Authors: Desconhecido(a)
“That’s one of the
most predatory females I’ve ever seen,” McCall told her. “I can’t believe the
two of you are friends.”
“Sometimes I wonder
about it myself. Listen, I have to hit the restroom first. Then we’ll go back
to the office.”
“Jesus, Rina. We need
to get out of here.”
“And I need to answer
the call of nature. Even you can’t make that go away.”
The ladies’ room was
directly across from the office, in the same little hallway that led to the
back door. McCall looked at the setup and his neck itched. Not a good sign.
When Rina found him
right on her heels, she said over her shoulder, “I think this is one place you
can’t follow me, McCall.”
“But I’ll be right at
the door. Coming in if I need to. Count on it.”
He politely shooed
everyone away from the area, opened the door for a quick peek, then gestured
her to go inside.
“I can take it from
here, McCall.” Rina stepped into the restroom and let the door swing shut
behind her. She leaned against it for a moment, breathing slowly, trying to
settle herself as she always did after one of these events.
“Oh, Miss Devargas.”
A woman stepped out of one of the stalls where she’d been hidden from McCall’s
view. “I just love every one of your books. You have such a way with words.”
Rina straightened up
and forced a smile.
Can’t I at least go to the bathroom in peace?
“Thank
you. I’m glad you enjoy them.”
“I’ll enjoy this even
more.” She pulled something from her pocket and sprayed it at Rina’s face.
Rina tried to call
out, but her voice was trapped in her throat. Her legs didn’t want to support
her and she felt herself fading into a black hole.
Chapter Eight
McCall paced in the
hallway, eyes moving rapidly from his watch to the people in the area to what
he could see of the mob scene in the book store. This was a bigger clusterfuck
than he ever imagined. Anyone—
anyone
—could have gotten to Rina here. And
still could. He wouldn’t breathe easy until they were well away from this
place.
He scanned the area
again. Nothing looked unusual, but then how the hell would he even know?
He was aware that he
was more intense about this than normal. He also knew the reason for it. He’d
let the gate open just a crack and Rina had slipped through, diving into the
mess that was his emotions and hanging on for dear life. How was he supposed to
function this way?
Fucking shit, just stop
it
.
He was a
professional. He’d learned the hard way to keep his emotions in his back pocket
when he was in a treacherous situation, and this certainly fit that
description.
He checked his watch
again. Too much time had gone by. Something was wrong.
“Rina?” He cracked
the door a little and yelled for her. “Time’s up.” Pause. “Rina?”
McCall was through
the door in a flash, almost stumbling over her body.
“Rina, what the hell…”
A woman moved behind
him, crashing something heavy down on his skull.
Shit, shit, shit,
echoed in his brain
as
pain spiked through his head, and he stumbled against the wall and
slumped to the floor.
Rina tried to pull
away from the hand holding her arm in an iron grip. Through fuzzy vision, she
saw McCall crash to the floor, watched the woman from the restroom take a good
look at him, waiting to make sure he’d stopped moving. She could barely stand,
her legs rubbery and threatening to collapse beneath her.
“Coming out now.” The
woman spoke into a tiny lapel mic, then hoisted Rina to her feet, draped an arm
over her shoulders, and opened the door. “That’s it, Rina,” she whispered. “Just
lean on me.”
“W—what? W—who?” Rina
struggled as the woman dragged her along, her body like a sack of flour.
“Could you give us
some air, please?” the woman holding her asked the people standing in the
hallway. “Miss Devargas feels a little faint.”
Rina tried to focus
and push away but strong arms held her tight.
She heard a woman’s
voice saying, “Neither her agent nor the store manager are anywhere around
right now, but you can bet they’ll be here in a second. And I don’t know how
long McCall will be out. Bring the car around right now.”
Rina forced her
eyelids open and saw the shadowy images of two men at the rear door. They were
almost out of the store when Rina felt herself jerked from the woman holding
her. A familiar arm banded around her body, and McCall’s voice cut into her
consciousness. She wanted to weep with relief.
“This isn’t a toy gun
I have at your neck,” he told the woman, his voice like a knife. “It takes more
than one hit on my hard head to do any damage. You might keep that in mind in
the future.” He raised his voice. “Gage? Move it before someone gets shot.”
