Wicked Intentions (Steele Secrurity Book 4) (20 page)

With the next blast, the outer wall crumbled to the ground below. The stairwell became completely exposed to the outside elements, and the stairs began breaking beneath their feet.

“Heather, we have to jump now, or we’ll be buried by the floors above us,” Emmett shouted over the roar of the disintegrating building.

“Okay, let’s do it, then,” Heather agreed, scared out of her mind. She glanced over the edge and estimated they were somewhere around the third or fourth floor.

Thirty to forty feet to fall
, she thought.
Thirty feet is the outer limit for surviving a free fall. Half the people live. But half of them die.

“I’ll lower you over the edge so you don’t have as far to drop. Then I’ll be right behind you,” he assured her, as if he were reading her mind.

“Together,” she insisted.

“No. My arms are longer, and that gives us both a better advantage.” He spoke as he guided her to the edge.

She sat with her legs dangling over the side and tried to mentally prepare herself for the terrifying move she had to make. Emmett took her hands in his as he knelt behind her. She slid over the edge, and he stretched out on his stomach, lowering her as far as he could over the jagged side. Men behind him grabbed his legs, allowing him to slide the upper half of his body over the edge to get her closer to the ground.

Tears flowed from his eyes as he forced himself to turn loose of his baby girl. His daughter he’d held as soon as she was born. The little girl he’d taught to ride a bike, drive a stick shift, and enrolled in martial arts so she could always take care of herself. The little girl he’d watched grow into a beautiful, caring, independent woman.

The daughter he’d given away to another man, never truly trusting Braxton would love and care for her in the same way a father would love and care for his daughter. He’d never healed the wounds he’d inflicted on Braxton, and by extension, on her.

The daughter he’d never witnessed enjoying raising a child of her own. The joys and heartaches he could’ve experienced with her passed before his eyes. There were so many firsts and seconds, celebrations and disappointments, everything that makes up a life, that he’d missed out on before, and in his current predicament, knew he’d miss in the future.

So many things he’d do differently.

Her fingers slipped through his, and he watched as she landed on the ground below. She kept her knees slightly bent and rolled with the momentum of the fall, coming to a stop on her side. He watched with bated breath as she remained motionless for several seconds. Fear, horror, and grief tore through him. Fear that he’d insisted on her jumping too soon gripped him. Horror because he’d just dropped his daughter to her death rather than to safety. And grief, so much grief because the thought of life without her took away his desire to survive himself.

A
slight movement
in her arm had his heart pumping in triple time. “Heather!”

She gingerly pushed up to a sitting position and looked up at him. From her blank expression and fumbling movements, she was obviously dazed from her jarring landing. But she was alive, and that was all that mattered to Emmett.

“Heather, are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” she replied, her voice quivering. “Get out of there, Daddy! Jump!”

Her vacant expression faded away, and comprehension of the situation took its place. In that moment, she wished her wits hadn’t returned because she was able to fully grasp the devastation laid out before her. The instability of the building petrified her, but all the frantic and pleading eyes of the people stranded in the stairwell ripped her heart out. She was shocked even part of the building was still standing. What was left would come down with the next puff of wind.

And her dad was still inside.

The shrill shriek of the panicked woman’s cry abruptly filled the air and echoed off the rubble. “Tell my babies I love them. And I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for them while they grow up.”

Heather watched as Emmett glanced over his shoulder toward the lady, then back at the men who still held his legs. The scene played out in slow motion in Heather’s mind as they each nodded before Emmett turned his gaze back to her.

When their eyes met, she knew.

“No, Daddy!” She pushed up to stand, and the pain shot through her leg. Ignoring the intense agony, she limped closer to the building, stumbling over debris, but she kept her eyes locked on his. “No! I need you. You said you’d be right behind me.”

“I love you, Heather. With all of my heart. I’m so very proud of you. I want you and Brax to have a wonderful life together. Tell your mother I love her, and I’ll be waiting for her. Tell Brax I love him like the son I never had.

“Now, I have to help these people get home to their loved ones. I have to give them a fighting chance, precious.”

With tears flowing unchecked down her cheeks, her vision blurred and a sob racked her body. “I love you, Daddy. Please come home with me. We need you.”

