Betrayed (22 page)

When Shane walked into the hotel suite an hour later, Elena rushed to him, and they embraced. She knew the other two men were watching them, but she didn't care what they thought. She only wanted to wrap her arms around Shane and feel his arms around her.

When Max cleared his throat, Shane eased away.

“You got something we can show Mr. Big?”

“Mr. Big?” Elena asked.

“That's what we call the boss man, since we don't know his name.”

Shane pulled out the SIM card. “Kinkead says this will fool them.”

“You believe him?”

“I hope so.”

He looked toward the phones still lying in a pile on the coffee table. “We should make the call.”

“After we eat,” Jack answered. “We figured we wouldn't have much time for eating later, so we ordered something. It will be here soon.”

The food came ten minutes later. Gourmet hamburgers, potato salad, and coleslaw for everyone, along with ice cream sundaes for dessert.

“If you can't handle the food, you can eat the ice cream for calories,” Jack explained.

Elena forced herself to nibble some of her burger because she knew the men were watching her, and she didn't want to look like she was too nervous to swallow. But after a few bites she switched to the ice cream.

A knock at the door made her stiffen. Jack got to his feet quickly and crossed the room. After looking out the peephole, he opened the door, and a pretty woman with dark blond hair walked in.

Elena watched in surprise as the woman and Jack embraced. When they broke apart, he turned to the group.

“Elena, this is my wife, Morgan Rains.”

“Your wife?” she said in surprise. “I didn't know you were married.”

Jack grinned. “Very much so.”

“I'm glad to meet you,” Morgan said. “I thought you might want to have another female join you in this group of macho guys.”

“Yes, thanks,” Elena managed to say.

“Maybe we could go into the bedroom and talk,” Morgan said.

Elena tipped her head to the side, wondering where this was leading, but she said, “Yes, all right.”

She got up and took the other woman into the bedroom, glad that she'd made the bed before coming out.

Morgan closed the door behind them and gestured toward the armchairs by the window. “Why don't we sit down?”

Elena nodded and lowered herself into a chair, wondering where this was leading.

Morgan took the opposite chair. “Jack told me you're determined to go off on a dangerous mission.”

“Are you here to talk me out of it?” Elena demanded.

“No. I'm here in case you need someone to talk to—besides the guys.”

Elena knitted her hands in her lap. “I've made up my mind.”

“At least you have a choice.”

“What does that mean?”

“Let me give you the executive summary of what happened when I met Jack. He had infiltrated a homegrown militia planning to attack the U.S. Capitol. After they discovered he wasn't really one of them, they tortured him for information. He escaped and ended up naked and beaten in the woods near my house. I took him in and tried to patch him up. When they came after him, we had to escape together—and Shane and Max came to our rescue. Then when I was kidnapped and the militia leader told Jack I only had twenty-four hours to live, the three guys risked their lives to save me.”

Elena sucked in a sharp breath. “Truly?”

“Yes. I told you all that because I wanted you to know that I understand how you're feeling now. And I also want to be here for you. I'm a psychologist.” She stopped and laughed. “When I first met Jack, I thought I might have hooked up with a psychopath.”

Elena blinked. “Why?”

“He did some pretty violent things to get us away from the militia.”

“Okay,” Elena answered, thinking of Shane's recent exploits—including flying a plane with a bullet wound in his side.

“Can I help you deal with what you're going through now?”

“It's the other way around,” Elena blurted out, “from what you said about Jack. I did a lot of things that made Shane mistrust me.”

“Is that why you're going off to meet a guy who could kill you—to prove your innocence?”

Elena blinked at her bluntness. Didn't therapists usually let the client bring stuff up? But maybe in this case, they didn't have time to draw it out.

“No,” she answered. “It's the only way to rescue my brother. And I'm sorry I dragged Shane into it.”

“I don't think he's sorry.”

“He was.”

“And now he's committed to you.”

Elena kept her gaze fixed on Morgan. “How do you know?”

“I saw the way he looked at you.”

“You can tell from that?”

“Yes.”

Elena swallowed. “Which means I'm making him frantic.”

Morgan shook her head. “These guys don't get frantic. They stay cool and do what has to be done. And if Shane is letting you meet up with the bad guys, he's going to be right behind you.”

“I know. If he can.”

“He will. It will help you to focus on that.”

Elena nodded, knowing that the other woman was giving her a pep talk and praying that she spoke the truth.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Morgan asked.

“You did,” Elena answered.

“Then the sooner you get the hard part over with, the sooner you and Shane can plan the rest of your lives.”

