“Get it through your thick fuckin’ skull. I…don’t…make…weapons!” Imani was almost growling as loud as Colt had earlier.
“Well, if you want your son back, you’re going to have to change your fuckin’ mind. We’re not backing down. You will make the weapons for us!”
“What about our parents?” Justin asked quietly.
“We never had your parents. That feed was fake. That was to throw you off our plan. Your wife helped us with that.”
Justin looked to Colt and nodded. He didn’t even feel bad about what they’d just agreed. Melissa would pay.
“I’m going to make sure you’re housed in the worst fuckin’ prison, if those fuckers hurt my godson,” Mac told him in a chillingly soft voice.
Justin’s phone starting buzzing. He placed it to his ear without looking at the caller ID.
“Justin?”
“Nakia? Baby? Are you okay?”
Everyone in the SUV went quiet in collective surprise. Justin put the phone on speaker.
“Jay, I’m sending you my location. Can you come?”
“We know where you are, baby. We’re eight minutes out.”
“Please hurry.”
Her urgent panicked tone scared him to his core.
There was some scuffling in the background, and an accented male voice yelling, “Where the fuck is she? Find the engineer! Find the kid.”
Justin was already doing over ninety miles per hour in a fifty-five zone. The sound of a pissed-off Russian’s voice propelled him as nothing else would. “Fuck it!” He punched the SUV to 100 miles per hour in seconds.
“Did you bring her and the half-breed?” a different male voice said in the distance. Justin didn’t recognize the voice because it was so muffled; however, the voice still seemed familiar.
“No one deserves a comeuppance more than Imani.” A female voice could be heard sneering in the background. “I hate that uppity bitch.”
“That’s Melissa,” Imani muttered bitterly. “Could that girl be any more stupid?”
“She hates you,” Justin said softly. He knew that he didn’t have to tell them the obvious, but he still found it hard to believe the depths of Melissa’s prejudice. Hell, he was stunned at his brother’s prejudice. He had no idea how Colt had not fucked them all up for messing with Imani. There was no way he’d accept that shit. Either they accepted Nakia, or he’d say fuck ’em. “If she sees Nakia instead of you, they may kill her.” Again Justin told them the obvious.
“After that lawyer killed my men, the order changed from capture her to kill her,” Baldacci told them drily.
“Deal with that for me, will ya?” Justin drawled.
Colt didn’t hesitate. He planted a firm fist into the left side of Baldacci’s face and smiled with satisfaction at the audible snap of bones and the pain-laced scream from the mobster.
Baldacci slumped unconscious in his seat.
“Jay? Are you still there?”
“I’m here, babe.”
“They’re going to find me,” Nakia said.
Her whispered words were barely audible, and Justin had to turn the volume up almost to full capacity on the console so that everyone in the SUV could hear her.
“I’m almost there,” Justin said.
“There’s a small window in here. I can’t get through, but little Alex can. It’s a bit of a drop. However, I think the debris will break his fall. Can you get him, please?”
“We’ll be there soon. Wait a few minutes and one of us will be below the window to catch him.”
They heard the Russian bellow, “Check every room in this fuckin’ place again!”
The sound of distant footsteps and doors slamming filled the SUV.
Justin stopped the vehicle about a quarter-mile from Nakia’s location. Understanding the heightened urgency, everyone quickly jumped out of the car. Mac threw Baldacci’s unconscious body over his shoulder and jogged toward the drop point where he’d agreed to meet up with other agents who would secure the mobster. Justin shook his head at the sight. Mac was strong, but to lift a man of Baldacci’s size? Yeah, that’s not quite right. He filed that one away to think of on a later date.
Justin, Colt, and Imani activated their shields and ran toward the building where Alex’s locator was strongest. Through his Bluetooth, Justin listened in to the activity happening around Nakia.
They came to a halt in front of a three-story building that seemed like an abandoned warehouse. The paint had long been worn off the concrete walls, the glass in the windows was black with dirt and broken in numerous places, all entrances looked obstructed with debris, and the place seemed deserted with no visible sign of life within. Despite all of that, they didn’t doubt that they were in the correct location.
“Damn, I sure hope Nakia’s on the first floor,” Imani muttered drily as she gazed up at building.
Justin was so focused on listening to what was happening inside the warehouse, it took him a moment to understand why Colt gave a sharp bark of laughter. And then he heard what he’d been dreading from the warehouse.
“Get out of there!” a male voice demanded.
Nakia gasped.
“I know you’re in there, miss. Come out slowly and you won’t get hurt.”
“Can’t a girl use the bathroom?” Nakia seemed peeved and not at all terrified.
Confident that no one could see him because of the invisible shield, Justin moved quickly around the building trying to find a way inside.
Colt and Imani followed the beacon to Alex’s location.
“Jay, I’m out of time. Sending the package now.”
Justin stilled at the sound of fear in Nakia’s voice. He wanted to tell her that he was even now entering the building and that Alex’s parents were at the ready. But of course, he could say none of that. He quickened his steps, and with the stealthy expertise of a burglar, he infiltrated the building.
“Miss, I’m not going to tell you again.”
“Almost done,” Nakia told him sweetly.
Justin wasn’t surprised that the interior of the warehouse was as modern and well maintained as the outside was old and derelict. It had a gleaming tiled floor and clean white-washed walls. An air conditioner hummed quietly in the background, and various rooms were decorated in modern chic office furniture. It also didn’t surprise him to hear Melissa’s voice coming from down a hall where she was demanding that someone pull Imani from the bathroom. Again, he wondered what he’d seen in her. How was she able to get under his defenses and completely blind him to who she was?
Hidden behind his shield, Justin moved farther into the warehouse, navigating through the numerous men and women who were apparently running around performing tasks as though they were having a normal day at work. However, what was alarming was the number of armed mercenaries throughout the rooms that he passed. Any of those men could have been men he would have meet on the battlefield. Already he’d encountered at least twenty of them, and he was sure that there were more in the building. Even with the FBI agents that Mac had outside, they wouldn’t be able to neutralize this nest, especially given the possibility that Alex and Nakia could get caught in the crosshairs.