Emmett took the frightened lady’s hands and lowered her as far over the side as he could before he released her. One person after the other stepped up, and he dropped them to the ground below. All the while, Heather begged him to save himself, too. The slight sway of the building’s remains did not bode well for the number of people still trapped, waiting for their turn to be lowered to safety.

Because they were unwilling to wait any longer or were afraid to fall from that height, many people decided to continue down the steps behind Emmett. When the first few made their move, several more fell in line behind them. The sudden movement of that many people on an already unstable structure quickly became a recipe for disaster.

Heather limped forward to shout at the people rushing down the stairs. “Go back! The stairwell is blocked. You can’t go down any farther. You’ll be trapped!”

The portion of the building still standing erect began to sway visibly from side to side. Slightly at first, then with more force and momentum. Heather gasped, her hand covered her mouth, and her eyes flew open wide when she realized the rocking wouldn’t stop until the building had completely collapsed.

Panicked screams emanated from every floor when the final blow was dealt. A loud explosion, different from the others, filled the air just before a huge ball of fire rolled through the tattered remains of the carnage on the upper floors, consuming everything in its path.

“Dad—jump!” she pleaded.

Emmett slid over the side, gripping the concrete with his fingers and stretching his body to lessen the height of his drop.

“Just let go!” she urged. “Let go!”

“Heather!”

A voice from behind her called, and she turned to see Roman’s panic-stricken face. When his expression morphed into terror before her eyes, she turned back toward the building in time to see it collapsing from the top down.

Toward her.

* * *

W
hile waiting in the car
, Roman heard the first blast, and his senses immediately went on high alert. The explosion could’ve come from a multitude of places with a variety of reasons behind it at a major oil refinery, but his gut told him this wasn’t an industrial accident. Something was very wrong, and he had a very bad feeling about the outcome.

He jumped out of the car and ran in the direction of the noise. The entire area behind the office building looked like a demolition zone. Fires had erupted in multiple places at the refinery, unbridled flames shot straight up into the air and quickly jumped to the next highly flammable source. Some of the employees rushed to help the wounded, while others tried to stop the infernos that were raging out of control.

The next blast was just as powerful as the first but originated from the office building. The explosions were intentional and purposeful—that much was clear. His heart hammered in his chest as he ran toward the danger. He knew Heather and her father were still somewhere inside the building, but he didn’t know where exactly. The possible locations were too numerous—in Emmett’s office, searching for a safe place, attempting to get out, or worse, buried under the rubble in the blast zone.

“Brad,” he barked into his cell. “I need an exact location on Heather. Then alert Rebel and get everyone down here to the port.”

Brad checked the coordinates on the GPS tracker in Heather’s cell and told Roman where to find her. “What happened, Roman? And what is all that noise?”

As he ran to find her, he filled Brad in on the situation, giving him all the details he could to help the team be as prepared as possible when they arrived. When he reached the area where he expected to find Heather, most of the building lay in crumbled ruins on the ground. The amount of devastation was staggering, and the task of finding her in it seemed all but impossible. Her screams registered before he could come to terms with the scene unfolding in front of him.

“Heather!”

Startled, she quickly turned her attention over her shoulder in his direction. The first set of explosions were all powerful bursts of energy, designed to cause as much structural damage as possible. The final discharge that devastated what remained of the structure had completely different elements and intentions. The ball of fire that ripped through the upper floors, which Heather and Emmett had just vacated, originated from an intense heat source designed to obliterate anything that remained after the primary blasts.

The reinforced concrete floors began to crumble, conceding to the high-temperature accelerant after all the punishment that had already been inflicted. When the top floor collapsed onto the one below, Roman knew no one else would get out alive. He ran as hard and fast as he could toward Heather, hoping beyond hope he would make it in time to rescue her. His eyes traveled up to the many people who were still inside the stairwell when its tethers broke loose, and it tipped outward past the point of no return. With no reliable load-bearing source left, the crushing weight created a domino effect of destruction until the remains were completely unrecognizable.

