry they could…before it was too late.
So, as Wes continued to try staunching the flow of blood from the man’s wounds, Dalton leaned down and put his mouth close to Henry’s ear. “It’s me—Dalton Jennings. Where’s Kimber? Is she okay?”
Henry was silent for so long that Dalton thought he’d passed out, but then he felt a soft breath of air against his cheek, followed by strained words.
“It was Jasper and Dennis,” he whispered roughly. “They were in it with the Chinese all along.”
Dalton opened his mouth to ask what the hell that meant—and what it had to do with Kimber—but Henry continued, his words coming out in between heavy gasps of pain and effort.
“Jasper got into financial trouble and skimmed money off the JASCO books. The Chinese found out and blackmailed him.”
Shit.
“Dennis was the one who suggested using Kimber to invoke the DOD transfer protocol,” Henry went on. “The Chinese were supposed to hit the DSS truck out on Highway 101 so there was no way anyone could trace the theft back to Jasper. Kimber and I figured out something weird was going on and were talking to the DSS guys when the Chinese got impatient and showed up. I hit one of them, but there were too many.”
“Where’s Kimber?” Dalton asked.
He didn’t give a shit about embezzling or blackmail. He wanted to know what had happened to the woman he loved.
Henry winced as Wes pressed a makeshift compression bandage to the wound in his stomach.
“The big Chinese guy took her,” Henry said, his voice getting weaker by the second. “He said they needed her to help get them onto the boat.”
Dalton cursed, worried Henry was starting to hallucinate from blood loss. Or was about to pass out. “I don’t understand what you’re saying. What boat? Where’s Kimber?”
“Jasper’s boat,” Henry said. “The big Chinese guy said they couldn’t get out of the country with all the classified prototypes they had. Not with Homeland, the FBI, and CIA all looking for them. So, Jasper suggested his yacht. He said he could get them to Mexico, then they could all disappear from there.”
“Where did they take her, Henry?” Dalton demanded, resisting the urge to shake the man. “And when?”
“Berkeley Marina,” Henry whispered. “Five or ten minutes ago. The Chinese guy said it’ll be easier to get past marina security if they have her with them.”
Dalton couldn’t say the man was wrong. People tended to be less suspicious when there was a pretty woman around.
“What slip at the marina?” he asked urgently, giving Henry a gentle shake.
It was no good. Henry tried to answer, but the words simply wouldn’t come out. A few moments later, his eyes slowly closed.
Dalton immediately checked for a pulse. It was weak, but there. “He’s still with us, but I’m not sure for how much longer.”
“Cops and EMS are pulling up to the gate,” Holden announced from Dalton’s right. “If we’re going to go after Kimber, we need to do it now.”
Dalton nodded and glanced at Wes. “Stay with Henry and let the cops know what’s going on. But give Holden and me a head start before you tell them about the marina so we can get there first.”
It was obvious from the frown Wes gave him that he didn’t like that plan, but he nodded.
Dalton scooped up Henry’s handgun while Holden grabbed the one the Chinese man had been carrying. Then they both headed out the back. Hopefully, they could slip past the cops without being seen. Not that it mattered. There was no way in hell he was letting anyone get between him and Kimber. He only prayed he wasn’t too late.