Fatal, p.16
Fatal, page 16
“You’re going to offer to use yourself as bait,” Adam said.
Raina held his gaze while everyone else in the room held their breath. When she nodded, she tore her gaze from Adam’s.
His heart dropped to his feet. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t risk her life. She couldn’t walk into a situation where Street could win.
“No,” Jack said. His normally smiling face was angry and set. “My wife did the same when we were trying to catch her asshole ex, and he almost kidnapped her.”
“But he didn’t,” Dunn argued.
“But he could have. How in the fuck can you possibly consider that option again?” Jack barked.
“Because Pilar was fine,” Archer said. “And because the only thing Street wants is Raina.”
“It’s dangerous,” Dex said.
“So’s letting that fucker stay above ground,” Mason argued. “I’m all for coming up with Plan B, but we’ve been at this for weeks. He’s evaded custody for decades, and when we finally brought him in, he was free in hours with all charges dropped.”
“He’ll probably see right through it,” Liam said.
“He might, but if we’re smart about it, it won’t matter,” Dunn said.
“This is a bad idea,” Jack growled.
“We don’t have any good ideas,” Mason said.
“But this? Putting her in danger? Putting her in his view and dangling her like a carrot in front of a hungry horse? I can’t believe any of you are even thinking about this.” Jack slammed his fist on the table and stood, his rolling chair crashing into the wall behind him.
“I’m with Jack. I think it’s too dangerous,” Dex said.
“I agree,” Adam snapped.
“I think it’s our best shot,” Mason admitted.
“Me, too,” Archer said.
Dunn looked around the room at the others. It was clear they operated as a democracy and he was giving them all a voice.
Rocky looked at Raina. “Have you ever been in a situation where you need to defend yourself?”
Raina shook her head. “I asked Adam to teach me self-defense. It’s only been a day, so I don’t know much, but I know Damon better than anyone else. I know what he’ll do.”
“That might be so, but if he takes you, it won’t matter. He’ll kill you,” Rocky said.
“And if he stays out there, he’ll kill others. He’s not going to stop until he gets me back or dies. Those are the only options for Damon. He thinks I embarrassed him by leaving. He wants to teach me a lesson. He wants to prove he can control me. He’s going to kill me. I know that. If he gets his hands on me, I’m dead. I’ve accepted that. I don’t want that to be the outcome because I know what he’ll do before he kills me will be so much worse than death, but Damon won’t stop. Ever. This is the only way.”
“She’s right. We need to let her do it,” Slade, who’d been silent to that point, said.
“I disagree,” Rocky said. “It’s too dangerous.”
Dunn looked at Liam. “You’re the last vote.”
Liam exhaled a shaky breath and met Adam’s gaze. Before he spoke, Adam knew what he was going to say and swore.
“Are you fucking kidding me? What if this was Caitlyn? Would you send her up against a sick son-of-a-bitch who wanted to kill her?”
Liam’s face morphed into a scowl. His eyes slid to Raina, then back to Adam, a disapproving sigh escaping. “You know Caitlyn would make the same decision. She did make the same decision.”
Adam growled and glared at his cousin. The one person in the room he thought would have his back. But he didn’t. Liam betrayed Adam, throwing Raina in front of the speeding train with the hope she could stop it.
She was going to die. Street would kill her. And Adam’s hope of changing that was gone.
He shoved his way out of the conference room and stomped down the hall, slamming the door of one of the offices hard enough to rattle the walls. He pounded his fist against the door, then sank to the floor and tried to come up with a better idea. One that wouldn’t mean sacrificing the woman he loved.
17
Raina couldn’t move. Her entire body felt like it was made of glass and movement would shatter her entirely. She knew she should go after Adam, but he was angry. More than she’d ever seen him.
“I’ll go talk to him,” a voice said.
Raina finally looked up. All the men were watching her, but Liam was moving toward the door. He must have been the one who spoke.
“No,” Raina said, forcing herself from the chair she wanted to sink into and never leave. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Are you sure?” Liam asked.
Raina nodded, even though she was far from sure. “He wouldn’t be upset if I hadn’t convinced him to come back here without telling him why. It’s my mess.”
Liam smiled at her and squeezed her hand as she walked by.
Raina turned in the direction Adam went when he slammed out of the conference room. The hallway wasn’t that long, but she had no way of knowing where Adam went.
The first two offices were empty. Raina was about to check the third when a woman walked out of it. “Oh.”
The woman smiled. “Hi. You must be Raina. I’m Kyra. I’m the office manager, which means I do my best to keep these men in line. Of course, Slade’s the easy one for me since he’s my husband.”
“I didn’t realize,” Raina said, unsure what she was trying to explain away. She didn’t realize Kyra existed at all, either as Slade’s wife or as the office manager or that she was in the building.
“It’s okay. I’m not the one you’re here for, but I thought you’d like to know Adam is in that office. It’s Rocky’s, technically, but Adam ducked in there and closed the door.”
Raina drew a breath and stared at the door like it was going to attack her. “Thank you.”
Kyra smiled. “You’re welcome. And good luck. These men are amazing and kind and passionate about what they do. I’ve heard a lot about Adam from English, Liam to you, sorry. He’s a big fan of his cousin’s. I can see you are, too.”
