Dangerous Protector (Aegis Group Book 5) (26 page)

A long, rectangular window covered in bars was the only source of light. Besides a few shelves, a table and chairs, the basement was empty.

“I had this perfect plan, you know? Good Global has been trying to puzzle out NueEnergy’s secrets for a while. I figured it had to be something simple. They were paying someone off or cutting corners. I had no fucking idea it was a shell corporation.” Scott kicked the other chair, sending it sliding sideways.

Marco had said something similar. That NueEnergy wasn’t really a viable company. They just did enough business to pretend to be one.

“Do you know how hard I had to work to just fall into Good Global’s lap like that? For fuck’s sake, could you make a bigger mess?” Scott stopped a few feet away, staring at her.

This was her fault?

She’d pushed paper and answered phones. NueEnergy’s illicit activities were as much of a shock to her as anyone else. Maybe she’d wondered at their lack of growth, but it’d never mattered to her because it wasn’t her business to know.

“Because of you, I’m out of a job. Again!” He threw up his hands.

“I’m sorry, Scott.” She needed to placate him. Agree with whatever he said. Keep her cool.

Someone was looking for her, weren’t they?

Or was Marco…

Oh God.

She couldn’t think like that.

Scott took several slow steps toward her. There was something about the way he stared at her. The crazy lights were on behind his eyes.

Fiona planted her feet on the ground and pushed, inching farther away from him, but he was faster. Scott planted his knee between her thighs, weighing the chair down. He wrapped his hands around her throat, his thumbs curling around her windpipe.

“No—help!” She screamed and threw her weight backward, but Scott was heavier.

“I had plans to kill you in your sleep, but whatever gets the job done. You’ve ruined my fucking life, you bitch! Now I’ll take yours…”

Randy shoved the black
case into the tech’s hands.

“Were the bodies disposed of?” he asked his lead from the secondary team.

“Yes, sir.” The man didn’t offer extraneous details, which was why he was so valuable.

This whole fucking thing was a nightmare.

“I want a full report. Who were they? Why were they there?” Randy thunked his fist against the overhead compartment. In the scheme of things, he needed to know the unknown.

Marco and his friends were a factor he had a handle on. He’d deal with them later. This whole thing was a fucking disaster, all because George and Eli couldn’t ensure a couple security measures were in place.

“Well?” Randy snapped at the tech.

“Sorry, sir, the system is running slow. Probably due to takeoff.” The tech hunched his shoulders.

Randy was asking a lot of a few good men, but he needed answers. Now.

What had Fiona and Marco gotten their hands on? How much did they know? And what about that video? Whoever was filming now had footage of a triple homicide, and that was leverage Randy couldn’t afford. He needed to know more about the men, who they were attached to, and who would be looking for them.

“I’m in, sir. Sorry, this laptop’s just running real slow for some reason. I’ll handle it when we get back to the office.”

“Good. What do they have?” Randy leaned over the tech’s shoulder as the plane took off.

“I…don’t know. There’s no order here.”

Fuck. More hassle.

“Someone find me that damn woman.” Randy straightened and stalked to the front of the plane and where he’d left his things. When they landed, he needed to have answers ready or it was his neck on the block.

Lila’s knees gave way
and she sat in the chair.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Her phone rang and she barely managed to answer it with her shaking hands.

“Paul?” She hated the way her voice broke, but she was a desperate woman.

It’d never supposed to go this way. They were to watch, to steal a little data, things the government did every day.

No one was supposed to die

“Lila, sorry. I got your message.”

“Please tell me something opened up.”

“What’s wrong?” Paul’s rich, warm voice soothed her. He might be a flirt, but he was a stand-up guy.

“Things…have gone sideways. I don’t fully understand what happened, but…if you can think of anything that would put me—”

“There is something, but you aren’t going to like it.”

“Anything, Paul. You—you don’t know how badly I need out of here.”

Paul sighed. Whatever it was, it had to be bad.

“Paul, you might be saving my life.” She knew this Randy person’s type. He was a killer. And soon—he’d come for her.

“I might be putting you in danger,” Paul said softly. “The NeoTank Project is officially active. They need…handlers.”

“I’ll do it.” What better way to protect herself from a predator than to align herself with a bigger, badder one?

