Angelica woke to a knock on her door. “I’m awake,” she called out softly.
Her door opened, and Anders’s head poked around the frame. “We’re leaving in ten.”
She flung back the bedding. “I’ll get dressed.”
He nodded. “Bring all your bags to the front door.” He closed the door behind him.
She had laid out her clothing the night before and was quickly dressed after a fast trip to the bathroom, where she collected the rest of her toiletries, packed them and, grabbing her bag, walked out. She had a backpack she had left downstairs but had taken her bag of clothes up to her room.
At the front door, she saw the men already loading the gear into the rental vehicle. She stepped out of the cabin and onto the front porch, breathing in the beautiful fresh air. It was still dark out, no sign of the sun rising yet. It felt odd, secretive, to be up at this hour.
She was ushered inside the vehicle, where she sat in the middle of the back seat with all four men around her. She realized they were down to just the one vehicle. One of the guys must have returned the second rental earlier, and she hadn’t noticed it then.
She settled into her place as they set off on the drive. She already knew they were going to a different airport, so it would be a couple hours on the road. And that was okay too. She closed her eyes and let herself relax, enjoying the sway of the double-cab truck, letting her mind settle into another nap. She dozed, woke up, dozed again, and she thought they might still have yet another hour when they took a turnoff and pulled onto a little airfield, a small aircraft ahead. After Anders gave her the go-ahead, she hopped out, looked around and said, “This is a private airfield?”
“It’s a little-known military one,” Anders said. “Rarely used, yet open to the public, so we’re not stepping on anybody’s toes.”
She heard the plane’s engine running as it warmed up. “What about the vehicle?”
“The pilot will be coming back. He’ll return the vehicle for us.”
She nodded, reached for her two bags and followed the men onto the small plane. She didn’t have a problem flying. She enjoyed traveling, and this was certainly an adventure. Without any interruptions, the plane taxied down the runway and was soon high in the air.
The sun crested in the sky, and it was an unbelievably glorious picture down on land. She smiled as she watched the world slowly wake up below her. But quickly they were high above the clouds and soaring north.
She settled in the small plane, and, of course, there was no service, no flight attendants, nothing. She would have loved a coffee, but, barring that, she’d relax and enjoy this leg of her trip. “Is it too early to be happy we escaped okay?”
“Absolutely too early for that,” Anders said behind her. “Too many things could go wrong between here and there.”
She winced. The last thing she wanted was to have anything go wrong midair. Beneath them were miles and miles of very unforgiving land and ocean. Still, it wasn’t a long flight, and, by the time they landed three hours later, she felt much more chipper.
She looked out and realized they had landed on yet another small airstrip. “Do you guys keep track of small unused airports like this?”
“We have them all over the world,” Harrison said. “They are much easier to get in and out of on a regular basis.”
“Especially for smugglers,” she said cheerfully.
“Our flight path has been filed, passport numbers have already been sent in. Nothing secretive about this.”
“Maybe there should be,” she said. She deplaned and stood on the tarmac. Several other small planes were here, one taxiing to take off and two parked to the side. With all the men beside her, they walked toward what appeared to be a small office. There a man checked her passport. She whispered to Anders, “Surely this doesn’t look like a normal customs entry point?”
He shook his head. “No, it isn’t. If anybody has a problem with our arrival, they’ll track us down. We’ve already given them your father’s address. And honestly, with his clearance, we can come in and out of this airport easily.”
“Well, at least he’s good for something,” she said.
As they stepped out the other side, a half-dozen vehicles were parked in the lot. She watched as Anders pointed to a large SUV. “That’s ours.”
She looked at it and smiled. “That looks very government-issue and official. Smoked windows, black body. You could pick that out a mile away.”
“Unfortunately that’s quite true,” he said. “We had hoped we would have something much less conspicuous.”
“Are you kidding? That is what the government calls inconspicuous. To me they are obviously government issue.”
He chuckled and said, “Glad to see you still have some spirit, even though it’s been a trying morning.”
“It’s been a good morning,” she said. “The flight was easy enough, and we made it safe and sound.” Regardless of his earlier words, she hoped it was a smooth trip the rest of the way. “I don’t know how close we are to Carlo’s place, but I presume we still have an hour to travel.”
“Why did you pick that time frame?”
“Because it always seems to take an hour to get anywhere in London,” she said with a laugh. “Between the traffic and the stops I have to make, I’m never faster than that.”
