Hopping to his feet, Shane said, “I’ll go talk to them.”
“You do that,” Diesel said. “I don’t like it either, but I think it’s the fastest and most direct way to resolve this thing for good.”
“I want to take them both out.”
“You won’t get any argument out of me for that. We’ve got one wanted for the murder of eleven innocents that we know of just this week, and the other one held a pregnant woman for six months. And the way it’s looking now, they both may have been complicit in taking your family captive.”
“That’s the other thing,” he said. “We need to find my sister.”
Just then came a beep, signaling a new message on the chat.
Family possibly located. Gavin went on to mention a block of warehouse buildings.
What did you find? Shane typed.
Finally found them on the cameras. A link was the next thing to populate the chat screen. Pictures of an SUV pulling up in front of a big warehouse. It was hard to identify his brother-in-law for certain, but there was no doubting his sister, who was a tall, slim fiery redhead. She carried one of their kids and had the other by the hand. As Shane watched, they disappeared out of the view of the camera, but this was the best lead they’d gotten.
Address?
Still in San Diego, near a warehouse wharf.
Unaware of the ongoing chat, Diesel continued their conversation. “I wouldn’t give Shelly and Aleah too many ideas or specific concerns to think about at the moment,” he warned. “They both have some serious healing to do.”
Shane nodded, clearly distant now, as he watched the screen for a response, his mind spinning in a totally different direction. “Gavin thinks he’s found my family.”
Diesel hopped to his feet. “It’s about time we got a break,” he said. “That’s a game changer.”
Shane looked at Diesel and said, “We need to move in, rescue them, then set a trap for these assholes.”
“Do you think the kidnapper will be where your family is?”
“I doubt it,” he said, “but which one has his goons on site? We’re not even positive who has them now and how this is all related. The one guy is still after something from Aleah’s father. The more leverage he has against the father, the less he’ll care about my family. I already did my job and got Aleah away.”
“Sure, but you did too good of a job. The kidnapper’s keeping the pressure on you no matter what, so you keep Aleah from her father. That’s got to be why he tried to grab Shelly.”
“I know,” he said. “The trouble is, with guys like this, they could have infiltrated each other’s organizations too. So, no matter what we think is going on, we’ll have to really be on our toes.”
“Both men are a danger to Shelly and Aleah, no doubt.”
“Poor Aleah. This will be bad for her, no matter how it goes.”
“I hear you there,” Diesel said slowly. “We’ll only get one shot. I wonder if we can set up a handoff with a decoy.”
“As long as we’ve got my family, yes,” he said, “but it all has to happen with precision timing.”
Diesel gave a lopsided grin. “Good thing that is our specialty.”
Shane groaned. “It’d be nice to have the tiniest bit of leeway for once.”
“But that’s not the way it ever works,” Diesel said. “We just have to deal with it, and we have to deal with it now. You know the consequences if we don’t.”
Unfortunately he did. All too well.
Chapter 13
Shelly was quickly ushered into a small room on the second floor of the little house, where she turned and stared at Shane. “Are you sure this is the best answer?”
“It’s a combination of your idea and mine,” he said quietly.
“It’s not that we’re bait,” she said, reaching up to pat his cheek. “Just quit looking at it that way.”
He nodded. “I hear you. I do. But I really don’t like it. I’d rather have you safely tucked away, somewhere far away from here.”
“But you have to admit that the two of us together will be a very tantalizing prospect.”
“No doubt. We suspect that still another mole is somewhere in the kidnapper’s organization or the father’s organization, probably within MI6 again, considering the first one was there,” he said. “So, all of our attempts to keep things secret weren’t enough back then anyway.”
“So the plan is to keep us together, to stay with us, and to presume that somebody will make a move.”
“I’d move on that,” he said. “We’ve decided that the best way to predict their actions to get at you two is to go with the strategy we would utilize ourselves.”
“That’s why you were hired in the first place,” she said, “because you could get the job done.”
“Yeah, but I’m not alone,” he said, “and now that Aleah is out of that kidnap situation, and we’re hardly under heavy guard here,” he said, “somebody is likely to try again.”
“I get that,” she said, turning to stare at her small bedroom. “Have you got her safely ensconced on the other side?”
“Yes,” he said. “You two can share this upper apartment, with the kitchen, a little closet, bathroom, all the necessities, so you don’t need to be going anywhere else. Stay inside. Please stay on this floor.”
“And for the baby?” she asked.
“Yes, things are set up for the baby too.” He reached over and peered at her stitches.
“I’m fine,” she said crossly.
“Well, you will be fine,” he snapped. “You’re just not quite there yet.”
She glared at him, and he glared right back. She burst out laughing, then reached up and gave him a gentle kiss. “Hurry back.”
“We’ll have to deal with this when I do,” he said, his gaze narrowing.
“Nothing to deal with,” she said.
“Sounds like you’ve changed the game.”
“I have?” she asked in surprise. She opened her eyes wide and stared at him and said, “I think … this was always there, just maybe on the sidelines somewhere.”
“Maybe,” he said, “but it’s been like an unwritten rule that we had between us not to get involved.”
“Yeah, absolutely,” she said. “Do you want to change that?” He opened his mouth and closed it. She nodded. “Yeah, I jumped in and put that question to you before you could put it to me.”
“Not fair,” he muttered.
She burst out laughing again, walked over, and gave him a big hug. “It’s tough times right now,” she murmured.
“It would be a whole lot less tough if you weren’t always distracting me.”
“Distracting? I don’t think that’s the real reason,” she said.
“You’re dancing around the issue,” he said calmly.
“Maybe.” She nodded. “But it’s hardly the time or place.”
“True, but it is distracting me,” he said, “and I don’t like it.” His voice turned hard, and he glared at her.