“Lila, this means—”

“Going dark. Off the grid. I know.” She pulled her purse out of the drawer while her mind unboxed a plan.

Lila Hershel was a dead woman as of today. Randy couldn’t track and kill someone who was already presumed dead.

Marco wiped Danny’s blood
off on his jeans. He was hyper aware of everything. The shift of the air conditioner, the wind whistling through the cracked window, the smell of sweat.

“What the hell?” Danny yelled from the back seat.

He was fine, but the tumble to safety had scraped up his already raw face. Head wounds bled like a bitch, but Danny would be okay.

Fiona though…

Marco shoved his hand through his hair. He wanted to punch something. Scream. Cry like a baby.

“Marco,” Felix snapped. He swerved through traffic.

“How far out are we?” he asked.

“A few minutes.” Felix glanced at him, lips pressed tightly together.

Thank God Ghost had installed the tracking app on Fiona’s phone. They’d been left scrambling when Scott’s team ploughed into the meet. Marco didn’t know what’d happened to those three men, but the last he had seen of them wasn’t very promising. Randy was a killer. At any opportunity, he’d go for the throat. Maybe the only reason Marco and Danny got out of there was because suddenly Randy had an armed threat to face down?

Marco jammed his finger against the headset. It beeped once.

“Ghost. Talk to me.”

“Leave me the fuck alone, Marco. I can’t do anything if you’re hounding me. I’m sitting in the back of a goddamn car trying to do this.” Ghost’s voice was more of a snarl. Marco got it. Ghost hadn’t signed up for something of this scale and Marco was asking for the moon.

“Has she moved?”

“No,” Ghost replied.

Marco closed his eyes and prayed he was wrong.

“We should be on top of her.” Felix slowed the SUV. It had been Scott’s. Now it was theirs.

“There. Stop.” Marco opened the passenger door before Felix could apply the brakes.

Marco took a few steps and stopped at a metal garbage bin. He peered into the depths, nothing but run of the mill garbage in sight. He pulled out his cell phone and hit dial.

He heard ringing.

From the garbage can.

He reached in and rummaged around until he felt the vibrations.

There it was.

Her phone.

Marco glanced at the screen and flicked his thumb over the End Call button.

“Park the truck. We start searching here.” He wiped the face of the phone off and pocketed it.

Where would he go if he were Scott? Both NueEnergy and Good Global would want him now, so he’d be prepared to shed this identity. He’d need internet access. A hacker like him would live and die by his WiFi access. Fiona would draw attention. She’d been on the news and publicly still presumed kidnapped.

Scott couldn’t take her anywhere public. The only places open to him would be the sort of establishment that accepted cash and no IDs. But if he wanted to avoid any human contact altogether, where would he go?

“Hey, Ghost, you there?”

“Fuck you,” the other man grumbled.

“Can you do a search for rental properties, anything that’s for sale, within easy distance of…a coffee shop, library, something that would have public WiFi access? Have any rentals reported break-ins recently? Maybe something near public transportation?”

“What am I? Your fucking Google?” Ghost was snapping at him, but the sound of keys clicking in the background was loud. “Not just anyone can get police reports this fast, you know?”

“Yeah, and I don’t want to know how you can do that.”

Felix and Ian strolled down the street toward him without Danny.

“Where’s my cousin?” he asked them.

“In the truck, though he’s bitching up a storm,” Felix replied. “What do we have?”

“I swear, if one more of you asks me a single fucking question I’m going to pump you full of lead.”

Marco was the only one who could hear Ghost. They hadn’t been prepared to have a team, just the two of them.

“Ghost is working on it,” Marco said.

“You know, he might not even be in this area.” Ian turned in a circle. “If I were him, I’d drop the phone and run.”

“He’s a serial killer who likes the internet. He’s low on situational awareness.” Marco gestured down the street. “There.”

A coffee shop was a block away.

They made it to the corner and peered in all four directions. The area was older, with established homes and neighborhoods. Exactly the kind of area where Scott could slip in and hide. He was normal looking, as though he belonged.

“Okay, you aren’t going to like this,” Ghost said.

“What?”