Roman skidded to a halt at the edge of the debris, ignoring the cuts and bruises he’d suffered from the shards that had flown from the demolished building. His chest heaved like he’d just finished a marathon at a sprinter’s pace. His heart thumped against his rib cage, ready to explode out of his chest at any moment. He bent at the waist with his hands on this thighs, gulping air. But overexertion wasn’t the cause of his hypoxic state.

He had failed.

He’d failed Heather.

He’d failed Rebel.

He didn’t reach her in time.

She was buried under the remnants of the razed building.

* * *

“
T
hey did what
?” Rebel demanded, moving into his threatening stance. “How can they do that?”

“They took us off the case, with the exception of sending Blake, Alex, and Joe to New Orleans to work with our ATF liaison. Don’t think I haven’t argued this with everything I have,” Noah replied. “I even talked directly with the president since we’re taking our orders from him on this case. His advisors said it would be best to let the dual CIA-FBI Task Force take over the operations since we’re coming down to the wire. Delta Force is still officially unofficial as far as the rest of the world is concerned. When Rashad is taken down, there will be so much media coverage all over it, the president is concerned we’ll get caught in the cross fire of camera flashes.”

“That’s complete bullshit. Our team has done most of the work and found all the best leads. We should be there to take him out,” Bull argued. “Fucking hypocrites.”

“I agree. But we can’t ignore orders to stay away from New Orleans and from any of the cell’s rental houses when that order comes directly from our president,” Noah replied. “You know as well as I do what’ll happen to us if we disobey. I’m all for breaking the rules, but I don’t want to wake up in a six-foot-by-nine-foot dark room for the rest of my life.”

“Fuck them. Do you have any idea how long I worked on that damn encrypted code?” Rebel shook his head in disgust and dropped down in his chair. “If I’d known this, I would’ve gone with Heather to see her father at work.”

“Why would she go to his office to see him instead of his house?”

“His company is buying another oil company in Oklahoma. Emmett and Kay are leaving in a couple of days to spend the next several weeks up there, finalizing the deal and making the new employees feel more secure in their jobs. Heather said she needed to talk to him about something before he leaves, and going to his office is the only way she can get time with him.”

Noah narrowed his eyes, drew his brows together, and moved quickly to rifle through the case file in the middle of the table. When he found the information, he released a haggard breath. “Is the name of that company Vessel Petroleum?”

Rebel’s face fell, and his pulse quickened. He knew this couldn’t be good. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

“Remember when Rashad’s brother, Turan, transferred that money from an oil company to all those Homeland Security employees? It was Vessel Petroleum’s account he used.”

“Where’d you get that information?” Bull asked.

“A copy of the confidential case file Shadow somehow managed to get his hands on.”

“You think Turan was trying to get Rashad to look into that company because of Emmett’s relation to me? Why wouldn’t he just tell Rashad outright?” Rebel asked.

“Maybe Rashad wouldn’t listen to him. Turan pulled a lot of pranks that brought too much attention to him, whereas Rashad prefers the cover of anonymity. But Rashad didn’t bother with you until after Turan disappeared, so maybe he’s taken over his brother’s vendetta now,” Noah deduced.

“The mere fact it’s the same company Emmett is preparing to take over changes everything. Portno is definitely Port of New Orleans, but what if they’re planning to hit both ports at once? Taking out the Port of Houston would do just as much damage to the country’s economic stability as taking out the one in New Orleans. But taking out both ports would completely cripple us.

“No imported oil coming in, no exported goods going out. On top of that, our largest oil refinery is in Houston’s port. Without that production, the smaller refineries wouldn’t be able to keep up with the demand, and we’d run out of fuel across the country. Can you imagine the level of chaos that would cause? Is that what they meant by ‘greater than eleven’?”

“The only thing that seems certain at this point is the task force leaders have jumped the gun by taking the whole team to New Orleans. You know how I feel about coincidences,” Noah replied.

“No such thing.”

Shadow marched into the room, determination in his every step and masked trepidation in his expression. “Let’s go. Now. We have to move.”

“What’s wrong?” Noah asked.

The hairs on Rebel’s arms stood at attention when Shadow’s eyes swung to meet his. The acid churned in his stomach, making the original sinking feeling mutate into a black hole intent on draining the life from him. He jumped to his feet, ready to move into action, and drew up to his full height. “Tell me.”