“True, but we’re a long way from London, so have several hours yet.”
As they headed out of the airstrip and onto the main highway, she settled back and thought about the last time she’d been in England. Carlo had been much less than agreeable about her visit, as it interrupted a private session with one of his latest lady friends. Angelica had been hot-tempered at the time and had told him what she thought of him. He’d been equally hot-tempered and had told her that she was a child who needed to grow up. She had decided growing up meant leaving and had walked out of his life.
She hadn’t seen him since. She wasn’t really looking forward to seeing him now either. She highly doubted he had changed. The question was, had she? Enough to be polite? She still didn’t view his lifestyle with any more generosity. It had destroyed her family and her mother. Angelica still felt pain every time she thought about it. Her mother hadn’t moved on in terms of relationships, whereas Carlo seemed to never stop moving on into various relationships. But that was her parents’ problem. Angelica could only do so much.
Anders reached over and double-checked that her seat belt was on.
“What’s that all about?” she asked, wondering what she’d missed.
“We’re being followed,” he said succinctly.
She stared at him and pivoted to look behind her. A big truck came up behind them, going way too fast. “Oh, God,” she said, her stomach dropping like a stone. “There’s no way to get away from him. This road is straight and flat, with no side roads.”
“Yes. And that, in itself, means, once they flip us, all of our lives are in danger. Chances are they’re hoping to extract you alive from the center of this vehicle.”
She shook her head. “Unbelievable.” She leaned forward and spoke to Harrison. “You can drive faster anytime now.” She gazed at the speedometer, already maxed out for the vehicle. “Due to the size of this SUV, I didn’t register the speed we were traveling.”
“Also, once you saw somebody was behind us,” Anders said with a note of humor, “no speed seems fast enough.”
She nodded.
Just then the truck came in even closer. She gripped Anders’s arm as she watched the truck advance on them. But Harrison managed to pull ahead.
“How long can this go on?” she cried out.
“Until one or the other of us makes a mistake,” Anders said, his voice calm as he held her hand in his. “We won’t let them get you.”
She nodded. “I realize you believe that, but you can’t control everything.” He gave her a ghost of a smile, then she saw his teeth.
“Believe me. Even if we go down, we’ll make sure we take them down too.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound like a great answer. Thank you very much,” she snapped. “I’d much rather none of you got killed.”
“Oh, so you like all of us, do you?”
She glared. “I like all of you. And, no, I don’t like you more than them.”
“Well, of course not,” he said, “because you love me.”
She sighed. “You’ve been almost normal for this last six to ten hours. I was kind of hoping you had given up on that thread of conversation.”
“No, not at all,” he said cheerfully.
Just then their vehicle was bumped. She was pushed toward Anders, but he took advantage and wrapped an arm around her back, tucking her close against him.
“If you’re trying to distract me,” she said, “it’s not working.”
“Really?” He tilted her chin and kissed her.
His lips were warm and searching, seeking a response. She had forgotten just how combustible the two of them were. He’d kissed her during that weekend from a year ago, and that had felt like a major betrayal of her fiancé at the time. She hadn’t given Anders permission back then, but, once the touch of his lips had seared through her system, her entire sense of control had destroyed itself, and she’d found her response something she’d never thought to have. It had been beyond her before to pull back, and, when Anders finally did, she’d been so shocked and so upset at her immediate reaction to him that she couldn’t sort out her feelings for a long time.
This time it was different. She knew he was trying to distract her, and she didn’t think anything could do that now under these circumstances. But she was wrong. The feeling of his hand as he held her neck, massaging gently; the touch of his tongue as he stroked deep into her mouth; the pure possession that focused on her, that said, I’m here for you. It’s just the two of us in this small world was magnetic. By the time he pulled his head away and looked at her lambent eyes, she could feel all her resistance dissipating. “How is it you do that?”
“Do what?” he asked, dropping a kiss gently on her temple.
“Make me forget everything going on around me.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just lucky. Because you’re one hell of a crazy package that I can’t seem to forget.”
“You might not have a choice,” she said, “if this asshat gets ahold of me.”
Instantly he lifted her chin again. “He won’t. No way will we get separated again.”
“That just means he’ll take you captive too.” She stared at him. “And that won’t help me. Better for you to escape and for you to find a way to rescue me instead.”