“I’ve got five locations within a mile of where you are that fit the bill. There would be six, but that last one was reported broken into so it’s off the list.” It stood to reason that any property broken into recently had too much attention already on it. Scott—Nova—would want something away from prying eyes.

“Hit me with them.” Marco pulled out his phone.

“Emailed.”

Marco pulled up the message and cursed.

The addresses were dotted around in a two mile radius. It was a lot of ground to cover and they had one vehicle.

“I’m headed to you,” Ghost said. “You should know, the cops are all over the place. Keep your heads down.”

“No, go to that furthest address. Ian, Felix and I will split up.” Marco glanced at the other two.

They all knew what the odds were. Aegis’ bread and butter was asset recovery, which was a nice way of saying they got people back who were kidnapped or taken hostage. Typically in foreign countries. On home soil, they mostly did bodyguard work, and left asset recovery to the authorities.

Fiona didn’t have the luxury of waiting on the cops, and Marco couldn’t slow down to get them caught up or prove that he was one of the good guys. They would have to handle this.

Ian and Felix took off in different directions. Felix went back to the SUV while Ian jogged toward a bus stop.

Too bad Marco didn’t have his motorcycle. His buddy west of Denver still had it stashed for him.

Marco headed northeast, his eyes peeled. The address he was headed to was a half mile away. More than enough time to agonize over what Scott could be doing to Fiona right now.

This was all Marco’s fault.

If he could just find her, save her, get her somewhere safe…

All he wanted was for her to be alive.

For as long as Marco had lived he’d never thought he could feel so deeply for someone that wasn’t blood. He’d accepted that lust was about as far as it went with him, that maybe he was just broken—and then she’d happened. He’d never deserve her and wouldn’t ask for her forgiveness. All he wanted was for her to be happy. And safe.

He turned down a residential street. The homes were close together, with uniform brick walls and wide porches.

A white sign with the red words FOR SALE captured his attention.

Marco swallowed.

Fiona could be in there…

25.

Scott leaned in close.
Brat’s face was purple and her eyes bulged nearly out of her head. He’d imagined this moment dozens—hundreds—of times. It was so much better now that it was a reality.

A few more seconds and she’d be done. Dead. Finally!

Her movements lost some of the frantic flailing. Even in death, she was still a brat.

Another moment…

Her knee jerked up, ramming his balls toward his tailbone.

He grunted and his hands slid to her shoulders. For a moment, he struggled to draw in air.

Fuuuuck, that hurt.

The bitch.

Brat sucked in deep breaths, her body shuddering. Tears wetted her cheeks, and she sobbed. He was so close he could feel the caress of her breath on his cheek.

Yeah, he was going to hurl.

He’d almost finished the damn job.

Scott pushed off her and hobbled a few steps, one hand on his groin.

“Help!” Brat’s damaged throat made her cries too soft and broken to be heard beyond these walls.

He turned, watching her wobble the chair a bit. The color was coming back to her cheeks, but her gaze was disoriented. Her fear…

Scott grinned. Her terror was…exhilarating. Everything he’d ever wanted. He could do this again, and again, and again.

Now…that was something to think about…

Scott took a step toward her and leaned in.

He could
smell
her fear.

Brat whimpered and tried to wiggle out of the restraints, but he knew how to tie a damn, fucking knot. She wasn’t going anywhere.

He wrapped his hands around her neck again and squeezed.

This time she fought twice as hard. She kicked out, thrashed her head from side to side. He pressed the heel of his hand against the curve of her throat harder, waiting for that flicker, the moment when her life hovered between this one and the next.

She jerked her head and twisted out of his grasp. The chair toppled sideways, and she cracked her head against the floor.

“Stupid bitch!” He stood over her and let her get a few breaths in.

Her breath wheezed past her lips, and her eyes rolled in her head.

Good, she was coming back around.

How many times could he take her to the brink and snatch her back? This was almost better than killing her outright.

Marco shoved the back
door of the white bungalow closed.

She wasn’t there.

He checked his phone.

Ghost didn’t have her.

Ian didn’t have her.

Felix—

Marco’s phone chimed with a negative from Felix as well.

That only left one more possible location, unless Scott was long gone. Marco didn’t know if he should hope she was at the fifth location, or somewhere else. If she was there, Scott was killing her. If he’d taken her on the road…Marco dreaded what would happen if Scott had ample time and resources on his hands.

