Locked and Loaded Read online

  At the moment she didn’t even have a piece of underwear to her name. She ran out of West Virginia leaving everything, including the emergency bag, behind. But she wasn’t the one who was abandoned.

  Adam didn’t have that luxury. Someone he respected and cared about took off without a word. For the first time she felt the other side of the guilt. The unending sadness and paralyzing anger of not knowing.

  “Let’s start in the office.” Adam’s running shoes squeaked against the hardwood as he opened the pocket door to the nearest room.

  Judging by the big desk and walls of books, this was the office. Probably the place where Rod worked as the rest of the team checked in by computer.

  In silent agreement, they went to work. They’d shuffled papers and checked every drawer for a half hour before she realized something was off. Adam turned over folders and paged through books but he wasn’t concentrating. Wasn’t even keeping watch at the window for attackers the way he usually did.

  The man was always on, his instincts aware and alive to the point where they crackled. Now he kept a close guard on his watch, but that was it.

  She threw the binder on Rod’s desk, letting it slap against the metal top. “Okay, tell me.”

  Adam broke off his love affair with his watch. “What?”

  “Why are we really here?”

  “I told you.”

  His expression never changed, but she heard the lie. Maybe it was the intimacy of the night before that clued her in, but the thread of dishonesty was clear. He was hiding something and failing at it.

  “You wouldn’t risk taking me out in public without a good reason.” She’d been with him nonstop for days and knew how he operated.

  He kept her closed off in a place he controlled. All the Recovery men handled their women that way. A joyride outside the metro area violated all the rules.

  Adam tilted his head to the side and showed off that dimple. “We’re collecting evidence.”

  She wasn’t buying it. “We’re pushing stuff around and wasting time.”

  “Maybe you should leave the investigation to the professionals.”

  “Coming here to take a brief look around is nonsense.” She pointed at him. “You shut off the phones while you sleep and hover while I use the bathroom.”

  “I think you’re exaggerating.”

  “Then let me call Luke.” She held out her hand and wiggled her fingers at him. “Give me your cell.”

  Adam blew out a long breath as he placed his hand in hers. “I thought I could get away with it.”

  She tried to tug away from him but he held on tight. “What?”

  “It’s for your protection.”

  “You say that a lot. What does it mean in this context?”

  Adam leaned against the desk with his legs open and her body tucked between them. “Luke believes someone was going to breach the warehouse to get to you.”

  Her thoughts scrambled. “We have to get back there. They might need us.”

  “We’re staying here until it’s clear.”

  HOLDEN TAPPED HIS PEN against his front teeth. “Any chance Adam was wrong?”

  Luke scoffed. “Is he ever?”

  “I refuse to answer that on the grounds he might have a listening device in here and would never let me forget the compliment.”

  “He said someone tried to hack into the system last night. That means someone knew where to look.” Luke leaned over Caleb’s back and watched the monitors protecting the warehouse and the others at his house.

  The women were on the couches under the stairs trading thoughts on Maddie and how long it would be before Adam came to his senses. Zach was on the road to Adam. The team had fanned out, but they all had weapons and were hunkered down in buildings with top security.

  The breach could come from any direction. Spreading out to cover every option was the right answer, but having Adam so far away made the nerve at the back of Luke’s neck throb. The only mistake was in not sending Zach as immediate backup at Rod’s place.

  “You think the cyberattack was orchestrated by Trevor?” Caleb said more to the room at large than to any person in particular.

  Luke glanced through the file in front of him again, looking for any bit they may have missed. “Most likely.”

  Holden lowered his arm as he dropped the pen. “What does that mean for the peace deal we allegedly have with this dirtbag?”

  Luke didn’t have to weigh the pros and cons on that one. The answer was automatic. “It’s over. We can attack at will, as far as I’m concerned.”

  Caleb grunted. “It’s about damn time.”