“Right here.” Gage
came up behind the two men, his own gun very much in evidence. “Drop it, guys.”
McCall had Rina
firmly under his arm as he pressed the barrel of his gun against the woman’s
neck.
“Everyone back out of
here slowly and drop to your knees,” Gage ordered, then spoke into his lapel mic.
“Out back, on the double.”
Then everything
happened in a blur. The woman pushed hard at Rina, throwing McCall off balance,
and rushed forward. The men with her spun around, one of them shoving against
Gage and knocking him to the ground. A black SUV with darkened windows pulled
up, its doors flying open. Gage fired from where he’d fallen and one of the men
clutched his shoulder.
Sully’s other two
agents raced around the corner just as the SUV pulled away.
“Well, shit.” McCall held
Rina in his arms. She was too limp for his liking. He felt for her pulse,
relieved to find it slow but steady. “Sully will have our nuts for this.”
“What happened?” Shar
hurried out the back door, followed by the manager and Laurel.
“Oh, my God!” Laurel gasped. “Is Rina all right? What’s going on?”
“Everything’s under
control,” McCall snapped. “Rina’s fine.”
“But we heard shots.”
“I’ll call the
police,” Ellen put in.
“No.” McCall looked
at Rina, pale and still trembling, and took a deep breath to grab onto what was
left of his temper. “I’ll take care of this.”
“With all due
respect,” Ellen told him, “I have a responsibility to this store, and I think
this needs to be reported.”
“With all due
respect,” McCall said through gritted teeth, “I am getting Rina the hell out of
here before she’s in any further danger. Call the police if you want, but we
won’t be here to answer any questions. Gage?”
“Get her in the car.
I’ll take care of this.”
“Good.”
“What happened?” Shar
asked demandingly. “What’s going on here, anyway?”
“Later.” He put Rina
in the car and buckled her in, barely controlling the rage he felt. At the
moment, he could easily have killed someone.
“McCall?” Laurel pushed through the crowd and shouted through the window. “Let me go with you. I can
help.”
“Not now, Laurel. Get
out of my way.”
At the coldness and
the unmistakable authority in his tone, Laurel’s eyes widened and she backed
quickly away. But avid curiosity was etched on her face as she took in every
detail of the scene.
“I’ll come to the
house,” she said.
“Call first.”
A Bronco pulled up
behind them, and the horn beeped once. McCall pulled out of the parking lot,
the Bronco trailing. He pulled out his cell phone and punched in numbers. When
Sully answered, McCall recited a recognition code, gave him a brief report on
what had happened and descriptions of the three people he’d seen.
They made it to Rina’s
in record time. Sully had sent two men to check out the house while they were
en route, just so they didn’t walk into any more surprises, then called back
with an all clear. McCall carried Rina inside and laid her on the couch,
cursing under his breath.
“I should have gone
into the damn ladies room with her,” he muttered to the men waiting for them. “Privacy
be damned.”
“She’s fine, McCall.”
One of the men Sully had sent also doubled as a medic. He went to work at once
checking Rina’s vital signs. “I’m putting her on oxygen just to clear her head
and until we know what stuff they gave her.”
“McCall?” Rina
stirred, her eyes fluttering open. She pulled at the oxygen mask, but McCall
stilled her hand.
“Right here.” He was
on his knees beside her, concern eating away at him.
“What happened? Some
woman spoke to me, then I think she sprayed perfume at me.”
“It wasn’t perfume.
It was something to knock you out, but you didn’t get very much of it. They
tried to sneak you out the back door, but we got to you in time.”
“Out the back? But
who...” She wrinkled her brow.
“Never mind. Just
rest. I’ll tell you all about it later.” He ground his teeth, restraining the
impulse to take her in his arms and kiss her.
She looked at him with
a worried expression. “It wasn’t your fault. I don’t want you blaming yourself.”
He leaned close to
her so no one else could hear what he said. “Remember when I told you getting
involved would take the edge off my focus? I was right.”
She grabbed for his
hand. “No, damn you. I will not let you pull back. Don’t you do this to me. To
us.”
“Rina,—”
Her fingers were like
steel talons. “I won’t let you pull away, you hear me? I’ll just learn to be a
little more vigilant myself.” She forced a grin. “Next time you can even come
into the ladies room with me.”