Just then Harrison swore steadily. “Hang on.”
Her heart in her throat, she realized the road ahead was blocked with two more trucks, parked so both rear ends were jammed into the center.
Anders pulled her tighter against him, her knees against his chest, and he whispered to her, “We’ll blast right through them, and their vehicles will fly off the road. Head down. Stay calm.”
And then it was a crash like she couldn’t have imagined. The vehicles, of course, weren’t evenly parked, so Harrison hit first one and then the other. Outside she could hear screams and roars and what she thought maybe was gunfire. She hugged Anders even tighter, burying her face against his chest, but their vehicle didn’t slow down. It barreled forward.
Cautiously she lifted her head and looked behind her. Sure enough, both of the parked vehicles had been disabled and were on opposite sides of the road, but the big truck still followed them, although slowed a bit by the spinning trucks. She stared at Anders. “That wasn’t very smart of them because now they don’t have their spare vehicles to drive.”
“I’m not sure how ours is either. As long as we’ve still got air in the tires, we’re good,” he said.
“Did I hear shots?”
The look on his face was grim as he nodded. “You did, indeed. I’m hoping nothing major was hit.” He leaned forward to the guys in the front seat. “Are you two okay?”
Harrison said, “I’m fine. Dezi is running the GPS. We need to change our route.”
“Got it.” Anders looked over at Reyes, on the other side of Angelica. “Are you all right?”
The window beside Reyes had shattered. He looked at Anders. “I am, but it just missed me.”
And, indeed, Anders found a bullet burn alongside Reyes’s head.
As soon as Angelica saw that, she unbuckled—against Anders’s protest—and checked out Reyes’s head wound. “That’s incredibly lucky. Just a centimeter, even a millimeter—and it would have taken off your head,” she cried out.
Reyes gave her a lopsided grin. “If I counted all the woulds or coulds or shoulds in my life, I’d have been dead many times over.” His voice was gentle as he said, “However, if you have a handkerchief or something I could hold against the wound to stop the bleeding, that would be good.”
She leaned over the back to the storage compartment behind the last seat and rummaged in her bag. She held up a small washcloth for him. He packed it tightly against the burn on his head.
“It’s not bleeding too bad,” she said. She stared around at all the glass. “Are you cut?”
He shook his head. “No, what I don’t know is where the bullet ended up.”
Angelica turned to look in the direction it had gone, but Anders’s window was also shattered. “It must have gone right through the vehicle.”
Anders said, “Yes, that’s very likely. Which is a good thing. If that bullet had hit directly, it could have taken out all three of us by going through all three heads, depending on what caliber it was.”
She stared at him. “Do bullets like that exist?”
He gave a brief, hard snort. “Unfortunately the answer to that question is yes.”
*
Anders exchanged hard glances with Reyes. Anders understood his friend only had a minor injury, but it had been a close call. Too damn close.
“I’m surprised they didn’t take out the gas tank,” Reyes said.
“I don’t think they expected us to go right through.”
“They should have. They didn’t give us any other option,” Harrison said from the front, his voice hard and curt. “I hit the brakes momentarily and then said, To hell with that. I crashed right through it. No way we’re getting taken. The only option was to go down fighting.”
Angel looked behind them and found the truck following them was gone. “Doing that, Harrison disabled both vehicles and kept us safe,” Angel said, her words warm and admiring. “I still would prefer that we hadn’t met up with them. So they are all gone now? I don’t see the big truck anymore.”
“It pulled off to the side of the road. Maybe they got a flat or two driving through all the debris and glass. They may not be following us, but they’re not done with us yet,” Harrison said. “I figure they’ve called to somebody ahead. That’s why we’re changing our route. We notified your father directly of our new route. The fact that somebody was looking for us today on this road makes me suspect somebody in his office is involved.”
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” she said. “He does not inspire loyalty from his men.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Dezi said. “A leader is only as good as his followers believe he is. Otherwise they won’t follow him into battle.”
She realized she wasn’t being fair. “Unless he’s changed in the last five, six years,” she said. “Back then, he had had an affair with the wife of one of the men who worked for him. It caused quite a ruckus and a lot of ill feelings.”
“Of course it did,” Anders said. “Crossing the line like that means everyone questions what other lines he’ll cross.”
“And that’s just part of the problem. He has always had a wandering eye and somehow figured married women were available. The problem was, the married women always acted as if they were available. Of course he loved single women too—the younger, the better.”
