American Law (Law #2) (13 page)

Chapter 25

They drove for another forty minutes to a neat and quiet suburb. The houses all looked like something that would grace the glossy cover of a homes and gardens magazine. Not one leaf marred the pristine lawns of the pompous pricks who resided in the large houses that lined the street. He was led up the path to the front door and pushed not so gently inside.

Dmitry snarled as he took in his surroundings. The décor was expensive and new, the walls decorated with artistic prints that one would have to be insane to own. A Persian rug lay between two stylish sofas, covered in plush cushions. To his left, a desk and computer stood, and in the center of the room, silently fuming and sitting on a kitchen chair, was Elena. Her hands, like his, were handcuffed in front of her. She stopped glaring at her captors when she spotted him and worry furrowed her brow before quickly turning her fear back into anger.

She was all right—for the time being, at least. Whoever decided to mess with her at the moment would have some protruding part of their anatomy removed painfully, judging by the death glares she sent toward Sean’s goons. Elena had not taken being kidnapped and held against her will lightly. Dmitry could see she was buying time, trying to come up with a decent plan to escape with both their lives intact—all while planning the deaths or maiming of the burly lackey goons.

“Elena,” Dmitry said, moving toward her only to be blocked by another muscular man with a tattoo of a dragon down the right hand side of his face.

“Dmitry, so good to see you,” Sean Henry said as he came into sight. “You have caused me a great deal of trouble. My boss wasn’t very forgiving. He wants the file, you see, and you have inconvenienced him terribly.”

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The man was acting like he was part of a gangster movie.

“Yeah, I’m real broken up about that,” he said, making sure Sean could hear the lack of interest in his tone.

Sean narrowed his eyes and hit Dmitry hard in the stomach, momentarily winding him. He heard Elena anxiously calling out his name, wanting to know if he was all right. He listened as she swore and cursed in Russian. The woman had a sailor’s mouth—words
he
didn’t even say out loud. She certainly hadn’t learnt them from him.

Sean cracked his knuckles. “Don’t smart ass me.”

Dmitry straightened his body, standing up to his full height and looked the murdering bastard in the eyes. He almost smiled when the other man shivered from the frightening look he knew was in his cool grey eyes, promising things he would do to the man had his wrists not been restrained in handcuffs.

“You hit like a girl, Sean,” he said, “and you had to do it when I was cuffed, so what does that tell you? You’re a spineless coward and you will get your comeuppance. I will make sure of it.”

Sean made another fist, determined to hit him again, when the boss made his entrance. The man commanded attention. He was an older gentleman of about fifty, his hair grey and receding, his eyes a dark brown. Dmitry could tell he was accustomed to loyalty and authority.

Dmitry recognized power when he saw it, guessing he’d been in the Armed Forces—a man whose rank had been high at one time. Anyone who tried to fuck him over had to be either downright stupid or desperate.

He also looked very familiar. He searched his mind for the answer, but none was forthcoming. Either way, it wasn’t something he would waste energy on.

Sean let his fist drop and shoved Dmitry forward, closer to his boss. The older man surveyed Dmitry as if he was a slab of meat, appearing pleased at the gift he’d been given.

“Dmitry Ivanov in the flesh. It is a real shame it had to go down like this, my friend. You could have been extremely useful to the country, otherwise. I do not wish to hurt you or your sister,” the man added, glancing over at Elena. He spoke as if he’d only just remembered that he had kidnapped her. “So, if you please, retrieve Sundown and return it to me.”

Dmitry snorted. “It was never yours to begin with, and either way we’re dead. I’ve seen the way you do business…and they call us Russians cold. I’m not about to make your life easier just so I can be killed after I’ve outlived my usefulness. I’m not that stupid.”

The boss gave him a small smile. “You have balls, Dmitry. It’s a shame we can’t work together. We are, after all, on the same side.”

“Which is precisely why I’m handcuffed here against my will,” Elena said sarcastically.