Raina blanched, unsure how the woman she’d just met knew anything. “I, um… Adam’s been great.”
Kyra grinned. “Don’t worry. I’m not here to judge, and I know how it feels to fall for a man you tell yourself not to fall for. I’m cheering for you two.”
“Thanks,” Raina whispered. She didn’t know how to feel about that, but she figured it couldn’t hurt to have an ally.
Kyra walked past Raina, leaving Raina to approach the office where Adam was.
Raina drew a deep breath and let it out slowly, then knocked on the office door. Silence greeted her. She knocked again, but still heard nothing from inside. She turned the handle, relieved when it didn’t catch.
The office was dark, but the high windows let outside light in. Raina stepped inside and closed the door, giving her eyes a minute to adjust before she found Adam sitting on the floor, his back to the wall behind the door.
“What do you want?” Adam growled. He was back to snapping at her and acting like she was the enemy.
Instead of answering, Raina sat on the floor next to him and put her head on his shoulder.
As if it was an instinct, Adam wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head.
Raina let out a sigh of relief. He was angry, but he wasn’t going to pull back from her. It meant more to her than he could possibly know that he was willing to support her, even though he disagreed.
They sat there in silence for a few minutes. Raina wanted to explain to him what was going through her mind, but she knew he wouldn’t be willing to let her risk her safety to save him. If Damon found out they’d slept together, he would kill Adam without a second thought. She couldn’t let that happen. And she couldn’t let Damon keep hurting people.
This had to end.
“I don’t want you to have to face him,” Adam whispered.
Raina nodded. “I know.”
“He’ll try to kill you.”
“I know.”
“He might succeed.”
“I know.”
Breath shuddered from Adam like he was giving it all up. He surrounded her with his other arm, pulling her tighter into his grasp. He pressed his cheek to the top of her head and held onto her.
“I can’t keep living like we have been. Neither can you. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy spending time with you, but he’s not going to stop. It’s been a year since I left him. In that time, he hasn’t stopped. He’s still trying to get me back.”
“You can’t go back to him.”
Raina shook her head. “I’m not. I don’t want to die, Adam.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
She laughed mirthlessly. “You really don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
“I… care about you, Adam. Damon has taken a lot of people from the ones who cared about them. Not just him, but the people who work for him. He’s not going to stop until he has what he wants. What he wants most right now is me.”
“You said you’re not going back to him.”
Raina shook her head. “I’m not. I refuse. But I can’t let anyone else die because of me. Norma and Tom… He would have killed them. Same with Bobbi and Lenny. How many more people would die if we kept running?”
“I don’t know,” Adam admitted.
“We can’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t risk anymore lives. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to end up with Damon. I want a life after all of this. But I can’t trade mine for the lives of innocent people who happen to meet me along the way. You. Lorelei. Edie. Her cousin died because they thought she was Karli. Karli would have died. Jessica, Stacey. Mackenzie. Francesca. Damon would kill all of them if he thought it would get him closer to me. I’m not willing to risk it. Not another day.”
Adam’s body was tense, his arms locked around Raina. She could feel his uneven breath and the anger pouring off of him.
He buried his nose in her hair and inhaled deep. As he breathed, his grip on her loosened. “You’re right,” he finally said. “I still don’t like this, but I know you’re right.”
“Thank you.”
“I can’t lose you, though.”
“You won’t. I’m not going anywhere.”
He kissed her hair, then her neck, then tilted her head back and claimed her lips. He urged her on top of him, straddling his lap, and kissed her until they were both panting and desperate to finish what they started.
“Think this door locks?” Adam asked with a smile.
“I think it doesn’t matter if it does.”
He chuckled with her and nodded. “Then we need a place to stay tonight. Preferably with one bed and lots of condoms.”
“Agreed.”
Adam walked with Raina back down the hall to the conference room. F-BOMB were still in there talking, but there were two new additions when Adam and Raina joined them.
“Lorelei!” Raina exclaimed, rushing to hug Adam’s partner.
Lorelei hugged Raina and looked over her shoulder at Adam. The one raised eyebrow was enough to tell Adam Lorelei didn’t miss that he and Raina were holding hands when they walked in.
Adam shrugged, not bothering to hide it and knowing Lorelei wouldn’t judge.
Her answering smirk said she was happy for them.
“Edie, what are you doing here?” Raina asked when she let go of Lorelei, going to Edie and speaking softly to her.
Adam fist-bumped his partner. “You good?”
“Yep. I’ve been keeping Mooney up to date on what’s going on. He’s itching to get us back, but he knows if he demands it, we’re going to take vacation.” Lorelei rolled her eyes.
“It’s only been a week. He gave us two.”
Lorelei shrugged. “We’ll make it work. Just glad to see with my own eyes you two are good.”
“Thanks,” Adam said.
Raina and Edie were talking, and their conversation caught Adam’s attention. He hadn’t gotten to know Edie well in the short time she stayed at the safe house, but what he did know of her, she was a smart and kind woman who’d lived through hell and was brave enough to not only escape but to fight back.