All this time he’d worried about NueEnergy and Good Global getting their claws in her.

Scott was worse.

He was the snake in the grass. The wolf in sheep’s clothing.

He’d planned this. Maybe spent years setting it up. Who knew? Scott had motive and years of anger to throw at Fiona. And Marco might only have moments left to save her.

Marco mapped the remaining address. He was closest, but it was still a hike.

He jabbed a button and took off at a jog.

“Where are you?” Felix didn’t bother with pleasantries.

“I’m at…” He squinted at the intersection signs ahead and rattled them off.

“I’m three minutes away from you.”

“Hurry.”

Marco didn’t stop at the intersection. Felix would find him. He was resourceful like that. A good team was worth their weight in gold, and Marco had the best at his back. Now, they were in a race to find Fiona before Scott exacted his revenge. Fiona, in all her abandon, had shown him what he had to live for, that he wasn’t broken, that he had a heart, that he could love. He couldn’t lose her.

Fiona’s nerves were on
fire. Everything hurt. Ached. Throbbed. She was going to die. Her mind floated in a sea of darkness. She could feel the edge where life met death. It wasn’t far away. Each time Scott wrapped his hands or pressed his foot to her throat he nudged her a little bit closer to that line.

If she could just die, this would all be over.

No more fear of Nova.

No more fear that some random person would connect her to a former identity.

No more heartbreak.

No more pain.

No more Marco…

She choked out a sob.

Marco.

Why did it have to be him? Why couldn’t she fall for someone who could love her back? She loved Marco. He’d said he loved her, too. But in the scheme of things she didn’t matter enough. She never would. It was her fate. Unrequited love and unequal feelings.

Death wanted her, though.

She could feel it’s hands pulling her in for a comforting embrace.

The end would be better. No more pain. No more heart break. Just…nothing.

Smack!

Pain radiated from her face. She felt her body move, her head bounce off the concrete, but it was a distant sensation. As though her soul and body were separating. She heard herself, the moan of pain, could taste blood on her tongue and smell her own sweat, but it wasn’t the same anymore. She wasn’t in her body.

Smack
!

In a too-sharp moment, both soul and body slammed back together, redoubling the pain tenfold. Her eyes snapped open and she stared into Scott’s twisted, horrible face.

She groaned and tried to focus her eyes, but they refused to obey.

“I’m going to kill you and bring you back.” Scott grabbed her by the shirt, hauling her up off the ground until they were face to face. “Over and over and over again.”

She tried to laugh, but the sound came out as a gurgle.

He had probably one more go. She was close to the end. So close.

One more time wouldn’t be all that bad, would it? This whole thing was almost over. And then what? Whatever was across that divide had to be better than this.

Scott released her and she fell to the ground. Her head hit the concrete and her vision blurred.

Fiona lay on her back, staring at the ceiling.

This wasn’t right. She’d been tied to…to…a chair.

Where was the chair? When had she come untied? She couldn’t remember. Everything was fuzzy.

She was going to die.

She didn’t want to die, but it was better than this.

Marco would carry the guilt for her death. If only she could tell him somehow this wasn’t his fault. He’d done all he could, but her past was coming back to finish her finally. She’d hoped it wouldn’t end this way, that she might have a chance at a future, but she should have known better. A person like her didn’t get to be happy. Her only regret would be holding onto her anger at Marco. Yes, he’d betrayed her, but he’d done it for love. Love of his family, love of his heritage, for his parents—love. It was the one thing she understood better than him. Love made her do crazy, stupid things, like fall for a bad boy biker she had no business being with. And yet she had.

Nova filled her vision.

He wasn’t all that tall.

She’d always pictured him…rougher around the edges. Less corporate looking. More like a basement dweller. He’d always seemed like that in chat. It was almost funny how…normal he looked now that they were face to face.

Scott knelt and placed his hand on her throat.

She swallowed and blinked. A tear rolled down her cheek.

This was it.

He’d get one more out of her before he pushed her so far across death’s doorstep there was no coming back.

If only she could tell Marco it was okay. She forgave him. He was the last remaining person who really knew her. Who would mourn her. What she wouldn’t give for sixty seconds with him just to say good-bye.

