ASHFORD (Gray Wolf Security #5) (15 page)

Ash

We silently moved around the house, each of us taking our assigned spots. I gestured to David and he nodded. It was clear. We were just about ready.

The house was outside Los Angeles, nestled against a high cliff, just a mile or two off the Pacific Coast Highway. It might seem like a place that could be easily defended, but it had so many vulnerable spots that it was almost laughable. I never would have brought my team to a safe house like this one.

The cliff was too far back to protect the back of the house. The windows were too numerous. There was no good vantage point, nowhere a sniper could take up a position and cover the entire front yard. And the front door was just that…a front door. It wasn’t reinforced metal. It didn’t have a dead bolt. It was as if these people had simply bought a house and thought the fact that no one knew where it was made it safe.

It didn’t.

We were surrounding the house, standing along the front of the house, and no one had noticed us yet. My compound, we would not only have noticed, but we would have taken the intruders out already.

I stepped carefully up the front steps and approached the door.

They didn’t have cameras, either. That was a big mistake.

“Ready?”

I looked at Jack and smiled. “Let’s do this.”

Jack gave the signal and his officers rushed the door with the battering ram.

“Santa Monica Police Department,” they yelled, as they moved aside and allowed us to enter. Immediately, I caught sight of a guy jumping off the couch and rushing toward the stairs. One small tug on the trigger and he was down on the ground, holding his knee.

I walked up to him and pressed the barrel of my rifle to his chest.

“Where is she, asshole?”

A gun discharged above me and another went off behind me. I turned. Jack had his Glock pointed at something on the stairs above us.

“Thanks.”

He nodded, then moved around me, following his men deeper into the house.

“Where is Mina Kaufman?”

“Go to hell,” the guy muttered.

“You just might.”

Joss came up and bent to put zip ties on him. In my ear, David said, “There’re five bodies upstairs. One is a child.”

I made my way slowly up the stairs, moving cautiously. There could be a gunman around any corner. In fact, there was a man sprawled across the top five steps, but he was dead, taken out by one shot from Jack’s gun.

I felt something slam into my arm as I stepped over the body. Another gunman was in a squat at the end of the hallway. I fired twice, both misses. I moved carefully, aware that Joss had joined me. I hadn’t wanted her to come inside; I’d asked her to stay in the surveillance van with David, but she’d insisted. She was in a vest, as the rest of us were, but that didn’t make me feel any better. She had a baby to get home to; I was going to make damn sure she did.

We turned the corner at the end of the hall and found ourselves staring at an empty corridor with closed doors on either side. Any number of combatants could be hiding behind those doors. We moved slowly, one person at a time. David was in my ear again.

“Four bodies in the back room on the left. The child is in the first door on the right.”

I gestured for Joss to get the child. We had no idea why there was a child in the house, but we needed to get him or her out of the way before things got too crazy.

I proceeded down the hallway. Before I’d gone more than half the length, gunfire erupted from further down and around a blind corner. I crouched low, trying to make as small a target of myself as possible. I glanced back just in time to see Joss slip down the stairs with a little girl in a pink nightgown. She couldn’t have been more than three or four.

“Get the fuck out of my house!” a voice called from around the corner.

“We’re with the police. We have reason to believe there’s a kidnapped woman in this house.”

“Liar! You’re Ash Grayson. You think we didn’t know you were coming?”

“Then why weren’t you waiting for us downstairs?”

I came around the corner just in time to see someone duck into the room David had indicated to me. I stood and ran in quick, silent steps, stopping just outside the door. I waited, then turned, busting the door open with one good kick. The man I’d seen was on the floor, blood coming from a wound in his chest. I must not have missed when I fired at him earlier.

Three more men were scattered around the room, each with a gun that pointed at me. But no one fired.

“I’d put them down before anyone else gets hurt.”

It was a tense moment. I waited, fairly confident that no one would fire. Even though it seemed as though they had the advantage—four guns to one rifle—I was an expert marksman. And I had a vest on. I’d take out at least two of them before they could get me down. I watched them calculate their odds. The guy on the floor raised his gun and I took him out with one well-placed shot.

“Put them down!”

I couldn’t help the sigh of relief when they did.

I gathered the guns and handed out zip ties.

“Where’s the girl? Where’s Mina?”

They weren’t talking.

“Come on, guys. It’ll go better for you if you just tell me.”

Two of the men exchanged looks. One stared down at his own hands while the other met my eye.

“Andre took her to the basement.”

“Who’s Andre?”

Another exchange of looks. I didn’t like the way that looked.