Anders and Reyes shared a knowing look. All that had been exposed in the dossier on her father. That knowledge added to their intercepted travel plans today made it even more likely that someone in her father’s employ was involved in all this. Like the old saying goes, keep your enemy closer. How much closer would they be if not all staying at her father’s house?
She leaned forward. “We need to get off this road.”
Harrison laughed. “It’s in progress. Settle back and relax. Keep an eye on poor Reyes there. He’s the one injured.”
“I’m fine,” Reyes said. “I’m just pissed I got caught.”
She turned to look at him. “I’m not. I’m grateful they didn’t have better aim.”
At that, Anders laughed. “I’m pretty sure they figured they had great aim, but they weren’t expecting us to drive through their barricade, or for Harrison to hit the brakes briefly, all making it really hard to target moving objects.”
The rest of the drive was uneventful, but Anders was still pissed and weary. So far these men had resorted to mountain-climbing in extreme winter conditions to get ahold of Angel, and Anders wasn’t sure what they had as a backup plan now that their second attack on this long stretch of road had failed. He’d already contacted Levi, giving him an update, and learned that her father had upped the security at his house for their arrival.
Sitting beside Anders, Angel asked, “What’s the point of going to my dad’s place now? They’ll expect me to be there for sure, what with us back on the ground in England. So all the bad guys are probably gathering there. If Carlo is the intended target, this will bring on a direct attack for him as well.”
Harrison drove through the outskirts of London. “Your father’s already set up with heavy security. Besides, it’s what our orders are,” he said in a hard voice. “If it turns out to be too dangerous there, my first priority is your safety.”
“Only until I’m delivered to Carlo,” she said in a snotty attitude. “So what if my life’s in danger when I get there? It’s not like you’ll disobey your orders and take me away and keep me safe. How many attacks does it take before you reconsider this ridiculous idea? Are you even planning to stay long enough to know how this pans out?”
Anders knew she spoke out of fear, as did his team with him.
Harrison twisted his head ever-so-slightly and gave her a hard look.
The other men stayed quiet. In the rearview mirror Harrison watched as she settled into the seat, her arms crossed over her chest. Anders and his men knew she was afraid, and they also knew that going home to her father was last on her list of her most wanted things to do. But Anders couldn’t help that. He already worried that her father had it wrong in demanding she be taken to his place. Angel shouldn’t be going there. It might be even more dangerous than being in the vehicle now. Anders wondered why Levi hadn’t already countered the client’s wishes.
Anders knew the worst was yet to come as these guys got more desperate. That roadblock would have stopped most people. The attackers would have taken her, after taking out him and his men. He was still under orders, so, until he saw that following those orders would endanger her further, he’d keep on doing what he was told to do. But, at the first hint something was dodgy at her father’s place, he would scoop her up and out of there to keep her safe.
After a quick lunch break on the roadside, they drove further down the road. When they reached the city of London, the traffic increased. By the time they neared her father’s estate, Anders was cranky.
Beside him, she murmured, “The soul of patience, aren’t you?”
“I think every crazy-ass driver is on these streets right now. I never understood why people don’t stay home when they don’t know how to drive.”
“Just because they don’t drive like you?”
He snorted. “It’s not a case of not like me. It’s a case of not knowing how to drive.”
Harrison pulled up to the double gates to the estate and announced them into the intercom to the side. When they were cleared to enter, the gates opened in front of them. Harrison studied the layout and frowned. “Anything look different?” he asked Angel, sitting behind him.
“No, it still looks like the hoity-toity aristocratic property he has always had,” she said with a heavy sigh.
“Is this not the family home?”
“It was before the family became broken,” she said. “Now it’s just him and his side pieces.” She groaned. “Sorry, guys. This is a touchy subject. Carlo put my mother through hell. I don’t have any respect for a man who would do that to his family.”
Anders agreed with her privately, but it wasn’t his job right now to judge her father’s personal life.
Harrison drove up the lane slowly, his gaze never stopping as it searched the fancy lawns and ornate gardens. “He likes a very Victorian style, I presume?”
“Or his great-grandfather did,” Angel said.
“And yet, you say his great-grandfather. Why don’t you say yours?” Dezi asked.
She gave a half-hearted and self-conscious shrug. “I’ve tried to distance myself from Carlo and all his shenanigans. That means all the men before him too, I guess. But I do love my grandfather.”