He smoothed the hair
back from her face, then stood up.
Fear flashed in her
eyes. “Where are you going?”
“Just into the other
room for a minute.” He indicated the man standing next to him. “This is Jesse. Sully
called him. Thank god he happened to be in the area on his way to another
assignment. He’s also a medic and happens to have a handy little lab and
pharmacy in his van.” He turned to Jesse. “And make her keep that damn oxygen
mask on.”
Jesse had already
moved into place, strapping the oxygen mask back onto her face. “You’ll be
fine, Miss Devargas. I’m just going to take a little blood, okay?”
He tucked the throw
pillows behind her, propping her up, and pulled out his lab kit. In seconds, he
was handing a vial to another agent and telling him to get it the hell to their
truck.
Gage and Les were
waiting for McCall in the kitchen.
“Well?” McCall
demanded.
Gage shook his head. “Didn’t
get anything. The smooth bastards had it all planned. The SUV they were in was
long gone before we could even get a vehicle out in the street.”
“The store has
security cameras. We need to get the tapes.”
“Already done.” Les held
up a satchel. “We’ll all need to go through them, including Miss Devargas.”
“For all the good it’ll
do.” McCall snorted in disgust. “These aren’t amateurs. They’re more like hired
assassins. You can bet they took care not to be taped.”
“They had this
planned like a military operation, you know,” Gage told him.
“Brechtel,” McCall
said.
“What about him?”
“He has to be the one
hiring them. I don’t think our senators—and certainly not our esteemed vice
president—have connections to people like this or would risk what happened
today. Too chancy for them. Besides, we know he’s calling the shots.”
“I left our other two
guys at the book store to clean up the mess.” Gage grimaced. “The manager was
insisting the local police take over and the reporter who was there to
interview Rina was salivating over a possible hot news item. By the time the
crowd had finished gossiping about it, the story had grown to five terrorists
in all black, leaping into the store through the roof with guns drawn.” He
shook his head. “What a nightmare.”
“Well, they got the
terrorist part right,” McCall said sardonically.
“So what now?” Les asked.
“It doesn’t look as if they’re going to forget about Rina and whatever they
think she’s got.” He narrowed his eyes at McCall. “And by the way, just what is
it she’s got that everyone wants so badly?”
McCall was about to
answer when Jesse came into the room.
“We tested the blood
in our little mobile lab. Whatever they sprayed was non-lethal, just something
to immobilize her while they got her out. There’s very little in her
bloodstream.”
“Thank god for small
favors,” McCall said.
“As soon as we knew
what it was,” Jesse went on. “I gave her something to counteract the effects. The
oxygen should do the rest. But it might be a good idea to get her into bed. Oh,
and she needs to drink a lot of water.”
“I’ll take care of
it.” McCall stood up. “Thanks for everything.”
“No problem.”
Gage pulled out his
cell phone. “Take care of Rina,” he told McCall. “I’ll call Sully and see where
we go from here.”
“Thanks.”
****
Rina wanted to stay
on the couch, but McCall was adamant. He swept her up in his arms and carried her
to the bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him and laying her on the bed.
“You need to get into
a nightgown, then I’ll hook up your oxygen again until Jesse says we can shut
it off. He said for you to drink plenty of water.”
“McCall, I’m fine.
Just a little woozy.” She pushed herself off the bed and wobbled her way to the
dresser.
He grabbed her arm to
steady her. “Yeah, fine. I can see that.”
“I’m good,” she
protested. “Really.”
She wasn’t going to
be a baby about this, but when she started back toward the bed, she stumbled
and nearly passed out. The room was spinning around her.
“All right. That’s
it.” McCall picked her up, carried her to the bed, and stripped her out of her
clothes. Eventually, he had her in her sleep shirt and tucked under the covers.
“Be right back.” He returned
with a full glass of water, which he made her drink, then placed the oxygen
mask on her again. When she tried to push it away, he stopped her. “Just for a
little while longer, until we’re sure all that stuff is out of your system.”
“All right.” She
could feel herself drifting off again.
“I’m going to talk to
Gage and Les in the kitchen, but I’ll keep checking on you.”