I touched the button on my Bluetooth. “Four in the back bedroom.”

Then I went in search of Mina. And she’d better be in one piece, or this Andre would find himself much worse off than his counterparts.

Mina

I heard the commotion upstairs when Ash and the others burst through the front door. I closed my eyes and began to count just as David had taught me. I could hear footsteps, running. There were gunshots, too. I tried not to let the sounds disrupt my concentration. I had a job to do, and I was determined to do it.

“What did you do?”

I opened my eyes. Dimitri was moving around the room like an insane man. He had a gun in his hand, but each time there was a noise upstairs, he looked up, this expression on his face that made me wonder if he was about to lose his mind. Surely he’s been in a spot like this before. Why did he seem so panicked?

“What was in the knife?”

“What makes you think there was anything in the knife?”

“It was the only thing you had with you when they picked you up. Was there a bug in it? A tracking device?”

I pinched the tiny piece of electronics between my thumb and forefinger, trying to remember where I’d been in my countdown.

“What was it?”

He came over, resting his hands on my wrists as he bent close to me. “What did you do, Mina?”

“I made sure you’d never touch my baby.”

His eyes narrowed. His raised his hand as if he was going to hit me. Instead, he pushed away from me and went to the table, snatching up a box cutter.

“We’ll see how much your boyfriend loves you.”

He cut my restraints, the one that was still attached to me and the one I’d stuffed my fingers through so that it would look like it was still restraining me. Then he grabbed me up, dragged me up against the length of his body and pushed me toward the door.

Just a few more minutes. I could hold out just a few more minutes.

We went up the stairs and into the kitchen. I tripped over my own feet a couple of times, but he kept me upright. He was damn strong, something I should have known but barely remembered. It’s funny how the terrible fades until you almost fool yourself into thinking it wasn’t all that bad. And then you remember just how bad it really was.

My heart was pounding. I heard more gunfire upstairs.

A man was lying on the kitchen table, perfectly still. There was a wound in his belly that looked like it was still oozing blood. But I didn’t think the guy was going to make it. He was really pale.

Then we were moving into the living room. Dimitri had the gun out in front of him. We ran into a man in black—I didn’t recognize him. I’d been so afraid it would be Donovan or Kirkland. Or, God forbid, Ash. But it wasn’t. Dimitri shot him in the head, and the man fell to the floor like a ton of bricks.

I bit my lip to keep from screaming.

A few more minutes. I just had to wait.

We moved through the living room. There were bodies, men lying on the floor with wounds in their legs, their arms. Some were zip tied. Others were unconscious. Or dead. I searched their faces. Some I knew. Some I didn’t. Most were Dimitri’s people. A few weren’t.

“We’re going out the back door,” he hissed next to my ear. “If we make it, maybe I’ll consider letting you go. After you get my son for me.”

“Never.”

He pressed the gun to the side of my head, and my heart stopped. I was going to die. I knew I was going to die. I closed my eyes and lost my footing again, causing us to tumble forward together. Dimitri cursed as he braced himself. We fell hard, my air knocked completely out of my chest.

“Fucking bitch!”

He got to his feet quite gracefully, but the gun.

The gun was under my body.

I went for it. He realized at the same instant I moved what I was doing. He grabbed my arm and tried to pull my hand away, but my fingers touched the cold steal just a split second before he did. I forced my body to relax. He tugged my arm out, and I pulled the trigger.

I will never forget the stunned look on his face as he realized what had just happened.

Then he fell.

I slid back away from him, the warmth of his blood somehow shocking to my overwrought mind as it splattered over my face, my hands. I scooted on my butt, moving as far from him as possible. And then I remembered.

I smashed the tiny bug. An instant later, an explosion rocked the house.

Ash

I felt the vibration of the explosion, as I made my way down the back stairs.

“Mina,” I whispered.

“She did good,” Donovan said in my ear. “The charge did exactly what it was supposed to do. If anyone was in the garage, they aren’t going anywhere now.”

They’d planned it all out. Didn’t bother to tell me until we were on the way to the house.

“We knew they’d pick her up in a van. The garage and the vehicles are the things we can really control. If anyone gets in there and tries to drive off…we’ll get them.”

“You had Mina plant explosives in the van?”

“You know it was the best way to cut off their escape.”

“But if she sets it off too soon. Or too late…”

“She knows what to do,” David said. “I explained it to her.”

“You’re on your own now,” David said in my ear now. “She had to destroy my eyes when she set it off.”

“Where is she?”

“The living room.”

I ran the final few steps, only slowing when I reached the bottom step. She was cowering against the back door, staring at her hands. They were covered in blood, and it only took me a second to figure out why.