Fiona sucked down a breath, her throat so raw even that hurt.

Marco…

Was that…?

No, her mind was playing tricks on her.

He wasn’t here. Or maybe he was. He couldn’t save her though, but this was her chance.

“Good…bye…” The words came out garbled and broken.

“What?” Scott frowned and leaned closer, blocking out her Marco-hallucination across the room.

“…Marco.”

It took everything in
Marco to not rush down the stairs. One wrong move and Scott could end Fiona before Marco got to her. He couldn’t shoot Scott. In such a small space a bullet could easily ricochet and hit Fiona. Marco wasn’t willing to risk her like that.

He’d almost arrived too late…

Fiona turned her head toward him and her lips moved.

Marco nearly missed the next step.

Hang in there, Fiona…

His foot landed too-hard on the next stair. It squeaked, louder than Fiona’s whispers or Scott’s neurotic mutterings.

Shit.

Scott let go of Fiona and whirled, a gun already in hand.

“You!” Scott bellowed.

Marco dove down the stairs, ducking and rolling.

The gun went off, the sound reverberating in the concrete space. There was nowhere to hide, nothing to get behind, but at least Scott was a shitty shot.

Scott took another shot and another. Chunks of concrete flew up from where he hit the walls and the foundation. Marco’s ears rang, but he wasn’t hit. At least not that he felt.

Marco had to immobilize Scott no matter the cost. Fiona’s life depended on it.

Marco dove straight for Scott.

The gun went off.

White-hot fire seared Marco’s shoulder seconds before he barreled into Scott. They tripped over Fiona’s legs and went down hard. Marco got one hand around Scott’s wrist, the gun still in the other man’s hand.

He had to get the gun out of Scott’s grasp.

Scott elbowed Marco in the face and kicked, but he wouldn’t let go. Scott wrenched his arm and the gun went off again. Marco slammed the man’s hand against the ground. He lost his grip on the firearm and it clattered to the floor, skidding away.

Finally.

Marco levered up and punched Scott, pushing the pain in his shoulder aside.

That was for Fiona.

For hurting her.

For scaring her.

For taking away her life.

Again and again Marco wailed on Scott, until the man’s eyes rolled back and his head lolled to the side like a broken doll’s.

“Marco! Marco, stop, man.” Felix pulled him off Scott.

Blood coated Marco’s arm and chest. Some of it was his, some of it Scott’s.

Fiona sat up against the wall, Scott’s gun in her hand. Her head hung to one side and dark bruising colored her neck, shoulders, face… It was awful. And it was his fault.

“Fiona…” Marco shook off Felix’s hold. He had to go to her. See if she was okay. The medic in him grabbed control. Every second counted.

Scott pushed up off the ground.

“You—stupid—fucking—”

“Marco!” Felix roared.

Marco turned toward Scott.

He had another gun. Where the hell did he have another gun from?

Scott yelled.

The gun went off.

Marco sucked in a breath.

This close, Scott couldn’t miss.

Marco blinked, barely daring to breathe. Nothing hurt.

Scott glanced down.

A crimson stain spread across his chest, leaking down over his stomach.

Marco glanced at Fiona still holding Scott’s other gun in both hands, propped up on her knees.

Scott lurched forward. He went down, face first.

Felix shook off the shock and dropped to a knee, one hand on Scott’s back, the other at his pulse.

Marco rushed to Fiona’s side.

She had blood on her now. Why was there blood? There hadn’t been this much blood before.

“Marco…”

“Shh, don’t say anything.” He put the gun on the floor. Her left arm was soaking wet. He pressed his hand against the worst of it, and sure enough she’d been hit.

That last shot when they’d been on the ground…

It could have gone straight for her, or bounced off the concrete and hit her. There was no telling.

“I forgive…you…Marco.”

“Hang in there, Fiona. Just hang on.” He glanced up. “Felix, the kit. From the truck. I need it now.”

Between the blood loss and damage to her throat, not to mention everything else, she was in rough shape. She had to hold on. He had to save her. He couldn’t lose her, not like this. It was one thing if she chose to walk out of her own, free will. He wouldn’t let her be taken from him like this.