“The rest of our lives,” Elena murmured. “I've hardly dared to think about that.”

“Keep the thought with you.”

They both got up and went back to the sitting room. “Let's make the call,” Elena said in answer to Shane's anxious look.

“And hope he's been waiting to hear from us,” Shane muttered under his breath.

***

While Shane had been gone, Elena and the other two Rockfort men had talked about what she was going to say—and what she wasn't. And now was the moment of truth. The first test to see if she could pull this off.

The three men and Morgan all had Bluetooth earpieces so that they could hear the conversation—and give her pointers if she got into trouble.

Willing herself to steadiness, she punched in the number of her brother's cell. This time it rang three times before anyone answered. And it wasn't Alesandro on the other end of the line.

“This is Elena Reyes,” she said.

“It's about time you called,” a hard male voice said.

“I…I couldn't do it before.”

“Why not?”

“I had to get away from Shane Gallagher.”

“And you're saying you did that?”

“Yes.”

“I don't believe it.” The hard voice punched out the words. “You were with him for days.”

She tried to picture the man on the other end of the line. He sounded like he wasn't young. Maybe he was in his sixties. She guessed that he was used to having people do what he told them, and he wasn't happy that she'd kept him dangling. Or that she had some say in the course of this call.

Answering his unspoken question, she said, “Not because I wanted to be with him. I had no choice. I had to pretend I was helping him, but I finally gave him the slip.”

“How?”

She swallowed hard. “I waited until we left that hiding place in North Carolina. When his driver stopped for gas, I got out of the limo and ran.”

“Ran where?”

She glanced at Shane, and he gave her an encouraging look before she went on with the story that they had worked out. “He was in the gas station restaurant, and I ran into a shopping mall. When he realized I was gone, he came after me, but I hid.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“It's the truth.”

“What if you're really with him?”

“I'm not.”

“Why did you run away from him?”

“Because he doesn't care anything about Alesandro.” She gulped. “He just wants to get that information back. That's why I called. How is my brother?”

There was a long pause, and she wondered if the man was buying the story. “Where are you?” he finally asked.

“How is my brother?” she repeated.

“Alive.”

The way he said it made her wince.

“Where are you?” he asked again.

“I'd be
muy
estúpida
to tell you that.”

“It looks like we don't trust each other.”

“Truly. So I'm getting off the phone and calling you back in a minute.”

“No! Wait.”

She hung up, feeling a shiver go through her. The man had sounded panicked, which was a small victory for her.

Apparently the others agreed.

“I liked his reaction to that,” Morgan said.

The three men nodded.

Shane came over and put his arm around Elena. “You did great.”

“But we haven't gotten anywhere yet.”

“You will,” Morgan said. “I could hear the tension in his voice. He's fighting not to panic.”

“Like me,” Elena murmured.

“You have us,” Morgan said. “I think he's got nobody.”

Elena grasped at that. Her heart was pounding as she fought the urge to make the second call right away. Instead, she looked at the clock on the computer screen and forced herself to wait a minute and a half before picking up another cell phone and punching in her brother's number.

This time the man answered on the first ring. “Where were you?”

“Like I said, I don't trust you not to try and trace this call. I'm not going to talk to you for more than a few minutes on any one phone.”

The man laughed. “And you thought of that all by yourself? What are you, a high-tech spy or something?”

“What, you think I'm some little twit? I'm a woman with a degree in computer science. I work in the IT department of a software company.” She swallowed, readying herself for the real negotiation. “We'd better get down to business. We don't trust each other, but we each have something the other wants.”

The man made another snorting sound. “Do you have the information from Arnold Blake's office?”

“Yes.”

“You'd better bring it to me.”

“I won't unless I know you're going to bring my brother.”

His tone turned derisive. “You don't have much of a bargaining position.”

“Neither do you.”

Again there was a long silence. He finally said. “All right, what do you propose?”

“We drive to a location that we both agree on. You bring my brother and I'll bring the information you want. We'll make an exchange.”

“And your friend Shane Gallagher will be there to kill me.”

“No.”

“And how will I know you're telling the truth?”

“I'll come alone.”

“And he can put a tracking device on your car.”

She sucked in a sharp breath.

“That's what you were planning, weren't you?”

“No,” she answered, fighting the urge to scream, because that's exactly what she had known Shane would do.

“Call me back in fifteen minutes,” the man on the phone said. Then the line went dead.

Elena looked at Shane in panic.

“Will he be there when I call back?” she asked.

“Of course,” Morgan answered. “You have something he needs. Desperately, I'd say, from the way he's behaving.”