Avdonin was lying on the floor with a sizeable hole in the center of his chest.

She killed him.

I rushed across the room. A big mistake. A gun fired behind me, catching me in the center of my back. The blow pushed me forward, but I managed to catch myself. I turned and a man, a blond man, stood just inside the archway coming from the kitchen, his gun trained on me. He was injured, his arm charred as if he’d been caught in some terrible fire.

“It’s over,” I said.

“It’s not over. Not until you’re dead.”

“Don’t be a fool.”

He lifted his gun. I fired my rifle, the round smashing into his shoulder, pushing him backward. He fired, but his round went wild. Then Mina spoke, rising slowly to her feet. I moved in front of her as the blond put her in his sights.

“Dimitri’s dead, Andre. It’s over.”

The man’s wild eyes moved from her to the body on the floor.

“It’s never over. We’re too many. We’re too fucking smart for this bullshit.” He stared at her, something like awe in his eyes. “How did you do it? This house…no one knew. The records, the bills, none of it was connected to us. How did you know?”

And then the awe left his eyes. He fell, his forehead exploding.

Kirkland was behind him, his gun raised.

It was over. I lowered my gun and heard another shot, this one coming from the stairwell. One of the fools from upstairs, his hands still in the zip tie. He’d found another gun, and he was charging at us.

I rushed him, knocking him down just as he fired his gun again. I heard a cry and fear exploded in my head. Mina…all I could think about was Mina.

Mina

I woke in the hospital. The last thing I remembered was Andre’s head exploding. Then…nothing.

Ash. I remembered Ash. I remembered fear. I remembered the look on Dimitri’s face as he died.

I shivered, and warm, strong arms came around me.

“Ash?”

“I’m here, babe.”

I turned into him without opening my eyes, tears already streaming down my face.

“I’m sorry. I should have been honest with you from the beginning. I should have told you everything the moment I saw you. Should have told you why—”

“Shh,” he said, running his hand slowly down the back of my head. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“But it does. It does.”

“No, Mina.” He pushed me back enough so that he could lift my chin and look me in the eye. “It doesn’t matter. Your past, my past. None of it matters anymore.”

“I would never betray you.”

“I know.”

“I was just afraid you’d kick us out. And then I thought you might look at me differently, and I couldn’t stand that idea.”

“I know. It’s okay.”

He kissed the tip of my nose. I moved into him, buried my face against his shoulder. He groaned, and I realized there was a bandage there.

“Are you hurt?”

“Just a scratch.”

I pulled back and really looked at him. I tugged at the corner of his hospital gown—he was wearing a hospital gown! How did I miss that?—and found not only the rest of the bloodstained bandage, but bruises blossoming against his ribs. I ran my fingers over them, and he groaned before pulling my hand away.

“Not here, babe. I don’t think either one of us is really up for the consequences.”

I smiled, and pain burst through my skull. I’d nearly forgotten about the blows I’d taken from Dimitri. Ash brushed his fingers over them, almost as if he was trying to wipe them away.

“I’m sorry.”

“Is it over?”

“It’s over. There’s nothing left of the Bazarov Cartel, at least, not enough to pull it back together again. That nightmare is gone.”

I kissed him lightly and curled back up in his arms. “How long do we have to be here?”

“Just until tomorrow.”

“Good.”

The door burst open, and Kirkland peeked his head inside. He smiled, turning and calling to someone behind him.

“They’re awake!”

Suddenly the room was full of people. David and Ricki. Joss and Carrington. Kirkland and Mabel. Donovan and Kate. Even Emily in a wheel chair, a big, thick bandage on her head.

“Hey, lovebirds!”

I sat up a little as David approached the bed.

“You did good, Mina,” he said, leaning close to kiss my cheek.

“Yeah. If you ever want to join the team,” Joss said.

“Anyone who can take a punch like you is welcome,” Kirkland added.

“You handled those explosives pretty well, too. I couldn’t have done it better myself.”

I couldn’t help the smile that burst onto my face. That was the most any of them had said to me in all the time I’d been at the compound. Except for Joss. But what really made me smile was the fact that Kate had Ford in her arms.

“He’s a doll,” she said, setting him in my arms. “If you ever need a babysitter…”

Ford smiled up at me, as though he knew I was his mother and I’d come back for him. I touched his cheek, tears filling my eyes so that I almost couldn’t see him.

“I love you,” I whispered, kissing his forehead a dozen times, over and over, almost unable to pull myself away.

I’d done it for him. Now he would never have to worry about his father hurting him. He’d never have to live in fear. He would always be safe.