  “I just want him to give me the excuse to remove him for good.” Luke could take the heat, but this would be a raging fire. He wanted to be ready.

  Only way they’d survive without prison time was to have a reason to take Trevor out. Luke thought they had it. He just needed the right evidence to convince the right powerful person, then the deed would stay quiet and private. Trevor would be just another businessman who suffered a fall. Hell, he could claim early retirement for all Luke cared. The important thing was to remove Trevor from power.

  “Maybe we can finally take care of this tonight,” Holden said.

  “Maybe.” But Luke’s instincts told him something was seriously wrong.

  Chapter Twelve

  Maddie accepted the news better than Adam expected. She didn’t yell or argue. She frowned at him and walked out of Rod’s den. Adam waited a few minutes before following. The check-in with Luke still shook him. All was quiet on that end. That should have been good news, but it made Adam jumpy.

  Hacking followed by a lack of movement didn’t make sense. Trevor—someone—should be pushing in by now. The person who’d attacked the system didn’t get in, but they’d tried. Alarms had shrieked before four that morning and prevented the worst from happening, but not before the hacker got led on a chase to nowhere.

  The person didn’t leave footprints that took them anywhere helpful, but it was clear someone was obsessed with tracking them all down. The inevitable rush to safety for Maddie was his idea, but Luke agreed. He wanted to spread the team out and make the fight against them as difficult as possible.

  Adam walked through the dining room and into the country kitchen beyond. The usual creaks of an old house accompanied him. There was no sign of Maddie inside, but the back door was open. Just past the small paved patio he caught a glimpse of her hair. Standing by the sink, he watched her out the window, seeing her pick a leaf and twirl it between her hands.

  Since they’d been there, the wind had kicked up and the sun had begun to slide down the horizon. Her hair flipped around in the breeze, with the light catching and highlighting the deep auburn strands. She was beautiful, with a swimsuit model’s body and a brain that left him breathless just trying to keep up.

  He’d dated often since losing Robyn to another man’s bottle of vodka. He enjoyed the temporary satisfaction that came with moving from conversation to the bedroom, no matter how many hours or days it took. He hadn’t wanted anything more. Not for years.

  That was before he met Maddie.

  They had a few hours before darkness, and then he’d have to make a decision. The idea of a repeat performance of last night shot life into the lower half of his body and pushed out the worries for his team. But his lower half had never been good at critical thinking. As he watched her now in her slim dark jeans, a war waged inside him. He no longer knew which side he wanted to win.

  When she passed the line of trees to investigate the covered pool behind, he decided to call a halt to her sightseeing. Roaming around was a dangerous game.

  As he opened the screen door to retrieve her, his watch chirped. He glanced at the small monitor then back to Maddie. She’d slipped to the opposite side of the pool and well out of range for him to grab her and go.

  He threw the door open as the buzzing on his watch turned to a steady alarm. That meant one thing: penetration.

  “Madd
ie!”

  She lifted her head, her smile fading as he broke into a run. The leaf twirled to the ground and her eyes narrowed with confusion.

  “Come here!”

  She started toward him as the figures appeared over the hill behind her.

  “Get down!” He shouted the command as he dropped to his knees.

  Hands up and steady, he fired, picking off the one in the best position to get off a shot first. The guy moved forward, though hit in the shoulder. Adam didn’t make the same mistake twice. His second shot smashed into the guy’s forehead and took him down.

  Shots rang out through the quiet countryside. He dived behind the patio table. Glass shattered as the windows behind him exploded in a rain of bullets. Shards blanketed him, cutting into his flesh with biting stings.

  With his head ducked, he tried to find Maddie. In a crouch she moved along the line of bushes near the diving board. She was straight in their line of fire.

  But they were aiming at him.

  Good. Let them keep coming.

  The acrid smell of sulfur filled the air. He listened for screams or sirens but neither came. Grunting and a chorus of moans told him the battle was only starting. So long as the rumbles of pain plagued the other side and not Maddie, he was fine. That meant getting to her and staying mobile enough to reach for safety.