The boss looked at her once more. “All unfortunate circumstances, Agent Ivanova, I assure you. It pains me to see such a fine, loyal agent of the SVR in such a position, but I’m afraid my priorities are not with you. I must have Sundown back.”

He knew Elena was SVR and he had taken her from a CIA agent’s house. This man was not fucking shy, that was for sure. He had no doubt he would do just about anything he wanted and the worse bit was that he could and would get away with it.

“And Ivan Anisimov, what is he, a causality of war?” Dmitry asked, his voice steely. Just thinking about Ivan’s tragic ending made him extremely pissed off. It had been a meaningless waste. “Or was he just another unfortunate circumstance?” Dmitry added, staring hard at the man, not allowing him to break eye contact.

He had to give him some credit. He didn’t shiver or back down like others had done, including Sean, when faced with his cold stare.

Sean moved forward, more than likely to hit him again. If the cretin touched him he would rip the man’s arm out of the socket. The look he shot him reflected the thought, and Sean’s steps faltered slightly.

“Don’t,” the boss warned. He turned back to Dmitry. “War is hell, and the cost of freedom is paid for in lives. Regrettable but also unavoidable. Unfortunately, you drew the short straw. Yes, you were expendable. Just a pawn in my game. But you proved to be resourceful. I’ll not underestimate you again. Now you will retrieve Sundown for me. Once I confirm it’s all there, you and your sister are free to go.”

He barely contained his anger at how cavalierly the man spoke of Ivan’s murder, as if his friend’s life was worth nothing. He glanced in Elena’s direction, noticing that she also struggled with her temper.

“What are my guarantees that we’ll be let go? We’ve both seen your faces. I know your name,” he said, looking at Sean before returning his cool eyes back to the boss. “And yours will soon come to me, have no doubt about that. How do I know you won’t just shoot Elena like you did Ivan?”

“You don’t, now do you?” Sean said. “You do as the boss asks, or I’ll put a bullet in her brain myself. Are we clear?”

“Although Mr. Henry here lacks diplomacy, I’m afraid he’s quite right. There are certain times in a man’s life when there are no choices to be made. That there is only one road you can travel down and that you must obey the rules of which are supplied to you. Believe me, Mr. Ivanov, when I say that in my tenure as a general, there have been many times when I have watched men, women, and children alike murdered for the sake of progress. I have ordered such deaths and I will again if you push me to do so.”

Something in his eyes that told Dmitry he wasn’t bluffing. Elena offered him a shrug when he glanced in her direction. The trust in her eyes at any decision he would make almost brought him to his knees.

Elena, how the hell do we get into these messes?

“Elena?” he asked, verifying what she wanted him to do. They were heading into dangerous territory and he wanted them to be on the same track.

Elena made herself more comfortable in her chair. When she spoke, it was in a resigned voice. “Just do as they ask, Dmitry. Like the man said, you don’t have any other choice.”

He could tell she knew Lucas would come for her, that he was probably tearing up all of Virginia, D.C., and Maryland searching for them. He had probably found the GPS by now, and knew Dmitry would find a way to notify him if he got the chance. He had to get a message to Lucas. It would be the only way for them to survive. He knew the men surrounding them were enforcers and that he and Elena wouldn’t be leaving the house alive no matter the promises they received. He knew Elena trusted in him and his abilities to get the message across without being seen.

He nodded, making his way to the computer, and sat down in the chair provided. He raised his hands, revealing the handcuffs. The boss shook his head.

“The handcuffs stay on. You’re an experienced man, Dmitry, you can make do with what you have. Just for your information, I have with me my assistant, Harrison. He is very good with computers also, though not quite in your caliber, but I doubt many are. If I suspect you are trying to mess with me or Sundown, I will have him review your work. I’m sure you realize the penalty for such an action.”

The boss glanced over at Elena, making a not-so-subtle hint. She crossed one leg over the other and let out a scoff full of contempt. The action would have worked better had her wrists not been handcuffed.