I would do it again in a heartbeat if it meant all that.

Ash sat up and wrapped his arms around us, brushing his finger against the baby’s cheek.

“Hey, little man,” he said softly. “I told you I’d bring her back to you.”

“So, Emily,” David said, “you’re suddenly an expert on four wheels?”

“I’m not so bad,” she said.

“I should go home and get my chair, see just how good you really are.”

“Go for it, big boy!”

Everyone laughed. I looked up and saw the way they were all looking at one another. My heart swelled, as Joss winked at me and David touched my hand. They’d welcomed me into their lives. I was finally a part of this family they’d built around themselves. I’d never known a family quite like theirs. I don’t think I would ever know another one. They were as unique as they were common. A family of friends and lovers who came together not because they were connected by blood and not because they had to. They came together because they needed each other and they wanted what they could only find in each other. It was beautiful.

***

I woke in the middle of the night. I’d had a nightmare. I laid still so that I wouldn’t wake Ash. He was supposed to be in his own bed, according to the nurses. They’d chastised him every time they came into the room to check our vitals, but I saw the envious glances they shot in my direction. I couldn’t blame them. I might have felt the same way if I’d been them.

I slipped out of bed and pulled a bathrobe around my shoulders. I’d been thinking about my mother a lot lately. It wasn’t just what I’d gone through with Dimitri or having Ford. Or maybe it was. Maybe I was just a little girl deep inside who still needed her mother.

I’d wanted her to come to Los Angeles with me. I’d begged her.

“But what would your father do without me?”

“Maybe it’s time for him to figure that out.”

“He needs me. He’s never had to take care of himself. He went from his mother’s home to mine. There’s always been someone to take care of him.”

“But, Momma, he hurts you.”

“He doesn’t mean to.”

“Is that what you tell yourself when you see the bruises in the mirror?”

She touched my face, a sad look in her eyes. “When you make a commitment to a man, you have to stick to it, love.”

I wanted to tell myself that she was wrong. I wanted to believe that she was mentally ill, that he’d brainwashed her or something. But I knew now that life was much more complicated than I ever understood.

As a child, I thought all fathers beat their wives. When I realized that some families were different, that love didn’t always hurt, I hated my father. I hated what he did to us, hated him for the shame that he dumped on us. And I thought my mom was weak for not leaving him. I wanted to save her and, even then, she wouldn’t leave him.

Then I found myself struggling, living on the couch at a friend’s—a woman I met at the first job I got waiting tables at a diner—willing to do just about anything to pull myself out of the gutter. And then the stripping, allowing men to look at me as though I were an object rather than a human being.

When Dimitri turned his eye on me, I thought I’d finally found what I’d always wanted. I’d found a man who would treat me right. A man who would give me all I deserved while I sat at home and raised a dozen babies. Even after he hit me the first time, I justified it in my mind even though I should have known better.

I should have known better. I should have gotten out.

And I should have told Ash the truth from the beginning.

All these should haves and could haves would haunt me for the rest of my life. Just like the look on Dimitri’s face when I shot him.

I had his blood on my hands. Literally. I took another human being’s life. The father of my child. A man who maybe grew up as I did, who didn’t know any better than to behave as he did.

What was in store for my child? Could I break the cycle?

“Hey, gorgeous,” Ash said, slipping out of bed to come sit with me. “Are you okay?”

I moved into his arms and pressed my face against his chest.

“Does it ever end?”

“What, babe?”

“The violence. The pain and the hurt and all the things that seem to follow me around.”

“I don’t know.”

It wasn’t the answer I wanted, but it was better than platitudes.

“It’s hard to break the cycle of violence,” he said after a while. “A parent beats and neglects a child, and that child grows up to be just as cruel to his kids because he doesn’t know any other way. And then that child…it just keeps going until someone recognizes the pattern and breaks it.”

“How do I do that?”

“Being aware that there is a pattern is the first step.”

“I don’t want to hurt Ford.”

“Oh, babe, that’s not going to happen.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I see you with him. I’ve never seen a mother more patient than you.” He ran his hand slowly down my back. “I don’t know what the future’s going to bring, Mina. But I know I love you. I know you love me. I know we both adore Ford. With that much love going around, how could anything bad happen?”

I closed my eyes, letting his words sink in. Then I pulled away and looked at him.

“You love me?”

“Of course,” he said, pressing his lips to mine. “I think I’ve loved you from the moment I first saw you.”

I kissed him back.

How could anything bad happen with that much love going around?

It was a good question, one I would never quit pondering.