Betrayed

Chapter 29

Shane had pulled to the side of the road as he waited for Max to tell him which way to go.

“Wait a minute, she’s moving again.”

“Still heading in the same direction?”

“She’s backtracking, but I think the ultimate destination is going to be the same. She must have hit a spot where she couldn’t get through.”

“You guess,” Shane snapped, then said, “I’m sorry. I’m on edge.”

“We know. Slow down again until we find out what direction she’s going.”

Shane slowed, fighting anger and frustration and his need to save Elena. At this point, he didn’t give a damn what happened to the brother, but if she didn’t come out of this okay, he was going to smash Lincoln Kinkead.

Was this Kinkead’s fault? Maybe, maybe not. But the man had been up to something he wasn’t talking about. Maybe Elena could explain what that was—if he asked her the right questions.

But for the moment, he had to keep his focus on making sure she came back to him, safe and sound.

Elena backtracked along the rain-slick pavement, then made the next turn, as directed. She could see more houses in the area now, although she still didn’t know exactly where she was going.

“Take the next right,” Mr. Big directed. She slowed and turned, seeing that she was coming into another industrial park, although this one was a lot more upscale than the previous location.

“Drive down to location 651 and stop,” the man directed.

Oh Lord, this was it. She was going to exchange the fake information for her brother.

She drove down an access road lined on either side with buildings that held warehouse facilities. At the far end, some of the buildings were illuminated with exterior lights. But for three-fourths of the length, the lane was dark and silent.

She had to squint to see the numbers, which were high up on the buildings and thankfully painted white. When she saw 651, she pulled to a stop, the car parallel to the buildings instead of perpendicular. Looking around, she saw no other vehicles. But that didn’t prove anything. Mr. Big had probably been here for hours, waiting for her to arrive. Making preparations. She shuddered as she wondered what he was planning.

But maybe she didn’t have long to wait.

A light clicked on inside building 651, and she looked up at the back of the small warehouse. It had a loading dock with a garage door that opened onto a platform about four feet above ground level, a pedestrian door, a landing, and a set of stairs leading to ground level.

“Get out of the car,” Mr. Big ordered. He was still speaking to her from the phone.

“She’s stopped again,” Max said. “I think this could be the place.”

Shane sped up, trying to drive as fast as he could and stay on the slick pavement.

At least the rain had slowed to a drizzle.

“Turn here.” He did, leaning forward and peering through the windshield, hoping to see something.

“Slow down,” Max warned.

“Why?”

“We’re almost there. We don’t want the Big Guy to figure out that Elena’s not alone.”

Shane slowed and switched off the lights. He waited a moment for his eyes to adjust before proceeding along the two-lane highway. Luckily, at this time of night and in this weather, nobody else was on the road.

“There’s a turn ahead,” Max said. “Into an industrial park.”

“But the unit where she is won’t be visible from the access road.”

“Good. That means we can get close before we have to get out of the car.”

Shane’s tension mounted as he glided into the complex and looked around at the darkened buildings. Nobody seemed to be here, but that was the point. It was the way Mr. Big wanted it, and he’d had a long time to plan this confrontation. Too bad Shane couldn’t say the same for himself and Elena. Still, he’d given her some strategies, and he hoped to hell she kept her head and used them. The danger was that when she saw her brother, she’d forget that she was already standing in a lion’s den.

Elena had pulled up so that the driver’s door was facing away from the building. She cut the lights on the borrowed car and picked up the cell phone. Clutching it in her hand, she exited the vehicle, keeping it between her and the warehouse. Would the thin metal sides stop bullets? Probably not, but it helped that she was on the wrong side of the car to get ambushed. At least not yet.

“Bring my brother out,” she said into the phone.

“You first.”

“Not until I see Alesandro,” she said, wondering how Mr. Big was working this. Was he here at the warehouse, or was he giving someone inside directions? She thought it was more likely the former than the latter since he was so anxious to get his hands on the S&D program.

She looked back the way she’d come. Did Shane and the Rockfort men even know where she was? Maybe not, so maybe she was on her own.

A flash of light at the warehouse drew her attention. The door at the top of the stairs opened, and three men came out. Two of them looked tough and capable. The middle one was Alesandro, and the two other guys were holding him up. They each grasped one of his arms with a large hand. In the other, they both held automatic weapons.

She took in the trio at a swift glance. The two on the outside both had buzz cuts and were wearing neat slacks and dark-colored button-down shirts. Her brother’s dark hair was matted, his face was covered with bruises and dried blood, and his clothing was rumpled, with a tear in one arm of his shirt. As she stared at him, the world seemed to sway around her. He looked like he’d been to hell—and hadn’t been able to claw his way back.

The voice on the phone brought her to her senses. “Come and get the miserable slug,” Mr. Big growled.

Keeping her voice hard as steel, she answered, “I’m not coming any closer. I want him to walk down the stairs by himself and come toward me.”

Again there was no response.

She waited a beat before saying, “You don’t get the information until I get my brother.”

“Now that you’re here, we could just shoot him.”

She felt her throat clog. “And you won’t get what you dragged me here to deliver. I can still get back in the car and drive away.”

“You won’t.”

“I will if you shoot him. Send him to me.”

“How do I know you won’t do it when he gets to you?”

She dragged in a breath and let it out, knowing she was about to take a big risk. “I’ll give you the car keys.”

Mr. Big’s voice brightened. “Great suggestion. Toss the keys toward the steps.”

“When my brother is halfway here.”

There must have been a conference among the men that Elena couldn’t hear. One of the tough guys let go of Alesandro, and he wavered on rubbery legs, then grabbed the railing to keep himself from falling. When he was almost steady on his feet, he started down slowly, his hand gripping the rail, and she thought he looked like he’d aged fifty years since the last time she’d seen him in her apartment.

As he descended the steps, he raised his face to Elena. She watched his mouth as his lips formed the word “run.”

Dios, he was telling her to leave him. But she couldn’t do that, because she knew he wouldn’t get out of this alive.

She focused on her brother’s shaky progress toward her, which was probably what the men had intended. But something warned her to look up, and she saw one of the men raise his arm.

When it registered that he was pointing a gun at her, she ducked behind the vehicle as a bullet slammed into the wall in back of where she’d been standing.

The weapon she’d taken from her purse was already in her hand before she had made a conscious decision, and to her relief, she noted that her brother had dropped to the ground.

Reaching above the top of the hood, she returned fire.

Obviously the man who had shot at her thought she’d be an easy target. And he certainly didn’t think she’d be armed. Not after that remote-control strip search at the last warehouse. But she’d hidden her movements from the camera when she’d gotten the SIM card from the purse.

Now she had a clear shot at the two men who had come out of the warehouse with her brother. She pulled the trigger and one of them dropped. The other one was already firing at her. He ducked back up the steps, shooting as he went and weaving a zigzag pattern across the open space, heading for the door from which he’d exited the warehouse with Alesandro.

She heard her brother cry out, but she couldn’t go to him, not when the thug was still laying down a spray of bullets, intent on getting back into the building before she could drop him.

It was then that she heard the roar of an engine. From out of the darkness, a vehicle with its lights out came barreling down the access road toward the scene of the confrontation.

But who was it?

Shane or reinforcements from Mr. Big?

Elena gasped as she saw it speeding toward her brother, who was lying where he’d fallen in the middle of the blacktop—halfway between her and the bad guys.

“Alesandro, watch out!” she screamed.