  When he looked up, the attacker on the left had changed course. As the other man circled around to the right, this guy headed in a direct line for Maddie. With steady steps and his gun up, the man moved in.

  Adam fired off his shots, unloading in the direction of Maddie’s biggest threat. The barrage stopped her when she’d sidled only a few feet away. She dropped to the concrete with her hands over her head.

  Adam shifted out from his shield and felt a bullet whiz by his head. The heat seared his cheek and he tasted blood on his tongue.

  The close call chilled his bones. His hand flew to the shallow scrape near his mouth. It was only a flesh wound. Nothing serious to slow him down.

  He grabbed for the second gun near his shoe and immediately reloaded the first. His gunfire kept the attacker to the right pinned against the trees. The one on Adam’s left was the problem. He’d dropped to his stomach and followed the path that Maddie had just made. He was within a few feet of grabbing her leg.

  Adam spun to the side, diving to the ground and firing a shot. The attacker on the left fell flat to the ground in midlunge.

  At the sound, Maddie glanced around, her eyes wide and wild, her hair hanging in her face. She stared at the man who almost had her then scrambled to her feet and started running. She screamed Adam’s name as she raced across the patio toward him.

  Adam watched her sprint to freedom while he fired at the remaining gunman. Her sneakers smacked against the pavement; her breath whooshed in and out, drowning out the wind.

  Adam stepped out to catch her as she hit the patio. The gunman shifted from his hiding place at the same time. With his body in front of hers, Adam shielded her from injury. She screamed as he fired, digging her forehead into his back. Tight together, he shuffled them toward the table as the man pounced.

  The only attacker left jumped over a planter filled with dead flowers and edged toward them with his gun aimed at Maddie. Adam landed two shots, hitting what had to be a protective vest. The man did nothing more than flinch. He barely slowed until he was on top of them.

  In a face-off, Adam shifted until Maddie was hidden behind him. His size was an advantage. Even if he went down, he could block her as he unloaded his weapons into the man and none of them but Maddie was left standing.

  “You can’t win this.” The temptation to take a shot and aim for the head rushed over Adam. If it had just been him he would have taken the risk.

  But he had Maddie to consider. He had to stay alive long enough to make sure she did.

  “I just want the girl,” the man said.

  Adam tried to place the voice and couldn’t. The guy was likely nothing more than a gun for hire. A gun with a fairly accurate shot if the sting on his cheek was any indication.

  “That’s never going to happen.”

  “Then we have a problem. You have a gun. I have a gun. But you have a girl to protect and I don’t. That gives me the edge.”

  “I have two guns, so we’re even.” Adam had more than that, but he let the guy think two.

  “So do I.”

  The laughter in the guy’s eyes tipped Adam off. He shot a quick glance in the direction of the attacker he’d downed by the pool. The spot was empty except for an abandoned black glove.

  The next thing he felt was a tug at his back and the whip of his weapon being shot out of his right hand.

  ONE MINUTE MADDIE was plastered to Adam’s back. The next, someone grabbed the back of her shirt and jerked it hard enough to rip the fabric. Blunt fingers jammed into her spine, right in the place once shattered. The shocking pain sent her slamming to her knees.

  Her eyes watered and her breath rattled around in her chest. She kneeled in front of her captor as he twisted a thick chunk of her hair in his fist.

  She tried to look up at Adam, but the man holding her kept her tight on the ground with his foot on one of her hands. Through her hair she could see Adam holding a gun, shifting from one attacker to the other as he tried to hold them off.

  The attacker pulled her hair back until she had no choice but to stare up at him. “I think we have a winner.”

  She couldn’t see their faces through the black coverings they wore, but she saw their eyes. Dead and cold. Clearly, these men relished their jobs as murderers.