“I understand.”

“Good. I assume you’ve made provisions to remove the tag? I think we’re all in agreement that we’d like to keep DoD out of this.”

Nodding, he turned his attention to the monitor. He began typing, his fingers almost blurring as they moved speedily over the keyboard. He moved into cyberspace and found his last footprint and retraced his steps, uploading the program he’d created the night before. Even with his expertise, it was risky to implement. He’d already seen the DoD’s response time, but he had no other choice and hoped since he was only retrieving a small part of the file that they’d lose his thread when he moved on to the next and would have to start the trace over.

He was sure the Pentagon looked like a Christmas tree right now, with all their bells and whistles going off as he located the first part of Sundown and set it to download. He made short order of finding the first five parts in under ten minutes. The rest would not be so easy, considering he could only access the storage computers hard-drive when the computer was on, otherwise he would have to get creative and send a worm in through a back door to ferret out the file.

The fact that the file had been spread across hundreds of different locations around the world would make it extremely difficult. He had to work on a time restraint, attacking the same time zones at once before moving on. He set about creating the program to do just that, leaving him some time to work on his other quandary.

One of the many problems he had was in not knowing where the hell he was. Not knowing the area. He hadn’t been able to visualize a map as they had driven along the Beltway. He was going to need a location to get the cavalry to come save the day. That, and he would need a brilliant idea as to how to let Lucas know where they were without alerting the boss. He would have to be sneaky and overly cautious. They were dead if he was found out.

Bringing up the command box, he flicked through the computer’s internal hard-drive and found the IP address for his present location. Using the numbers, he infiltrated the service provider’s database and came up with the address. It barely took any time from infiltration to success. He had done so many hacks of this caliber that the entire process could have been completed blindfolded.

The house was registered to the DoD. So far, so good. That was the easy part. The residence was obviously a safe house set up by the government for witnesses and prisoners alike. That was good news as far he was concerned. They would be less inclined to kill them there. They wouldn’t want to have to rinse blood out of the carpet; this bought them some time.

I hope.

He glanced at the innocuous round viewer on the top of the monitor. He had an idea. It was just sneaky enough that he might get away with it. He set up the webcam to record and sent a live link to Jim’s computer at the CIA. He remembered the address from earlier when he had tried to locate Elena’s phone. Moving quickly, he embedded a code that would push through whatever barriers the agency might have.

Chapter 26

Lucas paced back and forth across Jim’s office, occasionally looking at the screen of the computer. He trusted Dmitry, knew he would find a way to contact him. The man was smart and resourceful and wouldn’t allow a setback to stop him from getting word out.

After the GPS hadn’t moved in over an hour, he’d started to worry.
Fuck that
, he’d been downright scared and still was. He’d sent an agent to the last place Dmitry’s GPS had placed him—a 7-Eleven. The agent had returned with a pile of clothes, the outfit Dmitry had been wearing.

He’d almost put his fist through the wall and would have had Jim not caught it in time. True fear and panic swelled inside him. He needed to do something—anything. He was a man of action and not designed for sitting on his ass waiting, imagining all the terrible things that could be happening to Elena at that very minute. He continued to pace in order to keep himself occupied, and to keep from tearing up Fitzgibbon’s office in futile rage.

If anything happened to Dmitry, he could kiss Elena goodbye, for there was no other reason to keep her alive. The only thing they had to go on was that when Sean had called he had been heading north on the Beltway. Except, there was a hell of a lot of north. The Beltway crossed state lines into D.C. or continued on into Virginia. He felt impotent, unable to do anything to help the woman he loved. He’d waited eighteen months for her and now some bastard was using her as a pawn in a very dangerous game.

Would he ever get a break? He regretted allowing so much time to pass, not wanting to push. They’d let time slip through their fingers. Time he desperately wanted. No woman had ever completed him or tied him in knots like Elena.

The only woman he wanted. The only woman he’d ever loved.

He’d been so close to having it all. He couldn’t lose her.