“What does your mother do now?”
“She went back to school and became a nurse,” Angel said, her voice softening tremendously. “She works in Manchester.”
“Is she happy?” Anders asked. He watched her head tilt to the side, as she gave the question some serious thought.
“I think she’s happier now than she has been for a long time. The divorce wasn’t nice, and the recovery period left her with very low self-esteem and poor self-confidence. Being a single parent also didn’t help her cope with the stress.”
“I’m sorry. It’s not an easy way to start a new life,” Anders said gently.
Harrison pulled up to the front of the mansion. Two men in black suits stood at attention there, waiting for them. From the bulge under their shoulders, Anders could see they were armed.
“Security, I presume?” Dezi said. He hopped out, did a full 360 to check out the property and then approached the first man on the entryway. The second never moved from the top step.
Meanwhile, Anders and Reyes had exited the vehicle, also pivoting to take in the full property before letting Angel out of the car.
“At least we’re here,” Harrison said as he shut off the engine. He got out, also did a full circle, checking out their surroundings, then walked to the rear passenger door and opened it for her. She exited slowly and looked around.
Anders studied her pale features and asked, “Is there something about your relationship with your father that you’re not telling me?”
She gave him a shadowed look. “What do you mean?”
He hesitated. “Something you don’t want to share or something you think will either get you in trouble or get him in trouble? Not just that you didn’t want to be here?”
“I really didn’t like living through that divorce, watching what happened to my mother when Carlo couldn’t keep his dick in his pants,” she said smoothly. “My distrust of men hasn’t changed.” She turned her back on Anders and strode away. When one of the security men stepped forward to talk to her, she ignored him and hiked up the stairs.
Anders liked her style, her confidence, holding her head high and heading into her father’s house when it was not what she wanted. Not at all.
She didn’t speak to the security men. The second man at the top of the stairs stepped forward, and she shot him a look. “Get out of my way,” she ordered.
The man stood his ground.
Having been on both sides of that issue, Anders appreciated the security guard was in a no-win situation with Angel.
“You may not enter until we verify your identity.”
“If you’re only now verifying my identity as I’m about to walk into my childhood home,” she said, her hard cold voice carrying clearly, “then you obviously haven’t done your job beforehand.” And she brushed past him.
Amused, Anders watched as the security guard had enough self-confidence in his job to reach out and to physically restrain her. She brought her arm out and down on the guard’s wrist, releasing his grip on her. “It’s never a good idea to manhandle any woman,” she said. “But especially not one used to wrangling mountain wildlife.”
The guard had the good sense to back away.
She was an indomitable force, whether she was on an icy mountaintop or in her icy persona right now. This was a part of her personality that Anders hadn’t seen before. It was an interesting one though. He suspected nothing more was going on between her and her father than what she had said earlier. She was just this upset about coming here. And he could understand not liking being jerked around by the circumstances. But most people would at least still be happy to see their father after so many years.
Anders walked up the stairs right behind her. At the door, she turned and looked at him, waiting. He got the message. He was supposed to stay with her, one way or another. He motioned to his men, and they nodded.
When the security guard at the top of the stairs stepped toward Anders, she held up a hand and said, “Don’t.” Her voice was autocratic and sharp. “He’s with me.” And she turned her back on both security men and walked inside.
As Anders walked past, he smiled at the guards and said, “It’s all right. I’m one of the good guys.” He stepped in behind Angel.
But, if either of those men had been working for him, Anders would have fired them both immediately, and they would have been escorted off the property at that very moment. With his naval background, Anders didn’t give a shit who gave the orders, just that they were explicitly followed. Instructions were clear, and security protocols had to be followed at all times.
As he stepped into the house, he stood there, his eyes adjusting to the dim interior. He felt a hand slide into his. He looked down to see Angel’s fingers now laced into his. He wasn’t sure what the hell was going on, but he stepped protectively closer. Her fingers trembled. Now that he was close enough to see her face, he realized the autocratic attitude was steel stiffening her spine because it was either that or breaking into tears.
He retracted what he had thought earlier. Something else is involved here. Yet he whispered to her, “It’ll be okay.”
“No,” she said sadly. “It never is when it involves Carlo.”
He gripped her fingers tighter. “Then let’s lead into the lion’s den. The sooner we get this over with, the better.”