Elena nodded, struggling for calm and glad a psychologist was judging the guy's reactions. “You were going to track my car, right?” she said to Shane.

“Yeah, but we were going to let him think that he'd fooled us by defeating the tracker.”

“I'm not following.”

“There will be a tracker and another one he won't find.”

“All right,” she answered, ordering herself not to freak out. Shane and his friends knew what they were doing.

She stood up, paced to the window, and stared out at the cars whizzing by on Rock Creek Parkway, then paced to the other end of the room.

Shane looked at his watch, keeping track of the time.

As the minutes ticked slowly by, Elena fought not to scream—or make the call early.

“He knows how to get to you,” Shane muttered.

“Unfortunately.”

Finally he gave the go-ahead.

With fingers that felt like they had lost their nerve endings, she punched in the number again, and the man picked up on the second ring and got right to business. “Here's the deal. You come alone or your brother is dead.”

“All right.”

“You meet me at the following location.”

She was ready with a pen and notepad. He gave her an address, which Max started checking out the moment she'd written it down.

“I want to talk to my brother now.”

“You're not in a position to make demands.”

“Neither are you,” she shot back. “Not if you want that program.”

“You know it's a program?” he asked with an edge in his voice.

“Yes, I looked at it,” she lied.

He sighed and covered the phone, but she could hear him speaking to someone else.

Again the seconds ticked by, and finally she heard sounds from the other end of the line. Then her brother's shaky voice.

“Elena?”

“Alesandro. Are you all right?”

He gave a harsh laugh. “Not really.”

“They hurt you,” she whispered, expecting him to start berating her for disobeying his directions, but he didn't do it.

“I guess I deserve it,” he said instead.

She couldn't believe his answer or the way his voice sounded. The last few times they'd talked, he'd been angry with her. Now his tone was completely different. He'd always acted so sure of himself and so sure that he deserved every good thing in the world. This time he was telling her that he knew he'd made a mistake.

“I'm going to trade the information for you,” she said, feeling her chest tighten as she said the lie. Although she didn't have the SIM card, she had something that looked like it. The important point was that Shane and the other men from Rockfort Security would get to her before Mr. Big realized he'd been tricked.

“
Gracias
,” Alesandro said, making her feel even worse. If this plan got messed up, he'd be dead. And maybe she would be, too.

She pushed those thoughts out of her mind and prepared to say something reassuring. Before she could get the words out, she heard her brother make a strangled sound.

“That's all for now,” Mr. Big said.

“Please.”

“We're wasting time.”

“Who are you and why are you doing this?” she asked.

He laughed. “Just meet me at the place I told you. At nine p.m.”

Before she could ask any questions, he had hung up.

Shane looked at his watch. “That doesn't give us much time.”

“I guess that's what he wanted,” Max said.

“Do you think he'll bring my brother?” Elena asked.

“Not to that location,” Shane said.

“What do you mean?”

“He's going to make you go somewhere else when you get there.”

“How?”

“There will probably be a cell phone waiting for you. Or written directions. I don't know exactly. But I know he's not stupid. He knows we can follow you.”

“It's a warehouse in Gaithersburg,” Jack said. “In a run-down industrial park.”

He brought over the laptop and showed her a map of the area plus a Google Earth picture of the building. “See the street number at the upper right-hand corner of the buildings?”

“Yes.”

They studied the map. “You'll take I-270 out of town.”

He printed out the directions, which she studied.

“Any problems?” Jack asked.

“I think I can find it.”

Shane looked at his watch. “We'd better get ready.”

She gave Shane a direct look. “Would it have been better to have gotten that SIM card from the safe house? You know, in case…” Her voice trailed off.

“He won't know the difference until after you've got your brother,” Shane said.

She nodded, hoping he was right.

They'd already started preparations, and now they had to snap to it.

Elena went into the bedroom and changed into the clothes she was going to wear. After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door.

“Shane?”

“Yes.”

He came in with two pistols. “I want you to take these.”

She didn't protest. They'd practiced with these particular weapons at the firing range in the basement of the southern safe house, and she was comfortable with both of them. One went into her purse and the other into a holster. He also gave her a SIM card.

“Tell him the program's on here. And tell him how you figured it out.”

She answered with a little nod.

“You have to leave,” he said.

“I know.”

“I don't like sending you off alone.”

“I know. But you can't exactly hide in the trunk of the car.”

“Unfortunately.” He pulled her into his arms, gathering her close, hanging on to her as though he never intended to let go. But of course, that was impossible. When he eased away, she saw that his eyes were shimmering.

“Be careful,” he said.