Edie sat next to Raina looking stronger than last time Adam had seen her. She offered him a tentative smile, then turned back to Raina. “I’ve been helping. Providing information and doing what I can to try to take down Damon and the rest of the Company.”
Raina sucked in a breath, her shoulders tensing for a long minute before they relaxed with her exhale.
Adam waited for her to speak. Without seeing her face, he wasn’t sure if she was upset or grateful.
“It’s going to take all of us,” Raina said. “I know this isn’t easy for you, though.”
Edie shook her head. “It’s not, but neither is knowing there are other women there. Others who’ve been forgotten and ignored and left behind. I don’t know why I was lucky enough to get away, but I’m not going to waste the chance I have to stop what they’re doing to people.”
“Thank you.”
The two of them shared a look as they held hands. Everyone else watched them. The trained members of the group knew the knowledge Edie and Raina had about Damon was invaluable, but the people in the room who carried guns and fought evil on a regular basis had to be in charge.
Dunn stepped forward, as if reading Adam’s mind, and cleared his throat. “Ms. Warren was nice enough to agree to help us come up with a plan. We’ve filled her in as far as what we’ve talked about so far in terms of dangling Raina out in the open so Street will notice her. After that, we’re still working on it.”
“Damon isn’t the type to jump first,” Raina said. “It might take him seeing me a few times before he thinks he can get the upper hand.”
“She’s right,” Edie said. “He’s smart and sneaky. When he took me from where I was held, I thought he was helping me. He got my trust quickly and easily. I really thought I was going to be safe with him.”
“We know this is going to be a tough sell. We can’t just have Raina show up someplace and think he’s going to fall for it. This has to seem natural or he’ll know we’re onto him,” Dunn said.
“So, what do we do? Our priority has to be keeping Raina safe,” Jack said, his scowl saying he still didn’t agree with the plan.
“It will be. We aren’t going to let anything happen. We will have people everywhere and we will make sure anytime she goes out there is someone close enough to keep her safe,” Dunn growled toward Jack.
Jack leveled his boss with a look that made Adam tense. The two of them looked like they were going to fight. Adam appreciated Jack fighting the plan and wanting to confirm Raina would be safe, though. After the way Adam stormed out of the conference room, he wasn’t sure any of them would be willing to listen to him.
Jack finally looked away, and Dunn continued.
“We need a few locations where Raina would be. Places he would see you that wouldn’t be unusual.”
Raina nodded. “When we were together, I didn’t go a lot of places, but I would think he’d expect me to be at a grocery store or something like that. Maybe out to dinner or at a bar.”
“Wherever she’s staying has to be far from where we plant her,” Dex said. “We don’t want him to figure out she’s in the area and catch us off-guard.”
“We have a block of hotel rooms set up, and we’ll be switching off vehicles and moving her around. We’re going to make this a long game and as complicated as possible.” Dunn held Dex’s gaze until Dex nodded.
Adam wanted to trust Dunn as much as the others did, but it wasn’t Dunn’s wife in danger. Adam knew she’d been on the run once, from her own dangerous ex, but she was safe now. Raina wasn’t.
“I don’t think Damon is going to be at a grocery store. He doesn’t do his own anything,” Raina said.
“I agree,” Edie said. “He keeps himself isolated. That’s how he’s been able to stay under the radar all this time. He’s like a ghost.”
“Do you remember where you were being held?” Archer asked Edie.
Edie shook her head. “Not really. Sometimes I was at a house with the guy who decided I was his. When he wasn’t interested, I was with others at a different house.”
“When Street took you, where did he take you?” Archer asked.
“Mackenzie might know. I ended up at her station, so not far,” Edie said.
“Do you think you were close to where you’d been held before?” Archer asked.
Edie closed her eyes. “I know the house I was in most of the time was big. We were kept in the basement. When someone was there for us, we were brought upstairs into a bedroom. There were at least four bedrooms, but probably more. It wasn’t far from that house to the other one. Maybe ten minutes at the most. When Damon took me, I was coming down from my high and barely conscious. I was pissed, and he promised me drugs. I was in and out of consciousness, but I think it was still fairly close.”
“You were always in a house?” Dex asked.
Edie opened her eyes and nodded.
“We’ve already done a search around the rescue station, but we can expand out,” Liam said. “We might get lucky.”
“In the meantime, we’ll target places in that area for our adventures,” Dunn said. “You okay with that, Raina?”
Raina sucked in a breath and nodded, not looking sure at all.
They planned a few outings, then let Raina, Adam, Lorelei, and Edie leave. Dex and Archer went with them, riding down to the garage with them in the elevator.
Archer stayed with Lorelei and Edie, and Dex took Raina and Adam to a hotel. He walked right past the desk, heading to an elevator that could only be accessed with a key card.
“We didn’t want any chances,” Dex said when they were in the elevator. “This place is secure, and we’ve had someone staying here for a few days. Haven’t seen anything odd.”
Adam nodded, grateful for their advanced planning.
Dex escorted them to a two-bedroom suite and cleared it with Adam before declaring them good to go. He handed over a key card and assured them someone would be posted outside at all times, someone else in the lobby, and more people watching the building from the outside.