  “Let her go.” A rabid mix of heat and energy pounded off Adam. He was big and strong and totally vulnerable to the two men dressed in full battle gear in front of him.

  She knew he wouldn’t surrender or back off. For her he’d fight to the death.

  “Take me,” she said, hoping to give Adam a brief window to survive.

  Adam sent her a sharp frown. “Maddie, stop.”

  “I’m the one you want.” She gritted her teeth together when the hold on her hair tightened. “Take me and leave him.”

  “Now, isn’t she accommodating?” joked the one who held her.

  She tried to find the breath to speak over the pain. “Knevin wants me, not Adam.”

  “I don’t know who Adam is,” the other attacker said as he inched his gun closer to Adam’s head. “Is that you?”

  She struggled to keep up with the conversation as the dizziness filled her head. Her left leg had gone numb and the wrench in her back morphed into a relentless wave of beating pain.

  “Your job is to take me out, right?” Adam looked between the two other men. “Do it and let her go.”

  The grip on her hair vanished and her head fell forward the second before the guy shoved his hand under her arm. He lifted her to her feet, almost dislocating her shoulder a second time.

  “Aren’t you two sweet? All willing to die for each other.”

  “And you both will,” the other one said. “Just not together.”

  Unable to balance herself, she almost fell back in a heap on the concrete until her attacker wrapped his arm around her neck and held her tight to his side. She could smell the sweat on his skin.

  Vomit rushed up her throat but she swallowed it back. She needed to stay alert and ready.

  “We’re going to leave now.” The man dragged her across the patio and away from Adam.

  “Stop.” At Adam’s command, she could see her captor’s finger twitch on the trigger. “She stays.”

  “You shoot me, and my friend here will shoot her,” her attacker threatened Adam. “You can’t win this round.” He pulled so tightly on her arm, her shirt collar choked her.

  When she started hacking and fighting for breath, Adam’s gaze flew to her face. The second off his game cost him. The other attacker kicked out at Adam’s chest. She screamed his name as he went down, dropping his gun.

  The man holding her laughed. “That was e
asier than I thought.”

  The other one kicked Adam in the side, made his body bounce against the ground and his glasses fall. “Guess the reports were wrong. He’s not so hard to take down after all.”

  Ignoring the bruises and pain, she struggled against the guy’s hold. Kicking out, she tried to land at least one good shot. But her waning strength was no match for him.

  “Stop.” He shook her hard enough to rattle her teeth before looking at his partner. “You wanna take care of him?”

  The guy stepped on Adam’s glasses, smashing them under his heel. “It’s no fun if they just pass out first.”

  “Handle it while I get her ready for transport.”

  The comment penetrated the terror building inside her. Just as the pieces came together in her mind, her attacker started pulling at her. He tried to drag her away from Adam’s sprawled body and her heart shuddered to a stop. “No!”

  Hot breath rustled her hair, sending a deadly chill down her spine. “You might not want to watch this part,” the gunman whispered in her ear.

  Somewhere inside she found the strength to fight back, like an engine whirling to life. She refused to make it easy.

  She hit her attacker’s arm with her fists, kicked her feet against his calves. None of it stopped his movements. Furious tears fell down her cheeks and her chest ached from yelling.

  When the second attacker stood over Adam with a gun aimed at his head, her heart tore apart. She felt it rip, every part of her body going limp with agonizing grief.

  The fight streamed out of her. She fell against her attacker, her stomach rolling and her eyes thick with tears.

  “Do it.” The order rumbled against her back and echoed in her ear.

  The gun lowered to just inches from the back of Adam’s head. But just when the attacker laughed at the impending murder and splash of blood, Adam moved. He flipped over and grabbed the weapon, slamming it into the other man’s gut.

  The guy went down and Adam pounced on him. With grunts and thuds against the ground, they wrestled and fought. If Adam had a problem seeing, he sure didn’t show it. The gun fell, clinking against the patio before spinning under a chair.