“You, too.”

He squeezed her hand, then stepped away. Her head was spinning with all the points they'd discussed. They both walked into the other room, where Max, Morgan, and Jack were waiting for them.

Jack made his voice all business. “I brought a car over for you to use. It's in the garage and they're bringing it up. I want you to drive down M Street, then up Wisconsin and turn left onto one of the lettered streets. Don't tell me which one. If the tracking equipment is working, we'll find you, come up behind you, and give you the all clear.”

“Okay.”

Morgan reached for her and gave her a quick hug. Then Jack and Max did the same.

“Good luck,” all of them said.

When she started to leave the suite, Shane said, “Wait.”

She gave him a questioning look.

“Let me see your purse.”

She handed it over, and he made sure that everything that was supposed to be inside was there, but he also took out the hotel room key. “Let's not give away where we're staying,” he said.

She answered with a nervous laugh.

Morgan stayed behind, and Elena and the three men all went down to the lobby, where they waited for the car she would be driving and also for the SUV. Other people were waiting for cars, and she looked at them, thinking that they were going to the Kennedy Center or restaurants or other fun locations in D.C. They all looked prosperous and confident, and she was sure they'd be shocked to know her mission.

Her car arrived. It was a Honda Civic. Basic and nondescript, but fast, Shane had told her, in case she needed to make a fast getaway from a bad situation.

And what? Leave her brother with the bad guys?

She drove through the evening Georgetown traffic, not bothering to look for Shane and the other Rockfort men. Either they'd be able to track her, or it wouldn't work.

***

Shane waited impatiently for the SUV to arrive. It was slow coming up from the garage, and he wanted to scream at the parking attendants to get a move on. But he knew that wasn't going to do him any good.

Finally the vehicle appeared, and they all climbed in with the equipment that Max had brought along.

When they had pulled out of the hotel courtyard, he opened the suitcase in his lap and turned on the tracker.

Shane's stomach knotted as he waited for the verdict.

“Got her,” Max said, and they took off toward Wisconsin Avenue and the location Elena had chosen.

***

When Elena saw the SUV pull up behind her, she breathed out a little sigh. So far, so good.

Shane waved to her, and she waved back, like they were going off to a ball game or something and were meeting at that location.

Her chest was so tight she could hardly breathe as she took off up N Street, then worked her way toward Bethesda, Rockville, and finally Gaithersburg.

As she took the ramp to I-270, she looked behind her but saw no sign of Shane. Which was good, she supposed. If anyone was checking on her, they'd think she wasn't being followed.

The flaw in the plan was that she couldn't talk to Shane and the Rockfort men. They could follow her, and they would be able to hear if she spoke to anyone. But it was one-way communication because any microphones on her or the car would show up. She had to trust that they were behind her.

She made it to the vicinity of the warehouse early and pulled up on a side street, sitting in the darkness and waiting for the appointed meeting time. It looked like a rough neighborhood with trash lying around on the ground and warehouse facilities in need of repair. She made sure the car doors were locked as she scanned the area, but no other cars passed. Which meant what? Probably that Mr. Big already had his plans in place.

At nine thirty on the dot, she drove to the correct building, which had a ground-level garage door that stood open. Another car, a blue Hyundai, was parked inside, and she pulled up next to it, looking around at the open space. There were oil slicks on the floor, as well as a dark circle painted in the middle of the space. Aside from that, the interior seemed entirely empty except for the other vehicle.

But someone must have been waiting for her to arrive because as soon as she cut her engine, she heard a phone ringing. It sounded like it was inside the other car. Getting out, she hurried to the driver's door, pulled it open, and found the ringing phone lying on the driver's seat.

When she picked it up and answered it, the man Shane called “Mr. Big” was on the other end of the line.

“I see you made it to your first destination,” he said.

“My first?” she asked, acting as though she thought he was going to show up with her brother.

“You don't think I'm stupid enough to let the Rockfort men follow you, do you?”

She sucked in a sharp breath. He was letting her know that he knew Max and Jack were following her, as well as Shane.

“I don't think you're stupid,” she murmured.

“Good. See that camera mounted on the wall to your right?”

She turned and looked. “Yes.”

“I'm watching everything you do.”

“Okay.”

“And now we're going to make sure they can't follow you. You'll be taking the car I left for you. The keys are in the ignition.”

She swallowed. Shane had warned her about something like that.

“And I'm going to make sure that you don't have a tracker or a gun on you,” he added.

“How?”

“You will take off all your clothing and stand in front of the camera so I can make sure you're not wearing a wire and you're not armed.”