He ran his stiff fingers through his hair. He was extremely frustrated, because of the situation and because he finally felt they both knew where they stood. Last night had been a turning point in their relationship. They had both put their hearts on the line and declared their feelings. He wanted nothing more than to be at home lying next to her in bed, replaying the events of the previous night over and over.

Last night…he almost groaned aloud at the vision dancing in his head. Elena so deliciously naked on his bed, him taking her not once but twice, making her cry out in pleasure, giving to her everything he was and more. Promising her his life and his heart as they made love. Now here, nineteen hours later, he had already lost her to some murdering prick.

His body cooled. Debilitating fear racked his body. It had happened only once before in Russia when Alexei Dimitrovich had kidnapped Elena, deciding to use her as insurance. He hadn’t allowed Alexei to hurt her then and he certainly wasn’t about to let Sean do that now. They were on his turf, in his country, in his city, and they better be prepared for the consequences. When he found them, he wasn’t about to let them go easily, and so help them if they harmed
his
Elena because he could not be held responsible for his actions.

Fitzgibbon’s computer beeped, and an incoming video-stream dialog box appeared. Jim frowned, and Lucas stood behind him as a live video feed access request appeared. Jim was about to disregard the message when Lucas stopped him.

“Wait.” He looked at the sender’s name: Roulette01. He smiled. It had to be Dmitry.

Eighteen months ago, after Dmitry had dropped him and Elena off at Moscow’s Leningradsky train station, he’d said to Lucas,
“Remember, if anything happens to her, you are going to have firsthand knowledge of playing Russian roulette, only they’d be more than one bullet, clear?”

They had been alone when Dmitry had given him the warning; even Elena had no idea what had transpired between the two men. She had been standing outside the vehicle at the time and he’d never spoken a word of it to her. Dmitry wouldn’t have shared that with anyone else.

He accepted and the live feed popped up immediately. His assumption proved correct when he viewed the webcam footage. It was Dmitry, his head hiding the rest from view. He looked straight into the camera, giving them a diminutive nod, before he looked to the right and pulled away from the monitor, allowing the webcam to get a shot behind him.

Another man came into view, a man he recognized immediately. The air rushed out his lungs. This was not good, not good at all.

“Is that—?”

The man in the frame was a well-known and well respected man whom Lucas had once liked. He regretted that now. Rage boiled up inside him, the feeling of being betrayed in his mind. This man had indeed betrayed him, and the American people. Betrayed and endangered.

“Leon Gallagher, the National Security Advisor to the President,” Jim said, the tone of his voice clipped.

He agreed. “Yes.”

Jim lifted his handset and began to dial a number when his computer beeped once more and an instant message appeared. Several words appeared on the screen, making out an address in Rockville, Virginia. He pinched the bridge of his nose as Dmitry followed up with more information telling them that he was in a government safe house and that Elena was okay and to get there quick. He finished the message with an approximate number of men involved. When Lucas brought in the troops, it would be easier to know how many they were dealing with.

He let out a sigh of relief. Elena was safe for now. The knot in his stomach lessened. On the phone, Jim arranged for a team of men to descend upon the peaceful street. He should be there before things turn sour. He didn’t trust the other agents not to fire at Elena and Dmitry. They didn’t know the two like he did, and he planned to keep them safe. For the rest of their lives.

It would be a tough assignment due to their penchant for trouble, but he was man enough to handle it. Although, it all depended upon Elena, and whether she was prepared and willing to leave everything she had ever known to join him. He prayed she would be up to the task. He moved toward the door, his hand unconsciously going to his weapon holster. He stopped suddenly as a thought entered his head, and he turned around and faced Fitzgibbon.

“I want you to do something for me, Jim,” he said. “I want to call in a favor. No, wait…make that two. The man owes Elena and me both.”

He explained what he wanted him to do before stepping out the door, mentally preparing himself for the mission ahead. He pushed away all worries, and went into agent mode.

He had a promise to keep.